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Dozens Still Missing in Texas; Netanyahu Nominates Trump for Nobel Prize; Alan Pinkas is Interviewed about Israel-Hamas; New Memo from DOJ Says There is No Jeffrey Epstein Client List. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:57]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for waking up with us on CNN THIS MORNING.

It is now 6:33 here on the East Coast. And here's what's happening right now.

Later today, we're going to hear from officials in Texas as the search for flood victims continues. The death toll now stands at more than 100, with ten campers and their counselors still missing.

And in just a few hours, President Trump will assemble his cabinet at the White House. This will be the sixth full cabinet meeting for the president since January.

And Sean Combs may soon find out how much longer he'll be behind bars. He heads back to court for a pre-sentencing hearing today. He was partially acquitted on the most serious charges, but still faces up to ten years in prison for the counts where he was convicted.

And turning back now to this top story, the unfolding devastation that we're seeing in central Texas. As we said, more than 100 people killed and Camp Mystic accounts for at least 27 of them. This includes campers and counselors at the all-girls camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

[06:35:06]

Officials are facing questions over evacuation orders in the hours leading up to the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALTON RICE, KERRVILLE CITY MANAGER: There's been the other question, and I'll just give this one out, evacuations. Well, why didn't we evacuate? Well, evacuation is a delicate balance, because if you evacuate too late, you then risk putting busses, you know, or cars or vehicles or campers on roads into low water areas, trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging, because these flash floods happen very quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now is CNN's Pam Brown. She's been on the ground in Kerr County.

Good morning, Pam.

Can you talk about where you are right now and what you've been reporting on?

PAM BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

So, Audie, here we are in Kerrville, where some of the devastation is behind me. And questions are sharpening this morning just about what more could have been done in the, you know, decades leading up to this tragedy. And even the moments before that deadly flooding.

And we're getting some new information. We did a review of the National Weather Service system. It's a messaging system where officials at the NWS can communicate with emergency managers. And what we found is in Kerrville, that there were no emergency managers that were sending messages in Kerr County or interacting with NWS staff on this system. Now, they could have been looking at it and just not exchanging messages. But we should note that in other places nearby, there were emergency managers who were interacting with NWS staff on that system.

You know, it does raise some more questions about what was being done here in the county ahead of that deadly flooding when there were alerts coming at 1:15 a.m. Audie, we know that the National Weather Service sent that life-threatening flash flood warning. So, there is that critical gap of time between that and when the rain and the water really started to rise around 4:00 a.m.

And I spoke to the mayor of Kerrville and asked him whether he was getting those alerts starting at 1:15 a.m. And this is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOE HERRING JR., KERRVILLE, TEXAS: Everyone here, if we could have warned them, we would have done so. And we didn't even have a warning.

We --we get alerts on -- on floods fairly often because of the terrain here.

BROWN: And did you get an alert on your phone in those overnight hours?

HERRING: I did not.

BROWN: Does that concern you?

HERRING: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, that is sort of a story emerging here on the ground, Audie, of people not getting the alerts that they should have gotten in those overnight hours and just sort of the lack of cell reception in this area.

There's also the issue of the fact that there's no siren system in Kerrville, even though there is one next door in -- in Comfort, Texas. And I spoke to a volunteer firefighter there in Comfort and talked to him about what they did in Comfort to protect the citizens there. And he said the combination of the siren system and the mandatory evacuations saved lives.

Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN BOYTER, COMFORT, TEXAS, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: To my knowledge, we had no fatalities in the Comfort area. But we were finding bodies from -- that had come (ph) like 20 miles from Mystic -- Mystic camp --

BROWN: Camp Mystic.

BOYTER: And -- and so we had -- there were actually bodies flowing this far and further down the stream.

BROWN: What do you attribute to the fact that there was no loss of life here in Comfort? You know, do you think it was because you all evacuated and the sirens went off?

BOYTER: Correct. I -- at least that's my opinion, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And so he said that siren system they have there in Comfort can be triggered by officials if the water starts to rise. They look at the -- the river gauges to decide that. And he says it will wake anyone up. He says they're very, very loud.

Here where I am in Kerrville, over the years there have been discussion about installing a similar siren system, but those efforts failed over the years due to -- to cost issues and worries about false alarms. But the mayor I spoke to, Audie, told me, after what they've just been through here, he's going to do everything they can to install a similar system here.

CORNISH: That's CNN's Pam Brown in Kerrville.

Pam, we're going to be following your reporting throughout the day. Thanks for sharing with us.

Now back here in Washington, President Trump got something of a surprise during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: He forged the Abraham Accords. He's forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other. So, I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh.

NETANYAHU: It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved. And you should get it.

[06:40:00]

TRUMP: Thank you very much. This, I didn't know. Well, thank you very much.

NETANYAHU: Thank you.

TRUMP: Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much, Bibi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, this is something President Trump has often spoken about over the years as an honor he believes he's deserving of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel! Nobel!

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's very nice. Thank you. That's very nice. Nobel.

I think I'm going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You hear from the Israelis on --

TRUMP: And would (INAUDIBLE) give me a Nobel Peace Prize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would happen if --

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would happen if the Israelis --

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE), I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This is Trump has recently called for prosecutors in Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial to stand down.

So, as Netanyahu's presentation of that letter to the Nobel committee a sincere gesture or a well-timed strategy? The group chat is back to talk about this. I don't know who wants to start, but I do know that ever since Obama

got this, got a Nobel Prize, I have heard Trump talking about it and heard criticism on the right about whether the committee, you know, is on the up and up, so to speak. You're nodding.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: Well, no, it just turned political. Obviously, I think Netanyahu is very smart to do this. I don't personally think they're will probably be a vote because I think that there's just too many polarizing conversations out there.

And, by the way, can I just tell you how much I --

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Ashley's so much better than --

DAVIS: How much I missed you? You're never allowed to go away again.

ROCHA: Look, I'm never going to act like I'm a -- as good a foreign policy expert as my sister Ashley is. And everybody on TV knows that. But what I do know is how to handle a politician and how to play to a politician. And Netanyahu should get an award himself for the way that he handles Donald Trump.

I don't know if y'all know, but it probably cost a lot of money to fire as many rockets in the air as they have to do in Israel every day to defend themselves. And what he's trying to do is get some more rockets, and probably get them at a discount. This is how you do it.

CORNISH: Right. And on the edge of these negotiations as well for this ceasefire.

ROCHA: Yes, ma'am.

CORNISH: You actually hear Trump also being deferential to Netanyahu in several cases.

What do you make of this moment? Trump looked -- did look a little bit surprised, even though it's something that he's wanted for a long time.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CO-AUTHOR, "NOTUS MORNING NEWSLETTER": Was it a little more like, really? Me?

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Oh my goodness. Really?

CORNISH: You're seeing a bit of a Taylor Swift.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Maybe. I mean what I'm saying about this is that, you know, this is the way you deal with this president. This is American foreign policy now, right? The -- the president of the -- of NATO calls him daddy. The -- the president of Israel or the prime minister of Israel says, here's a Nobel Peace Prize for you.

CORNISH: There was the jet.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, there's a jet.

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: I mean, this is -- this is sort of exactly how this works in this White House. And the interesting thing between this administration a And the first term is that everyone kind of is on -- like understands this now. So, they all have their kind of stuff lined up to sort of, you know, when they show up at the White House, here -- you know, here's my thing that I have. Here's my -- I mean, the guy from South Africa, right, who joked about, I'm sorry I don't have a plane for you, right?

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: I'm sorry, I -- this is what -- this is how you have to deal with this -- with this White House.

So, no, I don't think that that was a completely sincere shocked and amazed.

CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE).

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: But it is an interesting part two in a broader picture of how this administration works as well, which is that this Nobel Prize now is completely politicized, right? This is -- this is -- this is what Trump has been saying for years. If he doesn't get it, it's because they hate him and they hate America or whatever. And if he does get it, it's because they've come around and they -- and they love him.

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And that's -- and that's -- and that's kind of how it works now.

CORNISH: In the meantime, Trump has been --

DAVIS: He spent a ton for Israel, especially.

CORNISH: Yes, he's --

DAVIS: I mean --

CORNISH: And also just in general --

DAVIS: General, yes.

CORNISH: These other foreign policy areas with wins and losses, so to speak. So --

DAVIS: And, look, I mean even with the embassy, during his first term, I mean, I remember, for at least when I was in the White House, we were talking about it back then. I think every president -- President Clinton did, moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He did that last time as well. So, I -- he's done a ton. I mean, what happened with Iran.

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: So, I mean --

CORNISH: So, your question about the committee, I think, is a fair one, even given their concerns, probably, about Netanyahu. It won't be for lack of trying to mitigate and mediate international affairs.

Group chat, stay with me. We are going to come back to you guys in just a moment.

In a minute, we are going to talk more about those Gaza ceasefire talks and the prospects for a lasting peace in the Middle East, as those indirect negotiations are ongoing in Doha, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House, talking about how a broad peace is possible. We're going to have more on that in just a moment.

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[06:48:39]

CORNISH: OK, I want to talk more about those Gaza ceasefire talks and a prospect for a lasting peace in the Middle East. As we've been talking about, there are indirect negotiations going on in Doha between Israel and Hamas. And then you've got Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the White House, talking about how a broad peace is possible.

Now, back in Israel, far right minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is calling for an immediate end to the ceasefire talks after the death of five Israeli soldiers in Gaza. And he released a statement saying, "we should not negotiate with those who kill our soldiers. They should be crushed to pieces, starved to death and not resuscitated."

Joining me now to discuss, former Israeli consul general in New York, Alon Pinkas.

Good morning, Alan.

ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL, NEW YORK: Good morning, Audie. Good to be with you.

CORNISH: So, I want to come back to domestic politics in Israel in a moment. But first, I want to talk about whether this ceasefire round of talks feels different to you. And, if so, why?

PINKAS: Well, yes and no. And let me explain why I -- what I mean by that, Audie. Yes, in the sense that there -- there's a high likelihood that a 60-day ceasefire and a partial exchange of hostages for an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners will take place. Yes, this is likely because Trump put his weight on this.

[06:50:05]

In fact, since February, and then left it alone when he moved to Canada and Greenland and tariffs and what have you, came back to it and now has an added lever of pressure on Mr. Netanyahu because he joined in the attack on Iran.

Now we come to the "no." This agreement supposedly, Audie, is -- is -- includes -- is supposed to include negotiations on a -- on a permanent ceasefire, on a permanent cessation of hostilities and a post-war Gaza arrangement, or political framework. I can't see that happening. These are incompatible ideas. There are a lot of questions about who's going to take care of humanitarian aid. What about Israeli withdrawal? Who's going to take over Gaza? And this goes to the heart of the definition that both sides have for what constitutes victory. Israel says evisceration, obliteration, annihilation of Hamas. OK, that hasn't happened. Hamas is saying, as long as we're being negotiated with and as long as we retain some kind of power, even residual power, we're good.

CORNISH: Yes.

PINKAS: Israel can't live with that. Which is why I am sort of optimistic on -- on the chances of a ceasefire, very pessimistic about its durability.

CORNISH: You talked about the levers of pressure. When you look at domestic politics in Israel, what are the pressures on Netanyahu? I know there have been some families of hostages, for example, who have said, look, there needs to be a ceasefire. And then you have, of course, some hardliners who raise all the questions you're talking about. So, what would push him closer to this process?

PINKAS: Mass demonstrations. And that could only happen, and I say this cautiously, that could only happen, Audie, if there's no agreement. If for some reason there's no agreement to release the hostages, then -- then public opinion will manifest itself in demonstrations.

Look, you have to remember, Mr. Netanyahu is extraordinarily un -- unpopular in Israel. You look at the polls consistently in the last two months. He didn't even get a bump after the war with Iran, which many people bought into the narrative that was extraordinarily successful and people, you know, wishfully thinking that maybe Trump had a point when he said, we obliterated it. You did not obliterate it. There are a lot of questions that go unanswered about Iran's capabilities.

So, public opinion is very circumspect, is very suspect of Mr. Netanyahu for prolonging this war and for boasting this -- this war with Iran is some kind of a distraction.

CORNISH: Well --

PINKAS: In that context, no -- no one -- just one sentence, if I may, Audie.

CORNISH: Yes.

PINKAS: In that context, no one really understands, excuse the expression, what the hell did he go to Washington for? I mean, what would -- if you want a ceasefire, you can sign it here. If you want to talk to the president, you could pick up the phone. What was the point of going to Washington if you're not going to announce a ceasefire and you're probably -- probably, I -- I -- I say this with reservation, you're not going to get the president to commit to another attack on Iran in the foreseeable future.

So, I could see public opinion turning against Netanyahu even on this in the absence of a deal. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

CORNISH: No, no, not at all, because this follows -- I do, I have a short time, but I want to ask, he did end up handing the president this Nobel Peace Prize nomination. I know you've been critical of Netanyahu in the past. What do you make of that moment?

PINKAS: I mean, I'm out of "w's" to express my awe.

Look, you know, there's a certain fealty and sycophancy that -- that is toxic. That -- that that's the case. Mr. Netanyahu, obviously, naturally, smartly, wanted to avoid what had happened to the presidents of Ukraine and South Africa, respectively, even to the prime -- even to the prime minister of Canada, walking into this monarchical White House and being castigated, admonished and diminished. So, he did the right thing from his point of view. And -- and he kissed the ring.

Now, Mr. Netanyahu's recommendation to the Nobel Prize committee carries less weight than yours or mine. Whether or not Mr. Netanyahu -- Mr. Trump deserves a Peace Prize, a Nobel Peace Prize, for what? For Ukraine? For Gaza? For what? For -- yes, there's Pakistan and India.

I mean, look, this has become ridiculous since Barack Obama got a Peace Prize for doing nothing, just on the basis of, we hope he'll do something. So, I understand why Trump wants this, and I understand why Mr. Netanyahu, out of sheer sycophancy, wanted to present him with one. I don't think that's serious.

[06:55:06]

CORNISH: Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul general in New York, thank you so much.

PINKAS: Thank you, ma'am.

And before we go, an update on a pledge you heard from the Trump administration, new information on the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is here, sort of. A Justice Department memo just released reveals Epstein had no list of clients. Now, this contradicts past statements by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spoke of an alleged list. And this new memo also revealed that Epstein died by suicide while in custody and that there is no evidence he was murdered. That is not stopping those who have been raising a lot of questions and theories about this case in recent years.

The group chat is back.

The reason why I think we're looking at this as significant is because this Justice Department under Bondi, it's all been about get in line. If you weren't on board with what Trump wants and what the administration is interested in, it was like, get out. And all of a sudden you have this moment where you -- you don't have what would have been in line with what Bondi and the things she was saying going into office.

Does that make sense? Ashley, you're looking at me.

DAVIS: No, no, no.

CORNISH: Like, one minute they're handing out binders --

DAVIS: Yes, yes, yes.

CORNISH: And the next minute they're like, well, actually, here's a memo that says there's nothing.

DAVIS: I just -- this is just something to my core. I really don't care about. So, I just don't --

CORNISH: Fair.

DAVIS: It's hard for me to, like, even --

CORNISH: We need to get you guys just like thumbs up, thumbs down, paddles, maybe.

DAVIS: But, I mean, no, I just think that there's so many conspiracy theories out there about not only this, but how JFK was killed. And the more people talk about it, the -- especially on the online world that we talk about and the more conspiracy theories, they think it's a lot worse than it is.

I have no idea if there's a list. We -- none of us do. Obviously, there's people on both sides of the aisle that were caught up with this -- with him. But at the end of the day, I think about what's happening in Texas right now, and I -- these -- these conversations are just hard.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, I'll say this. This has been a huge fueling of the MAGA movement is this conspiracy theory world. And if you're going to script a way to continue the Epstein story on into infinitum, there will be no better way than to have the attorney general, who just comes in, Trump brings her in. I've got the secrets. Here they are. Then the influencers come out and they look at these binders. There's nothing in here. And then suddenly they say there's nothing in there.

Like, I don't know the answer, obviously, to this. I think that there's been a lot of speculation that has been kind of very irresponsible in this case. Like, a lot of it.

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: But in the case of how this is actually rolled out, it's one of those moments where this is -- the challenge of being attorney general versus talking about being attorney general is so different. And now she is attorney general. And these things are very serious. You're talking about actually, you know, what files do you have? What did the FBI do wrong? You know, you're making actual, serious, serious allegations. You have to -- that you have to back up. And that is much harder to do than talk about.

ROCHA: It's been pretty -- for a partisan Democrat, it's been pretty enjoyable to sit back and watch the Republican conspiracy circular firing squad online lately, because there was a lot of red meat, to your point, thrown to all of these folks about this, and now they don't have anything to talk about.

There's one thing I know for sure is that they wouldn't be doing any of this to protect any Democrats, because they have openly talked about coming after Democrats. So, that's why I just kind of sit back and wait for some facts to come out.

DAVIS: But if Bill Clinton's on the list or --

CORNISH: But I understand what you're saying about it being an unforced error, right? Like, nobody asked for this and then you got -- you give them an answer they don't want. It's sort of like --

ROCHA: And they start attacking each other.

CORNISH: Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, the (INAUDIBLE) predetermined. They are -- they know what the answer is. They just want --

CORNISH: Yes, it's the catch --

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: To find someone to tell them that they're right. And that's not necessarily going to happen.

The big question here is, right now this is a Bondi/Kash Patel issue. Does it eventually become a Trump problem. And right now it hasn't, and we'll see what happens.

DAVIS: But, Elon keeps throwing it out. And he threw it out again yesterday that Trump had this connection. So, I mean, he's fueling that fire as well.

CORNISH: Yes, every time he's mad at Trump --

DAVIS: Yes.

CORNISH: That's when he suddenly kind of --

DAVIS: Yes. Yes.

CORNISH: Although I have to say, Twitter and the Twitterati and sort of the X world was also a center part of fueling this conversation.

DAVIS: Absolutely.

CORNISH: And having the files and not having the files. So, for them --

ROCHA: (INAUDIBLE) Twitterati. I'm stealing that.

CORNISH: Yes. You're stealing Twitter -- I don't know the rum (ph) state of the Twitterati, what I call them.

ROCHA: I like it.

CORNISH: We just -- we just have like a minute left. Lightning round on what you're going to be watching for in the next day.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So, in today's "NOTUS" newsletter we report on, my colleague Margaret Manteau found that DHS, under RFK Jr., is actually asking for two new vaccines to be made. Very quietly. No one's really talking about it. The scientists she talked to were, like, please don't talk about this too much.

CORNISH: OK.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So, I'm going to be following that story and see what happens with that.

CORNISH: Check that out, everybody.

ROCHA: Hurricane season in Florida. They built a temporary prison in the middle of the Everglades. This is not going to go good during hurricane season. I'm watching the weather.

[07:00:01]

CORNISH: Yes, there were some rumors about the environment doing that work. Yes.

DAVIS: I hope it doesn't happen. I'm on vacation.

But tariffs.

CORNISH: Tariffs.

DAVIS: We -- I mean --

ROCHA: You're going to be watching tariffs.

CORNISH: Yes, tariffs.

DAVIS: I mean, obviously, it's going to be something. There's going to be lots of ups and downs in the market this week and we'll see what happens.

CORNISH: Yes, I was actually talking with the CEO of Hasbro Toys about sort of how they're dealing with this. I'll bring you guys that conversation in the next day or so.

I want to thank you guys for talking with me about so much today. I want to thank you for waking up with us. And the headlines on that story out of Texas, they start on CNN NEWS CENTRAL right now.