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More than 170 people Still Missing in Texas; Russia Launches Record Drone Attack on Ukraine; Trump Losing Support; Russel L. Honore is Interviewed about Texas Flooding. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 09, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:20]

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

It is now 6:32 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.

Rescuers not giving up in Texas as the frantic search for more than 170 victims from that flash flood continues. Local officials will update the status of the mission in just a few hours.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's tour of Washington, D.C., rolls on today. He's expected to head to the Pentagon after two straight days of meetings with President Trump.

And those on again, off again tariffs are back on, this time for copper. The president says he will put a new 50 percent tax on all copper imports. Didn't say exactly when that would go into effect.

And turning back to our top story, the devastation unfolding in central Texas after the flash flooding disaster. More than 110 people are confirmed dead. It's the deadliest freshwater flood in the country in nearly 50 years.

We're also hearing stories of survival. People asleep in their homes, they had just moments to get to safety after sleeping through the flood alerts that had been sent in the early morning hours of July 4th. One man in Hunt, Texas, described clinging to an electrical box on the side of his home for three hours until he was rescued.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN FELL, FLOODING SURVIVOR: I just realized I needed to get out of the water as -- as quickly as I could and just find something to hold on to so the water couldn't take me away. And, I mean, I just saw cars getting carried away with their hazard lights flashing on and off and industrial-sized propane tanks just floating down -- floating down through a park that used to be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [06:35:06]

CORNISH: Joining me now is CNN's Leigh Waldman, who's been on the ground reporting in Kerr County, Texas.

Good morning, Leigh.

Tell me about where you are, what kind of damage you're seeing.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Audie, it's good to be with you.

So, this morning we're in Kerrville, Texas. And we're just off the banks of the Guadalupe River. And the entire river behind us is washed out of its bank, leaving a lot of big, broken trees in its wake.

But yesterday we went on a tour of the damaged area in hard-hit Hunt, Texas. It's just up the road from where we are right now. It's home to Camp Mystic and the Hunt Store, which is a fixture in this community, all of which have been utterly devastated by the floodwater that came in.

And part of that press tour was riding with Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials. And we had an opportunity, after seeing some of the damaged area, to ask them some questions. And we asked the Texas Division of Emergency Management chief, Nim Kidd, about when the state began moving assets in place and began having conversations with local officials here in Kerr County. He said those talks started on Wednesday or Thursday. And we also pressed him, why were evacuation orders not issued then if we knew these talks started days before floodwaters came in? He said he was not going to answer the question of why evacuation orders were not issued for this area.

We saw several moments of sidestepping hard questions, including by Governor Greg Abbott himself. We asked what his level of concern was about the steps taken and who was in charge here in Kerr County during those critical hours before the floodwaters came and after that first alert was issued just after 1:00 in the morning. And he said he's also not going to begin the finger pointing. They're focusing all of their efforts on the search and rescue. That comes after we learned there's more than 160 people here in Kerr County who are still missing.

CORNISH: That's CNN's Leigh Waldman. Thank you so much. We'll be following your reporting throughout the rest of the day.

We're still monitoring developments also out of Ukraine. That's where Russia launched a record drone strike. At this point, no deaths have been reported, but it comes during a tense time between President Trump and Russian President Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want to put defensive weapons because Putin is not -- he's not treating human beings right. He's killing too many people. So, we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine. And I've approved that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Since the beginning of Trump's second term, the president's tone on Putin has shifted from admiration to open frustration. And that's also showing up on the battlefield. As you can see, there's been a marked increase in Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine from Trump's inauguration, up until the recent phone call between Trump and Putin last week.

So, with all the talk of new weapons to Ukraine and possible U.S. sanctions on Russia, are we basically back to where we started?

Well, the person who's going to help me out with this, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier.

Kim, good morning.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good morning.

CORNISH: So, I want to understand this relationship better and I'm going to play for you -- I think it's some audio from 2024 of Trump talking about a conversation that he had with Putin. Let's see if we have that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With Putin I said, if you go in to Ukraine, I'm going to bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of Moscow. I'm tell you, I have no choice.

So, he goes, like, I don't believe you. He said -- he said, no way. And I said, way.

And then he said, I'm with President Xi of China. They greet me with 100,000 troops of their --

I said the same thing to them. I said, you know, if you go into Taiwan, I'm going to bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of Beijing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, this was at a fundraiser.

DOZIER: Yes.

CORNISH: But can you put this in context to what the reality is that the president has been dealing with in 2025.

DOZIER: Publicly, we've seen Trump speak almost of a bromance with Putin. That he understands him, that they understand each other, that they have gone through similar, quote/unquote, witch hunts by the media, accusing them of malfeasance. But we're seeing him slowly evolve, apparently out of frustration, where he sees time and time again he has a conversation with Putin, asks him to move towards peace, asks him to make certain sacrifices, and Putin says, no, these are my terms. And then, within days, bombs heavily again. And this just pattern keeps going. It happened again. Trump makes these comments yesterday, and overnight

Kyiv had, well, all of Ukraine had the largest bombardment since the 2022 invasion began. Something like 741 drones, ballistic missiles, et cetera, according to the Ukrainian air force, hit the country.

[06:40:02]

CORNISH: Can you talk about the sheer volume and this drone warfare? Because we talked a lot in the past, you and I, about the innovations that Ukraine has made in its battle against Russia. But this is just like overwhelming force using drones.

DOZIER: So, the Ukrainians have gotten really good at building all sorts of different types of drones, weapons to hit all the way to Moscow. They've gone from having no drone industry in 2022 to, by the end of this year, they will have produced domestically something like 5 million drones. But they don't have enough air defenses. And that's where the U.S. comes in.

And so, when it seemed that the U.S. was going to suspend some of its air defense deliveries last week, Ukraine was in crisis. Now, President Trump is saying he doesn't know who ordered that pause, but he's going to even try to rustle up another patriot system, because what Ukraine doesn't have and doesn't produce enough domestically are air defense systems. And that is what Putin's enraging Trump has now produced, a promise by Trump to give Ukraine some way to defend itself. More ways to defend itself.

CORNISH: It's an -- and it's an interesting moment because I think there are so many in the Republican Party who have questioned sending aid to Ukraine. It's not out of the realm of possibility that there were people who thought, this is in line with what we believe as kind of MAGA Trump Republicans on foreign policy.

Are you sensing any shift there from the president himself, or is this, again, it's not clear how this negotiation is working with Putin?

DOZIER: Part of this is surely Trump's hardball negotiation in public. You know, the more he swears, the angrier he is. But will it produce change in Putin's behavior? That's a question mark. Putin might just be planning to have another phone call where he charms and promises Trump again. And so, that's -- the Ukrainians I've spoken to are worried about that. They're like, this week we're hearing the right things out of President Trump. Next week, who knows. We've got to see what Trump actually does.

CORNISH: And what's left to do. Are there still sanctions wiggle room? Like, what would even be left?

DOZIER: Sanctions might not hurt Russia that much, but they'd be a symbolic message that Putin is not Trump's best friend anymore. At the same time, Ukrainians have been counting on Trump to somehow end this war. So, they don't want to see a total fissure with Putin, but they want pressure on Putin so that he steps away from his attacks.

CORNISH: All right, we'll see, as you said, what happens after the next phone call.

Kim Dozier, thanks so much.

All right, the last few weeks have delivered President Trump the biggest wins of his second term. Insiders say he seems more confident and unrestrained. But his MAGA base is up in arms. Most recently, they were stunned by the Justice Department decision to close the Jeffrey Epstein case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking -- we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things we -- and are people still talking about this guy? This creep?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Yes, they are, actually.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: This is supposed to be about the most transparent administration ever.

LIZ WHEELER, HOST, "THE LIZ WHEELER SHOW": What on earth is going on? Was Pam Bondi set up by deep state FBI career officials? Is she stupid? Is she so click-thirsty that she got out over her skis trying to make news, being a Fox News star?

ALEX JONES, RADIO HOST: Pam Bondi, all of it, all those videos. We're seeing now, she's seen the videos, it's all coming out, and then now it doesn't exist? I mean, what? What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Alex Jones broadcasting from his car.

OK, so how much of a political risk is President Trump taking by dismissing the priorities of portions of the base?

CNN's Aaron Blake writes, "everyone has their limits. Trump's giving them reasons to be suspect about his and top administration officials and tensions. And there's been at least some evidence of a brewing backlash."

Group chat is back.

I have to be honest, I remember the backlash, you know, many minutes ago over the strikes on Iran. And it feels like that's a way more significant and important issue than that. And everybody rolled.

HYMA MOORE, PRINCIPAL AT CORNERSTONE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS: Yes, I mean, look, I think two things. I think we've seen President Trump, this Trump -- this term and last term, be like a rain jacket. Some of these things just roll off of him. But here's the reality. I think we've all been afraid to say this.

President Donald Trump is a -- is a lame duck president. And so some of these things we're talking about politically will not hurt him because he is a lame duck president.

What I'm concerned about what's going to happen in 2026 with the Congress, with Senate. So, I think some of these things are going to be harder for the Republican Party to talk about than it is President Trump.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I'll be honest, there are so many weird, bizarro, Addams family-esque stories that would -- people go down rabbit holes when it comes to the MAGA base.

[06:45:06]

I've never read a Jeffrey Epstein story. When somebody complains that Donald Trump has not told us where Elvis is really living, I'm not going to read that ever -- also, because Donald Trump is right, we have Texas and we have what's going on with Russia and Ukraine. We have -- we're --

CORNISH: Yes, but nobody asked Pam Bondi to make a bunch of binders to hang -- you know, to send to the Twitterati. It feels like a self-own (ph).

HEYE: That's (INAUDIBLE). I think what -- I think the mental health of America or Americans is much better off not paying attention to those crazy, shiny things.

MOORE: Well, to be fair, President Trump has also set up his cabinet to be these sort of TV, Twitter --

HEYE: Right, hire professionals.

MOORE: Yes, exactly.

HEYE: It's always -- always a good lesson.

MOORE: So, I think that's part of -- that's part of -- that's kind of baked in.

CORNISH: Yes.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "AXIOS": But, Audie, I do think there -- so there are a few different stories that we're all going to look at as like litmus tests of how far can the president depart from the MAGA base or press them? I do think, like, a conspiracy story that President Trump's circle spent a long time fanning until he came into office, and then they had to, like, they were the establishment, and they were the government, and they had to decide what information to release is a little bit different than whether he's changing his policy on Russia, via Ukraine --

CORNISH: Yes. TALEV: Or on how to handle deportations of undocumented migrants who are not violent and haven't committed any crimes inside the United States. Like, I put those in two different categories. They both may be tests of the MAGA base --

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: But one is like substantively, unless you really think there's like a triple conspiracy going on, there wasn't any there there to the Epstein files. And now the sitting president's administration has to say so.

CORNISH: Well -- yes. And --

TALEV: As opposed to a change in U.S. posture.

CORNISH: We also heard one of the folks in that video talking about doing it for clicks. This whole industry is for clicks, right?

MOORE: Right.

CORNISH: So, I think the question in a way I'm kind of asking is, you know, if you ride this certain horse into battle, like it was to their advantage to embrace this when it ginned up interest for him in the party.

MOORE: Yes.

TALEV: Yes.

CORNISH: And now it felt a little bit like he was saying, let the adults talk.

HEYE: Yes, I think, historically, if you look at those people who back candidates very, very early, they're the first ones to have their hearts broken in certain sort of ways.

MOORE: Yes.

HEYE: You go back to people who endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1976. They were the ones who said, well, wait a second, why are you talking to Russians to begin with? So, this is normal in some sense. It's just because Donald Trump has brought so much abnormality to our politics that we're talking about this kind of stuff.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: All right, you guys, stay with us. We've -- we've got more to discuss coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING.

We've moved in that Texas story from a few dozen missing to more than 100. There's now desperation as that death toll from the catastrophic flooding is rising.

Plus, breaking overnight, the sanitation workers strike in Philadelphia is over. So, when will the trash be picked up? And more from my friends at the group chat after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:28]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Guadalupe River jumped its banks. And they, for hours, were wading through thigh-deep, waist-deep, chest-deep water, rescuing people from cars, from campers, from -- evacuating people from homes and apartments, risking their own lives to save others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: That massive search and rescue operation is still underway in central Texas. Here's what we know right now. One hundred and seventy people are still missing in the wake of those floods. And the question many are asking this morning is, could more have been done to spare more lives? New information into CNN shows how unprepared Kerr County was in the runup to the disaster. Texas officials rejected two applications from the county for funding for a flood warning system that happened nearly a decade ago.

Joining me now to discuss is retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore.

Lieutenant General, thank you for being with us.

LT. GENERAL RUSSEL L. HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Good morning.

CORNISH: I want to start about and start with this search and recovery mission, because people are seeing images of really damaged terrain. A lot of debris. Can you talk about what might be complicating things for those teams on the ground?

HONORE: Well, it's undulating terrain. The hill country there to get into, the riverbed. Once you're into the riverbed, there's difficulty to get to isolated areas if you're not near a road network. And once you get into it and you get into the river, there's still water flowing through it. And sometime that, based on the amount of rain upstream, it prevents you from getting access even by boat because you -- you get into swift water operations.

And then the search and recovery phase here, the big challenge is, how do you grid that river out to ensure that every area you get is inspected twice, once for life to recover -- to rescue people, then the second time to go into recovery where you actually bring heavy equipment in, and that makes it difficult along that river bank. And you're doing it in some very extreme, hot weather that's going on right now in that part of the country.

CORNISH: Next month will mark, I think, around 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit and those levees faltered.

[06:55:01] And I wanted to ask you kind of, if you can think and compare about the issue of alerts and the issue of warning, because I understand things changed about how we think about hurricanes after that storm.

HONORE: Yes, we pay more emphasis to voluntary and mandatory evacuation. That's the term that's used in this discipline of hurricane preparedness and getting people out based on the category of the storm.

But what changed that has some parallel to what's going on in Texas is there's more attention to not just the category of the storm, but the tidal surge, because the surge that came up the river is what caused the levees to fail in New Orleans. It wasn't from the rainfall. It came from the surge.

And after that, more and more the -- the Weather Service started to predict people, the tidal surge will be this many feet based on the strength of the wind and the direction of the wind and where you are. I think the same could be done when we look at the prediction in the number of inches of rain in the hill country, that in Kerrville you're going to get the -- a 10 foot, a 15 foot, or a 30 foot wall of water based on how much the rain is falling. And I think they need to start paying more attention to the impact downstream in the Guadalupe based on the number of inches of rain they're counting. And that could be predicted.

So, I think that -- and they need to change the language from just saying whether -- saying flood watch and flood warning to evacuate. Evacuate. Evacuate as opposed to just saying a flood watch and flood warning. And that would get, I think, people's attention as opposed to just watching this on your phone. It gives you a direction to -- you have a responsibility to evacuate if you're in low-lying areas.

CORNISH: Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore, thank you for waking up with us.

HONORE: Good morning.

CORNISH: It is now 56 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup.

At least three people are dead in New Mexico after flash flooding in a mountain village. You're looking at video out of Santa Fe where a home was washed away by the water. Now, officials say they did at least 85 water rescues in one day yesterday.

And good news for Philadelphia. The beginning of the end of the big stink. A settlement was reached early this morning to end the week old sanitation strike. Nearly 10,000 workers will be back on the job once it's ratified. No word yet on when that will happen.

And if you're traveling through the airport, keep your shoes on. TSA is ending its rule of taking your shoes off to go through security. The rule was first put in place in 2001 after a man known as the "shoe bomber" tried using matches to spark explosives that had been hidden in his shoes while he was on a flight. OK, now it's time to talk about what we are keeping an eye on. We've

got halfway through the week. What are you thinking about, Margaret?

TALEV: Don't kill me. I'm going to give you a twofer. One, who will be the paint company or interior design firm to come up with the perfect color of gold paint. Donald Trump raised this yesterday as an interior design challenge. Nobody makes gold paint that looks real. Who's going to do it to?

Two, he has made pretty specific threats in the last couple of days. Overtures about the idea of taking over the federal government, stepping in and taking over decision making in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, and in New York City. Where is this going? What is this messaging about? What is next?

CORNISH: Yes. And to be clear, with D.C., you actually have a kind of jurisdictional issues.

TALEV: Yes.

CORNISH: There is a way or a mechanism for the federal government to do something like that. So, I know a lot of people are watching it.

We've got the last minute to you guys.

MOORE: All right, mine's a little more lighthearted. If you guys recall, President George H.W. Bush's service dog, Sully H.W. Bush. Sully is now back here in D.C. It's his ninth birthday. He's being promoted. He's going to be taking care of patients at Walter Reed now. But this is sort of an ode to America's vet dogs and all the non- profits that train dogs to be there for disabled veterans.

CORNISH: Oh my God. Very sweet.

MOORE: Yes.

CORNISH: Thank you, Hyma.

And, Doug, last minute to you.

HEYE: I hate to go from sunny to stormy, but, look, Washington --

CORNISH: Well, you brought us heartbreak earlier, so why not?

HEYE: Washington has -- has breathed a sigh in the past week, whether it's of relief or otherwise, I'll leave to other people to decide, on reconciliation. There will be a second reconciliation bill that goes through, or at least tries to go through Congress. What it's going to be and when it's going to be, leadership hasn't really determined yet.

CORNISH: Are you referring to the rescission bill, which is just like --

HEYE: No.

CORNISH: Oh, something -- another -- other? HEYE: There will be a second reconciliation bill.

CORNISH: Oh, man. OK.

HEYE: It is coming. Prepare accordingly.

[07:00:01]

CORNISH: Ah, OK. By leaving town, possibly.

HEYE: Yes.

CORNISH: All right, you guys, thank you so much. We covered a lot of ground today, and you guys brought a little lightness in the final moments, which I appreciate.

I want to thank you all for being with us this morning. I'm Audie Cornish. We're still following the news out of Texas. You're going to hear more about that on "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" right now.