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Erin Burnett Outfront
Pentagon Quietly Changes How It Reports Deaths In Iran War; Doctor: McConnell Not Medically Cleared To Leave Rehab After Fall; Zelenskyy: Putin On The Verge Of Getting 30,000 More North Korean Troops. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired July 27, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:21]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Trump's Pentagon plays word games with troop casualty numbers. A top Republican tonight says he's lost confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
And a new statement and smiling picture from Senator Mitch McConnell, but still no video or sound of his voice as the senator extends his leave of absence. So, what really is going on there?
And 30,000 more North Korean troops could be joining Russia on the front line in Ukraine. What's in this for Kim Jong Un?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT Tonight, Trump gaslighting on Iran. So, the last four Americans killed in the war in Iran are not listed as being killed in the war. They're not listed under Operation Epic Fury, which is Trump's formal description of the war in Iran. They are instead listed in an entirely new category.
That category you can see with its own webpage called Overseas Operations. which is quite vague and obviously could be anything. And in fact, these are the only four Americans listed on this page is dead. There are 207 wounded in action also there.
Now, because the Operation Epic Fury or the Iran War is still ongoing, deaths in the Middle East because of the war were put in that category. Originally the four troops were actually put in that category, but then on Thursday they were taken out, they just vanished completely from the website, they were nowhere.
The spokesperson for the Defense Department, Sean Parnell, tweeted at 1:39 a.m. on Friday, "The Department of War is aware of temporary data disruptions on the Defense Casualty Analysis System DCAS website. These site anomalies are currently being resolved in coordination with the military services." So when you talk about it as a temporary data disruption -- I mean, it's -- you're saying it's a mistake, we're fixing it. Except for it, it wasn't. They didn't put them back in Operation Epic Fury. They're still not there.
I spoke to the wife of one of those four fallen soldiers, Sergeant Michael Swinton. Mia Swinton talked about her husband's removal from the official death toll for Operation Epic Fury.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Has anyone spoken to you about this or told you anything about it?
JAMIAH GONZALEZ-SWINTON, WIFE OF SGT. MICHAEL SWINTON, KILLED DURING IRAN WAR: Nobody has reached out yet. Wow. I kind of don't have words for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: There are no words for it. Why would the administration start putting deaths from the Iran War into a whole new web page called Overseas Operations?
The families of the four Americans who just died deserve answers about that. Their loved ones died as a result of the war with Iran. A war that is still claiming American lives and is still going through nearly daily bombing campaigns.
Now, tonight, Trump is once again saying a deal to end the war, though, is near.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, they're talking to us about making a deal. Right now, they have very friendly negotiations going on. Now, they're behaving again. You know, it's like playing a banjo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, there's a lot of rhetoric here, and the rhetoric on the other side is obviously diametrically different. A spokesperson for Iran's foreign minister hours ago said there are, quote, no negotiations with the United States at president -- at present, I'm sorry, and on state media, there were more violent threats against President Trump today.
But even as the Strait of Hormuz is still under Iranian de facto control, Trump is continuing to push his own propaganda on the situation. Just look at the slew of A.I.-generated images he's posted over the past day and a half. Guardians of the World, you can see there suggesting the United States is in charge of the Strait of Hormuz, our oil tanker, our oil tanker, and then showing Iran in flames, in total flames, which is very jarring when you consider who usually puts out this type of propaganda. Several years ago, Iran posted this video of the United States Capitol
being blown up. North Korea posted a video of the United States with a nuclear bomb dropping on it. That's usually where those kinds of videos of countries and flames come from. They don't usually come from the president of the United States.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House.
And, Kristen, there appears to be a lack of transparency when it comes to troop deaths in this war. And there's obviously a lack of transparency in many other areas as well. U.S. weapons stockpiles, missile transparency when it comes to troop deaths in this war. And there's obviously a lack of transparency in many other areas as well. U.S. weapons stockpiles, missile defense, the list goes on and on.
What are you learning?
[19:05:01]
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the munition stockpile right now is the big question. We know from our reporting that Senator, excuse me, General Dan Caine was in a meeting with President Trump. He was one of a few officials who really expressed hesitation over an all-out war with Iran, in part referring back to the munition stockpile and the narrative from the White House has been all over the place when it comes to what's actually going on with the stockpile.
You have on one hand this kind of desperate plea for more money, saying that the Biden administration depleted all of these munition stockpile, that they need more money to actually rebuild that up.
But then on the other hand, you have President Trump saying there's plenty. He'd like more, but of course, there's plenty. They can do whatever they want. They have everything that they need.
That in itself is a lack of transparency. And, Erin, this really goes back to the beginning of this entire war, which is why the United States chose to get involved in that moment. One of the ongoing problems that the United States and Americans have had with this war is why exactly are Americans involved in this in the first place? It's been a hard question for this answer specifically.
And I do want to just note, I'm not sure if you can hear it. It's loud on my end, but the sirens going off. We know that that's around the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has just landed in Washington. He is staying at the Blair House across the street from the White House here. He is scheduled to meet with President Trump tomorrow.
And one of the interesting things about that is as we're talking about this stockpile of munitions and whether or not it is depleted, Netanyahu is the one who really wanted President Trump to get involved in this war, and it's likely he's going to bring that to the table again and argue that President Trump has more unfinished business.
But I will tell you from talking to these White House officials, from talking to U.S. officials, there is so little appetite for any kind of escalation on the military angle of this.
But Erin, what is next and where does this go? We have been in this exact position before where President Trump walks into the brink and then says actually negotiations are ongoing. They're going to happen.
What the next step is. I mean, that's what we're watching to see what how it plays out right now.
BURNETT: All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to retired U.S. Army Major General Randy Manner.
And General, let me just ask you, we have known about a diminishment in stockpiles for actually quite some time, right? We've known this is an issue. We knew in the early days of the war, as the reporting came out, that all but one of the U.S. THAAD missile defense systems in the region were taken out. And we saw evidence of that when military bases, radar installations, planes were hit with precision strikes.
But now even more detail on the diminishing munitions and the stockpiles. How worried are you about that?
MAJ. GEN. RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): I'm very worried about our stockpiles, and I'm very worried about, quite frankly, the sanity of the secretary of defense. He's not a strategist, and it's evidenced by the fact that he has unrelentingly used these very, very expensive munitions -- some of them are as much as $10 million to $12 million each against drones that are perhaps under $100,000. That is no way to be able to engage the enemy.
The Ukrainians have learned how to engage and defend themselves with low-cost alternatives. We have not. And he's blaming everyone else but himself for the strategy.
So, I think, quite frankly, the secretary of defense's days are numbered.
BURNETT: So let me ask you about him, because you said you questioned his sanity. I mean, the word stood out to me, General. Since May 5th, okay, the war started obviously beginning of March, February 28th, but since May 5th, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has posted videos of himself jogging, doing push-up reps at the gym.
By the way, he doesn't call himself the defense secretary, right? He proudly and as often as he can calls himself the secretary of war, and he's also said things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: General, what are military uniform leaders, right, people with general in their name, what are they supposed to do given Pete Hegseth and his role?
MANNER: So active-duty military have to quite frankly be quiet and quite frankly follow all lawful orders of the secretary of defense and the president. They are not able to speak up against this in any way. It's not illegal. this bizarreness. It sounds like he's trying to sell some kind of drugs or treatment as a used car salesman. It's extremely sad.
The secretary of defense, who should be worried about the national security policies and defense of the United States, is talking about testosterone. That is absolutely off the charts in terms of concern.
Physical fitness is critically important. Appearance is critically important, but it is not critical at the secretary of defense level not to focus on our defense of the United States.
BURNETT: You said his days were numbered. I wanted to read you something that Republican Senator Thom Tillis said today. to the Hill about Pete Hegseth. It's significant, obviously, coming from a Republican senator, even though Mr. Tillis is, of course, not going to be in the Senate -- after the next election.
[19:10:13]
He said, "I think he's got a massive insecurity complex. He has a lack of experience in large organization. He micromanages too much. He's lost my confidence."
Now, again, I put the context around the fact that Senator Tillis has been saying what he thinks and standing up to this president now for a long time when he thinks it's appropriate and he's not going to be in the Senate. But do you think that this really is the beginning of the end?
MANNER: Yes, I do. The president needs someone to blame for this catastrophe, this loss of military life, hundreds of American lives wounded and impacted, families impacted, a bottoming out of morale. The readiness of the United States military has dropped to its lowest level because remember that these dollars that are used to fight this war, probably $80 billion to $120 billion, are coming out of existing accounts because Congress is not authorized a supplement.
The result is that they are literally robbing Peter to pay Paul in terms of readiness. Training is curtailed, and that will impact the ability for us to defend the United States. So, this is all bad, and I actually agree with Senator Tillis on this particular point, which I typically don't agree with him.
BURNETT: So I mentioned this situation with the troops that have died in the war and that the Defense Department took them out of the count for Operation Epic Fury, said it was a glitch, but then didn't put them back in, created this whole new webpage called Overseas Operations, and that's where they put those in. And that is, obviously, actions speak louder than words, a situation,
but it adds to the lack of transparency here. And when I mentioned the war began on February 28th, there were 11 on-camera briefings in the first two months, and in those early days, I remember being over there, and, you know, you would see Pete Hegseth frequently, right, with an update every day on the number of locations that the U.S. had bombed.
But after May 5th, there has not been one single briefing. Not one. And we're getting these numbers about munitions in stockpiles.
What do you think is actually going on here, General?
MANNER: He actually knows that he is between a rock and a hard place. He knows that things are even worse than he is letting on, probably worse than he's actually telling the president. That's why you don't go before the press, even friendly press, let alone fake news press, in his own words.
And so, I think it's that he knows it's in a difficult situation. By the way, my heart goes out to those four soldiers and their families, because listening to that brief interview you did with that widow of the non-commissioned officer, that is so sad. And it's such an insult to his memory that literally the president and the secretary of defense are taking him out of someone who has died in combat operations. That is unforgivable and inappropriate.
BURNETT: Michael Swinton leaves behind a six-year-old little boy, a four-year-old little girl, his wife, Mia. This is the tragedy of a life lost.
Thank you so very much, General. I appreciate you.
MANNER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, new reporting tonight on Trump's role when it comes to retrofitting his new Qatari jet. How involved was he, and what are the safety features that are missing? Well, "The New York Times" reporter who did this investigation has the answers is next.
And Savannah Guthrie with a new message tonight for her mother's kidnappers coming out with this very new post. Does she have new information?
And a U.S. congressman who wants to be the next governor of Michigan pushing election lies as the president asks the Supreme Court to curtail mail-in ballots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:18:19]
BURNETT: Breaking news, a Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, a sitting congressman, buying into Trump's baseless election claims tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN JAMES (R-MI): Thank you, Mr. President, for coming back to Michigan, where you've won three times. We very much appreciate your leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's Congressman John James. And just to be clear, Donald Trump did not win Michigan three times. Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Michigan in 2020 by about three percentage points and 150,000 votes, okay?
Those comments, though, come on the same day that Trump asked the Supreme Court to let him move forward with a sweeping executive order that would curtail mail-in voting, which he votes that way himself. His executive order is already being blocked by lower courts in two dozen states.
Everyone is here with me.
So, S.E., can we just start here with Congressman John James? Because, you know, he said it so matter-of-factly, right? It wasn't even like it was a thing. You would actually had had to listen to go, wait a minute --
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.
BURNETT: -- do I need to check that? Actually, no, Trump did not win Michigan three times.
CUPP: He did pause for an applause line, so it was definitely a performance.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CUPP: No applause.
ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR VP HARRIS: No applause.
CUPP: By the way. But listen, I mean, some people's love language is touch. Mine is acts of travel. Trump's is clearly --
BURNETT: I'm like, where is this going, S.E.?
CUPP: Trump's love language is clearly election denialism. This is what he needs, and he's more fixated on it than ever. He's always been like this, but he really -- he demands it.
And whether it's this, or having to lie on the stand about whether Joe Biden won the election, or J.D. Vance having to translate something Trump just said, and then he goes out and he says he didn't really say that, but of course -- you just have to lie.
[19:20:01] In Trump's orbit, it's part of the job description now, you must lie, to stay in his favor. You have to do these insane beclowning of yourself in front of people to keep your job, to get the endorsement. He's running for governor. Obviously, this was part of the performance. It's really insane.
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And I think the fact that that applause line landed with such a thud matters. Like, this isn't really even a performance for the Republican base. This is a performance for Donald Trump.
CUPP: Yeah, yeah.
HERNDON: And they actually know that this kind of elected official class is, to S.E.'s point, debasing themselves for him. This is a red line for Donald Trump.
If you to stay in his good graces as a congressional appointee, as an elected official looking for his endorsement, you have to say that he did not -- that Joe Biden didn't win in 2020.
And so, that kind of baseline of falsehood, of conspiracy, of election denial is now what we should think of as, I think, an entry point to Donald Trump's version of the Republican Party.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, Ashley, actually, you also have on this issue, right, he's trying to curtail mail-in balloting, -- mail-in voting. That's how he votes. He just voted that way, actually, in a special election.
So, you know, again, actions speak louder than words.
ETIENNE: I mean, I think what -- I think that Trump's strategy is really threefold when it comes to voting.
One is, I think he's trying to make a case for federal intervention into the elections in general. Second is that he's definitely trying to rev up his base on this issue of election fraud. More than 70 percent of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was not stolen, but there was some fraudulent activity happening there.
And I would say sort of the third -- the third thing he's trying to really achieve here is to really undermine confidence in our election systems. And, you know, we've seen this backfire on Trump in 2024, in fact.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ETIENNE: So, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with the Supreme Court. You know, they're a whole subsidiary of Donald Trump. You know, they're an extension of the White House. So how they react and they respond here, although they've upheld lower courts' decisions, is going to be very interesting to see.
BURNETT: You know, it's amazing when you take a step back from this and you think about interfering in elections, right? And the U.S., countries do this around the world, right? You post things on Twitter to get people to think things, and influence, right? Interference versus influence, influence. If you are China or Russia and you want to weaken American democracy, I mean, you've hit the gold mine.
CUPP: He's doing their job. He's doing their job.
BURNETT: I mean, literally, But it's the president of the United States who has done more to damage American states and their elections than anybody on the planet. That is an incredible statement.
CUPP: He's trying to buy this on Facebook and he's probably bought these ads on Facebook. But like Putin couldn't buy this.
BURNETT: But no ad on Facebook. Yeah, okay, there's an ad on Facebook.
CUPP: No, this is the president and everyone around him adding to this. And it has real pragmatic. deleterious effects down ballot, right? In many ways, if you're a voter in Georgia, a Republican voter in Arizona, and you're being told this election is going to be rigged, maybe you stay home.
If you're a candidate like Ken Paxton that the Republicans now have to pour money into because... Trump didn't like John Cornyn. You're forcing the party to spend when it didn't have to. You're jeopardizing a seat that was for sure safe with John Cornyn. So, I mean, there's down-ballot effects to just the lying and the disinformation.
ETIENNE: But if this is Trump's message going into the midterms, this is music to our ears. I mean, this is exactly what we want Trump to focus on, 93 percent of the country -- I've never seen numbers like this before -- believe that we're in an affordability crisis.
So, the more time that spin sort of relitigating 2020, you know, talking about election fraud. It works to our advantage. It plays directly for Democrats.
BURNETT: Democrats.
ETIENNE: It plays directly into our hands.
HERNDON: You know, I have no doubt. I think that Donald Trump's false election claims are unpopular. We've seen that backfire in election after election. I think it is a probably better place for Democrats to be that he's not talking about issues that matter.
But outside of the electoral question, Donald Trump's undermining of democracy is part of his grander vision of expanding executive of minimizing Congress, of being kind of all-powerful.
And so, I'm saying it might not be -- the question of like whether he sows `disconfidence` in the election is not just one for November, but I also just think his willingness to buck institutional norms, how he's going to go out in his last couple years, these are thin lines that I think the margins really matter on.
And so, Donald Trump's willingness for escalation, I think, is something we don't know the limit of yet. You should keep that in line.
CUPP: And it's had cumulative effect because he's been on the scene now for 10 years and he's been doing this. He was saying 2016 was going to be rigged before he won it.
HERNDON: For sure.
CUPP: So, and it has had that effect of sowing distrust in every institution from the media to the generals to our intelligence, all of it. And I think it's for a much darker purpose.
[19:25:01]
I think it's because, like all dictators, like all authoritarian wannabes, you have to consolidate power. I am the only one you can trust. He has to make everyone else a liar at the expense of our democratic institutions.
BURNETT: So then you enter Jay Clayton, who's now going to soon to be, once he gets approved to be the national intelligence director, He was in his hearing asked about this.
So, Jay Clayton's a well-known guy with a long career and a thick resume, okay? So, he's going in for this job and he's asked, you know, did Trump lose to Joe Biden? And this was in the hearing last week. Here he is, Ashley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Do you deny that Joe Biden won the 2020 election?
JAY CLAYTON, DNI NOMINEE: Senator, I'm not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States.
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Who won the 2020 election?
CLAYTON: You know, I'm not -- I'm not going to do this with you.
OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election?
CLAYTON: Like I said, I'm not going to get into that with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Ashley, I was thinking, okay, you could ask the question once, you give your real answer, then you're annoyed people can ask you, okay, should you give him that grace? Well, if you do, you got to look at how I answered the first one. I'm not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as president of the United States.
He didn't say Joe Biden won. He didn't say it was legitimate. He very specifically said he was certified to the audience of one.
So how much power does Jay Clayton have when Trump has made it clear he wants the person in that role to oversee election security? ETIENNE: I mean, a vast amount of power. I mean, the question in that particular position is, whose interest are you serving, right? And it's very clear, and I would say second to that question, the issue that's paramount is trust. You have to have someone in that job that you can trust to do that job.
Trust is a national security imperative when we're talking about the head of DNI. And so, the issue is that he's proven in that particular hearing that he cannot be trusted, that he's demonstrated that he can't -- that he's serving only, to our previous point, an audience of one, and that's Donald Trump.
So, I mean, you know, the question is what is the Senate going to do about this? What are Republicans going to do about it? It's very clear that Donald Trump wants, to your point, wants someone in that particular job who he can dictate to. I mean, look at what happened with Tulsi Gabbard, went down to Fulton County and committed a raid, she said it was at the behest of the president.
So, it's clear that the president is politicizing the DNI. And so, again, I mean, the question comes back to what are Republicans going to do about it? Because it's very clear that you can't trust this guy.
BURNETT: Nothing. I mean, the answer may be nothing.
Speaking of Republicans in the Senate, I got to ask about Mitch McConnell. So, we got another photo, okay, 40 days, more than 40 days after he was first hospitalized. Okay, so this is Elaine Chao, former labor secretary and his wife. And then there's a written, they put this image out today, okay, with a written note from McConnell that says, "I'm still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctor's orders."
And the attending physician office said he's not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.
I said, I'm just pointing out the obvious here, that something feels off, not just that it's been so long and be empathetic to someone suffering, but if there's a written statement at this point, given the situation, we're not hearing his voice.
HERNDON: Yeah.
BURNETT: We're not seeing a video of him talking.
HERNDON: They have heard the lack of trust after the first kind of photo was released, and we still haven't gotten the video. We still haven't gotten, I think, something that responds to the -- to what I think is rightful skepticism of a narrator that's lost authority.
I mean, he's not communicating with Governor Beshear. He's not, I think -- I think doing the service to make sure public has confidence in them. And so, I think that this kind of just is in line with the gerontocracy of our electorate -- of our Washington, D.C. that we have seen over and over kind of forego the public facing responsibility of their role.
And so, I mean, Mitch McConnell's benefit, the latest to benefit from that, but the questions are rising more and more as we see more and more.
BURNETT: I mean, S.E., I can just sit here and I can say, okay, S.E., say hi.
CUPP: Hi, right, right.
BURNETT: Right?
Okay. So I mean, I'm not trying He's an important position. There's something obviously wrong.
CUPP: And I think -- 100 percent, and I think, maybe this is by design, but we're all a little bit distracted with like, is he alive or dead? "The Weekend at Bernie's" part and looking at the photo and what about this shirt and this thing?
There's only one question that matters. Can he do the job? Personally, I hope he gets better. Politically, I don't care if you're alive or dead, can you do the job? If you can do your job, get back to work. If you can't, tell the governor of Kentucky so he can serve his people appropriately. You are a public servant --
HERNDON: I was on the Hill like three months ago, and I got to say I saw Senator Mitch McConnell before some of this happened, and it was shocking then. So, like, there is -- his stake, his kind of condition, his ability -- he had no ability to even walk around.
[19:30:01]
ETIENNE: The thing that makes this very weird is that he is calling people, he is talking to people, he's talking to Senate leadership, Republican leadership, he talked to Thune, he talked to several other members.
Again, and so that's what makes it so weird, so why?
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: You're all telling the truth, but like, if he --
ETIENNE: But why talk to these senators and not talk to your own constituencies?
BURNETT: I mean, that's my point.
CUPP: It's slow-walking and stalling and he doesn't want, it's all about protecting that seat and it's gross.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all very much.
And next, Savannah Guthrie making an emotional new plea to her mother's kidnappers. Does the family know something new? Savannah speaking out tonight.
And Trump's new Qatari gifted jet retrofitted in record time. But, you know, then there were all those security things that didn't happen. So, what were they that made a threat to Trump's life when he couldn't fly that plane? A new investigative report tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:34]
BURNETT: Tonight, Trump just landing back in Washington, not taking the $400 million Qatari-gifted Air Force One. He took a different jet tonight, as "The New York Times" has a new investigation just out that reveals Trump was personally involved in retrofitting the Qatari jet. He gave the final approval for features on the plane.
Now, key security features that have been used for decades on Air Force One are not visible on the new jet, "The Times" reports. And all the retrofitting that was done was done on an incredibly compressed timeline of just about eight months. They had said that a full upgrade would take several years. So, it wasn't just that it was compressed, it was that, you know, some things were not done.
It comes after the Times also reported that Trump was forced to abruptly swap planes when he came home from the NATO summit earlier this month because of an Iranian threat to Trump and Air Force One.
OUTFRONT now is Eric Lipton, he's the reporter behind "The New York Times'" newest investigation.
And, Eric, so I really appreciate your time.
Obviously, this is important. There's a jet given by a Middle Eastern country at almost a half a billion-dollar price tag to this president that he gets after he leaves office as well. And, you know, the retrofitting obviously was done in a compressed timeframe.
What did you find about the safety features that appear to be missing on this plane, on the new Qatari jet?
ERIC LIPTON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: We already reported that there were some missing self-defense aspects, which are essentially trying to prevent anyone from trying to take a missile attack on the plane. But what we found as we looked at it more closely was that there were a bunch of structural changes that they skipped on this plane to try to turn it around and get it to President Trump by July.
And those included things like special entrance that is lower on the plane. It's both in the front and the rear, which has sort of built-in steps that if there's a high security incident, the president can go in and out and is less vulnerable. And for example, on September 11th of 2001, that's how President George W. Bush, after leaving Florida, was -- got out of the plane. Or in October, when there was a perceived threat in Palm Beach Airport, Trump used those lower steps. So that's one thing. Another thing is that the plane's supposed to have -- Air Force One's
supposed to have its two auxiliary power units, which are backup electric supply, so making sure that the president has the ability to constantly communicate with, you know, military leaders or world leaders, and that it always has an electric supply.
And also, those APUs, as they're called, They allow the plane to simultaneously turn on all four of its engines and essentially get away from an airport where a threat may be playing out more quickly. Those are a couple of things, and we found a bunch of them. Those are just a few of the things that we found that they skipped installing on this plane because they wanted to get into President Trump really quickly.
BURNETT: Which is incredible. You are talking about the president of the United States, and as you said, there's many more like those that are not there on this plane now. So, I also understand that you're reporting that he was very involved in what was done and the decisions as well, in terms of not just how it looks physically, the decorating of the plane, but the features and the security measures on the plane.
How involved was he?
LIPTON: Yeah, we all know that President Trump, just like with the ballroom or with the various changes in the reflecting pond, I mean, he's quite active in some of these decorating choices. But he was also active in insisting that this plane be built for him quickly so that he could have a plane that was worthy of -- you know, he was, for example, complained that look at the leaders in the Middle East and the luxurious planes that they have, and I want a plane like that.
But we do know that basically it was the White House that set the requirements for security for this plane. And the Air Force then took care of those things and hired a contractor to deliver on that. But it was the president, ultimately, that signed off on these shortcuts that were needed to get him to the plane quickly. So, he's the commander in chief, and the Air Force acted at his behalf.
BURNETT: And also, I'm curious here, there were extra costs. And as I pointed out, right, the plane is being gifted to him as the president, the plane then afterwards is supposed to go to whatever it might be, his presidential library or right, but there was money that was put in by this country into this plane.
[19:40:00]
And I know they didn't want you to report on that, but you found out about it. How much money?
LIPTON: Yeah, I mean, they've gone to an extreme length to not let people know just how much was spent to get this plane to the president quickly. They actually went in and took money from a budget that's supposed to be used to modernize nuclear weapons. They took $900 million out of that to use for this plane, and they said publicly that they thought it would cost something like $400 million But as we looked into it, what we found was that they'd spent hundreds
of millions of dollars more. They actually needed to move so quickly to get this plane flying that they chartered an Atlas cargo plane to train pilots because it's the same 747-8.
For months, they chartered this plane, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. And then not only did they do that, but they actually bought a 747-8 from Lufthansa just to have another plane to train pilots because they needed to move so quickly to get ready. The 747-8 that Trump is now flying is radically different from the Air Force One. It's the cockpit, so the pilots had to be trained.
So just that alone is hundreds of millions of dollars in addition to the cost of retrofitting the plane that was spent to get Trump his plane quickly.
BURNETT: Right, spent by Americans. All right, well, I appreciate your time and really important reporting, and thank you for sharing it with us, Eric.
Next, Savannah Guthrie tonight with a new message for the people who kidnapped her mother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC ANCHOR: Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, Putin about to get more backup on the front line, 30,000 troops coming to help him from North Korea. So, what's Kim Jong-un getting out of it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:58]
BURNETT: Breaking news tonight, Savannah Guthrie breaking a month-long silence about the disappearance of her mother, Nancy. In a new video, Savannah is pleading with her mother's kidnappers to, quote, "do the right thing", raising more questions about whether new information led to her choosing to do this public cry for help at this moment.
Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUTHRIE: It has been months. since our mom was taken from us. Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new heartfelt plea coming from Savannah Guthrie.
GUTHRIE: The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place. And I know that you have tried to do things the right way. So, I'm asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now.
CARROLL (voice-over): Guthrie posted the emotional message today on Instagram, the same platform. The family has released many of its messages to the public ever since Nancy Guthrie, Savannah's mother, disappeared nearly six months ago.
Days after her kidnapping, the family received its first ransom note, unknown publicly at the time, but revealed last week by crime journalist Briana Whitney on the "Crime Junkie" podcast.
That note to the Guthrie said, we have your mother, Nancy. She is safe She will be held for ransom and once payment is received, she will be released unharmed.
Whitney says the note referred to details about Guthrie's Arizona home, including a smartwatch in her bedroom and a damaged floodlight in the backyard to validate its authenticity.
BRIANA WHITNEY, CRIME JOURNALIST: I'm going to read you three more parts of this ransom note.
CARROLL (voice-over): Whitney says the note also indicated Guthrie would be held for a maximum of seven days and went on to say, "if the payment is not received by the last deadline, she will be killed. Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands. You will not be able to contact me from here on out. There will be no negotiation. Do not play games. Law enforcement will not be able to help you."
Just last month, CNN reported on the contents of another note that the Guthries received back in February. That note said Guthrie died shortly after the kidnapping, that according to law enforcement sources.
Whitney said the author also wrote, "We never intended to hurt her, and that they were truly sorry."
The last time the family reportedly saw Nancy Guthrie was about 9:45 p.m. on January 31st. That's when a family member dropped her off at her Tucson home after dinner. The 84-year-old was reported missing around noon the next day when she didn't show up at a friend's house. to watch a church service online.
On February 4th, the Guthrie family's first public plea.
GUTHRIE: On behalf of our family, we want to thank all of you for the prayers for our beloved mom, Nancy. We feel them and we continue to believe that she feels them, too. She is a devoted friend. She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her and you'll see.
CARROLL (voice-over): On February 10th, the FBI released doorbell camera footage showing what it described as a masked armed individual outside the home the morning she disappeared. Still, authorities have not publicly identified a suspect or a motive in the investigation. Now, six months later, another plea for closure.
GUTHRIE: I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Help us bring this situation to an end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, it was back in March that Guthrie talked about the agony of not knowing where her mother is, saying, someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony. It is unbearable. Her family has also offered a $1 billion reward for any information leading to their mother being found.
BURNETT: Jason Carroll, thank you very much.
[19:50:00]
And now I want to go to Chip Massey, retired FBI hostage negotiator.
Chip, so when you see Jason's report, and as we said, we haven't heard from Savannah in a month, so she's choosing to speak out now. That could just be because she wants to make sure that this story doesn't go away. It could be because she has a reason to feel that there's new information or something.
What do you make of the timing?
CHIP MASSEY, FORMER FBI HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Oh, exactly. And she knows that it's so important to keep this in front of the public, to keep that, you know, kind of mindfulness around this. So much time has passed. There's been, you know, so many days have gone by when there's a knock on the door that said, hey, do you know anything about this case? So, a refreshing is always important.
But there is some information that we're getting from that statement.
BURNETT: Yes.
MASSEY: And I think when she's starting out with, we know that the world can be a very cruel place to that effect. And what she's doing in that statement is that she's trying to find common ground with this individual or the -- maybe the people around the individual, hasn't come forward yet, to establish an openness here. And that's so important that she is still allowing this communication.
BURNETT: Well, it's incredible that she's still allowing sort of the grace of a possible forgiveness. truly incredible about Savannah, but she says, I know you have tried to do things the right way.
Now, if all those letters are true, first of all, they kidnapped her mother, they tried to get a ransom, one of them says her mother died, although that's never been formally confirmed, but she's saying, I know you've tried to do things the right way. That feels significant.
MASSEY: It does, especially. You know, all of what we do now in our work is to look at behavior, to look at words, and she's choosing these for a specific reason.
She's choosing these in a way that says, I need you to step into a new character. You know, it's like you caused a horrific act in our family. You know, you've taken somebody from us. It's now not too late for you to --
BURNETT: It's not too late.
MASSEY: -- do the right thing for us, right?
And so, this could be the worst person in the world. And anyone I've ever talked to, Erin, in this kind of context, they want to feel like they can still do something right. And that's -- that's a way she's doing it.
BURNETT: She's giving them the ability to do it.
All right. Chip, thank you very much.
And next, North Korea to Vladimir Putin's rescue. Putin apparently getting much needed help from Kim Jong-un, tens of thousands of bodies. We'll tell you what's happening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:48]
BURNETT: Tonight, Kim Jong-un's massive troop buildup for Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian President Zelensky warning, Russia wants another 30,000 troops from North Korea to fight on the front line. Now, Putin is facing a hard reality at home, which is that the average lifespan of a Russian soldier from training to combat is only between 10 days to three weeks, according to "Foreign Policy Magazine" and British intelligence.
Will Ripley is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a cemetery for North Korea's fallen soldiers this weekend, Kim Jong-un, his wife and daughter, walked past the graves of Korean War dead.
Now, Ukraine says Kim could send 30,000 more North Korean troops into another war.
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim sent more than 100 soldiers to march in Moscow's Victory Day parade in May. South Korea and Western militaries estimate more than 10,000 North Korean troops helped Russian forces recapture the Kursk region.
And soon, Putin may be getting something even bigger from his partner in Pyongyang, says Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenskyy, set to meet President Trump tomorrow in the Oval Office, a White House official says.
"Russia wants to bring in another 30,000 North Korean troops," Zelenskyy says. Adding Ukraine's military has solid reports, preparations are underway to receive them.
He says they're headed to southwestern Russia, about 150 miles from Ukraine's border.
Zelenskyy says Kim may also be sending several ballistic missile launchers.
North Korean missiles are a lethal part of Putin's war machine. Ukraine says they're growing more accurate with every strike.
"Russia is helping North Korea learn how to wage war, improve its weapons, and gain real combat experience," Zelenskyy says.
Kim built a new war memorial in Pyongyang with thousands of graves and space for many more. Ukraine's military estimates more than 6,000 North
Koreans have already been injured or killed fighting for Russia, part of Putin and Kim's deepening anti-West, anti-U.S. alliance.
A drastically different outcome than the vision of Kim's grandfather, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, who once hosted former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
MIKE CHINOY, FORMER CNN BELJING BUREAU CHIEF: And I recall Kim Il-sung saying to me, we want to have good relations with the United States. That's all gone now.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy made 17 reporting trips to North Korea. He says after Trump's diplomacy collapsed, Kim made a hard pivot to Russia and never looked back.
CHINOY: And I don't think he's interested anymore in having that kind of relationship because I don't think he trusts the United States.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Instead, Ukraine says, Kim is betting big on Moscow, a bet that could soon mean another 30,000 North Korean troops fighting for Russia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY: And tonight, despite thousands of North Korean troops fighting for Russia, only two are known to have been captured alive, Erin. Ukrainian officials say that's because North Korean soldiers are under orders to avoid capture at all costs. Kim Jong-un has even praised what state media called soldiers who self-blasted with grenades rather than surrender. Ukrainian forces say some North Korean soldiers have even shouted Kim's name before pulling the pin on those grenades -- Erin.
BURNETT: Wow. Will Ripley, thank you very much.
And thanks to all of you.
"AC360" starts now.
