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Erin Burnett Outfront

Senate Voting To Confirm Trump's Intel Pick, Jay Clayton Refused To Say Biden Won 2020; U.S.: Iran Launched Missiles Against U.S. Forces In "Surprise Attack"; Blanche Fate Uncertain Ahead Of Vote As Senator Says Demand Unresolved; Kentucky Governor To McConnell: Prove Your Capacity To Serve Or Resign. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 28, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:22]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news, the Senate voting right now to confirm Trump's pick for director of National Intelligence, a man who repeatedly refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election. Is that the reason why Trump wants Jay Clayton in the job?

And more breaking news, the U.S. just intercepting what they say was a surprise attack from Iran on U.S. forces in the Middle East. New details this hour.

And the miracle beach rescue. A teen lifeguard saves a young boy's life. Ferocious waves are turning over them. The man who captured the entire incident on film is our guest.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with breaking news. We'll show you these live pictures from the Senate floor tonight. Trump's pick to be the nation's next top spy, Jay Clayton, is about to be officially confirmed.

Now, he will squeak by, we expect, with only support from Republicans, in large part because of this confirmation hearing.

(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. I believe he had the most electoral votes.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): So, he won the election?

CLAYTON: He followed our process, had the most electoral votes, was declared the winner, and --

KELLY: And who has the most electoral votes? Is it the person that wins or the person that loses?

CLAYTON: I think that's your characterization.

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Who won the 2020 election?

CLAYTON: 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.

OSSOFF: You refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020 election. Is that right?

CLAYTON: No, that's not right.

OSSOFF: Then answer the question. Who won the 2020 election?

CLAYTON: I have answered the question.

OSSOFF: Answer it. What is your answer?

CLAYTON: I've given you my answer.

OSSOFF: What is your answer? You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election --

CLAYTON: No, I --

OSSOFF: -- but you asked to lead America's intelligence community. Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This is the person who will now oversee the United States of America's 18 intelligence agencies. And he was unable to say that Joe Biden won. He stuck with, I'm not an election denier. He said Joe Biden followed the process. He was certified.

He kept saying it those ways, right? His words were so precisely chosen when really all you had to say is, yeah, we all know Joe Biden won, can we just move on? But he's not able to say that. And those words matter because Clayton is taking over for the man that Trump in as the acting DNI, Bill Pulte, who's a mortgage guy who has absolutely no intelligence experience.

And there was no way he could even get Republican votes. Like, there was no -- he had no shot because he was not qualified. But when Trump named Pulte to the acting position, he told us the reason why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's a very smart guy, and you may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, it was about putting someone in to look at the rigged elections. Pulte today, right, right as Clayton's about to get the job, boasting about deep cuts he's made to the intelligence community. He just posted, "We are this morning executing a fifth and near final round of all caps terminations, an approximately 30 percent staff reduction from weeks ago. The intelligence community must protect the American people, not the political whims of a bloated and corrupt elite class."

Of course, though, Pulte's main role here has been to protect the president, who wants the DNI to be focused on, obsessed with election fraud conspiracies, just as he is. It's why Trump's first director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, spent months, right, overseeing 18 agencies when you've got an impending war with Iran, you have Ukraine war, you have China, you have Russia. But no, she was focused on election fraud. She even traveled personally to Georgia for an FBI search of a county office.

Trump, of course, has been focused on sowing doubt in elections past and future. And as more polls show that the Democrats have a widening advantage over Republicans on a generic ballot coming into the midterms, Trump is becoming more obsessed with the issue.

Just yesterday, he asked the Supreme Court to allow him to cut back on mail-in ballots. He fired everyone on is becoming more obsessed with the issue. Just yesterday, he asked the Supreme Court to allow him to cut back on mail-in ballots. He fired everyone on the Independent Election Assistance Commission, which provides election security support to states.

[19:05:03]

It's the federal government providing states the ability to run secure elections. He got rid of them all. And he's relentlessly harassing his own party to pass what he calls the SAVE America Act. And they haven't done it because there are Republicans who say this election bill is way too restrictive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You got to get the SAVE America Act passed.

We have to pass the SAVE America Act to defend American elections.

Let's go with the SAVE America Act.

The SAVE America Act is the most important thing that we have.

We have to pass the SAVE America Act to protect our sacred American elections. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Trump is focused on the midterms and with every action, he is planting doubt in the outcome. Because if the outcome isn't good for his party, well, then it's easy to say it was rigged.

There are, though, some who think Americans are not taking Trump seriously enough, even when you connect all of these dots. And one of them is a familiar face to many who watch this show, Charlamagne Tha God.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: What does it feel like we're being so nonchalant about what's going to happen during the midterms? Like you can literally make a list of all the things the Trump administration is attempting to do to undermine the midterm elections. And it feels like we just, you know, moonwalking right into it. Like it's nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Moonwalking into it like it's nothing.

Manu Raju is OUTFRONT live on Capitol Hill.

And, Manu, you know what's interesting about this Jay Clayton thing that's happening as we speak, and I hear the alarms behind you for votes. Democrats at the beginning were saying, okay, we're open to Jay Clayton. He's a serious guy. He has a serious resume. We're open to this guy.

But yet doesn't seem to be what we're seeing tonight. What are you hearing as the vote is now underway?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this changed dramatically, Erin, because the Democrats and Republicans really revolted when President Trump named Bill Pulte as the interim director of National Intelligence, believing that he was acted as a political attack dog of sorts for the president and should not have that critical role overseeing the nation's intelligence apparatus. And they said Jay Clayton would be a good replacement, and they were actually speeding his nomination through.

But things changed dramatically. One was because of President Trump and his incessant demands Save America Act of imposed new voting restrictions, something that simply does not have the votes in the United States Senate. First, Trump pulled back that nomination to the much to the chagrin of many Republicans who want to get Clayton confirmed. And then that confirmation hearing, which you played those clips for when she refused over and over again. They say that Joe Biden actually won the 2020 election.

Then that caused a revolt among Democrats, which is why we are seeing this vote happening along party lines to get the next job of the Directive intelligence. We do expect Clayton to get the votes to be confirmed but another big controversy looming all of this are critical surveillance powers used by the federal government that have expired amid all of this.

And Democrats are telling me tonight Erin that they will not agree at the moment to speed the renewal of those critical surveillance powers because they simply do not trust Jay Clayton so while one controversy may be set aside for now another controversy undoubtedly will unfold as Jay Clayton about to get the job as the next director of national intelligence -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Manu, thank you very much. And about to get that job. We're keeping these live images here as we're watching for that vote. I expect that could happen any second here. We can make that announcement.

Everyone's here with me.

So, Jamal, you know, some Senate Democrats were open, as Manu was saying. They were open to supporting Clayton. That was very clear.

Senator Mark Warner at one point said he had great respect for him, right? That's why I mentioned Jay Clayton's, you know, legitimate and deep resume. But then there was those multiple exchanges where he said Joe Biden was certified, he followed the process.

I'm not an election denier, but he never actually said it was a free and fair election or just simply, yeah, Joe Biden won. Was that why Democrats who were open to him turned?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, President Trump is such a corrupting force when it comes to how he expects the people who work for him to go along with the sort of fantasies that he creates about these things like elections and election denialism. And we're going to be trusted with the intelligence apparatus of the United States of America. All of us expect those people to be really serious. We've got big things at stake.

You mentioned there's a war in Iran taking place. We're on the side of Ukraine versus Russia. Everybody's worried about what's happening with China. We've got moms and dads and people all over the country who are saying, okay, we're going to trust you guys to manage this.

But the president of the United States seems like he's only really focused on his own political power and even wants people in the intelligence community to focus on securing that, not necessarily securing the rest of us and making sure we're okay.

BURNETT: So, Paul, what is the message that it sends that Jay Clayton is going to be, and we're waiting for the final tally here, right?

[19:10:05]

But is going to be the head of all of America's 18 intelligence agencies. PAUL RIECKHOFF, HOST OF THE INDEPENDENT AMERICANS PODCAST: Standards don't matter. Competency doesn't matter. Independence doesn't matter. Loyalty matters. And I think this is a really alarming moment that we shouldn't normalize.

This comes on the back of all the tumult around Tulsi Gabbard, who was a Democrat and independent, then a Republican. She was against regime change wars and for regime change wars. She's sent down to attack elections on behalf of the FBI.

Now, we've got this guy who's never served in the intelligence community and refuses to accept the elections. I look at it through the prism of the hundreds of thousands of people in our intelligence community. We are at war. We are war with Iran and Trump wants to attack more places.

We are under constant threat in the homeland and the instability and the lack of basic competence really jeopardizes our national security, I think has our enemies celebrating.

BURNETT: I mean, you have, Bill, just the context here of just one basic thing, when Paul refers to the war that, what is it, eight other countries that Trump has engaged in military conflict with, that there was a direct threat on the president's life on Air Force One just a few weeks ago where they had to switch the planes, OK? This is the level that we're operating at as a country with intelligence agencies right now.

And yet, the single most important thing to get the job to run them seems to be looking at an election six years ago that wasn't stolen and to say it's stolen. And in that context, the DNI -- acting DNI before Clayton's confirmed it's still Bill Pulte tonight posted that point. Good news. We're executing a fifth and near final round of terminations.

The word choice is obviously a pretty jarring, a 30 percent staff reduction from weeks ago. So, a 30 percent staff reduction of weeks ago, which he refers to is necessary because the people who work there are essentially there at the political whims of a bloated and corrupt elite class.

What do you think is actually happening right now? And by the way, Bill Pulte who oversaw this has absolutely zero qualifications for this job to the extent that he had no Republican support either.

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR AT LARGE, THE BULWARK: What's happening is you said Trump's looking back six years and that's absolutely right. But, of course, he's looking back six years in order to look forward to this November and to look forward to November 2028. What lesson to be learned from 2020 that you need to have loyalists running the key national security agencies of the government, justice, defense, the intelligence community, FBI, and that you need to have them in there shaping those agencies ahead of time so they can do what you want in the pinch -- with the pinch for Trump in 2020 obviously was challenging those -- the actual election results. They wouldn't go along, right? FBI wouldn't go along. CIA wouldn't go

along. Bill Barr quit the other people at justice as we learned in the January 6th committee hearing very dramatically. Wouldn't go along and Trump learned from that and he's put in loyalists.

He put in the first wave of loyalists. Kind of, you know, we're too flamboyant and screwed things up a little bit. Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem at DHS and Pam Bondi at DOJ. But honestly, the second wave are just as radical in the sense that just as subservient to Trump, just as willing, I think, to go along with what he wants to do in '26, 2026, but also 2028 and are probably more competent -- Clayton, Blanche, Mullin.

So, I think it's all very worrisome.

BURNETT: Yeah.

KRISTOL: Worrisome about 2026 and it's now even if he can't do this stuff in 2026 a little harder in the off-year election, it lays the predicate. He'll complain about it and then it lays the predicate for really going all in on trying to stay in power in 2028.

BURNETT: You know, I'm curious about something Bill just said, Paul, and that is when he said, you know, compared the first round that, you use the word "flamboyant", but a lack of competence in some of these roles, that now you are putting people in who may be just as radical as Bill was saying, but are more competent, are more under the radar, perhaps, when it comes to management, right?

That you're not going to necessarily have the headlines, perhaps, or the giant blow up that you had with Kristi Noem with went on in Minnesota, OK, with someone like Markwayne Mullin as just one example. But does that make it more concerning?

RIECKHOFF: Yes, because it's on strategy and I think the loyalty piece that that Bill touches on is so critical. I always use Pete Hegseth as a reference point. He's way ahead of schedule in all of the culture where stuff he's implementing across the Pentagon. Imagine how much farther he'd be if he didn't screw up all the time.

These are people who can operate below the radar, who aren't going to be in front of the cameras, who can execute Trump's strategy, which is most of all focused on the elections, because the elections are the circuit breaker. The elections are the most immediate threat to his power.

I think Charlamagne is exactly right. We are moonwalking, sleepwalking into this November election like it's going to be on course. Trump's telegraphed his punches. He said he wants to undermine it. He says he wants to attack it. The Republicans are all in on it, and the Democrats can't stop it.

So, I think all of us should be vigilant in pushing back and calling attention to this because I do think it's not just about elections and politics.

[19:15:04]

It's about our national security. If we don't have safe and fair elections, we don't have accountability on a president. The next two years could look even worse than the last two.

Jamal, one of the worst headlines on all of this has been what came out of New Jersey a few days ago, that people went to get their driver's license, they said they weren't citizens, and so they checked that box, and then they got added to voter rolls anyway.

SIMMONS: Yeah.

BURNETT: That's the kind of headline where maybe the headline should be, hey, they caught it, they fixed it, they're taking care of it, and should be. But there's also the headline of, oh, wow, that's bad, and is there more of that? In the context that we're in now, those seeds can fall on fertile ground.

So, now, the New Jersey governor, Governor Mikie Sherrill, she's refusing to hand over those 6,600 names to the Department of Justice. She's saying, no, that's a violation of privacy laws and state laws.

Do you think she will prevail? And what do you think is going on here as to why The Trump administration wants those names. When New Jersey's saying, we went through and are taking them off the rolls, we are taking care of the problem.

SIMMONS: Yeah, there will be a fight about it, and we know the president will try to be punitive about it. He will look for ways to apply pressure to the governor of New Jersey to get her to hand it over.

One thing that's very nerve-wracking about the SAVE Act, about all this, is as if the president's trying to create a national voter registration list, a national list of Americans. And I think Americans, conservative Americans in particular, have really pushed back on anything like this for generations. And now they've got a Republican president.

BURNETT: State's rights, right? I mean, state rights.

SIMMONS: State rights and the idea of a national ID, a national registry that all of us will be on, and the president of the United States can choose to allow people to vote or not allow people to vote, to get mail-in ballots or not get mail-in ballots, because that's part of the deal that the Postal Service will only deliver to people who are on the national registry.

This is really concerning for everyone who worries about having a functioning democracy.

BURNETT: Well, as you point out, it's not a Democrat thing. It's actually a conservative thing, right? I mean, it's states' rights at its core, federalism.

So, Bill, I will, just to note here, Jay Clayton has been confirmed as DNI, so that vote is concluded. He will be the next DNI, as we said, and that is confirmed.

The context here, when we look at the elections, though, is that poll after poll are now showing Democrats with an edge to flip the House, right? Those generic polls, as we say, generic Democrat, generic Republican, who wins.

Fox came out with a poll the other day, had Democrats ahead seven points, which was the biggest gap that either party has had in Fox News polling since 1996. So, we're talking to go back 30 years to have that big of a lead for a party. In this case, it's the Democrats.

So, in that context, Speaker Johnson goes on and tells Republicans he actually thinks they're going to win. Not even like it's a tough fight. We're staying in it. They're going to win.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We keep delivering. We're going to do that, run all the way through the tape towards the end of the year, to the end of the year and I believe for this reason we're going to win the midterms. I'm very bullish about the outcome and we talk about it all the time with each passing day I'm more confident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay, Bill, what do you think's going on there because do you really think that Speaker Johnson is -- is really bullish and every day more confident?

KRISTOL: No, some of this is just the normal, head of the party or senior person of the party, rah-rah about its chances. But I do think, one thing I think people have a focus, I think in the blue -- I was on a call today with secretaries of state, actually, we're talking what they're doing.

I think in states that are blue states, frankly, with Democratic governors and attorney generals and secretaries of state, little hard for the federal government to come in and do too much damage. They can do a lot. They can deter people from voting. They can scare people from voting. I think there could be a ton of that, unfortunately, in the Latino community.

But in the red states, in the red states, where you have a governor, let's say Texas, what if an election night tolerate goes ahead by 0.3 percent of Paxton? Totally possible, right? And leave aside whether there's red wave, blue wave, early voting stuff, but just say that's what it looks like.

President and the governor of Texas starts saying, oh, a lot of fraud in inner city Houston and in the black areas of Houston and also in the Latino areas in South Texas. We've got to take over those ballots. We have evidence. We have complaints. Someone shows up, the MAGA person shows up and says, I saw someone doing something. You could have a real effort, I think, to steal a couple of Senate

seats, steal some House seats from blue pockets in red states. I think that and there it's harder to know what to do. I mean, I talked to lawyers about it. They'll go to court, go to federal court, but you got a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff stacked up against you in the red states.

I think that's the immediate 2026, most the scariest thing for me about '26, and then ultimately it's about 2028. This president and his top -- they do not want to leave the White House. I mean, they may personally leave and give it over someone loyal to him, but they do not want another party coming in as someone from another party or even a different kind of Republican and overturning over every rock to see what happened in four years of the Trump administration.

BURNETT: All right. I thank all of you. Thank you very much.

And next breaking news, a surprise attack from Iran.

[19:20:01]

That is what the Defense Department is characterizing it as on U.S. forces in the Middle East. New details ahead.

And the McConnell ultimatum. Kentucky's governor with a message for his state senator. Provide proof you can serve or resign? Senator Cory Booker weighs in.

And the heart-stopping video of a 16-year-old lifeguard battling relentless waves, saving a 10-year-old boy's life. So, what exactly happened and what happened after this moment? The man who saw it all and filmed this will be our guest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, a surprise attack. Iran launching multiple ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East just moments ago. New video into CNN showing those missiles intercepted over Jordan. Remember, three U.S. troops were killed about a week ago by Iran striking a U.S. base in Jordan.

Now, the U.S. military says it successfully intercepted what they are calling a surprise attack.

[19:25:03]

But it comes as President Trump's claims today about the war in Iran are raising very serious questions about whether he really understands what's happening on the ground in Iran. For example, let's just start at the core of it all, the Strait of Hormuz.

Here's what President Trump said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Iran doesn't control the strait. We control the strait. Now, they can drop a couple of mines in there and screw things up, but we control the strait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay, first of all, Iran responded to that right away, an official writing, quote, "If that is the case, why has he been unable to send even a single American boat through the straits since February 28, 2026, if you dare, come near the Strait of Hormuz?'

Obviously, there's a lot of bluster in that, but there is also a truth, which is that the United States does not control the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has essentially shut down this most crucial waterway for oil and gas shipments for the whole planet.

I mean, yesterday, okay, so this is the thing. If U.S. controlled the Strait, right, ships would be going through it. That's true. And yesterday, eight ships, eight vessels made their way through the strait. Eight.

Okay, before the war, it was about 130 on average per day. So, we're going from 130 to 8. That's not open. That's not controlling the strait.

Okay, so that's a very serious issue. The president also today doubled down on his threat to target Iran's bridges and power plants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I could take out most of their bridges in less than an hour. I could knock out the power plants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, this is something that some of Trump's closest allies in Congress are calling out. Senator Jim Justice, he consistently votes with Trump, told the news website "Notus", quote, I don't want anything to do with blowing up the bridge. And when you blow up the bridge, you're going to have civilian casualties for sure. Nobody wants that. Nobody in the world wants that.

I mean, this is just a blatant truth spoken by Senator Justice. Deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, like bridges and power plants, obviously could kill civilians.

OUTFRONT now, General Ben Hodges and Farnaz Fassihi of "The New York Times".

General, let me just start with you here. I'm going to show you the new video that we're just getting in again of this Iranian missile interception over Jordan. The U.S. is saying this was a surprise attack, these were missiles coming towards a U.S. base there, and that they intercepted it. So, they put the video out, they're calling it a surprise attack, they're announcing it right now.

What do you think is happening here?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY EUROPE: Well, Erin, that's a very strange choice of words to say that we were somehow surprised while we've been at war with Iran now for several months, and certainly all of our air defenders and air force have been watching for just this kind of thing. So, to characterize it as a surprise attack is strange.

But it also reminds us that Iran still has a lot of capability despite Secretary Hegseth and others claiming that Iran has been obliterated. And then it also makes you wonder why the Pentagon is characterizing or categorizing casualties that happened in Jordan before, as if that's not connected to the war. Clearly, the Iranians don't see it the same way.

BURNETT: Right. And obviously, this is this is part of the battlefield. And I do want to be clear. I said that the U.S. military put the video out. That is not what this video is. This video was from a source filmed from Syria over Jordanian skies.

So, Fernaz, Trump is saying that, you know, amidst all of this, Iran just really wants a deal. But now the U.S. is putting out this comment about a surprise attack by Iran, which is just worth emphasizing the wording, because when you're in the middle of a war and there's back and forth going on constantly, what defines one thing being a surprise and another not being? What do you think is happening in Iran right now? Who is directing the response?

FARNAZ FASSIHI, NYT REPORTER: Well, Erin, all along we've seen sort of the leadership of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards which are really leading the charge sort of, you know, having divisions festering and playing out very publicly over whether or not Iran should concede to the United States whether it should reach some sort of a ceasefire deal in this last round of attacks and give up control of the Strait of Hormuz.

And we've seen them turn down a ceasefire proposal by President Trump that Iraq took to Iran last week. The Omanis were just there trying to find some sort of a mutual agreeable agreement over how to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

But Iran is now showing, demonstrating that at least that the hardline is within the regime that are very entrenched and are doubling down and saying it's our way or the highway are gaining the upper ground because not only are they turning down ceasefire proposals, but they're also suddenly launching this attack on Jordan.

[19:30:01]

And I have to say that even as an Iran watcher, I was a bit surprised. While it is true that the U.S. and Iran are at war, since Saturday night, the U.S. had paused its airstrikes on Iran. And up until now, Iran's attacks on U.S. bases were retaliation for American attacks or Israeli attacks. And tonight, they were sort of, you know, attacking pre -- before being attacked. And it's a provocative move.

BURNETT: So General Hodges, when you hear Trump say we control the strait and I could take out most of their bridges in less than an hour, right? Those are those are both quotes, what do you think about the commander in chief's -- how he's handling it and his understanding, frankly, of the reality of the war?

HODGES: Well, obviously what he's saying is disconnected from the reality of what's happening in the strait. And Senator Justice is correct for the president to talk about destroying civilian infrastructure. Now you're putting pressure on the military who would have to carry out what would likely be an illegal order. So, I don't know who he listens to. I think he probably does not get a lot of candid analysis from the secretary of defense.

I'm sure that if you were to put Admiral Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command. standing next to the president and ask him who controls the strait. Of course, he would not say it was the United States. I mean, the control of the strait is determined basically by ships, captains and insurance companies if they're willing to send their cargo laden ships to the strait or not. Right now, obviously, most of them are not.

BURNETT: All right. No, they're not. As we said, 88 yesterday versus 130 on average per day prior to February 28th.

I thank you both very much.

And next quote, "No deal". Trump's pick for attorney general in serious jeopardy tonight after one Republican says the DOJ has been radio silent when it comes to his make-or-break demand.

Plus, Trump reportedly saying RFK Jr. could be a failure if he doesn't try harder to prove a debunked link between vaccines and autism. The reporter who broke his story will be OUTFRONT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, Todd Blanche's nomination to be attorney general in serious jeopardy after the demand of two Republican senators has still not been met ahead of a key vote. One of those Republicans is Senator John Cornyn. And he tweeted, quote, "Fake news alert. There is no deal on Blanche nomination. They know what they have to do."

And Cornyn, just a couple moments ago, told our Manu Raju that he will meet with Blanche tomorrow morning over his demand, along with Senator Thom Tillis, that the Justice Department formally kill President Trump's $1.8 billion, a political slush fund, right? Money that was supposed to go to people that were supposedly, wrongfully persecuted, prosecuted by the government that could include January 6ers.

Cornyn also threatened to postpone a key Judiciary Committee vote on Blanche's nomination until that demand is met, and that vote is set for Thursday, day after tomorrow.

OUTFRONT now, Democratic Senator Cory Booker, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

And Senator Booker, okay, you know the players, you're having conversations with them. So, this whole thing could be dead, or it could be that tomorrow's morning's meeting, Blanche just said this whole thing is completely dead, it's gone, and that really goes in that direction.

Where are we? Do you think this nomination is going to fall apart or not?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): You know, look, they're looking for a deal. I think they're going to have no choice but to give it to them. I still have very low expectations of us blocking this. But I still have a lot of hope, and that's why I'm hoping more and more people will speak out about the objectionable nature of this nominee.

But right now, we're in a wait-and-see mode, but everything I can do to put pressure on the field, I'm doing it.

BURNETT: I'm also just curious because this fund, this $1.8 billion fund, early on in the Blanche nomination process, he had sort of said it was done. It was going away. and people, maybe some people believed him, but then it didn't go away, right?

So, if he comes and promises them that it's going away tomorrow, do you have any faith he'd keep the promise?

BOOKER: No, none whatsoever.

And remember, there's two parts of that horrible slush fund deal. One is a slush fund for people that beat police officers nearly to death here in this building. And then the other one is this immunity, this amnesty for any tax-cheating the president or his family members have done, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So, this is something that stinks to high hell. And if you're going to just take the word of the president on this, then you don't understand that he has the record of any president independent analyses from lying the most to the American people.

BURNETT: So, when you come into votes like this, you come into some really big decisions in front of the Senate. It matters where everybody is, okay? And Senator Mitch McConnell's presence matters. He has not spoken publicly. It's been 44 days after he's been hospitalized, and he's released two photos of himself in a hospital bed, as you know.

The Democratic governor of Kentucky has said, basically, "I'm calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky" or resign.

Do you agree with Beshear's demand at this point? And I know, of course, you have empathy for the senator and whatever he is, is going through. But do you agree with Beshear?

BOOKER: Look, I have empathy for him. I wish him the best in terms of his health, but Beshear is right that his state deserves two acting senators who can get the job done. And if this is something where he's not going to be returning to the job, or is incapacitated and unable to do the job, then he is right to demand transparency and accountability.

I think if they're hiding something, that is really undermining what the public will should be demanding.

[19:40:04]

BURNETT: Has anyone explained to you, because maybe you've talked to some of the senators who said they've spoken to Senator McConnell. Has anyone given you an answer as to why, if he's able to talk to them on the phone as they say he has, he can't post a video or call into a show or a podcast?

BOOKER: Yeah, no, none whatsoever, and that's very concerning.

BURNETT: Yeah.

All right. You just walked out of a meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Senator, and that meeting comes as Putin's under tremendous pressure economically from the drone strikes and there's been a lot -- there's been a lot of chatter and reporting about his status.

And I'm curious about what President Zelenskyy told you about Putin and how stable he thinks Putin's regime is or how big this moment is.

BOOKER: Well, you know, he came to us with humility and candor, talking about the strength and the courage of the Ukrainian people and holding off these Russian assaults by Putin. He made very specific asks of us for continued support, understanding that this president we have seems to have backed away, what is a bipartisan consensus that we should be standing with Ukraine in this fight for democracy.

But I will tell you this, you're right. Putin is showing more and more weakness as Ukrainians grow in their capacity to hit further and further into Russia. The Russian economy is in shambles and what I am hoping we do and it's being discussed right now and will be debated soon on the Senate floor is put even harsher sanctions on the Russians, to make it more and more difficult for them to conduct this war and more likely that we come to come to peace.

And the last thing you got to remember is, the Ukraine -- the Russians and the Iranians are working together. They have illicit financial agreements and in fact, we know that the Iranians have been able to sell their oil during this war to the Russians. And so, we should all be very concerned with what's going on and this president showing a very weak stance against Putin's aggression.

BURNETT: Senator Booker, I appreciate your time and thank you so much tonight.

BOOKER: Thank you very, very much.

BURNETT: And next, Trump stepping up the pressure to get RFK Jr. to prove and spend a whole lot of time investigating what is a false claim about vaccines. And the reporter who broke this story is next.

Plus, the dramatic video of a lifeguard who risked his life to rescue a child who was being pulled into the ocean by massive waves and riptide. The man who captured the video is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:45]

BURNETT: Tonight, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting President Trump confronted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his Virginia Golf Club, demanding to know why he wasn't doing more to probe the unfounded connection between childhood vaccines and autism. Now, Trump told Kennedy that the health secretary apparently has the, quote/unquote, "yips over the issue". "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Trump is telling aides that RFK Jr. will be a failure if he doesn't intensify his push to link vaccines with autism.

Now, vaccines and autism are not linked. That has been scientifically disproven.

OUTFRONT now, Liz Essley Whyte, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter who broke this story.

So, Liz, you know, it's just kind of incredible to imagine this. So, they're at the golf club, and it's Trump and RFK Jr. And there's this interaction. Can you tell us what you learned happened?

LIZ ESSLEY WHYTE, HEALTH POLICY REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, what we heard from sources is that Kennedy was taken aback because he had been told by White House aides that polling showed the vaccine actions he had taken over the past year were not popular and he needed to focus on food and agriculture and other messages that were doing better with voters and polls. And so, he was surprised that the president was talking in this manner and this has become a repeated kind of ongoing point of tension in their relationship, their otherwise good relationship.

In a mid-June meeting in the Oval Office, Trump came back to this and vented his frustration that there wasn't more being done.

BURNETT: OK, so you're saying that this keeps coming back to this. The Trump the words using these venting, that, you know, he keeps pounding the table on the specific thing between vaccines and autism. Again, this has been scientifically disproven, but why? Why is Trump spending so much time on this?

WHYTE: This is something that the president has actually been musing about and talking about for years. In the 2000s, he gave and fundraised for nonprofits that linked vaccines and autism. He posted a tweet about this back before he was president for the first time. He's long been interested and a connection here, and especially he's very fixated on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which has probably been studied the most on whether it has anything to do with autism, and it's something he just keeps coming back to.

BURNETT: Right, right. The MMR vaccine as we know that that, you know, a link has been -- has been scientifically disproven. The original paper that suggested it was scientifically deeply remiss and fraudulent. So, Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He told us today, Liz, and I told him I was going to talk to you. He told us quote in 2025 we had more measles cases than we've had in more than 30 years. We had the first child deaths for measles in this country since 2003.

We've seen in whooping cough, tetanus, and flu deaths among children. This is all because people are choosing not to vaccinate their children. I mean, this is a stunning thing. It's all preventable.

Trump obviously seems OK with this. Do you get the sense that he understands what's happening?

[19:50:00]

WHYTE: We know that in the first Trump administration the president had advisors who, when he would kind of go down this path, they would steer him away and say, that's not really the case, that's not what the science shows. Those same people are not in his ear anymore. And so, I don't think he's necessarily thinking about, you know, what are some third-order consequences of changing the vaccine schedule.

He's very interested in You know, putting all the chips on the table to see whether he can see autism rates drop if he changes the vaccine schedule, which is, you know, alarming to scientists.

BURNETT: Very alarming because if you want vaccine, I'm sorry autism levels to drop. You'd want to try to figure out something that could cause him to drop in a vaccine that's not related autism wouldn't be the way.

All right. Liz, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Really incredible reporting.

WHYTE: Thanks for having me.

BURNETT: And next, a lifeguard being hailed a hero tonight after saving a boy who was getting dragged out to sea. The man who captured that video is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:08]

BURNETT: Tonight, a life miraculously saved and the rescue all caught on camera. A brave 16-year-old lifeguard, you see him here, fearlessly battled monster waves in Santa Cruz, California, saving a young boy's life. The teen dove into the churning and foaming brakes and grabbed onto the 10-year-old boy.

And then the lifeguard held on, even as the pair were crushed and held under the waves by both the brakes and the current. So, the lifeguard fights his way towards shore. That's when another lifeguard was finally able to jump in to help. They got the 10-year-old child to shore and saved his life.

OUTFRONT now, Scott Vander Dussen, the man who filmed this, captured this entire rescue on video.

And Scott, for you, this was something you do every day, as in walk along this beach. But then suddenly, you pull out your phone. When did you first notice something had gone horribly wrong?

SCOTT VANDER DUSSEN, CAPTURED VIDEO OF LIFEGUARD SAVING A 10-YEAR-OLD: Yeah, that's right. Erin, thanks for having me on. I live right here on the beach and I'm a bit of a hobbyist and photography, so it's actually a full-size professional camera that I had and that's what allowed me to get the shots. I was a ways away as about 200 yards out.

And that was a normal -- normal day, normal cadence of waves and a sneaker wave came in and just the sound of it crashing. Maybe look up and the foam that was left behind was white and I could see this white dot that was a young man's head just getting pulled, sucked right back out to the ocean. And so, my first thought was safety. I ran to the closest lifeguard tower. Another gentleman saw the same thing and so we both arrived at the same time to alert the lifeguard.

He then radioed a closer tower who was already alerted, already saw the situation and that was the lifeguard that we see responding. He was already in route to help the young man. So that's when I turned my camera on, pointed at the action and captured the rescue.

BURNETT: Now, you know, when you talk about running to the lifeguard tower and they radio to the other one and that they said, well look, there's someone's already on his way and that someone was a 16-year- old lifeguard who you actually know personally. You say this is his first year lifeguarding.

Now I want to point out you just told me a moment ago before -- before we started talking that You couldn't tell from a distance that you knew him, right, at that. So, at the moment that you're filming, you don't know that you know this lifeguard. But can you tell us about him? I mean, it's just incredible. This is the first year that he's been a lifeguard.

VANDER BUSSEN: Yeah, correct. I do get to know the lifeguard just by walking -- walking by. I got to know this particular gentleman after the incident, and I know that he's a water polo player, that he's a surfer. He is his first year, he's 16 years old. Rookie there in the lifeguards, but lots of training and he did phenomenal in the water.

It's impressive to see. You know the moments that he's not moving at all. The current rip currents going back and it's fighting against him. If he had expended any energy trying to go back towards shore, that would have been wasted and futile. He knew when to stand, how to let the waves break over him by leaning into them and then when to take that opportunity to make forward progress towards the shore.

BURNETT: And you do see him there as you as you put that description on it when he stands and when he does try to go under that, that incoming follow on wave.

Was there a moment as you're watching this Scott that you thought that this was going to have a terrible and tragic end? VANDER DUSSEN: Oh, absolutely. When I first saw the young boy being pulled out, I didn't know if a rescue be possible and the lifeguard just fearlessly charged into those giant waves. Unfortunately, the first couple seconds of that was missed because we were still talking to the lifeguard hut that was next to us and the video.

But, yeah, he just charged right in there and even looking through the viewfinder and seeing the lifeguards pulling him back onto shore. The body is limp, but he's lethargic. There's no energy in there.

I didn't know how it turned out until they got him on shore. You can hear the bystanders clapping. And I came in closer, and I was able to see that the young victim was sitting upright under his own strength, and then communicating with the lifeguards who had just rescued him.

BURNETT: And you talk about that moment, the emotion on the beach, and we can hear it here, that people are clapping, that people obviously gathered during this to watch I'm sure everybody with bated breath.

What was the emotion like, just with a group of human beings who had just witnessed something miraculous?

VANDER BUSSEN: Absolutely, you know, like I said, I'm out there frequently and I see interactions with lifeguards, but this was the most dramatic interaction I had ever seen. The most dramatic rescue.

BURNETT: Scott, thanks for joining us.

VANDER BUSSEN: My pleasure.

BURNETT: Thanks so much to all of you for being with us, too.

"AC360" starts now.