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Inside Politics

Texas Officials Dodge Questions About Flooding Response; 108 People Confirmed Dead In Central Texas Floods; Official: 5 Camp Mystic Campers, 1 Counselor Still Missing; Trump Takes Reporter Questions During Cabinet Meeting. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A lot of helicopters up there, but they were real pros and they were responsible for pulling out a lot of people. And we got them there fast and they -- Texas has some good ones too. But the response has been incredible and the fact that we got on so well.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, SITUATION ROOM: We're going to continue to monitor this cabinet meeting with president and Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary, speaking very emotionally about her experiences on the ground in Texas. We'll continue to monitor this. We'll stay on top of this story. We're not going very far away.

Thanks very much for joining us this morning. Inside Politics with Dana Bash is coming up right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today in Inside Politics, a milestone of the worst kind. The number of dead in Texas, floods, eclipses, one hundred families grappling with immeasurable loss. Search for reasons why this happened and could anything have been done to save their loved ones.

Plus, a made for TV moment. The president touted as a peacemaker while he defies his MAGA base by sending weapons to fuel a far-flung war. And the calendar reads July 8, 2025, but the California governor's travels today sent a message about 2028.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We begin the hour with questions asked and not yet answered. Communities in Texas are broken by flooding and the one hundred plus lives that it took. First responders are still in the middle of a grueling task, searching for the bodies of friends and family taken by the historic and horrifying flooding. But there is also a struggle to explain to their neighbors, to their friends, to their loved ones, how things went so sideways so quickly.

Listen to here to my colleague, Shimon Prokupecz at a news conference with Kerr County officials, asking who was watching the weather signals? Who was responsible for sounding the alarm that chaos was coming?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not emergency management, though, right? The sheriff is not EOC?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. There is no --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we understand you have many questions. Hang on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I understand, but you're going to go, you're not going to answer the question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I want to now bring in CNN's Shimon Prokupecz who you heard asking questions there. Shimon, you have spent a lot of time in Texas, asking questions about tragedies. Obviously, you spent months and months, even longer than that in Uvalde, a very different kind of tragedy than what we're seeing right now. That was a gunman. This is mother nature.

But the answers that people want are very similar, and that is what happened, is there accountability? It is also understandable that you still -- you see the Guadalupe River behind you, Shimon. It is still relatively early after this tragedy began, and that there is still a recovery effort going on. The balance is important, but the questions are still there.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, the balance is important. And no one goes into these press conferences, trying to disrespect the work of law enforcement, the emergency workers. This is really difficult work. And keep in mind, you know, they're dealing with dead bodies. They're dealing with dead children. It's horrific. And so, that is all very understandable, and no one wants to disrespect that process.

But the bottom line is there are some questions here that need to be answered about how well the county and the city were prepared for this event? And how well experienced are they the people that are in the decision-making seat? The people that are sitting at the table at city hall, at the government here. How experienced are they to make a decision when there are warning signs of a potential life-threatening storm, life threatening weather that's moving through the area?

Are they experienced enough to make the decision to say, let's go. We need to evacuate these areas, or at least we need to go tell people you may want to leave. That's a heavy burden on someone and it's a big responsibility.

You know, I live in New York City. You live in Washington, D.C. Anytime there's some kind of a weather event, not only are we getting alerts on our phones, but city officials are out there saying, hey, this is coming. This is coming. Be warned. And if they can't reach certain communities, they go, they send the sheriff. They send the city police to the areas to let them know.

So that's what we're trying to figure out. We're trying to figure out who was sitting in that position at the time to make these decisions. And so, here's more, Dana, of my exchange with the city officials here, some of the government officials trying to figure out who exactly was in charge here.

[12:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who runs the Emergency Operations Center?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a communication center, a dispatch, OK. We have a communication center. That's where the calls actually go with the police department, then they're forwarded to us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But leading up to this, in monitoring the weather, there is -- in any large city, in any state, there's an Office of Emergency Management, that is monitoring the weather. That is watching and listening and getting briefings. Who was getting those briefings in this city, in this county? Who was receiving that information and who would have ultimately made the decision to evacuate, hearing what was coming in from the weather service in Oakland?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, we would have done when we get notified. OK, I'm going to tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not emergency management, right? The sheriff's not EOC?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. There is no -- I mean, as the city. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we understand, you have many questions. Hang on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I understand, but you're going to go, you're not going to answer the question because that's up to the city manager and the mayor to answer the county emergency

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. We understand, you have many questions. We understand that. But right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home. That's our focus. All those questions will be answered, but the priority right now is bringing people home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We totally understand that, and we value the incredible work that's being done by those first responders. We're seeing them out there muddy and sweaty and grinding it out day after day, but your community is asking these questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we will have -- we will get answers.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, all of our resources are focused to recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is -- who was in-charge of the Emergency Operations Center at the time that was getting angry -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And Dana, how this works in Texas? It's usually up to the county judge. There is a county judge who sort of oversees so much of the decisions and the emergency operations decisions. That county judge has not been at the press conference. He was not there today. I think he was in some of the briefings earlier -- in the days earlier but certainly was not there today.

And you heard their officials saying that there is no -- as far as he knows, there's no Emergency Operations Center here in the city here. And the fact that someone in the city would be making those decisions. That's according, I believe that was the sheriff speaking. But obviously, then it falls on the county, right?

And that's some of what our reporting has shown that a lot of the decision making here would have been on the county. But still, the other thing, still like -- what's so interesting here, is that you have the sheriff there who said the first time that he knew something was wrong, was around 4 am.

And then the city manager for Kerrville realizes that something is wrong when he goes for a run at three in the morning, and by the time he gets home, he sees the water start to rise, and he realizes, oh, man, this is going to be a problem. So obviously, Dana, there's a lot a lot of questions here about who was in charge, who was in a position to make potentially life-saving decisions.

BASH: If there's anybody who can get the answers to those questions, it's you, Shimon. Thank you for popping up with us. And again, I just want to emphasize and underscore what you and the fellow reporters at that press conference were also underscoring that this is in no way suggesting that there is not massive grief going on there but part of grief is getting answers, and that is what the job is of you and our colleagues there on the ground. Shimon, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And staying in Texas, I do want to bring in Eleanor Klibanoff. She is a law and politics reporter for The Texas Tribune. Eleanor, you visited Kerrville this week after the floods happened. First and foremost, the damage that you saw. Tell us about that and just your conversations with the community affected.

ELEANOR KLIBANOFF, LAW & POLITICS REPORTER, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE: You know, the damage is almost hard to describe in words. It's hard to imagine that water did this, right? I mean, you see trailers not just crashed into each other, but the metal siding ripped off of them, cars, you know, turned over, trees uprooted and a scale that -- I mean, it looks more like a tornado scene than a flood. It's really horrific.

And people who have lost everything, people who have lost their homes, their possessions, their pets, their, you know, describing themselves as the lucky ones because they survived is really staggering to see. It's quite something.

BASH: And what about the questions that you as a reporter, just like Shimon down there, are starting to ask about the timeline. I guess maybe the best way to ask you the question is, what did you hear being asked from the community there directly affected. What do they most want to know?

[12:10:00]

KLIBANOFF: Absolutely. I mean, I think one of the things that struck me is all the variation of stories you heard from people about what they heard and when. How they came upon this information. You know, some people never, you know, say that they never received any alerts on their -- others received the alerts, but were asleep.

Others said, you know, in some of the outlying community, someone, you know, a deputy came and knocked on their door. They were trying to evacuate people. So, you're hearing this real scale of different levels of response and different barriers to people receiving that response and that feedback or that information about what was happening.

And so, I think people really want to know that going forward, there will be sort of more certainty that they will know something like this is going to happen and be able to make decisions for themselves.

BASH: Yeah. So, these are local communities that you're describing, local officials who, in many cases are -- most cases, I would say, just doing the best they can with such an unbelievable event as the floods that you described. I do want to ask you about the preparation for this kind of an emergency at the state level. Listen to what the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said about what he wants done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): It's clear that one thing that could help in the future, it would seem, no matter what other redundancies we have, are sirens that could blast very loudly. And if the cities can't afford to do it, then we'll step in the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Your colleagues at The Texas Tribune have been reporting though, that there was a bill that included a plan for an outdoor warning siren system. It failed in the state House just this past April. Why is it so difficult to get these investments approved in Texas, where -- depending on where you are in the state, whether it's there and the hill country, which is obviously known for historic flooding, or more, at the coast, where you have hurricanes. What is your sense in talking to lawmakers about why it's so hard to do this?

KLIBANOFF: You know, Texas is a state that, you know, has a surplus in the last couple of legislative sessions, has had a budget surplus larger than the budget of some states. The money is there to do sort of whatever lawmakers feel like is a necessary use of that money. But it's also a very conservative state. It's a very conservative state legislature.

They pass a conservative budget. It's hard to push things through that are going to cost more money. You know that bill that you discussed House Bill 13, faced a lot of push back from certain, you know, members of the legislature about the price tag, about, you know, $500 million.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has said, you know, there are concerns about the bill. It would take, you know, 10 years to implement, and obviously, would not have been in effect for this flood. But, you know, the legislature is a pretty reactive body, right?

I mean, we saw this after Hurricane Harvey. They passed billions for hurricane management, flood mitigation after Hurricane Harvey. I think we're going to expect to see sort of similar reactivity here, where something will pass, leaving people wondering, you know, if you could pass it now, why didn't you pass it before?

BASH: Yeah. Political will is a funny thing in the face of tragedies. I do want to ask about some of the pushback that we are seeing and hearing on the more local level. Former Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser told CNN about an effort -- about a decade ago to get a siren alert system in place after a separate deadly flood there. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM MOSER, FORMER KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONER: There was objection by some people that have false alarms by sirens. Sirens were going to be very disruptive to a lot of people for false alarms. So that was taken out of the first indicate -- first phase of such a program. It was, you know, not a large amount of money, like a million dollars to do the system, probably without the sirens, little bit more than that, if we'd had the sirens in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK. So, a million dollars on a that local of a level, is not nothing. I mean, that's a lot of money. And so again, it begs the question, and my colleague Shimon Prokupecz who you heard right before you came on, has talked about his experience in learning about how the Texas government systems work, in covering Uvalde in that it is very disparate. The local governments have a lot of power over things, even including basic systems of public safety.

KLIBANOFF: Right. And, I mean, you know, the Houston Chronicle also reported that they the county did try to get some state funding for that, ran into issues getting state funding. You know, it's a lot of times, and I heard this from county judges on a lot of issues. You know, it's, go find your own money. Go ask your taxpayers. Go ask the state. If they say, no, you're kind of out of luck.

[12:15:00]

I mean, they are not generally having the budgets to do major scale, infrastructure improvements on their own. And there's a lot of needs. And so, you know, I think this funding for many people there feel should have come from the state. Needed to come from the state, a million dollar aim as a million dollars to Kerr County.

BASH: Yeah, that's exactly right. Eleanor Klibanoff, thank you so much for being here and sharing your reporting with us. Appreciate all your work.

KLIBANOFF: Thank you.

BASH: And right now, President Trump is hosting a cabinet meeting. We'll tell you what he has to say about a tariff threat and if he plans to follow through, big if. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: President is taking questions from reporters during his cabinet meeting. Let's listen.

TRUMP: Yeah. I'm looking at -- it's an optional bill. It's totally at my option. They pass it totally at my option and to terminate totally at my option. And I'm looking at it very strongly.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Council of Economic Advisers released a new report saying that imported goods have actually decreased in price from December -- well, my question with --

TRUMP: With the tariffs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, the Fed chairman keeps saying that tariffs are going to cause price increases. Are the prices just not pass through --

TRUMP: Chairman of the Fed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly. Are the prices --

TRUMP: We do a better job for --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the prices just not passed through yet?

TRUMP: No, I think what's happening is everything's evening out. You know, when we charge -- see what people don't understand. The other countries have been charged. Almost every country charges us tariffs. We had deficits with everybody for years, for decades, and we were like this big monolith that made bad deals with everybody.

You know, we rebuilt South Korea. We stayed there. It's OK. We rebuilt it and we stayed there, and they pay us very little for the military. I got them to pay billions of dollars, and Biden then canceled it when he came in. You know, I said to South Korea as an example, you know, we give you free military essentially, very little. And I think you should pay us $10 billion a year. And they went crazy, but they agreed to three.

So, I got three with a phone call, and I was satisfied. I said, but next year, we have to talk. And then we had a rigged election, and we never got to talk. And you know what Biden did? They probably went to him, and they said, listen, Trump treated us terribly and we shouldn't be paying anything, and he cut it down to nothing. So that's what happens. It's ridiculous. That's the other thing.

We're talking to countries about contributing to the military. Not only just paying more in NATO but contributing. You know, we have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in Germany, 52,000 actually. And you know, that's a huge economic development for them. That's tremendous amount. That's like having a city that's tremendous money for them, and it's a tremendous loss for us.

So, we're talking in a very nice way. We're talking to them about it. It's very unfair. We supply the militaries to many very successful country. I mean, South Korea is making a lot of money and they're very good. They're very good. But you know, they should be paying for their own military.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, I ask you a question about Jerome Powell as well, and then the question to the attorney general --

TRUMP: The question on what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerome Powell. And then I have a question for the attorney general. Jerome Powell, who you've been pressuring to lower interest rates. He's facing accusations of lying to Congress, which is a potential crime about the --

TRUMP: He should resign immediately. We should get somebody in there that's going to lower interest rates. Why don't you go for his resignation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want congressional Republicans to investigate and proceed --

TRUMP: It's OK with me. I think he's terrible. I think, look, we're paying -- I call him too late, too, too late, like too tall Jones for the Dallas Cowboys. Too late. He's always late, but he wasn't late with Biden before the election. He was cutting them like crazy. It didn't help too much, did it? But he was cutting them like crazy. Before the election with Kamala and Biden, he was trying to get them in, I guess. I don't know. He was recommended by somebody that worked for me. I like you better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask attorney general the questions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your memo and release yesterday in Jeffrey Epstein, it left some lingering mysteries of one of the biggest ones is whether he ever worked for a American or foreign intelligence agency, the former labor secretary who was Miami, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. He allegedly said that he did work for an intelligence agency. So, could you resolve whether or not he did, and also, can you say why there was a minute missing from the jailhouse tape?

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yeah, sure.

TRUMP: Can I just interrupt --

BONDI: Sure.

TRUMP: Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy has been talked about for years. You're asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time, and do you feel like answering?

BONDI: I don't mind answering.

TRUMP: I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration, but you go ahead.

[12:25:00]

BONDI: Sure, sure. First to back up on that. In February, I did an interview on Fox, and it's been getting a lot of attention because I said, I was asked a question about the client list. And my response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed, meaning the file along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That's what I meant by that.

Also, to the tens of thousands of video, they turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Child porn is what they were, never going to be released, never going to see the light of day. To him being an agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that. And the minute missing from the video, we released the video showing definitively -- the video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide.

And what was on that there was a minute that was off the counter. And what we learned from Bureau of Prisons was, every year -- every night, they redo that video is old from like 1999. So, every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing. So, we're looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night. And that's it on Epstein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the tariffs, August 1, you said, is the deadline. What incentives do countries have to negotiate? It seems that deadline keeps moving, April 2 now.

TRUMP: We didn't move down. It's always been August 1, that's what I'm paying it. A statement was being put out today, and I put it out just to make it clear, it wasn't a change. It was August 1. We don't change very much. You know, every time we put out a statement, they say, he made a change. I didn't make a change. Clarification, maybe no. You know, August 1 they pay, and everybody pays. Everybody has to pay. And the incentive is that they have the right to deal in the United States. If they don't want to, they don't have to pay, and they don't have to deal here. But if they want to buy and make a lot of money and sell in the United States, they have to do that.

You know, if you go back and look at some of the good presidents, our country was the wealthiest, proportionately, the wealthiest from 1870 to 1913. It was an all-tariff country. We didn't have income tax that came due in '19 -- they came in in 1913 with tariffs. And we had so much money, we didn't know what to do with it.

We had -- I mean, we had a couple of presidents that were very, very strong. McKinley, I guess, more than anybody, but he was the tariff king. But he was very, very strong as so to say it. He made a fortune for this country, became very rich. And then Teddy Roosevelt went out and vice president, and he spent the money. And they said Roosevelt was a great president. And let's say he was a great president, but the money was paid by McKinley with tariffs.

Tariffs are charged by other countries at levels that are ridiculous. And, you know, I call those other countries, and every one of them is willing to give us everything. Now, by the way, just so, you know, sir, we'll charge you, no tariffs, nothing. We'll give you everything. We'll give you access to our markets. We'll give you everything. Is that a correct statement, Scott?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

TRUMP: Howard, would you say that's a correct statement?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly correct.

TRUMP: It's like they just don't -- because they're very spoiled, because for years, they ripped us off and we didn't have a president that understood it, or secretary of treasury, or secretary of -- a lot of different secretaries are involved, but certainly commerce secretary was, you know, not doing their job.

I don't know about Kelly. She's small business. We will keep it that way, OK. Her small business is bigger than almost all big businesses. But no, they are very respectful of our country, but the incentive is that they have the right to do business with us. Without that they don't have the right to do business and that will be OK too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the next 24 hours, will be here a flurry of deals --

TRUMP: Yeah, we have a lot of them going out, but the deals are mostly my deal to them. We're picking a number that's low. We don't want to hurt that and fair. We're picking a number that's lower than, in most cases, lower than what they charged us. But it's amazing when you've paid all this money for years, and they get one president that's a little bit different and a little tougher on this subject. And they're willing to drop everything they've been charging us for years and years. I mean, we have countries going we will have -- no, you don't have to pay any tariff to come in and do business. They're giving us total access to their countries. They'll gave us no access to the country. They say, you cannot go into -- OK, good.

Now it's -- we will give you total access, and you don't have to pay any tariffs, but please don't judge us tariffs. And we don't like that deal. So, the letters I send out are -- we have made some -- because we can make a lot more deals. It's just too time consuming. It's just makes it more complicated. And we can do things over the years too.

[12:30:00]