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ICE Agents Involved In Fatal Shootings In Maine, Texas Weren't Wearing Body Cameras; Sen. Collins Says ICE Shooting Raises "Critical Questions"; White House Touts Price Dips Across Best Inflation Report in 6 Years; Tomorrow: Confirmation Hearing For Trump's AG Nominee Todd Blanche. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 14, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- those on their person.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Can I just ask you a question on that before I let you go? Is my memory correct that after Alex Pretti was killed, that then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the practice would be to have agents wearing body cams?

ALVAREZ: That's exactly right. She had pledged at the time that they would distribute them nationally. That process has been ongoing, but it has been slow. And so there are multiple regions across the country who do not have the agents, do not have those body-worn cameras.

In addition to that, Dana, I will add that the fiscal year 2026 money that was sent by Congress to ICE included $20 million for body-worn cameras. So now they have the resources. The department says the shutdown slowed them down, but officials also tell me this has just been a slow process in getting them out.

BASH: Yes, the shutdown happened, but ICE and law enforcement who deal with Border Patrol and internal surveillance, they have a ton of money, and they had a ton of money, which we'll talk about.

Thank you for that excellent reporting, Priscilla. I really appreciate it.

Back here at the table. Just talking about May 1st, 26 years old, from Colombia, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, he was authorized to work in the U.S., had a Social Security number, according to Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition groups. And he is a father, a partner. Susan Collins, Republican senator from Maine, who is, as we have been talking about almost daily here, up for re-election in a very, very tough environment for her as an incumbent Republican in a blue state, said this on a social media post at 11.40 a.m.

"While the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops." And according to this reporting from Priscilla, that looks like that is going to happen for now.

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yes, and as it affects the senator's race for re-election, I was struck at how quickly every Democrat who's now running to replace Graham Platner embraced the protests and repeated calls to abolish ICE. And Maine is a state that voted against Donald Trump in 2024. He's less popular than he was now.

The entire Democratic plan there, which was complicated for several months by Platner, is just to make it a referendum on continuing the Trump administration. I think it's notable. Also, Collins has an add- up today, noting that she voted against the One Big Beautiful bill, which included plussed up ICE funding.

I don't think that terribly complicates what Democrats are going to try to do there. But this freezes and refocuses that discussion. This is more than politics going on here. I do wonder, outside of Maine and Democratic primaries, one answer for establishment or I should say incumbent Democrats, establishment at this point is pejorative, about what they've been doing is, well, we've been trying to fight the administration.

At least we got body cameras. We've gotten some compromises --

BASH: Exactly.

WEIGEL: - in these negotiations. If you're a left-wing candidate, I reiterate probably today that I want to abolish ICE and any sort of compromise negotiation with Republicans doesn't work.

BASH: Well, true, and I want you to speak to this. This is a policy that --

WEIGEL: Yes.

BASH: -- DHS said that they would change. It was not a mandate codified into any law or string attached to any funding. Why is that? Because there were real ongoing bipartisan negotiations after Alex Pretti. And the Democrats, from Democrats I talked to, said that they got a lot of what they wanted. They did not get masks.

The Republicans and the White House wouldn't compromise on that. So they were left with nothing. And here we are. So it is not the law of the land that these body cams are on there.

And just quickly, as I bring you in to talk about those numbers, that One Big Beautiful Bill, 60 -- excuse me, $75 billion was passed to go to ICE. $38 billion in June of 2026 for the regular funding package. So the idea that they're saying, well, it was just -- it was delayed because of the shutdown, I mean, come on.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think two things are happening here. The administration could have been more proactive about getting those body cameras distributed. But the other side of this is a very important point that you made, which is that Democrats and Republicans were at the negotiating table, were trying to find a compromise. I think everyone in the Senate was really motivated and moved after the shooting of Alex Pretti to take charge. And yet I think Democrats viewed that moment as one in which they had so much political capital that they wanted every single thing that they had asked for. And when they didn't get it, which is traditionally not how a negotiation works, they walked away from the negotiating table in what could have been a pretty broad bipartisan effort to rein in the way that ICE was conducting these raids.

[12:35:07]

BASH: That's a charitable way to put it. The more cynical way to put it is that it gives them everything to run on --

FOX: Yes.

BASH: -- politically in these midterms. And, you know, in the short term, what happened is this 26-year-old who is legally in the United States from Colombia is dead without a mandate for a body camera or who knows what else could have been mandated and perhaps a better path to justice, if nothing else.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Well, and the fact that Homeland Security is now reversing its policy, changing its policy, scaling back vehicle stops, according to Priscilla's reporting, that is a sign that they realize there's a problem. That this is heating up again. Just like it heated up in January.

They were under incredible pressure from the public and they promised they would do some things. They would, you know, they would calm things down. Markwayne Mullin was brought in and his mandate was not to reduce the number of deportations. His mandate was still mass deportation. But to do it with sort of a cooler, calmer temperature, with less show. And this was getting hot. And so you see this policy announcement.

BASH: All right. We're going to have to sneak in a quick break.

Up next, inflation sees its biggest monthly dip in six years. Why the Iran war could make it temporary. Stay with us.

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[12:41:14]

BASH: Moments ago, the President was touting that best inflation report in six years since the pandemic first began. Prices fell slightly between May and June, thanks to falling gas prices. White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett insists everything else is coming down to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: If you zoom in, then you see things like auto insurance costs are way down in part because law enforcement has picked up. You know, there aren't so many people having their cars stolen and so on because of bringing order to the streets.

We see food prices doing a great job. Tomato prices down 10 percent. You know, across the board, drug prices, the biggest decline in drug prices ever, all the way back to World War II because of President Trump's policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK, so what is the full story? Dave Goldman is there. You see him with the tomato, which I will tell you a little behind the scenes information for our viewers. Dave Goldman just drew that tomato during the break.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, it's --

BASH: And that is very impressive. Not only can you draw, you can explain the economy to us.

GOLDMAN: That's right. Take that, Harry Enten. Let's see you do that. You know, there's a debate in the newsroom if it's an apple or a tomato, but we'll go with it. I mean, I think that what Kevin Hassett just said is really interesting, though, Dana, because he said if you zoom in, right, but that's not how people experience the economy.

They experience it in its totality. And he is right, tomato prices fell 10 percent in the past month. But over the past year, they're up almost 20 percent, right? And so prices are rising overall. And that's why these things are really expensive.

He also talked about insurance. Well, yes, yes. Over the past year, car insurance is down 4 percent, but it was up 46 percent over the course of '22 to '24. So, you know, it depends on how you look at it. And that, I think, is really important when we're looking at the headline number, because we gained 3.5 percent over the past year. It was the biggest monthly decline since the pandemic.

It was actually the only monthly decline that we've had since the pandemic. But if you pull out just a little bit, what happened? It was almost all energy prices, right? Energy prices, we know, tumbled last month because gas and oil prices fell as the Strait of Hormuz opened up again.

But what's going on with oil prices today? They're up another 2 percent. And because of everything that's been going on in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran, we are now back up to $84, almost $85. Remember, we were at $71 a barrel not so long ago, just at the beginning of the month. So certainly a huge increase in oil.

Actually, oil is up 21 percent this month alone. Gas futures are up 12 percent, and that could mean that we'll have higher prices at the pump. So, all of this is really, really important context as were talking about prices, Dana.

BASH: Such important context. I didn't realize that the car insurance, obviously, I knew it was expensive, but that it had gone up that much.

GOLDMAN: A lot.

BASH: But things going down is always a good thing going in the right direction, so --

GOLDMAN: We'll take it.

BASH: -- let's see. We'll continue to monitor it. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

BASH: And coming up on the eve of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, Jeffrey Epstein's survivors are making a last minute push to sink his nomination for attorney general. Will they sway votes?

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[12:49:37]

BASH: Tomorrow, Todd Blanche has a job interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee. And if he wants to lose the acting title and officially become attorney general, he will need to win over every Republican on the committee. And there are at least a couple of skeptics. One of them is Senator John Cornyn.

He has some questions about a judge's ruling just yesterday that we brought you here as it was breaking, that Blanche might have violated ethics rules when he agreed to set up President Trump's now-aborted $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, what do you think about Todd Blanche ahead of his confirmation hearing on Wednesday?

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: Well, he's got -- today, he's got a few more questions to answer after the judge's decision today.

It certainly is another area that I plan to ask about, and I'm certainly not making any commitments until after the hearing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:30]

BASH: The other GOP senator to watch is Thom Tillis, who says he has worries about DOJ independence. A single Republican no-vote in committee could derail the nomination.

And my panel is back here now. Look, this is a man, Todd Blanche, who I'm sure our viewers all remember, was President Trump's personal attorney, came in as the deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi, has been acting attorney general since she left. And his entire M.O. there has been to work as somebody in service of what the President wants, which, again, put this in the -- this-is-not-normal category. It's a long one, but this is a big one, because historically, the way it's supposed to work is the Justice Department is supposed to be independent of, quote unquote, "politics." Just some examples. As acting A.G., he agreed to this $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, which he says is no longer happening, ban on Trump tax audits, indictments of James Comey and the Southern Poverty Law Center, rollback of gun control measures, and just more recently, subpoenas to journalists in a leak investigation.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, and not only has he done all that, he's also President Trump's former personal lawyer. He was a massive figure in those Trump cases before the President was reelected. I think it's clear that there is going to be institutional concern about Blanche's role in the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can't look at the histories of everybody on that committee and not conclude that.

The question is, are any of them willing to pay the political price that would be required to stand up and raise questions about his nomination? That's what makes Senator Tillis and Senator Cornyn so interesting, because they have, for their own political reasons, incentives to go against the administration. And they also know that if they vote for him, whatever happens going forward, that is going to be something that's going to be on their record in their final few months as senators.

So it's a very interesting dynamic, but, you know, it gets to the core question, as you were saying about this administration, is does Congress really offer any oversight into the Trump White House?

BASH: Yes. And specially -- I didn't mention it, but I think it was maybe understood. If not, I'll say it. Senator Cornyn is not going to come back next year. He was defeated in his Republican primary because the President endorsed his GOP opponent. Thom Tillis is retiring, largely because he can't stand being in the Senate because of the way that the President behaves, and probably other reasons.

And I want to play something from March, when Todd Blanche went before CPAC. Just, by the way, appearing before a political convention like that was maybe not unprecedented, but unusual, period. And then he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: President Trump, for the first time in modern history, has said, I am the President, and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me. And guess what? We can all read the Constitution. He's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIGEL: Great. That is -- I think it was said very well just now. That is something that some Republicans are now free to criticize, that John Cornyn does not have any fear of leverage in the administration. Thom Tillis doesn't have any fear of leverage. What are they going to do to people who are retiring, who are not going to work in Republican politics again, if they decide to stand here?

There is, I guess, some concern, if you're John Cornyn, if you're Thom Tillis, about how Democrats could make use of the Blanche issue. Both Roy Cooper and James Talarico, very comfortable talking about corruption, talking about there needs to be some sort of resistance to the President getting whatever he wants from Congress.

So how much do they want to enable Democrats, because we're deep into campaign season at this point? Democrats are going to use this hearing and anything else they can get to get back to their corruption message. Cornyn does, you heard it from those clips, but he's been very limber since he lost his primary about criticizing this side of the administration at least.

[12:55:01]

BASH: And Thom Tillis just told our colleague Manu Raju that he is going to make sure that Blanche promises, and a much more overt way that this anti-weaponization fund won't go forward. There's something else that I really want to get to, and that is the Epstein survivors, who are coalescing around the idea and lobbying against Todd Blanche to become attorney general formally. Because they say that he released their personal information, when the files were released, and they just simply do not think that he acted appropriately from the beginning of his term as deputy attorney general.

Pam Bondi, when she came to Congress to talk to the Epstein committee, said that he was in charge of it.

FOX: Yes, I think that that is an argument that a lot of Democrats are probably going to bring up on the committee. I'll be interested to see whether or not it's something that Senator Cornyn or Senator Tillis addresses. So far, they've really made their issues known on the weaponization fund and the IRS issue.

But it obviously is one of perhaps the most human and compelling pieces of what's going to transpire later this week, when he comes before this committee, because it is an issue that for a lot of Republicans in Congress, they recognize mobilizes their base, right? And so I think it'll be interesting to watch whether or not that moves any of them to this point. It has not been the major topic.

BASH: Ten seconds.

KEITH: Blanche is Trump's guy. Trump wants Blanche. And he's going to do everything he can to apply incredible pressure if there's any whiff that he wouldn't clear the Senate.

BASH: Yes, that's a very important point.

All right, thank you all for joining us today on Inside Politics. CNN News Central will start after a quick break.

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