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Border Czar: ICE Vetting "Under Review" After Fatal Maine Shooting; More Measles Cases In Last 18 Months Than Previous 25 Years; Cassidy: CDC Vaccine Misinfo "Wrong For The Mom And Dad Trying To Make The Right Choice"; Jeffries Hammers "Affordability Crisis" In PA Swing District; Bob Brooks Attracts Broad Dem Coalition In Key PA District. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 27, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:33]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: ICE is reviewing the deadly shooting of a Colombian citizen in Maine by ICE officers. Court documents revealed one of the officers connected with the shooting was accused of abuse by two ex-wives. One of them told CNN the officer always displayed violent behavior and that if anything ever happened to her, look at him. The officer denied the allegations.

But the allegations raised questions about the ICE vetting process, something I asked Border Czar Tom Homan about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Should someone with those issues be an ICE agent?

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: No, if those are facts, I don't think he should ever cleared vetting. You know, when they hire somebody, put them through a vetting process and look at all that stuff, so I know based on that information, that's part of the ongoing investigation. You know, did the vetting process fail? Was that information not available? Did they not know?

So there's a separate administrative investigation on what happened here. Did we have that information? Did we not have information? But vetting process, if that was factual, he would have an almost impossible time to pass vetting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. This whole question about how well officers were vetted as ICE and law enforcement in general, Border Patrol, ramped up dramatically when President Trump took office has been out there for a while. To hear him talk about the vetting process and that someone with these allegations, again, which he denies shouldn't have been allowed through was noteworthy.

I mean, you know Tom Homan quite well.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, the concerns here date back to last year when there was a massive hiring push, so massive, Dana, that they were offering signing bonuses to people where local law enforcement was getting angry with ICE because ICE was trying to pluck their officers to join their ranks.

And so, the sources I had been talking to had been sharing concerns that the speedy hiring push was leading to cut corners, that was leading to minimal background checks. And at the time, there was a premium of demand on former and current law enforcement officers as well because they could go through the training far more quickly. And all of this was to achieve a number of agents to join ICE.

And so, in this case, what Tom Homan is addressing is your question about the allegations of this particular officer. And it is worth noting, Dana, all of this is in court records. This isn't just based off interviews with people who know this individual, but rather it is court records that show that he suffered lingering cognitive issues from a serious head injury, that there were abuse allegations from his ex-wives, which he disputed again in these court records. But all of this was there.

So the question has been among current and former ICE officials, if it was all documented, why did no one take a look at that? And that comes down to the core question that Tom Homan also addressed is, was there a vetting failure in this case? And then this opens the question of, is there vetting failures in other cases as well? Because we know from our reporting that there was minimal background checks at the time.

There were also changes to training, which have since been changed back under Secretary Markwayne Mullin. But that's also something that Tom Homan addressed, that he wants there to be additional training and he thinks that's a normal course of action here. So there is a revisiting of what happened last year that is happening behind the scenes.

BASH: Yes. Body cameras. There were no body cameras on the officers who were involved in the fatal shooting in Maine last week. But it is something that Tom Homan wants to, as a policy, make sure that law enforcement who are involved in these immigration arrests and raids have to a person. What's the status of that?

ALVAREZ: Well, the current update to that is that at least one individual on an arrest team, typically there are multiple agents that will go pursue someone, have a body camera on them. Now, law enforcement has generally been in favor because it will set this fact straight. That's something we just don't know right now because we're often leaning on witnesses taking video or surveillance footage from nearby buildings.

So Tom Homan is for that. The administration says it's for that. But the question is, why had it not been done? And there's actually been bipartisan pushback on ICE about this exact matter, Republicans and Democrats saying, look, we get it. You said there was a shutdown. There was a shutdown. But last year, you got billions of dollars. Why didn't you move them? The department says that they are moving to distribute them in the next few weeks. But the question is, what does that look like at the end of the year?

[12:35:12]

BASH: Yes. Thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting always, Priscilla.

And under HHS Secretary RFK Jr., measles cases are exploding. Some Democrats are saying it's time for President Trump to fire him. We'll have more after a break.

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[12:40:05]

BASH: In the year 2000, 26 years ago, measles was declared eliminated in the United States. But in the 18 months since RFK Jr. was nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. has seen more cases than in the previous quarter century combined. In 2025, the U.S. saw the most measles cases since 1991. And what was a 35-year record already has been shattered again this year.

The way RFK Jr. is handling the outbreak is sparking serious concerns among public health professionals like the former CDC Chief, Science and Medical Officer Dr. Debra Horry. And Horry resigned from her role last summer when Kennedy fired the CDC director then. She says now she is very concerned that Kennedy is making the problem worse.

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DR. DEBRA HORRY, FORMER CDC CHIEF SCIENCE AND MEDICAL OFFICER: When you look at him talking about misinformation on measles vaccines, people are going to be less likely to get the measles vaccine in an active outbreak. We had children being hospitalized. We had children dying from measles.

We needed people to respond during a measles outbreak and get vaccinated if they weren't. Instead, he talked about healers and treatments around like steroids and antibiotics and even vitamin A.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back now. Kristen Holmes, are you hearing any sliver of a doubt from the White House about the viability of Kennedy's role right now to continue as HHS secretary?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not in the way that would lead to his being ousted from the role at HHS. I think there are people obviously who hope that he would handle this in a different way. They don't think it's a good thing that the U.S. is going to be at a point in which they can probably no longer say that they have eradicated the measles. At least if you talk to health experts, they say we're already past that point now. President Trump seems to have not let go of RFK as a part of his larger team, somebody that he uses, he relied on during the campaign and still has a relationship with. I think that, obviously, that could change in a heartbeat, like all of these things. When we check -- when I do cabinet check-ins, it's like, this is what I'm asking on Monday this day. Is this where everybody stands? Obviously, that could change.

BASH: Right.

HOLMES: But right now, it doesn't seem as though this is leading to his ouster.

BASH: And it is -- has trickle-down effects in so many ways. But just in terms of public policy and members of the Trump administration, one of the key questions is who is going to now head the CDC. Dr. Erica Schwartz was nominated. I think it was your reporting, because they saw her inside the White House as a little bit of a -- quietly as a little bit of a check on RFK, because she seemed more normal on basic things like vaccines.

Senator Bill Cassidy, Dr. Cassidy, who was the deciding vote on RFK Jr., had a pretty contentious hearing with Erica Schwartz last week. And then on Friday, he said he was going to actually support her. I talked to him over the weekend and showed him the CDC website, because one of the things that he said he wanted done was a change in the CDC website. That hasn't happened.

The CDC says, "The claim vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim." And then it seems to be a nod to him all the way at the bottom, kind of in small print, scientists "have not identified the root causes of autism." I showed that to him and this is what he said.

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SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R), LOUISIANA: That continues to promote by implication, the idea that that is wrong. And that is what gives some parents hesitancy regarding having their children vaccinated. It's not wrong for Bill Cassidy. It's wrong for the mom and dad trying to make the right decision.

It's wrong because it's going to incentivize, you know, it's going to frighten some parents from doing the right thing, which is to have their child vaccinated. It's been firmly established, vaccines do not cause autism. That's over decades.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, part of Bill Cassidy's legacy is going to be giving the country RFK Jr. I mean, there's no doubt about that. He played that pivotal role on the Senate Finance Committee, where to vote to advance the nomination. He could have voted no and killed it, because he had those exact same concerns he voiced last year. He's a medical doctor. He very much believes in science. He very much believes in vaccines and RFK Jr. tried to reassure him, give him all these private reassurances. He wouldn't do this, that, or the other or so doubt over vaccines or the linkage to autism. He said he wasn't going to purge his key CDC advisory panel. He did do that.

[12:45:01]

He snookered Bill Cassidy or Bill Cassidy wanted to be snookered because he wanted Donald Trump's support for his primary challenge, which he never ultimately got. And he ended up losing his primary challenge as a result. And Cassidy has had a very hard time reconciling that. He will never quite admit that he regrets that vote, but you can see there he regrets some second thoughts.

BASH: And on this and the CDC head, who will likely be confirmed now that Cassidy says that he's with her. He said he got some private assurances from her. So we'll see how that plays out if and when she actually is confirmed because this issue of the measles outbreak is sadly not going away.

Coming up, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has a clear midterm message. Does he have a plan to back it up? Stay with us.

[12:50:16]

BASH: It's pretty clear what House Leader Hakeem Jeffries wants to focus on over the next 99 days. He said it over and over on the trail in Pennsylvania yesterday.

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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), MINORITY LEADER: The affordability crisis, the affordability crisis, tackling the affordability crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The message was plastered across the backdrop and podium as Jeffries rallied with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Democratic candidate for the state's seventh congressional district, Bob Brooks. A key question is what is the Democratic Party actually going to do about the affordability crisis? And will their intraparty identity fight get in the way?

My panel is back now. Another question I will pose is, does it matter what they say that they're going to do right now or people are just -- if people are angry enough at the President and Republicans that they just want to try something new?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

BASH: Yes, it might not. I did speak with Jeffries on State of the Union yesterday. We talked a little bit more in detail about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFFRIES: We want to drive down the cost of groceries, drive down and lower the cost of gasoline, drive down the cost of housing and also make sure that health care is affordable for every single American.

BASH: Right. But to do those things, which is the messaging that I've heard you say, especially recently, you need to come up with policy proposals. So will those policy proposals be in line with what some of the more progressive members who keep getting elected are pushing? Or will you sort of move more towards the moderate area where if you do win the majority, it will be likely because they pick up swing districts?

JEFFRIES: Well, we want to make sure that we are solving problems on behalf of the American people, and that's in every possible area.

BASH: Manu?

RAJU: I mean, look, it's -- they clearly don't want to put together an agenda because if they put together an agenda, it'll divide the party and it'll give Republicans something to attack. They want to make this a true referendum on Donald Trump, which midterms typically are a referendum of the President coming into power.

The Republicans are trying to make it a contrast between what they say that they have done on the economy versus what the Democratic Socialists would do and try to tie Democrats to that. That's going to be the key test. Can they do that? But they also -- Republicans also have another problem.

Trump is just stepping all over their --

BASH: Exactly.

RAJU: -- message on the economy, can't stay on messages, drawing fights with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republicans. And that's creating its own complication. But the Democrats just want to focus on Trump, not necessarily what they would do if they win power.

BASH: Yes, and they do need and have in a lot of areas the candidates who can challenge the incumbent Republicans that they need to take if they are going to actually get enough seats to take back the House. And it is interesting that Hakeem Jeffries made a decision to go to Pennsylvania, not just Pennsylvania, but to Pennsylvania's 7th District, because Bob Brooks, who's the candidate there, is one of those who is supported by Josh Shapiro and other establishment Democrats and also by some on the progressive left.

Listen to his pitch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB BROOKS (D), PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I've lived in public housing. I've relied on food stamps when times were hard. I've had to choose between paying the medical bills and paying the mortgage. Regular people are tired of being kicked in the teeth. What's happening right now in Washington is not working for us. It's time to send them a message. We are going to get down there. We're going to flip some tables and we're going to get to work on lowering costs and cleaning up the corruption for the people. For the first time in a long time, they are going to hear us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Flip some tables. That's Pennsylvania, not New Jersey, just for (INAUDIBLE) housewives fans out there.

EMILY DAVIES, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I think what the Democrats are finding is that the messenger is as important, if not more important than the message. And, you know, I understand what they're doing and being consistent and just hammering this messages. In some ways what Trump and the Republicans have been successful at, like pick a message and stick to it.

But people need to believe them. And so the working class candidates who can sound not of Washington and deliver that message, I think, are having a better time doing what the party is trying to do. Whereas the more polished, sounding Democrats, it's harder to convey that you are going to do what you say, even if the details aren't there yet.

HOLMES: I would just say that I think the Democrats are coming around to the realization that Republicans made before. And when it comes to President Trump and his, you know, likeability, take out his job performance, just go back to the campaign and his messaging around it.

[12:55:06]

People like an outsider. People are done with Washington. They are tired of what they have seen, whether it's Democrat or Republican. They like the idea of somebody that they can relate to, whether it's Republican or Democrat, that then can send their messaging to Washington. And I think that that is probably going to be the most important thing that we see here.

RAJU: And that district is critical, the Bob Brooks district.

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: To win the majority, they have to win a district like that. Ryan MacKenzie is a freshman, Republican, holds that seat. Trump barely won that district. So they have to flip it. It's in the Lehigh Valley, critical. Can they actually -- it's good for Jeffries that they actually have unity here. That's not the case for a lot of candidates, but they have to win that district.

BASH: Yes, no question about it. Thank you all for being here. Happy Monday.

Thank you for joining us on Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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