Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Headlines: Senate Grills Hegseth On Iran War As Trump Administration Asks For Billions In Additional Funding; CENTCOM: U.S. Completes 11th Night Of Strikes Against Iran; Flooding, Tornadoes Unleashed, As Tropical Storm Bertha Looms. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 22, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:26]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Shame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure. And then you want to turn around and say you support the war fighter.
SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): I use the word failure, because I use the word failure to their leaders. You, sir, are the failure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth grilled on Capitol Hill. The Trump administration asking for more money to pay for the war with Iran. Just how much? Hegseth says the war has cost so far also came to light.
And extreme weather today across the East. West Virginia, flooding prompts a statewide emergency. And on the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Bertha expected to make landfall today.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: Contact water patrol. He just jumped over the bridge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Well, that's one way to try and run from the police. That man drove off the bridge head first. He is okay, but he didn't get too far.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Brad Smith. This is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Glad that you're with us this morning.
Let's get this started.
We begin with the bipartisan grilling on Capitol Hill. As the Trump administration officials are asking for more money to pay for the war with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, want tens of billions of dollars to fund the ongoing war effort.
Here's just some of the intense confrontation that Hegseth faced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Do we have the ability to destroy whatever is underneath Pickaxe Mountain?
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Mr. Secretary, you stated four months ago that Iran's military had been rendered, quote, "combat ineffective for years to come". Has Iran's military been, for the last four months, combat ineffective?
HEGSETH: It's been set back not just years, but likely decades.
(CROSSTALK)
OSSOFF: You stated we have, quote, you stated -- you stated we have, quote --
HEGSETH: That doesn't mean it doesn't have capabilities.
OSSOFF: Mr. Secretary, you stated we had, quote, "achieved every single objective".
PETERS: You, sir, are the failure, not the men and women who are on that front line. You. You don't have a strategy. You don't have a long-term plan to actually win this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: CNN's Sherrell Hubbard has the details for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEGSETH: -- substitute --
SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests erupted in the gallery as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before a key Senate panel Tuesday. To fund the ongoing war, the Trump administration is asking members of Congress for tens of billions of dollars. The Senate Appropriations Committee is considering an over $87 billion supplemental funding request. A portion of the roughly $1.5 trillion sought for the 2027 defense budget.
HEGSETH: $1.5 trillion --
HUBBARD (voice-over): Hegseth was skewered by protesters and grilled by lawmakers as Pentagon officials struggled to explain why they need the money so quickly.
KENNEDY: We need straight answers.
PETERS: When will you show --
HEGSETH: Why don't you show some leadership and stand up to your fellow Democrats who won't fund the troops?
HUBBARD (voice-over): The war, which was initially projected to end after a few weeks, has stretched on for nearly five months.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not finished at all.
HUBBARD (voice-over): Without the funds, Hegseth says they face critical shortfalls that threaten the ability to pay service members, replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption.
HEGSETH: President Trump is following a simple logic the military requires a generational investment to deliver on peace through strength.
HUBBARD (voice-over): The secretary's testimony comes as the U.S.- Iran conflict re-escalates. Nearly 100 troops have been injured this month, and at least three U.S. service members have been killed in recent days.
GEN. DAN CAINE, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Today, we remember First Lieutenant Tyler Feehan, Sergeant Michael Swinton, and Private Isabella Gonzales.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Now, meanwhile, U.S. Central Command says that the military completed its 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran. And Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says that it responded with a counterassault.
President Donald Trump says the U.S. will be hitting Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, an underground nuclear site, pretty soon. But Iran is warning that a U.S. attack on its nuclear facilities would expand the war across the region.
Today, President Trump is expected to attend a dignified transfer of service members killed in the war with Iran. Four service members will be transferred to Dover Air Force base today, but only two have been announced, First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan and Private Isabella Gonzales. They were killed in Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan last week.
[05:05:00]
Sergeant Angel Rampersad is also believed to have been killed in that same attack, and Sergeant Michael Swinton was killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone.
Catastrophic flooding unleashed on some areas in West Virginia. It is part of a storm that spawned tornadoes and dangerous winds from Kentucky to the Mid-Atlantic. And that's not even mentioning Tropical Storm Bertha that's crashing into the Gulf Coast. This week, an extreme weather, it continues today. First, West Virginia under statewide emergency after nearly half a
foot of rain fell in a short amount of time Tuesday afternoon, the flooding reached historic levels and swift water rescue teams. They are on scene helping first responders. The same storm system triggered tornadoes in at least three states, including here in Ohio, where a tree crashed into this home while the family was sheltered in the basement and two tornadoes were confirmed in northern New Jersey.
Widespread damaging winds spanned farther north and east, and New York, dealing with damage like this, while flash flood warnings washed over the city, hundreds of thousands lost power as the storm swept through.
Now, meanwhile, on the Gulf Coast, here's a live look at tropical storm Bertha as it weakens, slowly moving toward landfall in southeast Louisiana later today, bringing rain, gusty winds and coastal flooding. Meteorologists say that the heaviest rains will stay offshore. As you're taking a look at this forecast, and by tomorrow night, it will arrive in Texas, further weakening into a tropical depression.
Over the next couple of days, though Bertha's moisture, it fuels a flooding rain threat hundreds of miles away.
Meteorologist Chris Warren explains further.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS WARREN, METEOROLOGIST: Tropical Storm Bertha may be spinning in the Gulf, but some of its biggest flooding impacts could happen hundreds of miles away. Some of Bertha's moisture is being drawn northward ahead of a cold front, helping fuel heavy rain and thunderstorms across the east coast of the United States. As that front slows and stalls across the Carolinas and Southern Virginia late Wednesday, additional moisture being siphoned from birth that could feed repeated rounds of heavy rain. The biggest flood concerns over the next couple of days stretch from eastern North Carolina into Southeastern Virginia, where storms may track over the same areas for hours.
So, while Bertha center remains near the Gulf Coast, its moisture could outlast the storm itself, keeping the flood threat going across parts of the East Coast into the weekend.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: This morning in Arizona, candidates endorsed by President Trump are celebrating after winning big in the House and the governor's primaries.
CNN can project that Trump-backed Congressman Andy Biggs will win the GOP governor's primary. He will defeat fellow House member David Schweikert, who is a moderate by a wide margin. Andy Biggs will take on incumbent Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in November.
The president's picks are also prevailing in two key house primaries. CNN projects former NFL place kicker Jay Feely will win the Republican contest in Arizona's first congressional district.
And a former county sheriff, Mark Lamb, will advance to the general election in the conservative leaning fifth congressional district.
The attorney representing the parents of Nolan Wells says that they will release the preliminary results of an independent autopsy later this morning. Nolan Wells took a boat trip with friends on July 4th. When the group returned to shore, Nolan was not with them. Two days later, his body was found off an island coast. Activist and former NFL player Colin Kaepernick paid for the independent autopsy for the family. Attorney Ben Crump says that it will happen at 9:00 a.m. at a press conference at the NAACP convention.
The preliminary hearing for the singer, known as D4vd, will resume today, and the judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to move forward with a murder trial. Prosecutors accused the 21-year-old David Anthony Burke of killing and dismembering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas-Hernandez last year. D4vd has pleaded not guilty.
CNN's Kyung Lah has the story, but I want to say that some of the details you may find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing heartbreaking and grisly details on the first day of singer D4vd's preliminary hearing here in Los Angeles.
Defendant David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd to his fans, is facing first degree murder charges with special circumstances. Those involve continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and mutilating human remains. Those remains belong to 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Her body was found stuffed in bags in the trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd. In court, prosecutors showed graphic photos of the recovered body parts, among them severed hands with fingers.
[05:10:02]
And one photo, she is missing a ring finger.
The prosecution previously accused D4vd of removing that finger because it contained a tattoo that linked him to Celeste. Celeste's mother was in the courtroom. She looked away as those photos were presented. Understandably unable to look.
PATRICK STEINFELD, ATTORNEY FOR CELESTE'S FAMILY: They would say that this is her arms and legs, and you cannot tell that it was arms and legs or this was her head, and you could not tell it was her head.
REPORTER: You couldn't --
STEINFELD: And so it was -- it was -- it was horrible.
LAH: Prosecutors have laid out in court documents that D4vd made contact with Celeste when she was just 11 years old. Prosecutors say a sexual relationship began when she was 13, and they say that she threatened to expose their relationship. And that is what they allege is the possible motive for murder.
Prosecutors also presented Amazon purchases D4vd allegedly made under an alias. Those purchases included chainsaws. D4vd has pled not guilty to the charges. The district attorney today told reporters there are ten witnesses to call, and this may take several days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Thank you, Kyung Lah, for bringing us the details and following that case.
We're also following the cyclospora outbreak in various states having an impact on fast food restaurants. Fast food restaurants like Subway, Chipotle, Cava and Panera bread have all seen a drop in customers since the outbreak. Lettuce from some Taco Bell locations is the only one linked to it.
A data analytics platform called Placer AI reports that foot traffic at Taco Bell dropped 19 percent. The FDA is still investigating, but still believes that the produce supplier Taylor Farms is likely the source of the outbreak.
We've got lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS:
Scary moments when something exploded inside that trash can. What exactly caused that blast? We've got the details that we know right now.
Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson is backing the idea of new dating rules for members of Congress. The change that could be coming
And --
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
SMITH: The final trailer is out as the countdown is on for the new Spider-Man movie. We've got more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:45]
SMITH: Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer is being called to appear before Congress or face a subpoena. Attorney Alan Dershowitz was initially scheduled for an interview with the House Oversight Committee Monday, but canceled. Committee chair James Comer called the cancellation unacceptable and ordered Dershowitz to appear on September 2nd.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill made a surprising announcement. She said that more than 6,000 noncitizens were accidentally added to the state's voter roll, and about 400 had cast improper ballots in recent elections. According to Sherrill, this happened because of a software glitch at the state motor vehicle commission that began in 2023, which is before she took office. And she just learned about the issue last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says that he supports proposals to ban members of Congress from dating any staffers on Capitol Hill. It is one of the reform ideas being discussed by the bipartisan Sexual Harassment Task Force. The idea is still being negotiated, but would go further than current House rules, which says that lawmakers can't date their own staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I can't believe it would be acceptable in any situation. Yeah, I have a role where you have members of Congress and their subordinates and staff members. I think it's inappropriate as it would be in any workplace. In most companies have that. We should -- we should at a bare minimum in Congress, have a, you know, rules and, and traditions that are adhered to in corporate America. So that's an easy one for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The task force is looking at the proposal, and they were appointed by Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in May, amid increased scrutiny over how Congress handles allegations of sexual misconduct.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, a remarkable discovery on the ocean floor, more than 70 years in the making. Wait until you see this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:11]
SMITH: A Pan Am plane that crashed and vanished 74 years ago that prompted major changes to aviation safety. And now a team of researchers have solved a decades long mystery of where the debris landed.
Here is a look at their reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Oh my God, is that a plane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Is that a plane?
REPORTER: This is the moment a Pan Am Douglas DC-4 that crashed in 1952 was located on the Atlantic Ocean floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to take a second to say if were right, were about to be the first people to see Clipper Endeavor in over 74 years.
REPORTER: The Clipper Endeavor was just minutes into its flight from Puerto Rico to New York when it lost both right engines and crashed into the ocean. The plane sank in just three minutes, 12 passengers and five crew members were rescued, but 52 people died. The crash led to preflight safety briefings becoming mandatory on every flight to tell passengers what to do in the event of an emergency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And start the flow of oxygen.
REPORTER: High-definition images show the iconic winged Pan American logo and aircraft's name still legible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clipper
REPORTER: The search team is now advocating for a memorial honoring those who died in the crash. The Discovery Channel intends to cover the finding in an "Expedition Unknown" episode later this year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: That is incredible. Now two of the survivors are still alive today. One of them is now 102 years old and was a nurse who helped open the plane door for people to get out. The other one was just a baby when it happened and was found floating on the water.
Let's take you now to health express. Coffee just might be what the doctor ordered. A new study from the American Heart Association suggesting that it is safe to drink up to five cups a day. Phew.
[05:25:00]
And it may be linked to cardiovascular health benefits in some people. So, make sure you watch the clock. Experts say that its best to stop drinking coffee at least six hours before bedtime.
Well, straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, flooding, tornadoes, strong winds. A look at the dangerous weather from overnight and new allegations against the Tate brothers. What their defense is saying about that.
All of this is coming up on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
