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Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting; Anger Grows Over Lack of Flood Warnings in Texas; At Least 105 Killed in Texas Flooding. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: We are standing by for an update from officials in Kerr County on the devastating floods here in Central Texas. Of course, we will bring that to you live.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, with Pamela Brown reporting live from Kerrville, Texas, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We're monitoring two live events this hour on a very, very busy morning of breaking news.

At any moment, President Trump will meet with his Cabinet as he pushes for new global tariffs and says he will now send more weapons to Ukraine. We're also standing by for an update on the horrific flooding in Texas, this morning, the death toll climbing to 105. And there are growing questions right now about whether the public was adequately warned of the approaching danger.

My colleague Pamela Brown is in Kerrville for us.

Pamela, we will have live coverage of that news update once it starts. What are you expecting from this news conference?

BROWN: Well, listen, Wolf, people here are asking a lot of questions. Those questions are sharpening several days in about whether more could have been done before the floodwaters began rushing in.

As you said, we are about to hear from those officials. And, of course, we will bring everyone that live. And there's increased scrutiny about weather alerts and warnings, whether they reached the people who needed them most. We're learning of multiple attempts to build a flood warning system here in Kerr County in recent years, but they either faltered or were abandoned due to budget concerns or concerns of false alarms.

I spoke to a volunteer firefighter yesterday and here's what he told me about the two sirens that rang out nearby in Comfort, Texas, to alert people to evacuate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What do you attribute to the fact that there was no loss of life here in Comfort? Do you think it was because you all evacuated and the sirens went off?

BRIAN BOYTER, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: Correct. At least that's my opinion, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: A third of the presser? OK.

So, here in Kerrville, where we are, there were no evacuations. There is no siren system. It is a different story. It's a tale of two towns, and talking to that volunteer firefighter where that wasn't the case. I want to go now to that press conference with Texas officials. Let's listen.

LARRY LEITHA, SHERIFF OF KERR COUNTY, TEXAS: I'm going to go over some brief notes with you all real quick. Then I'm going to pass it on to the mayor.

Hundred of first responders remain along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County working to reunite families. The large search-and-rescue effort, including local, state, federal and volunteer agencies continue. As of 8:00 a.m. Central Time, 87 deceased have been recovered in Kerr County, including 56 adults and 30 children.

[11:05:00]

Identification is pending for 19 adults and seven children with one additional person still unidentified. At present, five Camp Mystic campers and one counselor still remain unaccounted for. We ask private boats to stay off the Guadalupe River to allow search-and-rescue teams to operate without any interference.

This is a tragic time for us. We're so grateful and thankful for all the resources that have been provided to us to do this job. And I can assure you we will not stop until this mission is complete. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to city mayor.

JOE HERRING JR., MAYOR OF KERRVILLE, TEXAS: Thank you for being here. I'm Joe Herring Jr. I'm mayor of the city of Kerrville.

I want to reassure our community and those families that the city, the county, the state, and the federal experts are working together, not separately, but as one team. If you go inside the emergency operations center, you don't see silos. You see one team.

I want to talk briefly about in-kind donations. The outpouring of generosity has been tremendous, and we are grateful. We are going to -- we are working on a new system to accept donations. When those plans are complete, we will post them online on the city's Facebook page. We are grateful. We need a new system to handle the generosity of the world.

Financial donations can still go to communityfoundation.net. That's the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. Again, we are grateful for the generosity of the world. Over and over, I have asked you to pray. It occurred to me that I haven't asked you for what to pray specifically.

Please pray for those who mourn, for those who wait, and for those who help.

Now I'd like to call on Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker.

LT. COL. BEN BAKER, TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. My name is Ben Baker, lieutenant colonel for Texas Game Wardens.

I'd like to start out by thanking the mayor, sheriff, chief, our local state partners, Texas Department of Public Safety and the many others that have responded to this tragic event.

We as Texans are strong and together we face adversity. Your Texas Game Wardens responded in the early mornings of Friday to this tragic event along with many other local and state partners. Since the early mornings of Friday, your Texas Game Wardens have had over 300 Game Wardens in the area serving the people of the state of Texas and the citizens of Kerr County.

Among that, we have searched 26 river miles since the tragic event has started. We have had approximately 444 rescues, 30 recoveries. Some of our resources and assets we have dedicated to this tragic event include two helicopters with hoist teams, 12 drone teams, 10 canine units, nine swift-water boat crews, 15 airboats, 16 UTVs and 169 four- wheel drive vehicles.

Your Texas Game Wardens will remain here and serve in the community. We just ask you to continue to pray for the victims, for the families, for your first responders, for everyone involved.

We will open it up now to questions, if anybody has any?

QUESTION: You talked about how challenging it is with for the guys in the mud, the big trees. What's been like the difference terrain?

BAKER: No, thank you for that question.

Extremely challenging. We have got, of course, your Texas Game Wardens out there, your local and your state partners, Texas Task Force 1. You have got the national Forest Service out there. You have got A&M Forest Service. We have got numerous responders with specialized capabilities where we have got these large pile of debris.

[11:10:03] And with our canines and when we're trying to make these recoveries, these large piles can be very obstructive. And to get deep into these piles, it's very hazardous. And those specialized teams have to go in there layer by layer, because our first responders, also the safety of them is concerned. So it's extremely treacherous, time-consuming. It's dirty work. It's -- the water's still there.

So we're having to go layer by layer, peeling these off to make those recoveries. So we're...

QUESTION: What about mentally? Like, when you guys stumble across someone who may be deceased, how do you process that?

BAKER: Absolutely.

We process it the best we can. We have professionals in place, our crisis intervention team. All the agencies have some members representing there. And officer wellness is a -- first responder wellness is a key component to these operations. So we're maintaining and monitoring our officer wellness, our first responder wellness. We're making sure they have the support.

It's very tragic whenever you see human life. But to see a child in that loss of life is extremely tragic.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Is that going to put a halt to the search? And if not, how are you going to change the trajectory of the search-and- rescue operations?

BAKER: So, with the water coming down, that's always a concern, and I'm sure you have been monitoring the last couple days where we have had some reports of maybe some additional water coming in. Obviously, that's going to impact the search and recovery efforts.

Us with numerous other agencies do have air capabilities, drone capabilities. We have got numerous fixed-wing rotary helicopters here. So it will alter our patrol patterns and alter our searches, but it won't deter them.

(CROSSTALK)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... specific discussions and actions were taken between the time of the first flood emergency alert coming out at 1:14 a.m. and then when the river first started flooding in those hours later?

What were the specific actions and discussions that happened in those hours?

LEITHA: Can you repeat that again, please?

ROSALES: Sure. Absolutely.

I would like to know, if you could outline, please, what the specific actions and discussions were that local officials took between 1:14 a.m. -- that's when the first flood emergency alert came out -- and hours later, when the river first started flooding? What happened in these hours?

LEITHA: What I can tell you, when I was first notified, it was around the 4:00 to 5:00 area.

One of my sergeants was in dispatch when the first calls started coming in, the actual 911 calls come in.

QUESTION: That was like at 4:00 in the morning?

LEITHA: It was between 4:00 and 5:00 when I got notified. OK, but prior to that, in that 3:00 to 4:00 area, my understanding is -- and we're in the process of trying to put a timeline.

That's going to take a little bit of time. As I have told you several times, that is not my priority at this time. There's three priorities. That's locating, locating the people out there, identifying, notifying the next of kin.

That is what I'm taking as my job as sheriff here to do. OK.

QUESTION: With all due respect, sir, I think that the community here is asking these questions. What happened? When did it happen? Was the emergency manager awake at the time? Did they push the button to issue an emergency alert?

LEITHA: Sir, it's not that easy you just push a button, OK. There's a lot more to that. And we have told you several times.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Did it happen, sir?

LEITHA: I can't tell you at this time. OK.

QUESTION: You can't tell me if the emergency manager of the county actually issued an emergency alert?

(CROSSTALK)

LEITHA: I will come back to you. I'm going nowhere.

QUESTION: Appreciate it.

Who runs the emergency operation center?

LEITHA: We have a communications center, a dispatch, OK? We have a communications center. That's where -- the calls actually go to the police department. Then they're forwarded to us.

QUESTION: But leading up to this and monitoring the weather, there's -- 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 (OFF-MIKE)

LEITHA: OK, well, we would have done when we get notified -- OK, I'm going to tell you this.

QUESTION: You're not emergency management, though, right? The sheriff's not EOC.

LEITHA: No, there is no -- I meant as the city.

Yes, OK.

BAKER: So we understand you have many questions. Hang on.

QUESTION: 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.

BAKER: Correct.

(CROSSTALK)

BAKER: We understand you have many questions.

QUESTION: Where is the judge? The judge is not here.

BAKER: 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.

(CROSSTALK)

[11:15:07]

BAKER: But the priority right now is bringing people home.

QUESTION: We totally understand that, and we value the incredible work that is 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.

(CROSSTALK)

BAKER: And we will have -- we will get answers. Right now, all of our resources are focused to recovery.

QUESTION: Who was in charge of the emergency operations center at the time that was getting any...

(CROSSTALK)

BAKER: Do we have another question? (CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: I think I'd like to focus on what local people can be looking for. We're looking at some erosion in roads and safety and then traveling.

What can we tell people who live here right now what they can do in their daily life? Should they worry about traveling on roads? Do we know anything about that infrastructure?

JONATHAN LAMB, COMMUNITY SERVICES OFFICER, KERRVILLE, TEXAS, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Sure, absolutely. Jonathan Lamb, Kerrville Police Department.

So we know that there's substantial road damage. Some roads have been closed for safety. We have got crews out there in the county shoring them up and making sure that people can travel to and from. What we're asking for the public to do to assist us is, if they believe that they have seen someone, a victim, notify emergency services, call 911, let us know, or use our non-emergency numbers, area code 830-257-8181.

Contact our dispatch team and we will send officers out there. We also ask folks to limit their travel. Our first responders have had a very difficult time getting to where they need to go because of the amount of people who are flooding our roadways. We understand there's natural curiosity.

People want to come here and see the flood damage. Now is not the time for sightseeing. This operation is ongoing and continuous. And it will continue. I have got time for one more question.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: As far -- last question.

As far as I know, the last live rescue, unless there's new information, and I don't believe there is, was made on Friday.

All right, I'm afraid that's going to have to do it for this morning.

QUESTION: Can someone answer if the bodies have been released to the families, Sheriff?

LEITHA: Excuse me.

QUESTION: Have the bodies been released to the families?

LEITHA: Some. They're at autopsy.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Do you have an estimate among the general population, not just the girls from Mystic, even just credible reports? Is it hundreds still? Is there any estimate along the general population of how many people are still missing? LEITHA: No. I have told you all several times it's hard to know that

number. No, we don't. I know the numbers that we have found. And that's all I know.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMB: All right, so we're going to continue our operations. The next time that we're going to be in front of you all will be at 5:00 p.m. right back here. If there is a critical update, again, we will provide that information to you through the contact list that you have provided to us. Thank you all. We appreciate it.

BROWN: Well, there you heard that press conference with officials there in Kerrville Texas, and some questions from my colleagues Isabel Rosales and Shimon Prokupecz.

And, as you heard, they didn't really provide specific information to those critical questions. What were the specific actions that was taking place between 1.14 a.m., when that National Weather Service alert came in of severe flood, and 4:00 to 5:00, when everything was really dangerous and that severe flooding was happening?

I mean, you heard the sheriff they say -- there say that he didn't get involved and get alerted until the 4:00 to 5:00 area, when 911 calls were coming in. I do think that says a lot. He says that they're working on a timeline right now, but here we are, Wolf, five days in and people want information.

I know they want to talk a lot about the search-and-rescue and the efforts of the first responders. And, of course, we have been talking about that hard work, but there's accountability questions here too, Wolf, as we talk about all the deaths, 108 deaths, they said, from this storm, five Mystic campers, one counselor still unaccounted for. Several adults and children still need to be identified.

The officials don't have the luxury of not answering these key questions, the key information, and also because we're still in a serious flood zone. I mean, this is one of the most dangerous parts in the country for flooding, Wolf. And there's still not a lot of answers we're getting, but, of course, we're going to continue to press and we hope that they do release that timeline soon -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And there has to be, as I'm sure you agree, Pamela, a full- scale investigation into what potentially went wrong to make sure, God forbid, if this ever happens again, they will have the right tools at their disposal to alert people to evacuate, to prepare for this kind of horrendous flooding.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: They have got to learn some lessons from this experience.

BROWN: And I just want to follow up.

BLITZER: Yes. BROWN: Oh, we absolutely do. I mean, and I have been on the ground

here since Sunday. It has been so hard to get answers and to get information.

[11:20:02]

And, again, I understand the priority, so much of it, is the search and the rescue and helping these grieving families. But there's been a lot of stonewalling too to answer basic questions that we really should have the answer for.

I mean, what were the emergency managers doing? I mean, what was the communication between the National Weather Service and them? They're supposed to be communication. Our reporting suggests that there was no interaction on the National Weather Service system, even though there was in other counties emergency managers and National Weather Service.

Why can't these simple questions be answered? We will continue to press while also understanding that patience is important and that this was a severe weather event that came. But also, Wolf, in talking to experts, they keep saying, look, you can't just say well this is a once-in-a-lifetime, flood because this is now our new normal.

And we have seen it elsewhere. We have seen it in my home state of Kentucky. And so people need to understand that and they need to have the warning systems in place and the preparations and the emergency plans and the evacuation plans in place, because, unfortunately, these severe weather events are becoming more common and they're becoming more dangerous -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, it's so, so important that people take a closer look to see what happened to make sure that we learn lessons from this, so that we will be better prepared down the road.

Pamela, excellent work. Thank you so, so much.

And to our viewers, we will, of course, continue to follow all the late-breaking developments out of Central Texas.

Still ahead: Any moment now, President Trump will meet with his Cabinet as he pushes for new global tariffs and says he will now send more weapons systems to Ukraine.

Stay with us. Lots more coming up. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[11:26:23]

BLITZER: Any moment now, President Trump will be holding the sixth Cabinet meeting of his second term, this coming just after he extended his self-imposed deadlines.

The so-called reciprocal tariffs were supposed to take effect tomorrow. He's also now raising tariff rates for several countries, some as high as 40 percent. Let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes,

right now.

Kristen, what are we expecting during today's Cabinet meeting?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Wolf, there's going to be a lot to discuss.

And, as you noted, one of the things that's likely to come up are these new global tariffs. We finally saw some of the letters that President Trump has been talking about sending to countries for weeks now. He put them up yesterday on TRUTH Social, threatening some of even our biggest trading partners like Japan and South Korea with these tariffs as high as 25 percent.

But in the fine print there, it showed that the deadline was not July 9, which is what was supposed to be, tomorrow. Instead, it moved back to August 1. So how did we get here? Well, remember, this whole self- imposed deadline started with these reciprocal tariffs the original April 9. Then he put in place this 90-day pause. It was supposed to end tomorrow. We know that they have had an enormous amount of problems actually coming to terms with various countries.

President Trump has said it's taking longer than expected. We have also heard that from the secretary of treasury Scott Bessent as well. Now you have this new deadline of August 1, President Trump signing an executive order stating that yesterday.

But when he was asked about the firmness of this deadline, this is what he said. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Is the August 1 deadline firm now? Is that it? Or could you move it again?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would say firm. No, I would say firm, but not 100 percent firm. If they call up and they say, we'd like to do something a different way, we're going to be open to that.

But, essentially, that's the way it is right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Not 100 percent firm. So it does not sound like that is a firm deadline. So that might shift also as these countries and the United States are trying to negotiate.

And just to note, that came during a dinner with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He had been in town. They were supposed to be talking about Iran, those nuclear strikes, but also -- or those strikes on the nuclear facilities -- excuse me -- but also a potential cease-fire deal in Gaza.

I know some White House officials have been hoping by the time Netanyahu got on the ground here there would actually be a cease-fire deal. Obviously, that has passed. But the two countries did discuss that last night. It is likely to come up also in that Cabinet meeting today.

BLITZER: And it's interesting. Amidst all of this, President Trump is now also saying he's going to send weapons to Ukraine, more weapons. What are you learning about that?

HOLMES: Yes, Wolf, we have really seen almost a 180 from President Trump when it comes to the situation and the war in Ukraine over the last couple of weeks.

It's starting, in fact, when we saw President Trump at NATO saying that he was mad at Putin, that Putin was harder to deal with than he thought, that he thought he was going to be able to solve this crisis earlier. And he also talked about a meeting that he had with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, saying that this was a good meeting, kind of raving, actually, when it comes to President Trump.

That's not usually how he comes out of these meetings with Zelenskyy. And then, yesterday, he announced again that he was not happy with Putin, not happy with the fact that the Russian president continued to attack Ukraine.

And in this meeting with Netanyahu, he was asked about giving more weapons to Ukraine after the Pentagon had paused the shipment of some of those missiles. And Trump said that we are -- the United States is, in fact, sending more weapons to Ukraine because Ukrainians need to be able to defend themselves, so, again, quite a turn for President Trump here.

BLITZER: All right, Kristen Holmes reporting for us.

Kristen, we will stay in very close touch with you. Thank you.