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The Situation Room

Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting; Trump Changes Deadline For Trade Tariffs; At Least 108 Killed in Texas Flooding; Netanyahu to Meet With House Speaker. Aired 11:30a-12:00p ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:04]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, Kristen Holmes reporting for us.

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

Amidst all of this, once again, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is now preparing to meet with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, on Capitol Hill. That follows last night's working dinner, where Prime Minister Netanyahu presented President Trump with a letter nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Let's go to CNN's Arlette Saenz up on Capitol Hill.

Arlette, President Trump has been turning up the pressure on Israel to try to get Gaza -- a ceasefire deal, as well as getting the hostages back home. And President Trump wants to do this as soon as this week. Are there any indications that it's working?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's clearly a top priority for President Trump, who has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to the table to try to secure the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

And in just about 15 minutes, we anticipate that Netanyahu will be up here meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been a strong supporter of Israel throughout this fight over the last two -- or year-and-a-half, as this conflict has played out.

Now, we also anticipate that Netanyahu will be meeting a bit later with a bipartisan group of senators as well. But this is all playing out against that backdrop of Trump pushing for this ceasefire deal to occur. Of course, the president does not just want to have the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, but he's also pushing further towards normalizations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But a ceasefire would be a key component of trying to move that along. Now, as Trump hosted Netanyahu for dinner at the White House last night, they were pressed by reporters on what happens next in Gaza if a ceasefire and conclusion to this war does occur.

And Trump, when he was specifically asked how he felt about a two- state solution, he deferred to Netanyahu. Here's what the prime minister had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. And that means that certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So we will see if Netanyahu has any more to say about this or a potential ceasefire deal, as he is set to meet with Speaker Johnson in the next 15 minutes.

BLITZER: All right, we will stay in close touch with you as well, Arlette Saenz up on Capitol Hill.

I want to go back to Pamela in Texas right now -- Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, well, Wolf, here I am in Kerrville, Texas.

We just heard from a press conference with Texas officials where they largely dodged our questions, accountability questions, those questions that are really pinpointing what went wrong. Why weren't there more warnings or evacuations? Those are continuing to loom as we wait to get hopefully more information soon from those officials.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:37:36]

BROWN: At least 108 people are confirmed dead in Central and South Texas after historic flash flooding ripped through neighborhoods and riverside summer camps.

Minutes ago, we learned that five young girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic are still missing. At least 27 campers and counselors were killed at the all-girl camp along the Guadalupe River.

And we have this remarkable video. A cabin from Camp La Junta is seen floating on the river. In the doorway, you can see camp staffers inside the cabin. All the men inside were able to safely get out and evacuate that camp.

CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us now.

Isabel, this is day five of searching. How are the efforts progressing today?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam, if I could actually start by resetting a little bit about what happened in this Kerr County press conference, because I think there were some dramatic, key takeaways, striking takeaways here. We're essentially trying to close this information gap of what officials were doing, the discussions, the actions that they were taking. Were they considering evacuations? Did they decide not to do that? Did they discuss that at all between 1:14 a.m. on Friday when that first flood emergency alert came out from the National Weather Service that indicated something bad is coming?

It would have read this, hazard, life-threatening flash flooding, flash flood damage threat considerable, so, 1:14 a.m., and then 5:00 a.m. that is the point that the river, the Guadalupe River, started to flood homes.

We asked those questions. What were you doing in that time frame? And what we heard from officials here and the sheriff of Kerr County largely ducking that question, repeatedly refusing to answer, saying that this is not the time to do that. They're still actively focused on search-and-rescue.

But that answer, those answers as to a specific timeline are so important. These are questions from the community members right here. Now, you asked about search-and-rescue. I was over at Center Point, where I saw again hundreds of volunteers gathering together with chain saws, heavy equipment, removing that debris.

Pam, they told me they have found all sorts of personal belongings, pictures, a child's blue teddy bear, heartbreaking personal effects, that they're wondering what happened to those families, and the search certainly continuing -- Pam.

BROWN: Yes, the heartbreaking personal effects seen. Stuffies wash up and little girl clothes. It's too much.

Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

[11:40:00]

And more and more Texas families are getting the devastating news that their loved ones did not survive the floods, but along with this tragic news, we're also hearing truly remarkable stories of survival and heroism, like a mother who explains how she nearly lost her daughter as the floodwaters rushed in, until her young son kept his composure and stepped in to save her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRISSY ELIASHAR, FLOOD SURVIVOR: We tried to get to our car, and my key -- thought I had a plan, and as soon as we looked at it, it floated away.

And Matthew just kept screaming at us. And the only sensible things he could say, just keep walking this way, keep walking. And Mayan (ph) slipped and fell, my daughter, and nearly was washed away. And my son grabbed her and saved her by her hair.

And he just kept telling us, keep walking, and grabbed us and helped us get to just enough high ground. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Wow.

Let's go to CNN's Leigh Waldman on the ground in Kerrville, Texas.

Leigh, you have been talking to a man with an amazing survival story. Tell us about that.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, it's absolutely incredible how Christian Fell was able to survive. The water in his home started reaching almost to the ceiling, and he had to find a way out of the floodwaters around 3:00 a.m. after not receiving any kind of emergency alert.

Hear how he swam out a window and where he stayed waiting for that rescue to come, Pam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN FELL, FLOOD SURVIVOR: So -- and that's when I started making my way over to the meter box.

And then I kind of like grabbed that metal pole, and then I looked around the corner and I saw my truck in the patio area with the hazard lights flashing, when it was originally parked on the other side of the building, so I just picked it up and...

WALDMAN: It brought your truck over here?

FELL: Yes. And so, I climbed up to right there. And I stood there for probably like three hours.

At that point, the water was -- when I was standing up on that meter box, the water was up to my knees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: Three hours, he was standing there in the darkness. He says a transformer near him blew, it was like the sun came out, and that's when he saw the widespread devastation near the home there.

He's thankful to be alive. But after hearing this death toll in this community that he loves keep rising, he is heartbroken, but thankful to be returning home to his family, Pam.

BROWN: Yes, he's very fortunate to be returning home to his family, when so many aren't. Leigh Waldman, thank you.

And this morning, we are remembering some of the people who lost their lives in the tragedy. Holly Frizzell was 72 years old. Her son says she was magnetic and had a larger-than-life personality with a booming laugh. She says she loved to spend time on and near the Guadalupe River; 19-year-old Chloe Childress was a counselor at Camp Mystic.

She had just graduated high school and was spending the summer mentoring the girls at camp. The head of her college prep school said she had a gift of making people feel seen. And 21 year-old Joyce Catherine Badon was at a cabin with three of her friends when the wall of water struck. Those friends remain missing at this hour.

Her father spoke to CNN this weekend as he desperately hoped to find her alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Walking through this mess hoping for a miracle.

TY BADON, FATHER OF VICTIM: Amen. Keep the faith. That's all we can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That miracle never came to fruition, sadly.

Find out how you can help Texas flood victims at CNN.com/Impact or text flood to 707070.

We will have more news after this short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:48:32]

BLITZER: Right now, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is up on Capitol Hill, where he's set to meet with the House speaker, Mike Johnson.

Even as Netanyahu visits Washington, Israel is unleashing more strikes in several parts of Gaza. At least 60 people were killed, according to Palestinian officials.

CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond is with us right now. He's watching all these developments, including the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas that are taking place in Doha, Qatar, right now, even as these latest strikes continue.

Update our viewers, Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, over the course of the last three days, we have seen Israel and Hamas engaging in these proximity talks, which is effectively the final stage of negotiations in order to try and reach an agreement.

And one Israeli official telling me today that there has been progress over the course of those three days, particularly on the issue of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, where there was some disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the mechanism for how that would happen.

But there are still several key sticking points that remain. And that's why it's important to remind our viewers that, even as we are closer than we ever have been to another ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas since the last one collapsed, it is -- the outcome is far from guaranteed.

The major sticking point right now, I'm told, is over the issue of the Israeli military's withdrawal from parts of Gaza over the course of this 60-day ceasefire, with the Israelis trying to maintain some positions that they did not have on March 2, which is the lines from which they are supposed to withdraw from.

[11:50:10]

So we understand, according to the Qatar mediators, that this is going to take several more days, at least of negotiations. Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy, is indeed set to go to the region later this week in order to deliver those American assurances about negotiating an end to the war altogether during this 60-day ceasefire, but also to see if he can try and get this ceasefire agreement across the finish line.

Ultimately, one of the key questions, Wolf, that still remains unanswered is whether or not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to end the war in Gaza. President Trump has made quite clear that his ultimate goal here with this 60-day ceasefire is to get the parties to a place where they can ultimately reach a permanent ceasefire during this 60-day temporary ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli prime minister has yet to commit to that, but obviously that will be a central part of the discussions that he's been having with top American officials over the course of this week -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem for us.

Jeremy, thank you very, very much.

And we're also following the latest on President Trump's trade war. He's telling 14 countries that their tariff rate is about to go up, some by 40 percent, but he's, once again, extending the deadline for trade talks, now saying the so-called reciprocal tariffs will take effect August 1, instead of tomorrow, as originally planned.

CNN anchor and chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly is here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Phil, break down these new tariff rates and the challenges these countries are facing as the goalposts seem to be moving all the time.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: That's the critical point when you ask about challenges right now, Wolf.

When you talk to either officials or diplomats within these delegations that are engaged in really intensive bilateral trade negotiations and have been over the course of the last two, 2.5 months, their biggest concern in this moment, besides the endgame outcome of a significant increase in their tariff rates across all of their exports to the United States, is they don't necessarily know what the president wants, what his team wants.

They know he's very concerned about market access for U.S. products. They know that he's concerned about regulatory barriers, legislative barriers in various countries or the E.U. in general, but they don't know what combination will actually thread the needle for his top negotiators and eventually the president himself.

When it comes to the rates that were laid out yesterday on those 14 letters, Wolf, what's most interesting is they don't really diverge that much from the April 2 liberation day reciprocal rates that were delayed for 90 days.

What they did see is another three weeks to negotiate. It's not tomorrow, as you noted. It's August 1. The president saying just a short while ago, Wolf, as Kristen Holmes was reporting earlier in the show, there will be no extension. That means these three weeks, something has to get done across the board or major, major increases are coming.

BLITZER: The pressure is clearly on.

What are the Trump administration's objectives here?

MATTINGLY: Again, I think what's difficult to kind of divine at this point in time is what combination of the various elements of negotiation will actually give the president what he wants, what he's looking for.

Now, we do have two framework deals with the U.K. and kind of a more, I guess I would say, initial stage framework with Vietnam that are in place. There's also the truce with China that I think walked back the biggest, most market-rattling elements of the tariff policy.

But when you talk to Trump administration officials, it cuts both ways here, Wolf, because what they make clear is they want the U.S. industry, U.S. products, to have an easier time in these various markets from these various countries. But they also don't hate tariffs. The president likes tariffs quite a bit, and they certainly like the tariff revenue that's coming in, over $80 billion, I think at this point, since January 20, about 65 percent more than year over year from a year prior.

So how they actually land this is the biggest question of all, Wolf, because, at this point in time, two framework-ish deals and a truce, it's far short of 90 deals in 90 days, and certainly nowhere near an expansive kind of reorienting of the entire market for global market that the president was intending to go after when he initially launched this on April 2.

BLITZER: How have some of these countries, including these major trading partners of the United States, responded?

MATTINGLY: We have seen two real forms here. And I think South Korea is kind of the primary one, where they made clear they want to accelerate their efforts. They have been in intense negotiations. They have been considered one of the closer countries to having a possible framework deal.

They made clear in their statement last night after the letter came out that they were going to accelerate those efforts. They're going to continue those efforts. You have seen some countries, though. Japan has taken a little bit more of a rigid, harder line over the course of the last couple of weeks. That has certainly been the case.

South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, pushed back very hard in the letters that we saw yesterday. Wolf, I think the critical element here is, as you get closer to the finish line, Wolf, as you know, covering this town and economics better than anybody over the course of your time here, trade deals are really hard.

[11:55:04]

BLITZER: Very hard.

MATTINGLY: There are domestic equities, political equities involved here. That's what they need to figure out.

BLITZER: I want to just quickly listen to it a little bit. This Cabinet meeting has now started. I want to hear what Trump is saying.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: ... get it down there and be helpful. And on Sunday, when the families were waiting at a church to identify their children's bodies, Franklin Graham and I called in and prayed with the families and read some Scripture with them.

And he was incredible in making himself available to that as well. But we will be back down there in a couple of days and continue to do all we can. But this is an unprecedented event. It really is. There's been tragedies like this around the country, but everyone is unique and different situations.

And the response the federal government had supporting the state through this, I'm proud of the people that stepped up and immediately came. The Coast Guard, when they came in, they had a difficult time even getting the aircraft in and landed. They had to try several times in the weather to get it in and deploy.

And I think we have heard about our one Coast Guard member that was responsible for saving over 165 people. But that entire crew did incredible work. And all the first responders there did incredible work. And I know people are getting tired now, but they're getting reinforcements and volunteers are showing up.

And I just want to commend the governor and his team for being the leaders. And they're so thankful that you're letting them make the decisions and manage the response like it should be, and then us supporting them with the resources of the federal government.

We have already deployed dollars to the state, much like the block grants that you have talked about, so very grateful for that, sir.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's never been a wave like this outside of the breaking of a dam. This was almost a wave that was -- ended up being -- more, actually.

Now, with the dam, you can understand it, but this approached almost with that speed. When you see a dam break, it's not a pretty sight. It wipes out everything. And this is the kind of thing that built up so fast. And it's happened two or three times before over the years, but not to this extent.

But tell them when you met the father who was picking up the daughter's clothing.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: So sad.

NOEM: I had walked through the cabin where all the little girls died. And I had kind of fallen apart in there, but I walked out of the cabin and a gentleman was standing there and he said, that man over there needs a hug.

And so I walked over to him and I hugged him and I said: "Do you work here?"

And he said: "No, my little girl was in that cabin."

And he said: "And I just found her best friend about an hour-and-a- half ago." She had passed away. And he just fell apart. And so then we just hugged and talked for probably an hour about that. But then there was another -- the grandpa was there looking for his granddaughter as well. There was a dad there of one of the counselors.

The counselor was alive, but she was dealing with the fact that she had hung on to some of these girls and was trying to keep them out of the floodwaters and had gotten hit by something and had lost two of the girls and wasn't able to hang on to them and was going to live the rest of her life thinking about that moment when she wasn't able to hang on to these girls.

But these parents were picking up their kids' belongings out of the mud and throughout the camp and putting them in bags. And then one of the dads said: "I knew 50 of these girls here. So I'm -- what -- I knew that was her dress, my daughter's friend's dress."

So, I was -- he was picking it up and putting it in a bag to return to her parents. And so it was a -- and then the director was there comforting everybody who had lost his father the night before too. And he was still there trying to facilitate all of these parents grieving their children and find them.

So the strength of people is incredible. One of the things that I asked there that day was that they all have escorts or counselors when parents come in, that -- so from, that point, that, when they came into the camp, that they have somebody with them when they're going and looking for their children's belongings or looking for their children.

And so very emotional, but also just so tragic. You don't... TRUMP: The relationship with Texas and the governor has been obviously very good for years with me, but the relationship with Texas and their first responders and us with our first responders and lots of other people.

And we brought in a lot of helicopters from all over. And we had a lot of helicopters. It was actually dangerous, 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 the -- Texas had some good ones too. But the response has been incredible, and the fact that we got along so well.

BLITZER: All right.