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Immigration Raid in Southern California Turns Violent; Trump Travels to Texas to Survey Flood Damage; Trump Threatens a 35 Percent Tariff on Canadian Goods. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 11, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, urgent FBI search. The Bureau is looking for a man they say appeared to fire a pistol at law enforcement during an intense standoff between ICE agents and protesters at a California farm.

Plus, new dispatch audio from Texas obtained by CNN revealing a firefighter asking for an emergency alert hours, hours before some residents were notified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any way we could send a code red out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 10-4, stand by. We have to get that approved with our supervisor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin this morning in Southern California where an immigration raid turns violent. Federal agents line shoulder-to-shoulder march toward protestors outside a cannabis farm in Ventura County. The tensions quickly and dramatically escalated.

Agents fire smoke canisters into the crowd. A witness tells CNN he was teargassed during the incident, causing his eyes to burn. And the standoff grew more ominous.

The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for the man on the right who appears to fire a handgun toward the federal officers.

This morning, President Trump's border czar warns that the clashes with immigration officials are becoming more and more dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TOM HOMAN, TRUMP BORDER CZAR: People are welcome to protest. They have their First Amendment rights but they can't cross that line. They can't impede us from doing our job. That's a felony. They certainly can't put arms -- put hands on an agent. That's a felony.

So, what happened in California is just another example of protesters becoming criminals and they've been emboldened by even members of Congress who compare ICE to Nazis and racists and terrorists. I mean, the rhetoric is so high, and I said two months ago, this is going to end up with a loss of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The California governor, Gavin Newsom, is adding to the heated rhetoric, posting on social media this, and I'm quoting him now, kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me Newscum, but he's the real scum, end quote.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Veronica Miracle in Los Angeles. Veronica, so where do things stand this morning?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, this situation is still evolving this morning. We're actually in downtown Los Angeles, where we're expecting a rally in the next couple of hours. Activists expected to descend here to continue protesting against these raids.

But in terms of the Glass House Farms raid that happened yesterday, two different locations at these -- right now, it's not clear how many people were arrested. We have not gotten confirmation of that at this hour. However, we are learning that 18 were found at this -- child labor violation situation. Protesters said this quickly devolved. Take a listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started throwing pepper balls, tear gas, smoke, everything, just trying to disperse us because they're scared. They know that we're going to push back against it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're here united. We're not letting ICE agents in. We're not letting ICE agents out. We've been trying to block them since we're not giving them what they want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:00]

MIRACLE: And, Wolf, these raids went on for hours well into the evening. Still, again, waiting on confirmation on how many people were arrested, but we did see busloads of people being taken out of those facilities. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Veronica Miracle, thank you very, very much.

Also happening now, President Trump is on his way to Texas. He'll survey damage caused by the catastrophic flashfloods. At least 160 people are missing. Officials say 121 people died, a lot of kids in those numbers. Also, CNN has obtained new dispatch audio revealing a local firefighter asking for a formal code red alert for people in Hunt, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any way we could send the code red out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 10-4, stand by. We have to get that approved with our supervisor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And it would take nearly six hours until some residents got the alert, according to CNN affiliate KSAT.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is on the scene for us in Texas. Shimon, what are we learning about those critical hours before things took such a deadly turn?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one thing is for certain, Wolf, is that it paints just such a horrific situation for the residents and the people who were in Kerr County where all of this happened. And it really just shows you how dire and how horrific the conditions were when law enforcement, when the emergency responders, were finally starting to react. And in some cases it, it was almost too late. By the time, the floodwaters started making their way into people's homes, into the R.V.s, into different areas. It was too late for emergency responders to have any kind of an effect.

And when you listen to it even more, and the calls that the 911 system was getting from residents, it's just so horrific. Take a listen to some of what we've been able to obtain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We received a phone call at our fire station. They have a lady. She's frantic. She's at Casa Bonita 117 Quarto Way or Casa Bonita Lodges, and she said her children are on top of one of the cabanas and they're trapped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And these were the sites, this is what was happening all across this area by that point. And also the other thing, Wolf, what this highlights is that roads were impassable, making it almost impossible for some of the emergency vehicles to get to some of the homes in some of the areas where people were fighting to stay alive.

The other thing, this all goes to the fact that it really shows that the emergency officials in this town, in this county should have been better prepared for this. We have been asking questions about that. We have been asking officials about that. And so far we've not been able to get any kind of answers onto what they were doing to prepare for this storm.

BLITZER: Shimon, I also want to ask you about the daily news conference that have been taking place where you are there in Kerrville, Texas. Every day for the last several days, there have been an 11:00 A.M. Eastern, 10:00 A.M. Central briefing between this local state and sometimes even federal officials. Usually, it went at least on for a half an hour. Yesterday, it only lasted barely ten minutes. And there's no briefing today. What's going on?

PROKUPECZ: Yes. Well, Wolf, barely 10 minutes yesterday. And not only that, they didn't even allow us to ask any of the county officials. It was a local police official, a sergeant, Sergeant Lamb, from the Kerrville Police Department, who spoke, but we didn't see any of the county officials who have been getting so many of the questions about accountability at that press conference. They decided not to put them up yesterday, essentially not allow them to answer any kind of questions.

And today, because the president is visiting here and he's going to the area where these press conferences are usually held, they decided they're not going to have any daily briefing with us.

I sort of got the sense yesterday, Wolf, that once they put up that police sergeant, that was going to be the last briefing for quite some time. We'll see if they do anything next week, but, you know, that's not going to deter people from asking the important questions about accountability and why is it that the officials in this county weren't better prepared for this storm.

BLITZER: Yes. This is an important development. All right, Shimon, thank you very, very much.

Meanwhile, President Trump is threatening 35 percent tariffs on goods coming into the United States from Canada. This is just the latest escalation by the president in his intermittent trade war with one of America's most important trading partners.

CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us right now.

[10:10:00]

Betsy, what has the response been to this move by the president?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER AND WRITER: That's right, Wolf. The president has been lobbing potential tariff rates back and forth at Canada since back in February, but this really marks an escalation of that tariff threat, the president sending a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday.

BLITZER: All right, hold on a minute, Betsy. I just want to interrupt. The president is getting ready to leave the White House to head to Joint Base Andrews. I want to hear what he's saying.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- that much water that fast without a dam break. You'd think a dam would have to break to have it. So, it's a terrible thing. But we're going to be there with some of the great families and others, the governor, everybody is going to be there.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: Maybe at some point, I'll talk to him. Right now, I'm not. They're treating President Bolsonaro very unfairly. He's a good man. You know, I know him well. I negotiated with him. He was a very tough negotiator and I can tell you he was a very honest man and he loved the people of Brazil. He was a very tough guy to negotiate with.

I shouldn't like him because he was very tough in negotiations, but he was also very honest. And I know the honest ones and I know the crooked ones.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: We're going to see. It was sent yesterday. They called. I think it was fairly well-received, but it's what we need. So, we'll see what happens.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I know. You'll be seeing things happen.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I think we've done very well on immigration. We were given a very bad hand by Biden. He allowed 25 million people to come in totally unchecked, unvetted. We're getting the criminals out and we're getting them out fast. The courts have ultimately done the right thing. Amazingly, they've really done the right thing and they understand it's really the survival of our country.

It's a very important thing. We can't have like 11,888 murderers, and, you know, something that you should have that you haven't reported. As, you know, 300,000 children are missing, right? 300,000 under Biden, and we've already gotten back 10,000 of those children and we have a lot more planned to come back. We're getting a back by the thousands. But 300,000, and we -- as of this morning, over 10,000 we've gotten back.

REPORTER: What is your advice to countries worldwide ahead of the upcoming tariff deadline?

TRUMP: Oh, I think just keep working hard. You know, we've been taking advantage of for many, many years by countries, both friend and foe. And, frankly, the friends have been worse than the foes in many cases. So, I would say just keep working. It's all going to work out.

REPORTER: Are you going to fire Jerome Powell, the Fed chair?

TRUMP: I think he's doing a terrible job. I think we should be -- no. I think we should be three points lower interest rate. He's costing our country a lot of money. We should be number one and we're not, and that's because of Jerome Powell. In terms of interest, we are number one in the world. Look, I'll tell you a little simple language. One year ago, our country was a dead country. We were going nowhere except down. We were the laughing stock all over the world. And now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're number one everywhere, anywhere in the world, and that's all they're talking about is our country. One year ago, it was a dead country. Now, it's the hottest country anywhere in the world.

BLITZER: All right. So, the president answering a few questions as he is getting ready to leave the White House to head over to Joint Base Andrews, fly down to Texas because of the catastrophic floods down there. We'll watch him throughout the day and see what else he has to say.

Betsy Klein, our White House reporter is joining us right now. Betsy, he went through several questions, important questions including on Brazil, threats he's making to the Brazil government because of its arrest Bolsonaro, the former president, who Trump says is a good man and an old friend.

He says, you'll be seeing things happening soon in Ukraine. He was asked about the latest Russian attack on a maternity hospital in the second largest city in Ukraine overnight. And then, of course, he continued to blame Biden for the immigration issues, including the children who are still missing.

[10:15:02]

Finally, he went on and said that Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, is doing a terrible job. Interest rates should be three points lower, he says, and he's costing our country, he says, he's costing, quote, our country a lot of money.

Betsy, what else stood out to you?

KLEIN: There are a couple things that stood out there. Number one, the president and first lady traveling to Texas, as you mentioned, we do expect the president to step into a role of consoler-in-chief. That is something that is all too familiar to American presidents and increasingly so. But the president said there he is expecting to meet with some of the families.

Separately on tariffs, just after he announced that he plans to impose a 35 percent tariff on Canada in a letter to the country's prime minister yesterday, he said that that letter was, quote, fairly well- received. He said they called him. He also pointed to those blanket tariffs he announced yesterday and said he was asked for his advice to some of the countries that are trying to navigate this. He said they should just keep pressing along.

He also told our colleague, Kit Maher, no, he is not planning to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. Now, this comes after yesterday, his OMB Director Russell Vote sent a letter to Powell that essentially accused the Federal Reserve chair of breaking the law due to some of those renovations to Federal Reserve headquarters. The president said he thinks he's doing a terrible job, but his job is safe for now, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we shall see how safe that job is.

Betsy Klein, thank you very, very much.

Still ahead, calls for an investigation after CNN reports FEMA's response to the Texas flooding was slowed by cost controls by the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, Texas Congressman Pete Session is standing by live. We will discuss.

And later, a maternity hospital in Ukraine struck by Russia as President Trump says he has a deal to send us weapons to Ukraine through NATO. The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, is standing by to join us live this hour as well.

Stay with us here in The Situation Room.

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[10:20:00]

BLITZER: Just into CNN, a spokesperson for a U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg confirms to CNN that he will travel to Ukraine next week for a meeting with President Zelenskyy to continue, and I'm quoting now, an important dialogue between the two countries.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, at least ten people have been killed as Russian missiles bombarded the region overnight. A maternity hospital in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, has been evacuated after sustaining significant damages in that overnight strike. No injuries have been reported to any women or children, thank God, at least so far.

This morning, Ukrainian officials are also investigating potential Russian ties to yesterday's brazen assassination in broad daylight on an SBU agent. You can see him walking here before shots rang out, creating panic on the streets. Assassinations have played a key role in both the Ukrainian and Russian plans since the war began.

CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine more than three years ago and the very visible fighting began, the Ukrainians have been mastering largely invisible warfare, picking off key Russian targets in places they might have thought safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we know what happened is that she was traveling in this vehicle when the vehicle blew up.

FOREMAN: In 2022, the daughter of an outspoken Russian war supporter who also promoted the Russian cause was killed just outside Moscow. In 2023, a pro-war Russian blogger was killed in St. Petersburg reportedly by a bomb hidden in a small statue. In 2024, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a key figure in Russia's radiological, biological, and chemical defense forces, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter just a few miles from the Kremlin. And a car bomb took another general in a Moscow suburb earlier this year.

In every case, Ukrainian agents were either highly suspected or Ukraine openly took credit. What's more, the covert agents have played a role in some of the most dramatic drone attacks. After Operation Spiderweb damage or destroyed scores of Russian aircraft in June, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service celebrated.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Our Operation Spiderweb yesterday proved that Russia must feel what its losses mean.

FOREMAN: By all accounts, the Russians have tried to do the same, allegedly repeatedly trying to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky among others. That's one reason the killing of that security service agent in Kyiv is drawing so much attention, and according to some international reports, celebration on the Russian front.

Tom Foreman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Tom, for that report.

Joining us now, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Oksana Markarova. Thanks so much for joining us, Ambassador.

The overnight strikes by the Russians on various civilian targets in Ukraine, including that maternity ward just the latest escalation in the mounting Russian military offensive on Ukraine.

[10:25:10]

President Trump says the United States will provide additional defense weapons, defensive weapons to Ukraine through NATO. How critical are the weapons to Ukraine's survival at this point in this war?

OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Good morning, Wolf, and thank you for having me. They are critical. They are critical, as you said. Unfortunately, despite all the effort, despite hard work that Ukraine does together with the U.S., together with others, not only to defend ourselves from this aggressive war, but also actively seeking peace, working towards peace. Russia is showing the opposite. They've chosen war and they are doubling down not only on the frontlines where they have at the moment 695,000 Russian troops on our territory, attacking us on a very long frontline, but also this terror against civilians. You already mentioned the maternity hospital today. Yesterday on July 10th, there was massive attack, ten hours on Kyiv. A couple of days ago, Odessa, Kharkiv, I mean all the places.

And just a quick number for you to compare that all these attacks are not just happening like they did before. But actually Russia increased ten times compared to last year was ascendant. So, June, 2024, 488 strikes against civilian targets in Ukraine, June, 2025, 5,700 strikes by missiles and drones, and it's all civilian targets. So, air defense, of course, is critical. Because despite the fact that Russia is doubling down on the aggression and war, Ukraine is defending itself, Ukraine is -- you know, people are, of course, tired and scared, but they are relentless in our resilience and in our devotion to defend peace and dignity and our lives in Ukraine.

BLITZER: And as I mentioned, Ambassador, the U.S. is now considering providing additional defensive weapons, air defense systems, for example, to Ukraine through NATO, through NATO, give the weapons to NATO and let NATO then provide the weapons to Ukraine. Does this further potentially Ukraine's ability at some point to be added as a formal official NATO member?

MARKAROVA: Wolf, we are working with our American partners with Trump administration, with all other branches from government on every possibility to actually increase this. So, whether it is the provision of the weapons, which is ongoing, whether it's purchasing more from the United States, or even producing together and developing more. And that's what President Zelenskyy discussed a number of times and we're working actively on it.

If it will be done through NATO, of course, this is a very convenient framework to do so. Ukraine is an AOP (ph) status partner with NATO. We are working actively towards potential future membership, of course, with NATO. And the interoperability is very important for all of us because, frankly, we know that we are not only defending ourselves there. We just need to listen to what President Putin and others are saying and threatening not just Ukraine, where they already waged this aggressive war, but so many other countries. And we have to deter them from attacking them.

BLITZER: This week, President Trump said he was, quote, not happy with President Putin at all. That's a direct quote, and later added that Putin is throwing a lot of B.S. at the U.S. Are you encouraged about President Trump's change in tone toward Russia and specifically toward Vladimir Putin?

MARKAROVA: President Trump has been very clear from the very beginning, and we are grateful for his push for peace. And as you have seen, Ukraine responded to every initiative of President Trump, whether it was the full unconditional ceasefire, which is a great idea, or partial ceasefires or any type of negotiations. Whenever we have discussed that, Ukraine has always constructive. We have been -- our president personally have been where he needed to be, or he sent a delegation.

Unfortunately, it's Russia and Russia only that not only started this war but also is saying no to peace right now. Well, hopefully, together through this peace through strength approach, we will be able to convince them actually to take seriously what we have been saying, Europe is saying, and what President Trump is putting on the table. You know, it's very easy for Russia to actually end this and we have to motivate them to do that. And, you know, the, the bipartisan legislation that is in the Senate and in the House, and in the Senate, we have already 85 core sponsors of the sanctions bill.

[10:30:00]

It is a great bill. I mean, we are very constructive. We are ready for peace. Ukraine is eager to.