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New Dispatch Audio: Emergency Responders Tried To Save People In Critical Hours Of Texas Flooding; Source: State Department Firings Are Underway; WH Official Criticizes Fed Chair Over HQ Renovations. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 11, 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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[11:02:23]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, President Trump is heading to central Texas for a firsthand look at the devastation one week after those deadly floods. And here in Washington, sources telling CNN that mass layoffs are underway right now at the State Department.

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 hour with breaking news. President Trump is heading to central Texas to see for himself areas devastated by last week's flooding. Officials now say more than 160 people are missing and 121 are dead, including many, many children who were simply going to summer camp there.

Plus, new dispatch audio obtained by CNN offers a real-time perspective of what emergency responders were facing in some of those critical hours. Here's one of those emergency calls that came in during the middle of a terrifying night. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Respond to 2029 Highway 392029 Highway 39. It's going to be for a water rescue. House callers, house flooded. We're getting multiple calls off of 39. People are stating their houses are flooding. We're trying to advise them to get to a higher area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is in Kerrville, Texas for us right now. Shimon, you've been reporting on this, watching it all unfold. What questions are being raised about the preparations made before this horrific catastrophe?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, that is the -- the big question. I just finished interviewing a resident here in -- at this RV Park. And it was quite emotional. And just his story is so horrific. And he is raising all of those questions that we also have, is why wasn't this county, why wasn't this city more prepared for what could unfold here?

There was plenty of warning, certainly from the state officials. But what were the local officials doing? And these stories that are starting to emerge are becoming more and more horrific about people having to take matters into their own hands. And questioning why the authorities were not out here monitoring this river. Why the sheriffs weren't out here monitoring the river. And seeing that something could go wrong.

[11:04:58]

And then waking people up in the middle of the night to get them to higher ground. That is what some people are now starting to ask. And why didn't this town decide to put those warning sirens in? There are people asking those questions here. They understand the first responders are doing their work to try and recover people. But they want to know why the authorities here didn't do more.

And when you listen to those dispatch audio tapes that we've been able to obtain, you can just hear how in those hours, early hours of the morning, after the flood started making their way, the water started making its way through this county, it was already too late. But officials were frantically trying to get a warning system, trying to get a warning out there. And here, just listen to what this one official said on the dispatch audio.

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And, Wolf, other people were trying to get to higher ground as the flood water was coming in. They were on their roofs of their homes, more inland, where they were just trying to survive for hours on the roof. And really, you know, we're a week into this, Wolf. And as people come down here to look at the river, the pain is still very much there.

And they are just starting to deal with that pain and that grief of what they saw of kids in trailers being swept away by the floodwaters. It is just such a horrific picture that everyone here is starting to paint as we mark one week since this horrible event.

BLITZER: Yes. Sort of underscored to me, and a lot of people here in the Washington, D.C. area, yesterday, when some extreme thunderstorms were heading our way, and every few minutes, whether on our cell phones or whether on television, we would get these warnings in -- in northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., in the District of Columbia, and in suburban Maryland, Montgomery County, get ready for some heavy, heavy potential flooding. Fortunately, it didn't happen as bad as the warnings were, but it did raise a lot of concerns. But it was impressive the way these warnings were coming forward. Shimon Prokupecz in Texas for us, thank you very, very much.

Now one week into the search for more than 160 still-missing people, here's what some first responders said about what they eyewitnessed.

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CHIEF DIANA BACCUS, INGRAM, TEXAS FIRE DEPARTMENT: I saw children floating in the water, begging for help that we could not reach. And that, that takes it out of you.

TAMMY LANDIN, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: Later on, it's going to hit -- hit everybody. I was born and raised here. Pretty bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera has more on the search for the missing and what the searchers have had to deal with.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Passing through the gates of the Last Gap Ranch in Center Point, Texas. Volunteer firefighter Razor Dobbs takes us to the edge of a sunflower field. The beauty eclipsed by heartbreak.

RAZOR DOBBS, CENTER POINT, TEXAS VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes, there's been a lot of victims in this area, right -- right here.

LAVANDERA: And this is a place that's home to you.

DOBBS: This river is this whole community's home. This river is like the backbone, this river is where people that grew up on this river and their kids are growing up on this river.

LAVANDERA (voice over): This is the story of one spot along the Guadalupe River and the monumental task of finding the missing.

DOBBS: This is -- this is a pinprick. This is a little bitty one frame of the whole movie of equipment.

LAVANDERA: Right.

DOBBS: I mean, this operation right here is going for 30 miles plus.

LAVANDERA: All the way back to Camp Mystic.

DOBBS: Yes. And -- and so it is crazy.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Heavy machinery has taken over the banks of the Guadalupe River. Makeshift roads have been carved into the river's edge to haul out mountains of debris. DOBBS: This whole area right here was a huge debris field. It was full of not only, you know, natural debris, but it was full of, you know, remnants of R.V.s, houses, boats, you know, just names. So which triggers the -- the search and rescue people that OK, this is a hotbed.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Razor can't say how many bodies have been found along this tiny stretch of the river. But every day since the July 4th flood, he says, search teams have uncovered victims here. This spot is about 30 miles downriver from Camp Mystic, the discoveries uncovered here have shocked him.

LAVANDERA: What kind of debris have you guys found down here as well?

DOBBS: Well, we've -- we've found signage from the camp part of the hills that's up there by Camp Mystic. That's 30 miles away.

[11:10:03]

LAVANDERA: That's staggering.

DOBBS: That's staggering. That's the power of this -- of this river.

LAVANDERA: This is what the search crews are having to navigate their way through these massive cypress trees that have been ripped out of the ground. All of this was well under water here. And there's so much debris even up in the trees. You can see how high the water reached here. Probably reached a little bit higher than that. And crews here, when they see something that have to be concerned that there could be someone in that debris pile still high up in a tree.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Navigating our way through the riverbed, we came across a group of volunteers trudging through terrain. A group of strangers who have come together to help.

REX CASHION, VOLUNTEER: We just all have that one common goal of helping the community and helping fellow Texans.

LAVANDERA (voice over): One week into this tragedy, and there's an outpouring of gratitude for the volunteers and emergency teams working along the river.

LAVANDERA: As you sit here and you watch this operation, and it is heroic on so many levels. But do you think it's possible that there are some families who are just not going to get their loved ones back?

DOBBS: You know, right now, I'm not even going to think about that. You know, right now, my mentality and our mentality thing is we're bringing people home and that's it.

LAVANDERA (voice over): For seven days, Razor Dobbs and his fellow Center Point volunteer firefighters have worked around the clock. As we navigated the debris field, he seemed frozen for a moment. A few weeks earlier, he enjoyed a picnic in this spot with his wife and friends.

LAVANDERA: Does it hit you pretty hard?

DOBBS: I don't know, just still numb. I'm still in work mode, but it's -- it's, you know, it is filtering in. You know, my wife came down and from the house and just looked and she just started crying because not -- not at the destruction of the property. This is going to grow back, but just the -- the horror and the anguish that these families must feel. Number one, the -- the powerless that -- powerlessness they must feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: We met Razor Dobbs at the Center Point Volunteer Fire Station. He told us that the place was flooded with eight feet of water, but since then, it has been taken over by volunteers and first responders. They've turned it into the command post, and from there, hundreds of people are fanning out every day looking for the missing.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Kerr County, Texas.

BLITZER: Thanks very much to Ed Lavandera for his excellent, excellent reporting, and this is important. You can find out how you, you can help Texas flood victims. Go to cnn.com/impact or text FLOOD to 707070. Very important.

Also happening now, sources telling CNN that firings over at the U.S. State Department are now underway. More than 1,300 people are losing their jobs as part of the dramatic overhaul of the State Department. I want to bring in CNN State Department reporter, Jennifer Hansler, right now. Jennifer, update our viewers. What are you learning?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Wolf, right now there are firing notices going out to some 1,300 people who are based here in the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the State Department. These firings are part of a larger dramatic overhaul of the building in an effort to shrink the federal government. The Supreme Court gave the green light for the department to move ahead with these firings and this reorganization earlier this week.

Now, I'm told per an internal notice that this is affecting 1,107 members of the Civil Service as well as 246 Foreign Service officers. People in this latter group, Foreign Service officers, are often highly trained, speak multiple languages, and serve in those embassies and consulates around the world. Now, while the cuts are exclusive right now to Washington, D.C., opponents of the reorganization and the cuts say that these are going to have an impact at a time when diplomacy is as important as ever with crises raging around the world and the need for these experts to be in place.

I spoke earlier this week with the president of the American Foreign Service Association, Tom Yazdgerdi, and he told me this, Wolf. He said, quote, there are horrible things that are happening in the world that require a tried and true diplomatic workforce that's able to address that, the ability to maintain a presence in areas of the world that are incredibly important, dealing with issues like Ukraine, like Gaza, and like Iran right now. Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump administration officials have defended this move. They have said that the department became too bloated and too oversized, and this was needed to right- size and align the department with the President's priorities. This overhaul is also affecting some 300 offices here at the State Department, and Rubio was asked about this yesterday, and he said this was done in a very deliberate manner. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:15:10]

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We went very specifically through and reorganized the State Department, and when you reorganize the State Department, there were certain bureaus we wanted to empower, the regional bureaus, and there were certain bureaus, these functional bureaus that were closed. Our intent is to move forward the plans that we notified Congress of weeks ago and that we took months to design.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANSLER: Now, Wolf, of course, this is happening to folks who have given years, if not decades, of their lives to these careers, so there's going to be a lot of emotions happening here at the State Department today. Wolf?

BLITZER: A lot of depression going on over there, and it follows the enormous number of firings of the Agency for International Development, AID, at the State Department as well, right?

HANSLER: Yes, that's exactly right. They've completely dismantled USAID and folded it into the State Department, but the vast majority of that workforce has lost their jobs.

BLITZER: Yes, all right. Jennifer Hansler at the State Department for us, thanks very, very much.

Also happening right now, the Trump administration is umping up criticism of the Federal Reserve chairman this morning. The president personally slammed Jerome Powell as he left the White House while also saying he wouldn't fire him. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think he's doing a terrible job. I think we should be, no, I think we should be three points lower interest rates. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, I want to bring in CNN anchor and chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly. He's been following all of this, got a brand new piece that just moved out on CNN.com. What's your thought? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think what's been fascinating to watch over the course of the last couple weeks, really, but especially yesterday, Wolf, is just how dramatically the criticism and the pressure has ramped up, not just from the President, who has been neither subtle nor secretive about his views related to Jerome Powell and his interest rate position, but from top advisors.

Wolf, over the course of yesterday, we saw two really critical developments. First, the Office of Management and Budget Director, Russell Vought, very close advisor to the President, one of the most probably bureaucratically talented individuals within the administration, sending a letter to Jay Powell accusing him or alleging that he potentially broke the law in terms of a renovation project at the Federal Reserve and that he potentially lied to Congress.

Just a few hours later, it became clear that the President had replaced three individuals with loyalists on a commission that was tied to that renovation and Russell Vought's allegations in the letter. Now, what does this all mean? In -- on its face, it means what Russell Vought said this morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL VOUGHT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: I know you guys want to make it more about a metaphysical question about the independence of the Fed. This is about the extent to which this building, this renovation project, is horrifying from a cost perspective. And -- and our administration, both OMB, the National Capital Planning Commission, which now has three new commissioners, and as of yesterday is going to be asking, is asking very, very tough questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Wolf, here's what's important to point out. This isn't happening in isolation. This is happening as the President has repeatedly made clear that he wants rate cuts, that he has a sharp disdain for Jay Powell, and it also happens as several other top administration officials have not just criticized him but asked him to step down, said he should step down.

Republican allies on Capitol Hill, who first kind of dug up this allegation that the administration is now pursuing, they're doing the same thing. This is part of a pressure campaign that appears quite coordinated as the President desperately hopes that the Fed, at least in its next meeting, if not Powell, then the other voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee, will decide to lower rates.

BLITZER: You know, and earlier this morning, the President said, Jerome Powell is doing a terrible job, his words. The interest rate should be three points lower. He said, Powell is costing our country, this is a direct quote, is costing our country a lot of money. Can he actually fire Powell? MATTINGLY: There's two really critical elements of this, and I think it's important that the president said again, reiterated this morning, before he made those comments, when he was asked by CNN if he was planning to fire Powell, he said no, and he was asked again, and he said no again.

The two elements are, one, legal, which is, does the President actually have the authority to do this? There are mechanisms by which some lawyers believe it's possible. It would be very complicated, and there's no sense the Supreme Court would necessarily side with him on this issue.

The other is the markets. The market response to the firing of an independent central banker in the most prominent country in the world economically would be catastrophic, potentially, which is the primary guardrail that the President has been presented by his advisers, why he doesn't want to move forward on this. But the pressure campaign, that Wolf is definitely moving forward.

BLITZER: Yes, I mean, he could clearly fire Powell if there was evidence that Powell was breaking the law or doing something really wrong, but there's no such evidence.

MATTINGLY: And which is why the developments of yesterday and the potential of a four-cause allegation coming to the forefront may give him an option, but at least at this point, he's not pursuing it.

[11:20:03]

BLITZER: Good point. All right, Phil Mattingly, excellent reporting as usual. Thank you very, very much.

Still ahead, a dramatic standoff outside a cannabis farm in California. The FBI urgently searching for a man they say fired a gun at federal agents during a protest. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[11:25:16]

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 let -- letting ICE agents in. We're not letting ICE agents out. We've been trying to block in since we're not giving them what they want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This morning, the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest after an immigration raid outside a legal cannabis farm turned violent. Federal agents fired smoke canisters into a crowd of protesters in Ventura County, just outside Los Angeles. A witness tells CNN he was tear gassed, causing his eyes to burn. And the confrontation grows more ominous right now after the man on the right appears to fire a handgun towards federal agents.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is in downtown Los Angeles for us right now. So, Veronica, where do things stand this morning?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the situation is still evolving. Right now, as you said, we're in downtown Los Angeles. We are expecting a protest and a rally here in the next couple of hours. People setting up right behind us. We are also expecting Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to speak here.

She is expected to sign an executive directive to bolster immigrant rights. All of this coming on the heels of that marijuana farm raid yesterday. This happened at Glass House Farms at two of their locations. They have two different locations. Federal agents descended on both of those locations. And today, it is not clear exactly how many people were detained or arrested.

But from aerial footage, we did see busloads of people being taken away. As we know, the protesters descended on that area. Things got incredibly violent. Here's what Borders Are Tom Homan had to say.

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TOM HOMAN, BORDER "CZAR": These officers are really good at what they do. And if the judge is making a decision that's against what these officers are trained, what -- what the law is based upon, then they're going to shut down the operation I think that's your endgame. They want ICE to stop doing this. But if they base it on the rule of law, they're going to find out Border Patrol and ICE are doing exactly what they're going to do in accordance with law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIRACLE: And Wolf, all of this is happening. As a federal judge is expected to decide today whether or not these immigration raids can be halted. The ACLU filed a lawsuit last week against the Trump administration.

And today, the city and county of Los Angeles actually have joined their fight against the Trump administration. The judge yesterday heard both sides and will decide today, it's expected to decide today, if those raids can be halted. So we'll be monitoring that as well. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Veronica Miracle in Los Angeles for us. Thank you very much.

[11:27:56]

Up next, could the U.S. Supreme Court undo parts of the Voting Rights Act? The new CNN reporting revealing that Justice Clarence Thompson may be gaining ground in his effort to undercut the landmark law.

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