Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Sketch Released Of Person Of Interest In Arkansas State Park Killings; 4 Killed In New York City Mass Shooting, Including NYPD Officer; Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin Demands Tapes Of Ghislaine Maxwell DOJ Interviews. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 29, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:25]

ERICA HILL CNN ANCHOR: Police releasing a sketch of a person of interest in the killings of a mother and father at an Arkansas state park. Clinton and Cristen Brink were hiking with their two young daughters -- the girls just seven and nine years old -- when the couple was killed. Now, their daughters were not hurt. They are now safe with family.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has been following this story and joins us now. So Dianne, what else are we hearing now in addition to this sketch?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Erica, that urgent manhunt is still underway in northwest Arkansas. Police releasing this sketch overnight of a man they're calling a person of interest. They're asking the public for help identifying him so they can question him. They say that he was spotted in Devil's Den State Park on Saturday. That, of course, is when Clinton and Cristen went hiking with their two daughters in that state park on that afternoon and they were found dead.

Police have not said how they were killed at his point. They have not released any potential motive, but they have released information they have, they say, from witnesses about what they are considering that person of interest.

They say at this point -- new this morning -- that they believe that he could have been injured while attacking the couple. So they're asking someone to look out for someone with an injury who may have been attacking the couple.

They also call him a white man with a medium build who was last seen on that Saturday wearing a shirt with long rolled-up sleeves, dark pants, and a dark ballcap. He also had fingerless gloves and sunglasses, as well as a black backpack on.

They say he was seen driving a black four-door sedan -- possibly a Mazda -- toward a park exit on Saturday. And the license plate was covered with either electrical or duct tape. They believe that he could have been traveling on either highway 170 or 220 near the park. Now the family did release a statement. We're told the two girls are

with relatives. Again, they are safe. They were unharmed in the incident. But they released a statement basically asking for privacy and for anyone with information to please step forward. They also added, "Clinton and Cristen died heroes protecting their little girls, and they deserve justice. They will forever live on in all of our hearts."

Erica, again, police are asking anybody with information about what they saw on Saturday. Please look at your cellphone video. Look at your game cameras, your security cameras if you live in the area -- to report that to them and not post it on social media first. They say that could compromise the investigation they're putting together.

HILL: Yeah. It's so important to have that note in there as well.

Dianne, appreciate it. Thank you.

As we continue to follow the breaking news this morning there are new details in the deadliest mass shooting in New York City in 25 years. Police say the gunman entered an office tower in Midtown Manhattan Monday evening fatally shooting four people, including an NYPD officer, before taking his own life. The shooter has been identified as a 27-year-old Las Vegas man.

The building itself is home to a number of large businesses, including the NFL's corporate offices. A source telling CNN the gunman had a suicide note in his pocket. That note expressed grievances with the NFL and also claimed that he suffered from CTE and asked for his brain to be studied.

At this hour the motive under investigation.

Joining me now is Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director for the Criminal Investigative Division. Chris, good to have you with us this morning.

Let's walk through what we know --

CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION: Good morning.

HILL: -- in this moment. There's been a -- there's been a lot of focus on the video that we have of this -- of the shooter as he walks into the building and I want to play that if we can because he's so calm. And I've also heard someone else describe it as almost purposeful.

What do you see in those moments?

SWECKER: Yeah. I mean, he walked into probably the city with the most wired video network in the -- in our country and proceeded to walk -- I've been in that building. I served on a Blackstone-owned company after I retired from the FBI and went to board meetings there. There's a big courtyard and you see him walking through that courtyard. It's 6:30 or sometime after 6:00. Not as much traffic -- foot traffic as you would normally see. And you can tell he's holding the M4 at his side, so he's making some

effort to conceal the weapon. But it looks like to me like again, he is purposeful. He's going to engage anyone who tries to stop him from getting into that building. And, of course, nobody did because don't walk around armed in New York City and there's no police officer outside the building. So he gets inside and quickly ambushes the first threat that he sees, which is an off-duty NYPD police officer who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[07:35:13]

So, you know, this is -- it's hard to get your rational mind around this. This guy drives 30-some-odd hours across country over the course of 2 1/2 days, jumps out of the car, gets right to it and goes into a suicide mission. It's just really hard to fathom that.

HILL: It is so difficult.

And to your point about wrapping your head around it, one of the many difficult aspects, of course, for survivors and also the loved ones of those who were killed is this big question of a motive and whether or not you can ever really know, of course, when the shooter is not alive to talk about it.

But based on what we have seen, the NYPD also noting that inside the vehicle they found a rifle case with rounds, a loaded revolver, ammunition, magazines. There was a backpack. There was medication that was prescribed to him. He also had a license to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Nevada.

Where do you put those pieces in the puzzle at this point in the investigation?

SWECKER: Yeah. When you -- when you look at this, I mean -- and as happens so often, it's a story of red flags, mental instability, and a -- and a grievance that's been built up. I mean, I'm not a behavioral scientist but the -- those FBI Academy at Quantico studied this and there's a manufactured grievance. This is -- you know, it's often a person who is failing in life, not happy in any way. They -- you know, they just seem to become dysfunctional.

Things get mis-wired in their brain and they -- and they choose a grievance because it can't be their fault. It has to be someone else's fault. And then they -- you know, and then they see on -- you know, in the media people like Luigi Mangione being sort of becoming a folk hero. And they want to be noticed, and they want to go out with whatever this grievance is -- whatever this cause is. Again, it's hard to get our minds around that but somehow in a warped way it makes sense to them.

HILL: Yeah.

SWECKER: But the insidious part of it that they're incapable of planning and executing a cross-country execution, if you will, like he did.

HILL: Yeah. The commissioner -- the NYPD commissioner noting he had a documented mental health history.

We're tight on time but real quickly if you were leading this investigation at this point what is your first focus this morning?

SWECKER: It's to continue to work out his social network. In other words talk to everyone. Get his life story. Find out what's going on in his life, who he talked to. His social -- you know, his devices. You've got to exploit those as quickly as you can, which they already have. The FBI is doing this. They're global. They can send someone out in the middle of the night to talk to a boss or a friend, or a family member. And they're quickly I think getting to the bottom of this.

HILL: Um-hum.

SWECKER: Unfortunately, it's -- you know, there's no prosecution obviously but it's for future learnings.

HILL: Yeah.

SWECKER: They want to see what makes people like this do this sort of thing so you can prevent it. One prevention method would have been to put a security guard outside that building.

HILL: It will be interesting to see if that changes now moving forward.

Chris, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New this morning, as we said, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, is demanding the Justice Department release all records and transcripts from the meetings between Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and convicted Epstein conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Senator Durbin is also demanding the Justice Department make the commitment that Maxwell will not receive a pardon, something that the president has refused to rule out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon but I -- nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it. Um, it's in the news about that -- that aspect of it but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. With us now Republican strategist Neil Chatterjee, and CNN political commentator Karen Finney.

And Karen, at a certain point when the president keeps on refusing to rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell one might assume that he's not ruling out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER AND SPOKESPERSON, HILLARY CLINTON 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (via Webex by Cisco): Yes. When he keeps saying leaving -- we know that kind of language from him, right? Every -- people say I can do it. He's used that before.

And this is part of the reason that this story isn't going away. If he were able to definitively say there will be no pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell then, you know, this -- that -- at least branch of this story, which has so many branches, would be at least shut down.

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: And Neil, part of the place where this story lives is in the world of podcasts and among supporters of President Trump where he made active outreach in the campaign.

Now, Joe Rogan is certainly much more mainstream than some of the more niche podcasters and conspiracy theorists out there, but Joe Rogan is wildly popular. One of the most popular podcasts in the country. Joe Rogan endorsed President Trump before this most recent election.

And listen to what Joe Rogan is now saying when discussing the Epstein issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE" PODCAST: When we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things were going to be resolved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

ROGAN: They were going to drain the swamp and going to figure everything out. And when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody's been talking about forever, and then they're trying to gaslight you on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: When you have Joe Rogan talking about the Epstein case as a line in the sand and gaslighting what does that tell you about where this story is and where it's going?

NEIL CHATTERJEE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, FORMER POLICY ADVISER TO SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. Look, there's a reason, as Karen pointed out, this isn't going away. This isn't Democrats or the media driving this. This is a huge component of the president's base that has been key to supporting him throughout the least decade that is frustrated by the way that the administration is handling this.

And I've got to tell you, speaking of frustration, as a Republican I'm feeling pretty good about the first six months of the Trump presidency of wins on the economy, on trade, on tax, in the foreign policy sphere. And yet, there unable in this moment to head into the summer recess taking credit for all of the regulatory, legislative and administrative successes. They're totally caught up in this issue because it's a bad story. Look, let's just be honest. Like, this is not a good story. It's one the president's base is animated about, but average Americans are also animated about this. And the administration, quite frankly, has managed this very poorly and it continues to live on.

BERMAN: And let me just ask you both this straight up. And Neil, first to you. What's hard about saying no to the question of are you going to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell?

CHATTERJEE: I don't get it.

BERMAN: And Karen, you do communications for a living. Just talk to me about the communications aspect of that. It's a question that you know --

FINNEY: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- he's ready for.

FINNEY: One hundred percent. But again, what it says to me is he's not ready to say no. You know, maybe in his mind he thinks keeping that open maybe keeps her on the hook for whatever it is that she is discussing with Todd Blanche.

And I wanted to say I think it's really important what Sen. Durbin did because again, (audio gap) Todd Blanche go and talk to her. That opens up a whole new branch of the tree of questions, right, because now we're wondering what did they talk about? Was she promised a pardon? What kind of a -- what was in the boxes? What kind of information could she be offering?

So that's the problem with this story for the White House. They keep --

BERMAN: Yeah.

FINNEY: And really, it's Trump to be perfectly frank. He keeps sort of creating more questions like he did yesterday by volunteering that there was a dispute over an employee. Well, the one employee that we know worked for him and then was -- then was with Jeffrey Epstein is Virginia Giuffre. So is that who he's talking about? So again, that just opens up a whole new line of questioning.

BERMAN: And Neil, this is shifting gears in a sense, but this has to do with what may be a presidential shift on Gaza vis-a-vis Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister of Israel says there's no starvation in Gaza. President Trump says you look at the pictures there's clear starvation in Gaza.

Inside some of President Trump's base -- again, especially in this podcasting world -- there seems to be some discomfort with what's happening in Gaza.

Theo Von, who is a comedian who podcasts and had the president on -- he posted on Twitter, "POTUS, J.D. Vance, Bernie Sanders, Robert Kennedy Jr., Thomas Massie, Ro Khanna, can we please get aid into Gaza NOW?! Children are starving to death! We are America. This isn't about politics. This is about humanity."

It's just interesting to see some of the positioning among the president's base here, Neil.

CHATTERJEE: Well look, I will say one thing. President Trump is the most optics aware, television aware president of my lifetime. And these are bad visuals, and I think that is influencing the way he is thinking about this issue.

[07:45:00]

I don't know that we're at a point now that there's going to be some historic split with decades of U.S. support for Israel, but this is the president demonstrating his understanding of optics. And the optics out of Gaza are bad, which makes, for me --

BERMAN: Yeah.

CHATTERJEE: -- the Epstein stuff even more confounding. How is he so aware of the optics on Gaza but unaware of the bad optics on Epstein?

BERMAN: You know, interesting point there.

In both cases I just want to say on the Epstein case, innocent victims, young women. And in Gaza, thousands and thousands of civilians clearly suffering.

Neil Chatterjee, Karen Finney, great to see both of you today. I really appreciate the discussion -- Erica.

HILL: Still to come here, the most consequential week for the economy in years. We're standing by for new numbers on how Americans are feeling about the economy. We're also, of course, waiting for the Fed to make a decision on interest rates.

And closing arguments this morning in the murder trial of the Colorado dentist who is accused of poisoning his wife's protein shakes. What detectives say Angela Craig wrote in her diary before her death.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:28]

HILL: In just a few hours closing arguments will begin in the murder trial of James Craig, the Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife with poisoned protein shakes. Both sides resting their cases yesterday. The defense did not call a single witness, and James Craig did not take the stand in his own defense. The prosecution called 48 witnesses over 10 days of testimony.

CNN's Jean Casarez has been closely following this trial. So Jean, what are we expecting today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Closing arguments, and when they're finished, the jury will start deliberating. But the prosecution yesterday -- their final witness was the lead

detective. And two important points that came out from the lead detective were 1) that the protein shake shaker that was found at her bedside -- it was tested. Tetrahydrozoline was found in it and that is a very dangerous chemical in large amounts.

And then also at the hospital on March 15, that's the day she medically crashed. And they -- after she died, they tested her blood two times on that day when it had been taken and they found potassium cyanide both times, but the levels denoted that she was given potassium cyanide at the hospital.

HILL: Wow.

CASAREZ: And they believe -- the working theory is that he brought a syringe into the hospital and when no one was looking he gave it to her right there.

Now, the defense, on cross-examination of that lead detective -- they tried to turn this case around completely, and that's most likely why they didn't have any witnesses because they wanted to show that she took her own life. And they brought out Angela's diary that was found in a storage unit. And here are some things that it said.

Starting in 2009, "I feel so lost and so alone. The further into the process we get the less able I feel to forgive. I looked at Jim today and I couldn't feel any love. I feel abused, worthless, unwanted and unloved. Where do I find myself?

He loves me. How could he do this to me if he really loves me? He doesn't think I'm good enough. He doesn't want me. He'd rather be with someone else. All I want to do when that happens is crawl into bed and cry myself to sleep. I haven't figured out yet if I should give in or push through."

So they're trying to show because of his adultery -- continual adultery in their marriage that she finally decided to end it.

Now, James Craig wrote a timeline of exactly what happened, and he admits to basically everything he did. But he says that it was because she wanted to die.

Let's look at that timeline that he wrote in the early morning hours of March 16.

He says, "She said she was just going to end her life. Begged her not to do that, but she said she couldn't get a divorce.

So I started researching. I researched and researched different poisons and how fast they kill and how painful it is in the dosage. We came up with four. At this point I had a change of heart. I was no longer going to try to back her out of it."

He goes on to say, Erica, that she said take these capsules and have the antibiotic -- take the antibiotic out and put potassium cyanide in it. And back up -- fill the syringe with potassium cyanide because I want it done fast and I don't want to be in pain.

HILL: Wow. I mean, it is really something and that is why this has captivated so many people with this story.

Jean, appreciate it. We'll be watching for those closing arguments later -- John.

BERMAN: This morning police in California looking for thieves behind a million-dollar heist at a specialty warehouse. The owners are offering a $100,000 reward. On camera you can see it. The burglars busted through the gates of the warehouse and in minutes grabbed a bunch of items, including a safe. The store owners say they do not know how the thieves knew about the stockpile inside -- hmm.

This morning an investigation underway after a boat exploded at a marina in Wisconsin injuring several people. This happened at a fuel dock where the St. Croix and Mississippi River met -- or is it St. Croix? Erica Hill was a French major. She can tell me.

Witnesses say the blast shook the harbor sending people diving into the water. A marina worker pushed the burning boat away to stop the fire from spreading. Officials believe the engine exploded as it was started -- Erica.

HILL: Well, new this morning, a slew of economic data set to be released this week and that could put the state of President Trump's economy on full display. Investors are gearing up for earnings. Two reports here on how Americans feel about the economy, a decision from the Federal Reserve, and a report of the state of the labor market. And on top of all that the clock is ticking, of course, toward President Trump's self-imposed tariff deadline coming up on Friday.

[07:55:10]

Matt Egan is here with the latest. OK, so walk me through all of the data that is coming in this week.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Erica. It's just shaping up to be an epic week for the U.S. economy. There is just this avalanche of economic data. There's major earnings reports and other market-moving developments, and -- plus, updates on the trade war. And that's just what we know is coming.

HILL: Yeah.

EGAN: As you know, in this new cycle we tend to be surprised every once in a while. Usually, surprises delivered through Truth Social.

But let's look at just some of the economic highlights starting with consumer confidence today. Tomorrow a new report card on the U.S. economy with GDP for the second quarter due out after that rare contraction in the first quarter, new numbers on spending and inflation on Thursday, and then the July jobs reports.

Now, in a normal week any of those economic events would really dominate the attention of the market. But this week we've also got, as you mentioned, the Federal Reserve --

HILL: Um-hum.

EGAN: -- fresh off that awkward meeting between President Trump and Fed chair Jerome Powell. The Fed is set to meet. And I've got to tell you I'm pretty sure that President Trump is going to be very disappointed because there's almost no chance that the Fed cuts interest rates tomorrow -- just a three percent chance. I think there's a better chance that Powell puts a hard hat on again during that meeting that he wore with the president.

But look, investors want to know what does the Fed say about the next meeting --

HILL: Yes.

EGAN: -- the one in September because there is a 65 percent chance of an interest rate cut at that meeting. So every single word that Powell says is going to be dissected by economists and investors to see if he drops any hints about a potential rate cut going forward.

Now, also we've got the trade war, right? So Friday there's the August 1 self-imposed deadline for the president on all of these tariffs that could go up on a number of different countries. There's also a legal hearing on Thursday where an appeals court is hearing a challenge to the president's use of emergency powers to impose those tariffs.

HILL: Um-hum.

EGAN: Also, look at this. This is from the Budget Lab at Yale, and it shows just where we are with tariffs, and that is historically high.

HILL: Wow.

EGAN: They say that based on all of the tariffs that the president has already imposed the effective rate that the U.S. has on imports is 18.2 percent. That is the highest since 1934. And that does seem like one of the only common threads here, right? Countries that reach a deal with the United States -- they face higher tariffs.

HILL: Yeah.

EGAN: Countries that don't reach a deal -- they also face higher tariffs. It's just a question of how high and how much damage it's going to do to the economy.

HILL: Yeah, absolutely -- and that's what we're all watching for.

Well, this will keep you fairly busy this week, my friend --

EGAN: Yes.

HILL: -- so you'll probably be sleeping at the office. Sorry.

EGAN: Right.

HILL: But you'll see the kids on the weekend.

EGAN: Right. Probably not a good time to tell my boss I need the rest of the week off, right?

HILL: Probably not. We'll keep that between us.

EGAN: Just us, yeah.

HILL: Maybe Berman can help. He's good with those things.

Matt, thank you.

EGAN: Thanks, Erica.

BERMAN: It's the full employment act for Matt Egan here.

All right. New this morning hearing loss affects more than 30 million Americans and research has been making big strides. One researcher working to restore hearing just lost his federal grant. This is part of the Trump administration's rollback of DEI programs. He had qualified for the funding because of his own hearing loss.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joins us now with the story. What's going on here, Meg?

MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. This is a researcher named Uri Manor. He's an assistant professor at the University of California and San Diego. And he was researching ways to restore hearing.

He received a major five-year grant from the NIH called an RO1. This is a huge grant really that can help support a whole lab and major research into these kinds of things. And he received that grant through a workforce diversity initiative at the National Institute on Deafness, which he qualified for because of his own genetic hearing loss.

So he was working on these things. He was about two years into this grant. And then as the Trump administration came in and started cracking down on DEI initiatives really across industries -- not just in academia -- he found out that grant had been canceled.

The notification he got said, "Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness."

So two years into a five-year grant he's being told it's been terminated, and he is getting no more money. So he had to start shutting down these long-term experiments. He had to lay off folks from his lab. This is incredibly disruptive, obviously, to scientific research.

But then there was a twist in the story, John. In June, a federal judge ruled that some of those grants that were terminated by the Trump administration because they are focused on DEI -- those terminations, the judge said, were illegal. So his funding should actually be restored. But now it's in this big legal battle. There's a lot of this going on within the Trump administration.

The future of this funding for him is unclear. And he is just one of thousands of scientists who've had their grants terminated by the Trump administration amounting to $4 billion by some estimates, and even more in research funding lost.