Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Earthquake Toll Rises to At Least 235 Killed and 4,300-Plus Injured; Bolton Expected to Plead Guilty to Retaining National Security Info; Iran Strikes Vessel in Strait, Pausing U.N. Effort to Evacuate Ships. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 26, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, reports of potentially thousands of people unaccounted for in Venezuela from after those earthquakes. More relief and rescue teams are making their way to the country right now, and there's a new pledge of support from the United States.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for former ambassador John Bolton to arrive at a federal court, expected to plead guilty to mishandling classified information. As of now, jail time is on the table.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And this video that's gone viral is now triggering a federal probe into why this Boeing 777 flew dangerously close to the ground, not just flying low, but banking the jetliner, nearly scraping the tarmac with its wing.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Well, let's get to the breaking news this morning. There're so many families that are just hoping simply for miracles at this point in Venezuela as the death toll rises from the powerful back-to- back earthquakes that struck that country. At least 235 people have been killed. That's the death toll so far. More than 4,000 injured. They really don't have a clear read on just how many people may still be trapped in the rubble.

Time, though, is, of course, as we know, not on their side. It has been some 37 hours since the back-to-back earthquakes hit. Rescuers are racing against what they consider a golden window, if you will, the 48 to 72 hours after a disaster like this, when the odds of survival remain best.

There are new images coming in from the moment the earthquake struck. This is from inside an airplane full of passengers. And you can see just how violently it's shaking as it sat on the tarmac at Venezuela's main airport. And there's also video of cable cars beginning to sway inside the station in the mountains above Caracas. The American tourist who filmed this says that he feels like he just narrowly escaped being trapped. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON WANG, AMERICAN WHO SURVIVED VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES: I was actually next up to board the cable car. I was recording myself going into the cable car, and all of the sudden, like the building started shaking and the floor started moving, and then mass panic. Like everyone that was in line inside the building, we were all running for the one exit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: My goodness.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon has the very latest, joins us this morning. Stefano, what's the very latest that you're hearing about the efforts now?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, good morning, Kate. What the latest from the ground in Caracas is that, finally, international aid, international relief is started to trickle down into Venezuela. Last night at around 8:00, 9:00 P.M. local time, the Dominicans were the first mission to arrive. Then overnight, we saw images of a U.S. major Marine general on the ground in Caracas to coordinate how the United States can help.

Of course, we know that there are two ships coming down from Florida towards the coast of Caracas, as well as Hercules C-140 and other personnel that is ready to be deployed to Venezuela to try bring as much relief as possible. And the President Donald Trump did tweet about it when, for example, he reacted to the news saying the United States are, and I'm quoting him, ready to help their new and good friends.

It was a reference, Kate, to the new leadership in Venezuela that is ruling the country after the ousting of Nicolas Maduro, and that means the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez. The Colombians have also arrived there.

We saw an image Kate, overnight of the tarmac in Caracas Airport that was cracked open by the strength of these, the power of the tremors that hit that part of Venezuela. And you can see the difficulty by the -- looking at the photo, you can understand why it's been so hard to, for aid to trickle in. But today is when we're going to start and seen many more international aid missions arriving in Caracas and trying to help.

And, really, now it starts the race against time. The window, the golden window, to find as many survivors as possible is closing down. And of course, that means that the anguish of the families who are still there trying to locate the lo- the loved one will rise and rise as the hours go by.

[07:05:00]

Kate? BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And, I mean, when -- we've just been -- as you were talking, Stef, and I'm just seeing some of the hardest hit areas, and as, you know, the video of just it's building collapse after building after building collapse right next to each other. There is so much work that needs to be done so quickly. It's really hard to wrap your mind around.

Stefano Pozzebon watching it all for us, thank you so much, Stefano. John?

BERMAN: All right. We are standing by for former Ambassador John Bolton, national security adviser in the first Trump administration, to appear in federal court. He is expected to plead guilty to illegally retaining sensitive national security information.

I want to get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz, who's been covering this now for some time, for everything we expect to see. And I left all the nuance to you, Katelyn, because I think the language here is super important.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is. John, this is a longtime prominent voice in American foreign policy, the national security adviser in the first Trump White House, John Bolton. He is expected to plead guilty, and the single charge he's expected to plead guilty to today in Maryland's federal court would be illegally retaining classified information, the rare felony conviction coming for someone who's such a senior government official, also one of the only convictions that this Justice Department has managed to land against people that Donald Trump really would like to see prosecuted.

Trump has been on record saying how much he hates Bolton. He fired him in the first term, and then Bolton wrote a memoir that was very disparaging of the president.

In this case, this is about what Bolton was doing while he was serving as national security adviser, taking notes for himself of classified information or national security information that he was learning inside the White House in classified briefings, and then he was writing those notes into summaries diaries even, is what prosecutors pointed out, and then emailing them to himself as well as two immediate family members, including his wife and his daughter.

And then he was keeping those notes, not classified documents themselves, but the notes that would've reflected classified information. Initially, when he was charged, it was the end of a long investigation that started not in the Trump years, but in the Biden years. He was charged with 18 criminal counts. He's pleading down to one.

John, as we watch for this hearing today, we're going to be seeing -- trying to see how Bolton's team may be split at this point from the Justice Department, how harshly the Justice Department would like to potentially see him punished. That sentencing wouldn't take place for some time from now. We do know that he's already agreed to pay more than $2 million in fines. John? BERMAN: It's a lot of money, and it'll be interesting to hear if the Justice Department does ask for jail time.

Katelyn Polantz, as I said, you've been covering this, we know you'll be there all morning long, thank you for everything you've done on this. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

Ahead, a brand new report shows bad cybersecurity practices from Secret Service agents may have exposed them to hacking and risked the lives of senior U.S. officials.

Plus, a CNN exclusive on the initial search for a company to remodel the Reflecting Pool, the company that renovated it 15 years ago passed on the president's pet project, calling it unfeasible.

And a giraffe named Gracie, well, somehow has gone missing in Texas, leading to the -- I think I met this giraffe. I'm not joking. But leading to the question, where did Gracie go?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

SIDNER: This morning, U.N. evacuation efforts in the Strait of Hormuz are on hold after Iran struck a vessel in the critical waterway. A U.S. official tells CNN an Iranian drone hit the cargo ship on Thursday, damaging its bridge. The attack is testing the U.S. agreement with Iran. It came as ship traffic in the strait hit their highest point since the war began, with 70 crossings on Wednesday, a huge increase even from the day before.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joining us now. Paula, I assume this is going to put the brakes on a whole bunch of traffic going through the strait. What are you learning this morning?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's inevitable, Sara. I mean, this has really shaken confidence in the Strait of Hormuz. As you say, it was going so well midweek. We knew that the U.N. International Maritime Organization was making sure that they could try and evacuate as many of those 11,000 seafarers that had been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the start of the war as possible. Now that is on hold. The IMO saying that they need more clarity as to what exactly is happening in the strait and that the safety of the seafarers has to come first.

Now, Iran hasn't claimed responsibility for this strike on the boat, which the U.S. says was done by an Iranian drone, but what we do know is that just hours before it happened, the Revolutionary Guard in Iran said that they couldn't guarantee safe passage if vessels were not using the Iranian route.

Now, Tehran wants all the vessels to use the route in the northern part of the strait, which hugs the Iranian coast. It means they control the shipping. It means they are in charge. But, unsurprisingly, many vessels are trying to hug the Omani coast on the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz, and it appears as though Iran does not like that.

[07:15:09]

Now, we understand from the IMO that they have said it is halted at the moment. And, certainly, we are not seeing a huge amount of traffic. We have heard that vessels have been told to proceed with caution and to also report any suspicious activity.

Now, we heard from the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, saying that no country on Earth can claim sovereignty over an international waterway. But we've also heard today from Iranian officials saying that they insist on their right to control shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and their rights in this strait must be respected.

It really does fly in the face of claims by the U.S. president that the Strait of Hormuz is open and free. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, it certainly does, and we'll have to see what the fallout, if any, there is from this, but there certainly will be some.

Paula Hancocks, I really appreciate your reporting there from Abu Dhabi this morning. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, there's video in of an officer actually hitching a ride with a van to chase down a suspect. Details to come.

And there's also new CNN reporting about the Reflecting Pool. A firm that had worked on past renovations of it turned down the Trump administration for this new project at the time saying, quote, the project, it's, quote, unfeasible.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, there's a new report coming out from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, and it's putting new scrutiny on the Secret Service, as it's revealing that what they describe as bad cybersecurity practices among Secret Service agents may have left them exposed to hacking, and even put at risk the lives of senior U.S. officials that they are protecting.

CNN's Sean Lyngaas has much more on this report, and he joins us now. Sean, what are you learning?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Well, Kate, a lot of people sometimes see cybersecurity as sort of this hypothetical thing or something that doesn't affect your physical safety. But this obviously proves that, that's any- anything but the case when you're talking about this high of stakes.

The inspector general studied years of communications of Secret Service agents, including on trips overseas when they were protecting sensitive senior U.S. officials. And they found that, routinely, the agents and other employees were using their personal phones on some of these trips just because their work phones weren't working. They needed apps to communicate with foreign counterparts, they needed service, they needed to be able to text things.

And personal devices are generally less secure than government ones, because you don't have the same resources protecting you. And so if you have a foreign intelligence agency, you have a terrorist group, those are the types of adversaries that are going to try to get into that phone and collect information on both the agents themselves potentially, and then the -- you know, all the way up until the U.S. president that they're protecting.

We know that Iran has been accused many times of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump. And I know from my reporting that the Iranian intelligence services like to use hacking to augment that type of threat.

So, this isn't hypothetical. It's another warning sign in the Secret Service. They say that they're trying to address it. We know from two years ago in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, there were cell phone issues that day that the agency said that they are working through, that they have upgraded their systems, that they're -- some of these issues aren't plaguing them as much anymore.

But it's really something when you're talking about counterintelligence that U.S. officials have been preaching for years to try to get a hold on this issue. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, and, you know, the obvious understanding of there is just no room for error when it comes to this, and what they're dealing with, and what they're working with, and who they're protecting at any given time, especially today, these days.

It's good to see you, Sean. Thank you very much for your reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right. We're getting new updates coming in from the devastation of the earthquake zone searching for survivors in all of this rubble. How many people might still be trapped alive?

And this morning, an investigation, what was this huge plane doing flying only feet above the ground there, no landing gear? A lot of new questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: This morning, U.S. officials tell CNN that an Iranian drone hit a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz. So, how does this align with the memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran?

With us now is Congressman Mark Alford, a Republican from Missouri. Good morning, Congressman, always great to see you.

How satisfactory is it if Iran thinks it can control the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz like this? How much of a memorandum -- how much understanding is there in this memorandum if that's the state that exists?

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): Well, John thanks for having me on. A very good point. It is a violation of the memorandum of understanding. But keep in mind, whenever there's a wrapping up of a conflict, as you're seeing now, in history, there have been skirmishes after the fact or incursions violating memorandums of understanding or basic agreements.

This is not the end of the deal. It is a slight setback. I do not trust the IRGC no further than I could throw them. But I do trust Secretary Rubio, who's doing a remarkable job in this, as well as President Trump, who's trying to bring about lasting peace in the Middle East.

BERMAN: The memorandum itself says that after this negotiating period, Oman and Iran will get together to figure out how to administer the strait. How do you feel about Iran administering the Strait of Hormuz?

ALFORD: It doesn't excite me one bit, and that's why this MOU is a framework. It is an outline. If you were writing a story, John, you would start with an outline, and then the negotiations fill in the details and start writing the script.

[07:30:06]