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New Video of Mitch McConnell on Stretcher Emerges; Deadly ICE Shooting Under Scrutiny; Iran Negotiations Resuming?. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 10, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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


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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Talks, but no truce. President Trump insists the cease-fire with Iran is over, but says negotiations between the two sides can go on.

Plus: exclusive footage. Eyewitness video shows the moment that Senator Mitch McConnell was loaded into an ambulance, as his staff says -- stays mum about the incident that has kept him in the hospital for nearly a month now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And an urgent call for action, the World Health Organization projecting cancer cases will nearly doubled by 2050.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: The cease-fire is off, but negotiations are on.

President Trump posting a new message saying the U.S. has agreed to continue talks with Iran after days of exchanging attacks.

SANCHEZ: It comes as sources tell CNN that Israel recently shared intelligence with the U.S. saying that Iran has a new plan to assassinate the president. And just a short time ago, President Trump told "The New York Post" that he'd left instructions to bomb Iran should anything happen to him.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House.

Kristen, what more is the White House saying about this alleged plot?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, we're still trying to get details as to what exactly this looked like.

It's not clear right now what was in this specific plot. One source telling us that the warning came in the last week, another source saying that there's been a drumbeat of steady intel for quite some time that Iran was planning a potential assassination plot, but that Israel had specifics.

Now, President Trump was also asked about this in that same interview you just mentioned, and he said, no, that Israel hadn't given the U.S. anything, but clearly they are taking this threat of Iran very seriously.

We saw President Trump taking the old Air Force One, instead of the new Qatari plane when he was leaving. And then, on top of that, President Trump now says he has a plan, or at least has left a plan for his team. And I want to read you the direct quote.

He says: "I have left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they have never seen before."

Then he adds that he's been number one on Iran's kill list for a long time, and that's the way life is. And I will note, when we were back on the campaign, this was the first time we started hearing about these assassination plots to kill President Trump from Iran.

And, of course, we know that there have been several failed attempts, although those have not been linked to Iran, but we have seen -- we had seen intense security around those plots. The big question now is what's actually happening behind the scenes with Iran and with the United States.

Of course, President Trump is saying that Iran wants to continue having talks, so he and the United States have agreed to do that. On the other side, you have President Trump saying that the cease-fire is over, and they have made that very clear, although President Trump did not order strikes on Thursday, which gives you somewhat of an idea of where his head is at.

I mean, really leading up into this point, anybody in the White House and around President Trump would tell you the same thing, that he was looking for a diplomatic off-ramp. He does not want to be embroiled in this war anymore.

It seems from this as though that is still the attempt he is making, but unclear, particularly given the fact that he's saying the cease- fire is definitely over, which overall begs the question of what exactly is holding this together in terms of the Strait of Hormuz, in terms of any kind of deal with a blockade, attacking commercial vessels, so something we're still trying to get to the bottom of there.

KEILAR: All right, Kristen, thank you so much, live for us at the White House.

And we're joined now by Alex Ward, who is a national security reporter, who helped break this Trump assassination plot story for "The Wall Street Journal."

Alex, thanks for being with us.

A source saying the U.S. had picked up this steady drumbeat of intel in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but not in the specific plot that Israel warned about. Do we have a sense or do you have a sense, your colleagues, of why this plot wasn't on the radar of U.S. intel?

ALEX WARD, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, there seems to be a difference in interpretation of what this intelligence says, right? I mean, when the Israelis are saying, look, show -- they're showing this intelligence and they're assessing that basically this shows something pretty serious, some kind of imminent threat.

What you're getting from the U.S. so far, U.S. officials we're talking to is kind of like, well, there's something, but it doesn't necessarily mean there is an amazing, incredible, super imminent threat that's going to be happening.

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So it's not like there isn't intelligence or something worrying, but there's a difference of assessment as to how imminent it is and how threatened President Trump's life is.

SANCHEZ: Do you have a sense from sources as to whether this was aspirational or something that Tehran had initially taken steps on and perhaps was getting close to operational?

WARD: It's a bit unclear. I don't -- I have not seen the intelligence myself.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

WARD: The differences seem to be, I mean, if you talk to the Israelis, they'll say this is something, right,there is something real, something they're pointing to that is specific and does fit within a pattern of a bunch of threatening statements from the Iranian officials.

In fact, the -- at the funeral of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there were general -- there were actual chants to kill President Trump. There were banners saying so.

SANCHEZ: Right.

WARD: So, whether they are pointing to that specifically and other stuff, unclear. Again, the U.S. officials we're talking to are saying it's not nothing. We're not saying we're not worried about it. It's just, does that prove that there's an imminent plot that's going to get President Trump or aimed at getting President Trump immediately?

That -- there's differences of interpretation, it seems.

KEILAR: Alex, we're really at a different time than we have been, I think, in recent decades when it comes to states looking at assassinations, right?

Soleimani, the ayatollah, the -- certainly, Iran would like to take out President Trump. I don't think that's necessarily a surprise, but it is a bit of a change here in recent years. How are you seeing it in your coverage?

WARD: It's certainly -- you're right. This is a threat environment, right?

Now, a president's life, I mean it's not that it's never been in threat before. We know this. But it is now almost a more OK target, I hate to say that term, but a more legitimate target in terms of war because of -- when we've seen assassination attempts on presidents in the past, but especially now, especially the U.S. killed a U.S. leader in conjunction with Israeli airstrikes.

If you're Iran, you're thinking, yes, this is fair game. As you pointed out, in the first term, after the U.S. strikes that killed Soleimani, there was a large movement by the Iranian government to go not only after Trump, but also his secretary of state at the time, Mike Pompeo, his national security advisers.

So -- and those threats still exist, by the way. So, to your point, yes, has there been a threat to Trump for a while? Absolutely. Is there some new thing now? That's what the Israelis seem to be saying.

SANCHEZ: I'm also curious about the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu, because your reporting indicated that while the two sides militarily and on the intelligence front are more intertwined than ever, relations between the two leaders have actually soured in recent weeks, specifically over their objectives with Iran, to the point that some U.S. officials are looking at this outreach by Israeli intelligence, suggesting they may be trying to sway the U.S. into acting in the way that they see fit.

WARD: Yes.

And we're hearing the same thing. Now the question is how -- is that just U.S. officials being skeptical? Is that a real goal by the Israelis? It's hard to know, truly. But the one thing that's not hard to know is, we know where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been.

Since February, he has been -- or earlier, but really we know for sure in the White House with President Trump saying, you should do this. You should start these strikes. You could overthrow the regime, and President Trump was convinced, and therefore he launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28.

So we have known where the general Israeli view is, right? They want -- they want to keep going after the Iranian regime, keep weakening it, keep finding ways to make it harder for them to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump agrees on that general stopping, dismantling the nuclear program, but they disagree on getting there.

And his message today about the cease-fire is over, but there are still talks, is a perfect example of this, right? Netanyahu wouldn't want the talks part. He just wants the cease-fire's over part. And so they have some overlap, but not fully.

KEILAR: Alex, thank you so much for coming on to talk about your reporting. We really appreciate it.

WARD: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come: Multiple witnesses say the statement from ICE about a deadly shooting in Houston is false. We have brand-new reporting, as well as new footage in the moments leading up to that fatal incident.

Plus, CNN obtains exclusive footage of the moment that Senator Mitch McConnell was loaded onto an ambulance last month, what that video reveals.

SANCHEZ: And, later: the World Health Organization projecting new cancer cases will nearly double over the next two decades, and experts say the time to act is now.

We will discuss in just a moment. Stay with us.

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KEILAR: Today, witnesses to a deadly ICE shooting in Houston are contradicting what Homeland Security officials say happen. That is what their attorney is saying.

The witnesses are three men who were detained during Tuesday's encounter that ended with an ICE agent shooting and killing 52-year- old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was a Mexican national. The details are emerging as CNN has obtained new video of the time before and the moments after the gunfire, including this footage of Salgado the morning that he was killed.

SANCHEZ: ICE officials say the agent opened fire after Salgado tried to ram a law enforcement vehicle, but the father of three did not appear to have a criminal record, according to the Houston DA office, and his son tells CNN he believes his father would have complied if he'd known that ICE was following his van.

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RONALDO SALGADO, SON OF LORENZO SALGADO ARAUJO: We have spoken as a family time and time again what might dad should do in the case that he did get detained by ICE. He did not know that those vehicles following him were ICE agents. Again, these vehicles were unmarked. They had no emblems, no logos, no flashing lights.

I know my dad would have stopped had ICE agents formally and clearly identified themselves, at least through their vehicle markings. My dad would have stopped and complied, because he knew that there was a process.

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SANCHEZ: CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now with the latest.

Ed, what is the attorney for the witnesses saying specifically?

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, that attorney, as well as Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia from the Houston area, as well as the Harris County -- the district attorney, just wrapped up a press conference.

And in that press conference, this attorney who spent several moments speaking with the three men who were in the white van with Lorenzo Salgado on Tuesday morning, they say that at no point, -- according to their the conversation that he had with all three of these witnesses inside that van, that at no point was Salgado directing or driving the van at ICE agents, and that they believe that Salgado was shot in the stomach from the side.

The medical examiner in Harris County says that Salgado did suffer a gunshot wound to the torso area. But this is what the attorney said just a short while ago.

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HUGO BALDERAS-IBARRA, ATTORNEY FOR DETAINED MEN: The agency's versions of the killings have varied. And I won't get into all those different versions.

But I can tell you with conviction that it -- that my clients' versions of the events are extremely different from what ICE agents are saying or what the agency is saying.

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LAVANDERA: And we should be clear. ICE has been saying that Salgado weaponized this white van, directed it at the agents, and that those agents fired at him in self-defense.

We have been able over the last few days to cobble together some videos along Canal Street, where this -- the ending of Salgado's life took place. And, in those videos, you see a white van driving down Canal Street being followed by an unmarked black SUV. That is one of the cars that the ICE agents were traveling in.

And one of the most recent videos we have, we see that at some point there on Canal Street. Salgado and the white van are making a U-turn. You see some agents chasing on -- by foot chasing that van down the street, and then it comes to a stop.

But we should be clear in all of this, the actual moment where gunshots are fired, clear video of that moment still has not emerged. The district attorney there in Harris County and other officials are urging the public, if anyone has any video like that, to come forward with it, as they're still trying to figure out a way to conduct an investigation.

Local officials there in Houston say that, while the family and activists have been calling for a independent investigation, it is very difficult, because at this point the federal investigators have most of the access to all of the evidence, as well as the agents who are not being made available for questioning either.

So all of that work continues. But, until now, we haven't really heard much else from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. They did tell us yesterday that Salgado and the three men in that truck, Boris and Brianna, were not the original targets of this targeted operation that took place Tuesday morning.

They confirmed that they were actually -- and so what sources told us that they were in the area looking for other people.

SANCHEZ: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for that update from Texas.

Still ahead: New video obtained by CNN showing us the day that Senator Mitch McConnell was rushed to the hospital, we will break down what it reveals.

KEILAR: Plus, President Trump says he will not sign a bipartisan bill that is aimed at making housing more affordable. Why it'll become law anyway.

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KEILAR: CNN has obtained exclusive video showing emergency responders outside of the home of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell here in Washington last month.

The neighbor who shot this video tells CNN that other witnesses identified the man being loaded into the ambulance on a stretcher as Senator McConnell.

SANCHEZ: The new details raising more questions about the state of the 84-year-old's health. He's been hospitalized for nearly four weeks now, but information about his condition remains a mystery, and his office will only say that he is recovering.

Let's get more on this exclusive reporting from CNN's Annie Grayer.

Annie, what else did eyewitnesses tell you?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So I spoke to one of McConnell's neighbors who at around 8:30 in the morning on June 14 opened their door and saw a commotion on the street. They saw two ambulances, a fire truck, and Capitol Police had blocked off the entire street.

So this person went up to a Capitol Police officer to ask what had happened, and an officer confirmed that there was a medical emergency, but wouldn't specify who the emergency responders were there for. So this person then stood on the street along with some other neighbors to try and figure out what was happening.

And about 9:00 a.m. on June 14 is when the person I spoke to saw somebody being carried out of McConnell's home on a stretcher and into an ambulance. And another person standing nearby was able to identify that it was Senator Mitch McConnell.

So the reason why this -- these little details are so important is, we have gotten such little information about the status of the senator's condition, why he was brought to the hospital in the first place. We also know about EMS audio showing that first responders came to McConnell's home on this same day, June 14, to respond to somebody who was under cardiac arrest and needed CPR.

So there -- this seems to be a very serious condition, but the new details that I learned from talking to a firsthand witness and receiving this video just gives us another piece of the puzzle.

KEILAR: Yes, it's CPR. I mean, I think that's what they were saying on the call, that it was under way, which is so concerning here.

What's his office saying about all of this?

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GRAYER: So his office the day that McConnell was hospitalized put out a statement saying that the senator was taken to the hospital.

But since then, the only updates that we have gotten is that the senator continues to recover in the hospital, which has a lot of people questioning about what level of transparency does the senator and his team need to give in this very sensitive moment, when he's also clearly struggling with a serious health issue?

We know that some senior Senate Republicans have spoken to the senator, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said that he spoke with McConnell for 20 minutes. But we still have not gotten any real updates or understanding of the status of the senator's condition.

SANCHEZ: Annie Grayer, please keep us posted on what you learn. Thanks so much for that report.

Still to come -- or, rather, new today, President Trump said he would not sign a bipartisan housing bill that's set to become law at midnight, even without his signature.

Trump writing on TRUTH Social that the decision is -- quote -- "in protest over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing the SAVE America Act."

KEILAR: The housing bill, the whole point of it is to make homebuying more affordable, and it passed with near unanimous support. in Congress. How often does that happen, right?

This was sent to the president last month, and that triggered a 10-day countdown for it to become law, barring a veto. At the time, Trump called it unimportant. He called it a yawn compared to his controversial voter I.D. legislation.

Coming up: striking and waiting. We're told the U.S. is strategically hitting Iran and then pausing attacks to give diplomacy a chance. We will have more on that plan right after this.

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