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Man in Custody after Incendiary Device Thrown at NYC Federal Building; Tate Brothers Vow to Fight UK Extradition on Rape, Other Charges; Trump Suggests Canada Pay Damages for Wildfire Smoke. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired July 20, 2026 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the people hurt was supposed to go into this building for some sort of hearing in the progress of their immigration progress. So this was something that authorities believe he came here with the intent to do some serious harm with the fireworks, with the knives, with the gun that shoots pellets, the fact that he did shoot some pellets at the building. So certainly this all painting a clear picture of what happened and they're still digging into the criminal history of any sort of criminal history, any sort of interaction he might have had with authorities in the past and I know Josh had mentioned about the mental illness side of this.
This is something that investigators have said. They are looking into his past. They mentioned he came down here yesterday and slept outside the Holland Tunnel on the street.
So these are all things that of course they're continuing to probe as this investigation unfolds. But a lot of incredible detail in that news conference of what went down here. A scary event and it could have been a lot worse but certainly we are seeing much more of these incidents as of late, right?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, and we'll see more no doubt in an upcoming indictment in which we'll see finally what charges will be filed against him. Brynn Gingras live for us in Manhattan. Thank you so much.
Thanks to everyone who helped us tell this story this afternoon. We'll be right back. Stay with us.
[15:35:00]
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate just appeared in federal court where they vowed to fight an extradition request from the UK. They're facing new rape and sex trafficking charges. Here's the moment that they were arrested in Miami over the weekend.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Tate, would you mind signing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Tate.
(INAUDIBLE)
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KEILAR: U.S. Marshals took the brothers into custody on Saturday and just moments ago we learned from sources who are familiar with the case that President Trump is not expected to get involved. CNN's Carolina Peguero is joining us now from Miami. So Carolina, tell us what else you've learned about this hearing that just wrapped up.
CAROLINA PEGUERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Brianna, these social media influencers known for traveling the world, having millions of followers and having very controversial stances were seen in court earlier today in beige prisoner jumpsuits shackled and surrounded by U.S. Marshal officials. They were here in court to face several charges of rape, human trafficking and sexual assault. Now also an extradition request from the UK for them to be transferred to the country as this investigation continues.
They said it was a very complex and extensive investigation including seven victims that have been mentioned in England and also in London. While the brothers were arrested this weekend here in Miami, their lawyers now are saying that this is a political motivated arrest and they will do everything in their power to have them free and bring it up to the Supreme Court if necessary.
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JOSEPH D. MCBRIDE, TATE BROTHERS' ATTORNEY: It's garbage. It's a stitch-up job. They're after us to punish us with the process.
The process is the punishment. When you drag somebody's name through the media, when you slander them, when you defame them, when you accuse them of heinous and terrible allegations, the process becomes the punishment until you can clear your name.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEGUERO: Andrew Tate is facing 42 charges while his brother Tristan is facing 17 charges. It's also important to mention that they are facing two criminal charges overseas and they're plaintiffs of one civil defamation case here in Florida. The judge has decided that they will remain in custody until the next briefing with lawyers only present until July 27th -- Brianna.
KEILAR: All right, Carolina Peguero, thank you so much for that report.
And ahead, President Trump suggesting Canada should pay for damages after smoke from wildfires there blew over the border and smothered U.S. cities. We'll have that next.
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SANCHEZ: Right now, parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes are still dealing with dangerous air quality levels due to the heavy smoke from hundreds of wildfires blazing out of control in Canada. And now President Trump is suggesting that America's northern neighbor should pay the price. Listen.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The air has been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but, you know, we've got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them, we'll help them.
But maybe they should pay us some damages or something or we should do some tariffs.
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SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Avi Lewis. He's the leader of Canada's new Democratic Party. Sir, thanks so much for being with us.
What's your reaction to President Trump suggesting Canada pay damages?
AVI LEWIS, LEADER, CANADA DEMOCRATIC PARTY: You know, Boris, I think a lot of Americans, a lot of Canadians are just tired of these outbursts from the president. They're just detached from reality. Like if the president announced he was building a big, beautiful wall to keep out the smoke or if Pete Hegseth declared war on the smoke with space lasers from Elon Musk.
I think you just sounded in Canada, you'd hear the sound of a million facepalm emojis getting clicked at the same time. But it's not a joke. It's super serious.
Canada's been under sustained economic attack by this administration since it came in. So we have to take it seriously. But I mean, it's dismaying to hear this kind of comment from the president.
We're breathing the same smoke that Americans are breathing. Entire communities have fled for their lives, moments ahead of this terrifying wall of fire rushing in. And instead of an offer for help, we get threats and insults.
I mean, we're not blaming the United States for the fact that British Columbia has air quality warnings in effect right now from smoke from fires in Washington State and Oregon. Whenever the U.S. has struggled with big wildfires, Canada's been there to lend a hand. We sent hundreds of firefighters and planes and other assistance to help California with those monster fires last year.
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Just last week, we lost a Canadian pilot who died fighting one of the huge wildfires on the Colorado-Utah border. His name was Nicholas Dale, and his wife and two sons are mourning his loss today. So the president's comments are especially insulting to firefighters, whether the Canadians helping out in the States or over 5,000 firefighters putting their lives on the line to put these fires out right now.
SANCHEZ: And notably, President Trump isn't the only lawmaker who's been critical of the way that fires, these fires have been handled. There were members of Michigan's congressional delegation that wrote a letter to Prime Minister Carney lamenting what they describe as, quote, "... the third consecutive year we've had to write Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to."
Could more have been done to prevent this? What is your message to them?
LEWIS: I mean, again, pretty detached from the scientific reality, only about 20 -- we're talking about an area of like more than a million square miles, Boris, and only less than 20 percent of it has ever been under management. This is the far North. These are forests largely untouched, and you can't have better forest management in a forest that you've never managed.
But I think it's important to get back to the basics, because apparently, we have to remind everyone of these facts. Wildfires are getting more and more devastating because they're being turbocharged by global warming. Global warming is being caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
If carbon dioxide was visible like smoke, you'd see the biggest single cloud in history that has drifted out of the United States. And that's the responsibility of Big Oil, headquartered in the United States and elsewhere. According to the carbon majors database, Exxon and Chevron are both in the top five greenhouse gas emitters of all time.
Trump doesn't talk about that. After all, the fossil fuel industry contributed almost $100 million to his re-election campaign, half a billion dollars spent by Big Oil in the last election cycle alone. If President Trump wants compensation for the harms that these fires are causing, how about an excess profit tax on Big Oil that made $30 million an hour in excess profits in the first month of the illegal war on Iran?
I would like to express my condolences to the American people today. Your president is like an old man shaking his fist and screaming up at smoke from a fire that he is responsible for lighting or at least pouring gasoline onto.
SANCHEZ: You believe that the President of the United States has some responsibility over the situation that's unfolding now in Canada?
LEWIS: There's no question. It's not just doubling down on oil and gas, which unfortunately we're also doing in Canada under Mark Carney, and driving the climate emergency even further. The President has gone all in, as our Prime Minister has, on AI and the data center revolution. And I want to make the connection to AI here because Trump has unleashed an AI arms race among the big tech companies. And he did it -- famously calling AI an electricity eating monster, which he meant as a compliment. And the link between AI data centers, the need for massive amounts of new oil and gas is very, very clear here.
I think the President has trouble on his hands, because his electoral base hates AI data centers. Their electricity bills are going up. They're literally paying money to the companies -- they're watching their electricity bills shoot up as they pay more money to the companies that are destroying their children's job prospects. And Americans are turning against data centers, as Canadians are. Of course, the President wants to deflect from that.
We are a convenient distraction and someone to blame from a President that I think is panicking about the midterm elections.
SANCHEZ: So just to put a pin on it, your position is that there was nothing that the Canadian government or Canadian firefighting teams could do to limit fuel -- to create fuel reduction, in other words, to limit the capacity for these fires to spread and to prevent this from getting as large as it has?
LEWIS: Boris, we could talk about forest management techniques. These forests where these fires are, are in the far north. The First Nations, the indigenous tribal communities that are fleeing in boats ahead of this wall of monster fire coming down in their communities, entire communities burnt to the ground.
These communities are so far north that there aren't roads there. They're accessible by rail, by plane, by boat. All right.
These are not forests which are being logged. These are massive fires in the far north, which are not largely under management. And that blame is completely misplaced.
Look, we've had three of the biggest heat waves in European history, with something like 25,000 excess deaths in Europe so far this summer. We're still in midsummer. This is a global phenomenon.
[15:50:00]
It's called global warming, which is turbocharging these devastating fires. And the way to deal with it is to reduce our dependence on oil and gas, which the president does not want to talk about it because he's soaked in it.
SANCHEZ: Avi Lewis, fascinating to hear your perspective. Thanks for joining us.
Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Just in, Troy Jackson's Democratic Senate nomination in Maine is effectively locked down, so CNN and the Banger Daily News will no longer be holding a debate this week. Jackson's overwhelming support among Democratic delegates in the state has led several of his top rivals to drop out ahead of this weekend's convention vote.
[15:55:00]
Once secure, Jackson would face Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins in November. Collins, of course, was facing Graham Platner before a rape allegation ended his campaign, an allegation that he denies.
KEILAR: And we are watching some live pictures. I mean, look at all those people. This is coming to us from Spain, of course.
A World Cup homecoming for the ages. It looks like every inch of space is taken by jubilant fans of the FIFA champs today. Thousands gathering in a plaza there in Madrid to see the victory parade just today after Spain beat Argentina in extra time 1-0 to win the World Cup final.
Earlier, there were members of the Spanish royal family greeting the undefeated footballers. This is Spain's second ever World Cup title. They last won it in 2010.
SANCHEZ: Going to miss that music to promo the World Cup.
KEILAR: I love that intro. I love all the painted faces and the spirit of it.
SANCHEZ: Jubilation.
KEILAR: No mas.
SANCHEZ: No mas. A good time to be had in Madrid, though. A good time to be had with you.
Thank you so much for joining us. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts after a quick break.
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