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Pentagon Identifies Soldier Killed in Iraq; House GOP Races to Pass Priorities Before Recess; Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) is Interviewed about Iran; Army Veteran Accuse of Attack on NYC Federal Building. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 21, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Says Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, a 30- year-old from North Carolina, was killed during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone on Sunday at Erbil Air Base in Iraq. Two other U.S. soldiers were killed during an Iranian attack in Jordan. They have been identified as First Lieutenant Tyler Feehan and Private Isabella Gonzales. Remains have also been found in the search for a different soldier missing after the attack. A Trump administration official says the fallen service members will be returned home in a dignified transfer tomorrow. The Pentagon acknowledges that nearly 100 service members have suffered injuries, though they say mostly minor.

In just the last 14 days, Iran's president says his country is engaged in a, quote, "full-scale war" with the United States, and there may be a new, crucial economic front there. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have declared their own naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. That's at the base of the Red Sea. You can just make it out there. A lot of Saudi oil has been leaving through that channel since it hasn't been able to get out of the Strait of Hormuz. If that strait were also to shut down, that could be a big blow to the world oil markets.

Let's get to CNN's Betsy Klein, live at the White House with the latest on all this.

Good morning, Betsy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Good morning, John.

There has been a 10th consecutive night of U.S. strikes against Iran. And we are seeing a particularly violent moment for this conflict. This comes as the Pentagon has been slow to report injuries to U.S. service members throughout this conflict. But Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell announcing in a statement that nearly 100 U.S. troops have been injured since this conflict began to escalate again on July 7th. Now, he said that most of those were minor concussions.

Now, that comes after three U.S. service members were killed over the weekend, and the U.S. has recovered unidentified remains of a fourth person who had potentially been listed as missing in action. Now, 18 service members have died throughout the course of this

conflict, which began just a few months ago. And we're going to be watching very closely this afternoon. Some very tough questions for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. They are set to face lawmakers in the Senate on a funding request that will, in part, help pay for this war.

Now, this comes as mediators between the U.S. and Iran have floated the possibility of a ten day ceasefire to potentially get diplomacy back on track. But asked for a response to this proposal, a U.S. official telling CNN, quote, "right now President Trump is focused on making Iran pay for their violations of the memorandum of understanding and their continued acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz. In addition, the president will make Iran pay for the recent deaths of U.S. soldiers." That official also says that talks continue.

Now, as the president plots a path forward, the U.S. could potentially pursue this diplomatic off ramp. The president has also threatened to escalate here with the possibility of targets on critical infrastructure, like Kharg Island, a key oil hub, as well as the possibility of attacking roads and bridges. Now, the president is angry. He's made that very clear in a series of social media posts that says that Iran will pay for all of the U.S. service members injured or killed. He also is expected, a few hours from now, to meet with Iran's -- or, excuse me, with Lebanon's president ahead of attending that dignified transfer tomorrow, John.

BERMAN: All right, Betsy Klein, at the White House, for an update on what we are seeing in this war. Thank you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, it is being billed as kitchen sink week. The week House Republicans really need to get their agenda moving just days now until the scheduled August recess. And then that, of course, sets off the sprint then to midterm elections. House Republican leaders are racing to try and get some of their biggest ticket items over the finish line, with fights even within the Republican Party over it, including a stopgap funding bill to avoid another government shutdown. This massive defense spending bill that the Pentagon is asking for billions and billions of new funding for the war in Iran.

Let's get to CNN's Lauren Fox, who's tracking all of this.

What is this week going to look like, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Speaker Mike Johnson hopes that it is sort of a cleaning house of all the agenda items that the House wants to move forward before their long August recess. Whether or not that comes to bear remains to be seen. There's going to be a procedural vote today to set up this marathon voting series later this week.

And as you noted, Kate, there are a couple must pass items that Speaker Johnson wants to attend to. One of those items is this budget resolution, which would unlock for them the ability to pass about $90 billion in defense funding and ag funding for some of the areas that were hardest hit by Donald Trump's tariffs.

Now, this is something that both moderates and conservatives have been grappling with over the course of the last several weeks, in part because a lot of conservatives are uncomfortable with the fact that this $90 billion isn't an offset.

[09:05:09]

That means that it's not paid for in any other way. But a lot of them also want to move forward with it because it includes an opportunity to set up a way to pass the president's key voting bill that he has been talking about over the course of the last several months.

Now, the question is, even if the House of Representatives can muscle through all of this this week, it really faces an uncertain future in the United States Senate, where John Thune has made clear every single day that reporters have been asking him that this is an extremely heavy lift, not just because the votes aren't there in his conference for this voting bill, but also because there are some concerns that the defense money that's included in this House bill, well, it's just not enough and it doesn't really even scratch the surface of what the Pentagon has been arguing they need right now.

There's also some question over whether or not some senators may fight for offsets with this bill. That means they want this bill to be paid for. So, those are some of the landmines that await in the United States Senate. The House is hoping to get out of town this week for their month long August recess. The Senate still has two more weeks in session. We'll see whether or not this starts to set up a collision course for House Republican leadership and Senate Republican leadership. Obviously, if the House can do their work, that puts a lot of pressure on the Senate to see what they can do given the fact that you can expect Donald Trump's going to probably be Truthing his hopes and wishes for the United States Senate.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the president weighing in. And there's no way to set up a clash better than we vote and then we leave town. So, we will see.

It's good to see you, Lauren. Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, on the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Thank you so much for being with us.

I want to focus on the developments in the war with Iran, with the Iranian president, saying that his nation is now in a full-scale war with the United States. And the Houthis in Yemen threatening to close the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, that is the Strait of the bottom of the Red Sea, where the Saudis have been putting maybe seven million barrels of oil a day out of that Strait of late. What would the impact of that be?

REP. SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE (D-CA): Well, thanks, John, for having me.

First I want to just give my condolences to the family members of the service members who were killed, injured and missing over this past weekend. I mean too many of our service members are dying.

That's a good question that you raised. Over the weekend I was talking to a constituent who said, how did we even get into this war? Who did what to us and when to make us send our American service men and women to war. And I did not have an answer for him.

But what I can say is that we're spending $1 billion a day on a war that nobody wants. Service members are dying. Gas prices are still going up. And we do not see an end in sight. This is an economic dispute. This is an international economic dispute. And we are going to war over it.

And we have got to get out of this mess. Why are we talking about having more straits closed, hurting our -- making us spend more money, right? Raising the cost of living even more when we're not actually talking about how to negotiate of the war.

BERMAN: What the administration would say to that is, it's been 47 years of the Iranians taking action against the United States, and the United States interests, and that the fact that they are building, the administration says, a nuclear weapons program would be a direct threat to the United States. Is that explanation -- or how satisfactory is that explanation to you?

KAMLAGER-DOVE: I don't think anyone is satisfied with that kind of a response. I mean, there's been so much back and forth. Supposedly, we've gotten rid of all of their nuclear missiles. Supposedly, this is no longer about their nuclear ballistic capacity, right? That's all been obliterated. Supposedly, we have the best negotiators in the world who should be able to knock this out in a minute. What I do know is that there was a nuclear agreement a couple of years ago that this president tore up. And so, we were not in this kind of predicament, like we are in now.

BERMAN: You mentioned the identification of a third U.S. service member who was killed this weekend. We're still waiting on possibly a fourth.

We also know that there have been some 100 injuries in just the last few weeks. We really did just learn that. And we also get a sense that the reporting, or the disclosure of injuries from the Pentagon has been quite slow. Now, they say that's for security reasons. But how satisfied are you about what we are learning to injuries being suffered by those in service of this war?

KAMLAGER-DOVE: So, we have had zero hearings in Foreign Affairs on this Iran war. We have not had any real legitimate oversight on how much we're spending, how much longer we plan to be there, what's our off ramps, how are we protecting our service men and women? We haven't. And now they want to push forward a defense bill that would give more money to the Pentagon that has failed about eight audits and would give more money to fund this war, when we should be trying to find ways to get out of it.

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We are asking, demanding, for oversight. We want to know how the dollars are being used and how we can stop our men and women from dying and put an end to this. And we're getting no information.

It is also unfair that slowly information is being revealed about the men and women who've lost their lives in this war. I think we all deserve better from this administration.

BERMAN: Secretary Hegseth -- Secretary of Defense Hegseth is over testifying before Senate Appropriations. Now, obviously, you're not in the Senate and not on appropriations, but were you on that panel, what would be the one question you would ask?

KAMLAGER-DOVE: I would ask him why all of a sudden now he's interested in testosterone maxing and wants us to fund gender affirming care for the military, something that supposedly this administration has been adamantly against. Of course, after that question, I would dig in about how the dollars are being used and what the off ramp is for this war, and how we can end it immediately and get our service men and women home.

BERMAN: Political question, if I can. We're approaching the midterms. The latest polling out this weekend on the generic ballot test had Democrats with a lead over Republicans. But just three points. Why do you think it isn't bigger? How concerned are you that while voters seem to be saying they're very frustrated with the president, they're not sure they like the Democratic alternative?

KAMLAGER-DOVE: I think the American people are as frustrated as I am. You know, they see a speaker who has no shame and who is pushing forward bills that are going to hurt the American people, like the SAVE Act, which isn't going to save anyone. In fact, it would prevent a lot of women from being able to vote. And it would put our identity at risk if you now have to send in a copy of your I.D. with your mail- in ballot. They are frustrated that gas prices are still going up, and they are frustrated that they have a president who seems more interested in building a ballroom and painting a Reflecting Pool than he is committed to bringing down the cost of groceries.

BERMAN: But you talked about Republican leadership. How do you feel about Democratic leadership? Because, again, the American people don't seem that enthusiastic about it just now.

KAMLAGER-DOVE: Well, I'm going to be working like the dickens to make sure that we are successful in November. Our goal is to win the House and win the gavel so that we can investigate, we can bring these folks to Congress and force them to testify before us, to tell us how they are spending the American people's dollars, if they are being accountable to the American people. And we also plan to put forth a new agenda for how we want to bring the costs of, you know, of health care down, the cost of living down. Why is it that we have a president that didn't even want to sign a bipartisan housing bill to help folks, you know, pay for a home? This makes no sense.

So, our goal is to push what we want to do and hold these people accountable come November.

BERMAN: Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Investigators are examining new video that shows the moment an Army veteran ignites a fire explosion outside a New York federal building. What police are saying this morning.

Plus, the fight to extradite the Tate brothers from the United States back to the U.S. on new charge -- as new -- as new alleged victims come forward and new charges that they are facing of rape and trafficking.

And trouble in the nest. Jackie, an internet famous bald eagle, is now recovering after being rescued from a fight.

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BOLDUAN: So, we're standing by to possibly learn this morning of formal charges against the 43-year-old man, an Army veteran, that authorities say lit an incendiary device outside a federal building in New York City. There's really remarkable video of this whole thing playing out. The FBI says it shows Andrew Arrabaca run down the sidewalk in front of the building, pour gasoline on the ground, and then light it on fire. Three people were injured in this scary scene. And officials say Arrabaca says that he was willing to kill anyone, federal officials or civilians, who got in his way.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has the very latest on this.

And you've been really tracking this. What is the latest that you're hearing or the expectation of what could be happening with this guy now?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right now it's just, what kind of charges will we see at this point?

BOLDUAN: Yrs.

GINGRAS: You've seen all the video. And there's so much evidence that was found there at the scene. We saw them collecting it while we were down at 26 Federal Plaza. But also, there's a lot of investigation going on with his social media. As we understand, he did have a social media presence. So, going through all of that, trying to see. I heard Andrew McCabe say earlier, did he have any sort of connections to anybody? Is this a lone wolf type situation?

BOLDUAN: Yes. GINGRAS: Kind of funding possibly. We heard he slept outside the Holland Tunnel the night before. So, what's his background essentially.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GINGRAS: Also, did he have any connections or any sort of relations with police at any point in his history? So, a lot of this is combing through all that video, which they have a lot of it, as you were showing the viewers.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GINGRAS: And also just kind of getting more about him. And some of this will come down to also what he has said to them. Like I said, in the last time we saw each other, Kate, like he is talking to police, he did not lawyer up. He made a lot of, you know, accusations. He talked about anti-ICE, a lot of anti-government. So, that will all be part of this. But also let's hear from police and what they are, what they're looking at.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BARNACLE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI NEW YORK: When he was being arrested, he yelled derogatory terms to ICE, used bad words.

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Obviously he is an anti-American, anti-government extremist. We know that from what he said. We know that from what he has said post arrest. And we know that from what his actions that he tried to take today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yes, another thing to mention is that he was not on police radar. They weren't exactly tracking this person. So, a lot should come out hopefully when we do see some charges, which we are keeping an eye out for this morning.

BOLDUAN: So, there's going to be -- definitely more developments in this as the days continue.

GINGRAS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Brynn. Thank you for the update.

GINGRAS: All right. Thanks.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, newly unsealed court documents reveal new details about social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate's legal fight. The filings also reveal the Trump administration does not plan to intervene in the U.K.'s extradition request.

With us now, CNN's Carolina Peguero in Miami.

So, what have we learned now, Carolina?

CAROLINA PEGUERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.

Well, as the Tate brothers remain in federal custody here in Miami, and they challenged that extradition request from the U.K., we're learning alarming details from these unsealed documents of the courts here in Miami. We're learning from prosecutors that there are new allegations from additional women, including rape and sex trafficking.

Now, those claims by women to British officials, they say that they were physically and sexually abused by the brothers, including that they were choked, sometimes to the point where they would pass out and later raped.

Now, the brothers, of course, have denied all allegations, and their lawyers are vowing to prove their innocence and get them freed out. They're also asking for the Trump administration to intervene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH MCBRIDE, TATE BROTHERS' ATTORNEY: And say about the allegations in the United Kingdom, not a single, solitary person has been identified. These are ghosts, and these are phantoms. So, we'd like to know who's accused Andrew and Tristan of what.

No innocent person can be punished while they're being held for any proceeding. Innocent until proven guilty. Solitary confinement is punishment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEGUERO: And as of now, we know that the brothers face 59 charges between both of them. We've learned from an official of the State Department that they will not be intervening, as well as the president, in this case. And their next hearing, their briefing hearing, is expected next Monday.

John.

BERMAN: All right, it will be very interesting to see how this develops.

Carolina Peguero, in Miami, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, health officials say despite a false positive test result of cyclospora, they believe still that Taylor Farms is the focus of their investigation into the outbreak caused by the cyclospora parasite. The FDA is saying this, "this false positive lab sample does not change the basis for FDA's ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms."

The CDC's foodborne diseases surveillance network had tracked the parasite until July of last year. That is when HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. instituted big cutbacks to its pathogen surveillance. And that is the subject of a scathing letter from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, now slamming the health secretary, writing in part, "your foolish and self-indulgent demolition of critical public health programs puts Americans at risk." Ossoff is demanding to know more about the investigation into this, whether the pathogen surveillance network has been now restored and why cyclospora was removed from its tracking in the first place.

So, we are keeping a close watch also on Tropical Storm Bertha that is threatening the Gulf Coast. We have the very latest on that and the threat of severe storms across the East Coast.

And Matt Damon reveals his muscular stunt double for the movie "The Odyssey" is a woman, even saying this, that she's the greatest arms I've ever seen.

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[09:28:53]

BOLDUAN: We're standing by very soon for the opening bell on Wall Street. But at the same time, let's take a live look at what's happening in oil markets all this morning. Prices are up in the U.S. as the U.S. just wrapped a tenth straight day of attacks on Iran. And there's another new development that could be rattling global markets, especially oil markets, even more. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have now declared their own naval blockade, they say, against Saudi Arabia in the Bab-al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea. That's another critical international shipping channel and oil route.

And also there's new reporting just in today that the -- that the Houthis have begun broadcasting messages warning Saudi ships to stop traveling in the Red Sea.

Joining me right now is retired Army Major General James "Spider" Marks. He's the head of geopolitical strategy for Academy Securities.

It's good to see you, Spider.

Let's talk about this.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I mean, the Houthis now threatening the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, declaring this blockade on Saudi ships from passing through.

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If this really does go into effect, if we now have a second major shipping channel that is threatened and thus, you know, there will be disruption to it, what does that mean for the United States if this becomes