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Trial Date Set For Nicolas Maduro; Fallen U.S. Soldiers Return Home. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 22, 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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(SILENCE FOR DIGNIFIED TRANSFER OF U.S. SERVICE MEMBERS)

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(SILENCE FOR DIGNIFIED TRANSFER OF U.S. SERVICE MEMBERS)

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The ultimate sacrifice.

We have been watching the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members killed in action in the Iran war over the weekend, President Trump and top government officials in attendance there paying their respects in view of the cameras at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

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And, off camera, what you did not see were the families, who are bearing this unimaginable loss. And you may notice there has been no audio during this dignified transfer. It's customary out of respect for the privacy of those families that their grief may be something that you can also hear.

We do want to tell you a little bit about each of these service members.

Army 1st Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan was 25 years old. He was from Hawaii and known to his loved ones as Tivo. He was set to be married and attend law school after his deployment. Feehan was just weeks away from completing his MBA at Southern Utah University. His degree will be awarded posthumously.

And Army Private Isabella Gonzales, who is just 19, she's from Texas, graduated from high school last spring. Her friends described her as kind, genuine, and full of light.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: And they're so young.

Army Staff Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton was 30 years old from Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was killed in Northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed one-way attack drone. Swinton's mother said his wife and kids were the center of his world. Also, 28-year-old Army Sergeant Angel Rampersad from Ozone Park, New

York, Sergeant Rampersad had been missing for days after those Iranian strikes at an air base in Jordan. Yesterday, the Defense Department identified her as believed to have been among those killed; 18 U.S. troops have now died in combat since the war began.

And, of course, for a commander in chief, those dignified transfers arguably one of the toughest things, toughest moments they take part in.

Joining us now, retired Air Force Colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, also CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, I wonder what more you're learning about the president's reactions to this growing list of Americans who gave their lives for this war, with no sign of the war -- the end of the war in sight.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right.

And there's no moment that really instills in a president the weight of responsibility than going up to Dover Air Force Base to stand at attention to watch as this ritual proceeds with very solemn precision, as these flag-draped cases are loaded into those vehicles.

We didn't hear any audio. And having covered these, it is striking just the silence of this entire moment. There are no speeches. There's no music. You just sort of hear the whir of the auxiliary engine of the plane and the footsteps of the carry team that is moving these cases into the vans.

Reporters who are there today, though, did note that you could hear cries of anguish from the families. They're kept separated from the press. You cannot see them, but you can hear them as those cries kind of pierce in a very searing way what is otherwise this very solemn silence that is resting over the entire moment.

And for President Trump, he is essentially watching the human consequences of his decisions pass by before him. And every president and every military leader has to weigh what they call the Dover test. It's been in place for decades. Is the war that they are overseeing worth the consequences that it is exacting, and is it worth it to the American public?

And before the president left to head to Dover today, he did suggest that the American public was with him. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A poll -- a poll just came out. Americans don't want to have gasoline prices, but they're not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll. Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: The polls, in fact, show the opposite. There was a "Washington Post" poll out this week that showed, when

Americans were asked, is the Iran war worth fighting, 68 percent of respondents said no, 28 percent said yes.

That negative 40-point split is worse than either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. The worst number for the Afghanistan war came nearly 12 years into it. We are now just over four months into this conflict. And the president is now weighing an escalation, potentially taking steps that would provoke the type of retaliation that would put the American troops that are arrayed across the Middle East further at risk.

So, clearly, the president is at a decision point in this conflict, and, as he headed up to Dover today, I think that's clearly going to weigh in some of his calculations.

KEILAR: Kevin, thank you so much for that.

We're joined by Colonel Cedric Leighton, retired from the Air Force.

This is just one of the most important things that a commander in chief does that I think we as Americans witness, because, even as Kevin's pointing out that the president is not representing where public opinion is on this war, this is the cost of the war that we, that he must confront.

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We see it there in these four young people.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's absolutely true, Brianna.

And one of the things to keep in mind is that these four fallen heroes represent a real cross section of American society. And when you look at where they come from, their ages, 19 to 30, a 25-year-old lieutenant, you have all of these different people from so many different walks of life, but they all come together in the military.

And this is a representation of that, this dignified transfer ceremony, a very solemn occasion, and something that clearly weighs on any commander in chief's mind when they do something like this, when they attend a ceremony like this.

But it is -- as you mentioned, it is definitely a reflection of the consequences of this war. And we have to keep in mind, I think, that when you look at a situation where you have a dignified transfer like this, the whole logistical process that goes in is tempered by a ceremonial aspect.

It is not a ceremony. It is basically a transfer from the aircraft to a vehicle, which then goes to the mortuary. And that process has been in place at Dover Air Force Base more or less in this form since 1955. It is one of the -- it is basically the largest mortuary in the Department of Defense system. And it is designed to provide the capabilities, so that the families

then will be able to receive their fallen heroes after they have been identified formally and processed and are made ready.

SCIUTTO: Of course, the administration, the military cannot deny when soldiers are lost, but there have been questions about how forthcoming they have been about the number of injuries, and there have been a significant number of injuries, and how quickly they have made that information public.

You will often hear administration officials say, well, that's out of respect for the families, et cetera. You served in the military. What is the most honest way for the military to deal with the casualties of war?

LEIGHTON: To tell the truth as quickly as possible, Jim.

And, sometimes, there are -- as the Department of Defense spokesman mentioned, there are operational security concerns when it comes to some of these situations. But, having said that, the quicker you get the information out, the better we as the American people can decide on matters of war and peace.

And it ultimately is the people's decision, although of course, formally constitutionally, it should be the Congress' decision, but it's clearly also the executive's decision. And so when the -- this type of information is withheld, that becomes a huge problem, because people don't understand the -- if it's withheld, they don't understand the scope of the war.

And they also don't understand the sacrifices potentially that could be engendered by making a decision to go to war.

SCIUTTO: And for so many years, we have asked so much from our service members through many long wars in the region and beyond.

Colonel Leighton, thanks so much.

Please do stay with CNN. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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KEILAR: We are following breaking news just into CNN.

A trial date for former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife is now set for June 1 of next year. It was scheduled during a hearing today, though the defense and prosecutors noted the timing could shift, given the complexity of this case.

Maduro and his wife are facing narco-terrorism charges after U.S. special forces raided their Caracas home in January and arrested them. Both have pleaded not guilty and are being held in federal custody as they await trial.

CNN's Evan Perez was inside of the courtroom.

Evan, take us inside. What did you see?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, look, I mean, you can see the difference in the way the Maduros looked today in federal court.

They came in obviously wearing the prison issue -- the prison-issued tan smock that they all wear. There was no shackles. Mr. Maduro, the former president, was -- looked -- looked like he was -- he had just gotten a haircut, like a recent haircut. And he was pretty at ease.

He was joking with his lawyers. He brought some notes into court. And the court -- actually, today's proceeding went a lot faster than some of the other ones. In this case, the judge agreed to set a trial date of June 1. The government and the Maduro lawyers had had discussions behind the scenes.

And they were trying to essentially speed up the some of the proceedings. They have set a schedule, a pretty aggressive schedule between now and June for them to argue a lot of things, including the fact that the Maduros want to argue sovereign immunity, the idea that they were kidnapped from their bedroom at the presidential palace in Caracas back in January, and they have no business facing these charges here in the United States.

That's one of the things that they're going to be arguing. And another big point of contention is expected to be, of course, the classified evidence that the government says they have that they're going to use against them in federal court.

Now, this was a 30-minute or so proceeding, but Judge Hellerstein sort of stuck to the plan that the two sides had already agreed to. So, I guess we're going to see them in trial in June of 2027 -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, someone making some noise there behind you, Evan Perez. Thank you so much for that report and the very latest on what is happening inside that courtroom.

We're joined now by former federal prosecutor Ankush.

Ankush, talk to us about the significance of this hearing today.

ANKUSH KHARDORI, SENIOR WRITER, POLITICO: Well, it's, in some respects, a very standard hearing, in that it's a pretrial hearing to set a schedule that will govern the rest of the case, the discovery, which is unusual and more complicated than an ordinary case, and a trial date, sort of setting the rules of the road on the trial date.