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Soon: Trump to Tout Affordability Message During Georgia Speech; WAPO: Intel Report Says U.S. Strikes Unlikely to Push Iran into Negotiations; Trump Vows to Hit Bridges, Power Plants if Iran Strikes in Strait; Trump Arrives in Georgia to Tout Admin's Affordability Efforts; Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) Discusses About President Trump Message 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 22, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

SHERIFF JEREMIAH LARUE, SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: ... were handling the situation. It's going to be a long haul for this. Right now, I can tell you that they are -- they're healthy physically, but again, there -- there's a lot of impact that's going to be emotional and long-term that they need to work through.

And the great thing is I know the Forest Service as well as a lot of our local partners are teaming up to provide that service that can help them because we need to be compassionate. We need to think about those people. And again, they're our community members and -- and we -- and we love them dearly and we want to make sure that they're -- they're safe.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, what a tough situation. Sheriff LaRue, thank you so much for being with us. We're so grateful that obviously this came to a peaceful resolution.

LARUE: Thank you, Brianna, for having me.

KEILAR: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: President Trump hits the campaign trail. He is set to speak any minute now in Georgia, a state that could decide whether Republicans keep control of the Senate.

Plus, Nicolas Maduro, the captured former leader of Venezuela, appears in front of a judge, apparently with a fresh haircut. We now know when his drug trafficking and narco-terrorism trial will begin.

And later, inconclusive results, the family of Nolan Wells says an independent autopsy could not determine what caused the 18-year-old's death.

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

Happening now, we are standing by to hear from President Trump as he delivers remarks at a high school in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. This was him arriving just a short time ago at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, which is located nearby. The President is expected to soon push his affordability message ahead of the midterms as he appears alongside Republicans in the states. CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House with more on what we can expect to hear from President Trump as he takes the stage.

Listen, affordability is a problem for him, right? Because inflation has not come down, certainly to the degree that he claims it has. Gas prices remain high, appear to be going up again with the expansion of the Iran war. So, how does he plan to make that case to voters in Georgia?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and ostensibly he is there to talk about Trump Accounts, which are these federal savings accounts that the administration started rolling out this summer for kids. It is a key pillar of his affordability agenda, and it's exactly the type of thing that many Republicans want to hear him talking more about, particularly in a place like Georgia with its competitive Senate race and particularly in a place like Marietta, which is a competitive part of Georgia.

What the Republicans don't want to hear him talking about and aren't quite sure if he's going to stick with it is election security. And this is the first stop that the President has made after that speech he delivered on the topic in primetime last week. And we know that Georgia has really been at the center of his grievances on this issue. He has repeatedly railed against Georgia's election systems ever since he lost the state in 2020. And the fear that a lot of Republicans have is that that could just backfire if it convinces voters in that state that their votes won't be counted, or if he restricts mail-in voting, which too could restrict some of the votes that are going towards the Republican candidate in that state.

And so, the President's there to talk about affordability, and the administration really does believe it has a story to tell on this. The question is whether President Trump wants to tell that story, and I guess we'll see when he delivers that speech at any moment now.

SCIUTTO: Okay, so of course another challenge for him is that a war that he said was already won weeks, months ago continues, and now the President is expanding, escalating his threats against Iran up to and including attacking civilian targets. What are you hearing from White House officials on next steps?

LIPTAK: Yes, and they say that the President has been briefed on these options that would potentially intensify this conflict, and you hear the President, you know, sort of repeatedly over the last several days lay out potential new targets, including Pickaxe Mountain, which is that heavily fortified site where at least Israeli intelligence suggests Iran may have moved its advanced centrifuges.

You also saw the President today threatening bridges and roads if Iran continues to strike vessels that are in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, the President flew to Georgia from Dover Air Force Base, where he witnessed the dignified transfer of the remains of those four Americans who died over the weekend as a result of this conflict. There is this concept called the Dover test. Does the war that the President has begun, worth -- is it worth the consequences that it is producing? Is it worth it for the President, and is it worth it for the Americans?

[15:05:05]

Now, the President suggested as he was leaving for Dover that in fact this was meeting the Dover test. 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 high gasoline prices, but they're not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you, sir ...

TRUMP: Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Jim, the polls say the complete opposite. There was a Washington Post poll this week that found when asked is the Iran war worth fighting, 68 percent of Americans said no.

SCIUTTO: Simple fact check there, Kevin Liptak. Thanks so much.

Well, the President's latest threat against Iran comes as U.S. intelligence is warning that military strikes may not be enough to get Iran back to the negotiating table, as the President claims.

KEILAR: Yes, a new report in the Washington Post citing current and former U.S. officials says, quote, "Iran's government is unlikely to feel significant impact or soften its negotiating position as a result of new rounds of U.S. military strikes like those now underway." We're joined now by former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark. He is the founder of the nonprofit Renew America Together.

General, thanks for being with us.

As you look at that new report, what does this tell you about how strategically sound the administration's current military approach is?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I'm hearing one thing at the political level, Brianna. I'm hearing something else at the military level. What I see at the military level is a sound strategic approach. That is to take out the ability of the Iranians to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. If you -- this is the key leverage point they hold in the negotiations.

And so, that's not getting across in the press, but it's getting across to the Iranians. They're scared, and that's why they are escalating against our forces and against things like the desalination plant in Kuwait. They know that if we keep going back night after night, day after day, picking apart their ability to interfere with the shipping, that they will lose that ability, except maybe for the odd, you know, drone launch from a hundred miles away or something that we'll have trouble targeting the ships. So, I think there's a sound military approach available, but I don't

think a counter value approach against these Iranians, which is what the intelligence report is basically analyzing. I don't think that works in the case of Iran. And -- and that's the problem. We've got to get the military to take away Iran's military capabilities.

Now, we really need to take away the missile capabilities, but we don't seem to have the ability to go after those missile cities yet. We're going to need new technology, may need some new approaches, but we got to focus this thing on what military can do. The counter value stuff, taking out energy facilities, stuff like that, that's not going to change the course. And that's what the intelligence agency is saying.

SCIUTTO: But let me ask you this, General Clark, from a purely legal perspective, right? The President's threatening civilian targets, bridges and power plants. And I know that they might make the case that, well, the regime uses them as well. But if you were commanding U.S. forces there, would you consider that a legal and acceptable use of U.S. military force?

CLARK: It depends on what the power plant's connected to. For example, one of the things we have to do is we have to isolate and -- and take out the ability of -- of the Bandar Abbas region to control the Strait. So if it's a power plant that's feeding Bandar Abbas or Bushehr and being used for military purposes, sure, let's go after it. If it's something in Tehran that's just purely civilian, that's -- that's something else.

But Jim, one other thing that is not coming out here that should come out is, in order to succeed in this, you have to isolate the theater of operations, that is Iran. So, right now there's endless convoys of trucks, I'm told, coming in from Pakistan. And they're carrying parts for missiles, guidance systems, and so forth. There's railroad lines coming in from China with rocket fuel.

So, as long as Iran is able to be reinforced from the outside, from China, Russia, and Pakistan, we're going to be, you know, not very effective. We went through this in Vietnam in 1964.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CLARK: We could have broken up the Ho Chi Minh Trail, stopped it, and changed the way it went, but we didn't take it seriously enough. And so, Jim, I just want to say, if I can, this is real conflict that the United States of America can't blow off, take lightly, and assume it's going to be okay and don't worry too much about it.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CLARK: The Iranians are building near-continental ballistic missiles, they are trying to get nuclear weapons, and they are determined to dominate the region, and maybe even us. So, they want to be a superpower. We don't like their values and their approach. We can't back away from this.

[15:10:06]

KEILAR: What are the administration's options, General, to get out of this conflict, to get Iran's grip on shipping eliminated here without putting boots on the ground?

CLARK: I think if you work it properly through air power and through the naval assets we have in the region, including unmanned surface vessels and underwater activities, you can -- you can really eliminate almost all of their ability to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. It won't happen instantly. If you want instant gratification, it won't happen, but ground troops won't solve that either. You have to develop the targeting base, get the staring reconnaissance overhead, have the immediate response capacity.

You're playing whack-a-mole against these people. They know that they're going to lose. That's why they're escalating. If they thought they could sit back and so forth and drag it out, they wouldn't be targeting their neighbors the same way. They'd just be seeking time.

And the other thing we can't do is we can't stop and have a pause for a ceasefire that -- that says maybe we'll get negotiations. If they want to talk to us, they can talk to us right now. But if you isolate the country, squeeze the borders, go after the Strait, make the blockade a hundred percent around Iran, the IRGC will feel they're losing. And when they start to lose, they will come back to the table. They will want to salvage what they can before they lose everything. But we have to be patient. We can't measure it on days. We can't measure it on nickel increases in the price of gasoline or whatever. This is a real serious problem. And if we don't want a Vietnam, we have to take it seriously.

If we'd taken Vietnam seriously in the early 19 -- mid-1960s, we wouldn't have lost 58,000 troops there. We have to take this very seriously. This is not a tin pot dictatorship like Venezuela was. This is serious combat.

SCIUTTO: And -- and a country that's getting help from Russia and China, as Hegseth said, acknowledged yesterday in the hearings.

KEILAR: Yes, a lot. General Wesley Clark, thank you so much for being with us.

CLARK: That's right. Thank you, Brianna. Thank you, Jim.

KEILAR: Still to come, former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro appearing in a New York courtroom. We have new details on what happened inside and what's next in that case.

SCIUTTO: Plus, the family of Nolan Wells releases preliminary results from an independent autopsy. We will have the details.

And later, Tropical Storm Bertha is approaching the U.S. coast. It could bring a month's worth of rain to some areas. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:17:19]

SCIUTTO: The date for the criminal trial of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife is now set. It is expected to get underway on June 1st next year. The federal judge overseeing the case scheduled the June trial date after prosecutors and Maduro's attorneys jointly proposed it during today's pretrial hearing. Maduro and his wife have both pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges after U.S. Special Forces raided their Caracas home and arrested them and took them to the U.S. earlier this year. CNN's Evan Perez is outside the courthouse in New York.

Evan, describe those moments inside the courtroom, including some new haircuts, I guess.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Nicolas Maduro had a -- had a new haircut. Look, they looked definitely a lot different from when they were here in January after that -- that extraordinary raid -- military raid that brought them from their bedroom in Caracas to here in federal court in lower Manhattan. One of the things that happened today is that court date, it's a trial date that was set by Judge Hellerstein. It's June 1st of 2027.

And this is after the -- the two sides, the prosecution and Maduro's lawyers, basically went behind the scenes and -- and came to terms on a schedule between now and then. They're going to have a number of procedural deadlines between now and then. One of the things they expect to -- to anticipate that they're going to be arguing over, the defense already says, they're going to raise the issue of sovereign immunity. They believe these charges that -- that Maduro should even be facing these charges because Maduro is the President of Venezuela, so he's entitled to that immunity.

The judge has already expressed some skepticism about that issue. We also expect that the government is, and the defense are going to fight over some of the classified evidence that the government says they're going to use against the Maduros in -- in court when they do get to trial. So, the judge did have some skepticism, by the way, Jim, about this schedule that the two sides have laid out. He kept saying, are you sure we're going to be able to do this? And the two sides says, absolutely, and we can let it slide if -- if we have any issues.

Now, today in court, they did look a lot better. As I pointed out, Maduro was joking with his lawyers, smiling. There was no outburst, unlike what happened in January, on the part of Maduro. So, we'll see whether they can stick to this pretty aggressive schedule, which is in about a year, because this is obviously a very complicated case for federal prosecutors. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Evan -- Evan, just quickly, who are Maduro's lawyers?

PEREZ: We have David Pollack, who is a seasoned Washington lawyer.

[15:20:04]

We have a couple of others -- other folks who are representing Cilia Flores, but they are doing a joint defense. And, you know, it's been a little bit of behind-the-scenes interaction there because the government at one point was refusing to allow the Venezuelan government to pay for the defense of -- of the -- of the Maduros. That now has been allowed, according to the Treasury Department.

SCIUTTO: Evan Perez at the courthouse, thanks so much.

Well, President Trump is set to speak at a high school in Georgia shortly. He is expected to attempt to highlight his administration's efforts on affordability in a state which could decide which party gets control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:27]

KEILAR: We're moments away from hearing President Trump speak in Georgia, where the President will be at a high school in the northern Atlanta suburbs to tout his administration's efforts to address Americans' affordability issues. The war with Iran and its impact on the economy is looming large with voters there, ahead of critical races for the Senate and Governor's Mansion. We're joined now from Capitol Hill by someone who knows the state very well, Republican Congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia.

Sir, thanks for being with us. The President, of course, as I mentioned, is going to be talking about affordability there on this visit to Georgia. How does he sell that message as his administration is previewing more broad tariffs that would cover 99 percent of U.S. trade, up 12.5 percent across 60 countries?

REP. BUDDY CARTER (R-GA): Well, the President is really ushering in the economic golden age in Georgia and throughout the country. And, you know, we're glad the President is in Georgia. Georgians love President Trump. President Trump loves Georgia. What we're experiencing, you know, with Georgia, with economic opportunity, with job growth, with the small business expansion, all of those things have been a result of economic policy.

KEILAR: But tariffs hit people, so how does he sell that while they're going to have to deal more with tariffs?

CARTER: Well, tariffs are -- are necessary tool in the President's tool chest, and he's using those to -- to help American workers, and it's -- it's working. It is helping American workers. It's leveling the playing field, and that's something the President's been clear about and something that he has -- he has exercised that -- that tool, used that tool to our advantage here in America.

KEILAR: This new Washington Post-Ipsos polling is showing that 68 percent of Americans said the Iran war was not worth fighting. Here is what the President said about how Americans feel today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Americans aren't against the war. The -- a poll -- a poll just came out. Americans don't want high gasoline prices, but they're not against the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Is that what you're hearing from your constituents, that they're not against the war?

CARTER: I'll tell you what Americans and what Georgians are against and what my -- my constituents are against, and that is Iran having a nuclear bomb. As a father, as a grandfather, I don't want my grandchildren, my children, to grow up in a world where Iran has a nuclear bomb. The President's making sure that that never happens. That's what we have to keep in mind.

Yes, gasoline prices are high. However, they will go down, and when they do go down, they'll stay down, because when Iran is not able to manipulate the gas prices, then they will stabilize and we'll be all better off as a result of that.

KEILAR: The poll found that Trump has lost enthusiasm among many Republicans. Is -- is that not what you're seeing?

CARTER: Look, you know, the -- the President has had some very difficult decisions to make, but he's made some good decisions. And certainly, deciding that Iran's never going to have a nuclear bomb, that's a good decision. It's good for us. Let's keep in mind that this is a war that's been going on for 47 years. Finally, we have a president who understands how to use strength, and he can achieve peace through strength, and he's doing just that.

KEILAR: Trump posted a comparison of death tolls between wars and also just some military operations. He called it the Venezuela War. That was more of a limited operation there. But you obviously -- you have a number of military installations, service members who are in your district.

CARTER: Yes.

KEILAR: Is that the way that you want a commander-in-chief talking about this ultimate sacrifice that troops are willing to make?

CARTER: We need -- we need to make sure that we are giving our troops every opportunity to defend our country. That's why the Reconciliation 3.0 Act is so important, to give funding for our troops so that they will have the -- the ability and to -- to defend our country, and that's certainly important. Yes, the SAVE America Act is also important in Reconciliation 3.0, but making that sure that our troops can safely and effectively ...

KEILAR: I'm asking you about how we talk about how they put their lives on the line.

CARTER: Well, look, we -- we want to make sure all of our troops are protected. That's why we in Congress are trying to get the funding to make sure that they can safely and effectively finish this drill in Iran, make sure that they can complete the drill. KEILAR: You're on House Energy and Commerce. Trump has approved a

nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the kingdom enriching its own fuel for civilian reactors without adopting the gold standard of international oversight.

[15:30:03]

It would actually involve American companies providing technology and expertise to develop the program. Do you support that deal?