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President Trump Issues New Threat to Iran; Jordan Calls for Charges Against Jack Smith; Shooting in Wisconsin. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 23, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS TECH REPORTER: In that case.

There is also an ongoing trial in Tennessee in a case brought against Meta by the state attorney general related to these similar addiction claims. All four of these companies settled a case brought by a Kentucky school district that was set to go to trial earlier this summer. So, we are seeing how this litigation is really stacking up against these companies. Certainly, Meta will be glad that this one trial it doesn't have to go to. But we do expect to see more of these.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, more to come for sure. This may just be a pause, if anything.

Clare Duffy, thank you very much for this reporting.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BERMAN: A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news, President Trump adding a new condition to his nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. What does this mean now for the deal itself and how it could be impacting the expanding war with Iran.

And the Republican chair of House Judiciary, Jim Jordan, calling on the Justice Department to criminally charge former special counsel Jack Smith. And the president up and weighing in on that this morning.

And a terrifying attack caught on camera when a leopard bursts into a liquor store.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, President Trump just adding a new condition on a nuclear deal they just signed yesterday with Saudi Arabia that could upend that agreement. This post says that Saudi Arabia must join the Abraham Accords.

CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein is with me now.

Just give us some context. This was not part of the initial deal, at least none of us have seen the whole thing. But the Abraham Accords was not a demand made on the deal signed yesterday, correct?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, Sara. We really didn't have the full text of that deal. And we're working to get more details on this. But the ink was barely dry as President Trump now putting this new condition on this nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia.

This had been a major win for the kingdom. It was expected to give them a civilian nuclear program. And it could lead the kingdom to be able to enrich its own fuel for civilian reactors. It was signed just yesterday evening by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart after being approved formally by President Trump after months of negotiations. The deal would last 30 years. It is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars for U.S. companies that would assist with expertise and technology there.

But the president now saying that the country must sign on to the Abraham Accords. He says in this new post to social media, quote, "the civil nuclear deal being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to nonmilitary use such as the ones that Iran and UAE and others already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords. The United States is not opposed to civil, non-enriched nuclear facilities."

Now, historically, Saudi Arabia has been resistant to efforts to join the Abraham Accords. That is that deal that was struck during the president's first term and then expanded during his second for Middle Eastern countries to set up diplomatic relations with Israel. Criticism from Israel about this nuclear deal had already come in from top officials, also on Capitol Hill. It was expected to generate some criticism on both sides of the aisle. The agreement has to be sent to Congress for a review. It's possible they are able to block that. But we have asked the White House what this means for the future of this deal, whether it will go into effect. No answer yet, Sara.

SIDNER: Betsy Klein, thank you as well, always for your great reporting there at the White House. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: So, in just the last hour, President Trump issued this new threat to Iran over threats from the Houthis. They, of course, operate out of Yemen. And they fired on two ships -- or two ships, I should say, were fired on in the Red Sea overnight. We don't know exactly the details of how those ships are doing now. But this is what the president posted. "If they do this again, the United States will hold Iran responsible in that the Houthis are a surrogate and/or a proxy of Iran and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran, and, of course, the Houthis themselves, who I am very disappointed with."

With us now is retired U.S. Army Colonel Peter Mansoor.

Colonel, great to see you today.

Obviously, the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb is so important because Saudi Arabia has been taking oil that they normally send out of the Strait of Hormuz and they've been routing it through this strait right here. Now, that shipping has all -- been all but shut off. If the United States does take action against the Houthis, what would that look like?

[09:05:06]

COL. PETER MANSOOR, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, it could look a lot like what it looked like a few years ago when we bombed the Houthis and, to no effect, quite frankly, they ended up on the upper end of that exchange.

I think, instead, we would bomb Iran and hold Iran responsible for the actions of the Houthis. And, you know, what we do to Iran, I'm not sure we can do much more than the 13,000 strikes we've already inflicted on that nation. And so, this is a real issue for the Trump administration and the world economy as a whole.

Saudi oil, by the way, can still be shipped to the Red Sea and then go north through the Suez Canal. It just takes a lot longer to get to Asia, its final destination.

BERMAN: Yes. You can just get a sense -- I can even draw that here. If you're coming out of the Suez Canal, you've got to go all the way around here, right? It's a lot more efficient just to go that way if you're trying to get out of there.

You mentioned Iran and taking attacks directly against Iran. We spoke to Barak Ravid earlier in the show who said his reporting is that the president is very, very close to ordering basically, a resumption of epic fury, a full-scale war, or what the war will look like before on Iran. And there are reports that there are troops moving toward Jordan, other places in the region here.

So, if the United States did reignite the war, push it back up to where it was, again, what might that look like, and what do you think the impact would be?

MANSOOR: So, it'll look like a lot what it looked like in March and April when we were at full scale combat operations against Iran. And this time we have the blockade as well in force. And so, these are measures that would be inflicted on Iran in an attempt to get it to cave. And I really don't see this Iranian regime giving up its control of the Strait of Hormuz. It's the only leverage it has in negotiations. And it believes control of the Strait is essential to maintain its sovereignty. Otherwise, it would be subject to continual attacks by the United States and Israel. But the -- a resumption of Epic Fury would again be thousands of strikes on Iran, wherever Iranian forces are, and their industrial facilities.

BERMAN: I want to take a live look right now at U.S. oil prices here. You can see -- well, this is Brent crude. This is the rest of the world oil. And very close to $100 a barrel. U.S. crude, West Texas, up over 90.

Brent crude hasn't been over 100 since May I think is the information that I got there. So, you can see, oil prices creeping up again. More than creeping up. Really leaping up over the last week or so. How much pressure, political pressure, do you think that puts on the military strategy of President Trump?

MANSOOR: Well, it puts pressure on the world economy. And the president is very focused on economics. And so, it does put pressure on him. But I don't think it's -- for Iran, I don't think it's a war- winning amount of pressure. This president will not allow Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz. And so this war, I think, will go on for quite some time.

You know, what we saw in the spring is the world economy adjusted to the higher oil prices. It didn't do a whole lot for growth. Of course it tamped that down quite a bit. But the world economy didn't collapse either. And so, the market mechanisms will adjust and we'll go from there. But I think the real key issue here is, Saudi Arabia was able to ship oil during that period into the Red Sea. And now that, you know, that pipeline has been somewhat mitigated by the Houthis.

BERMAN: Again, yes, so right now all eyes again on the Strait of Hormuz, where they've been for months, and now Bab-el-Mandeb at the south of the Red Sea.

Colonel Peter Mansoor, great to speak to you today. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, breaking this morning, President Trump appears to be publicly cheering on the new push by congressional Republicans to criminally charge Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald Trump. The House Judiciary's GOP chair is now referring Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, accusing him of misleading the committee.

At the center of this is the testimony that Smith gave on phone records he collected from members of Congress while investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Chairman Jim Jordan alleges that Smith spied on members of Congress and made, quote, "half-truths" in his December deposition. Smith's attorneys, hitting back, saying this, "this referral reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law."

[09:10:13]

SIDNER: And here's how the president is responding to all this, this morning, writing this morning, quote, "justice at last?"

CNN's Holmes Lybrand is joining us now with all of this.

You know, a lot of times, when the president puts something out there, it gives you a sense of him being -- cheering this on, and that could be a problem as they try to go after Jack Smith. What are you learning about this push to try and criminally indict him? HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: That's right. So, Republicans are really

kind of focused on two separate subpoenas. One subpoena -- and both of these subpoenas were a part of Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. This first subpoena on the toll records, it was for several members of Congress, but it just looked at calls that they had made, who they had called in the duration of those calls. It was not accessing the content of those calls or messages.

Now, there was also a separate subpoena to White House staffers and their communication. That communication did include messages with members of Congress. So, again, there's kind of these two different subpoenas.

And Smith, during this deposition in December, he was asked if he sought a search warrant for the contents of any text messages from lawmakers, which he said, no, I don't recall. And then was asked specific questions about those toll records. So, again, it's these two separate subpoenas.

And even in Jordan's letter, he suggests that Smith gave the impression that neither he nor his team had access to members' messages. So, it's this kind of impression wording. It's this misleading wording. Again, attorney -- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked about investigating Smith and his recent hearing for confirmation, and he really didn't give a solid answer, but said that that those kinds of accusations are always taken seriously at the Justice Department.

SIDNER: A lot of questions will remain about this, and I know you'll be watching it.

Holmes Lybrand, thank you so much for your reporting on this.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod for more on this.

It's good to see you, David.

I want to play for you what Andrew McCabe just said to us last hour. It seems that the Smith referral to DOJ is something of a last straw for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY FBI DIRECTOR: The message you should take away from this is, do not cooperate with the government. Do not provide answers under oath. Do not provide answers to Congress. Do not provide answers to questions to agents or to a grand jury because this Department of Justice will take what you say and apparently what you don't say and try to use that against you all in pursuit of the president's revenge mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: McCabe himself has been subpoenaed as part of the Justice Department's investigation into Obama era intelligence officials. I mean, what do you make of this whole thing now?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, this is a well-worn path now. We've seen this pattern before. We saw it in the text that the president sent to then Attorney General Pam Bondi, or the direct message, or what he thought was a direct message that the world saw. He orders up indictments. And we know how he feels about Jack Smith. You know, I think that Jordan is dutifully supplying what he wants, which is a referral so they can act.

I think back, Kate, to the things that got the president in trouble in the -- in the past, even in his first impeachment, when he said to Zelenskyy, just start an investigation of Joe Biden and we'll take care of the rest. And he said something similar to Justice Department lawyers in 2020, at the end of 2020, when he was pushing for an investigation of these -- of the vote of 2020. This is a pattern of his.

So, yes, I think if people are suspicious that this is a politically motivated referral by Jim Jordan, I think they'd be -- they'd be foolish not to feel that way.

BOLDUAN: Yes. There's some really interesting new reporting also coming out on the Michigan Senate race. I mean this is -- obviously, there's -- we talk a lot about the internal fight between progressives and, well, between the various sides of the Democratic Party, but also on the Republican in the Senate race, Mike Rogers. He spoke to CNN. And the new reporting is that he says that he thinks he has a good chance of actually winning the seat, David, if Abdul el-Sayed, the progressive candidate, more progressive candidate, is the Dem nominee.

Here's his -- here's Rogers' take. "If he wins, I think we're in good shape. I mean, I think he's so radical. I think he's going to lose big parts of the west part of the state. We think we can do well in part of the southeast part of the state. I think we'll do well if he is in fact the nominee."

[09:15:02]

Is that good spin from Mike Rogers or do you think he has a point?

AXELROD: You know, it's always hard to interpret what a candidate says about what's going on in the other primary when they're going to face the opponent, whether he's trying to help or hurt the person he's talking about.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

AXELROD: So, I can't -- I can't really speak to it. I -- you know, but that is an -- that is the operative theory of some Republicans and some Democrats. El-Sayed would be a more difficult candidate to elect. Although I think most believe that it would just take a little bit more resources to get that done. And Rogers has his own issues. He talks about doing well in the

southeast. One of his problems is that he's been living in the southeast for much of the last few years, meaning Florida. So, he was brought back to Michigan to run the race two years ago.

But there's no doubt that this is a topic. It's a topic among Democrats and a topic among Republicans. And it's an issue that Haley Stevens, the opponent of el-Sayed, is trying to work in her campaign against him, with the help of the -- of the Democratic Senate Committee and so on.

BOLDUAN: There's been -- also fascinating reporting on just the Dem presidential primary calendar. "Axios" take today is, "a long- simmering feud between black and Latino leaders in the Democratic Party exploded into the open Wednesday over which state should vote first in the 2028 presidential primary, South Carolina or Nevada." And there's reports of there's sniping, the way it's described, between leading black and Latino voices ahead of what is a key DNC committee meeting today that plays a role in deciding the calendar.

Do you want to take a position, David? Who should go first, South Carolina or Nevada?

AXELROD: This is -- this is -- well, look, all I can say is this, a lot is made of these kinds of internal issues. I'm not sure that the sausage making is all that attractive to the general electorate.

But I remember the 2008 election and the campaign began in Iowa, a state that was 90 percent white. And an African American man named Barack Obama won the caucuses. And that was transformational because the rest of the country saw that the state that was overwhelmingly white embraced a candidate who was black.

So, you know, I'm not sure that we should be color coding. I think there should be a diversity in the first few states. I'm not sure that the order -- it may matter to individual candidates who have a particular appeal to a particular constituency, but for the party itself, as long as they've got diversity in those first four contests, I think the party will be well served.

BOLDUAN: David Axelrod, not getting in the middle of this fight today.

It's good to see you.

AXELROD: You recognize that, huh?

BOLDUAN: I did. I did. And I love you even more for it. Thanks, David.

Sara.

AXELROD: All right. Nice to see you.

SIDNER: The diplomacy -- the diplomacy is strong with that one.

BOLDUAN: He's a smart man. A smart man.

SIDNER: He knows what not to do.

BOLDUAN: Stay out of that one.

SIDNER: Yes.

All right, breaking overnight, protests in Wisconsin after a man was shot and killed by police. And it was captured on cell phone video.

And former Senator Ben Sasse is trying to live as long as he can with terminal cancer. What he tells Jake Tapper about the experimental drug he's using to extend his life, and why he's been so public about his journey towards death.

Also, how a Massachusetts museum is turning a brutal Google review into big business. We'll explain ahead.

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[09:22:46]

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, protests in Wisconsin after a man was shot and killed by police in Madison. Video taken by a bystander shows an officer firing multiple shots. Now, we paused the video we're about to show you the moment the shots were fired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, I want to get right to CNN's Whitney Wild, who's been covering this story.

Fill in some of the details here for us, Whitney

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, what we know right now was that, according to police, this started Wednesday afternoon when police got a report of a man checking parked vehicles. When those officers contacted that man, he took off on his bicycle through some backyards. They caught up with him later. And that's when they say a struggle started.

As you see in that video, you do hear an officer at some point during the struggle yelling "taser, taser, taser." Also happening during this struggle, according to video, there's an officer who yells, "he's got a knife."

Law enforcement says an officer was injured by that knife. It is the same officer who then opens fire during that struggle.

There is no body camera here, John. The department says that they don't have a broad policy for deploying body worn camera. What we know right now is that those officers are on administrative leave. The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating. Finally, John, law enforcement says that there was a second officer

who was injured in that incident, but it's not clear how that injury happened or the extent of it, but they don't believe it was the result of this struggle with the knife, meaning that they don't think that the man here with the knife injured that second officer.

Police are releasing more details about the knife itself. They've released a photo this morning and called it a large fixed blade knife. Those are the details we have right now. We're going to continue to report this out through the day, John. But it prompted some protests in Madison last night. So, we'll continue to watch the scene unfold in Madison.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, more details coming in there and more questions as well.

[09:25:03]

Whitney Wild, great reporting, as always. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sorry, buddy. And I'm here.

Ahead, the most dangerous threat from Tropical Storm Bertha could be happening a thousand miles from the storm. How it's fueling new flood threats now across the East Coast.

And it's almost that favorite time of year. Once again, Shark Week. Actor and comedian Ken Jeong and K-pop demon hunter star Rei Ami join us to talk about their new show kicking off the whole thing, "K-Sop Shark Heroes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN JEONG, ACTOR: I prefer to think of myself as a shark-bassador, Kate. And my list of resumes, M.D., comedian, actor, Instagram model and shark-bassador.

REI AMI, GRAMMY-NOMINATED SINGER: That's the big one.

JEONG: And out of all of that, shark-bassador is at the top of the list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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