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CENTCOM Says, U.S. Intercepted Surprise Attack by Iran on U.S. Forces; CNN Poll Shows Trump Hits Lowest Approval Rating Since Jan. 6 Aftermath; 11 Million Under Flood Watches as Storm Shifts to New England. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Historic polling for President Trump less than 100 days to the midterm elections now. It is record-breaking, and it is record-breaking not good for President Trump.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for fireworks on Capitol Hill this morning. Dr. Anthony Fauci called to testify before fierce critic Senator Rand Paul. At issue, the just-released private diary of the man who helped lead the fight against COVID.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, significant, life- threatening flooding in the Northeast. A major system hitting some cities during rush hour, triggering widespread flooding and power outages, and the threat not over today.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Breaking news overnight, a sudden escalation in the Middle East. After several days of what was seen as relative calm, U.S. and Iranian forces have resumed attacks. And a new player appears to be stepping in. Overnight, U.S. Central Command said that American and Saudi forces conducted joint strikes against Iran-backed terror sites in Iraq.

A group of Iraqi militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces are said at least 20 people were killed. The attack notable because Saudi Arabia, until now, has avoided getting directly involved in this war with Iran and the United States. The strikes in Iraq came shortly after the U.S. military said it intercepted what it describes as a surprise attack on U.S. forces by Iran.

CENTCOM says Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles, but no word yet on the location targeted. Elsewhere in the region, Jordan's military said overnight that its air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran

As the fighting resumes in the region, global oil prices this morning climbing once again after seeing, after they were falling last week. So, how will President Trump respond this morning? We will see.

Let's start at the White House, though. Betsy Klein is standing by for us there. What is the very latest that you're hearing about what is now a renewed escalation?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Kate, there are a lot of questions for the White House this morning about next steps, but I want to take a step back and lay out how we got here. It was on June 17th that the White House released this 14-point peace agreement with Iran aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, having a ceasefire, and also kick-starting this 60-day clock for the more intensive discussions about nuclear issues. Then July 11th, that ceasefire breaks down and strikes resume.

There were 13 consecutive nights of U.S. strikes on Iran and Iran trading strikes back at U.S. allies, and then a period of relative calm starting Friday into Saturday. President Trump said earlier this week that he had agreed to Iran's request to halt the fighting to give these diplomatic talks some space to play out.

Then the U.S. last night intercepting what it says was a surprise attack on U.S. forces. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia teaming up to respond in kind. CENTCOM saying in a statement, quote, U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours.

The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful. The IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further U.S. military response.

Now, it comes as President Trump has been threatening for weeks to target critical infrastructure in Iran, things like roads, bridges, power plants, even that key oil hub of Kharg Island, which would almost certainly require boots on the ground. He has yet to do so, and doing so could, some say, constitute war crimes. But sources say that the president at this stage has very little appetite for an escalation.

Now, the timing of this is very notable because those strikes came just hours after President Trump met here at the White House with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, what Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, described as a positive and productive conversation, and Netanyahu himself said was one of the best conversations that he has had with President Trump.

[07:05:14]

Now, ahead of that meeting, President Trump batted down any pressure from Netanyahu to escalate. But we have asked the White House what, if anything, these developments portend for those diplomatic talks and what to expect moving forward. No response yet. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. So, stand by to stand by on this, for sure. Betsy, thank you so much. A lot happening now overnight. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, a brand-new CNN poll with some big flashing red lights for President Trump, the president hitting historic lows, and he's underwater on just about everything: Iran, inflation, gas, immigration, his D.C. construction projects, you name it.

73 percent of American adults say the president has not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. That's a record number. His overall approval rating has slipped to just 34 percent. That matches his career low just after January 6th.

Let's get right to CNN Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director, David Chalian, right now. It doesn't get much worse than this for presidents. It doesn't get any worse than this for President Trump, and it's not just the numbers, David, it's the intensity.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, I mean, these are not the kind of records Donald Trump wants to be breaking. And when you look at the intensity, John, when we ask people not just approve, disapprove, but do you strongly approve, strongly disapprove, look at where all the intensity is. It is on the disapproval side.

Look at the bottom number there, 50 percent, half of Americans in this poll, they don't just disapprove, they strongly disapprove. Compare that to the top number. Only 15 percent of Americans strongly approve of Donald Trump's job performance. So, the strong disapproval is more than three to one against the strong approval. That shows you where he's been slipping, because he used to have a lot more intensity among his approvers.

Then if you take a look at his own party, this is also a numeric record low for him. His approval rating among Republicans stands at 78 percent, 78 percent. This is a president, as you know, who has a total command and control of his party, no doubt, but you can see some self- identified Republicans are no longer in approval of the job he's doing.

And then I took a look at another slice of his coalition that we talk about all the time, white voters with no college degree. This is part of the president's base. He won 66 percent of these voters against Kamala Harris in 2024. He stands at 46 percent approval now among them. A majority of white non-college Americans disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing.

BERMAN: That's staggering. When you talk about 50 percent strongly disapprove, that's not just underwater, that's like in the Mariana Strait in the middle of the Pacific. That's just awful.

And, David, the question is why? What's driving this unpopularity? What issues?

CHALIAN: I mean, you noted at the top it is really Iran, inflation, gas prices. Look at the list of issues we tested here. As you said, he's underwater on everything. Nowhere do we see majority approval. But look at the bottom half of this list, John. He doesn't crack 30 percent approval on the major issues of the day. On the Iran war, he's at 28 percent approval. Inflation, the thing that got him elected basically, and the promise to bring down prices, only 25 percent approve, 21 percent on gas prices. And you see this 25 percent/75 percent split. Where have you seen in a polarized America in Donald Trump's tenure that kind of a big divide? This is a new low territory for him.

BERMAN: Yes, wide agreement that people don't like what he's doing on these major issues.

David Chalian, there's a lot in this poll. We're going to keep digging through it. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. I appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, look at these pictures, a life-threatening flood risk for the Northeast as devastating tornadoes rip across the Midwest. You're seeing the consequence there. A look at these intense storms and where they're headed next. It looks like the apocalypse there.

All right, incredible dash cam video now to show you the moment an explosion blows through that mall in Japan after the deadly earthquake. The search for survivors continues this morning.

And it's Shark Week. We're talking to a shark attack survivor who now seeks out some of the biggest sharks on the planet.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sharks are getting excited now.

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SIDNER: This morning, more than 11 million people remain under flood watches as powerful summer storms shift into New England. The same system brought downpours yesterday that left cars and entire streets submerged in New Jersey. In Pennsylvania, a home's backyard turned into a raging river, and you can see the water just here, which could easily sweep somebody away.

The storm also brought down huge trees. A woman who lives in this neighborhood says it was raining so much, she couldn't even see outside of her window, and you see the damage there from that tree fall.

CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us now. Allison, give us some sense of what happens to this system today, where it's going and what are the potential dangers of it?

[07:15:00]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, because it's not done just yet. I mean, scenes like this, we hope we don't get any more of it, but the potential is certainly there for the remainder of the day today. Here's a look at Hawthorne, New Jersey. Again, you can see all of that standing water there just kind of in the streets, in the roads, some of it kind of creeping into homes and businesses. But there is more on the way. When you take a look at the radar, you can clearly see we still have plenty of showers still ongoing across areas of the Northeast. Here's that long line that just kind of extends up through New England.

Now, some of the heaviest rain at the moment is kind of over towards the Hamptons, up towards Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut. That's going to continue to slide up to the north and east as we go through the next several hours. Again, even take a look, you can see all of those flashflood warnings there up along upstate New York just because of how much rain has already fallen and knowing even more is falling at this moment.

When you look at how much rain has really fallen over the last 24 to 36 hours, notice all of these areas you see here in the orange and red color. That's where you've had widespread areas of four to six inches of rain that has already come down. And, again, you can see several of these spots right through there.

The concern here now is those areas are saturated. They can't take much more rain, but yet we have more rain, not just ongoing now, but expected for the remainder of the day today. So, that's why you have these flood watches, all of that green area in effect in anticipation that we are going to see additional rainfall throughout the day.

Here is a look at where that excessive rainfall risk is going to be. The red area is really going to be the bull's eye, the place that has the highest risk for that flooding. And that does include Hartford, Connecticut, areas of western Massachusetts. But even these yellow and green shaded areas, keep in mind, it may not be the bull's eye, but you still have the potential there for the flooding because, again, how much rain has already fallen, and now we're adding more on top of it.

A lot of moisture is still surging into areas of the Northeast and New England, so that's why there is that a higher risk for some of these areas to have that flooding. Here's a look at the forecast radar. Even say about 10, 11, even around noon today, you still have a lot of this rain, but it's that swirl. So, it's just going to keep going back into a lot of the places that have already had rain, increasing that flood threat.

SIDNER: It is a mess out there. Thank you so much, Allison Chinchar, for giving us all that update this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Very shortly, Dr. Anthony Fauci will arrive on Capitol Hill, called to testify before his fiercest critic, who just released Fauci's private diary from when he was fighting the spread of COVID.

And a thief goes on a destructive backhoe joyride.

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BOLDUAN: So, in just over an hour, Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to testify on Capitol Hill before the Senate, and in particular, one of his most vocal critics, Senator Rand Paul. Fauci, who led the nation's response to the COVID pandemic, has been subpoenaed to appear before the committee, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which Paul chairs.

Now, Senator Paul has accused Fauci of not being truthful about whether a lab leak may have been the original source, the cause of the COVID pandemic, and also accuses him of destroying America's trust -- Americans' trust.

Ahead of today's hearing, the senator released more than 1,100 pages from Dr. Fauci's personal diary, dating from 2019 in the lead up to the pandemic to 2022 when he stepped down from his role. His writings range from high-level White House pandemic meetings to dealings with his newfound fame.

Tracking this all, CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell. She's here with me now. What could be in the offing here?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, this morning is going to be interesting because we've seen Dr. Fauci and Senator Rand Paul clash in multiple hearings over the previous few years.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

TIRRELL: You know, it's gotten very, very heated at different times. But now we're in a different climate around this because you are starting to hear Senator Paul talk about trying to prosecute Dr. Fauci. And so this might be sort of a one-sided hearing we see this morning.

Dr. Fauci, through an attorney, declined to appear voluntarily a few months ago, writing -- his attorneys writing in a letter to Senator Paul, quote, your request that Dr. Fauci appear before the committee arises within a context that cannot be ignored, the context of repeated public and absolutely baseless pronouncements by you, a sitting United States senator, that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and jailed.

And so we learned this week that it was Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who turned over these diary entries to Senator Paul, as well as Senator Ron Johnson, after what he said was an eight-month search on internal servers. And he told Laura Ingraham on Fox that he was -- she asked about the potential for getting accountability, and he used the word justice in his response. Here's what he said.

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ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: He's going to testify in front of Rand Paul's committee this week. He has immunity against all of the things that he did prior to President Biden signing over the electronic pen, signing his pardon, but he could perjure himself now.

There are many things that he said that we know are lies, and Rand Paul presumably is going to ask him about those things. And if he lies again, then he could be subject to perjury prosecution.

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TIRRELL: So, it's important to note, for folks who are going to be watching this this morning, this is the context in which Dr. Fauci is heading into this Congressional hearing. And, of course, there's been a lot of attention paid to his diary entries from late 2019 to 2022. And what they show is a person who was tracking how many media appearances he did, which celebrities reached out to him.

And, you know, it depends your stance on Dr. Fauci how you interpret that. You know, some people who are -- do not like Dr. Fauci criticize him for that and say he's obsessed with himself and his growing fame.

[07:25:06]

Other people I've talked to said, who among us, you know, if we were -- if our personal diary entries were released to the public would look good? And so this is what's going on this morning.

You also see the documentation of a scientist who is grappling with a changing evidence, how to communicate that to the public, how to work with different administrations. So, you know, there's a lot in there, but it's unclear how much we're actually going to hear from him this morning.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It would be interesting just to hear what is actually learned, if much, that can kind of push this conversation forward today. We will see. We'll be tracking it all together as it's going to get underway in just about an hour. Thank you so much, Meg. John?

BERMAN: All right, we have new video this morning from Japan in the aftermath of that powerful destructive earthquake. We're understanding the death toll there is rising.

And then this dangerous close call for two commercial jets. Why were they so close that anti-collision alarms were triggered in both cockpits?

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