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Shark Attack Survivor on Decision to Dive Back In; Trump Hits Lowest Approval Rating Since January 6th Aftermath; Trump Underwater on Iran, Inflation, Gas Prices; U.S. and Saudi Arabia Launch Strikes on Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq; Fighting Reignites Amid Concerns Over Dwindling U.S. Weapons Stockpile; Boat that Carried Nolan Wells Called for Towing Help on July4. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

PAUL DE GELDER, SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR: She'd only been seen once. So we went on the hunt, find her, tag her, track her movements so we know their realm better.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Something I did not know until these shows. Bull sharks are responsible for more human interactions, shark attacks, than tiger sharks and great whites. Why is this?

What is it about a bull shark?

DE GELDER: Bull sharks are found in every ocean of the world, from Africa to India to Australia to America. They can live in fresh water for up to four years and they love that realm between the fresh and the salty water, that brackish area. And so they hunt in that area, they hunt along all the coastlines, they hunt all along the coral reefs and so we're just coming into contact with them more and especially because in the murky water that they like to hunt and people go out surfing in that, they go out spearfishing in that, the sharks can't see as well and they don't have hands to come up and go, yes what's that?

Is that food sauce? So they come up, take a little nibble, see if you're something to their taste, but that's testament to show they're not eating us.

BERMAN: Paul de Gelder, every year you come back we're thrilled. It's like, it's a victory. I think I take it as a victory if you're here.

DE GELDER: I feel like it's another scare for you guys every time I come back.

BERMAN: No, it's good. It means you made it another year.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: If you survived, you're here.

BERMAN: Nice to see you. Thank you very much. And of course you can watch Shark Week all week on Discovery.

BOLDUAN: New polling and bad news for President Trump, like historically bad news in his polling numbers. The president, less than 100 days from the midterms, is now underwater with voters on key issues like his job performance, the economy, and his handling of the Iran war. Also, the face-off on Capitol Hill is about to get underway.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is expected to arrive at any time now to face the Senate committee and his chief critic, Senator Rand Paul, and face big questions about the origins of the COVID pandemic.

Caught on camera, a child rescued from floodwaters in upstate New York, a hero wading through chest-deep water to save them.

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

SIDNER: All right, we've got brand new CNN poll numbers just out, and they are strikingly bad for President Trump. With less than 100 days until the midterms, the president's approval rating is tanking on just about every major issue. We're talking Iran, inflation, gas, immigration, his D.C. construction projects, and more. A whopping 73 percent of American adults polled say the president has not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. That's a record number of discontented Americans. Trump's overall approval rating has slipped to just 34 percent.

His approval rating hasn't been this low since just after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. So the question remains, will his party end up paying a price for all this come November?

CNN Washington bureau chief and political director David Chalian joining us now. David, give us some sense of what is kind of behind these really bad numbers for the president.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, you noted the 34 percent overall job approval, Sara. I want you to look at the intensity that is behind that. We asked folks not just do you approve or disapprove, but do you strongly disapprove, strongly approve?

And take a look here at the disparity between those that say they strongly approve of the president's job performance. Only 15 percent of Americans now say that. That's down from just a year ago in our polling as well.

And look at that bottom number. Half the country, half of Americans in this poll, they don't just disapprove of Donald Trump. They strongly disapprove of Donald Trump.

So the intensity of the disapproval is like more than three to one more intense than what you see on the intensity of the approval. His own fellow partisans, Republicans, their assessment of his performance, only 78 percent of Republicans now approve of Donald Trump's job performance. That is a numeric low for Donald Trump in his entire career, both terms among his fellow Republicans.

And we looked at one of the key components of his coalition, his winning coalition, white, non-college educated Americans. He won two thirds of them in 2024 against Kamala Harris. And now a majority, 54 percent, disapprove.

Only 46 percent of white, non-college Americans, a key part of his base, are actually in approval of the job performance he's doing -- Sara.

SIDNER: Give us some sense when you look at these numbers, how the president is performing on other issues.

[08:05:00]

CHALIAN: Yes, you noted at the top, there is not an issue tested where he has majority support, but the major driving issues of the day, Iran, inflation, gas prices, they are at the bottom of the list on those three issues. He does not even crack 30 percent approval. So he's underperforming on the most prominent issues of the day, then his overall approval.

I mean, on gas prices, 21 percent approval. Inflation, the issue that sort of brought him back to the Oval Office, he promised to lower prices. He's only at 25 percent approval. And so even if you look at the top, like immigration, one of his former strong suits, he still only sits at 39 percent approval.

So there's not an issue where he can sort of tout as a major success. But really troubling for him and his party is that we know the economy is issue number one, and he is just very, very low in those numbers on that issue.

SIDNER: It is remarkable that the two big issues that Americans really cared about and how he got into the presidency, which was the economy and immigration, he's in the 30s. Really stunning numbers there, David. Thank you so much for all your reporting on this.

Appreciate you -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator, Alyssa Farah Griffin. She's a former White House communications director for the first Trump administration.

And Alyssa, this is the top line number, 34 percent approval, as low as it has ever been for Donald Trump. And on the question of does he have the right priorities, 73 percent, 73 percent say no. So you're a communications expert.

If you saw numbers like this when you were in the White House, what would you tell the president he should be focused on or how he should be communicating?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, these are glaring signals. Alarms are going off. These approvals are just -- disapproval are stunning.

But listen, the president continues to seem extremely distracted. You and I were covering that speech last week at the White House Correspondents Dinner. He was weaving.

He was bobbing. He was swimming. He was all over.

And this is -- White House advisers. I talked to many of them. They simply want him to focus on the economy.

Yet he will not do that. I think of this nonpartisan housing bill. He should have done a whole rollout around it.

He should have invited bipartisan lawmakers to the White House, taken all the credit for it and said, I am doing the biggest investment in affordable housing in 50 years. But for some reason, he wants to talk about virtually everything but the economy and lowering the cost of living. But I also think part of what's in the president's ear and head about this is, listen, the midterms don't look great for Republicans.

I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the House is going to flip. But I think it's in the back of his mind that the Senate very much looks like it may stay in Republican hands. It could flip, but there's not some overwhelming wave, I think, that he's expecting.

And I think that gives him some hope that there is going to be this balance of power where he still may have Republican control in the Senate yet lose the House to Democrats.

BERMAN: So the flip side of that is how do Democrats handle this and what do they choose to focus on? And I bring up this feelings about Donald Trump's D.C. construction projects as a point here. Because you can see if you add it up here, you know, 58 percent are either dissatisfied or angry about all the building President Trump wants to do in D.C. and around that. That's a huge number.

That could be catnip for Democrats. But my question, Alyssa, is that where Democrats should focus or should it be on these lists of major issues that you were just talking about where the president's also underwater, the economy, inflation, gas prices? What do you think?

FARAH GRIFFIN: It's got to be both. It's got to be tailored. Democrats have failed to land the messaging plane since Trump was elected in 2024.

It feels scattershot. It feels, you know, shouting Epstein, ballroom and a number of things. But really, if you just -- if they come up with Donald Trump is focused on his ballrooms and his renovations, we're going to be focusing on delivering for the American people and rattle off what that actually looks like, have some actual ideas.

I think that that resonates. But the part that is a little remarkable and not to pivot to bashing the Dems here, but they should be doing better on the generic ballot when the president in the White House is at a thirty five percent approval. That means the vast majority of the country is not with him.

Yet Democrats approvals in Congress are even lower than approvals of Republicans. They're hovering at about twenty three percent. So there's clearly something that's not breaking through to the American public about what it is that congressional Democrats stand for beyond just bashing Donald Trump.

BERMAN: We'll see where they are in the congressional ballot if CNN has numbers in this batch of questioning later in this week. Alyssa, I do want to ask you, because we're expecting to see Dr. Anthony Fauci testify before Rand Paul on Capitol Hill very shortly. They have a contentious relationship.

You actually worked very closely with Dr. Fauci inside the White House. You were working for the vice president as part of that whole COVID operation there. What are your impressions after reading his diary?

What do you expect to see today?

FARAH GRIFFIN: Listen, I think there are some very legitimate questions for Dr. Fauci. I still think that there is a lot of information the public deserves to know about the origins of COVID. There is not consensus, whether in the intelligence community or the medical community.

That's important because that's future looking. That's about preventing potential future pandemics. I think relitigating every detail of the handling of the pandemic in early 2020 is a bit of a fool's errand.

I was there and I can tell you this.

[08:10:00]

Ninety nine percent of the doctors, scientists and public officials and political officials I worked with simply cared about saving as many lives as possible.

I'm incredibly proud of much of the work of both the task force and the doctors who went on to do Operation Warp Speed. There are absolutely things that looking back in hindsight could have been done differently, but this was a novel virus. We were learning about it in real time.

I actually believe that America's response in many ways was better than a lot of the free world. I will never understand why Donald Trump doesn't take more credit for that, how quickly we were able to get a vaccine. So listen, I'm not interested in seeing Dr. Fauci relitigate everything from 2020, but questions around the origins are certainly important ones because they're forward looking.

BERMAN: Coming from someone who was in the room during all those discussions, Alyssa Farah Griffin, thank you so much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There is new reporting coming in about the U.S. weapons stockpile, how depleted the inventory really is as the war with Iran drags on. We'll be bringing that to you.

And a frantic call for help from the boat that Nolan Wells was on before he disappeared and was later found dead. We'll bring that. And there's dash cam video also coming in showing a driver dodging all sorts of things, debris, power lines, and much, much more after getting caught in the path of a tornado. We'll be right back.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Overnight, U.S. Central Command says American and Saudi forces conducted joint strikes against what they are calling Iran back terror sites in Iraq. And there is new video of some of the aftermath. We're showing this to you right here. At least 20 people were killed in the strikes.

But this is also significant because until now, Saudi Arabia has avoided getting directly involved in the fight in the war. The strikes in Iraq come shortly after the U.S. military said it intercepted a surprise attack by Iran on U.S. forces. CENTCOM says Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles.

CNN's Zach Cohen is joining me now. He's got much more on this. And Zach, what are you hearing about the significance or how significant it is that Saudi Arabia is now getting in the fight in this way?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate, it's potentially very significant. Saudi Arabia has spent five months actively trying to avoid getting dragged into this conflict. And it remains concerned along with the U.S. about it expanding and escalating within the region itself.

But look, U.S. Central Command in a statement yesterday saying that Saudi Arabia over just the last 72 hours has faced over 30 IRGC- directed aerial drone attacks in just the last 72 hours and that these joint strikes are intended to send a message and be a response that those attacks will not go unanswered. But it remains to be seen what this means as far as the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to push for some sort of a diplomatic settlement to end this war once and for all. And it also reflects something that we've reported in the past, that U.S. officials believe Iran now sees its ability to attack Gulf countries and specifically their energy infrastructure, including Saudi Arabia's, as one of its asymmetric capabilities that it can use as leverage to continue to apply pressure not just on the U.S., but its regional partners as well.

And as you mentioned, too, those joint strikes by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia coming after Iran launched a new attack against a U.S. airbase in Jordan. This is the first time Iran has conducted an attack since President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was pausing combat operations, at least temporarily, as he tries to pursue a diplomatic agreement of some sort. So Iran really continuing to apply pressure to the United States and its regional partners, even as the Trump administration is still looking to give diplomacy some room to breathe.

BOLDUAN: And a part of that conversation, at least the reporting is, the calculation to escalate or not, is the state of the U.S. munitions stockpile. And you have new reporting on the status of it. What are you learning?

COHEN: Yes, Kate, that's right. We reported earlier this week that General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did raise concerns about the dwindling U.S. munitions stockpile during last week's White House meeting with the president when they were discussing options for potentially escalating the conflict. And we reported back in April that the stockpile had, particularly its munition stockpile of air defense systems, really expensive key systems like the THAAD ballistic missile interceptors, Patriot interceptor systems.

Those have really been impacted by the war with Iran. And a new report from an outside analyst group, CSIS, really reiterating that those numbers continue to decrease. Just a couple of data points here.

The U.S. now has fewer than 827 Patriots left in its stockpile. That's down from over 2,000 that it had before the Iran war. It also has fewer than 278 THAAD interceptors.

That's down from nearly 450 pre-war. So those munitions concerns are going to continue as there's no end in sight really to this conflict.

BOLDUAN: Yes, with implications far beyond a war with Iran when it comes to any threat from any outside force. It's good to see you, Zach. Thank you very much for your reporting -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you. We are standing by this morning as Dr. Anthony Fauci heads to Capitol Hill to be grilled by Senate lawmakers. We will bring it to you live.

Also, a man arrested after stealing a backhoe from a construction site. And he ends up, well, I'll let you see later what happens with this and what he's doing on it.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: The family of Nolan Wells still looking for answers about his death. Now, new audio obtained by CNN captures the moment a teenager on the boat that Wells had been on calls for help saying their boat is sinking. The call was made on July 4th. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RESPONDER: It looks like you're on Horn Island, correct? Are you on Horn Island?

CALLER: Yes, we are at Horn Island, Yes.

RESPONDER: All right. Is the boat sinking or you have it aground?

CALLER: We are sinking, yes.

RESPONDER: Is it aground is the question.

CALLER: No, we're not aground. We're in 17 foot of water. We're in 31 foot of water.

RESPONDER: All right. Have to ask. And what do you want to do? Do you want to be towed back?

[08:25:00]

CALLER: I want to get this boat unsank and towed back, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wells body was found on July 6th along the shoreline on Horn Island off the Mississippi. The cause and manner of death of the 18 year old is still undetermined. CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young has been following this case, looking into the details and joins us now.

Is it clear when we listen to this audio, is it clear whether Wells was on the boat at the time of that call for help that the boat was sinking?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a great question, Sara. And look, a lot of us are trying to figure that point out. And we believe at this point, no, there's nothing clear about who was actually on the boat at that time.

And it's been 25 days since Nolan Wells went missing. So if you remember just last week, the DA said, because of this investigation, she was hoping and telling the other law enforcement agencies working on this case not to talk about this case in the public. But so far, of course, the public wants to hear about the autopsy or whether or not the toxicology results have come back.

So far, that has not happened. But this audio does paint a new picture in terms of what was going on, on that boat as it tried to make its way back to shore. In fact, take a listen to another short clip that we've been able to isolate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN: They're in a panic and their boat won't crank.

RESPONDER: They're in a panic. He's saying the bilge is not keeping up. I asked for Coast Guard. He said no, but he's just really upset on the back end, and you know, I get it. It's a kid. He just doesn't understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Now, Sara, I want to be clear here. Of course, we know and we are aware that there's audio on the Internet that people have been talking about. We have not been able to verify that audio at this point.

So there's still a lot of questions about this case and the timeline of moving forward so far. And that is the big problem. And sort of with this case right now, there's a lot of conversation online that no one can verify, that authorities are not knocking down one after another because of the fact that this investigation so far is closed and people can't really see what's going on in the public with what's being accused, of course, online.

The big question here, though, especially for the family, is what actually happened? What have investigators been able to find? What we do know is at this point, when those 911 calls came in, it does look like there was an active search that was going on for Nolan Wells.

We know he was found on that following Monday. But since then, in terms of conversation, the investigation and how this moves forward, we don't have a lot of those answers and we understand why people are getting frustrated, especially the family.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, you want to know what the other teams are saying. You want to know, you know, what the status when he ended up off of that boat, how he ended up off that boat.

There's just so many questions. But ultimately, the family is suffering through this as people are trying to sluice things online and elsewhere, including obviously the investigators. Ryan Young, I know you were on top of this and you will keep us abreast of any new development.

Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, look at this. Downed power lines spark this blaze, setting all those cars on fire.

And the moment a diver comes face to face with a shark. I want to know what happened next. The shark bit him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]