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Cornyn Demands Changes to Trump IRS Agreement Before Blanche Vote; U.S. & Saudi Forces Attack Iran-linked Terrorists in Iraq; Lindsay Clancy's Ex-husband Testifies About Children's Death; Search & Rescue Ongoing After 6.8 Magnitude Quake Strikes Japan; Near Miss Between Delta Planes at Atlanta Airport; 11 Million Under Flood Watches as Storm Shifts to New England. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- John Cornyn about whether or not, in fact, he believes Trump is the reason why the Justice Department has not gone further to meet his demands. He could not say one way or the other if Trump was behind it. But that seems to be a lot of the speculation here on Capitol Hill that ultimately, at the end of the day, the president himself will need to sign off on something that the president wants. And that's what makes things difficult.

Now, Todd Blanche was on Capitol Hill shortly after I talked to John Cornyn. We tried to ask him all these questions. He ignored reporters' questions, and then he met with another Senator, Republican Senator John Curtis. And then, after that meeting with Curtis, Blanche left the building and did not meet with Cornyn. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. Very interesting. Manu, thank you so much for that great report.

Still ahead, CNN has new reporting on how the U.S. military's weapons stockpiles remain severely depleted, what this means for the future of the war with Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:00]

KEILAR: President Trump is making a new expletive-laden threat against Iran after Iranian forces conducted what CENTCOM called a surprise attack on the U.S. military. CENTCOM didn't specify the location here, but U.S. ally Jordan said it intercepted five missiles from Iran. President Trump told Fox this morning, quote, "We are going to beat the expletive out of them. We'll be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating."

CENTCOM also said U.S. and Saudi forces launched an attack against Iranian-aligned fighters in Iraq. The Iranian-linked PMF says 20 people died and 32 were wounded. The return to fighting shattered the pause in strikes that President Trump declared Friday after the U.S. hit Iran every night for 13 straight days. Oil prices jumping at news of this most recent resumption of strikes. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": As you just heard there, President Trump is promising that Iran is going to get a beating following the surprise attack from Iran on U.S. forces, which the U.S. military says it intercepted. This as weapons stockpiles remain severely depleted following a major flare-up of the war with Iran in recent weeks. They were already reduced by helping Ukraine and Israel over the last few years.

The White House has said both that the U.S. has more than enough munitions and that the Biden administration used up the stockpiles while still asking for more funding to replenish them. CNN Senior National Security Reporter, Zach Cohen joins us.

So Zach, how depleted is the U.S. munition stockpile?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, we're learning that recent fighting with Iran has used up even more of these key munitions, particularly air defense systems, tapping into what was already a depleted stockpile of U.S. inventory, particularly of THAAD and Patriot missile defense systems.

And this is something that analysts say could potentially put U.S. troops at risk if the war with Iran returns to full combat operations. And we obviously know and reported earlier this week that General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, actually raised this concern during a meeting last week at the White House when they were discussing options for potentially escalating the war with Iran.

It was just one of many concerns that Trump's advisers brought up before he ultimately decided to pause the conflict. But even today we're seeing more of that flare-up with Iran launching a surprise attack against U.S. forces in Jordan, U.S. and Saudi forces launching strikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. And that raises this concern again.

How many interceptors does the U.S. have left and do they have enough to continue not only fighting this war but potentially the next one against an adversary like, say China, for example? And analysts say there is very real near-term and medium-term risk to this stockpile because of how many munitions the U.S. has used just during the war with Iran.

And so just to put that in perspective a little bit, as far as THAAD and Patriot interceptors go, the U.S. military has fired 60 percent of its stockpile just during the war with Iran. Numbers-wise, the U.S. has fewer than 827 Patriot missiles left in its stockpile. It had over 2,000 of those missiles and interceptors in its stockpile before the war with Iran started.

As far as THAAD missiles go, 278 or fewer of those interceptors left in the stockpile. More than double of those existed before the war with Iran started. So this will be an ongoing concern as the U.S. industrial base simply cannot produce these munitions as quickly as the U.S. military is firing them. And it seems, based on the way the conflict is going, this is going to go on for a while and that's going to continue to demand these defensive systems be used to protect U.S. troops.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it takes years to produce these kinds of munitions. Zach Cohen, thanks so much for that reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's continue this discussion with retired Army Colonel, Peter Mansoor, who is now a Professor of Military History at The Ohio State University. Colonel, first off, this severe depletion of U.S. munitions stockpiles, are you seeing any obvious change in the U.S. strategy because of this?

COL. PETER MANSOOR, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think we are. I think this is one of the reasons that the administration turned to diplomacy this spring, that it wasn't getting anywhere with even 13,000 airstrikes on Iran and more to come and it was going to run out of missiles to defend U.S. bases and our allies in the Middle East. And so it turned to diplomacy. Of course, that hasn't worked.

And so the administration is caught in a bind right now on what to do next.

KEILAR: And this threat that you heard from Trump today, he does frequently make threats. This one had more expletives, but he makes threats like this all the time, doesn't always back them up. Do these threats work?

MANSOOR: Well, they haven't worked to date. And even if he follows through this time, it's not necessarily clear that the Iranians are going to change their strategy. Their long-term goal is to control the Strait of Hormuz. That gives them leverage over the world economy, over the United States, and allows them to charge tolls for shipping and rebuild their military forces and their economy.

[13:40:00]

And they're not going to give that up lightly. So even if the United States were to return to full-scale combat operations and even expand the targets set, as the president has indicated, to hit infrastructure and bridges, I'm not sure that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is going to give in. It appears that it's in this war for the long haul.

KEILAR: For a few days there, we did see relative calm in the region, until last night when the U.S. military said it intercepted this surprise attack, and CENTCOM said that Saudi Arabian forces joined with U.S. forces to strike the Iran-allied PMF group in Iraq.

I mean, first off, can you just talk to us about the implication of this joint U.S.-Saudi strike?

MANSOOR: Yeah, so two different things are going on here. The two things are not conflated. The Iraqi militia groups, the Popular Mobilization Forces, some of them launched drone strikes against Saudi oil facilities, and in retaliation, the United States and Saudi Arabia hit targets in Iraq affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces.

In a different strike, a segment of the Iranian government decided that it wanted to hit a U.S. base in the region, and it targeted a U.S. base in Jordan with five missiles, all of which were shot down. This probably was in an attempt to scupper the negotiations, because there are parts of the Iranian government that don't want to negotiate with the United States, and if you don't want to negotiate with the United States, this is the way to make sure the negotiations fail.

So these are two different things, but having the Saudis involved, at least in protecting their own infrastructure against attacks, is an escalation of this conflict of a sort.

KEILAR: And then just yesterday, Israel's defense minister said that the U.S. had been preventing Israel from striking Iranian energy infrastructure because of economic and energy concerns. Sort of squaring that with what you're hearing from Trump, how do you see the Pentagon threading the needle on its military strategy of striking Iran?

MANSOOR: Well, in this latest round of strikes, we've focused on targets near the Strait of Hormuz, targets that are affiliated with Iran's ability to interdict shipping in the Strait. If the president expands this target set to include roads, bridges, power plants, as he's indicated, then there's really no reason not to allow Israel to pitch in.

But this has the downside of Iranian retaliation against oil facilities and oil targets in the Gulf region, which would obviously have a major impact on the world economy. So this is a trade-off that the president is going to have to consider and one that I think he's wrestling with right now.

KEILAR: Colonel Peter Mansoor, thank you so much for being with us.

MANSOOR: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Gut-wrenching new testimony from the ex-husband of a Massachusetts woman who is accused of killing her three children. We'll have an update from court next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:55]

SANCHEZ: Testimony is back underway in the triple murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom accused of fatally strangling her three young kids. Today, Clancy's ex-husband was back on the stand describing the day he came home to find that horrific scene. CNN's Jean Casarez joins us now.

Jean, obviously an emotional day in court.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Extremely. And the judge even told the jury that this is going to be emotional, but this is evidence and these are facts. And you have to separate out the two. So Patrick Clancy took the stand and we already knew that he had said that his wife had called out for takeout.

And he was going to go to the restaurant to pick it up. And when he left the house, she was standing right next to the door of the basement. And as he was walking out, she said, oh, I need to go to CVS, too. You need to get some stool softener for Cora. That was their 5-year-old daughter. And so he drives and he goes to CVS first and he calls up his wife because he's not sure what to get. She doesn't answer.

But then she called him back. So this conceivably is in the midst of things. And he told her -- asked her, which one do you want? She told him and she sounded very rational, he said. So then he came home and he went into the house after getting those things. The house was silent. There was no one there. He didn't understand.

He went upstairs. He went to the bedroom door, their bedroom. The door was locked. He got the key. He opened it. And he saw in the bedroom, next to the window, a lot of blood. And the window was open and the wind was coming through the bedroom door into the bedroom. He ran downstairs, outside, saw his wife on the ground next to that window. Upstairs window, but on the ground, face up.

He began to have a conversation with her. Listen to his testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you say anything to Lindsay when you found her in that state?

PATRICK CLANCY, EX-HUSBAND OF LINDSAY CLANCY: Yeah, I said, what happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what was her response?

CLANCY: She said, I tried to kill myself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ask her anything else?

CLANCY: I said, where are the kids?

[13:50:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what was her response?

CLANCY: She said, they're in the basement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: So he stayed with her, called 9-1-1, waited there until they came, is about five minutes he said, and then he went into the house. He went down into the basement and there he saw to his left, he saw a little Cora, five-years-old, and he saw an exercise resistance band around her neck. Listen to his testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you saw her in that condition, what did you do?

CLANCY: I immediately ran over and tried to take the band off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you able to get the band off?

CLANCY: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you recall how you got the band off?

CLANCY: I think I untied it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And when you say untied it, was it in a knot that you had to, you know, put everything down and unknot it or how was it tied?

CLANCY: I'm not sure I fully remember.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you recall describing it previously as when you initially tie your shoes, but then don't do the bow?

CLANCY: Yeah, that sounds right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Callan was next to her in the same manner and Dawson, he couldn't find Dawson, their little boy, and he went into his office in the basement and there was Dawson with the same type of exercise band around his neck. Testimony is set to begin at 2 p.m. today. The defendant was extremely emotional in court. She was sobbing at one point, holding the hand of her attorney at another point. And the jury, they have been having quite a long recess today till court convenes.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, hard to listen to those details. Jean Casarez, thank you so much for the update on that case. Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Search and rescue operations are ramping back up in Japan after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake. At least 13 people have been confirmed dead and the total number of people missing and injured is still unclear at this point. Many were reportedly trapped when a shopping mall in Kumamoto partially collapsed from an explosion after the quake.

Officials have cited a possible gas leak as the cause. Separately, a number of employees remain unaccounted for at a paper factory. The nation's prime minister says people are still waiting for help and every second counts.

Plus, the FAA is investigating an extremely close call between two Delta jets in Atlanta on Monday night. Alarms went off in the cockpits of both planes. One was landing when the pilot saw another jet taking off from a parallel runway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATC: 1568, you are clear to land.

DL 1568: Somebody on the runway?

ATC: He's exiting now.

DL 1568: Delta 1568 going around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, as that pilot turned right to stay out of the way, the plane flew directly in the path of the other plane. Air traffic control told both planes separately to turn right and climb to 4,000 feet. Anti-collision alarms went off in both cockpits, warning the pilots to take evasive action.

A New Zealand man who was spearfishing attacked by a shark and he caught it all on camera. This happened while the man was on a fishing dive in Fiji. You can see the gray reef shark there, charging toward the diver attacking him. The man says the shark latched on to his calf, started death rolling as he put it. Despite four surgeries and a skin graft for his wounds, he says he's lucky to still have his leg and his foot.

And here in a few minutes, we're expecting to learn the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates when it comes to guiding the economy. We're going to bring you their decision live as it happens. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:58:08]

SANCHEZ: We've got some dramatic new video to share with you, showing a man pulling a child out of a car that's stuck in floodwaters near Albany, New York. The man was later seen going back to help an older woman get out of the same car. That's the kind of flash flooding that parts of the Northeast could see today.

It's threatening some 11 million people. For our forecast, let's go to CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar. So who is expected to get the most rainfall, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, I would say New England. That's really going to be the target area for today. You can see the radar, and where all that heavy rain is located right through here. Again, upstate New York, portions of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island. That's where we're really seeing a lot of those very heavy showers at the moment, kind of traipsing through.

Again, you can see a little bit of a break here for New York proper and areas of New Jersey as well. But as that kind of spins back around, you may get a few more rounds later on in the next couple of hours. Again, the heaviest rain right through here, where you see those flash flood warnings, that's where we've not only had plenty of rain that has already fallen, and now we're getting more on top of it, which is just going to exacerbate those flooding concerns. When you look at the amount of rain we've had in just the last 36 hours, look at all of the red areas you see here on the map. You're talking five, six, even as much as seven inches of rain in some of these locations and again, in a short period of time. That's why you're seeing it kind of ponding on streets, going into homes and businesses. That's going to be a big concern.

It's also why you have the flood watches that are still in effect for several more hours in anticipation that we are adding even more rain on top of it. Going forward for the remainder of the day today, the biggest target is really going to be this red shaded area. That's where you have the highest risk of that potential flooding.

But any area you see in the green or yellow also has that potential too. So you're talking Boston, Hartford, Providence, any of these areas still looking at that potential to have some flooding as we go through the rest of the day because all of that ample moisture is still surging into areas of the Northeast, fueling that system --