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Four Days Away: Trump And Biden Gearing Up For CNN Debate; Officials: Militants Attack Synagogue & Church In Southern Russia; Catastrophic Flooding Forces Evacuations In Iowa; Netanyahu Defends Decision To Publicly Rebuke Biden Administration; 4 Killed, 9 Wounded In Arkansas Grocery Store Shooting; Police: Texas Woman Tried To Drown Toddler In Potential Hate Crime; NASA Delays Starliner's Return Trip For Third Time; Harnessing The Power Of Iceland's Volcanoes. Aired 2- 3p ET

Aired June 23, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:40]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. Thanks for joining me.

I'm Alisyn Camerota in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Debate week starts today. We are four days away from the CNN presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump.

Thursday night's showdown is the first of the 2024 race. It has the potential to shake up a race that has been deadlocked in the polls for months. And the two candidates are preparing for this high-stakes event in very different ways.

President Biden hunkering down at Camp David all weekend, reportedly holding intensive prep work and mock debates with a team of advisors.

Donald Trump has spent the weekend on the campaign trail speaking to a Christian group in D.C. and holding a rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania where he told reporters he expects his upcoming vice- presidential pick to join him at Thursday's debate.

But let's begin with President Biden's debate prep. CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us now.

Kevin, how is he getting ready?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: YES, he is now on day three of debate camp out in western Maryland at Camp David.

He does have quite a large group of advisors with him as he prepares for this debate going through policy contrasts with President Trump coming up with zingers, with retorts, with responses. Basically trying to be ready for anything that Trump throws at him there on the debate stage. And it was interesting, we're getting some new insight into the

strategy from the Biden campaign in this memo that they released this its morning, heading into this critical week ahead of the debate.

They say they're holding more than 1,000 different events leading into this event. They're going to hold more than 100 watch parties on the night of the debate.

I think it's interesting if you were to boil down the strategy as laid out in this memo, it's essentially trying to put this contrast on display with President Trump.

You know, that is their overarching goal. They really do feel that so many Americans just haven't tuned in to this election yet.

This will be the moment for them to realize that they have a choice this November, it's between Biden and Trump. And they do really hope, as they say in this memo to put a magnifying glass on that choice.

And just in reading it, you do get a sense of the three top issues that President Biden is going to try and underscore during this event.

One is the potential threat from President Trump to democracy. His, you know, threats of political violence really trying to underscore that to the television audience. They're also going to underscore President Trump's economic plans, which they say would benefit the wealthy.

And they'll also discuss President Trumps record on abortion, his you know, taking credit for the overturning of Roe versus Wade. And to that point the Biden campaign plans to emphasize tomorrow the anniversary of the Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court that overturned the nationwide right to an abortion.

Now, the real question I think for the Biden folks is what candidate Trump shows up on the debate stage. Is it the ferocious Trump that we saw in 2020 who interrupts, who is kind of bombastic in his appearance and his language, or is it a more restraint Trump, a more presidential Trump?

And we did hear from a key surrogate for the Biden campaign this morning, Mitch Landrieu, who's the co-chair of the campaign, who is talking about what Trump -- which version of Trump might show up.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH LANDRIEU, NATIONAL CO-CHAIR, BIDEN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: it really doesn't matter how Donald Trump shows up. if he comes in unhinged like he is most of the time, or he sits there and he's quiet, people are going to know that he's a twice-impeached, convicted felon, who has been found to have defamed somebody sexually abused somebody, and going bankrupt six times.

They will always know that and that is something that the American people have to think about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So certainly the Biden campaign, very ready for whatever Trump throws at them on the debate stage. But as you heard there from Mitch Landrieu, also ready to throw it right back.

CAMEROTA: Ok, Kevin. Thank you very much for that preview.

Well, the Trump campaign is already looking past the debate and towards next month's Republican National Convention.

CNN's, Steve Contorno was with the former president in Philadelphia where he announced news of a running mate.

[14:04:51]

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, we have learned that three names have emerged as front runners in Trump's VP search. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

Trump yesterday said he's made his decision, but he's not letting that person know yet, nor the public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you decided who your vice president is?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my mind yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do they know?

TRUMP: No. Nobody knows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

TRUMP: Who do you like as VP?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Those remarks came during a stop for Philly cheesesteaks amid a full day of campaigning by the former President.

Trump really enjoying juxtaposing how he spent his final Saturday before the debates versus Joe Biden's more studious approach.

Listen to what he told his Philly rally later that night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right now, Crooked Joe's gone to a log cabin to study, prepare -- no. He didn't do. He's sleeping now because they want to get them good and strong so a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I say he'll come out all jacked up, right. All jacked up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Trump went on to criticize Biden over the border, inflation, crime really sharpening those attacks heading into this critical debate with Joe Biden where we really expect to fireworks to fly, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Ok. Steve, thank you very much.

Joining me now is Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He's also the editor of the book, "Return to Normalcy: The 2020 Election that Almost Broke America".

You may need an addendum to that Larry for the 2024 election but I'll let you update that on your own.

Ok. So how do you analyze these very two different it appears debate preparation styles for President Biden and Donald Trump?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, we have to assume that were being told the truth about what Donald Trump is really doing in preparation for the debate.

I don't know why I'm suspicious Alisyn, but you know, they have misled us on occasion over the past eight or nine years.

But if he really is doing little preparation well, that's Donald Trump. I think one of your commentators or maybe it was on another network said well, is he going to show up as the ferocious Donald Trump in that second debate -- in the first debate back in 2020? Or is he going to appear presidential?

Hey, if he wasn't presidential while he was president how is he going to be presidential after all this water has gone under the Trump bridge?

There's only one Donald Trump and it's the attack mode Donald Trump. He is not going to sit there for an hour-and-a-half or stand there and be sweet and nice. Thats not in his makeup.

CAMEROTA: Ao as you know, Larry, the polls have been very tight between Biden and Trump for months. What could happen in this debate? The changes that.

SABATO: You know, this is, this is a really interesting race. I wish I'd been around for the rematch between Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland because then we'd have some ideas what people think about two -- one incumbent president and a former president running against one another.

People think they know everything they need to know about Trump and Biden since they've both had essentially four years as president. But that's not true.

Everybody evolves and particularly people in positions like theirs. Both have evolved. Biden because he's been president for nearly four years. And Trump because he's been well -- indicted multiple times and convicted on 34 felony counts, among other things.

They're different people than they were in 2020 or before. So tuning in will eventually communicate to people that, well, they're -- they're different than I thought.

They've learned this or they haven't learned that. And pieces of this debate are going to be aired all the way to the election, but particularly between now June 27th for the debate and September 10th, which is the second debate on ABC.

That's a lot of ground to cover. A lot of re-airings of at least pieces of it during the two conventions plus Trump's sentencing right before the conventions. Lots of things are going to happen.

So I think people will be surprised and they will gradually learn more about the candidates, maybe not all at once on debate night, but over time as they see and re-see pieces of the debate.

CAMEROTA: As you know, Donald Trump's team has a hard time deciding if Joe Biden is mentally unfit or a formidable debater.

So here's one of Trumps VP contenders, Doug Burgum touting Biden's debate skills on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): I think we have to look at the guy's run for office more than a dozen times. He's run for president four times. He's been campaigning since President Nixon was in office.

This guy has got the ability and we've seen it. We've seen him in debate of four years ago. We've seen him in the State the State of the Union this year, that when he needs to, he can step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:09:52]

CAMEROTA: So I mean, which characterization is it.

SABATO: Well, the Trump campaign's covered isn't it?

If Biden does well, they predicted it. If Biden doesn't do well, they predicted it. And neither bothers them, of course. That's the official line.

What matters is how the 25 percent who don't like either one of them, how they react, how the handful of true Independents and true swing voters react. And that may not be obvious immediately. Well, we'll have to see.

What the candidates say about the other candidate's performance is really irrelevant. I mean what do you expect them to say, boy, that -- he was good. I was surprised he was that good. But that's in another universe someplace.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Great point. Thanks for giving us all of that context. Larry Sabato, great to talk to you.

SABATO: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Tune in to see the "CNN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" right here on CNN. That's coming up on June 27th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. It's also streaming on Max.

We do have some breaking news out of Russia right now. We are monitoring what authorities are calling coordinated attacks across the southern part of the country.

Right now, a synagogue is on fire, and a priest is dead after an attack on a church. Police say, armed gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on these houses of worship. This happened a short time ago in the city of Derbent.

Police say two militants were killed. Authorities believed there are several priests still hiding from attackers.

In another incident, gunmen opened fire on a police traffic post in a city just north of there. Authorities are opening a terror investigation.

Let's bring in Steve Hall. He's the former CIA chief of Russia operations. What do you see here, Steve?

STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF RUSSIA OPERATIONS: You know Alisyn, it's very early -- early days, early hours. We don't exactly know what's -- you know, what's going on.

What we do know is this part of Russia has long been very restive. Theres a large Islamic community there. Of course, the relationship between the Kremlin and those area of the country which are, which are largely Muslim, has always been fraught. It's always been difficult.

You have to remember that this is also the region that the Tsarnaev brothers, of the -- of the Boston Marathon bombings spent some formative years in.

So it's a difficult area. It is interesting that the -- that the -- that the actual targets of the attack appear to be a synagogue. There's also some reporting that there might be a Catholic church and a priest involved.

So it doesn't sound something like -- something like -- something against the Russian state. But of course, the Russian state does have the responsibility in the form of the investigative committees in the FSB to try to find out what's going on.

So I think the story has got to develop a little more before we know exactly what's going on, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I understand it's very fluid Steve.

But I do think it's curious that there -- the latest reports, the earliest reports we have is that a priest has been killed. So it is an attack on a church. Churches -- as well as a synagogue. So what does that tell us?

HALL: Yes, I think, you know, if you ask me for right now, what do you thinks going on? What's -- what are all indications. It looks to me like this is -- this is an Islamic attacker or an Islamic-based attack because again, most of the population in that region is Islamic, is Muslim.

So you know, it would it would make less sense for it to be an attack against say, a mosque because it is a synagogue and perhaps as well as a Catholic Church. One is sort of pushed in the direction of ok, who are the enemies or who are the likely attackers of such faiths. And it may very well be Muslim.

Now again, we don't know yet because the Russians are still trying to investigate this. It wouldn't surprise me if the kremlin tried to blame, for example, the Ukrainians or some other you know, foreign entity like for perhaps even the United States or the West, for at least contributing somehow to this instability.

But early on, you know, it seems like -- it seems like it might just be inhabitants of the region that are (INAUDIBLE) attacks. We'll have to see.

CAMEROTA: Steve, you brought up the Boston Marathon bombing. And I too thought of that immediately when I read that this is happening in Dagestan because that is where the Tsarnaev brothers were from.

So what is Dagestan like today?

HALL: You know, Dagestan and these areas in this part of Russia is sort of an uneasy sort of arrangement, I suppose that they have with Moscow.

For example, in neighboring Chechnya, you've got this crazy guy by the name of Kadyrov, who has essentially been deputizing by Putin to say, look, you can run Chechen, the whole of the Chechen population, as long as you keep them repressed and there are no attacks against -- you know, against the Kremlin.

Dagestan is a little bit different, but there are still this sort of uneasy relationship I think with Moscow, because there's a lot of resentment on the part of the population of the repression. And of course, right across the border in Kyrgyzstan, you know, there's -- there's -- there's lots of -- lots of attention as well.

[14:14:49]

HALL: So it's a tense region and it's sort of -- it's been calmer the last couple of years. But there's always the potential for something like this to pop up in some way, shape, or form. CAMEROTA: I'm reminded that there was this incident last year where a mob in this region stormed through an airport. We have video of it here. This is just as a flight from Tel Aviv landed.

Do you know any more about that?

HALL: Well you know, again I don't know anything specific behind any of these attacks, but it does point to the tensions that we have that are oftentimes -- that breakdown oftentimes along religious lines or societal lines or, you know, are those types of-- those types of demographics.

So you know, again, the connection between a flight coming in from Tel Aviv, Israel you know a Jewish element there.

You know, these attacks we have perhaps a synagogue, perhaps a Catholic Church as well. So it could just be religious tensions in the area.

But again, the Russians will have to investigate this and then we will have to try to figure out here in the West what happened because, of course, whatever the Russian say isn't necessarily going to be the truth. It's going to be what's most convenient for whatever point the Kremlin wants to prove or to make on this.

CAMEROTA: Understood. Steve Hall, always great to get your expertise. Thank you.

HALL: Sure.

CAMEROTA: We'll stay on that story.

Back here across the Midwest, catastrophic flooding is prompting evacuations in several states.

Plus triple digit heat in the East. More than 100 million people under heat alerts. The nation's capital hit the 100-degree mark for the first time since 2016. We have a look at the latest forecasts for you next.

[14:16:26]

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CAMEROTA: Dangerous flash flooding forced evacuations across the Midwest this weekend. Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for 21 counties in northwest Iowa some of which like Rock Valley saw catastrophic floodwaters.

This drone footage shows stranded vehicles and water rising as you can see, beyond the windows of several of these buildings. As the river rose, officials scrambled to get residents to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MONTE WARBURTON, ROCK VALLEY POLICE: the river rose to historic levels that we've never seen her before. And it's hard to deal with that much water. It's a monumental undertaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: One man snapped these images before evacuating his neighborhood. He tells CNN that he flagged down a boat to pick him up along with his wife and his cat.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is tracking this from the CNN Weather Center. So Elisa, which areas are still under a flood warning?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We still have flood warnings, not because there's more rain coming down right now, but because these rivers are still so aggravated, they stretch from parts of southern Minnesota like Mankato all the way into South Dakota -- Sioux Falls, South Dakota included, Spencer in northwest Iowa.

And then you could see the rivers are warned going down the Missouri River from Sioux City down into Omaha. Again, as they're just aggravated with so much rain. Some spots got up to 10 to 15 inches of rain just in the last three days.

And you could see that pocket there in northwest Iowa, just south of Sioux Falls, north of Sioux City. But look how widespread some of these four-to-six-inch totals were. You had some heavier pockets up towards Mankato as well.

So just incredible rain that just came down in such a short amount of time, which is why these rivers are still at major and moderate flood stage. A lot of them, almost 50 of them, still dealing with some of this flooding.

Now this same system pushed east and now we have a tornado watch for much of New England. This is a part of the country that typically doesn't see too many tornado watches a year. It includes places like Burlington, Albany and some of the suburbs there. Boston, we have this front coming through with some strong and severe storms. The atmosphere is very juiced up.

You've got some tornado warnings right now, just south there of Burlington where it looks like we've got a little bit of a supercell thunderstorm there that could be rotating and producing a tornado.

So here's that severe risk today. It's a level three out of five up where we've got that watch from Portland to Albany for large hail, damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes possible.

This front continues to push east as we go into the evening with some showers and storms making it to New York City as we go into the morning hours.

This will finally cut back some of that heat briefly along the East Coast. High temperatures today still looking at 94 degrees in Raleigh, 97 in Atlanta, 100 degrees for that high today possible in Oklahoma city. D.C. could get up near 100 again, after hitting 100 degrees yesterday for the first time since 2016, more than 2,000 days. And if you look at when we hit 100 degrees in June, it was even longer

than that, more than ten years ago, because it's just so early in the season to get heat this extreme.

Temperatures up near 100 from Philly to D.C. and Richmond as we go through the day today. But again, notice the cooldown, temperatures moderating some back down, a little bit closer to 90 degrees once that front comes through, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Ok. So everybody needs to enjoy it tomorrow. Elisa, thank you very much.

So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doubling down on criticism of the Biden administration for what he calls the withholding of weapons and ammunition to Israel. We'll give you the facts next.

[14:24:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defending his decision to publicly rebuke the Biden administration. Netanyahu says he went public about delays in the supply of weapons from the U.S. after he says months of private discussions did not get him anywhere.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Jerusalem for us. Does Netanyahu think that public criticism will help?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, it appears so. I mean, he's had every opportunity to let this die down and the prime minister hasn't taken any of those opportunities. He brought this up on Tuesday saying it was inconceivable that the U.S. was withholding these weapons, which the Biden admin administration officials quickly said was simply not true and they weren't actually sure what he was talking about.

[14:29:51]

HANCOCKS: He brought it up in an interview which was published on Friday. And now Sunday, he's brought it up in the cabinet meeting saying that about four months ago, there was a sharp drop in the weapons and armaments that were coming from the U.S. to Israel and said that private discussions for weeks did nothing.

So he decided to go public now, there has been a White House official speaking today who has said that we have made our position very clear and we are not going to keep responding.

So clearly, showing a little bit of frustration there that this is continuing to carry on and Netanyahu is continuing to double down on this very public spat. The White House official though did say that they were looking forward to seeing the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who is heading to Washington for talks this week. We heard from Gallant in a statement on Sunday, he said that the U.S. is a very important ally. He was highlighting the importance of that relationship, saying it is very important, maybe more so now than ever.

So, he certainly trying to if not repair damage, show that he fully appreciates how important that ally is for Israel. He was also saying that he's going to talk to U.S. officials, obviously, about what's happening in Gaza, what is happening potentially on the northern front with Hezbollah and Lebanon, and said that he will talk about this phase C transition. Now, we've asked the IDF for more details about what this phase C is, but he said it may enable them to be able to make moves elsewhere.

So the assumption that people and experts are making this point is that potentially it is the start of a drop down in Gaza, but then does that mean that Israel will turn its attentions elsewhere -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Paula Hancocks, thank you very much for reporting from Jerusalem.

An emotional ceremony in Pittsburgh today. The Tree of Life synagogue broke ground for a new campus. It will include a memorial to the 11 worshipers who were killed in that 2018 attack. First Gentleman Doug Emhoff was there and CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Today, we break ground on a new path to peace, the new tree of life will not only be attributed to those we lost at a home for the Pittsburgh Jewish community for generations to come, it will also be a place to teach and share profoundly important lessons against hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: The original synagogue was torn down after that 2018 shooting, which was the deadliest attack ever on Jewish people in U.S. history.

Up next, new details on the shooting that killed four people at an Arkansas grocery store.

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[14:37:15]

CAMEROTA: We're learning new details about the deadly mass shooting at a grocery store in Arkansas. A fourth victim has now died after Friday's rampage at the Mad Butcher store in Fordyce.

Witnesses say panicked shoppers had to hide in freezers. Nine victims are still recovering and hospitals including one woman in critical condition. The suspected gunman is first court appearance is tomorrow.

CNN's Rafael Romo is following developments.

Rafael, we expect to hear from police. I understand in the next hour, but in the meantime, do they have any theory on why the shooter targeted this store? RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

There's no theory or motive that authorities have disclosed just yet, at least publicly. Last night, Arkansas authorities revealed that a fourth victim in the shooting has died among the four people killed is Shirley Taylor. She would have turned 63 on July 1st. Her daughter, Angela Atchley, actually confirmed her identity to CNN and said that her mother who loved her, her family and children was the hardest working woman. She knew and a great person, adding that her family is now completely lost.

The Arkansas Department of Public Safety also publish the names of the other three people who died. Callie Weems was a 23-years-old, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum 81, according to the Arkansas state police. Total of 13 people were injured by gunfire in the shooting Friday, including to law enforcement officers and 11 and the civilians.

And, Alisyn, as we previously reported, the suspect identified as 44- year-old Travis Eugene Posey was also wounded when he exchanged gunfire with police and was taken into custody. This is how Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HAGAR, SECRETARY OF PUBLIC SAFETY, DIRECTOR OF ARKANSAS STATE POLICE: Approximately 11:38, 911 calls were received that there was an active shooter situation at the Mad Butcher Grocery Store in Fordyce. Law enforcement responded immediately and exchanged gunfire with the lone suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And, Alisyn, we've also heard from witnesses like Katrina Doherty (ph) who told us she and her 18-year-old daughter and 4-year- old son ran to hide in a freezer along with others. The 39-year-old mother said, she heard about nine or ten rounds fired before making it into the icy shelter.

Officials say Posey, the suspect, is expected to be charged with four counts of capital murder. He is suspected to have his first court appearance on Monday, and it is unclear if he has retained legal counsel at this point -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's an awful story. Rafael Romo, thank you very much.

A Texas woman charged with attempted capital murder for allegedly trying to drown a three-year-old at an apartment complex pool. The child, we're happy to report, has survived. Now, a Muslim advocacy group is calling for a state and federal hate crime investigation into what it calls this racially motivated attack.

[14:40:07]

CNN's Camila Bernal is here.

Camila, what happened?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. So the Council for American Islamic Relations says that this was a family that was Muslim and that's why they're calling for a hate-crime investigation. But authorities say that this all happened back on May 19. They were called to a pool at an apartment complex in Euless, Texas, and they say they were called about a disturbance, a woman who was intoxicated and an attempted drowning.

So when authorities got to the pool, they arrested 42-year-old Elizabeth Wolf for public intoxication. And so after all of this happened, they say that they were able to investigate further and talk to the mother of the victim. And this mother told police that Wolf had asked her where she was from, had asked her if these were her children in the pool and that once she answered, that, yes, these were her children. She grabbed her six-year-old son.

Take a listen to how the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the council described what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSTAFAA CARROLL, CAIR DFW CHAPTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: According to the mother, the 6-year-old son was able to escape, but her petite three-year-old daughter was unable. The alleged attacker snatched off the mothers head scarf and used it to beat them other way, as well as kicking her to keep her away from forcing her child he had underwater.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: The mother told police that her three-year-old child was yelling for help, was coughing up water, but she was able to pull her out of the water.

Authorities had a medical check on both children. They say they're both okay. And wolf was charged with attempted capital murder. Her bail for that was set at $25,000 and then she was also charged with injury to a child and bail for that was $15,000.

Now, she posted bail, which is why the council is now asking for higher bails. They're asking for this to be investigated as a hate crime. And they're asking for the safety and just in general protection of the Muslim community.

And that's why they're so concerned and its part of the reason why they're coming out and speaking out and saying that this was racially motivated and feeling like they absolutely need authorities to do more about this because they believe that this all happened because his family was Muslim and they say from Palestine, Elizabeth.

CAMEROTA: So thank goodness, the kids are okay. So what happens next for the suspect? She's out on bail now?

BERNAL: Yeah, she is. And that's why the council is so upset about this Allison, they say that this is not a crime where she should be out and free, especially because this is attempted capital murder here. I mean, this is a serious charge and so that's part of the reason why the council is saying that something needs to be done here. And, you know, we have not been able to reach out to an attorney or if we don't know for sure if she is being represented by someone.

But of course, we'll have to wait and see what happens with all of this -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Camila Bernal, thank you very much for the reporting.

BERNAL: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: So, coming up to astronauts are stuck in space as NASA delays their return trip for a third time. We'll tell you what's going wrong and what they're going through up there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:05]

CAMEROTA: For a third time, NASA is delaying the planned return of two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station. They made the announcement in a blog post saying the return flight on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will not happen before July, but they did not give any specific dates.

After multiple delays, the Starliner, you'll remember, launched back on June 5th for its mission to the ISS. The entire trip was only expected to last about a week but now engineers are racing to deal with helium leaks and thruster problems as they try to get the spacecraft and the astronauts home.

Let's bring in retired NASA astronaut Leroy Chao.

Leroy, how worrisome is all of this?

LEROY CHIAO, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, it is a little bit perplexing. I mean, the Starliner had a number of issues before launch. Finally got cleared for launch, and then on the approach to the station had some fairly minor problems, some helium leaks, they were pretty small -- some thruster failures, which were a little bit more eyebrow-raising, but they cleared four out of five thrusters to be reactivated for return. NASA delaying a few times the return saying, hey, look, we want to get more data, do some testing because the service module, which is a piece that's having the problems, it detaches and burns up in the atmosphere on the way home. So, they're not going to get it back.

So, that all made sense, and all along the way, they were saying, okay, well, but everything's fine with the spacecraft, the butch and Senate can return at anytime if necessary, but what was missing in yesterday's announcement, first of all, in delayed indefinitely while we look at the data, and then they admitted the statement that while Butch and Suni can come back anytime.

So, that kind of, you know, raise my eyebrows a little bit like, did you miss some data before? Did you get some new data? You know, what is going on and why haven't you told us more? If I had to guess, I would say it's probably fine.

[14:50:02]

It's probably a poorly worded press conference press -- a press release which frankly wouldn't be the first time. So its hard to know exactly what's going -- what's going on, though. How are they going to fix the helium leaks in the thruster problems from down here on Earth well?

CHAO: Well, the thruster issues were cleared four of the five thrusters were cleared to be reactivated for entry.

But even if none of them were reactivated, there are enough left to safely control the vehicle back down. The helium leaks are pretty small. Unless they've gotten worse, the last we've all heard, NASA can tolerate and 100 times bigger leaks, than they're seeing now.

So if nothings changed, everything should be still fine, which is why I'm kind of leaning towards maybe the poorly worded or less than forthcoming press release but I think everything is still good. That's -- that's my -- that's my gut reaction right now.

CAMEROTA: We hope so. I mean, we were live on the air for the launch. And so, I know and I learned during that whole process about these two astronauts. Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, they're, of course, highly experienced. They've trained for years for this. So what do they do while they wait this extra week or two to come back.

CHAO: Sure. That's kind of tough for them because they're up there. I mean, they're pitching in there, helping out the astronauts on board, but, you know, it's great being up in space, it's great being up on the space station, but it's also great being busy. If you're not busy, you're kind of sitting around twiddling your thumbs, looking at the great view, but I mean, you're not feeling very useful and time drags and so hopefully they're being utilized and helping out.

But, you know, they were expecting, as you pointed out, to come back after a week and now its looking like they're going to be there at least over three weeks and, you know, hopefully they'll gets come back soon.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we hope so. We'll obviously keep watching all of this.

Leroy Chao, thank you very much.

CHAO: My pleasure. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We'll be right back.

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[14:56:47]

CAMEROTA: Volcanic eruptions are often viewed as dangerous and destructive, but some countries like Iceland are realizing these eruptions can have a big upside. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The awesome power of nature on full display in southwest Iceland. The Reykjanes Peninsula, close to the capital, suffering a string of violent volcanic eruptions in the past years. Iceland's massive activity both a burden and a blessing for those who live here.

The town Grindavik, close to the eruption site, evacuated -- a fissure running right through the streets and the houses.

Klara Halldorsdottir, one of the more than 3,000 residents evacuated last November, says she's had enough and will never move back.

KLARA HALLDORSDOTTIR, FORMER GRINDAVIK RESIDENT: I get goosebumps when I talk about it because it was really, really strange. Just long lines of cars exiting town. It was like in a terrible movie or something.

PLEITGEN: When things appear to get more calm, a few months later, another violent eruption occurs as the Reykjanes Peninsula seems to have entered into a period of high volcanic activity that could last months, years, or even centuries, experts say, keeping the specialists at Iceland's Meteorological Office tasked with predicting eruptions busy round the clock.

SARA BARSOTTI, ICELANDIC METEORLOGICAL OFFICE: The GPS station -- they're telling us if the ground is changing, it is forming, we are maintaining the geochemical monitoring that is telling us which are the kind of gases that are leaving the volcanoes.

PLEITGEN: While volcanoes often have an impact on life here in Iceland, the Icelanders have found ways to harness the power of our violent Earth. Geothermal power plants, feeding off he heat, providing emission-free energy in abundance and leading companies from around the world to move energy-intensive manufacturing, like aluminum production, to Iceland.

Our team traveled all the way to the northeast of Iceland to the Krafla Geothermal Plant. When drilling a new bore hole here at Krafla, they accidentally hit a shallow magma chamber and now are working on harnessing the Earth's energy almost directly from the extremely hot magma.

The project's director says this technology could provide clean energy for hundreds of millions of people.

HJALTI PALL INGOLFSSON, KRAFLA MAGMA TESTBED: We have a very big part of humanity living close to a volcano. And if we are able to harness the volcano directly, reducing the risk by lowering the pressure and lowering the tension in the volcano, then, of course, we have a win- win situation.

PLEITGEN: Using the Earth's natural energy with burning fossil fuels. The scientists acknowledge there is still a long way to go and a lot to be learned, but they also believe the potential energy supply could be virtually limitless and totally clean.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: And you can turn into "VIOLENT EARTH WITH LIEV SCHREIBER", tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

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