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Three Separate Wildfires Raging In Spokane County, Washington; Moscow Mayor Says Deadly Restaurant Attack Was Terrorism; Trump Says Iran Attacks Canceled Contingent On Making A Deal; Michigan Dems Vote In Contentious Senate Primary; Lindsay Clancy Trial Moves Into Second Week; Tension Growing Between President Trump And Senator John Thune; Judge Orders Deported Honduran Man Be Returned To The U.S.; Merlin The Duck Helps Owners Find A New Home. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 02, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:04]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and we begin with this breaking news.

A catastrophic wildfire emergency engulfing the Pacific northwest of this country. Oregon and Washington are battling their worst wildfire season in three decades with more than two million acres already scorched. In Washington state, a state of emergency has been declared as exhausted crews battle 10 massive blazes. And three of those infernos are tearing through Spokane County alone, where at least 600 structures have already been incinerated. Around 5,000 others are under imminent threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a nuclear bomb going off in our neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never have I seen a fire this close and coming over the ridge like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap. I can feel the heat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hot. There's a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, they're turning around. Oh, Jesus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I mean, just look at the sheer terror these families are facing. Fast-moving walls of fire are ripping through residential streets, reducing entire neighborhoods to piles of smoking rubble in a matter of minutes.

And you can hear the serious challenges that crews are facing, those ferocious howling winds are fueling these massive walls of flame. More than 4,000 personnel are responding to the fires, including the Washington National Guard and teams from 14 states. And while there are no confirmed injuries at this hour, the local fire chief warns they are preparing for a potential loss of life.

Last hour I spoke to Noah Boelter, an anchor with our local affiliate, KHQ, about the destruction that he is seeing on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOAH BOELTER, KHQ ANCHOR: In this Indian trail neighborhood in northwest Spokane. I'll step off so we can give you a look as to what we're seeing right here, but this is Tiffany Road. And you can see on both sides of the road just devastation. You can see cars and people driving through this area. Many families just now discovering that their home is gone. In the distance you can see some of them walking through the rubble.

I've been speaking with several families who are doing just that. Some using bricks and rocks that are still around their property to step through the rubble in order to grab valuables and see if they're salvageable. I spoke with the family earlier that was able to locate a safe, but their concerns are that it burnt up so much that nothing inside was salvageable.

And then if I can actually show you this real quick, I just got done speaking with a family who discovered this little soccer ball. It belongs to a 6-year-old boy out here. The family, devastated by the loss of their home, surprised to find that anything still standing. But the fact that it's a little soccer ball still with air in it, it was on the edge of their property, and their home is entirely gone, what these families are dealing with right now, it's unbelievable.

You don't know what you would feel in these situations. But again, they're just waking up now and discovering that their home is lost.

Live in Spokane, Noah Boelter, Nonstop Local.

WHITFIELD: I mean, Noah, it's incredible. And that really does hit home with, you know, the small things that people are able to salvage after a devastation like this. But I wonder if you can kind of tell us about this neighborhood. Just looking at, you know, when you all panned the shot and showed us, it looks like these houses were fairly close together.

How large of a neighborhood is this, or is this an area, you know, that is very vast? Help kind of paint a picture for us. Take us there.

BOELTER: Yes. Well, I'll step off again and give you another look. And what I can tell you is this is on the side of the Spokane River that the fire did not start on. So some of the families here and many, many families had multiple homes in the neighborhood. I've already spoken with one family who had loved ones, family members, blood with three different homes that all three burnt down right over here.

I spoke with another family who says as soon as the fire jumped the river, that's when they raced to grab their belongings. That's when they grabbed everything they could, packed up those valuables, and that's when those level three evacuations kicked in, and they had to take off. So the Indian Trail neighborhood as a whole, it's a pretty large neighborhood here in Spokane. This is just one portion of it.

But just walking down this portion of the neighborhood, which I've done several times this morning, dozens of homes are destroyed, and many of them very close with their neighbors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And I also asked him about those little flames that you did see at some of the properties. That's natural gas burning off.

[16:05:02]

Thanks so much to KHQ anchor Noah Boelter.

All right. Joining me right now is Tom Stokesberry. He is the lead public information officer for California Interagency Incident Management Team Seven.

Tom, good to see you. Your team literally just assumed command of these Spokane fires today. So with three blazes burning right now, what is the priority? How are you tackling this?

TOM B. STOKESBERRY III, LEAD PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, CALIFORNIA INTERAGENCY INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM SEVEN: Well, right now we have 130 person incident management team here with another 250 firefighters on the ground. We have additional resources on order. Priority right now is the Autumn Lane Fire. The Fairview Fire, and the Old Trails Fire are really moderate in their activity right now. Everything staying within that footprint.

But the Autumn Lane has grown to about 3300 acres. So currently we have good air, so we're able to get the air attack in the air. We've got our VLATs, which is our very large air tankers. Our Super Scoopers are all in the air working it right now. We also had two Hotshot crews. One is the Eldorado Hotshots from California, and another crew show up and they are currently on the line. So we've got both the type ones in the air and the ground working these fires.

WHITFIELD: And so when you say good air, meaning that you have, you know, lower wind gusts, because yesterday it really kicked up quite a bit. It looks a little calmer at least when you look at the backdrop of the anchor, that television anchor that we're talking to. So, you know, how are you able to navigate because this is very widespread, these blazes? You know, are you going to be able to have the greatest success by tackling it by air or on the ground?

STOKESBERRY: Well, really, both those resources complement each other. And when I say good air, I mean, it's, one, it's clear, its visibility. The smoke is lifted and we can see. And then, of course, as you just said, our wind is definitely down. So our air resources complement our ground resources. They work in tandem with one another, and that's how we really can get control of the fire. Right now they're making good progress. But in addition to that, we

still have our strike teams of engines in there. Our structure protection. There are still a lot of structures that we are protecting that have not been impacted yet. So we have multitude of fronts that we are attacking this fire on.

WHITFIELD: How do you try to protect those structures? Because as far we understand, 600 structures have been destroyed. What's the technique you're able to use to protect remaining structures that are, you know, facing threats?

STOKESBERRY: Yes. The vast majority of those structures were lost during the initial attack. The first, you know, few hours, 12 hours of this fire. And that was due to an extremely wind event that's pushing that fire. At that point it's really life is the top priority. And that's getting the public to safety. And of course, our firefighters keeping them safe.

Today what we're doing is structure protection. We are -- we have crews in and around those structures that have not been impacted yet. We're laying hose around them, we're clearing them. We're giving a defensible space to them. And then, of course, our crews are working on the fire front, which they are talking with our structure protection groups. So we communicate quite a bit and we get the protection around those structures that we need. And not only just our structures, but also our critical infrastructure, power lines, et cetera.

WHITFIELD: What about evacuations or people who are not evacuating because they want to try to protect their property? They want to, you know, try and, you know, use pool water to help, you know, protect their homes. All the different methods that we've seen from a variety of, you know, neighborhoods along the West Coast during wildfire situations like this.

STOKESBERRY: Yes, I would say when you go to a level three or mandatory evacuation, please heed those warnings. I think yesterday showed that basically the work between the local firefighters and the law enforcement and the public to heed those warnings really saved lives. A lot of people took those warnings to heart. They got out of there, and I really, truly believe we saved lives there. It was really heroic effort by the local fire departments, the local law enforcement, and of course, the public.

WHITFIELD: What is it going to take, in your view, to, you know, put these fires out? I mean, are we talking about days, you know, of battling these blazes? Are we talking about, you know, a need for, you know, Mother Nature, big thunderstorms without lightning? I mean, what is it going to take, in your view?

STOKESBERRY: Well, for these particular fires here in the Spokane area fires, the three fires that we're working on, we feel confident that we are going to get a handle on these. There's fires all up and down the Pacific northwest. That's Oregon, Washington. A lot of them are being spread by extreme fuel conditions, extreme weather conditions.

[16:10:00]

Right now we're going to get a break in the weather that's going to last at least until Friday before it starts to heat up and the wind comes again. So we have an opportunity here to really get ahead of these fires and make some headway on them. And that's what our goal is right now is day by day we're going to attack these fires with our tactics and our operations the best way we can. And the goal is to put these in check so that when these wind events and these heat come next weekend, that we have an opportunity to try to hold them in their current footprint.

WHITFIELD: All right. All the best and continued safety. Tom Stokesberry, appreciate it.

STOKESBERRY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Overseas, Moscow's mayor calls Saturday's bombing at a restaurant there a terrorist attack. The blast killed at least two people and wounded 21 others. State media reports a woman tried to enter the Balzi Rossi restaurant with what police say was an improvised explosive device. The woman was killed. No word yet on who is behind the bombing.

Fred Pleitgen reports from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Moscow's mayor is calling an explosion that happened at a restaurant here in the Russian capital on Saturday evening an act of terrorism. Now so far the Russian authorities of course are still in the early stages of investigating exactly what happened there. But what we've gleaned so far is that apparently at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, there was a private event going on in this upscale restaurant that is right in the heart of the Russian capital.

One of the security guards who was on duty there noticed a courier, a woman, coming to the entrance with a package. He then searched that woman and that is when a bomb detonated that seems to have been inside that package. The security guard was killed, the woman was killed, and another bystander, a customer of the restaurant, was also killed as well.

So far, the Russians have not said who they believe was behind all of this or who they believe the target was of this attack. In the past, however, in similar instances, the Russians have pointed the finger of blame at the Ukrainians. In 2023, a well-known Russian blogger was killed and over the past couple of years, several Russian generals were killed right here in Moscow in bomb attacks as well.

And in those instances, the Russians have blamed the Ukrainians, specifically the Ukrainian military intelligence. Right now, however, the investigation is still very much in the early stages. But of course, it does come as security here in the Russian capital remains on high alert.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Fred.

All right. Still to come, President Trump says he called off strikes against Iran. But there is a caveat. We'll tell you what he is saying Iran must do to keep the attacks on pause. And a showdown between Trump and Senate majority leader John Thune is splintering GOP unity ahead of the midterms. Hear what caused the fallout and why their relationship is about to hit an inflection point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:17:35]

WHITFIELD: All right. New today President Trump says planned attacks on Iran are on hold after an appeal from Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. In a social media post, Trump warned that canceling the attacks was contingent on a proposed deal being quickly agreed to. He says that deal calls for the Strait of Hormuz to be fully reopened and, in his words, bringing an end to Iran's nuclear threat. There has been no official comment yet from Iran on Trump's announcement.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is following all of this.

Julia, where do things stand?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, officials had recently told CNN that President Donald Trump was considering planning for another wave of strikes there in Iran, and that some of that planning included the option of going after Iran's energy sites. So as that had been reported, Trump just last night, late last night, took to social media to say that he had canceled those planned attacks, but that that decision was contingent on Tehran rapidly making a deal.

I want to pull up that post for you now. In this, Trump said that the United States remains, quote, "locked and loaded," but went on to say, "Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran and other Middle Eastern countries to hold off any attack and that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to." This move comes after Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And according to people familiar with that conversation, there was a push for de-escalation and concerns were expressed about these potential new U.S. strikes.

So Trump is saying that the perimeters of a deal have been agreed to. It's not exactly clear what that means, and it is a bit confusing because just on Friday, as Trump spoke at a Cabinet meeting that took place at Camp David, he was pressed on what negotiations look like, if there is hope for diplomacy here. And he said that he was losing faith in Iran's leadership and that they had really just been making him angry lately.

Take a listen to how he framed those recent developments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm losing faith in them because they do lie, and they do misrepresent. Well, the other day, the five missiles were shot. We knocked them down, but we were in the midst of a negotiation.

[16:20:01]

I mean, I'm waiting for Steve to call me out as a negotiation going. And instead, I got a call from Pete that they just shot five missiles at one of our bases in Jordan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So where do things stand now? Throughout this more than five-month-long conflict, we have seen Trump go back and forth between expressing hope for diplomacy and threatening further military escalation. At this point, Trump says that there are perimeters of a deal in place. He says that any deal would include the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

As you pointed out, Iran has not made a comment on this so far. There's been no indication that -- from Iranian state media that Iran directly asked for those attacks to be called off. And there's been no indication that they've changed their stance on the Strait of Hormuz, which has been a key sticking point throughout all of this.

Trump did spend his weekend here in New Jersey at one of his properties nearby. We do expect him to travel back to Washington tonight.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thanks so much.

All right. Earlier, I spoke with retired U.S. Army General Karen Gibson, and I asked her if the president's back and forth on the strikes between the U.S. and Iran either affects his credibility or shows a genuine interest in diplomacy. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. GEN. KAREN GIBSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I think, you know, throughout these last five months, there has been sometimes quite a whiplash back and forth between threats of imminent destruction and then the idea that we're on the verge of peace. And it does reflect some sense of urgency and a desire to end the conflict on terms that are favorable to us as quickly as possible. Any campaign like this has domestic political considerations, the price of gas, the threat of inflation, upcoming midterms, and a president who campaigned against forever wars.

But that said, we haven't achieved the strategic objectives that we set out to achieve, to accomplish, specifically putting enduring curbs on Iran's nuclear program. And now, really, for the last several months, we've been fighting to reopen the strait.

The Gulf allies' concerns are real, and I think really driven in the last couple of weeks by Iran's demonstration that its ability to disrupt energy infrastructure across the broader Middle East is much greater than its ability to choke off the Strait of Hormuz. With the Houthi threat of a blockade down at the bottom at the Bab-el-Mandeb and drone strikes or other attacks against port facilities in Yanbu, Aqaba, and even as far as Egypt.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So what are the strategic goals? Because I feel like if you ask a variety of people, it's kind of lost on folks about what is the goal here? And is the United States getting any closer to its goal?

GIBSON: Well, the war was launched with the intent of enacting some enduring curbs on Iran's nuclear ambitions. And we are clearly not there yet. We have a more immediate goal, which is to restore normal commercial navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. And it's not just about navigation, but it's an ability to do business freely again across the broader Middle East. That is a more urgent objective. And it's really a precondition before we can even begin to address the nuclear related issues.

WHITFIELD: And because there then seem to be a variety of goals, it means going about those goals is very different. There's a military strategy, a variety of military strategies, and a variety of diplomatic strategies. Do you see -- are you optimistic about any particular route?

GIBSON: Well, let's talk about Iran's strategy. Iran's strategy is to survive, avoid capitulation. Let's remember they see this as an existential fight for the survival of their state. At least the men who are in charge. That's how they see this. It's to survive, avoid capitulation and to make the war so economically and politically untenable for the United States that we back off or ease up on some of the things that we are demanding of Iran.

And I can't say that that hasn't worked yet. They truly believe that they have significant leverage, as they're demonstrating in the Strait of Hormuz, and with these drone and proxy and missile strikes across the region, that time is on their side. And I think in order for our economic and military pressure to work, we need to convince Iran that time is not on their side and that the longer this drags on, they will emerge eventually as an incredibly weakened, perhaps fatally weakened economically state.

[16:25:00]

They need to understand that time is not on their side. If I could flip the script, that's the one thing I would change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, a look inside the murder trial of a mother who admits to killing her three young children. What to expect from another emotional week of testimony against Lindsay Clancy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: All right. This week, a high stakes showdown plays out within the Democratic Party in battleground Michigan. Voters on Tuesday will decide between progressive candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens in a race that could have a significant impact for the party. It will gauge whether progressives can carry their momentum across a critical swing state.

[16:30:04]

It also sets the stage for the November general election that will help determine control of the U.S. Senate.

Earlier, I spoke with state politics reporter Craig Magyar with the "Detroit News" for more insight into the voters' mindset. And he described what he sees as the defining issue for Michiganders and what a victory for El-Sayed would mean for the progressive movement.

Here's more of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So as you have covered these candidates, what have you heard from voters about the issues that they are most focused on?

CRAIG MAUGER, STATE POLITICS REPORTER, THE DETROIT NEWS: We've heard so much from voters all over the map about what they think about this race. A lot of it has come down to the influence of money in politics right now. And whether that is AIPAC, utility spending, that's probably been the defining issue of this campaign, because we've had this historic difference in spending.

There has been about $60 million in outside spending coming in for Haley Stevens. And somewhere around $5 million to benefit Abdul El- Sayed. So you have this massive contrast of how money is coming in at a time when there's a lot of concern on the Democratic side of the aisle about corruption, about ethics, about the influence of large corporations. So all of that is mixed together to kind of set the table for this race on Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: All right. And more on that. Money is a driver. AIPAC, as you mentioned, made reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, made a $30 million donation to Stevens' campaign. Michigan is the state with the largest Arab-American population. So how do voters feel about outside money like that?

MAUGER: I think there are a lot of voters who are concerned about it. I mean, it's interesting because of the timing. There's been outside spending previously in elections here in Michigan to a large degree. But there's such a focus right now on influence in government. What's driving the government's decisions? Are corporations jacking up prices at the grocery store that people pay at the gas pumps?

There's so much interest in that subject. And as that's happening, you see all of this money coming into the election and influencing the campaign. And I think voters are drawing connections between the two. I mean, there are a lot of voters that care about it. There are some that don't, but it is, I would say, the defining issue of this race right now. I mean, we have a couple days to go. But you talk to a voter on the street, usually that's the issue they're going to go to.

WHITFIELD: And is there a way to gauge what it would mean for an El- Sayed victory for Democrats overall in this state?

MAUGER: I mean, there's so much there. I mean, whichever way this race goes, there's going to be a lot of conclusions that people are drawing. If El-Sayed wins, it's a massive victory for the grassroots, for the people, the candidates across the country who said, hey, were not going to take corporate PAC money.

It's going to shake up how Democratic politics have worked in Michigan. We've had many big races where the establishment has been able to anoint a candidate early. That did not happen here, and El- Sayed was able to collect this grassroots kind of movement, bring in a lot of activists, volunteers to energize this campaign. I was at an event he did yesterday in Grand Rapids, and there were about 200 people thee just for a canvassing rally.

He had been there a couple weeks early with Bernie Sanders who got a few thousand people. He's really been able to harness the energy and to door-knocking. His campaign says they've knocked over 200,000 doors. Haley Stevens on the other hand has been really working in the Metro Detroit area to try to juice the vote in Wayne and Oakland Counties, and those are kind of two places, if you're watching this election on Tuesday, two counties you definitely want to keep an eye on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Our thanks to Craig Mauger for joining us today.

All right. Tuesday don't miss key primary races across the country, including the consequential gubernatorial and congressional races of Michigan. Get election results all night Tuesday on CNN and on the CNN app.

All right. Tomorrow, testimony continues in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. She's the mother accused of killing her three children. During an emotional first week Patrick Clancy took the stand against his ex- wife. The jury later visited the crime scene. Lindsay Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children in 2023.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has the latest on testimony expected this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So jurors were brought out of the courtroom and to the outside in what the court was calling a view. And essentially, this allowed jurors to visit three separate locations that they've been hearing so much testimony about. And that was of the CVS, also a restaurant. If you remember in the testimony, Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, visited those two spots when he ran errands during the time that Lindsay Clancy took the life of her three children. They also had a chance to visit the home, the Duxbury house where the Clancy family lived.

[16:35:04]

They visited the back of the house. That's where Lindsay Clancy was found semi-conscious after a failed suicide attempt. And then of course inside the house as well, where the three children were found in the basement.

Now, jurors were instructed that they could make observations. They could listen to the prosecutors and the defense. And the judge was present as well as in these visits, but they could not do any of their sort of own investigation. They couldn't open any drawers or anything like that. That was pretty much the morning of this Friday in court.

And then jurors returned back to the courtroom and to hear some testimony, and a lot of the testimony was essentially from doctors and first responders, detectives who were at the scene and who were in the care of Lindsay Clancy and two of the three Clancy children at the hospitals that they were brought to.

Emotional testimony, at times Lindsay Clancy was sobbing through it. And I want you to see one of those moments when there was an emergency doctor explaining how they worked to revive the youngest Clancy, Callan Clancy, in the hospital. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About how long into your care of Callan did he regain a heartbeat?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably from the time that he got to the E.R. Maybe like 10 minutes or so, I'm guessing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At any point in time did he regain the ability to breathe on his own while he was in your care?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: During this testimony, jurors also saw pictures of the wounds that Lindsay Clancy had on her arms, the cuts, her neck, and also there were moments that she was sobbing not only on Friday, but also throughout testimony during the week. Emotionally charged testimony at times even the court really dismissing jurors earlier each day. Possibly even to just give them a bit of a break.

Now, the judge did say that they are on track as far as their schedule is. This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. Remember, at the end of it, jurors will be deliberating what the defense argues is that Lindsay Clancy should not be held criminally responsible for the killings of her three children, and that she was going through a postpartum psychosis at the time that this happened. So that's what jurors will be deliberating at the end of this testimony does begin again on Monday.

Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Brynn.

All right. Coming up, a judge ruled a Honduran man's rights were violated after he was removed from the U.S. and now he's waiting for a plane ride back to the U.S. to be reunited with his 3-year-old daughter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:20]

WHITFIELD: All right. The U.S. Senate is rushing to get last-minute business done before the August recess begins a week from tomorrow. President Trump, however, has other ideas. He wants his SAVE America Act to get passed before then.

As Manu Raju explains, that has put him on a collision course with the Senate majority leader.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Republican senators are growing anxious about the tension between President Trump and Senate majority leader John Thune. There has been a gulf between the two men that has grown only wider over a wide range of issues, ranging from Donald Trump's demand to blow up the Senate filibuster to pass his agenda along party lines. Thune simply does not want to go that route and says the votes aren't there to do that. Republicans say they'll need the filibuster someday when they're in the Senate minority.

And then Trump wants to pass other parts of his agenda that simply don't have the votes to be approved in the United States Senate. Like the SAVE America Act. That's a voting restrictions bill that Trump has been demanding for months. Thune says the votes are not there. In fact, there have been votes in the Senate to demonstrate that the votes are not there. But Trump will not take no for an answer.

But there have been other issues as well. Trump deciding earlier this year to get behind John Cornyn's primary challenger in that all- important Texas Senate race. Thune had pleaded with Trump for months to back Cornyn, concerned that the person who won that race, Ken Paxton, who is now the nominee, that he may lose that seat that could cost them the majority in November. Trump didn't listen.

And then there are other issues as well. Trump continuing to push his so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund that Thune and other Republicans want him to pull the plug on, because it's causing so many problems over getting other parts of Trump's agenda through. And what's causing a lot of frustration is Trump's refusal to offer a vote of confidence for Thune himself when he was asked about this at the White House last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And do you think Senate majority leader John Thune, after the comments you heard regarding Americans and other stuff, do you think he's still the man for the job?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to find out and I'll let you know.

RAJU: What do you say to the president who's not giving you a vote of confidence? What do you say to the president? What do you say to the president?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When's the last time you talked to the president?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Let him through. He doesn't vote in our election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now the tension could hit a boiling point this week when the Senate is scheduled to go on a recess by the end of the week. But Trump has been demanding to blow that up, wants Thune to scrap the August recess and pass what's known as the budget resolution. That would pave the way for tens of billions of dollars for the Iran war and for new voting restrictions across the country. But Republican senators tell me they are divided over this prospect.

[16:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Would it be a mistake to not move the budget resolution before the August recess for John Thune?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Yes. Yes, it would be a big mistake. No, that would be an enormous mistake.

RAJU: Why? What would voters think about you guys if you didn't do that?

JOHNSON: Well, you know, our supporters wouldn't take kindly to it.

RAJU: Is it realistic to do a budget resolution before August recess?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I don't believe so. I don't believe that it is realistically possible to do it. I question the political wisdom as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All this putting pressure on Thune about how to proceed in a difficult election environment.

Manu Raju, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Manu.

All right. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a man it deported to Honduras back to the U.S.. In a ruling this week, the judge said 20-year-old Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino was likely denied due process, including access to an attorney before he was deported.

CNN's national correspondent Rafael Romo is back with us.

Tell us more about this.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a case that has a lot of potential for setting precedent here, as I was telling you earlier, because when it comes to deportations and involves the rights of immigrants and due process as defined by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge in the District of Columbia has ruled the U.S. Justice Department must facilitate the return of a Honduran man who was deported to his native country in April because the Department of Homeland Security may have violated his due process rights by allegedly not allowing him access to an attorney and coercing him to sign papers for voluntary departure he did not understand.

In her ruling issued in June, Judge Beryl Howell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that plaintiff Jose Eliezer Martinez-Andino, who is an immigrant from Honduras with no criminal history but with a 3-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, "dependent on the authorization he held to work legally in the United States, was removed from this country in a manner that boggles the mind."

According to court documents, Martinez-Andino, who worked as a mechanic in North Carolina and is now 21 years old, was detained in Montana in March and placed in ICE custody even though he had special immigrant juvenile status that allowed him to live and work in the United States. In the documents, Martinez-Andino also alleges that he was coerced to sign two forms agreeing to voluntary departure.

He was also deprived of access to his retained counsel for 10 days and flown to Honduras by the U.S. government on April 10th, 2026. Barely three weeks after his civil arrest. In an interview in Tele-Honduras, where he awaits his return to the U.S., Martinez-Andino told CNN in Espanol, he was denied his rights multiple times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE ELIEZER MARTINEZ-ANDINO, DEPORTED TO HONDURAS (through text translation): They told me that if I didn't sign the deportation papers, I could be in jail for six to eight months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Did they give you any justification or anything for deporting you?

MARTINEZ-ANDINO (through text translation): No, nothing. I mean, they told me you don't have the right to see a judge or a lawyer. You're going out. That's what they told me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that Jose Martinez-Andino originally entered the country illegally through Mexico in 2020, but acknowledged that his removal proceedings were later dismissed by an immigration judge without prejudice in 2023. The statement also says that Martinez-Andino was issued a voluntary departure and departed the country on April 10th. He received full due process, it says. Any claims that he was not allowed access to an attorney are false.

But it seems like Judge Howell thinks Martinez deserves the chance to litigate his claims in a federal court, and directed the Department of Justice and Homeland Security to continue in a prompt and expeditious manner efforts to facilitate his return to this country.

Now, the question here is, how soon is he coming back? At this point, we have no idea.

WHITFIELD: Right. Like you say, there's a deadline on that.

ROMO: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. We'll be right back.

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[16:53:40]

WHITFIELD: All right. Remember Merlin the Duck who became Mexico's unofficial mascot during the World Cup? Well, he became so popular he was even taken to meet Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

As CNN's Valeria Leon reports, the feathery celebrity has now helped his entire struggling family find a new home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Merlin the Duck became an unlikely star after going viral during the World Cup. His fame transformed the life of the Mexican family that raised him.

Karla and her sons, Cristian and Carlos, used to sleep inside a tiny street side shop in Mexico City, where they sold bottled water.

KARLA GOMEZ, MERLIN'S OWNER (through translator): Living in a shop, working seven days a week, putting in exhausting hours and carrying heavy loads was very difficult. Sometimes I would cry at night. I was always apologizing to my sons for making them live in a shop.

LEON (voice-over): Cristian told us how they crawled inside each night and how that reality weighed heavily on his mother. CRISTIAN GOMEZ, MERLIN'S OWNER (through translator): My mom slept up

here. I slept down below and my brother slept down there.

LEON (voice-over): After their story caught the attention of local authorities, Mexico City's government gave the family a home.

K. GOMEZ: Vecino.

[16:55:03]

LEON (voice-over): With Merlin in their arms, Karla and Cristian returned to their former neighborhood, greeting the street vendors who witnessed their struggle along with their sudden rise to fame.

K. GOMEZ (through translator): For the first time in many years, we were able to sleep peacefully.

LEON (voice-over): Now that the World Cup has ended, they've dropped by the old shop to pick up Merlin's favorite soccer ball.

C. GOMEZ (through translator): I'm happy thanks to him. We have a house now and he can sleep wherever he wants.

LEON (voice-over): For this family, their lucky duck changed everything from surviving day by day to dreaming about what comes next.

K. GOMEZ (through translator): I want to pursue the business side of this. I want to start making clothes for ducks.

LEON (voice-over): Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Now that is a lucky ducky.

All right. Thank you so much for joining me this weekend. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brian Abel right after this.

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