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More than 160 Still Missing in Texas Flooding; Keith Cowing is Interviewed about NASA; X CEO Steps Down; Tony Dickey is Interviewed about Texas Flooding; Trump Praises Liberian President. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 10, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:32:38]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. And thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's 32 minutes past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

Thirty-one workers are now safe after being trapped under a collapsed tunnel in Los Angeles. Officials say the crew had to climb more than 12 feet of loose soil to escape before rescuers were able to lift them to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANICE HAHN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY BOARD SUPERVISOR: They were all shooken up, as you said. It was quite traumatic for them to go through that.

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CORNISH: They were trapped for about an hour. No injuries were reported. And the cause of the collapse is still under investigation.

And for a second straight night, Russia launched another round of airstrikes into Ukraine. At least two people were killed in Kyiv. The bombings come as Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to meet with Russia's foreign minister later today.

And we'll soon hear more from local officials leading search efforts in Texas. So far, the flash flooding death toll has risen to more than 120.

And more than 150 people are still missing in Kerr County, Texas, alone. This morning, we're learning more about what happened leading up to the floods. A local firefighter called in a code red alert in Kerr County around 4:00 a.m. on July 4th. That's according to reporting from CNN affiliate KSAT. However, it took officials nearly six hours to send out that alert. Now, as search crews scour the river for those who are still missing, officials are left with more unanswered questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY LEITHA, KERR COUNTY SHERIFF: I wish I could tell you that time. I don't know that time. Let me share something with y'all. One of the main things I've been doing is going and visiting the families. We still have some of those missing loved ones here. I go visit them twice a day. You know, as a sheriff, you know what, what I want is I want closure for those people, OK? And those are important questions. Those are -- we will answer those questions. I wish y'all would bear with me in that, OK. Bear with me on that.

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CORNISH: Joining us now is CNN's Leigh Waldman, who's been on the ground reporting in Kerrville, Texas.

Leigh, good morning.

I just want to start with where you are and what's going on with the kinds of questions the sheriff is talking about.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Audie, it's good to be with you.

So, we're here in Kerrville at a park alongside the river. You can see playground equipment behind us.

[06:35:01]

This was put in place only a month ago. Debris on the other side. And off in the distance, a neighbor came and talked to us, said several bodies were found here. There's crosses off in the distance there. Just kind of speaks to the heartbreaking situation that so many people who live alongside the river are facing now after these floodwaters came through.

You asked about the alert system and the questions that these officials are facing. They're asking for more time to provide those answers, not only to us, but to members of the community who are concerned about what they think is a lack of alert, a lack of warning to the floodwaters that were moving in. Officials are saying they need more time to answer those questions, but they will answer those questions.

We know that there's going to be a special session later on this month called by Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas legislature. They're hoping to correct the notification system. They said it needs updates.

They're also going to start discussing an early warning system for flooding. We know here in Kerrville that was discussed, but no siren system was put in place. But a few towns over, in Comfort, Texas, where there were no fatalities from this flooding, they do have a siren system in place that alerted the residents to the water that was coming their way. So, that will be something that's discussed and something the community has their eye on, Audie.

CORNISH: CNN's Leigh Waldman in Kerrville, thanks so much for your reporting. All right, we want to talk about NASA now because they've got a new

boss, at least for now. President Trump tapping Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to be the interim administrator at the space agency. Duffy tweeting, "honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let's launch."

Launching could be a heavy lift because there's a lot of turmoil at NASA. "Politico" reports more than 2,000 "senior-ranking NASA employees are set to leave under a push to shed staff," and that's "potentially spelling trouble for White House space policy and depriving the agency of decades of experience."

Joining me now to discuss is Keith Cowing. He's editor at NASAWatch.com.

Good morning, Keith. Welcome back.

KEITH COWING, EDITOR, NASAWATCH.COM: Nice to be here.

CORNISH: First I just want to talk about the 2,000 plus workers who may be leaving. Do you have a sense of, are these managers, are these people technical, what's the loss we're looking at?

COWING: Well, the number keeps changing. It's up to 2,900 as of yesterday afternoon. So, you know, "Politico" will have a -- you know, it's constantly changing. There's a deadline of 25 July to get this in. After that, if you don't take the buyouts, you run the risk of being laid off through a riff or some other process.

As to who it's affecting, it's hard for me to even talk about this because I get my watch -- these little notes saying I took the buyout, and it's from people who are 35 and 65 and everywhere in between, managers and scientists. And, you know, NASA is losing some of its best people at a very high rate.

CORNISH: I want you to take a look at this report in "The Washington Post." It cites a letter written by seven former NASA officials. And they say this, "if the administration is committed to countering the growing Chinese capability in space, the U.S. needs to continue its investment in U.S. space science, not cede it unilaterally to space -- to space competition, which expends -- extends past the moon and Mars exploration."

Can you talk about this idea that China is the concern? Because I have to admit, I thought it was just the private industry and the private sector that we'd be basically ceding space to.

COWING: Well, you know, where you stand depends on where you sit. And what's today, Thursday? I mean, it keeps changing.

I -- first of all, I know most of the people who wrote that letter and I fervently agree with everything they said. But picture this, OK, we just -- you just asked me about layoffs. Well, NASA is its people. It's where all the smarts are. The rockets get built by the smart people. But it's the smart people who have to come up with how to do it. If we want to beat China in space, or make America great again, first

of all, you know, America has touched the sun. We've visited all the planets. We're the only ones that have walked on the moon. We've discovered thousands of planets. We're the only nation in interstellar space. We're already great.

So, what do you do with that lead? You maintain it. And if you want to -- you think somebody's going to come after you and encroach from behind, you add more. But instead, they're cutting NASA's science budget. They're cutting NASA's personnel. That seems to be antithetical to the whole basic notion of, here comes China, we need to beat them.

So, everybody's confused by this.

CORNISH: Keith, one more thing. There had been a person suggested to be the new chief of NASA. Suggested by Elon Musk. And we know this was part of the reason why Musk was frustrated with Donald Trump. Do you have a sense of who could be next in line, or is NASA preparing to have Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, take over this mission?

COWING: Well, I was getting ready to go to bed last night so I could be up early with you, and suddenly this Truth Social.

[06:40:01]

The president uses his Truth Social to announce that a former Fox News host and reality TV star will head a cabinet. Are you surprised? I'm not. I don't -- it's an interim. Mr. -- Secretary Rubio has an interim bunch of things that he's taking care of.

I don't know. I honestly don't know. I know some very serious people were on a short list to be considered. But right now, NASA needs a permanent administrator who understands rocket science and knows how all this stuff works and is committed to lead the agency through these troubles to, you know, better times. That isn't happening. And that's very frustrating to, you know, the 17,000 or 18,000 civil servants in the several hundred thousand contractors and the people of America.

So, you know, please, please, Mr. President, send us a real NASA administrator so we can get on with the whole explore the universe thing. That's what they're saying.

CORNISH: Keith Cowing, editor at NASAWatch.com.

Keith, thanks so much.

COWING: My pleasure.

CORNISH: So, there's some news this morning about X CEO Linda Yaccarino. She's stepping down after two years on the job. Her exit is not without controversy. It comes just a day after the company's Grok chatbot went rogue, responding with anti-Semitic tropes to the questions of some X users.

It's unclear if Yaccarino's exit and the chatbot messages are related, but X owner Elon Musk released a brief message in response to her departure, saying, "thank you for your contributions."

Bringing back the group chat here to unpack this a bit more.

So, I mentioned in the -- these things don't seem related, but I mentioned in the space thing that this was a problem that helped create the fissure between Trump and Elon Musk. And now there's X itself --

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes.

CORNISH: Which is maybe struggling a little bit.

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: What should I read into this executive exit?

FISCHER: So, I don't believe that Linda Yaccarino's exit is related to the chatbot controversy.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: I think this is something that she was thinking about for a while before.

When it comes to X, before Elon Musk took on that company, when he bought it as Twitter, the vast majority of the revenue was advertising. When Elon Musk took over and he told the advertising community to, and, quote, "go f themselves," it became a big problem. They lost about half their ad revenue almost overnight.

So, Linda Yaccarino comes in, an ad industry veteran with more than ten years' experience leading one of the biggest ad businesses in the world, NBC Universal, and she's tasked with this -- fixing this problem. But there's two issues. One, Elon Musk does not really care. He doesn't like the ad business, so he's not making her life easier by being conciliatory to the advertisers.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And then, two, from a product perspective, he was so focused on building an everything app, you know, including things like cryptocurrencies and payments. He wasn't focused on just building an ad tech stack to support communications based social networking.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And so she didn't really have the opportunity to excel in her role. And so, I think her exit, in part, comes from that frustration.

CORNISH: But it also depends on what you think it's for and what you think he has it for. I mean one of the things I've thought is, he has it to amplify himself and his message. You guys, I mean, as political people, I'm wondering, yes, what you're thinking.

CHARLIE DENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM: Yes. Yes. That's why he has X. I mean I don't think it was a great business decision to spend all that money on it. He wants to actually convey a message. And this poor woman in that job, I mean, I think you're absolutely right, that -- that -- that the advertising issue was really terrible for her. And, of course, we all know social media is where people go to hate. And when you have these -- these Nazi dustups with the chatbots, and also, of course, when -- when the founder of the company is -- gets into a debate whether or not his extended right arm was a Nazi salute, or was it just an awkward gesture, I mean none of this is helping. And so, this woman was, you know, she looked like she was pushed out.

CORNISH: Yes. Though if you've been on X at all recently, I don't think the Grok incident would be all that shocking.

FISCHER: I just want to say, on the business side, X was acquired by XAI, which is Elon Musk's A.I. company. So, one could make the argument that he's just using X to get the real time data to better power his A.I. chatbot, which is Grok. That could be a business implication here.

And, by the way, that's maybe why he doesn't care about the direct commercialization of the social media asset, because it's not about the social media asset, it's about what it can do to bolster his A.I. ambitions.

CORNISH: Meghan, what do you see in this?

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I mean, I think it's my understanding that she -- the company is now profitable again and advertisers are coming back. To the extent, I don't know now that they will after this latest incident.

But I cannot imagine having Elon Musk as a boss. I'm surprised she lasted two years. I agree with you, that this is a data collecting exercise for Elon Musk. Think of all of the people who put information in there and all the -- the ability they have to track. So, I mean, I think there's much more going on with X than just us putting out our thoughts.

CORNISH: I have to go, but is it telling that given the kind of conversation that happens on X, that Grok would end up saying anti- Semitic things?

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: Like bad data in, bad data out?

FISCHER: It's interesting, he's -- Elon Musk said that Grok was just basically kowtowing more to the users than it should have been. And that's a really enlightening thing because it shows how much they care about free speech and taking into consideration what users --

CORNISH: It shows a lot about the users.

[06:45:02]

FISCHER: Well, of course, but you're actually on -- there's bad users everywhere.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: It's really about, does the platform's tech take into consideration what they say when it's building out its algorithms and its moderation? That, to me, is the real lever that's not being pulled here versus where the users are bad -- the users are bad (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Yes. Yes. And we should say that all of these A.I. companies have to find ways to do moderation. And it's actually more complicated than you think.

Group chat, stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about this hour.

Still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, a compliment or an insult? Why President Trump's interaction with an African leader is raising eyebrows. More from the group chat after this.

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[06:50:02]

CORNISH: It's now 49 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup.

The Secret Service has suspended several agents involved in securing the 2024 Pennsylvania rally last year where an attempt was made on Donald Trump's life. Sources tell CNN at least two of the agents are appealing the decision. And at this point, none of the agents have served their suspension. The suspensions range from a few weeks to more than a month.

Former U.S. Olympics gymnastics star Mary Lou Retton is pleading no contest to a drunk driving charge. CNN obtained this video of her field sobriety test from June, where she appears to struggle with commands from officers. In a statement to the "Associated Press," Retton apologized for her actions, adding what happened was, quote, "completely unacceptable."

And North Carolina hit with more heavy rain yesterday. Video shows rushing waters on the streets and one car submerged underwater. Officials say a handful of rescues were conducted in the Durham area. No injuries reported so far.

And we're going to go back over to central Texas, where search and rescue crews have been documenting the toll of those devastating flash floods.

I want you to look at this image from the United Cajun Navy. It shows a trailer submerged in debris following those floods. This is just a week after the floods hit. At least 120 are reported dead and more than 160 are still missing.

Volunteer organizations from across the country are lending a hand with the recovery efforts, and that includes groups like the Cajun Navy.

Joining me now is Tony Dickey. He's a chaplain with the group.

Tony, thank you for being here. Good morning.

TONY DICKEY, CHAPLAIN, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: Good morning, ma'am.

CORNISH: We were just showing people that image of that -- of a trailer where all you can see are the tires. Can you talk about the other things that you're seeing out there right now as your -- your group is supporting this search and rescue?

DICKEY: Yes, ma'am.

As a chaplain with the United Cajun Navy and with the Alabama Association of Rescue Squads, we have been on the ground shortly after the flood took place.

The trailer that you're looking at just shows you the power of the water that came through here. Literally, you have vehicles buried in the silt and the sand that these high waters coming down this river were carrying. And so, we're actually having to use excavating equipment to dig a lot of this out. We have used pumps to dig -- to actually pump water out of holding areas just to clear those areas and make sure that there are no missing individuals in those areas. A very, very hard task here that these search and rescues are going through at this time.

CORNISH: Tony, I'm afraid to ask, but can you tell me about the teddy bear?

DICKEY: My teddy bear, this is Hope. Hope is a weighted, therapeutic comfort cub. It actually has neurotransmitter action. Whenever you hold the bear and squeeze it, it activates the neurotransmitters in the brain to stimulate the production of chemicals that help offset the emotions of, such as stress. The emotions that you have that -- that really -- that really helps the body during the emotional trauma. It deescalates that trauma of emotion. And we use these to give to the families, such as I'm with for families right now that still have loved ones missing. And this actually helps those with that grief process of de-escalating some of that stress to help bring them a little peace and a little hope.

CORNISH: What's it been like for them? You said you're working with four families. I don't know if you're visiting with them multiple times a day. If they're gathering with each other. Can you tell us what it's been like?

DICKEY: Yes. We are -- we're staying in constant contact with all of the families. We -- we have actually times where we go with them and we hold them, we pray with them and we cry with them. And that's part of what chaplains do and part of what the community here is so supportive.

I know Friday night there's a large vigil that will be taking place down here for the community and the whole area to come and show their support for all of the missing individuals, the adults that are missing, the children that are missing. Just so many people are still unaccounted for.

CORNISH: Have you had to use this stuffed animal? I mean, have you had to put that in somebody's arms in the last few days?

DICKEY: Yes, ma'am, we -- every individual that we know that goes through this traumatic event of losing a loved one, we have literally given out dozens and dozens.

[06:55:04]

I actually have a trailer bed full of these to give out to those individuals.

And when you give it to a child, you can just see that stress drop. You see a smile come on their face. And that's -- that's what we're here to do, is help them through that stress, help them de-escalate because we don't want this to affect these people into such -- like a PTSD syndrome. We're here to offset that. We -- we deem it emergency first aid, emotional first aid.

CORNISH: The Cajun Navy kind of came to being after Hurricane Katrina. How is this compare, feel different in terms of the scale of it?

DICKEY: Every disaster, such as a mass fatality disaster that we have -- like we have here in Kerrville, is each disaster is unique because it's in that particular community. It affects this community. It's hard to compare how it is like during Katrina. It's -- it's still a disaster that just tears the heart out of the community because of the massive loss of life here. And it's very hard to compare it because each disaster is very unique to that community.

CORNISH: Tony Dickey is a chaplain with the United Cajun Navy. Thank you for your work there in the community.

DICKEY: Yes, ma'am.

CORNISH: OK, this just in. We've got new video of the secretary of state, Marco Rubio. He's sitting down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. This is actually in Malaysia, just days after President Trump slammed Vladimir Putin. And that meeting is now underway. We're going to have more coverage on "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" at the top of the hour.

So, I want to move to something else, which was a White House meeting yesterday. In the span of about 10 seconds, the president managed to offend the entire continent of Africa. Trump was hosting five African leaders at the White House on Wednesday when he got sidetracked while chatting with the president of Liberia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BOAKAI, PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA: We just want to thank you so much for this opportunity.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thank you. And such good English. Such beautiful --

BOAKAI: Yes. (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Where did you -- where did you learn to speak so beautifully?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, that was awkward because, of course, the Liberian leader politely informed the president that he was educated in Liberia, where the official language is English. One Liberian diplomat told CNN that Trump's question was inappropriate and condescending and a South African politician questioned on X why the Liberian leader didn't stand up and leave.

Turning it back to the group chat.

First, just a little bit of reaction. Adam Kinzinger, former GOP congressman, always Trump antagonist, said this on X, "absolutely the dumbest man in government. This is just ridiculous."

And then Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Democrat, saying, "Trump never misses an opportunity to be racist and wrong. Every day he finds a new way to be embarrassing."

I don't know where to start. How do we -- how do we start on this?

DENT: He doesn't do propriety well. You know, he --

CORNISH: Well, he was offering a compliment, in his mind.

DENT: Yes, he was trying to offer a compliment, but was completely inappropriate in doing so and, frankly, offensive because this man's native language is apparently English. And apparently the president, our president, doesn't understand the historical ties to Liberia, given a lot of free slaves were returned there. And the capital is Monrovia, for James Monroe.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: I mean, it just kind of displayed a lot of ignorance about --

CORNISH: Meghan.

HAYS: I mean even if you make it more simple than that, this, like, just amplifies the term ugly American. Anyone who's traveled abroad, we all feel that when you go somewhere, we're loud, we travel in packs, and everyone looks at us like, oh, my gosh, those are the Americans. This is just why people think that we are so terrible all the time. Like, how can our leader and our president be so dumb to just say this in front of press in an open meeting? I mean, how is this even a compliment even if it -- you know, even -- how is he -- I don't -- I just -- it's hard to fathom. You just can't make it up.

CORNISH: What came to mind for me is that there's large swaths of the country and large parts of the Trump constituency that don't want certain aspects of black history in the public domain, right? Scrubbed from websites. They talk about slavery -- slavery-era history that they want to raise. Liberia was founded by freed slaves. That's history you would miss if you thought it was woke.

FISCHER: Yes, I mean, I think that this comes down to, how is he getting prepped? What is the priority for when he's prepping for these meetings and understanding the history and the culture? Clearly, that's just not a priority. He's walking in pretty blind. And so, that speaks to how much of a priority they take in understanding the history and the culture.

[07:00:01]

If he was adequately prepped for this meeting, that mistake would not have been made.

CORNISH: Yes, though I was surprised the meeting was happening. And we have to say, at the end of the day, they didn't get the treatment that the South African president got. And maybe, in that way, it's a win. And maybe that is why the president of Liberia did not just get up and walk out, right, as people are dealing with tariff issues.

I want to thank you guys for talking with us and thank you to the group chat. Thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish and "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.