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CNN This Morning
DOJ Wraps 2-Day Of Meetings With Ghislaine Maxwell; Donald Trump Arrives In Scotland For Golf And Talks; Trump Tells Israel To "Finish The Job" Against Hamas; 80 Million Under Heat Warnings As High Temp Scorch Northeast. Ghislaine Maxwell's Lawyer Says She Answered Questions About Roughly 100 People During Meetings with DOJ; Gaza Medics: Six Killed, Dozens Injured Seeking Aid in Gaza; Top Investigators Detail Bryan Kohberger's Unusual Behavior After Idaho Student Murders. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired July 26, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, July 26th. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what we're working on for you this morning.
Ghislaine Maxwell was granted limited immunity In her interview with the Justice Department Friday, a lawyer says that she answered every question, but one question is still out there. Will she get a pardon from President Trump?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We haven't eaten in five days. We are living under huge injustice. We are living in famine.
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BLACKWELL: A dire situation in Gaza. People there say they have not eaten in days. Doctors say the situation is dystopian at best. But there may be some relief on the way. We'll explain.
Sauna-like conditions are baking parts of the country. Some cities will see their highest temperatures of the year as this brutal heat dome pushes east.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You nervous?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little bit, yes. This is totally different than what I'm used to, so don't judge me too hard.
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BLACKWELL: And Pete Muntean gets behind the controls of the Goodyear blimp. We'll take you along for the ride.
All right. The Justice Department is now done with its meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, and her lawyer says that she held nothing back. Maxwell was convicted of being Jeffrey Epstein's conspirator to sexually abuse minors. Her lawyer appears to suggest that she wants a pardon, but President Donald Trump has said that he's not committing to that.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's something I haven't thought about it, really. It's something I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Lawmakers in both parties are putting pressure on the administration to release the documents to release the Epstein files. One Republican representative had this to say in a telephone town hall on Friday.
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REP. MIKE KENNEDY (R-UT): I am a big fan of full transparency and of course, healthcare and how it's delivered is a big way of thinking about things is if you've got a festering, boil, infected wound with pus underneath there, you can continue to just let it fester, and potentially that's going to grow inward and create infection in your bloodstream and cause the whole body to be sick.
Well, it's another way, and I've done this many times over the course of my doctor career, is I just had to put a needle or a knife in it and cut it open and let it drain. And in the case of this Epstein stuff, absolutely let it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Yuck. Two Democrats from the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to lawyers at Epstein's estate. They're asking for that reported book of birthday letters. They say, in part, quote, public reporting indicates that President Trump submitted a poem and a drawing for the birthday book. The book is relevant for ongoing congressional oversight of the DOJ's handling of the Epstein investigation. CNN's Paula Reid takes a deeper look into what we know about Maxwell's meeting this week.
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. On Friday, Maxwell wrapped up her marathon interview with the Justice Department and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Most of what we've learned about what's happened inside that room is coming from Maxwell's camp. Her lawyer insists that she answered every question and never invoked a privilege. Now, he was pressed about what kinds of things she's been asked about.
He would only say that she was asked about every single thing possible you could imagine about maybe 100 different people. He said he claims that she answered questions about everybody and did not hold anything back.
Again, the Justice Department has not released any details about the meeting. So we do have to be somewhat skeptical about what her lawyer is saying here because he is representing someone who has been convicted of sex trafficking minors.
During her trial, women who were victimized in this scheme alleged that not only did Maxwell recruit them, she also groomed them and in some cases, sexually assaulted them. Now she is appealing that conviction. Anything she says, though, will have to be viewed through a skeptical lens and corroborated something that her lawyer says that she can do. This is someone whose credibility has in the past come into question.
[06:05:02]
Her lawyer in additional comments to the press, also trying to reframe her as some sort of victim, saying that she has been a, quote, scapegoat. Now, she has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, but the idea that you're going to post conviction, frame her as a victim or a scapegoat and get out of this political debacle that the administration is facing, I mean, that's going to be tough because here the administration is facing a risk.
If they make a deal with Maxwell, if she is granted a commutation or a pardon from President Trump, that is not going to solve the concerns that a lot of his supporters have in the larger Epstein investigation. They're worried that evidence is being withheld to protect sexual predators.
So if you make a deal with someone who's been convicted of sex trafficking, minors, that is unlikely to solve the larger political situation. So the deputy attorney general, he has quite the task in front of him when we don't know what information he's received from Maxwell or what he will do next. He has vowed, though, Victor, to offer an update at the appropriate time.
BLACKWELL: All right, Paula Reid, thank you. President Trump is in the UK. He's visiting Scotland now. He is expected to spend most of his time playing golf at two of his resorts. Now, the White House, though, has billed this as a working visit. He is meeting with two key European leaders to talk trade. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Edinburgh this morning.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump taking a respite from Washington, spending a few days in Scotland, the ancestral territory and homeland of his mother, officially a golfing trip, but it now has become something much more than that. He'll be meeting with the president of the European Commission here on Sunday to talk about tariffs and trade, as well as meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
TRUMP: I like your prime minister. He's slightly more liberal than I am, as you probably heard, but he's a good man. He got a trade deal done. And, you know, they've been working on this deal for 12 years. He got it done. It's a good deal. It's a good deal for the UK.
ZELENY: But a new trade deal has already been inked, largely between the U.K. and the U.S. but it is that E.U. deal that is still looming. That's why the meeting on Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen is so critical. Of course, she does not have as strong of a relationship with President Trump, but when he arrived in Scotland on Friday, he had positive words to say about her. And he said he believes they could strike a deal.
Of course, this is leading into an August 1st deadline for yet another tariff deadline. All of this is coming, of course, as many other issues are hanging over this trip, which is the fifth international trip President Trump has taken since returning to office. Of course, Gaza front and center as well.
The Ukraine war is too, but on the president's agenda at least for the weekend, much golf it. There is two golf clubs here. On Tuesday, he will also be opening a new golf course in the north of Scotland named after his mother, who of course was born here but left Scotland at age 18 to come to the United States. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Edinburgh, Scotland.
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BLACKWELL: All right, Jeff, thanks so much. President Trump told Israel to finish the job against Hamas. Earlier this week, the president pulled negotiators from cease fire talks days after he seemed to indicate a cease fire deal was within reach. CNN International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is joining us now from Jerusalem. So, Nic, where do the talks or the potential even for these talks continuing stand now?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's not clear. And I think that's the best assessment we have. The reason is that mediators, Egyptian, Qatari mediators say that they can -- they're continuing to meet and talk. President Trump has indicated that in essence, Israel should finish off the job, which means a military solution, which means doubling down, if you will, on what Israel is already doing in Gaza and moving on without negotiations with Hamas.
So, it sounds confusing when you have the mediators one hand saying we're still talking and President Trump sort of outlining a pretty strong position there. What we heard from Steve Witkoff, his envoy to the talks here just yesterday on social media platform X, saying that Hamas wasn't really committed to the talks.
Israeli officials here behind the scenes described that what Steve Witkoff has said as a really not an end to the talks themselves, but a way to jolt Hamas into a more realistic position. And I think we got a sense of that from the Israeli prime minister as well in things that he said. Hamas has come back and said, hey, this sort of pullback that Israel
has done pulled back its negotiators from the talks. And what President Trump is saying, they're saying, hey, this doesn't really represent what was achieved at the talks. And they've even put forward their last sort of the details of their last sort of round of negotiations, if you will, which is about the dispute over how big the border area should be between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.
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And a dispute as well over how many Palestinian prisoners should be released for the hostages released. So Hamas is sort of sounding like they're still in the game of the conversation, all of this. That's why I say it's hard to tell where it is. But I think definitively it's a pullback from the Israeli side for consultations that President Trump, is he just pressuring Hamas the same way that Israeli officials here say Steve Witkoff is doing? Is he just trying to put pressure on them to make bigger concessions to get more realistic, as the Israelis say? It really isn't clear.
But it is, of course, in the context of the huge and growing malnutrition situation in Gaza, again, putting pressure on the Israeli government and President Trump to see some movement on it somewhere.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Especially urgent as we see those pictures and the families of those hostages still held in Gaza waiting week after month after year for those loved ones to return. Nic Robertson for us in Jerusalem. Thank you. All right.
New this morning, an 18-year-old is in custody after a shooting at the University of New Mexico. Police say the shooting happened yesterday during orientation week while four people were playing video games in a dorm. They say the suspect shot and killed 14-year-old and another person was hurt. Gunman left the dorm but was caught hours later.
The so called doomsday mom, Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to two life terms in Arizona. It's for plotting to kill her estranged husband Charles Vallow and her niece's ex-husband. She's already serving life in Idaho for killing her two children and her then boyfriend's wife.
Prosecutors say she and her brother planned the murders to collect a $1 million life insurance payout and so she could marry her current husband, Chad Daybell.
This morning we're learning more about a Southwest flight from California that suddenly dropped to avoid a crash with another plane. So just six minutes after takeoff in Burbank, the plane suddenly dropped close to 500 feet to avoid a possible midair collision. Here's how one passenger described it.
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CHRISTOPHER PETERSON, PASSENGER: Things started to get a little crazy. We felt a sudden drop which initially I think everyone felt like it was turbulence and there were some screams. But more screams came when there was a second drastic drop. And it felt like maybe this isn't turbulence. My mind went to, is it a mechanical error?
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BLACKWELL: According to flight radar at the closest point, the planes were just under five miles apart. In a statement, Southwest Airlines said that no injuries were immediately reported by customers, but two flight attendants are being treated for their injuries.
This morning, people in Kansas City, Missouri are still dealing with flash flooding. This is days after heavy rain. Take a look. This is video of someone trying to move through the high water yesterday, pushing their bicycle through. The fire department says it's already done. At least eight water rescues. More than four inches of rain have fallen in Kansas City International Airport since Thursday.
The flood watch in effect right now with more rain expected through the weekend. More than 80 million people across the northeastern half of the US are under heat warnings in a lot of areas.
It already feels like 100 degrees or more hotter than usual for this time of year and this time of day. CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking the dangerous heat and what to expect the rest of the weekend. Allison.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's already been a very hot summer, but now those temperatures are going to go up even higher in some places. And it's all thanks to this dome of high pressure, which is really just kind of keeping a lot of that heat trapped near the surface. And it's for a prolonged period of time. And that's a bigger concern.
Even as we head out into Monday, you'll notice it starts to spread out and impacting many more states even than we will simply have on Saturday. You also start to see these areas of dark red indicating those temperatures could be 10 to even 15 degrees above average.
Now, one of the concerns is, yes, it's summer, we get it. It's supposed to be hot. But when the temperatures start to get that hot and for prolonged periods of time, you also start to have an increased risk of things like heat stroke and heat exhaustion. And that's going to be the concern where you see this purple color on the map, that is at the extreme portion of the heat risk chart.
And as we head into Sunday and into Monday, you start to see that purple area really start to spread out into more communities and more cities. And that's the big concern that we have with this heat wave in particular. Looking at the numbers, it's not just temperature but also adding in the humidity. The two combined create what's called the heat index or the feels like temperature.
It's going to be in the triple digits for places like Washington, D.C., Raleigh, even Atlanta, getting awfully close to that on Saturday, but they certainly will by the time we get to Sunday.
[06:15:05] And a lot of these numbers stay on the high side for several days in a row. Look at Omaha on Monday. That feels like temperature topping out at 111. Now if it feels like it's been a very hot summer to you, it's not just you. Look at all of these red dots here on the map. These dots indicate the areas that are dealing with their hottest summer to date on record.
So it's not just this particular heat wave, but even the weeks leading up to it. All of June was very hot for many other places. You take a look at a city like Atlanta, the average high this time of year is 90. We will spend every single one of the next seven days at or above that number, possibly even hitting triple digits by the time we get to Monday.
Now, if you live in the north, however, you're still going to get the heat, but you'll finally get some relief by the end of next week. Take Chicago, for example. Average high of 84. You'll top out at 92 on Monday, but finally some relief back into the 70s by the end of next week.
BLACKWELL: All right. We are looking forward to that relief. Allison, thank you. Still to come, where does the money trail lead? A look at Jeffrey Epstein's financial dealings and how he might have made his millions.
Plus, the head of the World Health Organization is warning of mass starvation in Gaza. We'll take a closer look at the desperate situation there and what top investigators are saying about how one of the Idaho murder victims fought back when they were attacked.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She fought. She fought back and she fought hard.
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BLACKWELL: Jeffrey Epstein was enormously wealthy. At the time of his death in 2019, he owned a collection of mansions across the world, two private islands. He was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Exactly how this disgraced financier managed to become so wealthy is central to the ongoing scandal. And both Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill want answers. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was found dead behind bars, he owned two Caribbean islands, homes around the world in Manhattan, New Mexico, Palm Beach, Paris. And according to Forbes, his estate was valued at $578 million, making Epstein clearly a wealthy man. Not so clear to some who have watched the case closely how he got it all. JULIE K. BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE MIAMI HERALD: I think
that's the smoking gun here. Epstein's finances and where he how he made his money, who he got money from.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Born in middle class Brooklyn, Epstein was a bright student who dropped out of college and in high finance, where he courted billionaire clients including the man behind Victoria's Secret and the Limited. Les Wexner kickstarted Epstein's professional success and when Epstein's private crimes came out, he expressed outrage.
LES WEXNER, FORMER CEO L BRANDS: Being taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so depraved is something that I'm embarrassed that I was even close to.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But Epstein made many rich and powerful contacts before his sexual predations were publicly known, including now President Donald Trump, who in 2002, before his friendship with Epstein fell apart, reportedly over a real estate deal, told New York magazine, I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.
Aside from Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime girlfriend, none of his highly placed former pals have been charged with any crimes related to him.
FOREMAN: No law enforcement authorities have ever accused Trump of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. And the President bristles at the whole idea that the Epstein case still has secrets to reveal.
TRUMP: It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Still, some find Epstein's fortune inexplicably large, too big in their assessment to have been made by legitimate hustle. And they openly wonder, with no proof, at least not yet, if maybe some of Epstein's contacts were somehow involved in his crimes and paying to keep it quiet.
REP. PETE SESSIONS (R) OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE: We need to know, were they paying Jeffrey Epstein money to do these? Who gave him the loans to buy the islands? What was he paid? Where did that money come from?
FOREMAN (voice-over): Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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BLACKWELL: Joining me now is political anchor for Spectrum News and host of the Big Deal with Errol Louis, Errol Louis. Errol, good to have you this Saturday. So let's start with the Ghislaine Maxwell interviews. The deputy AG, Todd Blanche, spent two days interviewing her. At the end of the second day, Maxwell's attorney was asked about potential for pardon, and so was the president. So let's watch those.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell?
TRUMP: It's something I haven't thought about. It's really something. I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.
A lot of people are asking me about pardons. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons.
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DAVID OSCAR MARKUS, ATTORNEY FOR GHISLAINE MAXWELL: We haven't spoken to the President or anybody about a pardon just yet. And, you know, listen, the President this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Haven't spoken about a pardon yet. Haven't thought about a pardon, but I'm allowed to. What do you hear there?
ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Oh, well, good morning, Victor. What I hear is what I think we all just saw with our own eyes, which is that in a shocking departure from normal procedures, a very high ranking member of the Justice Department went and spent, what, seven hours talking to this convicted felon, this person who did not even testify in her own case, never said a word in her own trial, and clearly made some kind of a deal or slyly suggested to her that, gee, if you say the right things or if you keep your mouth shut, there could be a pardon and you might be able to get out of prison in 20 months instead of 20 years.
BLACKWELL: But, Errol, is there any way that the President, let's say the pardon is on the table before the very end of this term, would do that? Could he carry that politically to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell?
LOUIS: Sure. I mean, listen, Victor, because of the Constitution and the prohibition on running for another term, Donald Trump is essentially a lame duck. If you project out to the end of his term, he'll be a very wealthy man who's in his 80s who can't run for office again.
What would it harm him to sort of do these kind of dirty deeds and have the rest of us decry it as improper or immoral? He won't care at that point. I'm not sure he cares right now.
BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean, it would be one thing to do it January 19, 2029, versus to do it August 1 of 2025. But let's talk about the content of these interviews. You've got the President's former personal attorney, who he's appointed the Deputy AG, going to interview a convicted perjurer who, as we see, wants a pardon about a scandal that the President wants distance from. So how much credibility is there in what comes out of this if we ever get the details of these interviews?
LOUIS: Yes, I'm not sure we're ever going to find out exactly what was said, but this is a part of what has been a desperate mission very much as Tom Foreman just reported by the White House to just try and make this go away. They just don't want us talking about it. They don't want reporters digging into it.
The problem, of course, is that in MAGA world there are a number of really senior people who are now part of the Trump administration who spent years, I mean, you know how that ecosystem works, Victor, where on talk radio and on websites and in books, over and over again they've said that just Jeffrey Epstein is not just some wayward, depraved political player, but that he's central to how you have to understand politics. And they cannot now convince the MAGA base that there's nothing to see here.
So I think they're going to pull out every last stop that they possibly can, including some kind of a statement or non-statement from Ghislaine Maxwell if they think that will work, just to try and get this off the table.
The central question, of course is, Mr. President, what did you know? What was your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein really about? And if you knew that he was engaged in illegal activity, why didn't you say something?
BLACKWELL: And there are enough members of the Republican conference in Congress now who want answers to those questions that this House subcommittee and Oversight, they've now voted to subpoena the Epstein files. I want you to listen here. This is Republican Mike Kennedy. He held a virtual town hall.
And for you at home, if you are having breakfast or if you are drinking a protein shake, sit the cup down, sit the fork down. This is pretty graphic, but I think it's important. Let's play it.
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KENNEDY: I am a big fan of full transparency and of course healthcare and how it's delivered is a big way of thinking about things, is if you've got a festering boil, infected wound with pus underneath there, you can continue to just let it fester and potentially that's going to grow inward and create infection in your bloodstream and cause the whole body to be sick.
Well, it's another way, and I've done this many times over the course of my doctor careers. I just had to put a needle or a knife in it and cut it open and let it drain. And in the case of this Epstein stuff, absolutely let it out.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Well, if that didn't turn your stomach.
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Errol, what is the impact of the pressure from these town halls that Republicans will face and from their voters, not from Democrats who are maybe shouting them down from their voters over the next month.
ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Yes, I mean, here again, look, we have a President who came to national political prominence based on a lie and a conspiracy theory called birtherism. He has over the years used conspiracy theories over and over and over again, and he has trained his base, and he's gotten them accustomed to the idea that these weird, dark conspiracies about the so-called deep state are the key to understanding politics.
And he's finding it very hard now to shut that down. What his -- members of his Republican Party are going to tell him is that there are a lot of people out there now who bought all of that stuff for over a decade now, and they -- you can't just switch it off. That's the problem by the way with conspiracy theories is, there's nothing you can do to stop them beyond a certain point.
And so people are going to take them and run with them. And any time you say there's nothing else to see here, I don't have any more information. They say, what else are you hiding.
BLACKWELL: Errol Louis, good to have you this Saturday, enjoy the weekend. Still to come in Gaza, Palestinians are starving or being shot, at least shot at while they're seeking aid. And this is happening every day. We'll have more on the dire situation there after a quick break.
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BLACKWELL: Breaking overnight. Medics say six people were killed and dozens more hurt in two separate attacks as they waited for aid in northern Gaza. And CNN had reached out to the Israeli military to ask about those two incidents. And since late May, more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to find food. That's according to the United Nations.
As the situation grows more dire, more humanitarian groups are warning of famine in Gaza. The U.N. Secretary-General talked about the starving children there, and said that some seem to be losing the will to survive.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS: Children, speaking of wanting to go to heaven because at least, they say there is food there. We hold video calls with our own humanitarians who are starving before our eyes. And this is not just a humanitarian crisis. It's a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience. We will continue to speak out at every opportunity. But words don't feed hungry children.
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BLACKWELL: Joining me now is Ciaran Donnelly of the International Rescue Committee. Thank you for your time this morning. You posted on social media that your workers, rescue workers are heart-sick at what they face. During our conversation, we're going to show some pictures of the situation there. But tell us the experience that you're hearing. Take us beyond these pictures. CIARAN DONNELLY, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE
COMMITTEE: Yes, it's important to -- it's important to get beyond the pictures, it's important to get beyond the numbers, there's 2.1 million people in Gaza, and they are all hungry. They are all struggling to feed their families. Half a million, at least of them, are living in famine-like conditions.
But the human side of this is incredibly important to bring to light. Our staff on the ground are telling us that not only are they seeing hungry, malnourished people and children seeking our services, but they themselves are unable to provide not only for their own nutrition, but for their families.
They're worried for their children because they haven't been able to get enough food to eat. One of our colleagues described having to manage her father's chronic diabetes by feeding him with dates and honey when she was able to, but then, as they became unavailable, she had to watch him slip into a diabetic coma.
Community outreach workers are telling us that they've only been able to eat once every four days, and then only a watery lentil stew available. So, there's really a tipping point approaching, fast approaching if we haven't already reached it. In this hunger crisis, and this malnutrition crisis in Gaza, and that threatens to consume the lives of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people.
BLACKWELL: Now, Israel says that the blockade is to prevent Hamas from looting the food and fuel and medicine. I want to get your reaction to something. First, I want you to listen to the deputy spokesman at the State Department on aid and Hamas is looting.
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TOMMY PIGOTT, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: In terms of the food is that Hamas through looting the food has led to weaponization. They are weaponizing aid when they are able to. We have a system in place attempting to get as much aid into Gaza as possible in a way where it is not being looted by Hamas.
That is the reality that we're seeing. That is the reality that we're pushing for, trying to get as much aid in there as we possibly can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So that was -- that was actually on Thursday. Then on Friday, CNN reported the finding of a USAID review that found no widespread looting by Hamas of food, fuel and medicine between the start of the war and May of this year when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over, quote, "there was no indication that there was a systemic loss due to Hamas interference or theft or diversion". A source told CNN.
What's your reaction there from what we're hearing from the State Department, and what the State Department is actually finding there in Gaza? DONNELLY: Yes, so, our staff on the ground over the months that we've
been deployed there have not reported anything that they've seen that suggests systematic diversion of aid, manipulation of aid by any party to the conflict.
[06:40:00]
But beyond that, I think it's really important to understand that organizations like the IRC and our peers in the humanitarian community, NGOs and U.N. agencies alike operate in conflict zones around the world, controlled by many different warring parties with funding from the U.S. government, from European governments, other international bodies.
And we're only able to do so because we can demonstrate to them that we have systems in place to ensure that aid gets to those who need it most, to those civilians who are suffering and who are vulnerable, and that were able to prevent the kind of diversion that has been alleged.
Those organizations, organizations like ours and the wider humanitarian system haven't been able to operate effectively on scale in Gaza because of the restrictions on our -- on our activities and the blockade that has been imposed and solutions that have been put forward, things like these militarized distribution points or aid drops don't provide the assurances over where aid goes, who gets it and how it's used.
BLACKWELL: Ciaran Donnelly, the IRC, thank you so much for your time. Still to come, what top investigators are saying about Bryan Kohberger's unusual behavior after the Idaho student murders. Stay with us.
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BLACKWELL: We're learning more from investigators about what happened the night four college students were murdered by Bryan Kohberger. That was in 2022. Investigators now speaking with CNN after Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. CNN's Jean Casarez sat down with the police chief and lead investigator on the case.
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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has been said that there were pictures on his phone of groups of young people in Moscow, and that Maddie, possibly Kaylee were in some of those photos. Is there any truth to that?
DARREN GILBERSTON, IDAHO STATE POLICE: No, no truth at all. To this date, we have never found a single connection. Anything between any of the four victims or the other two surviving roommates with them. No pictures, no texts.
CASAREZ: When he was in graduate school in Pennsylvania, he had a project and he developed a questionnaire sending to convicted murderers around the country what their state of mind was before they committed the murder, during the time they were committing the murder and after they committed the murder. What does that tell you about his state of mind in doing a project like that?
GILBERSTON: Yes, I think he's very consumed with it. It's hard to not look at it and view that as part of the overall -- is that -- is that part of the why? Is that part of why he did this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Now, as for the possibility of Kohberger sharing any more information about what he now admits he did, he declined to speak at his sentencing hearing. Still to come, CNN's Pete Muntean takes you inside the Goodyear Blimp, but even gets a flying lesson on board.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nervous?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: A little bit, yes.
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[06:50:00]
BLACKWELL: Ten thousand planes, hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts, they're all in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this weekend. It's for the largest air show in the world, and one of the biggest draws is the Goodyear Blimp. I've not seen this story yet, I've been looking forward to it because CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean took a ride and even got behind the controls of the blimp.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome aboard --
MUNTEAN: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
MUNTEAN: How is it going?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good, and you?
MUNTEAN: Good --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
MUNTEAN: I'm about to do something pretty cool and very rare. I think I'm one of the only reporters to ever take a flying lesson in the Goodyear Blimp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you nervous? MUNTEAN: A little bit, yes. This is totally different than what I'm
used to, so don't judge me too hard. I'm at the world's biggest air- show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. There are 10,000 planes here, three quarters of a million people, the busiest swath of airspace in the world right now. Can see down there, that's the north 40, that's why I'm camping with my plane, and maybe the biggest and most unique flying machine here is the blimp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, so when you're ready, I'm going to give you the controls.
MUNTEAN: OK, I'm ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have the control, right?
MUNTEAN: I'm going all over the place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're serious?
MUNTEAN: Yes, this is a hoot. It feels like I'm driving a bus. You put in the controls, and then you kind of wait and wait and wait, and then it does something, and then it does a lot. This is the hundredth anniversary of the Goodyear Blimp, which is maybe the most successful aerial advertising campaign of all time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like to see some of the maneuvers the ship can do?
MUNTEAN: Heck yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you can make the blimp wave --
MUNTEAN: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just rock back and forth like a boat, right?
MUNTEAN: So, I just did an air show maneuver in Atlanta --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
MUNTEAN: Cool --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lower the nose down close to 30 degrees in pitch.
MUNTEAN: OK, I feel like I'm looking straight down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you're going up. You want to try a 360 degree spin?
MUNTEAN: Sure, yes, OK, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you're just going to go all the way left --
MUNTEAN: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. MUNTEAN: All right --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then if you get a sink, you're adding some thruster power --
MUNTEAN: More power. It's kind of like turning an elephant around. I mean, for such a huge thing, it's pretty maneuverable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
MUNTEAN: I took it for granted. It looks like the blimp is so graceful, I'm bumbling through the air, but it's really -- it's quite the flier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
MUNTEAN: I'm surprised.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's fun to play.
MUNTEAN: Yes, it's totally fun to play.
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[06:55:00]
BLACKWELL: That looks like fun. What did -- what did Pete say it was? It was a hoot. Pete said it was a hoot. Good job, Pete. Forty years ago this Summer, the biggest rock stars in the world performed at a landmark music event to raise money for famine relief in Africa. See how the legendary concerts came together in a new episode of the CNN Original Series "Live Aid: When Rock and Roll Took on the World".
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rule backstage towards the end, and I do remember sort of Sting taking over the sort of head boy role, Geldof(ph) just planted a load of lyric sheets in his hands, saying, we're all going to go on at the end and sing feed the world.
(SINGER PERFORMING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you had fun?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to convey to you the sort of collegiate atmosphere, the fun of it, and the sense of what everyone was doing. I know that sounds really crap like a Hollywood movie, but it's absolutely true.
(SINGER PERFORMING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was such a magical moment. I was one of the special people who was allowed to experience that day.
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BLACKWELL: A new episode of "LIVE AID: When Rock and Roll Took on the World" airs tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
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