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Search and Rescue Continues in Venezuela as Aid Begins to Arrive; Supreme Court Gives Trump Wins on 2 Immigration Cases; Team USA Heads to Round of 32 on Heels of First Tournament Loss. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired June 26, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It's still unclear whether anyone was hurt. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

[06:00:06]

And in Illinois, more than 30 -- 300 cannabis workers have gone on strike. Three hundred cannabis workers going on strike, alleging unfair labor practices. Their union accusing Ascend Wellness of not bargaining in good faith.

All right. That does it for us here on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, Trump's mass deportation machine wins big at the Supreme Court. What the president might do with this increased power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TESSA PETIT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA IMMIGRANT COALITION: My people, they can't go back. It's real. The reality in Haiti is real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And the desperate search through the rubble, the humanitarian struggle this morning, one day after a devastating earthquake in Venezuela.

In the meantime, Vice President J.D. Vance compares himself to Richard Nixon and says Watergate was a deep-state conspiracy. What does he know that we don't?

And Team USA, stunned by Turkey in the World Cup. Can they shake off the bad vibes and bounce back?

And there continues the massive -- I want to bring you back to this massive search-and-rescue effort in Venezuela right now. The earthquake death toll continues to rise.

Welcome back, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. This is where we begin.

The death count at this point, 235. More than 4,300 people injured. And those figures are expected to rise as first responders sift through the rubble.

Now, right now, this is before and after scene. So, you can get a sense of what the quakes took out.

The first 48 to 72 hours are widely regarded as the golden window to reach people who may still be buried alive.

So, this is new video showing passengers panicking aboard a plane at the international airport North of Caracas as the powerful tremors shook the aircraft on the tarmac.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon joins us now from Bogota, Colombia.

We spoke yesterday, and I was asking about regional aid. Can you talk about now? What's happening as more and more people come in to try and support the rescue effort?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Audie. I think that that is a smart point, a smart angle to explore today, is that today is the day we are finally seeing the aid coming in.

The Dominicans arrived yesterday at around 9 p.m. local time in Venezuela. I believe that they were the first mission of international aid relief landing in Caracas. Those are definitely the first images that we had seen here at CNN overnight.

The Colombians were also able to fly into Caracas with two Hercules C- 130. That, of course, took time, because the runway itself at the international airport, which serves the city of Caracas, was badly damaged.

You can see from that video that you just played that the quake hit with the plane on the tarmac and created open cracks, really, on the tarmac of the runway.

So, these military planes that carry the aid had to make some adjustments in order to arrive as quickly and as close as possible to the relief zone, which is the state of La Guaira, where the airport is located, which is this coastal state close to Caracas, but on the coast on the Caribbean coast, where the majority of the damage is -- is located and being confined.

So, today's the day we're going to see more international aid pouring in. The United States have also arrived on the scene overnight. A major general from the Marine Corps arrived in Caracas.

By the way, it's still surreal to me that we are seeing a major marine general in the grounds of Caracas less than six months after the ousting of Maduro. But this is the time we're living and were living in. And -- and this general arrived to coordinate efforts from the United States and other countries to try and help the Venezuelan population -- Audie.

CORNISH: Stefano, I don't know if you've been able to hear from the region directly, but if you are, what's the sense of what's needed now beyond this search-and-rescue moment? I think heavy machinery is the trickiest thing, because one thing is

to bring in containers with medicines, with plasters, with emergency kit, with generators.

But what do they need in La Guaira is excavator; big machinery in order to lift in a safely way, the -- all of these floors that have been pancaked on top of each other because of the -- of the power of the tremors.

[06:05:12]

And Venezuela don't have those machinery readily available. We've seen some of them in action in Caracas in the last couple of days. Our team is at the city, and they have been filming it.

But in La Guaira yesterday, when they were down in the area most affected, they were really talking about the lack of equipment, the lack of gear. So, I think that that is a crucial equipment, a crucial component that the country desperately needs as quickly as possible.

CORNISH: OK. Stefano Pozzebon, speaking to us from neighboring Colombia, thank you so much.

Now, while the people in Venezuela are desperate for help, we here in the U.S. have seen two rulings from the Supreme Court indicating that the U.S. is not quite the place of refuge it might have been.

The Supreme Court ruled immigration officials at the U.S.-Mexico border can turn away asylum seekers before they enter the country.

Now, in her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, "The consequences of today's decision are predictable. More people will die."

Now, the justices also allowed the Trump administration to strip temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: The whole statute exists. Temporarily to give people protection while the country's in turmoil or after they suffer a hurricane.

But the problem is, no administration has had the guts to actually follow that statute. President Trump has the guts to follow the law.

So temporary means temporary. When the condition in that country gets better, they need to go home.

So temporary means temporary. And I'm grateful for that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, TPS protects people who are fleeing violence and natural disasters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERCEDES NARCISSE, HAITIAN IMMIGRANT, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN: This same government that tells me that it is too dangerous to set foot in Haiti, just told 350,000 Haitians that they have to go back there anyway, even to their death sentence.

You cannot have it both ways. This is not Burger King.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, today in the group chat, we've got our CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams; also Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and host of "The New York Times" podcast, "The Interview." Thank you so much for being here.

Elliot, I've got to start with you, the legal of this. Basically, this law from the 1990s gives people a kind of quasi legal status. You can work a bit, you can stay a bit, but it is by definition limited --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

CORNISH: -- unless it gets continual extensions.

WILLIAMS: Right.

CORNISH: So, does Homan have a point? And is that what the court underscored, or did they point to something else?

WILLIAMS: They pointed to something else. What he does have a point in that -- so the point of temporary protected status is when conditions in a country are such that people cannot return there.

Haiti was an excellent example after the earthquake. Certainly, it was not feasible for the United States to send people back there. It was safe --

CORNISH: Or Syria with the war.

WILLIAMS: With the war and the deteriorating conditions there.

Now, what countless administrations of both parties have done is extend those designations each time and sometimes multiple times, up to a period of years.

Now, on the flip side, what Kristi Noem, the former secretary of homeland security, did was simply just suspend TPS for Haitians and Syrians.

CORNISH: Yes. And I'm going to put up a map showing all the countries --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: -- the administration has tried to terminate --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: -- TPS. Just so people have a sense of where folks are coming from and where we're trying to stop them from.

WILLIAMS: And -- but here, there wasn't a ton of process. It was just simply, with the stroke of a pen, we're going -- we' re going to suspend this right here. That was part of what animated the lawsuit.

But certainly, you know, again, Tom Homan, frankly, who I worked with for years at ICE and whom I know, he's got a little bit of a point in that the sort of the temporary nature of all of this.

That said, the manner in which they did it, and the potential consequences, in light of the Venezuelan earthquake, could be profound for the entire hemisphere. And it's just something to think about what comes next after this Supreme Court decision, like any other.

CORNISH: There was a twist in this conversation, which is that the Haitian plaintiffs said, Look, this administration has said such heinous things about Haitians in particular that there's obviously racial animus in the way they made this decision about TPS for their status.

And it was interesting. You had Elena Kagan writing, "The statements fairly shout, in their racial undertones and overtones alike, that race entered into the president's resolve to remove Haitians from this country."

I'm not sure if we have some clips of that. We might, but needless to say, we have been hearing over the years, especially during campaign time, when Vance accused Haitians of all manner of thing, and that the court rejected that.

[06:10:04]

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Well, Audie, I'm glad you brought up the campaign, because I think going back to this conversation, just more broadly on immigration, Donald Trump promised to carry out the largest mass deportation in our country's history.

The fact of the matter is, if you look at the first year of the Trump administration, they did not hit the mark on the president's own promise.

And now, the mass deportation coalition is saying that they need to deport up to a million illegal immigrants this year.

CORNISH: So, you're bringing in -- are you bringing this up because you're saying this was a win they needed?

BLUEY: Yes. I'm saying that Donald Trump is -- if that's the promise that he was going to deliver on -- and that was a central theme of his 2024 campaign -- these victories at the Supreme Court certainly put him on the pathway to getting back on track when it comes to carrying out that. Now, we may disagree on whether or not that's the policy the United

States should carry out. I just happen to say, as a conservative and as somebody who --

CORNISH: You're happy about this --

BLUEY: -- is animated --

CORNISH: -- ruling?

BLUEY: Absolutely.

CORNISH: Great.

BLUEY: I think that these rogue judges were -- were out of step. Absolutely I do.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the first thing is these were not illegal immigrants. These were people who were here and were given legal status.

They did all the things that they needed to do. Specifically, they got vetted. They have jobs. They are nurses. They are doctors. They are journalists.

CORNISH: I'm going to put up, while you're talking, an example of the kinds of jobs Haitian TPS holders were doing in this country, 200,000 of them in the U.S. workforce.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Exactly. And so, the idea that -- the problem that I have always with this argument is -- made by conservatives is that they conflate everything, right? It's like, illegal immigrants, TPS holders. It's basically anyone who's brown who has been allowed in this country.

We have seen under this administration, basically, refugees, the entire refugee program being suspended and being now handed over to white South Africans.

What is this about, if not about racial animus?

And I think what Elena Kagan was pointing to were the president's very own statements. "They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats," talking about Haitians who were working. And that was completely fabricated.

And so, I think at the end of the day, when you look specifically at a place like Haiti, how can you argue that that is safe for people to go back to?

CORNISH: Yes. But I hear your point that, again, conflating mass deportation of illegal immigrants --

BLUEY: Yes.

CORNISH: -- is that the same as haphazard deportation of legal migrants that you have approved and vetted? And why lump those two together?

BLUEY: Well, I do think that we have a massive problem. What, upwards of 20 million people who entered the country illegally under Joe Biden's watch. So, there's --

CORNISH: Oh, no. I want to repeat --

BLUEY: -- there's that. There's that -- that -- there's that issue.

CORNISH: -- the legal migrants. Why put those together? I just want to make sure you get a chance to answer that point.

BLUEY: Yes. Well, if we're going to go back to the Supreme Court decision, ultimately, it comes down to the fact that it's up to the secretary of homeland security to make this decision. And it's not a matter for the courts to review. That's ultimately what --

CORNISH: Well, I think they said it was Congress. But let me just add one more thing.

BLUEY: Congress gave the authority --

CORNISH: Yes.

BLUEY: -- to the secretary of homeland security.

CORNISH: Let me follow Lulu's point.

BLUEY: And these rogue judges were interfering in that.

CORNISH: Because that's not what they have in their decision here.

But, Lulu, I do want to answer something you said about the racial animus. Alito spoke to this directly, and he said, Look, political discourse by prominent public figures is increasingly couched in terms that would have scandalized the public just a short time ago.

And he talks about Haitian -- the commentary around Haitians in particular. But he says, "Whatever one may think of the kinds of statements that the -- the state's lawyers couldn't even repeat in court," he says, "they're insufficient to show that the termination of Haiti's TPS designation was based on the race of the Haitian people."

So, you could talk about eating the dogs. You can say all kinds of stuff. And they're saying that doesn't necessarily mean that that is what is driving the decision. That it might be the things that he's talking about and that that is across the board.

WILLIAMS: Well, because there -- no one could establish definitively in court that we are removing Haitian people because they're Haitian, legally, there -- Justice Alito is making the point that, of course, there's no tie between the two.

But -- but, you know, to Lulu's point, look at the president's own statements, literally calling Haiti a shithole country. You cannot -- I think we're being a little bit cute if we look the other way when there is an immigration policy that --

CORNISH: But this approach on race is consistent for this court.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Oh, absolutely.

CORNISH: Yes. OK. We are going to come back to some of these issues, but stay with us.

Because from Sunday school to public school, there is this big debate in Texas over a move to bring Bible stories into the classroom. We're going to talk about that.

And then that top FEMA official who once claimed that he teleported to a Waffle House, is now out of a job.

And World Cup stunner. Team USA fans not fazed at all after the men's national team was upset in the final minute against Turkey.

[06:15:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's weird to think that we lost, but it didn't really mean anything, and we're still going through first place in our bracket. So, I mean, this experience was phenomenal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: Its now 18 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup. Luigi Mangione's attorneys discuss a possible plea deal with prosecutors in his federal case, but sources say the discussions didn't result into an agreement.

Mangione is due back in federal court on Monday.

And later this morning, the Texas Board of Education will vote on a proposal about adding Bible stories as part of public-school curriculum.

Now, it would be required reading for students from elementary all the way through high school. Supporters call it essential context.

Critics warn it blurs the line between church and state.

[06:20:00]

And one of FEMA's most consequential leadership roles is still empty. The man who made this claim is out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGG PHILLIPS, FORMER FEMA OFFICIAL: We had a teleport incident, two of them. The car lifted up and took me where I was going, and I ended up at a Waffle House, like 50 miles away from where I was. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Yes. So, this came up, saying he teleported to a Waffle House. And guess what? He's out at FEMA.

Several sources tell CNN it was not voluntary. DHS saying Gregg Phillips' departure was for personal reasons.

And later on CNN THIS MORNING, disaster in Venezuela. Survivors face a humanitarian fight and new hurdles if they try to seek asylum in the U.S.

Plus, Team USA's first stumble in the World Cup group stage. They begin play in the knockout round next week.

In the meantime, good morning to Chicago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:19]

CORNISH: So, in the World Cup. Team USA has suffered a stunning 3-2 loss to Turkey, because it happened in the final seconds of the match, Turkey snapping a 2-2 tie in the 98th minute to capture their first win of the tournament.

Now for the U.S., it was their first loss. The Americans are already advancing onto the next round, and they face Bosnia and Herzegovina next week in San Francisco.

Now, Turkey was going home regardless. But was this a blow to the confidence of the men's team?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN BERHALTER, U.S. MEN'S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM: I think you saw the second half, how we came out. And, you know, I think they deserve more like one moment. You know, we slipped in the last second of the game. And you know, I think we're proud of the goals put in.

You know I think the guys, you know, did well. And you know, we fought. And you know, unfortunate not to get the result. But we'll be ready for sure.

BRENDEN AARONSON, U.S. MEN'S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM: You can always take these things as fuel. You know, having that moment, you know, in the last one where they score, it's -- it's tough.

You know, we wanted to walk away with, you know, no loss in the group stage. But, you know, we've got to take it as it was still a fantastic group stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, Will Leitch is here to help me translate. He's a contributing editor at "New York Magazine," columnist with "The Washington Post."

You are my World Cup whisperer. And thanks to the -- the Knicks, I'm -- I'm scared of, like, momentum killers. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm unnecessarily freaked out, but no one else is, I've noticed. Why is that?

WILL LEITCH, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes, certainly. Coach Mauricio Pochettino, who's Argentinian, he talked to a lot of reporters after the game. He was very confused, because he was, like, why are you so negative? We won the group.

And I'm like, well, you're welcome to a dealing with the American media. But yes, at a certain level he is -- he's right. The U.S. won their group. They actually played almost none of their starters last night, not only to rest them, but also strategic reason.

Remember, a lot of those players had yellow cards. Those yellow cards reset -- reset after this round, which means they're clear to play and don't have to worry about missing the next round.

The goal of this was to keep everyone healthy to -- to, to make sure that Pulisic was able to come in and play and be a little healthy. He showed that he was fine.

The result, certainly, they would have liked to have won, I suppose, but it really didn't make any difference. Turkey didn't have anything to play either -- play for either. The U.S. was set and locked in to play in their game on Wednesday, no matter what happened in this game. And the coach kind of sort of treated it that way.

CORNISH: All right, here's a fan with their assessment, which I found super interesting. So, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, I think today, they showed that even their second string could come in and compete against a world-class team.

We're so excited for the next round. I think we're going to beat maybe Bosnia-Herzegovina. We're going to play hard. We're going to crush them. It's going to be awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome. Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's the first part of that. Even their second team can compete against a world-class team.

I feel like we should underscore that, given just how advanced the women's game on the U.S. side has been for so long. But people haven't talked about men the same way. So, help me parse what this fan is saying.

LEITCH: Yes, there really was. And listen, you know, think of like maybe Tyler Kolek, to use our Knicks example, playing a lot and being kind of hold-up.

This speaks so much to how much progress the U.S. national team has made.

Again, they're clearly not as good as the women's team, but realize for years and years and years in the World Cup, the U.S. has played a very defensive game. They've just tried to kind of not lose.

That's not -- they've been very aggressive this entire time. They were aggressive last night. Frankly, they were actually the better team last night. The result didn't show that.

But generally speaking, they were better pretty much across the board. Pulisic, again, looked so good in his short time in.

These are all the backups, and I think those -- they're going to be fully rested for the game on Wednesday. That's the idea.

There was a time where the starters for the U.S. national team could not compete on the national stage. Now, the backups not only were able to compete, they really were the better team for most of the team [SIC] last night in a game that, again, did not matter and was treated that way by everyone. Most of all, the coach.

CORNISH: And one other thing. Will. You and I talked last year about whether the U.S. would become a kind of sports villain, right? With its threats against Greenland, starting up things against Venezuela or, you know, with Iran.

That -- I think we were wrong. That's not turned out to be the case. It's been kind of a love fest.

LEITCH: It really has.

You know, a lot of the worries that people had heading into this World Cup -- from, like, ICE showing up at events or -- or even Trump kind of going with the Knicks idea, showing up and kind of distracting. None of that's happened yet.

Now we are not even to the knockout stage yet.

But certainly, you know, one of the fun things about the U.S. men's national team, they are something that Americans generally think of themselves as being, but aren't: underdogs. Like, they are kind of a growth stock. They're a fun team to get excited.

Because while they can compete on the world stage, they're not a favorite like a Spain or a France or an England. But they are good, and they are getting better.

Those are fun teams to root for. We always think of ourselves as Rocky Balboa.