Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

3 U.S. Troops Killed in Deadliest Week of Iran Since March; Tate Brothers Arrested in Miami on U.K. Rape, Trafficking Charges. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 20, 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: Reporting that the canine was in the water. They used a drone to locate the tiny pooch. The dog is now safe and back with its owners.

[06:00:09]

Homeward bound.

Well, that does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS here. I'm Brad Smith. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, Trump supporters tolerated high gas prices. Will they stand by the war in Iran if more U.S. troops are killed in action?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, we feel very badly. But you know, those great people, those great patriots, were out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to have Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he visits New York. How would that work?

And the Tate brothers under arrest in Miami? Will the Trump administration hand them over to the U.K. to face charges of rape and sex trafficking?

And that Qatari jet that's been serving as Air Force One will be sent back for more security upgrades. Were the White House leakers right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They've lost everything almost militarily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The U.S. lost at least three service members this weekend, the deadliest week of the war for the Pentagon since March.

Good morning everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and that is where we begin. Fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

The U.S. military has ramped up attacks targeting Iranian roads, tunnels, railroads, and, according to Iranian media, a plant for drinking water.

Now, in return, Iran expanded its list of targets across seven countries, including a U.S. base in Jordan, where two service members were killed Friday. Another is missing.

One U.S. service member also died in Northern Iraq Sunday while trying to detonate a downed Iranian attack drone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We shot down almost all the missiles. One leaked through, hit the wrong place, and tragically. And it's heartbreaking.

And our hearts go out to these families. These are heroes that paid the ultimate price. Nothing the military does is safe. It's all inherently dangerous. And we're just grateful to have such heroic Americans in uniform, in the service of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is CNN's Leila Gharagozlou. She is in Abu Dhabi.

And Leila, at this point, it's pretty clear that the diplomatic path has been cut off. Can you talk about what attacks have been seen in the region, the allies that are bearing the brunt of it?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kuwait and Bahrain are really bearing the brunt of the Iranian retaliations to these U.S. strikes.

Now in Iran, the U.S. is striking the Southern region, which is considered to be Iran's defensive arch. The coastal cities, the islands. These are really key to Iran's ability to control the Strait of Hormuz.

And that is where the U.S. has really focused its strikes over the last nine days.

That being said, today the Iranian state media did say that there were explosions heard near Tabriz in Northwestern Iran, and that's the first time in these nine days that we've really seen the U.S. strikes go to that area of Iran and kind of move more inward.

Whereas earlier in this war, a lot of the U.S. and Israeli strikes were really focused on the major cities like Tehran and Isfahan.

So, we're seeing kind of an expansion within Iran. And the Iranians, for their part, have said -- the IRGC said over the weekend through various outlets -- that they will respond in kind. So, if the U.S. escalates and expands, the Iranians will also escalate

and expand. And that is so far what we're seeing. It's very much a tit-for-tat. So, if the U.S. hits, you know, any sort of civilian infrastructure, the Iranians are going to do the same.

And as I said, Kuwait and Bahrain are really bearing the brunt of this in the GCC, more so than they had been in the first part of this war, where we did see the Iranian retaliation kind of extend out to places like the UAE, as well -- Audie.

CORNISH: We heard Mojtaba Khamenei, the -- Iran's supreme leader, say over the weekend, "The memorandum signed between the presidents of Iran and the U.S. once again proved to everyone how worthless and unreliable the signature of the U.S. president is."

What does this mean for the Strait of Hormuz, which was a key part of that memorandum agreement?

GHARAGOZLOU: Well, so the Iranians say that the strait is in their control and still closed. President Trump, as we heard, has said that they are in control of the strait. So, it's still very disputed. And the U.S. is, as I said, very actively trying to loosen Iran's control over that strait.

Now, the MOU had initially, essentially, opened up the strait based on one of the articles in there. But with the MOU now in tatters, there's no way to kind of enforce that piece of the agreement.

[06:05:10]

So, we're going to have to see whether Iran wants to come back to the negotiating table, if the U.S. comes back to the negotiating table and through that, open the Strait of Hormuz.

It does seem very unlikely that the U.S. will be able to get the strait opened through force. It hasn't worked yet, but that's obviously what they're trying to do.

CORNISH: OK. Leila, thanks so much for talking with us.

I want to turn now to the group chat: Sara Fischer, CNN media -- senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios; Seung Min Kim, CNN political analyst and White House reporter for the Associated Press; and Julia Manchester, national political reporter at "The Hill."

Seung Min, can I talk to you about how the White House has tried to talk about troop deaths? I think we're coming up on upwards of 17 members --

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, 17.

CORNISH: -- service members who have died during this conflict, and the president pretty much is saying, in a way, to me, It's a war. This is going to happen. They're fighting for a good cause. What else are you hearing?

KIM: Right. I mean, that has been the thrust of the president's message and so, therefore, the broader White House's message that, while these troop deaths are tragic -- and you saw that in the clip that we aired earlier -- that this is all -- they're doing it because they're doing it for a cause that they -- that -- that is a worthy one, which is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Now, it's unclear whether that case that he's making to the American people is actually being effective, because he has said the same thing that, as, you know, related to gas prices.

He's saying these higher gas prices are a cost that the American people are willing to bear, because it is in service of a broader goal that is worthy.

Polling shows that's not necessarily the case.

CORNISH: Yes.

KIM: And the president and this administration has really struggled to make a sustained, compelling case for this war. And you need to make a sustained, compelling case for the war, because, A, the public is becoming more and more weary of conflicts in general.

CORNISH: I was going to say, you need to make it, because there's a lot of people poking holes.

KIM: Right.

CORNISH: Because there hasn't been a sustained one.

KIM: Right.

CORNISH: I just want to point out one, Maria Baritomo [SIC] -- Bartiromo -- Sorry, Maria -- who's been asking questions about how is Iran able to strike back if it's decimated. And like, that's before you even get to the greater just cause. People are asking questions of logic. Here's what she had to say over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: But I don't understand how it's possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and U.S. military bases. Because the U.S. has obliterated Iran's military. And the president continues to reiterate that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I mean, that's pretty basic.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes.

CORNISH: If it's obliterated, why are we still in a fight? Yes. And this goes back to the same contradiction around the nuclear

program. Remember when the Trump administration had come out and said that the nuclear program was dead?

And now all this war, the purpose of it, is making sure that Iran cannot enrich its uranium to develop a nuclear program.

CORNISH: And it is still sitting on enriched --

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: -- uranium, which the president is insisting on calling "dust," again to try and evoke the idea of something being obliterated. But you don't fight like this if there's nothing but dust left.

JULIA MANCHESTER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE HILL": No, you don't. And look, when you have someone like Maria Bartiromo saying that to a FOX News audience, that speaks -- speaks volumes.

And it really comes at a time, really, particularly in the Senate and the House, when you have so many priorities trying to be pushed through, including the NDAA, for example, the National Defense Authorization Act, that's not --

CORNISH: Meaning the budget.

MANCHESTER: The budget, yes.

CORNISH: And they're asking for, what, $1 trillion?

MANCHESTER: Yes. For defense spending. And that's an issue, I think, for Republicans right now, because you have Democrats starting to oppose it.

But now, if you have a broader Republican audience looking at this and saying, look, what's the cost of this war, the human cost, the economic cost? I mean, that creates issues for that party.

FISCHER: One thing I'm watching, Democrats are starting to really lean into the terminology "war of choice." This is something that --

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: -- Senator Mark Warner is coming out and pushing. They want to make sure, heading into the midterms, that the public understands that this is not a necessary war, from their point of view, and that this war of choice is not only, you know, impacting people's lives, but it's impacting them at the gas pumps. It's impacting the economy broadly.

CORNISH: Yes. To give an example, Marjorie Taylor Greene, former congresswoman, doing a social media post saying, "Sacrifice? What are you talking about? They did not willingly sacrifice themselves. They were killed because of the war you, Trump, and the administration are waging on behalf of a foreign country, Israel." FISCHER: And just last thing, the death of the late Senator Lindsey Graham also plays in here, because Graham was one of the few war hawks who sort of, you know, supported the president, had his back when it came to this.

And now you have him removed. You have Republicans; Maria Bartiromo in the media; Marjorie Taylor Greene, formerly --

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: -- a member of Congress, who are coming out and putting pressure on the administration. It is not --

[06:10:04]

CORNISH: But losing that high-profile voice that's going to defend him in all arenas --

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: -- has been a problem.

CORNISH: OK, you guys, stay with us. We're going to talk more, this time to a retired Air Force colonel. Is the Pentagon prepared to continue this fight? Does the U.S. have the troops, the hardware necessary for a long-term conflict?

And in the meantime, gas prices are rising again as this war rages on. Experts say they're not coming down anytime soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:04] CORNISH: It's almost 15 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.

Spain is now World Cup champions. They beat defending champs Argentina with a single goal in overtime. The final match was set in New Jersey. President Trump watched in the stands and delivered the trophy to the winners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're really happy that it did so well. And all over the world, people have come, and they've loved our country, you know, shown off our country in a different light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Thirty-nine-year-old Messi fell short of pulling off what few teams have done before: a back-to-back championship. He says this is his last World Cup.

And the administration welcomes -- welcomes its newest member, the vice president announcing his wife, Usha Vance, welcomed their fourth child. Baby Alec Neel Vance is the first newborn to a sitting vice president's family in more than 150 years. He is the couple's third boy.

And today, the national average for gas prices is back at $4 per gallon. It's just the second time we've hit that benchmark since the war with Iran.

The first time was back in March, a month into the strikes. And experts say prices are not coming down any time soon.

And the Tate brothers expected in federal court this week after their arrest in Miami on Saturday. They're facing an extradition request from the U.K. on charges including rape and sex trafficking.

The social media influencers have built a massive following with content claiming about dominating women, and they face similar charges in Romania. The brothers deny the claims.

I have to bring this to a group chat full of women. Not -- not because we're chuckling, but because they were allowed back in the U.S., right?

And at the time, that was a controversy. But the U.K. seems to be feeling differently. And what does this have to do with the big "New Yorker" profile that basically exposed a lot of the way they operated abroad?

FISCHER: When -- in 2025, when they left Romania, there were reports that Trump administration officials helped with that process, in particular Ric Grenell.

So, you take a look at what's happening now, and you don't think that this administration is going to necessarily -- I don't see them stepping in right now, but they've stepped in in the past.

I think what it means is that, on a global stage, you have these countries, the U.K. and Romania, who are taking this pretty seriously. And here in the united states, this does not seem to be an issue that at least our political figures are putting forth.

CORNISH: I think it's just weird, because the -- especially the Republican Party has talked about the ways they've handled sex traffickers and being tough.

FISCHER: Oh, yes.

CORNISH: Right?

FISCHER: A hundred percent.

CORNISH: And it is -- it feels like, are we going to be in a position where the U.S. is defending somebody, interfering in investigation of some kind of someone accused of sex trafficking because of their connections to like, the political manosphere? FISCHER: Yes. I mean, the Trump administration obviously values the

audience that the Tate brothers have. It spans millions and millions of followers across platforms.

But the irony here, of course, is that it was the Republicans who were all in on Epstein child sex trafficking. This is the issue that really matters. And then now you see some of the administration. I don't know if they're going to turn a blind eye or not.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: You know, I look at what happened in 2025. It leads me to believe that they probably will, when it comes to targeting somebody whose audience is valuable to them.

CORNISH: Yes. But there's also new leadership in the U.K. as of today. So, very interesting to see how this is going to play out.

I want to turn to something else after the break. New York's Mayor Mamdani, he wants Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if Israel's leader comes to New York. So, we want to know how that might work.

Plus, Democrats in Maine moving fast. We'll show you who has emerged as the candidate for Senate after Graham Platner's campaign collapsed.

And good morning to our viewers in Detroit. This is a live look at the sunrise over downtown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:12]

CORNISH: So, could the mayor of New York City have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested? He says he's looking into it. The Israeli leader is expected to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

Speaking on "The New York Times," "The Interview" podcast, Mayor Mamdani said he's having, quote, "active conversations" about what the law allows him to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LULU GARCIA, NAVARRO, HOST, "THE INTERVIEW": You're actively looking to see if you can actually arrest him?

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY): I think we are looking at all of our legal obligations, and one of them is with regards to the United Nations.

But the other part of this is, is we're not talking about a personal assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu. We're talking about the International Criminal Court and the fact that they have a warrant out for this prime minister's arrest.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: OK. And that's one of our group chatters there, Lulu Garcia- Navarro, who is the host of "The Interview."

First, what do we know about what is possible, Julia?

MANCHESTER: Right, right. So, this does not appear on its face to be possible, because according to International Criminal Court proceedings, you have to -- a country has had to agree to the Rome Statute to basically, you know, arrest someone with an arrest.

CORNISH: Right. And the U.S., notoriously, is not all that interested in participating in the ICC.

MANCHESTER: Yes, absolutely. We know that the Trump administration and the Biden administration have notoriously not great relationships with the ICC.

That being said, though, I do find these comments fascinating, because we are seeing really a decline in support of Israel from Americans across the board, across the political board.

On the far left, or the left, you have someone like Zohran Mamdani talking about arresting Benjamin Netanyahu. But this comes roughly a week after we saw Vice President J.D. Vance go on Joe Rogan's podcast and essentially accuse Israel of manipulating U.S. public opinion over Iran.

CORNISH: We were talking about that.

[06:25:00]

And I think the thing for me that's confusing, though, is these other people don't have this, like, very large Jewish constituency that has been --

MANCHESTER: Right.

CORNISH: -- active, activist, and upset with the way he has talked about this issue.

And I believe it was a campaign promise. But I looked at a website that had dozens of campaign promises, and most of them weren't fulfilled. Why would this be one that he would kind of talk about publicly?

FISCHER: It's a strange political battle to pick, especially because you think about a lot of the Jewish business leaders in New York who business leaders have threatened to leave the city.

CORNISH: But is that, like, a gotcha moment? Like, is there no way he could have said, actually, that's not something I would do, because he had promised it. Did he basically have to answer that way, because it was "The New York Times" raising it?

FISCHER: Oh, so you're saying, like, was he put into a corner, and he has to give his most polarizing take -- CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: -- because of -- I mean, that's kind of been his whole campaign shtick, right? Like, putting out these incredibly sort of polarizing positions.

A lot of people have questioned whether or not they're even really possible. Right? And then trying to utilize that to gain public support over one group within New York.

The question becomes, Audie, to your point, New York has very different constituencies. And can you run a long-term mayoral tenure while polarizing literally half the city? Like, answer is to be seen.

But I think that there's no way, to Julia's point, that this is something that is -- we should be thinking about as more than a gimmick.

CORNISH: Right. At the end of the day, he can't run for president, right? So, he's not thinking of, like, those big, long-term ambitions.

But he is, to me, coming off as somebody who is part of a movement.

KIM: Right.

CORNISH: And trying to be at the forefront of a movement --

KIM: Right.

CORNISH: -- that requires coming up with sentences to say, right, as a Democrat or somebody who is progressive, that will appeal to this world of the newly polled that are frustrated.

KIM: Right, right. You're right that he can't run for president, but he does have a -- he does have a constituency that is more than just New York.

He does have a national political following that is very interested in what he does and very interested in his influence. And he's very interested in flexing that influence.

CORNISH: Yes.

KIM: Obviously, we saw a lot of that in the New York races. Who knows whether that expands in the future?

But this is part of -- this is an issue that is so critical to the base of the Democratic Party. So, he's continuing, even if it's not legal, to tap into that.

CORNISH: OK. Coming up, I want to talk about President Trump's new Air Force One. It's already headed back to the shop. Turns out it does need some more security work.

Plus, a deadly Legionnaires outbreak is growing in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)