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CNN This Morning

Three Dead, Several Injured In Shooting At Seattle Food Festival; Pentagon Updates Casualty Database to 600 Plus Wounded, 18 Killed; 300,000 Plus People Evacuated Amid Wildfires In France. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:05]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news overnight. A family event turning tragic after shooting leaves three people dead at a food festival in Seattle.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw families, kids, everyone just like running out of the -- out of the fair.

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HILL: More than 300,000 people forced to evacuate as wildfires scorched across Europe. Why officials say the crisis there is far from over.

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COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This is where Pentagon bureaucracy meets the reality of -- of families who are grieving.

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HILL: The human cost of the war in Iran increasing as the Pentagon revises the number of injured. Are Americans getting the full picture of this war?

Rahm Emanuel says progressives could cost Democrats the midterms. Bernie Sanders says, they're the party's future. So, who's right?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). I see all of them. Oh, my God. I think I got it here.

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HILL: Terrifying moments in downtown Seattle at an iconic food festival as it turns into a crime scene. This morning, one suspect is on the run, the other in custody.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in for Audie Cornish.

We do begin with an update from police. We can tell you three people are dead, four others injured, among them a two-year-old child. This after two gunmen open fire at the annual Bite of Seattle Festival.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about 20 feet or less maybe from the -- one of the people whose shot. And I couldn't really clearly see what's on, but I ran toward the gunfire and there was a, I would say at least two dozen shots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw families, kids, everyone just like running out of the -- out of the fair. And he had told me, like, just run, just run. Active shooter. Someone was yelling active shooter. I jumped the fence quickly and I ran.

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HILL: This morning, the search is on for a suspect authorities say fled the scene. One person has been arrested. Now, police believe the two suspects may have actually been targeting each other.

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ASSISTANT CHIEF TYRONE DAVIS: Right now, we believe that we have no outstanding threat to the community. We do have one suspect that is being interviewed.

We believe there is one outstanding. That is part of our investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, this was a shootout in Bite of Seattle?

DAVIS: There were two people who we believe were shooting at each other.

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HILL: Joining me now is retired NYPD officer, Jillian Snider. Jillian, it's good to have you with us.

When we look at where things stand this morning, it does not appear, based on what we know, that the festival itself was a target. We know that one suspect, we're told, is still on the loose there. Where would your focus be this morning both in terms of that suspect but also the investigation?

JILLIAN SNIDER, RETIRED NYPD OFFICER: Good morning, Erica. So, what I would do or any investigator will do is they do have one suspect in custody, and that any information that they could get from that suspect is going to be critical.

Additionally, talking to witnesses that were there. We've already seen a few segments where people that were participating in the festival have come forward. But what's really going to be important is trying to get any available surveillance in that area to try and piece this together as we saw police have already kind of confirmed that it looks like it wasn't targeted at the festival itself. It may have been two individuals targeting one another.

So, not to minimize the situation but it doesn't seem like the festival itself was the target which is always really important for establishing motive.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. And to -- and to be able to say to the community which we heard, of course, not long after that they didn't believe there was an additional threat to the community directly.

You talked about the importance of witnesses. The -- the assistant police chief actually really pleading for witnesses to come forward. I want to play a little bit of what he had to say.

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DAVIS: We have witnesses. There are witnesses. They're not coming forward. We need people to be brave to reach out to us. You can do so anonymously. We know that we have people who probably have evidence or have information that they can share with us.

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HILL: You hear the assistant chief there saying, asking people to be brave to come forward. Based on what we know about this shooting, do you believe that this could be an incident where people are perhaps fearful for some reason to come forward?

SNIDER: Honestly, I don't think it's that people are fearful to come forward, because again this seemed to be two individuals targeting one another.

We have two issues here. We have a fractured relationship between community members and police and that's not isolated to Seattle. That's kind of nationwide right now.

[06:05:06]

Secondary, we have a behavioral understanding that people assume the other person is going to talk to police. I don't have to do it because someone else will do it. And that's not uncommon. That's actually very, very common in situations like this where a lot of people saw something, but they just assume another person or another bystander will talk to police and that they don't have to get involved.

It's more that an individual doesn't want to get consumed into a police investigation, having to be a potential witness, having to put their name on paper, having to potentially go to court one day. So, it's -- it's that really.

But what the assistant chief was saying is -- is really important because in a situation like this, witness statements and surveillance, other than suspect information, witnesses are key and vital to ongoing investigations like this.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. And we'll be watching for any developments, of course, throughout the day, as they continue to look for that one other suspect. Jillian, appreciate it. Thank you.

SNIDER: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Ahead here on "CNN This Morning," an update to the casualty count now for the war with Iran. Why the Pentagon's new math is raising new questions.

And a bit later, Mayor Mamdani called him a war criminal. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu is firing back.

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[06:10:52]

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MIKE WALTZ, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS:What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving some talks, some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level.

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HILL: After two straight weeks of bombing Iran, the Trump administration taking a pause, but also warning every option to hit Iran is still on the table.

Now, meantime, the full cost of this war is becoming clear. Over the weekend, the Pentagon quietly updated the total injuries and casualties since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

An online Defense Department database now lists more than 600 wounded. That's up from 482 just last week. It also lists the total number of troops killed as 18. This coming on the heels of outrage, frankly, over the Pentagon removing four names from the war's official death toll. The deaths of those service members have been reinstated but in a new category.

The Trump administration telling Congress that Operation Epic Fury is over and new operation is now underway.

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LEIGHTON: These databases should really be reflecting reality, regardless of the political niceties of the War Powers Act or, you know, which operation you're in, whether it's Epic Fury or the follow on to Epic Fury or something else.

The key thing is that these databases be accurate and that they reflect the true nature of the cost of war.

Joining me now in the Group Chat, Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at "Axios." Laura Davison, Washington deputy bureau chief at Bloomberg News. And Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent at "USA Today."

The fact that the Defense Department is classifying deaths, injuries in a different way, also looking to do Overseas Operation versus Operation Epic Fury. That has a really significant impact, Francesca.

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: And this also comes after President Trump himself said that the number was 18 last week, while he was justifying the ongoing war in Iran and -- and defending it, especially after the House had just taken that vote to say that the operations should not continue in Iran.

He said that it was 18 compared to some of these other wars that lasted years and had thousands of deaths. So, you know, just putting that out there as an acknowledgement from the president himself of what the death toll in this war has been.

Now, as far as how they're trying to reclassify it at the Pentagon, you know, I was speaking to House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the month and he -- or at the end of last month, you know, and he had also said that -- that -- that he thought that the 60-day clock on this would restart if the Trump administration had the ceasefire break down and then restart. That seems to be the -- the argument that the Trump administration is trying to make now, which is that this is a new conflict. Clocks restarted on this congressional approval timeframe.

HILL: It is fascinating, though, to watch the -- the back and forth here. I mean, this is right and certainly the backlash that we saw. This is all entirely of the administration are making, message-wise.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. And it's part of a larger communications failure around the war. It's not just deaths. It's also how and when does this ceasefire actually start, when does it conclude.

I think that the American people are not naive. They look at this conflict in its totality, which is it didn't have to be a war of it our making. It was a war by choice, as the Democrats are saying. And they don't really care whether or not a death occurred in one part of the war or after a ceasefire.

They just want to understand holistically how many people were hurt, how many people were killed.

It also matters a lot for congressional funding. Because when you're asking Congress for money, one of the things that you have to consider, if you're a member is, do we need to give more funding to protect people's lives?

Well, if you don't have a real accurate sense of how many people's lives are being impacted, how do you make those decisions?

And so this is a crisis of confidence in terms of not just how much we are reporting, but also how we're communicating it. I don't think the American people are buying necessarily this reclassification of the numbers.

HILL: Any administration that likes to build itself is the most transparent, right, in history and you're dealing with the Pentagon that is not frankly transparent and is not as forthcoming with information and in making themselves as available.

There have also been -- there has also been reporting about some pushback from Vice President Vance, as well as General Caine. And questions about the stockpile that the U.S. military has. And Mike Waltz addressed some of that over the weekend. I just want to play what he have to say.

[06:15:07]

WALTZ: We don't have that. But -- but so -- so Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., was asked specifically about the low stockpiles. One of the things that he noted, I'm paraphrasing here was that part of the reason the stockpiles were so low was because of the Ukraine war, because of decisions made under President Biden's administration.

You know, and speaking with military officials, it's not really that -- that simple. The fact though that the stockpiles are being questioned, how does that add to complications for this administration, when there are questions about just how prepared and for how long the U.S. could be involved?

LAURA DAVISON, WASHINGTON DEPUTY BUREAU CHIEF, BLOOMBERG NEWS: This really just shows how few options the administration has at this moment. This is kind of a classic supply and demand problem of there aren't enough missiles that can be resupplied. The defense contractors have been to the White House multiple times. Trump has really been hurrying them to produce faster, but there's lots of regulations. They have to be produced domestically. They just can't keep up with the -- the speed at which they're being used.

Secondly, the Pentagon is also needing more money. You know, you've seen Hegseth up on the Hill, asking for $70 billion more to fund this war.

The administration doesn't really either have control over, you know, the production of these or the -- the -- the money, that -- that's Congress' job. All they can do is control how quickly they're using them.

So, we're seeing now, you know, that at least there -- there are reports that they're talking about rationing them to, you know, be able to, you know, have a war that was supposed to last four to six weeks. Now, we're in that four to six months range. And who really knows where this ends?

HILL: We were told to over the -- over the weekend, this is a pause, right, to allow diplomatic efforts to continue.

Is there a sense that there's any change in those diplomatic efforts? Any change in the part of the United States or even Iran on what is potentially being offered?

CHAMBERS: I mean, we've seen this repeatedly, right, that the -- the negotiations are on, the negotiations are off, then the U.S. was, you know, was bombing for nearly two straight weeks every single night, trying to force Iran to get back to the table.

So, it's -- it's very difficult to say at this point where these talks, you know, stand and how much longer we expect the war to go on.

On the munitions stockpiles, though, I just want to add, that, you know, allies around the world are -- are concerned, I think, about the munitions levels in case of another potential conflict breaking out somewhere else.

The United States is, you know, having to tap into some of the munitions that it has in other places. You've got countries like Ukraine where it isn't being given stockpiles from the U.S. anymore. It is buying those through NATO, but asking to co-produce missiles and weapons with the United States now, just saying, let us produce them at this point. We can do it just as quickly. And so this is part of a broader argument about readiness around the world for conflicts.

HILL: Absolutely.

Still ahead here after the break on "CNN This Morning," we are going to take a closer look at those wildfires forcing mass evacuations across Europe, some of the largest evacuations since World War II, hot weather moving in to the region for this week, making those conditions for crews all the more complicated.

Also, what Trump's border czar is now admitting about the ICE officer connected to a deadly shooting in Maine.

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HILL: Wildfires raging across Europe, scorching thousands of acres, forcing mass evacuations in France. Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced. It is the country's largest displacement since World War II.

Several villages reduced to ash, ghost towns, firefighters facing challenging conditions with rising temperatures, more hot weather on the forecast for those fire zones, and no rain on the horizon. France itself has already recorded more than 300 wildfires this year.

And the situation, fairly similar in Spain. Wildfires also raging there. Temperatures expected to hover around 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the next few days.

In Spain, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated. Nearly 30,000 of them from Madrid alone. Firefighters are really focused on the city, on these individual fires that are burning around Madrid, and they're trying to keep them from merging. This morning, officials say those flames are advancing more slowly, but they are still active and uncontrolled. We do know at least one person has died. That death connected now to the wildfires.

And there are more wildfires than normal this summer. If you think that's what it seems like, you're right. All of this really related to climate change. We had an abnormally wet winter, record hot summer, really dry fueling these flames.

CNN international correspondent Pau Mosquera joining us now from just outside Madrid.

This is such a battle for firefighters. Where do things stand right now on the ground, Pau?

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Erica, that overnight, firefighters have been working nonstop to try to control the different fires that are now devastating the region of Madrid.

Actually, we are in Navas del Rey. This is the closest that could -- we could get to one of the active fire fronts that are now burning in the region. And you can see the presence of the fire because of the tower of smoke that is behind me.

Have a look here. Twenty kilometers far from the area where right now the fire is burning. You can see the presence of this thick column of smoke that is marking the place where right now all the devastation is happening.

And I can tell you, Erica, that we are constantly hearing and seeing planes and helicopters flying overhead as they are going to San Juan Reservoir, which is just a few meters from where we are to get some water and drop on the top of the flames in that area that we are showing here.

But it's important to say, Erica, that this place, Navas del Rey, was already affected for the blaze a few days ago. You can see actually the aftermath of the flames here. The ground looks completely black.

[06:25:03]

And actually some houses in the area, in the region, were completely damaged because the advance of the flames.

Right now, the authority say today, Monday, it's going to be quite a complicated day because they are expecting wind gusts of up to 30 kilometers per hour, which should and may complicate things a little bit.

And as you were saying, also, we're expecting from Wednesday and on another heat wave here in Spain. So, the temperatures, again, are going to climb, Erica.

HILL: Absolutely. Not ideal conditions to put it mildly. Pau, appreciate it. Thank you. Straight ahead here on "CNN This Morning," we'll take a closer look at the extreme weather here at home. Millions of Americans baking under yet another dangerous heat dome.

Plus, after weeks of war with Iran, concerns are mounting as we were discussing over the weapon supply.

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