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Iran Launches "Surprise Attack", U.S.-Saudi Strike Iran Proxies; 28 Million People Across Northeast Under Flood Watches; CNN Poll: 73 Percent Say Trump Not Paying Attention To Most Important Issues. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:02]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Now also in California, a man was arrested after stealing a backhoe and then taking it on a Sunday morning joyride. It was all caught on camera here, as the witness says that the driver knocked down street signs and trees, all while the shirtless man was arrested. Okay, so some street signs and trees, all while the shirtless man was arrested.

Okay, so some interesting -- I can't even say maneuvering here ultimately, but some cleanup work for sure to be done there.

That does it for "CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS". I'm Brad Smith.

CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH starts right now

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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: This just in. Nearly three out of four Americans polled by CNN say the president is not paying attention to the country's most important problems. And does that offer the GOP an impossible spot heading into the midterms?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's clicking that were being outpaced by our basic necessities -- groceries, gas, mortgage, living expenses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The breaking news this morning, a surprise attack and questions about the timing. Could the U.S. and Iran be about to fall back into full scale war?

Life-threatening flash floods, storms packing a major punch in the Northeast. We're tracking that dangerous weather as it rolls through and the aftermath.

Dr. Anthony Fauci about to be grilled on Capitol Hill. His secret diary exposed for the world to read. So just what will we learn in this latest face off between Fauci and Rand Paul? Plus, workers at the biggest, world's biggest A.I. companies now

sounding the alarm about their technology. Why they say the development needs to slow down. But will anyone listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM ALTMAN, CEO, OPENAI: We are about to create a genie that can grant any wish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: President Trump wanted to give diplomacy another shot, but after a surprise attack from Iran, could the U.S. be doomed to repeat this bitter war cycle?

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

We do begin with the breaking news this hour, that new bombardment after days of relative calm in the Middle East. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia teaming up to hit back, targeting Iranian backed militias in Iraq. All of this after Iran tried to launch what the U.S. is calling a surprise missile attack on U.S. bases.

Now, all of those missiles were intercepted when military analysts says the timing here is key. Coming with Benjamin Netanyahu, of course, in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The Iranians see Israel and the U.S. get back together, and the Iranians see this as being a major issue in terms of continuing the war. They see that as basically the potential for a hostile act against them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The attack, of course, coming at this crucial moment, President Trump trying to decide between negotiations or potentially further military action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For some reason, for some reason, we can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion and they'll come out and say, we're not talking or we didn't discuss nuclear.

ESMAIL BAGHAEI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: No, do not pay much attention to the media speculation. As I said, we currently have no negotiations with America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN business correspondent Eleni Giokos, who of course, has been covering this conflict from the very beginning, joining us now from Dubai. So, Eleni, when we look at this attack, the surprise attack as its

being labeled, those missiles intercepted. Saudi Arabia, though now joining in taking part in these joint attacks with the United States. Is there a sense there in the region that this is, in fact, trending toward a broader scale of the war?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly what the fear is, because we've got one -- on one hand, President Trump saying they're talking. Iran says they are not. And then Iran surprise attack against Jordan in the early hours of this morning.

And this is really significant because U.S. CENTCOM says they were able to intercept all those drones and missiles. But that just gives you a sense of where Iran is at. It wants to show that it has the missile and military capability to continue targeting Gulf states.

And then, importantly, you mentioned Saudi Arabia. Now, the Iranian proxy groups have been activated and mobilized. The Houthis, which are in Yemen targeting Saudi Arabia. Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia responding on Houthi held territory in Yemen.

And then just the beginning of this week, we saw Iranian backed Iraqi militia targeting key oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, as well as targeting the capital city Riyadh. Saudi Arabia decides to join forces with CENTCOM targeting eastern parts of Iraq. And they say it was precision targets. We know that the militants that are in Iraq, they say it resulted in 20 deaths, as well as 32 injuries.

But it certainly gives you a sense of how this is already broadening, bringing in other actors in terms of new threats that have emerged, Erica.

HILL: You talk about those other actors. There are also questions about the timing. As I noted, of course, President Trump meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday. They were calling it a positive meeting. There has certainly been a shift, though, in terms of what we see with the readouts after those meetings.

[06:05:02]

Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, also talking about where things stand, but saying there's still some differences, quote, "We very much want to strike Iran's energy targets." The U.S. is not approving it at this time, based on the early reaction from this surprise attack, is there also a concern in the region that the U.S. perhaps may be leaning more toward that? President Trump, of course, talking about how he could, in his words, take out bridges, you know, take out infrastructure across Iran.

GIOKOS: Yeah. And that's such a good question, because President Trump's language over the past week and in fact, when the United States was targeting infrastructure and key sites in Iran for 13 consecutive nights, had warned that they could take out bridges and they would target power plants if the Strait of Hormuz doesn't fully reopen, and if the IRGC continues targeting vessels. Interesting to note that the Israeli defense minister says that Israel

still wants to target key energy infrastructure, but the United States is not on board with that. And we also know that President Trump, over the weekend huddled with advisors, and they were worried about the consequences. And then there was also concern about depleting munitions. So all of that playing a key role. And gulf states are very concerned because Iran has also said that they will escalate and target key gulf states should the United States make good on the threat to target bridges.

So, very tentative right now. The timing, as you say, super important here. And Iran seems to be wanting to set the tone and the pace in terms of what happens, whether it comes to peace and war, it is explicitly said so.

And then I'm looking at oil prices, Erica, and we've seen some massive moves. I mean, it hit $100 a barrel on Brent Crude on Friday, dropped dramatically. And then this morning again up 4 percent. It just shows the uncertainty that has been injected into this region and into the global market.

HILL: Yeah, absolutely. Eleni, really good to have you with us this morning. Appreciate it. Thank you.

We are keeping a close watch as well on this severe weather in the U.S., more than 20 million Americans facing the potential for life- threatening flash floods. We're talking about New England, including the city of Boston. Of course, New York as well.

A little bit further to the south, those areas expected to be hit hard again, the storm is creeping northeast after soaking parts of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. In Cumberland County, you can see here the water just turning streets into rivers in many areas.

Some spots of New Jersey, six inches of rain documented. This is from the city of Orange, New Jersey. More than a dozen cars and trucks underwater there.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining me with the threat today.

I keep getting the alerts on my phone that I always get from New York City about emergency management, when there is weather incoming.

There are a lot of them at this point. How much more are we looking at in terms of the severe weather?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think that's the key that it's not over just yet. You see videos like this, this one out of Pennsylvania, all of that water just kind of flowing through people's yards as well as streets and things like that. But now we're going to be adding more water on top of it.

So, when you look at the radar, you notice that this is not done yet. We still have some areas dealing with rain and in some cases very heavy rain even this morning. Here's a wider scope of this system as a whole. You can kind of see it as it slides to the north and east along this region.

Again, still some heavy rain just in the eastern boroughs of New York. We've also got very heavy rain across portions of Connecticut, and it's starting to slide into areas of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in areas of Vermont.

You've got a lot of these red boxes here. Those are all the flash flood warnings that we have, indicating that we've not only had a lot of rain already fall, but more rain is continuing to fall in these areas.

Look at some of this. This is just since Monday. Focus here on a lot of these red shaded areas. That's where you're looking at least five to six inches of rain that has already come down. And you saw from that radar, we have even more that's going to continue, not just in the next hour or two, but really through the remainder of the day today.

Here's a look at what we've got. Again, almost five inches, almost six inches, six inches down through here. Again, you've got a lot of these areas that the ground is already saturated. So, at this point, its really not going to take all that much going for the remainder of the day today, before we start to see some additional flooding.

So, all of this area that you see here in green, this is where we have the flood watches, meaning the potential is there for additional flooding. The red boxes, again, those flash flood warnings, meaning flooding is already ongoing. You need to seek higher ground. Those kind of scenarios for that particular location.

This is the excessive rainfall risk for today. So, the highest target zone or where we really anticipate seeing the highest threat for flooding is going to be in this red shaded area here. However, anywhere in the yellow shaded area or even the green, if you get lined up in some of those thunderstorms, the really strong bands that just keep training over the same place over and over again, you could also see the potential for flooding.

So that's why really, anywhere you see highlighted on this map has that potential. There is a lot of moisture that is being pulled up into this region.

[06:10:03]

So that's why that concern is still there for the remainder of the day, just in anticipation of what we can expect.

HILL: All right. Allison, appreciate it. Thank you.

Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the desperate search for survivors. Japanese rescue crews looking for people trapped inside a mall following that massive earthquake.

Plus, a longtime feud coming to a head in just a matter of hours. Dr. Fauci returning to the Hill where he will face Senator Rand Paul. And he's got 99 problems. And according to new polling, President

Trump may be ignoring the most important ones. The group chat has thoughts, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that I'm at the dollar store grocery shopping because I can't afford to go to a regular grocery store is a problem in itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm filling up my tank every three to four business days. Three to four business days!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our paychecks do not cover what we need to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This economy is crap.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: It is no secret millions of Americans are struggling right now to pay their bills, to put food on the table. Increasingly, they are blaming President Trump.

We have new polling just in here at CNN that reveals 73 percent of Americans now believe the president has not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. Even Trump friendly Fox News sees trouble ahead for Republicans in the midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Underwater on the economy, as you showed. Underwater on affordability. Those two issues are front and center for sure, with the unpopular incumbent in this particular presidency in its first midterm. The weight of history is pretty strong. And the party in power in the White House has historically, with very few exceptions, done very poorly in the midterm like this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me this morning in the group chat, Eleanor Mueller, White House economic policy reporter at "Semafor"; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at "The Daily Signal". And Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.

Nice to see all of you this morning.

When we look at this polling, there really are very few bright spots for the president or Republicans, frankly, heading into November. Where does the GOP focus, Eleanor, we're looking at numbers like these. ELEANOR MUELLER, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMY POLICY REPORTER, SEMAFOR: It's a

great question. And from talking to Republicans on Capitol Hill, they've told us they want to focus on their tax legislation, which was passed last year. It had tax breaks on overtime for seniors.

But of course, I mean, that conversation has gotten harder and harder to carry forward into the election cycle. And most notably, we saw that tension when the House and Senate passed a housing affordability bill and Trump publicly came out and said, I don't like this. I'm not going to sign it. And Republican leaders had to fight hard to get him not to veto it.

And so, there is this ongoing, intensifying, again, tension between Republicans whose incumbents are facing difficult elections across the country because of this sentiment. And then the president, who is increasingly focused really on his legacy and what he's going to leave behind.

HILL: You mentioned bipartisan housing bill. I believe the president called it a big yawn. Could have been a big win for Republicans in terms of what they could tout in terms of accomplishments heading into November. That can't happen in the same way. When we look at the approval rating to this is Trump's lowest number since just after the January 6th insurrection.

There was also polling from CBS News over the weekend, 78 percent think the administration there isn't focused enough on lowering prices. I mean, we are seeing this consistency across the polling.

Here's what the president had to say on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But we had the greatest economy in the history of the country, and we're blowing it away this time. We're blowing it away. You're going to see the results very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Rob, Americans are very clear. We are not blowing it away. The president doesn't hear that. We know how that's gone for presidents past. See 2024.

How much longer can he stay on this road?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE DAILY NEWS: Yeah. I think it's really important, Erica, to do a few things. Number one, wrap up the war in Iran. I think the American people want the president focused on the domestic issues that Eleanor was talking about.

And I think that the other thing that the members of Congress can do, in addition to selling the one big, beautiful bill, the working families tax cuts, as they now call it, is to pass this reconciliation bill. The White House signaled yesterday they want to expand the scope of that beyond what the House did. I think that's an encouraging sign. So, you can include things like the cost of housing, the cost of health care, the bread and butter issues that Americans are feeling pain right now when they go to the grocery store or fill up their gas tank.

Those are the types of issues they want President Trump talking about. They probably want to hear Republicans at town hall meetings over the course of August talking about. And I think that the more they can return to those issues, the better off they'll be come November.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it's clear to me is that Donald Trump and the Republicans are not interested in having a relationship with the truth when it comes. That's called a lie, where I'm from.

When it comes to how Americans feel about the economic conditions, forget about the fact that Americans are trying to put ends together, hoping they meet because of Donald Trump's MAGA-nomics being a failure.

The reality is you have 25 million Americans paying more for their premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. That includes 18.2 million Americans in red states. You have the largest transfer of wealth in American history in the big ugly bill that Rob mentioned, including the largest cut to SNAP and Medicaid in American history.

Republicans can run, but they cannot hide. Americans are going to demonstrate their frustrations, their economic anxiety, and the economic uncertainty that Republicans have caused in November.

[06:20:03]

And you're starting to see a preview of that in the polling.

Every single major issue the president ran on in the last election cycle. And Republicans, they are underwater with the American people. And I think you see that poll after poll.

HILL: It is interesting where were seeing the president losing ground to specifically on immigration. That was really -- I mean, we're seeing that in this poll as well. That was a winning issue. He's also losing support from interesting voices, I will put it that way.

Alex Jones among them. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX JONES, HOST, THE ALEX JONES SHOW: The big issue is how to stop Trump. And we have to have Congress go for the war powers. They three times tried to vote war powers. They're supposed to authorize a war.

This is a war. They're getting the draft ready. If this isn't a war, nothing's a war. I mean, this is absolutely out of control.

And so I'm calling for it right now, 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Twenty-fifth Amendment. I mean, he talks about, Rob, you mentioned the war. The president needs to wrap up the war 28 percent, just 28 percent approve of the president's handling of the situation in Iran.

Do you think any of this, though, will actually change? To Rob's point, what he needs to talk about? Will it actually change any of that?

MUELLER: That is the question, right? And I think that is inherent to this new brand of populism that Trump has really brought to the Republican Party, is this conflict between saying, you're going to focus on America first, focus on improving peoples lives here in the U.S., but then also doing some of these traditionally Republican things, like focusing, for example, on tax cuts instead of spending on stuff like care policies.

And so, you know, as far as what that change is moving forward, I don't know that it changes anything in the Middle East. I do think it will increase the likelihood that he continues, for example, to lash out at the Federal Reserve, you know, pointing the finger at the Central Bank that he wants to blame for high mortgage rates instead of looking at what he's doing with the Iran war that's boosting prices. And so we'll see other ways that spells out.

SEAWRIGHT: The good news is November is coming, and Democrats have made a central core tenet or theme for this fall is were fighting for an affordable America that includes getting rid of the corruption and the crooks, holding them accountable. That means restoring the cuts, and that means saving health care.

Three central tenets, three central components that the American people, I believe, are tuned into and will vote for Democrats for in the fall.

BLUEY: All the more reason for Republicans to do something now while they have control of the House and Senate, Erica. Because if they lose that ability to legislate in the future, they're not going to get back this window where they have control in Washington.

SEAWRIGHT: They've had -- they've had two -- they've had two years to do it. Republicans control all branches of the government, and they have failed the American people in every which way they can.

HILL: We are going to leave that chat here, but there is much more chatting to come, as you -- as you all know.

Ahead after the break, is it actually time to rein in A.I.? The stark warning from A.I. developers and why they say it's not their job to fix it?

Plus, Todd Blanche's A.G. nomination uncertain. Could a key Republican be the one holding things up?

And how about a live look for you here. These are rivers of lava flowing from Kilauea Volcano, some shooting into the sky as you see there. It is erupting right now in Hawaii.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:37]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALTMAN: We may have to pace the rate of ai development to give ourselves enough time for society to harden around some of these new capability levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitting it may be time to hit the brakes as A.I. development accelerates faster than many experts are prepared for, the call for pacing the frontier coming just days after the world learned two OpenAI models went rogue and hacked outside companies, essentially breaking out of a testing lab earlier this month.

Now, more than 1,000 employees from leading artificial intelligence companies are weighing in, signing a letter that includes this warning, quote, there's a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.

Joining me now, Maria Curi, "Axios" tech policy reporter.

Really comforting when you see that in the letter, I have to be honest. I mean, this is sort of the -- what we saw with that model going rogue, right? That was the A.I. nightmare that a lot of non-A.I. people had, right?

MARIA CURI, TECH POLICY REPORTER, AXIOS: Right.

HILL: That this technology is just going to get too strong for everybody. And now we're in this moment. I mean, how concerned should we actually be?

CURI: You know, it's really interesting because Sam Altman, I remember in 2023 when he was on Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to impose a licensing regime on A.I. He has been saying for years now that this technology should be slowed down. And yet his company, as well as his competitors, continue to release these models at a very fast pace because they're feeling the heat and the competition from China.

And so, we're seeing now the technology is getting more and more powerful. We're seeing incidents like these where rogue agents are hacking into other companies. And at the end of the day, that's not -- that concern is not superseding the competition that these companies are feeling from China.

HILL: It's not. And so, as we see all of this play out, right? And for the China element of it, the fact that Hugging Face was the company, right? CURI: That's right.

HILL: That they actually used an open source model from China, correct, to get around or to -- or to rein in the other model going rogue, raised another question about the battle between the U.S. and China.

CURI: That's really key, because right now, one of the biggest debates that's unfolding in Washington is should we restrict open source versus closed source models?

We've seen the most alarming use cases happen from the closed source models. And so, when you have a lot of these companies lobbying the administration, not necessarily to get rid of open source, but to be more strict on it, it begs the question, what is the strategy there if safety is the end goal?

HILL: Well, also in terms of the strategy of safety as the end goal -- I mean, there's a certain amount of -- you read this letter, right?

[06:30:00]