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Hamas Yet To Respond To Trump Claim Of "Complete Disarmament" Deal; Trump Administration Admits To Canceling Clean-Energy Grants In "Blue States"; Movies On Pace For First $10B Box Office Since The Pandemic. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

JEREMY ROTH, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): -- crafty, cobbling together rulers, zip ties and a pair of hot wheels toy ambulances.

[06:00:07]

The shelter shared Gelato's dinky DIY ride and to no ones surprise, the Internet fell in love with him with likes and comments pouring in from all over.

Gelato has also since been upgraded from hot wheels to custom wheels, now sporting a better fitting 3D printed ride.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BEN SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: He's ready for the zoomies.

I'm Brad Smith. CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH starts right now.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, Trump's A.G. pick blocked, but he has a plan to get around it. Wait them out. Is that a smart move?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Do I think what?

REPORTER: Do you think it's risky to wait until January 20, 2027 --

KENNEDY: Well, duh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The risk of a widening war seems more like a reality. Is the conflict in Iran expanding faster than the White House can stop it?

Also, another A.I. hack, this time from Anthropic. Should this be a warning for the industry?

And confusion and suspicion are growing this morning as the investigation into the death of Nolan Wells continues. His family is demanding answers.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Nolan was really your best friend, or for the people who said that he was their friend, please come. Please come forward.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: For that, Hamas has to be disarmed and Gaza has to be demilitarized. That's our plan. Disarm, demilitarize Gaza and deradicalize it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: This morning, President Trump says there is a deal to disarm Hamas. But does Hamas know that?

Good morning. I'm Victor Blackwell. Glad you're starting the day with us. I'm in for Audie Cornish.

While Trump says there is an agreement, we've not yet heard from Hamas.

In a Truth Social post, the president said the Board of Peace reached a historic agreement to secure the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. A Board of Peace officials said Hamas and other armed factions would ultimately hand over their weapons to the committee. CNN has reached out for comment. Hamas had not confirmed the deal.

Today, another militant group in Gaza called the reports of the agreement inaccurate.

Today in the chat, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Becca Wasser, defense lead at Bloomberg Economics, Melik Abdul, Republican strategist, and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, the host of "The New York Times'" "The Interview".

Bright wave from Lulu. Good morning to everyone.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I need a better welcome gesture every week.

BLACKWELL: Listen, if you offered the wave, we'd give --

(CROSSTALK)

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Everyone, do the wave.

WILLIAMS: She's got the wave. She's got the wave. BLACKWELL: Becca, let me start with you on this news from the

president that there is this deal brokered by the board of peace if, okay, big asterisk there. But the significance considering just a few weeks ago, they agreed to dissolve the government. What are we looking at here? If this is really going to happen?

BECCA WASSER, DEFENSE LEAD, BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS: I think that last part is doing a lot of heavy lifting, right? Weve seen the president say in the past, he's the peace president. He's made all of these negotiations and deals, and they don't always come to fruition. That might be a little bit of what we're seeing here with all of this being incredibly, you know, complicated and fraught.

You know what, in theory, you know, Hamas headquarters says doesn't necessarily trickle down to some of the other groups under their umbrella. So. are we going to see complete and total disarmament in the next few weeks? Well, let's sort of sit back, get our popcorn and see if that actually happens.

But, you know, that is a prerequisite for Israel trying to ensure its security, but also that is what Israel insists it needs in order to withdraw from Gaza. And that is incredibly important when you look at the need to try and reduce some of the civilian suffering in Gaza, that has largely been cut off from the rest of the world.

BLACKWELL: I want to come back to the Israel half of this deal in a moment.

But, Melik, the problem here is the president announces something and everybody kind of squints like, is this true? I mean, in April, he suggested that Iran agreed to everything they had not. In January, he said that Putin agreed to an energy ceasefire. He had not.

So, what are we to believe, really?

MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, we won't know. And maybe we'll wait until a couple of weeks until we find out if this is true, because that's where we are -- if this is true, it is a very big deal.

In the past, Donald Trump, as you acknowledged, has said some things that aren't necessarily panned out.

BLACKWELL: Weren't true.

ABDUL: We can actually say that.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

ABDUL: But it would be a very huge deal if he -- if he does. And it's notable.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I know. Rainbows and unicorns are also a very big deal.

ABDUL: Well, hey, look, were going with if this is true. And my point is, is that if this is true, it actually is something that has taken much longer. And I think, you know, early on, Donald Trump coming into office, you know, his idea was that he could get things done pretty quickly because he is the peace president. But if this is a true deal with Hamas, it is something that is taken very much longer and actually much longer than even what we're seeing with Iran.

[06:05:04]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Can I give an alternative theory about this? I'm a former Middle East correspondent. I covered the area for a very, very long time, and have been to Gaza innumerable times.

And what I will say about this is that it defies any credibility. And this is probably what's happening here, is that the war in Iran is escalating. He's looking for exactly what we're doing here, discussing something positive that the administration is doing.

But everyone that I know who knows the Middle East and covers the Middle East, has a reaction of skepticism. Why? Because it's a lot more complicated than they have decided to give up their arms.

And everything's wonderful simply because at the moment, what's happening on the on the ground in Gaza is that we're about to have an election in Israel. The far right wants to continue operations in Gaza, not only wants to continue operations in Gaza, but wants to occupy Gaza. Bibi Netanyahu is caught in that vies. So, he has no incentive to resolve this, and then cut to actually what Hamas is saying and doing.

There is no incentive for Hamas at this point to negotiate with what they believe is not a good faith government, and they're going to wait it out until they see what happens on the Israeli side with these new elections. So, I do not believe that this is actually what's going down there.

BLACKWELL: And the Israeli side is the other half of the agreement, because it would lead to the gradual withdrawal of the IDF out of Gaza. And at this moment, politically, domestically, does that defy credibility as well? That --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, because there's no -- because again, because these elections are coming up. And so, in everything is very uncertain, as we see in our own political system. When elections come, everything kind of gets frozen in place because everyone's waiting to see what happens on the other side of those elections, these elections in particular are extremely important because they are the ones that will determine what happens to Bibi Netanyahu, the sort of king of Israel, if you will.

His future is really, really under threat. If he comes out of this with a big mandate, I think we'll see a different sort of outcome than if he gets thrown out. I think the new government of Israel will want to deal with the Gaza situation quite differently.

WILLIAMS: You know, Victor, it started by noting that people squint when announcements come out of the president. I think it's a great way to put it, only because since the conflict in Iran started, we've heard any series of announcements from the president about how long things would take, how -- when we would be out, whether there had been total annihilation or destruction of various facilities in Iran.

And many of them have turned out to be, if not, not true, certainly huge stretches of the truth. I think we are forgetting here. Lulu knows this probably better than anybody in America, that this is an intractable conflict in the Middle East that certainly predates any of us sitting here. God forbid, will extend long after this panel.

And I just think the glib ways in which the president announces makes these grand pronouncements that that progress or things have happened. I just think we ought to view with a little bit of skepticism at this point. I think we're seeing some of that now.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. Becca, one more here. The Saudis announced this coalition to guard to protect the waters for the shipping channels. Both the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, 14 countries, what's the viability of this, considering this is what President Trump has been trying to put together? The Saudis have announced it.

WASSER: Kind of, right? The Saudis have announced it with a bunch of countries that don't have a ton of naval capabilities. So right now, they're really focused on the Red Sea because obviously for Saudi Arabia, that is what they care about. They care about protecting their bypass route at Yanbu. So, they've announced this largely with countries from the Middle East and Africa, as well as a few others.

And they're going to try and put it on the waters, but it doesn't probably have that much capability to do anything. What you would really need is a U.S. and a European coalition. And speaking of a European coalition, there's already a European maritime mission in the Red Sea.

So, there's a question of how are these two going to potentially work together? Is it duplicative? How are they going to actually coordinate? So I'm taking that announcement with a little bit of its great, you know, rhetorically, but is it actually going to make an actual difference in terms of protecting commercial shipping and various assets? I'm not so sure.

BLACKWELL: Skepticism all around this morning.

All right. Becca Wasser, thank you so much.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's A.G. pick fighting an uphill battle to get confirmed. So, the president says he has a plan. Just wait until the new congress is seated. Is that though, more risky?

Plus, a new punishment. If your state voted for Kamala Harris in 2020 for your clean energy projects could be wiped out.

And you've got Ina Garten, Bobby Flay, and now RFK.

[06:10:00]

Why the HHS secretary is tying on an apron and hosting a cooking show.

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BLACKWELL: Welcome back.

The red state/blue state dynamic plays out during every election. Voters make their choices on who to send to Washington. But should that also be a deciding factor for how tax dollars are spent?

Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration is doing exactly that. Last October, they sent a list which canceled almost 300 clean energy projects like solar farms and windmills, in states which voted for Kamala Harris and have two Democratic senators.

[06:15:05]

And in July, July 15th court filing, government lawyers seem to admit it, conceding the Department of Energy, quote, accepts that the inclusion of grants in the October notice was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient state, i.e., whether the recipient's location was in a blue state or a non-blue state. But that is not what the energy secretary said to Congress a few months ago.

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CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: Our project review process did not take into account any politics in the evaluation of these projects.

REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): I understand what you're saying that. But the district court this January found that this violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Your own department didn't have tried to deny that. That was the decision. Based on the decision, that was whether a grantee was located in a -- in a blue state.

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BLACKWELL: All right. Group chat is here. Let's talk about both the legal and political of this. Because first, I don't know. And again, a court will decide what happens here. But if anybody surprised the president has threatened funding for states that disagree with his immigration policy, that disagree with his election integrity policy, this would not be out of line with what we've already heard from the White House.

ABDUL: Well, it's not as if he's just threatened. He's actually taken away funding, as courts that have actually overturned this.

Let me for all of the Republicans, because we know so many Republicans watch this show, for all of the Republicans out there, let me do this part first. Will the Biden administration denied funding for through FEMA?

Okay, well, it wasn't actually FEMA itself. It was somebody who apparently worked at FEMA. This was around the whole, you know, disaster relief funding, where someone at FEMA were instructing people to do this around, you know, people who supported Trump. It wasn't a systemic thing.

BLACKWELL: It's one person.

ABDUL: Yeah, through FEMA. So that's why I said for the Republicans, let me get that part out.

This is just unacceptable. And I think the White House knows this. I was actually surprised that its something that they owned up to. I guess maybe they didn't have a choice since it was, you know, in court they really didn't have a choice. But this is something that no one should support at all.

The idea that you're punishing states because of how they voted, even though, as you said, Trump has done this around immigration, even, I think the Hudson tunnel or something, he's counseled a lot of these projects, but doing it for political reasons and admitting you're doing it for political reasons. I just don't know how you can defend it. Yeah.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: I -- to add to that, it's -- one, they had no choice because they were in court and two, they are shameless about their behavior. And I think you've seen the president in the white house just acting with impunity on things like this, thinking that its politically popular with their base and that they can string things out in the courts long enough. And just to make it go away.

I think there's a few things going on here. Number one, should the Democrats take a House of Congress in the fall? This is precisely the kind of thing that would get congressional oversight in the form of hearings or letters or investigations or whatever else.

And yeah, there are plenty of lawsuits, even more to be filed at this point. Representative DeLauro mentioned equal protection. The idea that one member of society gets something that another doesn't, that in violation of law, and there's some lawsuits there that could be raised. And I also think just the big one that dogs the Trump administration and so many things is process. Did they properly follow the process that the law lays out in canceling grants? And they can be sued over that as well.

And so we have not seen the end of this story in the courts. But like so many other things, the political question, as much as it's a legal one.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I mean, it's -- no one should -- I completely concur. No one should be at peace with this. And mostly because -- and I say this a lot, but I just feel like it can't be said enough, that money ain't his money.

It's not his money. It's not. It is the people's money. We all pay taxes and it should be distributed in the way that Congress, which actually has the power of the purse, agreed to have it be disbursed. And it is not up to the executive branch to pick and choose who -- regarding how people voted and whole states. So, Republicans in every state, there are Democrats in every state. And so, punishing an entire state for the way that they voted during a federal election is asinine and -- and immoral.

ABDUL: And for the people on my side who are trying to thread the needle with this, I encourage you to go back. I think it was January of 2025 when Trump and the Trump administration were talking about the Biden administrations, the -- they hadn't been yet investigated, and they were saying that FEMA should not do this for political reasons.

So, Trump is on record saying that FEMA should not be doing this stuff for political reasons.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: As they say in Spanish. It's terrible. It's terrible.

BLACKWELL: Agreement at the table.

[06:20:00]

All right. After the break this morning, from a Greek classic to a Marvel blockbuster, movies having a moment. Is it Gen Z? Are they driving back to the theaters now?

Plus, terrifying new video shows the moment a tornado rips the roof off a business in Maryland. That cleanup is happening this morning.

And somebody is waking up in Vegas a live look at the Las Vegas strip. Good morning.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what's your main reason for seeing it at 3:00 a.m.?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, I have no clue. I just saw that there was like screenings for 3:00 a.m. and I was like, you know, (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like the only time available.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw that I was really hyped. So I was like, okay, I need to go watch it. Especially in 7dmm like the format. So I was like, yeah

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BLACKWELL: Summer of hype at the movies from indie obsessions like a -- "Obsession," the epic like "The Odyssey", people are actually going to the theaters some, as you heard at three in the morning. I don't know why.

It's not only a movie summer, it's a Tomdaya Summer. Yeah, they're now at that status. Tomdaya, yes. GARCIA-NAVARRO: That doesn't have the ring. It doesn't have the ring.

A Bennifer -- a Bennifer and other sounds like medicine off the tongue.

BLACKWELL: We're trying here.

All right. So, newlyweds Tom Holland and Zendaya still in the middle of "The Odyssey" hype. They're now back for "Spider-Man". Today. Some box office analysts predict opening weekend sales at $250 million. It's all adding up to the most successful run for theaters in years.

If the current projections hold. Listen to this movie theaters could see $10 billion in sales this year. This would be the first 11 figure year since the pandemic.

Joining me now to discuss is Ralphie Aversa, senior entertainment correspondent for "USA Today".

Ralphie, good to have you here.

How much of this is being driven by Gen Z and FOMO? I listen to those three people like, oh, I heard a lot of people were talking about it. So I wanted to come, too.

RALPHIE AVERSA, SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Victor, great to join you this morning. Off the bat, were not making Tomdaya happen. That name is not flying. First and foremost. It ain't working.

That's a good try. A for effort. It's not happening.

BLACKWELL: Okay.

AVERSA: Look, people -- people are going to the movies at 3:00 a.m., at 8:00 a.m., at whatever time they can get one of these reservations inside an IMAX 70 millimeter theater. And there's only a handful of them across the country because of that FOMO that that people are talking about. Absolutely.

People are seeing on social media that "The Odyssey", this incredible, almost three-hour film from Christopher Nolan is best viewed in that format. And they're trying to do it. But look, you don't -- you don't get these box office numbers without every generation basically pitching in. And we've seen that with a number of different movies, obviously, including the Odyssey.

BLACKWELL: You know, what's interesting is that the common assumption was that social media was shortening the attention span of Gen Z, and for them now to sit through a three-hour movie, is social media actually feeding this generation back into these films?

AVERSA: Okay, so there's interesting arguments for it and they kind of contradict each other.

So, follow me here for a second. You talked about the film "Obsession" earlier. "Obsession" was this indie psychological thriller. It was created by a youtuber turned filmmaker by the name of Curry Barker. It had a budget of $750,000. It grossed almost a half a billion dollars, which is insane. It's currently streaming on Peacock if you want to check it out later this year. After that run, it will be on Netflix.

So yes, Curry and his YouTube following along with the performance of Inde Navarette, who's in that film, she stars in. It definitely took Gen Z, you know, out of their small screens and into the theater. But now you look at a film like "The Odyssey", Christopher Nolan bucked the industry trend of having influencers and other folks that have big social media followings. Screening this before the film critics, he allowed the critics to screen this first, to formulate an opinion on it, and to drive a lot of this hype and the aforementioned FOMO.

BLACKWELL: What I find also interesting is that you look at the top ten grossing films for the year, and it's a really diverse list you've got right now. "Toy Story 5" at the top with $454 million. You've got "Super Mario Brothers", but then you add in the Michael bio pic, you've got "The Odyssey", you've got "Hail Mary", "Back Doors". What can Hollywood learn from this list? Anything?

AVERSA: Well, the one thing you see, obviously with the first two films that you mentioned is, you know, familiar characters still went out and Hollywood's a copycat business. And, you know, if something works, they're going to keep going to the well, look, I -- "Toy Story" obviously has been a runaway success.

Again, we talk about all generations going to the box office. My three-year-old loves a "Toy Story". That was his first film at the theater this summer. He went with his grammy and my wife, so I think we'll continue to see some of these familiar characters. But as far as some of the trends were seeing this summer, maybe some more chances on these YouTube film creators, and certainly, hey, star power as well. We talk about Tom and Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, a part of some of these big films, including "Prada 2", in addition to "The Odyssey". So, we like seeing those big names, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Tomdaya, listen, don't give up on it. I feel like if we just -- it can happen, Ralphie. It can happen.

Ralphie Aversa, thank you so much for being with us.

Lots of big movies this year. Also, a big year for sports. Knicks win, World Cup, the Olympics. Keep it going with a deep dive into the defining moments, amazing athletes and cultural shifts that have shaped sports across the decades.