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Erin Burnett Outfront
Sources: Army Secretary Resigns Amid Tensions With Hegseth; Supreme Court Allows Trump To Keep Building New White House Ballroom; 950+ Dead, 4,400+ Missing After Catastrophic Nepal-China Floods; Two Dead, About A Dozen Missing After Grand Canyon Flash Flood. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 31, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:18]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, Trump's army secretary resigns out after butting heads with Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, joining a growing list of high-profile resignations and terminations in the U.S. military. All as Trump is saying, more strikes in Iran are coming.
And breaking tonight, Trump scores a major win from the Supreme Court. Got the okay to proceed with his ballroom, even though the chief justice said it's, quote, "likely unlawful".
And the death toll rising after a deadly flash flood tears through the Grand Canyon. More than a dozen people are still missing. We're going to take you to the ground there.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, a major military resignation as Trump renews strikes against Iran.
Tonight, the Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has just submitted his resignation to President Trump. This happening in just the past moments. It comes after months of butting heads with the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Driscoll, of course, in a crucial position as Secretary of the Army overseeing the operations of nearly one million American soldiers.
And his sudden departure leaves the Army without any Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders in the middle of a war. And this is the United States military, the greatest military in the world. This is a stunning situation to be in.
Now, it's no secret that Driscoll disagreed with Hegseth. Back in April, he praised the Army Chief General Randy George. Now, why is that controversial? Well, it's controversial because George had been fired by Hegseth. Driscoll's resignation, which is obviously now just coming tonight,
also comes a few months after the Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired, also because of tensions with Pete Hegseth. And it was Hegseth who, in the midst of Trump's war, also pushed out top Army commander Chris Donahue, someone who had been widely praised by Republicans, overwhelmingly respected, the military leaders still serving, meantime, are sending a strong warning to Hegseth about prolonging the operations against Iran.
According to "The Washington Post" tonight, the military leaders of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and four-star commanders overseeing various operations around the world warned Hegseth that the war in Iran has been, quote, "too much for too long". They added that it risks weakening the United States military's ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, incredibly significant.
Now, Trump was asked about these concerns earlier today prior to Driscoll's departure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, number one, we have nothing else in mind. Number two, we're very respected. Nobody else would be crazy enough to do it. Number three, we have so much ammunition and munitions, as they like to call it, all over the world that we can always take from if we want. And this is a relatively little war for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, relatively little war. I mean, let's just go through this for a few different ways, right? All of the THAAD missile defense systems in the Middle East, except for one, were taken out in the first few days of the war. Bases there have sustained massive damage.
When he talks about taking munitions from other places in the world where perhaps, but by the way, Admiral Paparo overseeing America's operations in the Pacific was one of the generals in the non-concur letter to Pete Hegseth. So, he knows what the U.S. is facing in the Asia threat, and perhaps that's the context for the fact that we know the emission stockpile is dangerously low.
The military exhausting nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for a key missile defense system. And now, on top of all of this, just to understand what this means on the ground, right? So, the Army now, I just said, is no Senate-confirmed civilian or military leaders. Army secretary is gone after other commanders have left.
And today, on the ground, an elite group of Army soldiers just found out that their tour was extended because of the war in Iran. The 82nd Airborne staying in the Middle East into next year, according to "Stars and Stripes", which of course has just had some of its editorial leadership removed by Pete Hegseth.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT at the White House to begin our coverage tonight.
And, Kristen, obviously this resignation coming suddenly here just within the past hour. What more are you learning about this major resignation in the Army?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I've got to tell you, Erin, my colleague Zach Cohen and I have been reporting about this tension now for roughly a year. When we started the reporting, it was actually one-sided. It was coming from almost entirely the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He was distrustful of Driscoll. He didn't like the fact that Driscoll had his own relationship with the White House.
One thing to keep in mind, Driscoll has a close personal relationship with J.D. Vance. He would talk to him privately. He also developed his own relationship with President Trump and anyone who went around Hegseth, Hegseth was angry about. He felt like they were trying to undermine him.
[19:05:00]
That's exactly why John Phelan, as you mentioned, was fired as secretary of the Navy.
But it did seem as though Driscoll had a longer shelf life given his popularity, not just with J.D. Vance, but also with the White House as a whole. He was often considered part of the inner circle or Vance's inner circle. This, now, we are told that these tensions had obviously grown to be not only two-sided but boiled over to the point in which Driscoll was not going to be able to stay in this position, which is why he submitted his resignation.
When all of this had begun percolating, these rumors that he was talking about potentially resigning, looking to leave the Department of Defense, you know, I spoke to a number of administration officials who were very hopeful that that would drag out, that he wouldn't do it immediately because of this ongoing war in Iran. Obviously, now, again, this seems to have come to a point in which he felt as though he needed to submit his resignation.
A lot of these tensions were about the gutting of key military officials that Hegseth was doing that Driscoll didn't agree with. But it also seems as though there was a larger underlying point with Hegseth just being distrustful overall of anyone who has a relationship with this White House that isn't going through him. This again puts the Department of Defense -- puts the entire military at seemingly a disadvantage now not having a secretary of Navy, not having a secretary of Army in the middle of this war, which, Erin, seems like there's no end in sight.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, it is really incredible.
Kristen Holmes, thank you very much.
I mean, just to take a step back here and just imagine if I had done this whole story and been telling you that Putin had top generals around the world non-concurring with their agreements and that he'd lost his army secretary and his navy secretary and commanders in the army, and we'd be talking about sort of a breakdown in the Russian military, right? It's not a good set of headlines.
OUTFRONT now, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, who sits on the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, former Defense Department official who served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst as well.
I appreciate your time, Senator.
So, what's your reaction to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigning? As I said, we oversaw a million members of the Army, and there is now no Senate-confirmed civilian or military leadership in the Army as of tonight.
REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): I mean, look, I always had a collegial relationship with him and worked well with him, but it does really start to feel like we're on this never-ending purge. Whether it's a three- or four-star generals, whether it's a colonel who's about to make one star and then Hegseth takes them off the list, or the civilian leadership, it just -- it feels like Hegseth has an audience of one. That's Donald Trump. And if someone disagrees with him or undercuts him or makes him look somehow weak, then he gets rid of them.
And, I think what is the added context, which you mentioned, is just we're in the middle of a war. And I think that I'd have to go back and look at my history books, but I cannot remember a time in my history lessons that we have had this many vacancies for this many key positions in the middle of a hot war that just got hotter yesterday.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, it is obviously deeply unsettling, and so many of these people are, it appears, reaching a point where they can be pushed no farther.
In that context, "The Washington Post", Senator, as you know, is reporting that there are multiple four-star generals who are warning the defense secretary, Hegseth, that prolonging these large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable, and it's coming at cost to American security around the world, the ability to defend itself, as well as defend the homeland.
Is there anything that Congress can do here to ensure that Trump listens to this warning, or is this just sort of a leak that, you know, raises all sorts of five-alarm fires but no one can do anything about?
SLOTKIN: Yeah, well, look, I think some of the leaks that are coming out of the Defense Department right now are pretty unprecedented. I was at the Defense Department for many years. Some of these very sensitive conversations are leaking.
And frankly, when the uniformed military is leaking things, it's because they're desperate. It's because they're not able to engage up and down the chain of command. They're not being heard for their best military advice. So, I've been struck by how much has been coming out of the Pentagon, quite frankly.
Yeah, I mean, the Armed Services Committee, the Homelands Security Committee, Veterans Affairs, all of these committees oversee major defense and homeland security issues in our country, and their chairman could easily make the decision that just as our founding fathers intended, they're going to put a check and balance on this administration.
We did it in the long wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, people got hauled up and they testified and they -- it shaped the conversation nationally, but my Republican colleagues have to have a spine that there's something bigger than just doing, again, the bidding of Donald Trump. Now, there's other things that we can do, but look, they're tough.
I mean, the conversation around funding the war. You know, many of us voted against more funding for this war, but no one wants to leave our troops vulnerable in the middle of a war.
[19:10:03]
So, it really is -- it's kind of astounding and breathtaking, the lack of leadership from Pete Hegseth in the middle of a war.
BURNETT: Yeah, and I mean, just think about members of the 82nd Airborne finding out overnight, right, that their tour has been extended because of this war, the men and women who are on the literal front lines. You talk about the committee's role. I know you sent a letter to the Defense Secretary Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Caine, and you asked them to confirm that they won't send troops to polls in November. This is out of concerns you had that the possibility that Trump could use military to interfere with the election, given use of the National Guard troops in places like Washington, D.C.
Now, I know you received a response from General Caine.
Have you heard back from Secretary Hegseth?
SLOTKIN: We have not. We wrote both Caine and Hegseth a letter at the same time, same -- essentially same letter, and said, just please confirm a very simple fact that you're not going to send uniformed military into police polls, to surround polling locations, to collect ballots, voting machines, any of this stuff that in normal times would sound a bit nutty, but in this administration with this president repeating over and over, that he won the 2020 election, that he's trying to change the outcome in November.
It had to be asked. And, you know, I've been focused on this for a year and a half now. These would be illegal orders. So, I just wanted them to very clearly articulate that, no, if I'm asked to send uniformed military into a place like Detroit, to collect voting machines, ballots, surround the I'm not I'm going to say no, I'm going to stand up. And we have heard nothing from Hegseth.
I hope we do. But again, in the spirit of having a customer of one, he cares about what one guy thinks of him and not the rest of the country.
BURNETT: All right, Senator Slotkin, I appreciate your time and thank you very much.
I want to go now to Max Seddon and General Randy Manner.
General Manner, let me just begin with you. Secretary Hegseth hasn't responded to Senator Slotkin on using the military during the election. Obviously, he doesn't appear to be listening to military leaders' concerns about the war, because if they thought they were being listened to, I think as Senator Slotkin made clear, we wouldn't know about their commentary, right? It's an unprecedented thing that we know that there is so much disagreement and dissent at the highest levels of the United States military.
What do you make of Secretary Hegseth at this moment?
MAJOR GENERAL RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): So the Secretary of Defense is proving yet once again that he is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. He singlehandedly has purged over 20 senior officers based on gender and race and people that were associated with senior leaders that the president or he disagreed with. He has removed over 45 candidates to be a general and admiral.
He is -- there are only five four-star generals in the army right now against 10 vacant -- 10 open slots. This is very, very dangerous. We have a very, very hollow and quite frankly, a B minus team leading at the top of the military.
These are very capable officers, but not at the level that they are acting in. And so, we are literally in a much, much more dangerous situation. As an example, relocating the third core headquarters, which is our only third core heavy capability in Europe that manages armored divisions to what? North America? Are we concerned that Mexico is going to invade us with things?
This is all because, of course, President Trump is upset with NATO and he's pulling things out of there. And unfortunately, the acting secretary, excuse me, the acting chief staff of the army is just doing exactly what this secretary of defense wants him to do. It's very, very dangerous.
BURNETT: You know, obviously, everything going on with NATO, you end up with the CIA director going to Moscow and, according to the reporting, not getting a good response.
So, can I ask you about the resignation of the Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, the breaking news, right? Obviously oversees a million men and women in the army. This leaves the army without any military or civilian-confirmed leadership. no secretary of the Navy either. There have been a lot of resignations and obviously a lot of people pushed out.
So, what is your reaction to this breaking news tonight, that Dan Discroll's had enough? MANNER: It's a crisis of leadership even within this administration, within the Department of Defense. And again, it is putting our young men and women in harm's way unnecessarily. So, this is totally inappropriate. Quite frankly, the Secretary of Defense has got to go. Even the president deserves a better secretary of Defense, not a disgraced major, who is unfortunately in charge of the largest military in the world.
We are much weaker than we were even before 9/11, unfortunately.
[19:15:01]
BURNETT: Wow, which is a huge statement to say, I know, from you, General Manner.
So, Max, in the context of all of this, and you talk about the rest of the world looking at the United States in this moment, as I said, try to put our shoe on the other foot here. Imagine if we were reciting all these headlines and putting all these things together about the Russian military and the way that it would be covered in the U.S., the U.K.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pazeshkian, is at a summit right now. He's there with Vladimir Putin. He's there with Xi Jinping. So, they're all together, and they bring in the Iranian president.
What's that message for Trump in this very fraught moment?
MAX SEDDON, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF, FINANCIAL TIMES: Well, if there's anyone who knows about getting stuck in an unwinnable quagmire of a war, it's Vladimir Putin. His invasion of Ukraine has been going on pretty disastrously for the last four, four and a half years. And that was motivated to a large extent by his desire to challenge the U.S.- led world order.
And when you see whether you're Russia, China, Iran, when you see the U.S. getting stuck into something like that, you know, you can't help but, you know, feel that this is to your benefit.
BURNETT: So, you know, you also, General Manner just mentioned a moment ago, Trump pulling out of Europe, right, to challenge NATO. And maybe that's part of the reason why Russia was looking so ready to test NATO with a possible incursion that the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, flew to Moscow. Unannounced trip, but everybody finds out about it. It didn't go well.
Now we're finding out that the Treasury secretary of the United States, Scott Bessent, is meeting with the Russian finance minister at the G20 in the United States. They're allowing the Russian finance minister to come to the U.S. and having this meeting. So now it's Ratcliffe in Moscow and Bessent with the finance minister.
What's the significance of yet another high-level touchpoint between the Russians and the Americans?
SEDDON: Well, Russia has not really made it a secret that they would like to have other channels of communication to the main one that there's been under Trump, which is Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. And we know that the war is not going well on the battlefield.
Putin's preference would be for Trump to essentially help get Ukraine to surrender, and that hasn't happened either. And Witkoff has been unable to do that. There's been some frustration with his role in creating the summit in Alaska a year ago between Trump and Putin. didn't go well.
And so, with Ratcliffe, with Siluanov, the finance minister today, with Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the commissioner of Trump's White House ballroom extension, who went to Russia in June, and met some Kremlin officials, they would be very open to other channels. But it seems that Trump is still very much focused on having Witkoff lead this, and Witkoff and Kushner are supposed to be going to Moscow and Kyiv very soon.
BURNETT: Right, right. And of course, you talk off the record to the new people involved in these are not taken seriously in the way that they want to be on a lot of these discussions.
Max, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And OUTFRONT next, the breaking news, the Supreme Court giving Trump the green light to continue building his ballroom. Interesting, Max was just mentioning the guy in charge of that also in these conversations. Even though the chief justice has warned that the ballroom is likely unlawful.
Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb is next.
Plus, Trump pressures Apple, the president personally reaching out to Apple, to get the tech giant to change the name of Lake Ontario on Apple Maps to Lake America.
And dramatic video tonight of what could have been a disastrous pre- gram flyover over a packed stadium. Look at that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:22:55]
BURNETT: Breaking news, the Supreme Court siding with Trump, just giving him the okay to proceed with his White House ballroom. Now, the win was as narrow as it gets, 5-4 ruling. So, let's just tell you how it broke down. Conservative justices were in the five. They found the preservationists who challenged the $400 million project didn't have legal grounds to build their lawsuit.
The Chief Justice John Roberts, though, when you see this 5-4, he sided in the minority. So he sided with the three liberal justices. That's why it's a 5-4. He wrote that the ballroom is, quote, likely lawful, very significant, coming from the chief justice of the United States. But it's a 5-4 ruling. It went the other way, and that means Trump's
ballroom will likely be completed, and, of course, the ballroom that taxpayers weren't going to pay for, and then they are, and all of that as well.
Let's go to former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb.
So, Ty, how significant is this ruling?
TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: It's a very significant ruling. I think many people predicted this, frankly, in the constitutional law community. Standing is a complicated issue, and the Supreme Court has been less than rigorous, I think, about applying the standards historically. As the majority pointed out, they weren't ruling on the merits of whether Trump had the authority to do this. They were ruling on the issue of standing. And, you know, whether the historic trust, their one injured person, was a sufficient basis upon which the grandstanding concluded it was not.
Chief Justice Roberts took the standing law that's typically applied in serious environmental cases, pointed out how under that standard, frankly, that he believed there was standing. And he was the only one of the justices to address the merits of the case. And as you said, he made it plain that it was likely illegal.
I think actually that's a significant ruling and a position by him because he quoted Churchill at his aspirational best and may -- and really eviscerated the administration's position and justifications for why they were doing this.
[19:25:06]
I think, you know, making it clear yet again, as he did in the tariff case, the birthright citizenship case and the Federal Reserve case, that he's going to be an impediment to Trump if and when he can and the Constitution permits it.
BURNETT: You know what's interesting, Ty, it's almost as if in part of what he wrote, right, in joining the minority and saying it was likely unlawful, that he felt that there was something historical about what he was writing, right? That it didn't matter for that reason.
You talk about the Churchillian, but one of the other things that the Chief Justice said was, and I quote from his dissent, The White House is an iconic American building whose symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture, right? That is, in a sense, a non-legal statement, right? That is a statement that's somehow more profound than that.
COBB: Yeah, very much so. I mean, it certainly touched me because as somebody who'd spent a lot of time in the White House and about the grounds, it was a beautiful setting and a historic setting. And it's turning into some combination of a whore in Las Vegas at this stage of the game with all the gold and paving. So, it's tragic what's going on, but sadly, it's going to continue, at least for the time being. BURNETT: So let me ask you about something else here, Ty, some exclusive reporting that we have here this hour that I want to share. That is that the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, is planning to surge efforts to investigate voter fraud. And they're going to do this in at least nine states. And when I say surge, they're doing it right away, starting tomorrow.
And so, to do this, they're relying on a department within ICE. And this department usually is focused on human trafficking and drug smuggling. So they're going to use that unit to carry out a voter fraud investigation in a surge capacity in nine states. Can you read between the lines here?
COBB: Yeah, I don't think we have to really read between the lines. There's nothing subtle about this president. This president was willing to tolerate the potential murder of his vice president in order to retain power on January 6th of 2020. You know, there's nothing that he won't do to interfere with these elections that he has shown through the mail-in ballot initiatives, the fraudulent census information that he put out, you know, the allegation that there are 250,000 illegals who voted when the number is somewhere at or about 100 in the last 20 years.
You know, he's going to -- he's going to use every opportunity he can to try to create and foment an emergency to send in his special police, the ICE group, and the DHS people. interfere at the polls and seize ballot boxes and, you know, end ballots and maybe even refuse to allow Mike Johnson to certify the election, as Elise -- as Senator Slotkin was discussing earlier.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. And I know obviously, she still has no response from Secretary Hegseth to her request that they confirm they will not send any uniformed officers to polling locations.
Thank you very much, Ty.
COBB: Good to be with you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. You, too.
And next, two breaking stories at this hour. The number of missing nearly doubling in Nepal after another deadly flash flood. While in the Grand Canyon, search and rescue teams are desperately at this moment trying to find more than a dozen people there missing after flooding. We're going to take you to the ground on both places.
And the House Speaker, throwing his support behind Congressman Max Miller, who, of course, is facing serious domestic abuse allegations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:15]
BURNETT: Breaking news, frantic search and rescue efforts for survivors continuing following devastating flooding along the Nepal- China border. Nearly 4,500 people are unaccounted for in both countries, a number nearly doubling from yesterday as they are reaching more remote areas and seeing the missing. The State Department says at least 80 Americans are among those missing. Rescue efforts could soon be at risk as officials warn glaciers near the flood zone are also at risk of collapse. The death toll tonight stands at nearly 1,000.
Hanako Montgomery is OUTFRONT. She is live in Nepal.
And Hanako, what's the situation on the ground where you are, as they're obviously so worried about further flooding and collapsing?
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, right now we're in an area of Nepal where hundreds of bodies have washed downstream from the Himalayas to this town.
And, you know, Erin, on the ground here, the situation is just extremely grim. We've been speaking to family members who have visited a center where they're hoping to locate their family's remains. Authorities have been collecting bodies from these rivers. trying to take photos of these bodies so that the family members can identify them.
And they've been showing these images at the center on a slideshow. And we've seen just a stream of constant families just coming in, seeing if their loved ones are among those dead.
And Erin, we spoke to one individual, a man who said his son who was working at a hydropower project higher up in the mountains. He said his son is missing. He's a father of two children. And this is what he said about just how emotional and devastating the situation has been for him.
[19:35:03]
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UJWAL GHIMIRE, SEARCHING FOR SON MISSING IN NEPAL FLOODS (through translator): We could not find the dead body. My son's face did not match here. It is not here. He is not here. Tomorrow, we are also going to Nawalparasi and Gaindakot. His mother, Devendra's (ph) mother, she does not sleep at all throughout the night. His wife is trying to commit suicide. She says she wants to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MONTGOMERY: Erin, I know it's extremely hard to hear this man talking about how emotional it's been for his family, but this is truly the reality for thousands and thousands of families here in Nepal. And in Bharatpur, where we are currently, police have been digging a mass grave for the hundreds of unidentified bodies. They've told us that because families have found it really difficult to get to this part of Nepal, many of them haven't been picked up by the families.
Also, you know, we do have to note here that it's been several days now since that initial flash flood. And it's currently monsoon season in Nepal. It's very warm. You can imagine what that does to a body that might be decomposing. I know it's extremely difficult to hear, but again, this is just some of the stuff that we've been seeing here in Nepal, the tragedy that we've been seeing.
And, you know, after reporting on the story for nearly a week, Erin, I can say that for areas that have been the worst hit by this flash flood, I mean, this disaster has affected pretty much everyone we've spoken to -- Erin.
BURNETT: Hanako Montgomery with incredible reporting from Nepal tonight -- thank you.
And more breaking news. The death toll tragically rising after deadly flash flooding ripped through the Grand Canyon here in the U.S. At least two people are confirmed dead. More than a dozen others are missing in those flash floods.
And we're learning, one of the people who died in the flash flooding is 46-year-old John Giusti, as you can see here. A chiropractor from Texas. He posted this photo on his clinic's Facebook page just on Friday, right? It's a dream trip.
The search efforts for those still missing are now in a race against time. More rain is coming, possibility of more flooding. Ed Lavendera is OUTFRONT in Grand Canyon Village.
And Ed, you know, here a situation, flash floods, and now the fear of more flash floods impacting the search, the desperate search for survivors.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it is monsoon season here in Arizona. So, these types of violent rain storms that bring flash flooding are not uncommon. The weather has cleared up quite nicely here this afternoon, but it has been rainy and clouded in there in the bottom of the depths of this canyon for much of the day as the search and rescue efforts continue and that hunt for the survivors remains hopeful.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Rescue teams are still searching the Grand Canyon for roughly 15 missing hikers after floodwaters ravaged the usually dry landscape over the weekend. Raging waters and debris barreled down through popular hiking and camping areas of the Grand Canyon after the rain started.
JEFFREY YATES, EVACUATED FROM GRAND CANYON AFTER FLASH FLOOD: For certain, the most terrifying experience of my life so far.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Jeffrey Yates was checking off one of the items on his bucket list as he and a friend made their way down the Grand Canyon Saturday.
YATES: When we started, we had some rain and Thunder and lightning and cloudy skies, most of our hike down, but it would just rain for a little while and then it would you know, clear off for a little bit and kind of just off and on all day. So, we didn't think we were going to be in too much danger.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Their dream trip was quickly disrupted by the floods.
YATES: And more rain started to come in. Just an insane amount of wind and hail. We started to hear the sound that we knew wasn't really thunder, just a roar. I mean, it's kind of hard to describe, but it's something that you were -- you knew you were in the Canyon, so you immediately knew that that is water rushing by.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Jeffrey and a group of more than a dozen other hikers were evacuated out by helicopter on Sunday.
Hiker Wieke De Boer says she's hiked the Grand Canyon many times, but never experienced rain and wind like she did on Saturday. She hunkered down in her tent, holding it with her foot so it wouldn't blow away.
WIEKE DE BOER, EVACUATED FROM GRAND CANYON AFTER FLASH FLOOD: This is the first time I've experienced anything like this. There are definitely lessons I've learned. Like, if you see rain all around you and you're in a canyon, you need to be very careful and make very smart decisions.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Others made it over a bridge that washed away just minutes after they crossed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that's left of the two stone pylons on either side of the creek.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): There's still a flood watch in effect with more rain and storms predicted for today, which could complicate search and rescue operations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[19:40:09]
LAVANDERA: Erin, we are on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. This is one of those trails that would eventually lead you 3,000 feet lower down into this canyon and would take you to where all of the search and rescue operations are undergoing. But the warning signs are out and spell it out quite intensely how the trails like this down there close because it's unsafe, that the trail has become impassable, impassable and bridges on the trail non-existent.
So, it really kind of spells out here in very clear and stark terms of just how devastating of a flooding scenario this has turned out to be here in Grand Canyon National Park -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Ed Lavendera, thank you very much.
And next, the House Speaker Mike Johnson standing by the embattled colleague Max Miller, who is facing those incredibly disturbing domestic abuse allegations. And this video of an extremely low flyover, a terrifyingly low flyover, barely clearing a packed stadium by about 50 feet. We're going to tell you the story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:18]
BURNETT: Tonight, House Speaker Mike Johnson not just supporting, but heaping praise on Republican Congressman Max Miller of Ohio. That is the same Max Miller who is facing serious domestic abuse allegations. Of course, he denies them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you support Max Miller's re-election?
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I have supported Max Miller's re-election.
RAJU: You still do?
JOHNSON: Yes, and he has been a great member of Congress. He has some issues in his personal life he's working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any implications it may have. And as usual, you know, you've heard me say it a thousand times, we have to let due process play out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Some issues in his personal life is something that at least one senator would disagree with. Now, only a few Republicans have publicly called for Max Miller to step aside, one, of course, being Senator Bernie Moreno, Max Miller's former father-in-law, right, who has a very strong opinion on some issues in Max Miller's personal life.
Jamal Simmons and Alyssa Farah Griffin are OUTFRONT.
I appreciate both of you.
So, Alyssa, Obviously, Speaker Johnson is, he knows when he says things, right? He thinks before he speaks. So even though that was an impromptu Q&A there, it still, he still thought about it, right? So he knew what he was saying.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, it is jarring here. And by the way, I worked with Max Miller. I personally really liked him in the White House, but this is somebody who there is a pattern.
Stephanie Grisham, when she was White House press secretary, accused him of very similar allegations. Now his ex-wife, Emily Moreno -- you have to step back and say this is just beyond the pale. This is something -- it's not a court of law. He's -- sure he's entitled to due process, but we should expect a
basic character of our elected representatives.
But here's the thing with Mike Johnson. He's very different than -- I worked under Paul Ryan, Speaker Boehner. They tried to control their caucus within reason. They tried to keep bad stories out of the headlines.
He's not doing that. He is taking his cues from the White House, and the White House is standing by Max Miller, so Mike Johnson has to stand by him.
BURNETT: I mean, it's sort of amazing, Jamal.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is amazing. Americans want leadership and some standards here, and when you have a Republican senator who's come out and really disclosed some pretty outrageous things about a Republican congressman, that seems to have lowered the bar for --
BURNETT: I mean, Bernie Moreno's comments on this, when he did finally speak out and said he had been quiet because of the depth of the personal nature of this, were searing, searing comments.
SIMMONS: Absolutely. And he's told -- he told that story about the congressman holding on to his granddaughter's little lovey that he wouldn't give back, which was kind of heartbreaking when he told that story.
Americans want people in leadership who are going to at least just adhere to common sense about what's going on. Look, sometimes Democrats fall into this trap, too, where you start defending your own, but you got to be careful that you're not going to go out so far and say, oh, this is a good person. I think they're doing a great job, when clearly, they've got real personal problems.
GRIFFIN: Well, and by the way, the House majority is on the line here, and I think it's almost a foregone conclusion at this point that Republicans are likely going to lose the House, but Mike Johnson needs to think about keeping as many seats as humanly possible. And by defending Max Miller, you're basically saying a bunch of your moderates in swing districts may also have to defend Max Miller.
It makes it a lot harder. It's not just about his seat, which he would have comfortably won if not for these allegations, but it makes it a lot harder if you're --
BURNETT: Yes. So, now -- right, so now Speaker Johnson comes out and defends. Not just says -- not yes and keeps walking. Yes, and, okay?
And so, Jamal, what about what Alyssa just said? All of those moderates who now are going to say, well, your speaker just said -- what do they do?
SIMMONS: I will say, I'm not sure the average person in America really is following the Max Miller saga as much as the rest of us. And so, the thing is, Donald Trump is doing this, and he's such an overshadowing figure that I think there's been a history here in the Republican Party of not really having to hold anybody to account for having great personal misdeeds.
And so, Donald Trump is going to be the issue in this election much more than an individual congressman.
BURNETT: All right, so Alyssa, another thing happened today, Trump, so many important things are going on around the world. Okay, so I'm not even saying this to be tongue in cheek, but he found the time to call Apple and demand that they change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America on Apple Maps. Okay, so he did this after his executive order.
And Trump's own interior secretary, Doug Burgum, said this this morning, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: I know that the president reached out to Apple directly, so I'm sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Google did it. I feel like this could have been a staff-level issue that could have been handled, but this is kind of vintage Donald Trump. I remember being in the Oval Office with him in 2020, and he just called up Mark Zuckerberg over an issue he was having with Facebook.
[19:50:00]
Like, he does do this, but it gets to the question of where the focus is, where however many out from the midterms right now. The cost of living is high, inflation's high, gas prices are high. We're still at war with Iran, and we are renaming lakes and getting on the phone with Apple. That's a hard sell on the campaign trail.
BURNETT: And it's just embarrassing. I think we can all say, it's for sane people.
GRIFFIN: It's not going to be the summer on Lake America.
BURNETT: I mean, it's just -- I can't even believe we're having these conversations. Seriously, sometimes I'm like, wait, I thought I had a serious job.
SIMMONS: It reminds me of that movie, "The Contender", where Jeff Bridges played the president, he always wanted a cheeseburger. Every time someone came to the Oval Office, he would order him a cheeseburger.
Like, something about that is just ridiculous, and you have a president of the United States who's focused on these issues.
BURNETT: But this is reality, right? SIMMONS: This is reality.
BURNETT: I mean, that's the thing. You have to sit here and say, but this is actually real. And it is important because the fact that someone is choosing to spend their time and effort doing this when they're in that job matters. It matters a hell of a lot.
Jamal, MapQuest is saying no. Now, MapQuest, I mean, the joke was, oh, MapQuest, people forgot it existed. Well, guess what? MapQuest says hell no on Lake Ontario becoming Lake America, and they're now the number one downloaded free navigation app in the Apple App Store and the third most downloaded of all apps.
SIMMONS: Consumers vote with their pocketbooks and with their fingertips. And it seems that people are just downloading in order to sort of say they're for it, like the fight with Anthropic, right? People want to support Anthropic when they got to the fight with the Defense Department. So this is one of these things where voters or consumers really are speaking with their own habits.
BURNETT: I mean, it's kind of interesting to see that. We'll see if people use it, right? They got to change, put it on their home screen. have to use it, but something like that could matter.
GRIFFIN: That's hugely significant. I mean, it speaks to the moment of the country. The president's approval ratings are abysmally low, historically low at this point, and I think voters feel frustrated and they want to register that discontent even in some silly ways.
BURNETT: Right, right. All right, thank you both very much. And next, a packed stadium left stunned, an incredibly dangerous flyover. Commercial jets coming to do a big spectacle, 50 feet. Imagine that, imagine those jets 50 feet from your seat. That happened.
We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:44]
BURNETT: Tonight, a passenger plane coming dangerously close to a packed stadium. This is a video showing two passenger planes. They come within 50 feet of the top of the stadium. Tonight, the airline is defending it.
Pete Muntean is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so low. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa.
PETE MUNTEAN, AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a stunning stadium flyby over 56,000 people. Two jets from South African regional airline Airlink only feet from the top of Cape Town's DHL Stadium. One of the empty 98-seat passenger planes low enough to fly through smoke from fireworks launched from the roof. Data from Flight Radar 24 shows the lead jet's lowest altitude
reported at roughly 210 feet. The stadium is about 164 feet high, putting the jet maybe only 46 feet above it.
Peter Goelz is the former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.
PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: It is an unnecessary danger in part because it leaves No margin for error. You got to fly it right. You can't have any mistakes.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The airline celebrated the flyover in a post online, calling it spectacular. Airlink insists the flyby was carefully planned, rehearsed, and approved by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority.
GOELZ: This looks like a stunt planned by the P.R. department and signed off of inappropriately by the Civil Aviation Authority. It looks like the P.R. people ruled the day. And that's not the way aviation safety ought to be run.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): And this wasn't a one-off. Airlink staged a similar formation flyby over Johannesburg's Ellis Park one week earlier, using the same specially painted jets.
Low-flying airliners are part of South African rugby history. In 1995, a South African Airways 747 famously flew over the Rugby World Cup final, a flyover featured in the film "Invictus".
And in 2024, an Emirates A380 flew over the same stadium, though a few hundred feet higher.
Saturday's flyover in Cape Town punctuates a summer of low flyovers.
In July, a pilot from the US Navy's Blue Angels flew low over the crown during the Pensacola Beach Air Show, sending tents flying and military leaders scrambling to defend the maneuver. A month before, a Boeing 777 on a test flight passed as low as 25 feet over a runway at Horseshoe Bay, Texas, triggering a federal investigation.
GOELZ: Now, fly by at 1,000 feet is already impressive and people enjoy it and there's no reason to lower it other than unnecessary risk-taking.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MUNTEAN: Generally, low flying in the United States is tightly regulated. The rules say a plane must be 1,000 feet over a congested area and 500 feet from people or structures everywhere else. Anything outside of that needs to get a special blessing from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In this case, spectators seem to think this flyby was pretty great, but aviation experts say if spectators knew the margins were so close, they might think otherwise -- Erin. BURNETT: Pete, thank you very much. I mean, just to think about that, right, 100 feet, 58,000 people were sitting there we'd be talking about one of the greatest disasters of all time.
Thank you so much for joining us.
"AC360" starts right now
