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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Johnson: No House Vote On Epstein Files Before September; White House Removes Wall Street Journal From Trip Press Pool; Dangerous Heat Returns Across The U.S.; Western Nations Condemn Israel "Drip Feeding Of Aid"; Zelenskyy: Ukraine, Russia To Hold Talks On Wednesday. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 22, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:27]
MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm MJ Lee. Rahel Solomon is off.
It's Tuesday, July 22nd, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington.
And straight ahead on EARLY START.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Donald Trump is running scared. What are they hiding from the American people? Released the files.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): The highest volume of calls into my office have been about Epstein. People want the information.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: These are not frequent critics of Israel. They are squarely placing the blame of the humanitarian crisis that is now unfolding inside the Gaza Strip at Israel's feet.
MALCOLM-JAMAL WARNER, ACTOR: Hey! What's happening, Dad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like losing a family member because he -- we grew up with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
LEE: The growing calls to release any and all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are reaching a roar in Washington, but House Speaker Mike Johnson is hearing none of it. He's shutting down any chance of a House Vote on the matter before September. Since lawmakers are about to leave for an August recess, Both Johnson and the White House would support the release of additional credible files, but they're placing that burden on the FBI and Department of Justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has said if the Department of Justice and the FBI want to move forward with releasing any further credible evidence, they should do so as to why they have or have not, or will, you should ask the FBI about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: The Trump administration, however, did not have an issue releasing more than 240,000 pages of records on the FBI surveillance of civil rights icon. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. Those files were released against the wishes of the King family.
Dr. King's daughter Bernice posted an image of her father online writing, quote, now do the Epstein files.
Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers still want an explanation from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi about how the Epstein case has been handled. They also want to make sure any information that is released is accurate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): We are led to believe there are going to be some prosecutions. If we're going to prosecute, we assume there's going to be convictions. And I think that's really the disconnect. So, I think it really takes a hearing and then we'll see what happens after that.
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I think everybody wants to know the truth. At the end of the day. But, you know, if your name was on that list and you didn't do anything, you wouldn't want it to be released that your name was on there, because then you look like you're guilty. You got to make sure that you know that if -- if a list is released, that the names on there are absolutely 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Those calls come after a weekend of social media posts from President Trump, who wrote about everything but the Epstein case. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries says there must be a reason the president is dodging the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFRIES: Let's be clear about the situation here. Jeffrey Epstein was a friend of Donald Trump. Why do we think President Joe Biden or President Barack Obama's names are being invoked? Because Donald Trump is running scared and the Trump administration is running scared. What are they hiding from the American people? Release the files so that the American people can make a decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the presidents most vocal supporters, echoed Jeffries statements, posting online in part dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies.
But Speaker Johnson is standing firm, saying everyone will just have to wait.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So no vote, no vote on this resolution before August.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: And now, just days after Donald Trump filed a libel lawsuit against the publisher of "The Wall Street Journal" over a report about him and Epstein, the White House has removed the newspaper from the media pool that will accompany the president on an upcoming trip to Scotland, saying the decision was due to the paper's, quote, "fake and defamatory conduct".
The White House Correspondents Association condemned the decision, saying, quote, "This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment."
[05:05:06]
The Trump camp is angry over "Wall Street Journal" report from last week that described a collection of body letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. One note allegedly bore Trump's name and an outline of a naked woman. President Trump quickly denied writing the letter or drawing the picture.
Lauren Fedor is a U.S. political correspondent for "The Financial Times", and she is with us from Washington.
Lauren, great to see you this morning. I want to dig in with you. More on where things stand with the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. You know, it was notable that House Speaker Mike Johnson said yesterday that the House is not going to vote on a resolution calling for the release of more Epstein files before members basically leave town for August recess.
He said, quote, "We need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing.
Lauren, do you see this as Speaker Johnson wanting to send the message to Trump that there is no daylight between him and the president on this issue?
LAUREN FEDOR, U.S. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, FINANCIAL TIMES: I think that's absolutely right. You know, it was really notable last week that Speaker Johnson appeared on a podcast in which he seemed to suggest that he wanted some of this information out there. That sent the signal to people here in Washington that perhaps there was daylight between him and the president. And now we see him walking that back.
Speaker Johnson has long been a very close and loyal ally of the president. And I think what we see now is him once again, walking in lockstep, excuse me, and protecting President Trump here.
LEE: And, you know, you and your colleagues had some really interesting reporting in the "FT" about the Donald Trump Rupert Murdoch relationship. This is all in light of Trump's decision to file a lawsuit against Murdoch, who owns "The Wall Street Journal, for publishing that story about a letter that Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein years ago.
I wanted to read this line from your story, "The spectacular rupture signals that the 94-year-old Murdoch is weighing whether Trump isp is losing his grip on MAGA movement over the Epstein saga, according to people close to the media billionaire.
Tell us what you found. It's a really interesting story.
FEDOR: Look, I mean, this is a long and complicated relationship between two very powerful men. You know, not very long ago, a little bit over a week ago, the two of them were actually in a box together at that soccer tournament in New Jersey. But now, we see them falling out, falling out once again.
Look, Rupert Murdoch himself is very powerful and influential. You don't need me to say that. And one of the people that we several to people excuse me, that we spoke to for that story suggested that that as you read, he is kind of weighing here whether or not Trump is on the wrong side of this issue when it comes to the base, whether or not the base is actually going to go with him here, and that base is Trump's voter base.
But in many cases, it's also Murdoch's reader and viewership.
LEE: Yeah. I mean, the fact that Murdoch is considering whether the MAGA base is sort of falling apart. That's pretty remarkable. And I think the story also covered a little bit of the behind the scenes efforts by President Trump, the White House, to try to get Murdoch to not publish that story.
Tell us a little bit more about that, too.
FEDOR: You know, we know that there was pressure put on both Rupert Murdoch and the kind of editorial top brass at "The Wall Street Journal" not to publish this story. That includes President Trump. And he said this himself and his Truth Social posts.
You know, reaching out directly, calling the editor, leaning on her, leaning on Murdoch, saying, don't run with this story and threatening to sue. And now we've seen him do just that.
LEE: And the president and the White House are lashing out at "The Wall Street Journal" now for the publication of that story. The latest decision being to remove the journal from the press pool for the president's upcoming trip abroad. Media outlets are not going to stop covering the Epstein story. And I
just wonder, you know, do you feel like the White House has a coherent strategy right now in dealing with these kinds of reports? Or is it largely deflect, deflect, deflect?
FEDOR: Maybe it's both, right? I think that we can see what happened with the journal is of a piece of a broader story now about the White House really aggressively pursuing news organizations when they don't like their coverage.
Look, we saw the settlement with CBS, for example. We saw ABC settle, and now president Trump is seeking some $10 billion from Murdoch and News Corp. So that is definitely of a pattern.
But there is obviously deflection happening here, too. Epstein is the last thing that the White House wants to be talking about. Look, there are about six months into their second term here.
[05:10:00]
And President Trump wants to be celebrating what he sees are his wins, whether that be the big, beautiful bill or his immigration record or inflation starting to come down.
Those are the kinds of things that the White House is going to be talking about and pushing when it comes to a message, I think in the coming days.
LEE: Yeah. Anything about the Epstein files. So, the August recess is around the corner for U.S. lawmakers. And this time back home with constituents can often be really telling in terms of what's top of mind for voters, what issues are really resonating out in the country.
What do you think lawmakers will be hearing about the most when they go home for summer break?
FEDOR: It probably depends on their district, right? And what part of the country they're from. I think we could hear pushback to the Big, Beautiful Bill, particularly those Medicaid cuts and parts of the country where that could really be hurting constituents. And people are concerned about losing their health care. Epstein could come up too.
But, you know, I would say that when it comes to Epstein, we have heard a lot of loud voices making their views clear on this. And this is clearly a PR problem for the president. But some of the polling out there suggests that he still does command the support of the vast majority of the base.
I think CNN -- you guys had a poll out last week that showed something like 88 percent Republicans are still with the president, so I'm not quite sure that it's going to be a whole, you know, we're not going to necessarily see a summer of town halls full of angry people about Epstein. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think time will tell.
LEE: Yeah, we'll certainly see about that. Lauren Fedor, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
FEDOR: Thanks for having me.
LEE: A judge has sentenced a former police officer to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor. The U.S. Justice Department had recommended no prison time for Brett Hankison. He had fired ten shots during the botched raid, but didn't hit anyone. The family's civil rights attorney, Benjamin Crump, spoke on the sentencing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN CRUMP, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: So, we are grateful that he is at least going to prison and have to thank for those three years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Hankinson is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that sparked outrage and protests over police brutality in the U.S.
Dangerous heat is ahead for millions across the U.S. starting today, a heat dome is expected to bring sizzling triple digit temperatures across the Midwest and into the South.
CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam shows us where the hottest temperatures will be.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And with this latest heat dome settling in across the Central and Eastern U.S. this week, tens of millions of Americans are under heat alerts. I remember this is some of the hottest time of the year, but you factor in the humidity and it feels downright oppressive.
And of course, we know that extreme heat is the number one killer of extreme weather, at least in terms of extreme weather here across the U.S. So, look at this, all these red dots you see across the mid- Atlantic and the Northeast and portions of the Midwest. That is locations since the beginning of the meteorological summer, June 1st, that has recorded its warmest average minimum overnight temperature.
So not only are we seeing and experiencing the extreme heat during the day, but overnight, we're not cooling ourselves off that much, so it doesn't give our bodies the ability to really naturally cool ourselves down. So, this is another way to look at it.
Yeah, we've had many. We're talking about nearly 20,000 daily record high temperatures since the beginning of the year, set across the U.S. but look at how many overnight temperature records have been set as well, and some all-time records to discuss in terms of these record high minimum temperatures.
Some locations with this latest heat dome will experience their hottest temperature of the summer so far, including Dallas could hit 100 degrees this later this week. And then look at this. It's really across the deep south and spreading to the Midwest as we head into the second half of the workweek and even portions of the Southeast will experience the extreme heat.
Here's another way to look at it. The heat risk map from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. You can see how the heat builds into the Great Lakes, eventually ending off the workweek across the mid-Atlantic and the northeast once again.
And if you're hoping for relief from the heat and humidity -- well, you have to look beyond the next 8 to 14 days, because the Climate Prediction Center has highlighted this large area. Basically, the eastern two thirds of the country with above average temperature probabilities going forward.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: More than two dozen foreign ministers are calling out what they say is the drip feeding of aid into Gaza. How Israel is responding just ahead.
Plus, I'll speak with the author of a first of its kind study examining the effects of smartphones and social media on kids' mental health.
[05:15:07]
And later, protesters gather in New York City calling for Stephen Colbert to stay on the air. We'll tell you the message Colbert has for President Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEE: World leaders are issuing another urgent call to get more basic humanitarian supplies into Gaza and to protect the people who are seeking aid. A warning, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.
The Palestinian health ministry reports more than a thousand people have been killed seeking humanitarian relief since May.
[05:20:07]
A statement from the foreign ministers of 25 Western countries says the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. Israel says the claim is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas. The foreign ministers say we condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.
And meanwhile, Israeli tanks have rolled into parts of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the first time in the 21-month war. That's according to witnesses and agencies and the Israeli media. Israel issued evacuation orders for the area on Sunday, and hostage
families are condemning the move, which they say put their loved ones at risk.
More now on the aid crisis in Gaza from CNN's Jeremy Diamond, reporting from Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: It marks the latest instance of Israel's growing isolation on the world stage. I mean, these are not frequent critics of Israel. The countries that have come out here, more than two dozen Western countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the language that they are using is quite stark and it speaks to the undeniable nature of what we are seeing on the ground right now, as these countries say, the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached, quote, "new depths".
They call this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a delivery model spearheaded by Israel itself, quote, "dangerous". And they say that it fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. They are squarely placing the blame of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding inside the Gaza Strip at Israel's feet.
And indeed, it Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid, Israel's mode of delivery through this GHF foundation, the restrictions on the amount of aid that the United Nations and the traditional humanitarian aid groups can bring in.
It is all of that is fueling what we are seeing inside of Gaza right now. Not only the fact that just this week we saw the 76th child in Gaza since the beginning of the war die due to malnutrition, but in addition to that, you know, more than a thousand people now who have been killed by violence near these aid sites, largely by Israeli military fire directed at crowds of hungry Palestinians trying to make it to these aid sites.
And at this point, the Israeli military isn't even denying that it's opening fire on these groups altogether. They call them, quote/unquote, "warning shots". But they acknowledge that people have been killed as a result of these warning shots. They do dispute the total death toll numbers. They say that it's not as high as what's being claimed on the ground.
But the bottom line is that, you know, whereas eight weeks ago when this violence first began near these Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, the Israeli government, the Israeli military were all denying that it had happened. Now it's become an almost daily occurrence, one that the Israeli military isn't fully denying altogether.
And it simply doesn't seem like there is anything that is going to get it to stop, other than perhaps a ceasefire agreement which would not only stop the shooting, stop the bombardment of Gaza, bring out dozens of hostages.
But in addition to that would also allow for an enormous surge of humanitarian aid, which as we can see right now is desperately, desperately needed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Ukraine's president is urging Russia to come to the table for peace talks and pleading for more missile defense systems to stave off Russian attacks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:28:13]
LEE: Ukraine's president says the next round of direct talks with Russia will take place Wednesday in Turkey. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing for Russian negotiators to return to the table. The Kremlin says it's in favor of a new round of peace talks, but the two sides are very far apart on their demands.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to launch airstrikes on Ukraine and President Zelenskyy is pleading for more help from European allies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Every such wave of Russian strikes reminds us of two things air defense. We need more systems, more coverage across our country, and also our long-range strikes on Russia. If Putin is off the deep end with this Shahid obsession and terror. They must be left without logistics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us now live from London.
Clare, what can we expect from these peace talks this week, given that the gap between the two sides seems to be so big?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, MJ, right now, we don't even have confirmation from the Russian side that they are definitely going to attend. We may get more on that this morning, but on Monday, a source told state news agency RIA, somewhat cryptically, that talks were expected to take place on Thursday and Friday. The Ukrainian side has said they will take place on Wednesday.
Now, obviously, we've seen this kind of confusion around these talks before the first round. Many of us, including me, waited for an entire day outside the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul for the talks to start, which eventually happened on the following day.
So, this has somewhat characterized this whole process. But in terms of expectations, certainly President Zelenskyy has laid out an agenda that is very similar to what we've seen before in the previous two rounds of these kinds of talks. He said he wants to discuss the return of prisoners. We've already seen multiple prisoner exchanges resulting from these talks, the return of abducted children.
