Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

More Sanctions Against Russia?; Federal Judge Issues Ruling on Birthright Citizenship; Texas Authorities Provide Update on Flood Recovery Efforts. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 10, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:26]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: Any moment, we will get the latest update from officials here in Texas on the catastrophic flooding, as search-and-rescue teams urgently try to find survivors nearly a week after the disaster hit.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is in Kerrville, Texas, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: At any moment, officials in Central Texas will hold a briefing on the deadly flash flooding that has decimated much of the Hill Country.

The death toll has climbed yet again. It's now at 120 people, children and adults. At least 160 people are still officially listed as missing. This morning, there are growing questions about the emergency response and the missed opportunities.

Kerr County officials say before the floods a meeting had been scheduled for mid-July to set up a centralized flood monitoring system on the Guadalupe River. It would have served as a warning mechanism and actually had been discussed since a deadly flood 38 years ago -- Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, Dick Eastland right here, the Camp Mystic co-owner who died while trying to rescue his campers, had advocated for a flood warning system back in 1990, saying -- quote -- "The river is beautiful, but you have to respect it."

Meanwhile, CNN affiliate KSAT is reporting that a local firefighter called in a CodeRed alert in Kerr County to send urgent warnings to residents' phones. That was at 4:22 on Friday morning, but it took officials nearly six hours to send out that alert.

I have got CNN's Shimon Prokupecz on the phone. Shimon, you are at that news conference. What questions are you going to be asking?

Oh, it looks like they're walking in right now. So let's listen.

JONATHAN LAMB, COMMUNITY SERVICES OFFICER, KERRVILLE, TEXAS, POLICE DEPARTMENT: I appreciate you all's kindness in letting me run a little long yesterday morning while I shared some of the stories of the heroic actions of my fellow City of Kerrville police officers during the response.

I know those are things that our community has seen we felt it was important to share that with the public. This morning's briefing will be a little bit more to the point.

The response here in Kerr County continues to expand as the mission becomes more technical. There's more than 2,100 responders on the ground here from state, local and federal agencies working to reunite victims of families.

Two more states are en route. As I know many of you have reported, the governor and lieutenant governor and speaker of the House are strongly committed to helping our community. And we're grateful that they're making our recovery a priority in the upcoming special legislative session.

Our city of Kerrville and Kerr County leadership are committed to a transparent and full review of processes and protocols. The special session is going to be a starting point for that work. But our entire focus since day one. Has been on rescue and reunification, which leads me to our latest report.

As of 8:00 a.m. this morning, there have been 96 confirmed deaths, 60 adults and 36 children. The number of missing remains at 161. And there remain five campers and one counselor from camp mystic among the missing.

If family members had reported a loved one missing and they returned safely, we ask that you notify us through Kerrvillemissing@DPS.Texas.gov or call 830-258-1111. Again, that's Kerrvillemissing@DPS.Texas.gov or call 830-258-1111.

Additionally, the state of Texas, FEMA, the Small Business Administration have opened a disaster recovery center here in Kerrville for those who've been affected by the storms. It's currently open at the First Baptist Church here in Kerrville at 625 Washington Street. It'll be open from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day.

The individual assistance program can provide financial support for things like medical and dental assistance, vehicle damage, housing, childcare, and replacing essential items, even for non-residents who were impacted by the floods. You can visit DisasterAssistance.gov, use the FEMA app, or call 1-800-621-3362.

[11:05:25]

And, again, that's DisasterAssistance.GOV, use the FEMA app, or call 1-800-621-3362.

And, in closing, I'd like to say one more time, on behalf of our unified command here in Kerr County, how appreciative we are for the help since this tragedy took place. People from all over Texas, all over the country continue to show their support in so many ways. And we are thankful.

And, with that, I will take a few questions.

QUESTION: Yes, sir.

LAMB: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Morgan Chesky, NBC News.

The inability of police radios to communicate directly with county radios, camp or rescue or recovery efforts as (OFF-MIKE)

LAMB: I don't have any information to that point.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Jason Allen, CBS News.

Given that you still have people who live in this area, what's different, what changes have been made to ensure, if you get heavy rain again a week from now, a month from now, you don't wind up in the same situation?

LAMB: I think that's an important question, and, as we are aware, we have been very weather-alert throughout the entirety of this. And that's something that we're going to be looking at. Thank you.

QUESTION: Can I get a question?

LAMB: Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) News 4 San Antonio.

What can you tell us about the current search area, how large it is, how much of it has been searched, and how exactly does the grid system work for something like this?

LAMB: Say the last part of your question again?

QUESTION: How much does the -- how does the grid system work for a disaster like this?

LAMB: OK, so the grid system, I'm not a search-and-rescue recovery expert, so I don't want to speak out of turn, but it is a methodical search which ensures that every area in an area to be searched is covered and searched and that no stone is left unturned.

Unfortunately, I don't have a exact number of how many miles of river that we have searched or how many people who have been out there. I just don't have that information for you, but I'm happy to follow up. QUESTION: Sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last question. This will be last question.

QUESTION: Yes, are there messages that we as a collective media are not getting out there, for example, hindrance in the searches? What can we tell people who want to come up with big equipment to help search or remove debris? Hasn't that been a problem?

LAMB: I don't want to say it's been a problem, because we're so grateful for the amount of people who want to come to this community to help. And we have had people from all over the state and all over the country volunteer their services and say, I have a front-end loader, I have a boat, I have this, groups and individuals.

But it's important that we have certified professional search teams out there right now. We have compiled a database of volunteers who are -- who have made themselves available. And if and when that time comes that we are able to call upon them, we will be calling upon them. In the short term, I believe that all of our basic needs are being met both through the federal and state response and the support that we have been getting, as well as this community rising up in a really unprecedented way to show their support for all of us here.

Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the end of the press conference. If you are not receiving...

BROWN: All right, well, that was a shorter press conference than what we have seen. And we did not get really any new details about those overnight hours, where there's still a lot of questions about what, if anything, officials were doing as the warnings from the National Weather Service were ratcheting up and as those river waters were rising in those overnight hours.

He did give an update on the death toll, 96 confirmed deaths, 36 kids, still missing, 161. So that number is still the same, five campers, plus one counselor from Mystic among those missing -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And those numbers, Pamela, I just want to be specific. Those are from Kerr County specifically, not from other parts of Texas.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: Is that right?

BROWN: The missing, yes, correct, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes.

And it's so heartbreaking not only to hear about the numbers who are dead and missing, but the numbers of kids especially who are missing, 36 kids from Camp Mystic. Presumably, most of them are still officially listed as missing right now.

Pamela, it's heartbreaking. I know especially for you, as someone who as a kid went to Camp Mystic.

[11:10:03]

BROWN: Yes. No, absolutely.

And, of course, it's not about me, but I do, of course, think about all the families with kids. And some of those kids are still missing and you just want those families to have closure, Wolf. They dropped their child off a week before this happened, thinking that their child would have these wonderful, memorable four weeks at camp.

And now to be dealing with this, it's just horrible. It's heartbreaking. It's unfathomable. And so there's that part of the story as well. There's the search-and-rescue that's still ongoing, Wolf, trying to find those missing, and then there's still those accountability questions.

How did this go -- how did so many lose their lives, right? Was there anything that could have been done? I have talked to a lot of people here on the ground. And a lot of people say, look, this was an act of God. The water was rising so fast. No one could have seen this coming.

But, certainly, those answers are -- those questions are still out there and we haven't received all the answers.

So I want to bring in CNN's Shimon Prokupecz. He was at that news conference that just wrapped up -- Shimon.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, SENIOR CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam.

So, very clearly, what's happening now, given this week now -- and, look, we're very respectful of the first responders, very respectful of the community and what they're going through and what the first responders -- but it's very clear now, Pam, that the authorities here have realized that they do not want to answer those accountability questions.

This is the first day since I have been here, and I came here on Monday, where we don't have the county, any county representation at that press conference. And that is significant, because the county, the county is responsible for this area.

And so what -- instead, what authorities here did was they put up the local police sergeant, who yesterday gave this incredible story about the heroic efforts that law enforcement and community put forth in the morning of these terrible floods. And by doing that, essentially, they avoid having us ask the questions of the county officials, such as the sheriff.

We also haven't seen the county judge here at any of the press conferences. Now, obviously, I get what's happening here. And, look, everyone here is reeling, and these are some very tough moments. And they keep telling us they're going to give us answers, and at some point there's going to be a special session and they're going to look into all of this. So we will have -- they will have time to answer those questions. But

it's very clear at this point, at least to me, what's happening here. And one of the things that's very important here is, the state on the 2nd of July was saying that we have concerns. Be prepared.

They put out a press release. They were notifying through their channels, the Texas Department of Emergency Management, that there was concern over this storm, so much so that they were bringing assets in, that they were notifying people to be prepared. And what's so significant in that, in their press release, is, it says, listen to your local authorities, and that you are -- quote -- "Texans are encouraged to follow instructions from local officials."

And those local officials are the county officials here. And what did they do? And at this point, we have no accounting for what they did. And up to this point, we don't know that they issued any messages to any of the people in this community and the people who were coming to this community for the Fourth of July in their R.V.s, coming to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, in fact, being encouraged by the city on Facebook postings to come enjoy the holiday weekend.

But nowhere have I come across yet any notifications, any concerns from the local officials about this weather issue. Certainly, you had the state. And we still don't know what communication there was between the state and the local officials about this. We know the state says that we have had a phone call with local officials. Some of the local officials are saying, we never knew about this phone call, we weren't on this phone call.

So, again, this is all about the anticipation of this storm. Were they prepared for it? What were they doing? And at this point, we have no accounting for that, Pam.

BROWN: Yes, and I think that is an important distinction, right? I mean, as you pointed out yesterday, the sheriff is really focused on how swiftly they jumped into action, putting their own lives at risk.

There is no question that that happened, and they should be commended, those first responders. But there's still no answer even now, so many days in, about whether the emergency manager who would be responsible for disasters coming from weather was up in those overnight hours as the weather alerts were ratcheting...

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

BROWN: ... whether there was communication between the National Weather Service and the emergency manager. Typically there would be if there was a severe weather event, right, Shimon?

[11:15:04]

PROKUPECZ: Yes, absolutely.

And what's interesting is, the emergency operation coordinator -- now, this is a county official who reports to the county, the judge of the county, to the sheriff. He actually is a deputy sheriff who works for the sheriff. And the sheriff has been having press conferences here, speaking to us every day.

That emergency operations coordinator is actually still working. He's in the emergency operations center, according to the sheriff, who told us that yesterday. So that is a key person in all of this. And was he giving any information to the local officials? Was he giving any information to county officials?

But, by this point, everything we know is that everyone went to bed and that the first notifications that state officials start getting are either phone calls from people as this is unfolding, as we're into the emergency, which makes the rescue and the evacuation so much more difficult.

But what happens leading up to this and who was telling people that, hey, the state is flashing all kinds of warning signs that there could be issues here? Where did that go? And who got that information? And what did they do with that information?

BROWN: Right.

PROKUPECZ: At the least, Pam, the people who live here and the people who are visiting here deserve to have that information. And whatever they chose to do, they can do with it, and whether they wanted to stay, whether they wanted to leave.

Most people you have talked to, most people I have talked to said, we get this all the time. We get these flash flood warnings. But the difference here, Pam, is, this came in the middle of the night. People went to bed, went to bed with their babies, thinking everything was going to be OK, only to wake to hear yells and screams from people and lights and sirens as the police were arriving to rescue them.

That's what was going on. And that was the only time and that was the first time that they knew something was wrong.

BROWN: Yes, I just interviewed two employees at the local R.V. park who said that they were alerted around 6:00 a.m. and scrambled. They were fortunately able to get everyone out safely.

I do want to note also, Shimon, for our viewers, we did reach out to the emergency manager for Kerr County. He said that he didn't have time for an interview and hung up.

Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much.

THE SITUATION ROOM will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:22:02]

BLITZER: We're continuing to monitor the catastrophic Texas flooding, but we're also following other major breaking news right now.

A federal judge has just issued a new nationwide block against President Trump's executive order that seeks to end what's called birthright citizenship here in the United States.

CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz is joining us right now. She's with me in THE SITUATION ROOM.

This is significant, Katelyn, because the Supreme Court, as we all know just a few days ago, curbed the power of lower court judges to issue these nationwide injunctions. So what exactly does this latest ruling mean?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, what the Supreme Court did then was they gave direction on how these cases could continue to move forward.

And here is what we're seeing now, that moving forward and the judges taking the Supreme Court ruling of last week and saying, OK, now I have a defined group of people in front of me who is asking for this relief to block the Trump policy of ending birthright citizenship, those -- the citizenship given to babies born on American soil to immigrants who may not lawfully be here or who are only temporarily here in the country.

The judge in New Hampshire today, Joseph Laplante, he says, yes, I agree with the group before me. The babies born after February 20 of this year and who are still not born yet to pregnant mothers who will be born, those people are going to be protected and they are going to be getting birthright citizenship.

It is a decision by this judge to block the Trump policy nationally and to allow things to continue to progress through the courts. So we do expect this decision from the judge to go into place in the coming days, but he is giving the chance to the Trump administration to appeal this. But this is a moment again where we're looking at birthright citizenship in the court.

A judge is saying, it's not a close call. This Trump policy does not pass muster in the courts and it's going to keep on moving up through the chain.

BLITZER: Yes, so many lower courts have made the same point. We will see what the Trump administration decides to do to challenge this latest decision.

POLANTZ: Yes.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Katelyn Polantz, reporting for us.

Also happening now, there's growing momentum in the Senate for a bipartisan bill that would slap additional sanctions against Russia. This comes as Moscow is ramping up its attacks on Ukraine, hitting Kyiv, the capital, once again in a dramatic overnight assault. At least two people were killed and more than a dozen injured.

Let's go to our chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju. He's up on Capitol Hill right now.

Manu, what are we hearing from Republican lawmakers specifically? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Republicans

want action, but they don't want to look like they're jamming President Trump on this issue. There's a delicate balance here. They're trying to show that there's growing momentum for a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia without going -- getting ahead of the president.

[11:25:03]

They're waiting for the president's signal to move ahead on this issue. There are more than 80 co-sponsors, Democrats and Republicans, supporting this bill, meaning a veto-proof majority in the United States Senate. The question is a matter of when.

And I just caught up with one Republican Senator, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And I asked him if it's time for Donald Trump to come out and publicly demand passage of this bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Is it time for the president around sanctions to come out forcefully and support this Russia sanctions bill and get off the sidelines?

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): I don't think he's been on the sidelines.

RAJU: He hasn't supported it.

ROUNDS: I don't think he's been on the sidelines. His messaging with us has been one of, I'm going to take a look at it. I understand I want to find a peace process. We believe the shipments are back on path again, and we hope it does not happen again.

RAJU: Do you think Hegseth has this handled this appropriately?

ROUNDS: That will be up for the president. He's the commander in chief.

RAJU: Well, you're on the Armed Services Committee.

ROUNDS: The president is the commander in chief, and Secretary Hegseth serves at his pleasure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last comment referring to the news from last week that weapons shipments to Ukraine had been paused and that had since been reversed.

And the question is about Pete Hegseth's handling of that, as you can hear from Senator Mike Rounds, disagreeing with the decision to pause that initially, other Republicans echoing that as well. But, Wolf, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is indicating that he does plan to have a vote on this Russia sanctions bill some time this month, but again, what will Donald Trump say to get this finally moving through the Senate and then through the House?

BLITZER: We shall see.

All right, Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, we return to Texas and the desperate search for flood survivors, as the death toll is now at least 120 people.

Our Pamela Brown is on the scene for us -- Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, right, Wolf.

And, coming up, we're going to be honoring one of the victims from the devastating flood, someone who was really a fixture of this community, after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)