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Incendiary Device Thrown At NYC Fed. Building, Person In Custody; U.S. Launches Strikes On Iran After 3 Troops Killed Since Fri.; Nolan Wells Being Laid To Rest As Family Searches For Answers. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: -- in World Cup history.

[11:00:01]

And we wait to see what the defeat means for Lionel Messi and his future playing for Argentina. The 39-year-old captain who cemented his place as the greatest of all time at this tournament had tears streaming down his face after the final whistle. More than 200 appearances for his country. He's yet to give any indication if there will be another.

Today's what a shot has to be the trophy lift, one of those iconic images set to be used for years to come after an unprecedented 48 team World Cup. Spain are the last team standing. And check this out this, Wolf, 19-year-old, Lamine Yamal just conquered the soccer world. Fan seeing him as a World Cup champ, but the sweetest moment his tiny little brother sprinting onto the pitch saying forget the trophy. I just want my big brother back. There it is. That is so sweet.

And from the high of becoming a World Cup winner for the first time, you wonder if Spain defender, Marc Cucurella, might have any regrets this morning waking up and realizing he does have to get a tattoo of coach Luis de la Fuente. He said before the tournament. That's what he do is Spain lifted the trophy de la Fuente ramped up the pressure last night saying he knows his team are men of their word adding, I'm not that ugly. So we'll see if he has some new ink soon to come.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Very exciting. Indeed. All right, Coy Wire. Thank you very, very much. And the next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

Happening now, breaking news, tensions soaring with Iran. Three American service members killed another missing in action. As the U.S. launches another wave of strikes and now plans to send more fighter jets to the region.

Slowed response, how budget cuts and staffing shortages could have made the sickening parasite outbreak worse as a food recall spreads to more than half the country.

And a tropical storm brewing right now gaining strength and heading towards the Gulf Coast. The new track from the National Hurricane Center just in. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off. You're in The Situation Room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin with the breaking news. A person is now in custody for allegedly throwing an incendiary device at a federal government building in New York City. The building houses the city's FBI offices as well as ICE. CNN's Brynn Gingras is over at the scene for us. Brynn, what more are you learning now?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf and sources are telling us that this building behind me, 26 Federal Plaza way into a shelter-in- place situation when this happened at about 8:30 this morning. I'm going to get out of the way so we can zoom in you can see the investigation that's still ongoing here outside of 26 Federal Plaza. This is a building that houses immigration, houses a bunch of other offices including the FBI New York field office.

Now what we've learned from sources is that this person who is now in custody came up to this area where you're seeing these investigators and through some sort of incendiary device where it just really created a plume of smoke that you can see in some video that we have. Investigators are rushing to him to arrest this person. Again, that person is in custody.

And we've also just learned from sources that that person had on them pamphlets or some sort of materials with anti-ICE sentiment written on them. So we're working to get a little bit more detail about sort of the motive behind all of this. But certainly this is something that's going to come out in the investigation. We know that the Joint Terrorism Task Force is the one leading this investigation.

We've also just learned, Gloria Pazmino learning that there are three people, three civilians who are walking in this busy area of New York City that were injured in this as well. So no major injuries, but three people with minor injuries. And of course, this could have been a lot worse if this arrest didn't happen right away, which it did. And also, of course, if this device caused an even bigger explosion, of course, there's so many things that could have happened. But good news is this person is in custody. Investigation is well underway and we'll continue to get more information for you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And we don't have any indication yet of a possible motive for this attack?

GINGRAS: No, just learning from sources, Wolf, about those sort of materials that was on this person when they were brought into custody having that anti-ICE sentiment on them. We're going to get a little bit more detail exactly what that means. But that's what sources are telling us right now. As I mentioned, this is a federal building.

It does have immigration inside and trying to get more detail about who this person is. Is this someone with some sort of past with investigators or is he familiar to them? So, of course, we'll keep on asking those questions. Get back to you, Wolf. BLITZER: All right, Brynn Gingras on the scene for us. Thank you very, very much.

[11:04:51]

And there's more breaking news we're following. CNN has learned that the United States is now sending more fighter aircraft to the Middle East as fighting clearly escalates in the war with Iran. A U.S. official tells CNN that fighter jets and aerial refueling tankers will be pulled from bases in Europe. Meanwhile, a third U.S. service member has been confirmed killed and it happened Sunday in northern Iraq while they were trying to detonate a drone -- a downed Iranian attack drone.

Two other service members were killed Friday in an Iranian attack on an air base in Jordan and another service member is still missing in action. The total number of U.S. troop fatalities in this war has now climbed to 17.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we feel very badly. But you know, those great people those great Patriots are out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They've lost everything almost militarily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But Iran is clearly proving, it can still hit back expanding its strikes to seven Gulf Arab countries across the region here. You see smoke rising from an oil facility in Kuwait after repeated attacks. Let's go live right now to CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what are you learning this morning? What else is going on?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we're clearly seeing a lot of escalating tension, a lot of escalating back and forth between the U.S. and Iran. And sources say President Trump is considering all of his options including widening the war against Iran. As you noted this will involve while he weighs those options, the U.S. sending over more aircrafts to the Middle East that includes F-16s, F-32s and those refueling air aerial tankers.

Now, we've seen a back and forth here that has as we've noted really gone after a more targets and seemingly put negotiations into a rearview mirror. We saw Central Command saying that it finished up its ninth day of these consecutive strikes in Iran. And that's not stopping U.S. diplomats and negotiators from saying that there is still a diplomatic approach on the table. This is the Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: You can't have an MOU that's alive if they're violating the terms of it. What I will say is that the United States always remains open to a diplomatic solution. We've tried multiple times with Iran. And we'll continue to try of that hope -- that door opens. We'll be happy to see it open. They continue to send signals that they want to talk that they were -- they want to negotiate. But their behavior is what we're responding to and their behavior is they're launching missiles and drones against ships, including tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And now we're seeing both sides really escalating their attacks on sensitive civilian infrastructure. And I would want to talk quickly about those U.S. troops killed. I know you walked through them. We know in northern Iraq. There was one service member killed and another wounded in Jordan. Two U.S. troops killed in action, one service member missing in action. There have been remains that were found but not yet identified.

And this is also raising a lot of alarm bells as to whether or not Iran is figuring out how to get around the U.S. air defenses. Remember one of the big sticking points for so many Americans and even Republicans who support President Trump was not losing more U.S. troops. Obviously, we've had one of the most deadly stretches here in the last few days that we've seen really since early on in the war.

BLITZER: All right, Kristen Holmes at the White House for us. Thank you very much.

Also this morning the Defense Department identified the two U.S. service members killed in Jordan. First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan was from Ewa Beach in Hawaii. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. First Lieutenant Feehan was 25 years old. And Private Isabella Gonzalez was from Carrollton, Texas. She was stationed in Ansbach, Germany. Private Gonzalez was just 19 years old. My deepest condolences to their families. May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

And joining us here in the Situation Room retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. He's a CNN military analyst. Colonel Leighton, what do we know about the air base, first of all, in Jordan where these two American service members were killed and another now is still missing. We should note that this service member has not yet been found.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's right, Wolf. And of course our condolences to the families of these service members. One of the things that we have to note about this base is the Muwaffaq Salti Base and it's in about a hundred kilometers northeast of Amman, Jordan the capital. And it's been a base that's been used in the past by the U.S. for various operations including operations in Iraq when we were conducting the shock and awe phase of Iraqi freedom.

This base has been, you know, set aside. Parts of it have been set aside for us by the Jordanians and it includes right now a whole string of different types of aircraft including fighter jets like F-35 fighter jets. I believe they're also F-16s there at this point in time. There also are drones there the MQ-9 Reaper is stationed at Muwaffaq Salti and then of course the tankers, the KC-135 tankers. Some of them are stationed there. Of course, there are others that are coming into Israel at this point in time, but Muwaffaq Salti is a real big node for the U.S. military both from an Air Force and Naval Air perspective as well as from an Army perspective. So it's a large node for CENTCOM to operate in this part of the Middle East.

[11:10:30]

BLITZER: And the Iranians are clearly targeting these Gulf Arab nations that normally are not involved in a war with Iran, but they're targeting countries like Iran, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar. These countries are very significant countries in the region and they're going after them even infrastructure targets where no U.S. troops are involved.

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's absolutely true. And the way the Iranians are targeting it. They seem to start in some respects with U.S. military bases such as the attack on Kuwait that killed six service members at the beginning of this conflict. But the other thing that you have to look at is the Iranians are also going after the civilian infrastructure targets that you mentioned. Those include desalination plants. So those include airports.

And of course, you know, anybody who's flown in and around the Middle East knows that airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways, those nodes and hubs that they have in those areas are critically important for those airlines because those airlines have become global pillars in the aviation industry and it's a huge impact also on the tourism and on business in general.

BLITZER: And they attacked that commercial airport in Aqaba, the southernmost port of Jordan.

LEIGHTON: That's right. And Jordan is actually really, you know, not only the base that's north of Aqaba, but Aqaba in that southwestern corner of Jordan touches actually called the Gulf of Aqaba, touches on the Red Sea. And what that indicates is that the Iranians are not only hitting those areas in Jordan, but they're also sending a signal to Israel because Eilat, the port city in Israel --

BLITZER: It's right next to Aqaba.

LEIGHTON: Exactly. It's right next to Aqaba and that also means that it's not that far from those two cities to the Suez Canal. So what the Iranians are signaling is that there is a potential that they will want to shut down the Red Sea transit routes in addition to the Persian Gulf transit routes.

So if the Iranians do that, then we've got even more of a mess on our hands because those two areas are major transit hubs for global trade, not just the oil trade, but basically all goods that are used in international trade to come through one of those areas.

BLITZER: But if those Iranian drone and missile strikes go further than Jordan and hit Israel, the Israelis will respond overwhelmingly.

LEIGHTON: They certainly will and the Israelis have made that pretty clear. Defense Minister Katz has mentioned it and obviously Prime Minister Netanyahu has said things about that in the past as well. The Israelis of course are going to exercise the right of self-defense and then we have a situation where we've got basically the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran on the other and the Arab states caught more or less in the middle both geographically as well as otherwise. And that will become a significant issue for all of them at this point.

BLITZER: Very significant. CNN is learning that the U.S. is planning to send additional F-16 fighter jets, F-35 fighter jets, along with more aerial refueling tankers to the Middle East as these tensions clearly soar. This is pretty significant right now.

LEIGHTON: It is and, you know, when you look at what we already have in the Gulf region, you've got of course a carrier strike groups that are in the Arabian Sea and near the Persian Gulf. You've got the aircraft that are already based in areas of the Middle East including Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. So those areas are going to get beefed up basically. The airplanes that you mentioned the fighters as well as the aerial refueling tankers are also probably going to be augmented by other aircraft such as reconnaissance aircraft and other drones potentially as well.

And if all of that moves forward, they'll be coming from Europe and that will basically set the stage for even further military offensives and basically a military campaign against Iran. One that is even more extensive than what we've seen so far.

BLITZER: Yes. I can clearly see this war escalating big time in the coming days. All right. Thanks very much Colonel Leighton as usual.

And still ahead, the family of 18-year-old Nolan Wells preparing to lay him to rest next hour as they press for more answers and his mysterious death. Our team is there.

[11:14:34]

And new CNN reporting how budget cuts by the Trump administration may have slowed the response to the stomach illness outbreak that's making thousands, thousands of people sick around the country. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now, a tropical depression is brewing in the Northeastern Gulf. It's expected to become Tropical Storm Bertha today. A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for parts of the Florida Panhandle. The system is expected to bring heavy rain and strong wind gusts in the coming days. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in the CNN Weather Center monitoring all of this. How soon, Derek, could we see the impact of this system?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, currently right now, we're already feeling the outer bands of this tropical depression. Right here across the nature coast into Panama City, Apalachicola. By the way, the National Hurricane Center with its 11:00 a.m. update, just extended the Tropical Storm Watches further west, inclusive of parts of that boot of Louisiana.

[11:20:00]

OK, so we're going to look for this system as it slowly meanders across the Gulf region. There's a lot of warm water here. So the potential for it to continue to increase in strength is certainly there. But there's a lot of things working against it, namely wind shear and dry air coming in from the north. We've currently got hurricane hunters traveling through and sampling various parts of the storm, getting all the information that helps feed into the models that we provide you.

And this is a look at the water temperature. So we never want to sleep on a tropical depression this close to home, headed into this warm of waters. That could potentially be an issue. But all of the things are working against this storm. There is just that dry air, the wind shear I mentioned before. And it's going to keep this storm kind of lopsided. So the bulk of the precipitation will be out to sea.

But remember, with that counterclockwise circulation around a developing tropical system, it helps push up these very shallow waters. So these numbers are also new from the National Hurricane Center, two to four inches just outside of Lake Pontchartrain. So kind of that boot of Louisiana that's going to catch the bulk of the water as it tries to push it up around the center of circulation.

Once this thing forms, we could see gusts over 45 miles per hour across the panhandle of Florida and then extending into the Mississippi and Alabama border as well. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. All right, Derek Van Dam, we'll stay in very close touch with you. Thank you very much.

Also happening now, family and friends are attending a visitation service for Nolan Wells two weeks after his death in Mississippi. The 18-year-old was found face down on the shore of a remote island after the Fourth of July weekend. The family, his family, is still waiting for answers after inconsistencies emerged in the investigation. Two autopsies have now been done and we are waiting to learn the results.

CNN's senior national correspondent Ryan Young is in Ocean Springs, Mississippi for this funeral. Ryan, how is the family planning to honor and remember Nolan's life?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we've gotten a chance to talk to some of his friends, his teammates, his former coaches, they all are in pain and they're expressing the fact that they never thought today would happen, the idea that this young man would be laid to rest when he was 18 years old.

One of his coaches just expressed that he was such a great young man to have on the team and how he helped lift others up. Just in the last few moments or so, his family actually just walked in. The viewing service started at 9 o'clock. There was over 600 people in line before this viewing opened. They do -- they have done a count and they believe there's over a thousand people already here. The funeral service starts in about the next hour or so. The family has just arrived as well. We saw Al Sharpton, Terrell Owens, Spike Lee is also here. But as you can imagine, for the people who loved Nolan Wells, this has been a tough few days. And take a listen to two of his former coaches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTY SAUCIER, NOLAN WELLS' BASKETBALL COACH: Great personality, super smart, athletic, did everything you asked of him. Helped kids in my class that were needing some extra attention. And I mean, just the guy I would have as a son.

JAKE BRAMLETT, NOLAN WELLS' FOOTBALL COACH: It's a brotherhood system that we're trying to implement in our building, on the football field, in the weight room. And Nolan exemplified everything about it. He had brothers younger than him. He had brothers older than him. Real brothers, just brothers on the football team. And he never met a stranger. He never met a stranger. Was always there to lift people up. And that's just that's just part of who he was. And the part that we're trying to honor going forward is the football player and the person that Nolan was. And remembrance of him and honoring him with our, you know, with our work ethic and our play and our brotherhood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, that coach right there actually coaches two of Nolan's brothers currently. They're on the football team. We saw those young men outside and the coach addressed all of them. A couple of them had tears in their eyes. And you can understand they're really trying to put all this together. And each of the coaches all have said all this mystery around what's going on here is leading to more grief in terms of people wanting to know exactly what should happen next.

We do want to point out the sheriff was talking earlier on. We're hoping that there'll be a stronger timeline given at some point about the events that happened and whether or not investigators have been able to drill down on who is the last person to see Nolan alive. But despite all that you can understand right now. The hearts and minds of people are really focused on what's going on here. And that's paying honor and respect to his life.

His high school is just three miles away from here. And there have been a lot of people who just wanted to come and see this casket and pay their respects to the family. All that should be taking place within the next hour or so. Wolf?

BLITZER: And our deepest, deepest condolences to Nolan's family. May he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing. Ryan Young, thank you very much. You're on the scene for us there. We'll stay in touch with you.

[11:24:59]

And up next, someone throws an incendiary device at a federal building in New York City. We have brand new video of the moment it happened. That's ahead here in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: New this morning, the FDA now says that a Taylor Farms lettuce sample that had tested positive for cyclospora should be considered a false positive. Let's go to CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell. What more is the FDA saying about this Meg?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf. Well, this is causing some confusion this morning, probably because a lot of people have seen that Taylor Farms, which is the lettuce supplier that's been tied to this outbreak, put out a statement saying that the FDA apologized to us over this idea of a false positive sample for cyclospora.

[11:30:06]

They say to be clear, at this moment, FDA has not indicated a single --