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The Situation Room

3 Fires Burning In Spokane, Thousands Of People Forced To Evacuate; Blanche Formally Rescinds Trump's "Anti-Weaponization" Fund. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 03, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:07]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now breaking news catastrophic wildfires flames are spreading across Washington State leaving devastation and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. We'll speak to the mayor of hard-hit Spokane, just ahead.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And mixed messaging, a very mixed messaging, President Trump says he called off a "massive attack on Iran" because negotiations are restarting today. But Tehran says no such talks are happening.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown and you're in The Situation Room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: The breaking news this morning, crews are battling several major wildfires raging across Washington State. They've already destroyed more than 700 homes and forced nearly 65,000 families to evacuate. Officials say the fires in Spokane could burn for weeks. All the smoke has made the city's air the unhealthiest in the nation right now as the state deals with its worst fire season in decades.

P. BROWN: And today's forecast is expected to bring a major improvement for crews on the ground, but it's little relief to those who have already lost so much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBI ATWOOD, LOST HOME IN SPOKEN WILDFIRE: My son and his wife and their two young children live in a mobile home or lived in a mobile home on my property and they lost their dog, Evie, and I lost my dog, Diamond, and my little daughter lost her kitty cat, Bubbles, and I lost Henny Penny my chicken. So yes, it really sucks.

I did find two of their bodies yesterday when I was allowed to go back into my at my home. It's hard but I'm thankful that my children and my grandchildren all made it out of the property.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is in Spokane for us. That's where crews are battling three separate fires. Julia, what's the latest?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf and Pamela with those thousands of people evacuated many of them are in places like this the Red Cross shelter at the Convention Center in Spokane. They are have about 400 people spending a night here in the middle of uncertainty.

These are people who don't yet know if they will even have homes to go back to let alone what kind of repairs of rebuilding that could look like and some of them are facing quite difficult choices. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIC FRANK, SPOKANE WILDFIRE SURVIVOR: Everything just turned black. It was like someone flipped the lights off. It's just stuff. So I don't think I'm going to rebuild here because I don't ever want to have to relive a fire coming up this Hill again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: We're also learning from authorities that they are following up on several missing persons' reports. But at this point they have no information on any potential fatality. The Washington National Guard is urging residents to please be patient as this recovery could take weeks, weeks to just deal with the fire let alone with the debris and the cleanup that we know needs to follow in situations like this.

There are checkpoints that are being enforced around these neighborhoods. The most heavily affected area at this point is in Northwest Spokane in areas where we seen row after row of homes just burned completely to the ground. There are about almost 5,000 people from 14 different states helping fight this fire from Alaska to Florida and even volunteers coming from Australia.

Governor Bob Ferguson did say that he spoke to President Trump and he's working with federal agencies to secure more help for the state. Now, we also heard from the mayor, Lisa Brown, with a different message, Pamela and Wolf, that she's asking people who were not affected by these fires in the Spokane area to please come out to shelters like this one and help others if they can to make sure that they have access to basic necessities like food and water. Pam?

[11:05:16]

P. BROWN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones in Spokane. We appreciate it.

And Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown joins us now. Mayor Brown, we really appreciate you being here. I know you were just dealing with this ongoing crisis. If you would bring us up to speed. What's the latest there?

MAYOR LISA BROWN (D), SPOKANE, WASHINGTON: Well, we still have thousands of people evacuated and we still have people living with uncertainty about their homes. And of course as you heard people who know that they've lost everything. So the fires are not under control yet. People still need to be vigilant about the evacuation levels and pay attention because the winds could shift.

BLITZER: Mayor, earlier this morning, we heard from emergency management that they were now getting reports of missing people. Can you tell us a little bit more on this part of the development? How many people are missing?

L. BROWN: We don't know exactly. We don't have a number. I will say I'm very pleased that most people heeded the evacuation orders thousands evacuated in just a few hours tens of thousands. However, we are encouraging people who have not been able to contact a friend or neighbor or relative to file a official report so that we can do law enforcement can do welfare checks and we can check their names against people who are in shelters.

P. BROWN: Mayor we heard from fire officials who said they expect these fires to burn for weeks. How is your city prepared? I mean, do you have the resources you need to fight multiple fires like this?

L. BROWN: We have known that fire season is a risk every year and yet this is beyond anything that that we've dealt with in this region before and as you've heard in the whole country, I really can use the support if people can provide it. I would encourage them to utilize our official city of Spokane website or other official sources if they can help us. We will need to provide housing for people and it will be a major cleanup. I'll say the recovery has already begun but it's going to be long and arduous and we could really use support.

P. BROWN: And do you know of any fatalities?

L. BROWN: We do not have any confirmed fatalities with something this size that could change at any moment, but we are optimistic that most people were able to evacuate safely.

BLITZER: And what caused this massive fire in and around Spokane?

L. BROWN: There's no official cause determined. I will say it's three fires in our region and maybe a 15 across the state, a dozens across the Pacific Northwest. With these types of weather conditions, any spark can get out of control.

P. BROWN: And how concerned are you mayor of the air quality there?

L. BROWN: The air quality is definitely very compromised. People need to stay inside. You might be able to even hear it in my voice. People are encouraged to wear masks and stay inside and or in safe spaces such as community centers and libraries.

BLITZER: Have you ever gone through anything like this before in and around Spokane?

L. BROWN: We've never had anything this major. It's clearly our worst natural disaster in our history. People are coming together. As I said yesterday, it's not about geographic or political boundaries at this point. Those have disappeared and everyone is pulling in the same direction on behalf of the people, the pets and the rebuilding of people's lives.

P. BROWN: There are elections being held in and around Spokane tomorrow mayor. Are you aware of issues or concerns surrounding those elections particularly just you have these raging wildfires, the air quality issue. What's going to happen on that front?

L. BROWN: The county auditor is on top of that and people can print a replacement ballots or go in person to the county elections office and file their ballots. I think there might have been one ballot box in the area that has been retrieved is my understanding. So we're very aware of that and encouraging people to take advantage of communicating with the county auditor and get their votes in by the end of the day on Tuesday.

[11:10:08]

BLITZER: Your governor, Bob Ferguson, said the state officials are working with FEMA for short-term emergency assistance. Have you spoken with him about that?

L. BROWN: Oh, absolutely. We were together yesterday and will be again today. I was with him when he made the call and we are gathering specific needs to pass on to the federal government and to FEMA hoping, anticipating that we will get a national emergency declaration. So that will trigger that federal funds relief.

P. BROWN: And what are your fears looking ahead knowing that winds and conditions are expected to become less favorable in this firefight?

L. BROWN: I know there are many people who did not lose their home in the initial fires. And of course, they are anxious to get back to their property. We need them to stay out of the evacuation areas and to pay attention to the evacuation notices because it can quickly, quickly shift and then they would need to evacuate yet again. And so we want everyone to be vigilant. We certainly don't want people to let down their guard and then suddenly the fire is back.

BLITZER: Mayor Lisa Brown of Spokane, Washington. Thanks so much for joining us. Good luck to you. Good luck to all the folks out there.

P. BROWN: Best of luck.

L. BROWN: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Still ahead, two key Senate Republicans are now getting behind President Trump's pick for Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche. We have new details on the breakthrough that's coming up.

P. BROWN: And the woman accused of murdering her three young children is back in court today. We'll bring you the emotional testimony. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:16:39]

BLITZER: New this morning, the Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to be inching closer and closer right now to confirmation for the permanent job after a major concession. Late last night, Todd Blanche announced he is formally rescinding, in writing, President Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis from the Judiciary Committee had withheld their support for Blanche and they demanded the controversial compensation plan for Trump allies be officially scrapped in writing.

And just a short time ago in a joint statement, the two senators through their support behind him saying and I'm quoting, "We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon." The committee is due to vote on Blanche's nomination tomorrow.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is over at the White House for us. Kevin, is Blanche's confirmation now to be the permanent U.S. Attorney General a sure thing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, it certainly seems as if the most significant hurdles that were facing this confirmation have now been lifted. Those two Republican senators saying that their concerns had been eased not only on the compensation fund which Blanche has now put in writing is officially killed but also their questions and demands for clarity on the sweeping immunity from IRS scrutiny that this settlement had ensured for President Trump, for his family members and for his businesses.

What Cornyn and Tillis said in the statement today is that "We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share."

Now, last night Blanche put two documents out on social media. One was a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund saying "This order establishes beyond any doubt that there is no fund." It also seems to narrow the scope of that IRS immunity agreement stating that immunity "Applies by its terms only retroactively to claims that were open at the time of the settlement."

Now there are some questions about wiggle room here. Now, Blanche is the one who signs this order. President Trump did not sign it. And the settlement agreement itself states pretty explicitly on page four that the terms can only be modified by parties to the settlement, so Trump and the government. And President Trump has made pretty clear that he wants to see this weapon anti-weaponization fund move ahead. Here's what he said last night.

Oh, well the President was on Air Force One and he was addressing the questions about this fund and he said that this group that could have potentially benefited from it was attacked violently and viciously that a lot of people like it and that if Todd Blanche wasn't approved that he would put it back on the table. So the President making clear over and over, over the last week or so that his ambition was to see this fund move ahead.

[11:20:04]

But Cornyn and Tillis at least for now seems satisfied by what Blanche has put in writing and it appears as if this nomination will be moving ahead. Wolf?

BLITZER: Certainly it does. Kevin Liptak over at the White House for us, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

P. BROWN: All right. Wolf, let's continue this conversation with CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. He's a former state and federal prosecutor. Elie, what do you make of this deal which appears to have ultimately secured the support of Republican Senators Cornyn and Tillis those Republican holdouts?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Pam, for all the drama around this written document from Todd Blanche, it really accomplishes essentially nothing as a legal matter and here's why. The original parties to that agreement that set up the slush fund and the IRS immunity deal, there were two parties, the federal government and Donald Trump private individual. Todd Blanche on behalf of one of those parties, the federal government, had already testified under oath that he considered the fund dead.

Now he's put that in writing which is no different really than him testifying under oath. So we have that part. But what we don't have is the other party, Donald Trump signing on to this. And so at least theoretically, there's a possibility Donald Trump in his private capacity through his lawyers could go back to court and say wait a second. We had a deal here. Both of us agreed with it a few months ago. And now one side wants out, DOJ wants out. But we don't agree. We don't want to let them out.

And in fact, if you look back when Todd Blanche testified in his confirmation hearing, Senator Cornyn asked him about exactly that scenario and Blanche agreed. Yes, I guess there is a way the other side could go in and try to revitalize this deal. So all this drama around will Blanche put it in writing, now he has apparently that has satisfied Cornyn and Tillis, but it actually does really nothing legally to put a formal end to this deal.

P. BROWN: That's a really important point. So are you surprised that this anti-weaponization fund have become the sticking point and Blanche's confirmation?

HONIG: Well, I've learned never to expect anything in particular from the House or the Senate. But yes, look the weaponization fund absolutely was deserving of criticism and ridicule really and by Cornyn and Tillis and others. And it's a good thing that at least Blanche has walked away from it now. Also though, I will say, the focus on the fund has sort of overwhelmed focus on Blanche's mishandling of the Epstein files. That's squarely on him, his mistreatment of the victims of Epstein. That's squarely on him. And how about the weaponization? How about the series of prosecutions that have been brought against Trump's political enemies sometimes at the President's specific behest that have uniformly failed thus far all of those things are on Todd Blanche to because he's either been deputy AG or acting AG from the start and yet that seems to have fallen a distant third place behind these other two things in terms of the Senate's attention.

P. BROWN: I want to ask you about another topic from over the weekend. And now Trump is lashing out at DC's U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for a DOJ filing over the weekend acknowledging that structural problems with the Reflecting Pool stem from a flawed renovation. So she threw out the case against the Olympian, bottom line. What do you make of this?

HONIG: Well, the fault on Jeanine Pirro here is not in her throwing out the case. It's in her charging it in the first place. I mean Jeanine Pirro came out, you remember Pam, with a vociferous press conference where she came out and pounded the podium and said this is a very serious case and we have very strong evidence and it needs to be prosecuted and this person committed a felony. Now, she's completely backing out of that because she realizes that her proof is completely lacking.

So if someone wants to fault Jeanine Pirro, it should be for bringing this case in the first place before she even knew what the evidence was and not for pulling the plug now. I mean, there's plenty of fault to go around here. But as much as the President may want this case to come back to life, there's just nothing there. And if you don't have the proof, you're never going to have a case.

P. BROWN: Elie Honig always great to have you on. Thanks so much.

HONIG: Thanks, Pam.

[11:24:07]

BLITZER: All right, up next, a critical showdown in Michigan that could potentially reshape the Democratic Party. We're going to take you there live just ahead, just ahead of tomorrow's marquee Senate primary.

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BLITZER: Happening now in Massachusetts, the second week of testimony is underway in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. She's accused of murdering her three young children in their home. Clancy's defense team says she suffered from postpartum psychosis at the time of their deaths. Jurors on Friday visited the family's home, walking through the basement where the bodies were found.

P. BROWN: Let's go to CNN national correspondent Randi Kaye. This is the second week of testimony. It has just been emotionally grueling and heartbreaking. Who have we heard from so far?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly continues to be just that. Today, so far we've heard from emergency room doctors who treated the children when they came into the ER. Also Lindsay Clancy, their mother. They testified about the brain dam that they witnessed in the children. They were suffering from lack of oxygen, from lack of blood flow.

One doctor, Andrew Caparo, talked about treating the eight month old Callan Clancy. And this is just a little bit of what he said.

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[11:30:03]

DR. MICHAEL SNYDER, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Initially when she had come in, you know, some of the things we notice is sort of a blue tint to the skin --