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Lawmakers Debate Ahead of Todd Blanche Attorney General Vote; Iran Threatens to Strike U.S. Navy if Blockade Continues; Crews Race to Contain Flames, Arson Arrest Made in Spokane Fire. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 04, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Blanche debate. Right now, senators are speaking before a key vote to advance Todd Blanche's nomination to become attorney general.

Plus, pivotal primaries, polls are open in multiple states with key tests for both parties in Michigan. We're going to take you there live.

And then later, alleged crypto crime, an FBI agent is accused of stealing $900,000 in cryptocurrency and then asking ChatGPT what to do with the money.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And there's breaking news, Iran threatening the United States Navy. A top Iranian military adviser says if the U.S. blockade continues, and I'm quoting this adviser now, we will target them. President Trump now says it's Iran's last chance before what he calls decapitation.

Plus, arson arrest. Officials take a man into custody in connection with one of the Washington State wildfires. Right now, crews are urgently battling multiple blazes with one official describing the destruction as a war zone.

And later, skating on thin ice, President Trump slams his longtime ally, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, saying she, quote, choked on the Reflecting Pool. We'll take you inside her meeting with Trump at the White House.

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.

Happening now, breaking news, the Senate Judiciary Committee holding a debate right now up on Capitol Hill over the nomination of the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, President Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department. All of this hinges on two key Republican senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas. Both threatened to block Blanche's nomination over the president's $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. But the two reversed course after Blanche formally and in writing rescinded that plan. Multiple sources tell CNN that the White House was directly involved in that decision.

Let's go live right now to CNN Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox. Lauren, does it appear that Blanche has the support to make it through this vote, which is expected to come up very soon?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. Certainly in the Senate Judiciary Committee, we now expect that Todd Blanche is poised to get enough support out of that committee to make it to the floor of the Senate for a full vote there. Obviously, you noted that Senator Thom Tillis and Senator John Cornyn worked very closely with the Justice Department and the administration to ensure and secure their votes today in this committee.

Now, they haven't voted yet, but here's what they said earlier, signaling support for Blanche.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I've been very clear, as others have, that in order to order to support Mr. Blanche's nomination, I needed specific assurances in writing about a release signed by the acting attorney general last May. I asked for written assurances that clarifies the scope of the parties to the IRS audit agreement and that permanently ends the weaponization fund.

While this may sound like nitpicking to some, it's critically important, not only to me, but to other members of the Senate.

Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the department to live up to this in future litigation, and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I called the payout pot for punks. I've never liked this 1776 fund. It made no sense to me, and I thought it was an insult to the police officers and the people that defended us on January the 6th. It's done. It's been rescinded, and I am satisfied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, there are still questions whether or not Blanche is going to have enough support on the Senate floor. Just moments ago, our colleague, Morgan Rimmer, who was outside of this committee hearing, asked Senator Bill Cassidy, who's not serving on this committee but was slipping into another one, what he thought about Todd Blanche, because ultimately he's going to have to have enough votes on the Senate floor, and he was no comment just a couple of minutes ago.

We also don't know how Senator Lisa Murkowski might vote, how Senator Susan Collins might vote, and with Mitch McConnell out right now, Wolf, that means that Senate Republicans can only lose two votes in order to advance this nomination.

[10:05:04]

So, Blanche still has a ways to go to make sure that he has the votes on the Senate floor. Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. That vote is coming up. Lauren, thank you very, very much.

Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democratic senator, a member of the Judiciary Committee is speaking right now. I want to hear what he's saying.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Mr. Blanche should have simply said no. He did not do that. And I pressed him in his confirmation hearing whether he even tried to talk President Trump out of this widely rejected plan, and he refused to answer.

So, let's just talk briefly about transparency. They've called themselves the most transparent administration and Department of Justice in our history. But, in fact, they're as transparent as the wall behind us. Whether in Mr. Blanche's refusal to answer questions about the anti-weaponization fund, refusal to advocate for victims rather than perpetrators in the Epstein matter, or his willingness to answer my request for transparency on a FISA court ruling that both the chair and ranking of the Intelligence Committee have requested be released, or the OLC opinion underlying ongoing boat strikes in the Caribbean. I met with Mr. Blanche last week. I raised these issues with him, and I await his replies.

Our citizens want and truly deserve an independent and transparent Department of Justice. I don't think Mr. Blanche can or even wants to deliver on that goal. So, I ask my colleagues to put yourselves in our shoes. If four years ago we were considering the nomination of an A.G. nominated by the previous president who had said and done these exact things, what would you have done? And I urge my colleagues to vote against this nomination.

I will be voting against Mr. Blanche, and it's my hope that he will surprise me and exceed my expectations, but with a heavy heart, I'm fairly certain he will not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Blumenthal?

BLITZER: This hearing right now, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee speaking out on how they're expected to vote when it comes to the confirmation of Todd Blanche to become the next attorney general of the United States. He's now the acting attorney general, but President Trump has nominated him to become the permanent attorney general of the United States.

We assume that the Democrats, almost all of them presumably, will be voting against the confirmation. It looks now like all the Republicans will be voting in favor now that John Cornyn and Thom Tillis have made it clear they will vote in favor of this confirmation. There will be enough votes to confirm him. But we will see. That's coming up very, very soon. Pamela? BROWN: All right, Wolf. Breaking news, Iran delivers an ominous threat this morning and raises new concerns of a major military escalation. Iran now says it will strike the U.S. Navy if its blockade of Iranian ports continues.

This right here is seen in video from my visit aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea which is taking part in the blockade.

Iran says it will attack any U.S. Navy ships that enter unauthorized routes in the Strait of Hormuz. And we should also note that already the USS Abraham Lincoln and other Navy ships have warded off Iranian threats, drone, missile attacks, since the beginning of this war.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. What more are you learning, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think they're in a precarious state right now, of course with these negotiations that, you know, if you look at, and this has been the case, Pamela, since really the beginning of this war, if you look at what the U.S. is saying, it's very different from what the Iranians are saying, particularly right now when it comes to talks over trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

I will say we did hear, some of the latest news we heard was from the Qataris today, who have been mediating a lot of these discussions. The spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that there are drafts of a potential agreement being circulated, and they feel like talks are progressing well on a potential deal to get the strait reopened.

Of course, we should note that Iran argues that any sort of deal will ensure that Iran still maintains a large level of control over this. We know Oman, of course, is working with both the U.S. and Iran as well. So, we'll have to see whether or not that is something we actually see come to fruition in the next day or so.

But I want to give you a sense of what I'm hearing in my conversations with White House officials about where the president's head is at on all of this. One, I would argue that yesterday I was told he was fuming all day when he was reading about the Iranians pushing back on this idea that they were going to have further talks about the strait and also potentially about the nuclear a potential nuclear deal. Trump, I'm told, was very frustrated about that. You could see him kind of see that anger spilling out into public view when he was in the Oval Office yesterday talking with reporters.

I also think what's notable is an official told me that a lot of people inside the intelligence community here in Washington, a lot of them are wary that Iran will ever be serious about committing to a deal or ever commit to any agreements that they make, honor any commitments, I should say, for any agreement that they make, so a lot of interesting things there as well.

[10:10:10] I do want you to listen though, to what we heard from the president yesterday, because you could hear some of this anger when he was talking to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: This is at least the fifth time you've turned off airstrikes against Iran since April to negotiate. What is your message to the American people who are wondering what has changed this time? Why should it be any different?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, you don't know. I don't know. I think we're going to maybe get something, but I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, I will say, Pamela, again, in my conversations with someone here at the White House, they told me that the president wants to give diplomacy a try yet again. And we've seen that repeatedly trying to halt an attack to see if a deal is possible.

But he also believes that another way out of this is to hit Iran as economically hard and militarily hard as possible to weaken them to a point of coming to the table. Not something a lot of people in the intelligence community actually agree with, but that's where the president's head is at, at this time on all of this.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene live for us from the White House, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Pamela, let's continue this conversation. Joining us here in the situation room, CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. Colonel, thanks so much for joining us.

How significant is Iran's new threat to target U.S. Navy vessels in the in the area around the Persian Gulf, not too far away from Iran right now, aircraft carrier battle groups, destroyers, other ships if the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continues?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Wolf, it's great to be with you. There are, you know, certainly clear warnings from the Iranians you know, when they're making threats like this. They do have the capacity to come in and use small boats to come close to some American vessels. And it's a threat that the U.S. Navy has to take very seriously.

Now, the Navy does have capabilities to thwart those kinds of attacks but it is a threat that needs to be examined very carefully, and any type of threat warning that they get through intelligence channels or other channels that needs to be acted on very, very quickly and decisively in order to protect the fleet.

BLITZER: Because those U.S. Navy ships potentially could be vulnerable, although they do have very, very strong air defense systems.

LEIGHTON: They do have very strong air defense systems. They also have very strong surface warfare systems that will allow them to defend those ships. But, you know, when you're dealing with a large vessel like the Abraham Lincoln, for example, that could be vulnerable to attack if it comes in close enough to where the Iranian threat actually exists.

BLITZER: Colonel, I want to share some audio of a U.S. Navy ship warning a vessel to steer clear of the blockade. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain, you are requested to alter course to 190. If you do not comply, we will compel compliance with force. This is Warship 45. We will monitor your course for compliance at this time.

Warship 45 standing by on 16 out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As of yesterday, the U.S. military central command says the U.S. blockade in this area has redirected 44 commercial vessels, disabled two of them, and boarded two others. Colonel, do you see the U.S. lifting its blockade without a major concession from Iran, such as a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz?

LEIGHTON: I don't think, at least in the near term, I don't think the U.S. will lift its blockade. The Navy will stay in place until they're directed to move by the president. I think the president will see that it's in our interest to keep this blockade going for as long as we possibly can, and it will also be something that will provide pressure against Iran.

So, given the fact that, you know, the president is looking for a way out of this situation, one of the key things that he has is that leverage that is brought about through the blockade of the Iranian ports.

BLITZER: Iran's goal in its talks with Oman, a neighbor over there in the Gulf over the Strait of Hormuz, is to, quote, set temporary arrangements, end quote. Members of Iran's negotiating committee, the arrangements -- say that the arrangements would last one to three months, and Iran would be dominant in those arrangements. Do you believe the administration, the Trump administration, would see that potentially as a deal breaker or the starting point of new U.S.-Iran talks?

LEIGHTON: Yes. This is a very interesting area. It's kind of new territory for -- on both sides to get into. And the Iranians clearly want to have an arrangement with the Omanis because the Omanis control that southern approach to the Strait of Hormuz. There is a possibility that they could reach some kind of an agreement, but that agreement is going to have to be supported not only by Oman, but also by the Gulf states, the Arab Gulf states, countries like the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and, of course, Saudi Arabia. So, given all of that, I think the United States is going to try to prevent that agreement from taking shape, especially if it gives Iran a dominant position.

[10:15:06]

If it gives Iran that dominant position, then, basically, all of this, it will have been for nothing.

BLITZER: We've spoken before, you and I about the U.S. military stockpile of weapons right now. Researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank, as you know, say the supplies are severely depleted.

Their estimate, fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors left, and fewer than 278 THAAD ballistic missile interceptors left. Three sources tell CNN that those numbers are close to internal government figures. With a permanent end to the war nowhere in sight right now, how does the U.S. -- how does this shape U.S. strategy, the depletion of these critically important stockpiles?

LEIGHTON: It really has a major impact on how U.S. strategy can be executed. In the old days, you know, back during the Cold War period, we had a doctrine of basically being able to fight what were known as two and a half wars, in other words, two major conflicts and one relatively minor conflict. That is not the way the force is structured right now, Wolf.

And because of that we already had depleted stockpiles compared to, you know, the types of munitions and the quantities of munitions that we had back during the Cold War period. However, our munitions are much more precise nowadays than they were back then.

There are also shortages in addition to the Patriot batteries and Tomahawk shortages. There are also shortages in the Prism system and in the ATACMS system. And those shortages are maybe even more severe than the ones affecting the Patriot systems. So, that could be another turning point.

And as far as strategy goes, it could limit our ability to conduct operations in Asia. Say that China makes a move against Taiwan or, or something like that. And it could also limit our ability to support Ukraine. That is going to be a significant shortfall, and could adversely affect not only our standing in Europe, but also our NATO allies, obviously.

BLITZER: That USS aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, which is in the area, it's a huge ship. In other words, as we said before, a major target for the Iranians right now. So, I'm worried about that, and I'm sure you are as well.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely.

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much, Colonel Cedric Leighton, always good to have your expertise. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Up next, an arson suspect arrested in Spokane as thousands of acres burn. CNN's Maribel Gonzalez is live.

MARIBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From one home reduced to rubble to a neighbor's still standing, these are the scenes from Spokane, Washington, as evacuations have forced tens of thousands to flee.

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[10:20:00]

BROWN: Well, breaking news. A man is facing an arson charge in connection with one of the wildfires ravaging Spokane, Washington. The governor says this arrest adds to the absolute anguish the survivors are enduring right now.

And new pictures reveal the stunning aftermath that one official described as a war zone. Look at this right here, hundreds of homes wiped out in a matter of hours, nearly 65,000 people evacuated, the flames still at 0 percent containment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZZIE DAVIS, WILDFIRE SURVIVOR: Yes, we lost literally everything. All the family heirlooms, all the baby clothes, I'm pretty sure my grandpa's ashes, jewelry, my grandpa's war stuff.

It's a very, very hard loss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Let's go live now to CNN correspondent Maribel Gonzalez in Spokane, Washington. Maribel, what more can you tell us about this arrest?

GONZALEZ: Hi, Pamela. Yes, well, we know that that arrest was in connection to the fire that started here, or the aftermath, I should say, of the Old Trails fire. That is a neighbor -- this is a neighborhood that was impacted by that blaze.

We know that the suspect is a 37-year-old man, and it actually was a witness that called the tip in to law enforcement. They saw the suspect acting suspiciously. Law enforcement later returned to the scene, and they were able to determine that where that man was standing is where they believe that the fire started.

Now, he was found to be in possession of waterproof matches and a butane lighter at the time. We also know that authorities have said he has a criminal record. The sheriff here in Spokane said that he's a convicted felon out of the State of Arizona, and that he has a preceding arrest in a case -- in a manslaughter case, later for premeditated murder in Arizona as well.

So, we will be able to get to know more about this suspect later on as he appears before a judge later today. But right now, he is being held on a $1 million bond.

BROWN: All right. Maribel Gonzalez, thank you, and just our hearts go out to all of those families there in Spokane that are just suffering right now and reeling from all of this. Thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And voters right now, Pamela, are lining up to cast their ballots in a hotly contested race in Michigan, which could be a significant test of where the broader Democratic base is right now.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is on the ground for us with the latest. Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Voters are casting their ballots across the State of Michigan in the Democratic Senate primary. We are at a polling location in Detroit. In this race, Democratic voters could soon offer some insight into the direction they would like to see their party take.

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[10:25:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, polls are open across the country in a series of key primary elections with voters casting their ballots in Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, Washington State, and, of course, Michigan.

All eyes are watching what happens in Michigan today in that marquee Senate contest between moderate Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens and progressive former public health official Abdul El-Sayed. The race is viewed as a sort of litmus test for the future of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2028 presidential elections.

And whoever wins is expected to face Republican Mike Rogers, setting up a battleground election that will influence who controls the upper chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives.

[10:30:02]

Let's go live right now to CNN's Arlette Saenz. Pamela, bring her in.

BROWN: All right, Wolf.