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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
U.S. Attacks Iran For 11th Consecutive Night; U.S. Cargo Plane Food And Hygiene Kits To Cuba Amid Crisis; France Approves Social Media Ban For Under-15s; 6,600 Non-Citizens Mistakenly Added To New Jersey Voter Rolls; Andy Biggs Wins GOP Nomination For Arizona Governor; Content Creators Test the Limits in Name of Free Speech; Funeral for Sen. Lindsey Graham Set for Next Week; Court Documents Detail Rape Charges against Tate Brothers; Pan Am Plane Wreckage Found 74 Years after Deadly Crash. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 22, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Louisiana by Wednesday evening as a weak tropical storm. It is forecast to track towards the upper Texas coast while weakening to a tropical depression later this week.
Bertha is pushing tropical moisture towards the north and causing an increase in the flooding risk along the East Coast. Severe thunderstorms are plowing through the Ohio Valley and into the mid- Atlantic causing a life threatening flash flood emergency in West Virginia.
And millions of people are under multiple severe Thunderstorm watches across 10 states from Southern Illinois to Delaware. Tornadoes reported in Kentucky, Ohio and New Jersey.
Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michelson.
MICHAELSON: I'm Elex Michelson. Coming up on The Story Is, threats and attacks. The U.S. completes yet another new strike against Iran as the Pentagon chief seeks more funding for the war.
The story is Arizona's high stakes primaries where Trump backed candidates are sweeping the nominations, we're live in Scottsdale.
And the story is France making history, passing Europe's first ban on social media for children under a certain age. We're live in Paris.
Thanks for watching. I'm Elex Michelson live in Los Angeles. Tonight the top story is the threat of an expanding war with Iran.
U.S. Central Command announced the military completed its 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran. And Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says it responded with a counter assault. President Trump says the U.S. will be hitting Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear site. He says we'll be hitting there pretty soon.
But Iran is warning that a U.S. attack on its nuclear facilities would expand the war across the region.
Meantime, the conflict has cost $37.5 billion so far, according to U.S. Defense Secretary, although experts tell CNN that bill is likely much, much higher. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump seems to remain fixated on this idea of striking Pickaxe Mountain in Iran. This is a suspected nuclear facility back in 2020, it was declared to the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency as a future facility that could make this nuclear fuel. And this is deep underground.
It is a facility in which now we are hearing Israel has some intel that suggests Iran moves centrifuges as well as some of that highly enriched uranium deep underground into this facility. Here is what President Trump said about it as well as what the secretary, Defense Pete Hegseth has said, that whether or not the United States could actually reach that facility.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain? And when you say we're not done yet, what is left to finish?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I think that they, they may have. We don't have it on record. All we do is read the fake news. You know, we see the news is so wrong so many times. So, you know, maybe, maybe this one they have, right? But it's OK. It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. You're talking about the centrifuges.
It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material they don't have. We follow the material. That's where the action is. And we'll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon, and there's not a thing they can do about it.
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Do we have the ability to destroy whatever is underneath Pickaxe Mountain?
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: A lot of, Senator, a lot of our capabilities are classified. But if anybody in the world can reach anything on this, on God's given, God's green earth, it's the United States military, the most powerful military in the world.
HOLMES: So seemingly playing coy there, the Secretary of Defense we should know this is the first time in the last 10 days that we have not seen an announcement from U.S. Central Command. They are continuing these strikes on Iran. We should also point out that Iran has said that if the U.S. does in fact target Pickaxe Mountain, they would view this as an expansion of the regional war. This is coming at a time where President Trump, we know, is considering expanding that war. We've just sent over. The United States has just sent over more military aircrafts, including fighter jets, F16, F35, as well as those aerial refueling tankers is unclear right now still what the United States plan is moving ahead. Kristen Holmes, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: The White House U.S. official tells CNN that President Trump is expected to attend a dignified transfer of service for members that were killed in the war with Iran. Four service members will be transferred to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday. Two of them have been announced. First Lieutenant Tyler Jamesfeehan and Private Isabella Gonzalez. They were killed in Iranian strikes on an airbase in Jordan. Sergeant Angel S. Rampersad is also believed to have been killed in that same attack.
[01:05:04]
And Sergeant Michael Emanuel Swinton was killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone. President Trump seemingly tried to downplay the number of troops' deaths by tweeting this comparison to previous U.S. conflicts.
The first of several humanitarian aid flights from the U.S. has arrived in Cuba. The plane brought hygiene kits and prepackaged food for up to 700 Cuban families. They will be delivered by the charity Catholic Relief Services.
Trump administration has pledged to deliver $100 million in assistance to the island nation. A U.S. oil blockade and decades of government corruption and mismanagement have resulted in economic hardships and repeated blackouts.
Britain's brand new prime minister says his government will act fast to give voters the economic relief that they are craving. Andy Burnham met with his new cabinet on his second day in the job. He's promising to cut taxes on energy bills. It's the first of several early moves signaling his desire to ease Britain's cost of living crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY BURNHAM, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We need to every day think, well, what can we do just to take that little bit of pressure off people's shoulders, just to give them that little extra sense that help is coming so they can have that bit of hope that things are getting better. And that's the mission that we've got to set ourselves together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: The new prime minister is also promising to end homelessness in the UK.
Meanwhile, France is the first E.U. country to ban the use of social media for children under 15. Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill on Tuesday that would restrict access for children and establish new rules for social media advertising. CNN's Melissa Bell reports from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: France has become the first E.U. country to ban social media for under 15s, following in the footsteps of Australia, who'd ban social media for under 16s, and the United Kingdom, which had announced a similar project for children there.
The idea is that children under 15 will from September 1st no longer be able to set up any accounts on social media. And from January 2027, any existing accounts will be discontinued. The idea was one of the ones that Emmanuel Macron had announced would be one of his flagship measures for his second term.
It's expected to take effect from September. We had a chance to speak to some school children at the International School here in Paris about what they thought.
UNIDENATIFIED FEMALE: I use certain apps to see what people are doing, to see what, where they've been and what the kind of things that they're doing are.
BELL: So do you think you're going to miss it?
UNIDNETIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I think I think I would, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With social media, people often compare themselves with other people and that's just unhealthy. And it's bad for people's mental health.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll probably have a little bit more free time which I might be able to spend with friends, which I think is, you know, a little bit better than on social media. But I think I won't be able to do like I like gaming and I like social media. Like, I like doing those things.
So it's a little bit sad not to be able to share my accomplishments or not to be able to get updates as quickly on things, you know.
BELL: Other European countries like Spain, Greece and Denmark are also looking at similar legislation. And E.U. wide there is the possibility there may be a block wide ban at some point. Ursula von der Leyen has set up a panel to look into the question of how better to protect children online. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Joining us now from Paris to discuss the new policy is Jessica Galissaire, a senior policy researcher at Interface. This is something you're really passionate about, been working on for years.
Do you think that this policy will actually work and who is in charge of enforcing it?
JESSICA GALISSAIRE, SENIOR POLICY RESEARCHER, INTERFACE: So thank you for having me. Indeed, I've been working on that issue for four years now. And these social media bans, so called social media bans, are popping up all over the planet, as you said. I don't think they can be really efficient, especially in France since France doesn't have any enforcement powers.
We indeed already have a similar law that was passed a few years back, I think it was three or four years ago, but it's not implemented because France doesn't have any enforcement powers over big platforms because power the -- it's the European Commission that oversees under the Digital Services Act what big platforms do and that applies to the DSA, you know, throughout the EU.
So to me, this French bill of French law now is merely a political announcement to put pressure on the E.U. to act and to act fast. And I would say that this part is working at least because the European Commission announced a few weeks ago that they would go for a social media ban under a certain age, probably 13 across the EU.
[01:10:08]
So things are moving at E.U. level. So if that's what France was looking for, like a political move, it's working. But when you see the experience in Australia, which was the first country to set up such a ban, we see that I think 85 percent of minors are still on those platforms because a ban is just so easy to circumvent that it's -- it cannot be effective and it's -- I'm convinced it could even make things worse.
And some research actually shows that it could even be worse than doing nothing because kids go to some unregulated and, you know, less known platforms where they can found the same harms.
MICHAELSON: So what's the answer? What's your advice?
GALISSAIRE: Well, I would -- I would adopt a similar approach to that of the special panel that advised the President of the EU. That shouldn't be accessible under 13. But that --
MICHAELSON: You shot froze there for a second. But what is your advice? Hopefully that the signal is able to stay.
GALISSAIRE: Sorry. I hope it's better now. I think safety by design should be the better option which means acting on the root cause, that of the problem which are obviously the algorithmic feeds, the addictive designs. Because the problem is not the age of the users.
Everybody is addicted to their phones and to social media. Everybody is exposed to the same things that the kids mentioned in the interview you just showed which comparing yourself to others being exposed to harmful content and contact. So a lot of experts agree that safety by design, meaning platforms having to prove that they are safe before they are put on the market and before they are handed to kids would be a better option. It's a more long term solution. It's harder to put in place than just a political announcement that will be useless. But that's the way to go. MICHAELSON: Yes, I know there's been a lot of talk about what you're talking about here in California with some of the state lawmakers working with a similar approach to that. Let's change the design of the apps. We'll see if that, that indeed happens here. It happens in other countries as well.
Jessica, thank you so much for getting up early for us. We appreciate it.
It is a big night, meanwhile in Arizona for President Trump's picks, we'll have results from primaries in Grand Canyon State, including big win for MAGA Congressmember Andy Biggs, who we're still waiting to hear from, potentially speaking tonight.
And an unexpected announcement in New Jersey where the Governor says there have been thousands of noncitizens added to the state's voter rolls. We'll explain how that happened as election night in America coverage continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:17:16]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL (D), NEW JERSEY: In June of 2023, nearly three years before I became governor, a serious software error in New Jersey's motor vehicle system led to the improper voter registration of what we believe to be roughly 6,600 people in our state.
In the case of this error, some individuals indicated that they weren't citizens and weren't eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: A surprising announcement there from New Jersey's Democratic Governor Mikei Sherrill also said about 400 non-citizens who were accidentally added to the state's voter rolls actually went on to cast ballots in recent elections. They had been registered as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The governor says she learned of all this just last week.
Meanwhile, the list of candidates is out for Saturday's convention in Maine, where Democrats will pick their new Senate nominee. Progressive Troy Jackson is expected to get that nod after the most high profile candidates dropped out and endorsed him. Beer company founder Dan Kleban is the latest to pull his name from that ballot. That leaves Jackson, veteran political politician David Costello and biotech executive Saundra Pelletier.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says he will support Jackson, won't say if he'll support Jackson, but predicted that Democrats would take back the Senate.
Now to Arizona, where candidates endorsed by President Trump are winning big in the House and governor's primary. CNN can now project that Trump backed Congressmember Andy Biggs will win the GOP governor's primary. He will defeat moderate David Schweikert by a wide margin. Biggs will take on incumbent Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in November.
President's picks also prevailing in two key House primaries. CNN projects former NFL placekicker Jay Feeley will win the Republican contest in Arizona's first Congressional District. And a former county sheriff, Mark Lamb, will advance the general election in the conservative leaning 5th congressional district.
Our panel is back, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and the former executive director of the California Republican Party, Jon Fleischman from sodoesitmatter.com.
Jon, as a Republican here, let's start with you.
JON FLEISCHMAN, CALIFORNIA POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Sure.
MICHAELSON: Your take on the midterms, big margin for Andy Biggs tonight and some really important congressional races.
FLEISCHMAN: Well, I mean, I would tell you that I think we're shaping up to see a very big battle in November because I can tell you having met Andy Biggs, having spent some time with Andy Biggs, yeah, you can try to litigate over -- he's a very conservative vote.
But personality wise, demeanor wise is the exact opposite of Kari Lake. This is you no longer have Republicans putting somebody forward who is this bombastic, crazy, extreme person that I think was really scaring a lot of Republicans into not voting Republican.
[01:20:06]
Now I'm sure the Democrats will, you know, basically go to his very conservative voting record. He's in the House Freedom Caucus and all that. And that's fair game. But in politics, who you are and how you act and how you carry yourself really matters. And I think it's going to make for a very competitive race.
MICHAELSON: And he's been in office unlike Kari Lake as well. So people have seen him and voted for him in the past, at least in his congressional race.
FLEISCHMAN: Sure.
MICHAELSON: How do you see all this, Dave, Arizona race?
DAVID JACOBSON, CO-FOUNDER, J AND Z STRATEGIES: I think the biggest one is a gift for Katie Hobbs. I just think like obviously that's going to be a key battleground for the --
MICHAELSON: Katie Hobbs, the current Democratic governor who won a very close race against Kari Lake last year and is widely considered to be the most potentially endangered Democratic governor in the country. JACOBSON: It's ground zero for the Democratic Governors Association for sure. And it's a frontline protect for Democrats. But he's a more extreme candidate than the other Democrat, Schweikert, who was also a member of Congress, Republican, who was who was running.
So I think at a time when you have the president who's deeply unpopular nationwide. Washington Post just put out a poll last week. He's got a 37 percent favorable rating among self-identified independent voters, 26 percent approval rating. Those are the voters that are going to determine a race like governor in Arizona.
FLEISCHMAN: Well, but I would say in Arizona I think it's important to remember there are like 300 and change thousand more Republicans --
MICHAELSON: Right.
FLEISCHMAN: -- in that state than there are Democrats. And I do think independents will be important. But the point I really wanted to bring home is if you spend any time interacting with Biggs and Lake and I've interacted with both of them night and day personality and I think it's going to matter because unfortunately or fortunately in politics people really try to get sense of people based on how they operate, how they and he's very, very demure compared to her. But everyone is compared to her.
MICHAELSON: Not a big endorsement for Kari Lake from the Republican side tonight after she lost multiple elections for the team. Meanwhile, you know, the question is about the midterm elections in Congress as well. Some important races in Arizona tonight. Axios had an interesting scoop. Want to put this up on the screen saying that Trump's top MAGA advisers gather to plot midterms. Basically this meeting with Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, some of President Trump's top pollsters all getting together to talk about strategy on how to win the midterms.
And this could get real negative real fast.
JACOBSON: No doubt. I mean, I think it's a politically advantageous dynamic for them to explore because both parties are deeply unpopular. The Democratic Party, while we have the wind at our back, we've won a lot of these special elections since Donald Trump got sworn into office in the last year and a half. The reality is that the national brand of the Democratic Party is still deeply unpopular. Right.
I think it's incumbent upon Democrats to basically make their campaign about change and let Trump and Republicans be more of the same. So while the party brand perhaps isn't as popular as we Democrats would like it to be, change is a good thing. And I think if we can make this a change election, we're poised to be successful.
I think I will say also, if you look at the polling on the generic ballot, the New York Times has a polling summary. The top two polls, I think YouGov is the newest. One that's out has Democrats up five points. The poll before that has Democrats up seven. If you reverse back to 2018, right before the midterm elections, that blue wave, the generic ballot had Democrats up eight. And then in turn, we won 41 seats in Congress.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
JACOBSON: So if we're hovering around a plus five, a plus seven on the generic ballot, we, we are poised to win the House. Fingers crossed.
MICHAELSON: Yes. Of course, there's been a lot of gerrymandering since then, so it's harder to do some of those big wave elections. But that point is interesting. Axios also said, Jon, that part of the Republican Party is trying to make voters hate the Democratic Party more, using quotes like, voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. Yes, we suck, but they're worse.
FLEISCHMAN: I think there's two important things that -- that are -- that will have been discussed in the meeting with all of those Trump people behind closed do, and they're both critical to the election. The first one is that Trump Inc. The broader group, has well over $300 million stashed away in all of its various political committees.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
FLEISCHMAN: Is that money being held to go to the library? Is that money being held to elect a successor? Or is Donald Trump like, I don't want to be impeached. We're putting 300 million-plus into these midterms. That's a huge.
MICHAELSON: It does not seem to be that lasting far. Right?
FLEISCHMAN: We don't know. We don't know. And then the other question they need to have amongst them is, OK, who here is going to help us with the big guy to maybe get oriented towards what are the things he should be talking about towards the November election. Because giving a primetime speech on national television about the SAVE Act is not going to appeal to swing voters. And so he really needs to get out there and say, what can I do as the president to help Republicans win in November?
Maybe they're all sitting around the room going, who knows? Karen, it's your boy. You're the only one.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
FLEISCHMAN: I don't know.
[01:25:05]
MICHAELSON: Well, and of course, there's also a war with Iran going on, which he said was going to be short and has not been short. The president talked about that in the midterms today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that Iran is trying to impact the midterm elections by threatening the Strait of Hormuz? TRUMP: They won't have any impact on me. I'm just going to do the
right thing. I don't view it as having an election in a period of time. You never, everyone says, oh, I'm doing something before. No. The election -- I can't think about that having to do with this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: I mean, is this problematic for Republicans?
FLEISCHMAN: Well, it's not problematic for what he said. Any president should say that. You wouldn't tell the Iranians on national television.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
FLEISCHMAN: I'm focused on --
MICHAELSON: I mean, the war itself. The war --
FLEISCHMAN: Sure. I think it was -- it was, you know, everyone said he saw what happened in Venezuela, get in, get out. I think maybe he thought, what, all the bad guys are in one room at the same time. We light it up and the, you know, and the Israelis go in. I think he's now stuck in a fight that it's very difficult to extricate from.
But if he doesn't figure something out, those gas prices are going to be a real problem for Republicans in November.
MICHAELSON: Well, and Dave, Democrats have this opportunity on Capitol Hill to express some of that anger through these hearings with members of the administration who now need to come to Capitol Hill. They need more money. And so you -- we saw some of that on display with Gary Peters, who is retiring as a senator from Michigan, had one notable exchange with -- with Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): You don't have a long term plan to actually win this war. Win the war. The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. When will you show leadership? When will you show leadership?
HEGSETH: Why don't you show some leadership and stand up for your fellow Democrats who won't fund the troops, who stand and play partisan politics while you don't give us the money. You want to stand up here and talk about the troops? You won't show any political courage to actually fund our department because you have Trump derangement syndrome and can't actually commit to anything meaningful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Sir, big moment, big opportunities for these Democrats in Capitol Hill though, don't you think?
JACOBSON: I think the American people fundamentally don't support this war. The Post put out a poll, 68 percent of Americans don't want to fight this war, don't think we should be fighting this war. 28 percent favor it. That gap, that deficit of 40 percent is among the largest gaps that you've seen in public polling in modern history on an American war.
I think most Americans view this as a stupid war. We should never have gone. And people are seeing their costs skyrocket. The cost of food, the cost of gasoline, clothes. People are struggling across this country. And here you have this president totally disconnected from average Americans who are just trying to get by and make ends meet.
MICHAELSON: But we've seen in the past sometimes these hearings can be a springboard for campaigns. When Kamala Harris was in the Senate, they were very effective for her in sort of increasing her name on --
FLEISCHMAN: What happens under the Capitol dome these days is all about these Instagram moments and all that.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
FLEISCHMAN: But I would say --
MICHAELSON: Those matter. Those go to a lot of people. I mean, John (INAUDIBLE) is getting a lot of followers from this. He would.
FLEISCHMAN: But I would say that, like, you know, the president gave his nationwide address. He needs to give another one. The president has yet to really effectively go out and make his case about why he went in, why it needs to be won. You can't win an argument if you're not having the discussion. And he really needs to engage with the American people. He really needed to do that before he went in.
But it's never too late when American lives are on the line to explain to the American people why we're there, why we're doing it, what's going on.
MICHAELSON: We know he likes to make points when he has points to make. Maybe the fact that he hasn't said that is an indication that he doesn't have that much of a case to be made.
FLEISCHMAN: Smart political minds like you can get inside of the head of the president. We people over here just kind of sit back and we can analyze.
MICHAELSON: Jon, Dave, thank you both. Great to see both of you.
Coming up, content creators claim that they're making provocative videos in order to protect the First Amendment. Have they gone too far? CNN takes a closer look. And this is wild stuff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, this is a public building, ma'am, and I have every right to record in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's about to call it authorities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, that's fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:33:37]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.
Let's take a look at today's top stories.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says that they have launched a counter assault to, quote, "punish the U.S." This comes after U.S. CentCom announced its forces completed an 11th consecutive night of strikes against the country.
Iranian state media reported air defenses in the capital Tehran were activated. They also reported explosions in several other cities across the country.
Ukraine's president has fired that country's military chief. The shakeup follows days of protests in public anger over the recent ousting of the country's popular defense minister, whose reforms and innovations were often at odds with Ukraine's military establishment, including the former military chief.
U.S. federal prosecutors and lawyers for former Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro are seeking a June 2027 trial date. Maduro and his wife are facing narco terrorism charges. They were arrested in their home in Caracas in a U.S. military raid in January, and are now awaiting trial in a New York federal prison.
Content creators who call themselves First Amendment auditors are now profiting off of social media videos where they antagonize law enforcement, business owners and others.
[01:34:49]
MICHAELSON: They claim they're protecting the constitution and their rights. But have they gone too far?
CNN's Kyung Lah met up with them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IAN PFISTER, CONTENT CREATOR: All righty, all. What up Joe? Welcome to this world. Today we are back in good old Royal Oak.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Ian and Pam Pfister, husband and wife duo, are out in the Detroit suburbs, recording nearly every day to capture content for their YouTube and Facebook channels.
I. PFISTER: I'm simply recording in public. I'm documenting life as It happens. LAH: It's a stress test.
I. PFISTER: It is. It's a stress test of the First Amendment.
LAH: And always a surprise test.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma'am. What are you doing?
P. PFISTER, CONTENT CREATOR: Just taking a video.
LAH: Conducted by the self-styled First Amendment auditors. The Pfisters say they're protecting the U.S. Constitution, using their cell phones for freedom of speech, assembly and the press.
I. PFISTER: And we're here at the Smart Bus Transit Center, and we're going to go check it out real quick.
Oh, yes, I can.
LAH: I mean, it is a place that the public can access.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, you got to take that outside.
I. PFISTER: No, this is a public building, ma'am. And I have every right to record in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's about to call someone.
I. PFISTER: Ok. That's fine.
LAH: Oh, here come the cops.
I. PFISTER: Popos have arrived.
LAH: We have two, three, three cars.
So the police are taking this quite seriously. We're staying on this side of the street because we want to make sure that we are separate. I can see, though, that the Pfisters never stop rolling.
I. PFISTER: Listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot do that.
I. PFISTER: You're. Listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: we can talk outside. I'm telling you, I've got the -- I've got the city attorney on this that's saying this is privately- owned.
I. PFISTER: What would be fine is for my First Amendment rights to be respected.
How am I disorderly? Because I'm not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to go to jail. I. PFISTER: So you're going to arrest me if I don't leave?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
I. PFISTER: Ok. Under threat of arrest, you hear that? What a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) pig tyrant.
LAH: This is a public building. The bus company told CNN the public can record video inside.
Wrong or right, the Pfisters launch into their audit as their cameras record.
I. PFISTER: You're a real piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED), you know.
LAH: They seem to be thriving off of the confrontation.
P. PFISTER: As many interactions as we've had with Royal Oak, I've never came across your (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I just want to know what we violated to get thrown out of a public place.
I. PFISTER: He don't even know. He's too (EXPLETIVE DELETED) stupid. He don't even know the laws.
LAH: It's a good bit of cursing. Ian's over there giving the freedom finger to the police.
I. PFISTER: Yes. Split ten eight.
P. PFISTER: Buckle and bounce, bitch.
I. PFISTER: Well, there you have it, folks. Like, share, subscribe. All the fun stuff. Much love. WTTWI.
LAH: How would you say that this went?
I. PFISTER: Well, it's bad overall for the First Amendment and for freedom, but it's good for views and clicks. It'll be a banger video. If I took that arrest and went into court and took it to court, they're going to dismiss that.
LAH: You were not thinking.
I. PFISTER: I was thinking about possibly taking the arrest.
LAH: Aren't you nervous, especially given what happened with Zimmerman?
I. PFISTER: Well, that's the only reason why I didn't take the arrest was because I got something over my head that I'm dealing with right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I help you?
LAH: This is what happened at Zimmerman's meat market in suburban Detroit. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm the business owner, and you're recording, and
I don't really love that.
LAH: As recorded by the Pfisters earlier this year.
I. PFISTER: I got a maxi pad in my bag if you need it.
LAH: The owner, Richard Hobig, became agitated and called police. As officers arrived, Hobig went outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I spray the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of you, (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
Stay back. Stay the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) back.
LAH: That was pepper spray. The Pfisters say he used in self-defense. Richard Hobig went by ambulance to the hospital. His face is red in this picture posted by his daughter, appeared to be burned from the pepper spray.
She wrote her father has had major heart issues and experienced chest pain. They didn't want to talk to CNN, saying their business continues to be bombarded by calls and even death threats.
I. PFISTER: Put me in fear. I had to actually deploy the pepper spray this time.
LAH: The county prosecutor charged Ian Pfister with assault. So who's wrong here in that Zimmerman meat incident?
I. PFISTER: Oh, well, definitely him for doing that -- for come charging.
LAH: He's the one.
I. PFISTER: Oh yes. Because I wasn't doing nothing wrong.
KAREN NORTH, SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT: So they're getting money off this ad right here.
LAH: This is social media expert and USC professor Karen North.
NORTH: These are not people who are particularly like auditing people's First Amendment rights. These are people intimidating and antagonizing people and trying to get clickbait videos.
Unfortunately, So then there's a financial incentive for filming harassing people.
LAH: How does this income compare to what you did before?
I. PFISTER: It's much better, much better income --
P. PFISTER: Equal -- equal to my every day, 9 to 5 job.
I. PFISTER: Or more. P. PFISTER: Or more.
LAH: As we watch him work in Michigan, he stopped multiple times.
I. PFISTER: Good to meet you.
LAH: By his online fans.
I. PFISTER: Appreciate the support.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Hey. Be safe.
I. PFISTER: Yes. Thank you.
LAH: He doesn't want to quit.
[01:39:48]
I. PFISTER: All I know is, even if the world ends in a week, I'm just going to record it. Whatever happens, I'm going to record it.
If there's an Internet, I'll put it up. And it's not going nowhere, that's for sure. Social media is the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: There's a bit of a speed bump in Ian Pfister's plan. A jury convicted him of assault for that pepper spray incident. His sentencing is scheduled about two weeks from now.
And if you're wondering why I'm standing outside this Trader Joe's, it's because First Amendment auditors have been to this very grocery store, standing on the sidewalk trying to bother customers and get viral videos as people are just trying to buy their milk.
So that video then is posted on social media. I reached out to both Meta and YouTube to ask them about this, and they say that they require compliance with their content rules, including harassment, Elex.
MICHAELSON: Kyung Lah, thank you for that amazing story.
The late Senator Lindsey Graham will be laid to rest next week. Special ceremony will be held at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Graham's remains will be carried to Capitol Hill by an Armed Forces body bearer team. Later, there will be a formal funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral.
The honors will continue the next day in Graham's home state of South Carolina. A ceremony will be held at the state house, followed by a funeral procession, flyover and service at the First Baptist Church in Columbia.
Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.
For our viewers around the world, WORLD SPORT is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with what newly-unsealed court documents reveal about the Tate brothers.
[01:41:31]
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MICHAELSON: Newly-unsealed court documents have revealed new allegations against Andrew and Tristan Tate. British officials say that the social media influencers are accused of sexual and physical abuse. They have denied all the allegations and are fighting extradition from the U.S. to the U.K.
CNN's Carolina Peguero reports from Miami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROLINA PEGUERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While the Tate brothers remain in federal custody here in Miami, and as they are challenging the extradition request from the U.K., we're learning about new unsealed court documents and a new allegations against the brothers as physical and sexual abuse by additional women, including charges of sex, crimes of rape and sex trafficking.
Now, these new allegations made by the additional women who had spoken to British officials, are saying that they were choked. Some had lost even consciousness, nearly passing out and later raped.
While the Tate brothers are saying and denying completely these allegations. Their lawyers are also saying they're vowing to fight the extradition request and even asking for the Trump administration to intervene.
JOSEPH DANIEL MCBRIDE, ATTORNEY FOR ANDREW AND TRISTAN TATE: What I can say about the allegations in the United Kingdom, not a single solitary person has been identified. These are ghosts and these are phantoms.
So we like to know who's accused Andrew and Tristan of what no innocent person can be punished while they're being held for any proceeding. Innocent until proven guilty. Solitary confinement is punishment.
PEGUERO: And together, the Tate brothers have faced 59 charges, while the State Department has confirmed to CNN and sources familiar to the cases have said that they are not going to intervene as well as President Trump.
And the next briefing hearing is expected here at this federal court next Monday.
Carolina Peguero, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: 74 years ago, a Pan Am plane went down off the coast of Puerto Rico. Now, the decades' long search for the plane's wreckage is finally over. We'll explain next. [01:47:42]
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MICHAELSON: It's been 74 years since a Pan Am flight crashed off of Puerto Rico in a disaster that would change the future of airline safety.
Now, the resting place of the Clipper Endeavor has finally been found. Search teams using sonar and underwater drone located the wreckage in the deep waters off Puerto Rico's northern coast.
Our Tom Foreman has details on the discovery and how the 1952 crash made modern air travel a lot safer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the search team, the discovery of the lost Pan Am plane is a sensation. After 74 years in the sand and salt water, many thought this Douglas DC-4 would never be seen again.
But there it is, ghostly images of the aluminum body, the wings, even the logo, found after years of tireless work by the Air Sea Heritage Foundation, the Discovery Channel, and Deep Sea Vision, which brought a highly-advanced underwater drone.
JOSH GATES, HOST, "EXPEDITION UNKNOWN": And that sonar vehicle, which is autonomous, went down to almost 2,000 feet below the surface. And when we first saw the sonar image, and saw the outline of that plane, it just took our breath away.
ANNOUNCER: Fly first class or tourists on Pan Am's radar-equipped Super 7 Clippers.
FOREMAN: In the decade after World War II, as civilian air traffic boomed, Pan Am was a global leader. The Clipper Endeavor promised a then-quick eight-hour trip from Puerto Rico to New York City on Good Friday, 1952.
But shortly after takeoff, two of Endeavour's four engines failed, along with efforts to turn back. The old accident report says all aboard survived the violent, watery impact, but passengers were not told where life jackets were located or instructed in their use prior to ditching.
Confusion over life rafts and escape exits followed as the plane sank in 3 minutes. 17 people survived amid pitching seas and swirling sharks. 52 did not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome aboard.
FOREMAN: But the flight arguably has saved many, many lives since because it directly led to the creation of regulations requiring passenger safety briefings before every takeoff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Locate the exit nearest to you. FOREMAN: A legacy for the living from dozens who were lost for so long and whose resting place now has been found.
GATES: This flight and this tragic accident really changed aviation, fundamentally changed it forever. And we're all safer because of this accident.
And so I think we owe them a real debt of remembrance.
FOREMAN: Of course, Discovery and CNN are owned by the same company, and Discovery plans to have a special show about all of this later in the year.
[01:54:46]
FOREMAN: What they do not plan to do is in any way disturb the wreckage or the remains of these folks who lost their lives so tragically so many years ago.
Tom Foreman, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Wild discovery. Tom Foreman, thank you.
Here is a look at the top stories we're tracking in the day ahead.
We're tracking extreme weather. Millions under multiple severe thunderstorm watches across ten states from southern Illinois to Delaware.
The storms are plowing through the Ohio Valley and into the mid- Atlantic states. Severe thunderstorms are causing a life-threatening flash flood emergency in West Virginia. Tornadoes have been reported in New Jersey, Ohio and Kentucky.
In the day ahead, a dignified transfer is scheduled for four U.S. service members killed in the war with Iran. A source tells CNN that President Trump is expected to attend at Dover Air Force Base. So far, 18 service members have died in the nearly five-month war with Iran.
And in the coming hours, the ousted Venezuelan president and his wife are scheduled to appear in federal court. Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores are facing narco terrorism charges.
Their attorneys are expected to address several issues during the procedural hearing, including the disclosure of evidence and pretrial motions.
We'll have coverage of all of that and more when we join you again for THE STORY IS tomorrow.
I'm Elex Michaelson.
Thanks so much for watching this edition.
The news continues next right here on CNN.
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