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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

FIFA Scraps Infantino's Controversial $20B Investment Plan; Sources - U.S. Planning Iran Strikes As Soon As This Weekend; Senior Hamas official - disarmament depends on Israeli steps; Russian Strikes Interrupt Ukrainian MP's Interview With CNN; Cyberattack On Water Systems In Multiple U.S. States; Spanish PM Faces Backlashes Over Pro- Immigration Policies; Trump - Spain Migrant Surge Should Be Gop - Talking Point; Justice Dept. Admits Reflecting Pool Work Was - Botched; Europe Ravaged By Wildfires; Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 01, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Lastly, oh my God. I never expect it Usher to get snubbed by a fan on stage during a concert. Now, you don't know what I'm talking about. Just Google it or search it up, whatever the kids say these days.

Well, that is it for us tonight. I want you to have a great weekend. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson. That's next.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

Coming up, "The Story Is" the World Cup's future. FIFA backing away from a controversial private investment plan after uproar from football federations. What's next for the biggest tournament on Earth?

"The Story Is" migrant crisis. Spain says most of the migrants are now back in Morocco, but the political fallout is just beginning.

And "The Story Is" the American diet. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants Americans to eat better for less. He's working with Chef Andrew Gruel on this. You see him there, the first guest on his new cooking show, Andrew Gruel with us live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: We begin with an open revolt by soccer federations around the world at which has forced the sport's governing body FIFA to abandon a controversial $20 billion investment plan. The President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, pitched the proposal. It would have split off rights to future World Cup tournaments into a new subsidiary partly funded by private investors. Soccer leaders worldwide were outraged. They said the sport's very soul was at risk and some threatened to boycott future World Cups. The plan also led to the resignation in protest of Infantino's senior adviser. Infantino said he heard the reaction, and as a result, the plan will not proceed. For more, let's bring in Nate Bukaty. He is a play-by-play announcer for Major League Soccer on Apple TV. Thanks so much for being with us. So, ultimately, what killed this deal? What was the thing that put it over the top?

NATE BUKATY, PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER, MLS ON APPLE TV: Elex, I think it's as simple as the power of UEFA. And for those that are unaware, UEFA is the federation governing body over all of the European teams that make up FIFA. And they decided they were going to boycott. They were the first ones to do it. They don't have the voting power to overrule something that Infantino might want to do for FIFA, but they have the economic power of being the most powerful federation and the most important federation in the world.

And if UEFA says they're not going to participate in any of the FIFA events, including the women's World Cup and the next men's World Cup. That forced FIFA's hand, and their quick reaction shows just how much power UEFA has in the dynamic.

MICHAELSON: And, of course, the women's World Cup next year, which made this so urgent as well. Speaking of urgent, Gianni Infantino, his future up in the air right now. Here here's what he said. Put this up on the screen. My intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere.

So he is up for reelection. Do you think that that played into this decision, and does this help or hurt his case for reelection?

BUKATY: I think the biggest question is has too much damage already been done, to his reputation and to his standing with the rest of the governing bodies and federations in world football? Because up until this point, it almost seemed as if Infantino was invincible. He had the votes from different federations and countries that are financially dependent on the money that he doles out. So he was almost acting as if he were untouchable. But it looks like he's played his hand a little too far here, because all of a sudden now two of his top lieutenants have come forward and distance themselves from this plan and said it was the plan of one man, not the plan of FIFA.

Now all of a sudden, you're starting to hear about candidates that might run-in opposition to Infantino when the time comes in November, and that's something we weren't hearing before this. UEFA had had a lot of frustrations and expressed those with Infantino's leadership up until this point, but this seems to have been the straw that breaks the camel's back or broke the camel's back. Now we'll find out if he can recover from this and stay in office.

MICHAELSON: And it'll be interesting in that reelection. Clearly, he's chosen to ally himself very closely with President Trump. Does that help or hurt him in that case as well? Meanwhile, we know part of what he wants to do is to expand the World Cup to 64 teams the next time around. Does all this impact that? Where's that proposal at?

BUKATY: I certainly think it does. I mean, time will tell. But for me, I think there's a compelling case to be made.

[00:05:00]

If you want to expand this, the global reach of soccer, which is one of the things that Infantino says that he wants to do, I think you can make the case for it. But there was already pushback from the establishment when he expanded or FIFA expanded this most recent World Cup to 48 teams, then to jump up to 64 when some people would call it a cash grab, and there's already this reputation now that Infantino has because of this latest instance that we just talked about. I wonder if that makes it in more even a compelling case against expansion or at least more resistance, I would say, coming from the other members of FIFA. So we'll see if he could push that uphill at the same time as trying to recover from this latest stumble.

MICHAELSON: All this, of course, just weeks after they made $15 billion from the World Cup. Nate Bukaty, thank you so much for starting us off with a big update on the biggest event in the world.

We are learning that the U.S. is planning to launch fresh strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend. That comes as President Trump gathered his cabinet at Camp David while the administration tries to find an off ramp from the war. Two U.S. officials say the scope of the strikes and potential targets are not clear, and they could still be called off. The U.S. officials say that military has prepared options and readied its forces for expanding the war. President Trump signaled that the fighting is unlikely to stop anytime soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Iran is doing very poorly. Just in case you read incorrect stories, they're doing very, very poorly. They're having a hard time. We'll be hitting them very hard. And, at some point, they're going to say, we just can't take it anymore. All they do is make me angry. They just make me angry. I'm losing faith in them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: For more, we're joined now by CNN National Securities Analyst, Alex Plitsas with us live. He's also the Director of the Counterterrorism Program at the Atlantic Council. Alex, what are you hearing in terms of the latest potential for strikes from your sources?

PLITSAS: Hearing that the strikes are quite likely, and it's because as you correctly characterized in the introduction, the members of the national security apparatus in Iran are digging in their heels, particularly members of the IRGC and the Supreme National Security Council who don't want to return the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war conditions and have been pushed back against the deal with that civilian negotiators have come to an agreement on. So it looks like a package of strikes may be possible in the coming days.

MICHAELSON: What do they strike? PLITSAS: So there's a couple of options that I think are on the table. A limited shorter series of strikes that's designed just to take out, additional infrastructure, a sort of a warning message to get people back to the table, because the President already warned about 10 days ago or so that if Iran misbehaved again that that's what would happen. And moments ago a tanker off the coast of Oman was struck by a projectile, so it looks like there may have been another attack by Iran just now which is a clear message back to the United States.

There could be some more substantive strikes across the country or return to the remaining balance of the targets that were not struck before the ceasefire somewhere around 3,000 or 4,000 that could be several weeks' worth of targeting. And then also focus strikes on the remaining missile balance, because as we know our colleagues at CNN reported correctly that there is -- that we've expended probably two thirds of our missile interceptors for the Patriots and the THAADs, and that's what's used to shoot down the incoming missiles. And so to protect U.S. forces in the region, those would need to be taken out, as well to try to make sure that we protect not only ourselves, but our Gulf allies in Israel as well.

MICHAELSON: Of course, the United States started this war working with Israel. There's also news from Israel. President Trump announcing last night that he'd made a deal with Hamas in Gaza to disarm. Today, he talked about that. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't have an understanding with Israel. Israel is very happy about it now. Will it go through its ups and downs? It's a very complex situation over there. The people are very complex and difficult. Many cases, wonderful. In many cases, not so wonderful. But that will be a -- it's a great breakthrough --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So what is Israel saying? What is Hamas saying? And are they saying that there is, in fact, a deal?

PLITSAS: So they are saying there's in fact a deal and it's actually quite historic. So it's a 15-point deal and for the first time Hamas has committed on paper to actually handing over its weapons. Now the specifics of this are important as of the sequencing and we are seeing a little bit of verbal back and forth from both sides. So there's a national technocratic committee that's been established to oversee Gaza, which means none of the militant groups are sort of running it. And so there would be a phased withdrawal from the Israelis and tied to that as well would be a handover of weapons, whether those are completely decommissioned or whether those are stored under the administration of that new committee, remain to sort of be seen in the long run, but Hamas was making it clear they were handing it over to the committee and not the Israelis.

[00:10:00] The Israelis have made it clear that they're not going to withdraw until verification of the demilitarization and decommissioning of some of these major military targets that were left to be struck. So it's a little bit of fighting over the sequencing, kind of similar to the arguments we've seen between Iran and the U.S. over who does what first, but this is much further than Hamas has ever committed to on paper. So both sides really do distrust each other, so they're going to have to work through that and the details are what's important. So good step, but a lot more to go from here.

MICHAELSON: And of course, if they could get there, this would be a really, really big deal for that region and for the world. Alex Plitsas, always great to have you with us with so much information. Have a great weekend.

Ukraine says at least four people are dead as multiple waves of Russian strikes rained down on its capital. Over a dozen others are wounded as CNN teams on the ground reported at least three waves of attacks so far. Ukrainian officials say more could be on the way and that falling rocket debris set off a fire outside a residential building. Earlier, a Ukrainian lawmaker spoke with CNN's Jim Sciutto when Russian projectiles started coming down live in the middle of their interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALYNA YANCHENKO, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: You can probably hear the explosions on the background.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Please stay safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Wow, what a scary situation there. Meanwhile, the U.S. justice department now says that the $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was "hasty and botched." And the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn is being dropped altogether. He had been charged with vandalizing the pool on the National Mall. That admission is an embarrassing reversal for the Trump White House.

The President had insisted publicly for weeks that vandals were solely responsible for severely damaging the pool lining, chronic algae blooms, and green hued water at the iconic landmark. CNN Senior Legal Analyst, Elie Honig, weighs in on what was really happening here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's ridiculous now that the U.S. attorney's office is saying, well, it's interior's fault. Well, it's this person's fault. Well, it's that fault. We didn't know this. They didn't tell us that. That's your job as a prosecutor. You don't charge a person with a felony, which could have locked him up. The max here would have been 10 years had he been convicted. You don't charge a person with a felony until you know what you're talking about. And if Jeanine Pirro thinks that it's somehow taking blame off her office to say, well, there's all these other things out there that we weren't told, she's wrong. She's actually putting the blame on herself because they didn't know this stuff. They didn't figure out before they indicted. That's how they should have done it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, the senate judiciary committee has scheduled a meeting on Tuesday on a potential vote on Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination. That announcement comes after the President complicated negotiations on Friday by defending a controversial fund at the center of this ongoing standoff with two key Republican senators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It is dead, but, I wish it weren't, to be honest with you. Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn't be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. And the man that lost, the man that I didn't endorse has become very angry, and that's OK. I mean, I understand that. I probably would do the same thing. You want to know the truth? I think I do the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: John Cornyn of Texas, who he didn't endorse, and North Carolina's Thom Tillis have been insisting that they will not vote to confirm Blanche without written assurance that the $1.8 billion Anti- Weaponization Fund will not be resurrected. They've been given verbal assurance. They want written assurance.

"The Story Is" the weather around 50 million Americans under heat alerts as a powerful heat dome brings the highest temperatures of the year to parts of the Western U.S. this weekend. Those temperatures could climb well into the triple digits. CNN Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam with a look at the forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You can see temperatures quite a difference between Boise, Idaho and Seattle, Washington. We'll reach the 100 degree mark easily across Idaho. Speaking of a 100 degree mark, we'll top a 115 for many locations across the Desert Southwest. Look at Las Vegas, Phoenix to Death Valley. Head to the coast if you can, but remember, we still have a rip current risk across southern and central coastline of California. And then on Sunday, the heat spreads a little further to the east. Denver, I think will top a 100 degrees quite easily, even the same on Monday to start off the work week. This is what we're talking about. The large and very expansive heat wave that's not really going to spare many of our populations.

Notice this heat risk map from Noah. Those shadings of purple, those are extreme heat risk, not just vulnerable populations, but all populations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:15:00]

MICHAELSON: This dangerous heat dome also fueling wildfire concerns. Parts of Washington State are facing the highest level of fire danger, exacerbated by the possibility of strong winds and ongoing drought conditions. Speaking of that drought, California, Arizona, and Nevada are preparing to slash their Colorado River water use. A new federal plan would reduce consumption by 16 percent to 20 percent through 2028. Those cuts are aimed at slowing the decline of the river's rapidly shrinking reservoirs. They provide water to 40 million people across the Southwest.

Today, 95 percent of the Colorado River Basin is in drought, pushing reservoir levels towards record lows. But experts warn the cuts may not be enough. The Colorado River is fed by Rocky Mountain snowpack, which has steeply declined as the climate warms. Decades of water diversions and overuse by neighboring communities and agriculture have depleted the river so much so that it no longer reaches the sea.

Water systems in multiple U.S. states have been targeted in a coordinated cyber-attack which has forced some utility companies to issue boil water noses and take their systems offline. CNN Cybersecurity Reporter Sean Lyngaas has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Federal officials have for the last week been scrambling to try to help secure the water facilities and to ensure that the safety of the drinking water isn't affected. No incidents of contamination have been reported yet. U.S. and state officials are treating Iran as one of the suspects behind the hack but have not made a formal determination of who is responsible. The first public sign of the cyber-attacks came from Minnesota authorities who said that hackers on Sunday night and Monday morning targeted about 30 water systems in that state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: The recent incidents have renewed concerns about the security of U.S. water utilities. Despite Iran's history of such attacks, President Trump is blaming one of the states where the cyber- attacks occurred.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. There was a cyber- attack of 30 water plants, and I would blame it on Minnesota and the Governor the corrupt Governor of Minnesota. They like to say, oh, it's Iran. Iran should be so lucky. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: In response to President Trump's remarks, the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, posted, "Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack and knows that other states were hit too." This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there's no plan to win a war with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): I am going back. There's nothing to do here. Locals of Ceuta have treated us badly. We are hungry. Shops are closed. There was nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Broken homes and shattered dreams following a massive flood of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Spain now says most of the 50,000 people who stormed across the border since Thursday have gone back to Morocco. At least 57 of them died in the process, many by drowning. Spain has deployed troops to Ceuta, and it says it'll try to expel migrants who are still there as quickly as possible. The country's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez blames the incident on misinformation on social media about a recent supreme court ruling. That decision makes it harder to return migrants who arrive in Spain by sea.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. puts his cooking skills to the test with a new show coming up his continuing mission to change Americans' eating habits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KENNEDY JR., U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KENNEDY JR., U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: One of the things that we're going to do is talk about the dietary guidelines during the course of the show and how you can eat the highest quality food in this country at a very, very affordable price. Andrew, what are we going to do today?

ANDREW GRUEL, FOUNDER, AMERICAN GRAVY CONCEPTS: OK. Well, this is about taking ingredients that everybody already knows. It's approachable. We can get them at any store and maybe manipulating them a little bit with a couple chef tricks, nothing overly intellectual so that we can get that flavor that's memorable. It's sticky. It's addictive. What I found as a chef is that people are so obsessed and addicted to processed food, because it's chemically built to be addictive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. there on the launch of his new YouTube channel program called The Real Food Show. It aims to show people how to cook healthy affordable meals. Kennedy's new U.S. dietary guidelines have been praised by some for rejecting ultra processed food, but criticized by others for overemphasizing meats.

The show's first episode is all about seafood. Crispy salmon cakes with apple white beans and green salad. His guest Chef Andrew Gruel from Huntington Beach, California. And joining us live right now is Chef Andrew Gruel, who's the Founder of American Gravy Concepts, a restaurant group and brand that focuses on high quality, minimally processed ingredients. Chef, welcome back to the show.

ANDREW GRUEL, FOUNDER, AMERICAN GRAVY CONCEPTS: It's great to be back. Thank you so much.

MICHAELSON: So what is this concept of a cooking show hosted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services?

[00:25:00]

GRUEL: Well, I think that, the administration as well as RFK Jr., myself, and many other chefs agree that the quickest way that we can fix America's health right now, not tomorrow, not after congress passes a bill, but today is by cooking even just one more meal at home. Even that simple act can decrease your risk of chronic disease by eating less processed food and eating more whole foods and real foods. So that's really the key takeaway here.

Now, of course, having RFK Jr. as the HHS Secretary host this show, that adds a ton of credibility to the messaging that's coming along with that from not just a culinary perspective but as well as a nutritional perspective as you see where there's a lot of information that's popping up. It's simple, it's easy to digest, pun intended, and I think the information is approachable.

MICHAELSON: Of course, he adds credibility to some, but takes away credibility from others. He's obviously a very polarizing figure, including with his own sister. Kerry Kennedy was speaking with Erin Burnett earlier today about some of her disagreements with her brother on his views on vaccines. She was asked about the cooking show, said kind of doesn't he have something better to do? Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY KENNEDY, RFK JR.'S SISTER: He probably might spend a little bit more time on stopping these outbreaks and on teaching us to cook, but I look forward to the show.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: What do you say to that that maybe it takes away from the gravitas or it should be focused on other things?

GRUEL: Well, look, she said, I look forward to the show, and I think in this toxic environment, that's a positive. So I'll look at that piece of it. I think you got to understand, right? All he's doing is pulling together minds who have done this, myself included, and many other great chefs and nutritionists who have the experience and can put the wisdom out there. And he's just listening. If you noticed, he wasn't incredibly loquacious in this, episode. He was letting us do the talking and he was letting the ingredients speak for themselves.

He can do more than one thing at a time as you've seen just based on his social media. One minute he's talking about food, the next minute he's talking about health policy and medicines and pharmaceuticals. So to suggest that this is a waste of time, I think is somewhat it's a bit overlooking the fact that our system of health in the United States focuses on really treating the problem and not preventing the problem. And he's been talking about that since he was on the campaign trail and preventing the problem comes down to health and exercise and the basic habits that we take home every day by cooking ourselves.

MICHAELSON: So you're making salmon in this. You've been in the seafood business for years. You talk about ways to make seafood more affordable and suggest that frozen seafood may actually be fresher.

GRUEL: Yes. And I think that people always get confused when they say, well, is this fresh? First of all, there's no real legal label for fresh, and the majority of seafood that's in the counter labeled as fresh has been frozen. Most seafood is frozen at sea nowadays. It's actually very good technology, modern technology that almost pauses time. Seafood, when it comes to sushi, is all frozen because they freeze it to kill the parasites. So 95 percent to 99 percent of the seafood that you eat, that sushi that you think is the freshest of freshest fish, has been frozen.

Freezing seafood is not a bad thing, and I suggest that people look for that frozen seafood because at least then you can control when it's thawed and how fresh it is from your perspective.

MICHAELSON: And as you guys point out, it's a great source of protein to be able to do this via seafood. You also point out that getting it via can be healthy and can make it more affordable as well. So people can check out this YouTube video, which is streaming for free right now. And Chef Andrew Gruel's got plenty of other videos streaming for free if you want to check him cook as well. Thanks so much for being with us.

GRUEL: Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: Tens of thousands of migrants charged across Spain's border with Morocco. And now Spain's pro-immigration Prime Minister is faking political backlash. We'll take you to Europe and discuss it all with our political panel next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: We're turning now to the migrant crisis in Spain, which has claimed at least 57 lives in the past two days. As we told you earlier, officials say most of the migrants who flooded into the enclave of Ceuta from Morocco have returned home. But as Nada Bashir reports, the political blowback for Spain's pro-immigration Prime Minister could be just beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the chaotic scene on Ceuta's coast on Thursday as tens of thousands of migrants stormed the border separating the tiny Spanish territory and Morocco. Thousands are said to have braved the sea in a desperate attempt to reach the enclave's coastline, some even climbing through barbed wire. Many of them were young men, seen here celebrating. Two hours at sea, he says, pulling his little brother close. But among them are also families, women and children seeking a better life in Europe. This man stops in a moment of prayer, relief mixed with exhaustion.

[00:35:00]

The crossing, while short is far from an easy feat, and not all were successful. Many are reported to have been killed in the perilous endeavor, an all too familiar fate for migrants searching for salvation across seas. The reason behind the surge in migrants attempting to illegally cross Ceuta's border is not immediately clear. Although Spain's Prime Minister has accused human trafficking rings of exploiting a Supreme Court ruling issued in July, which prohibits Spanish authorities from immediately returning migrants who arrive by sea without due process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): I understand why they come. They're told that there's a future in Spain, but there are jobs here, this young man, a migrant already living in Spain, says. And the truth is there are. But when they arrive, they're faced with the harsh reality that they have nothing, and people treat them as if they were nobodies.

BASHIR (voice-over): And it is not long before that harsh reality becomes apparent. Thousands of migrants are reported to have already made their way back into Morocco, according to the Spanish government. Some returning through the border crossing under the careful watch of Spanish troops, others crawling through breached fences along the coast. Additional troops were deployed to Ceuta, according to Spain's interior ministry, to help respond to the crisis.

Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, bowing on Friday to dedicate additional state resources to guarantee the region's security.

PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (translated): Ceuta is a Spanish city, and what happened yesterday deserves our full reapproach, our full condemnation at the strongest possible level of rejection, condemnation, and consideration as deplorable the violation and the attack on the territorial integrity of the Spanish city, namely the city of Ceuta.

BASHIR (voice-over): But the Prime Minister is also facing backlash for his long standing open arms approach to immigration, allowing migrants access to all of Europe. His Italian counterpart, Giorgio Maloney, has called for Spain to be expelled from the EU's visa free travel zone.

France's interior minister, meanwhile, has pledged to strengthen the country's border with Spain. And while the summer months have long proven a key pressure point in Europe's efforts to secure its borders, this latest crisis is further galvanizing the right in its hardline approach to tackling illegal migration. Nada Bashir, CNN in London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Let's bring in our panel. I'm joined now by Fabian Nunez, Founder and Managing Partner of Actum and former speaker of the California Assembly, and Lanhee Chen, former Mitt Romney Policy Director, currently research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Those pictures pretty dramatic, Fabian. I know you've not only consulted here in America, but also in Europe as well understand the political situation there. What goes through your mind when you look at those images?

FABIAN NUNEZ, FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, ACTUM: Well, two things. On the one end, I think there's a compassionate side here that most human beings take when they see this kind of situation. You're seeing families and children and folks looking for a better opportunity because life in their homeland is not safe for them. And so you can't help, but to feel for them.

On the other side of it, you also have laws that govern the countries that they immigrate to. And those countries have a right to their sovereignty. They have a right to protect their borders and they have a right to have laws in place that dictate how you can enter the borders of those countries. The phenomenon of immigration, in the early 20s was massive in Europe. And then it kind of slowed down, and now we're starting to see an uptick of immigration in that part of the world again.

What's interesting to me about this is that all of these people, around 50,000 or so, that went to Spain under that mission really were driven by individuals who are there to fleece them, to take their money, to encourage them to do this because they said, hey, listen. There's a constitutional dictate here that says that if you go through the ocean, they can't send you back. And so they use that to manipulate folks and to get them to do that, and they probably rip them off, in the process.

And so my understanding is most of those people have turned around and left, but, unfortunately, you can't help but to feel compassion for the people that actually lost their lives in that mission.

MICHAELSON: And, Lanhee, of course, immigration has been a voting issue not only in America, but in Europe as well and has really changed who's in power in a lot of countries. LANHEE CHEN, FORMER MITT ROMNEY POLICY DIRECTOR: It has. And you look at the ascendancy of populism and right wing movements in a lot of different countries in Europe. You see it ascendant in France. You see it ascendant obviously in Italy. This situation, there's a very particular problem Morocco has, which is that they've got almost 30 percent youth unemployment.

[00:40:00]

If you look at a lot of those faces, they're young people. And there certainly is an element of this which is seeking opportunity. They probably went to Spain looking for something better. But the reality is that some of these policies of Mr. Sanchez, who's been leading Spain, have certainly emboldened people, whether it is to dupe folks into coming across the border or to encourage the kind of illegal migration that we see here. So I think it's the combination of some poor policy on the part of the Spanish government as well as the reality that Morocco is not providing for its people.

MICHAELSON: Of course, immigration is the number one issue that President Trump talked about when he started his first presidential campaign back in 2015. It's something that he's consistently talked about, certainly driven by Stephen Miller, one of his top advisers. And he saw those images and talked about them this way at Camp David earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing's going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected, except worse, much bigger. If we're not in office, our country will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That true?

CHEN: I mean, look, this is a signature issue for President Trump, right? And it has been since day one. This midterm election, there are going to be a lot of dynamics going on. One of the things the President needs to do is to motivate a base of voters to turn out to vote. And if you look at that base of voters, the issue that is potentially most motivating for them is immigration. So one should not be surprised. You're hearing this rhetoric from the President. It is certainly extreme, I would say, but I think it reflects the political reality he and the Republican Party find itself in.

MICHAELSON: But if you look at recent polls, immigration is not the issue that is driving voters in a way that it has in past elections right now.

NUNEZ: It was a banner issue for the Republicans for several election cycles, and President Trump took advantage of that and made it his top priority. But I think now it's lost its momentum, for a number of reasons. If you think about it fundamentally, because we've cracked down on immigration, and he's done a good job on the border. By the way, President Obama did a decent job on the border. We used to Democrats on the liberal side called them the Deporter-in-Chief.

And interestingly, what we're seeing now is people are moving away from the immigration issue for two fundamental issues. The first one is that when they see their cruelty with which I.C.E. operations are being conducted, where people's rights are being violated time and time again, the detention facilities in which they're putting people, children, and women. People don't like the cruelty of -- on the around how this immigration policy of President Trump is being conducted.

But the second thing and the most important thing is that you cannot continue to tell people that immigration is going to, if you only stop immigration, everything else is going to be solved. This President, his first year in office, he's got the lowest approval ratings we've seen in a long time of President. He's in the low 30s. He's had a miserable presidency. The economy is in shambles. He's got a massive war that he has to deal with, which he started with Iran. And he's got real problems. And I think the midterms are going to be a reflection of how people really feel about this. I don't think the immigration is going to surface in the way it did in the last election.

MICHAELSON: You say the word reflections, the reflecting pool also in the news once again today. President Trump had insisted over and over again that vandals had destroyed it, not the people that he gave a no bid contract to. Here's what he had said before today.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We caught some people, vandalizing our beautiful reflecting pool. They tried to destroy it. They cut it up with a box knife and tried to destroy it, and it's in great shape now. They're terrible. They're vandals. And, these people went in and cut it up, and they got caught.

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MICHAELSON: So today, the DOJ admitted, no, they didn't. That the job had basically been botched by the people that they had hired and gave $14 million to. Now they got to start the whole thing over. I mean, it's very unusual for the Trump administration to admit that they were wrong about anything.

CHEN: Well, I think in this case, the facts were clear, and they were not going to be able to achieve a prosecution. And so the DOJ made it clear that they weren't going to be able to proceed. And so they had to pull that back. I think it's interesting. President Trump is above all. If you look at all the different identities that he has, first and foremost is, in my mind, is really that of contractor and builder, right?

[00:45:00]

Those are -- these are the things that are frankly most exciting and most energizing to him in a lot of ways. And so it is interesting to see how much time and energy has been devoted to all these different projects across Washington. I was just there, and you see how much of the landscape of the city, the reflecting pool, what's happening at the White House, is being impacted by what he wants to do. So, but in this situation, clearly, was a problem with the contractor. They didn't do the job in the way they should have. And, I'm glad that the person that they went after is not going to have to face legal prosecution anymore.

MICHAELSON: I mean but yet, of course, he will never say, I'm sorry, or we got this one wrong.

NUNEZ: Well, if you just reflect on this issue for just a half a second, it is a redundancy of the word here, Is that here's a Department of Justice who once again has a massive responsibility to take this issue on, and I get it. The president cares about these kinds of things, is really a way to obfuscate, to detract from the real problem, which is he hired a buddy contractor of his, paid him close to $14 million to clean up the reflecting pool, and they did a terrible job at it. And it's kind of an expression of what his presidency has been like. It's been miserable.

And what's interesting about it is if you just got to walk down the street from that reflecting pool to see the ballroom that he's building. And the appropriation committee, a lot of the Democrats in the appropriation committee are saying the President is slate is budgeted $200 million. Even though he says all the money for that is going to come out of the private sector. It's $200 million of taxpayer money being invested in it. There's $13.1 billion at the financial times just a couple weeks ago said, money that we've taken from the oil in Venezuela, nobody knows where it is.

And so the truth of the matter is, as we're talking about making cuts to Medicare and health care and people's, we're spending taxpayer money on ridiculous things like this. I think this is a wakeup call for America to say, what the hell are we doing in this country?

MICHAELSON: Not to mention the $10 billion we spent on a war in Iraq that has left us in a worse position right now than we started in. On top of that, he's made over $2 billion himself in all of this.

NUNEZ: $2.3 billion to be exact.

MICHAELSON: So we'll see if the democrats are able to make that a part of the message going forward or not, and if they're able to provide an alternative that people get excited about. Fabian Nunez, Lanhee Chen, thank you both. Two of the smartest guests we've ever had on this show. I could talk to you guys for hours, but unfortunately, we've got to go. But great to see both of you.

Experts say that extreme heat is making wildfires in Europe fiercer and harder to contain. In a moment, the latest on some of the blazes that firefighters are trying to put out.

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MICHAELSON: A wildfire in Southern France has forced the evacuation of an additional 2,000 people. Wildfires have ravaged parts of Europe during record breaking heat waves this summer. CNN's Melissa Bell reports that firefighters are making progress.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Southwestern France, the Gironde fire appears after more than a week of raging to have been brought under control. And whilst there are still flare ups and firefighters continue to battle with them. Overall, the situation does now appear to be stabilized. Similar situation across the border in Spain where the national emergency has been lifted, but again, there are flare ups and fears that these wildfires may pick up again.

Overall, when you look at the European continent and remember that this is the fastest warming continent in the world, what we've seen over the last couple of weeks are worst fears realized, and that spread all the way to Greece where there are currently 70 wildfires raging. Two of the worst to the west of Athens, another on the island of Crete, and fears there that the winds and temperatures could worsen the situation for firefighters. It has been such a hot summer on the European continent.

There has been heat wave after heat wave, and especially, in the land of the southern parts of the European continent, the conditions are just so dry, that the fears are that these kind of wildfires we've seen not only will be the new normal, but that this might not be the end of the summer. Remember that this is the hottest month, the month of August that we're now entering into and fears, that these wildfires could continue to be a major problem going forward.

There are also now concerns here in France, but elsewhere where there have been or continue to be wildfires about the health implications of CO2 emissions, the fact that these small particles that are released into the air may now cause difficulties in terms of the health of local populations. So it is crises that are being managed even as their consequences are being considered and this across the European continent. Melissa Bell CNN in Bordeaux.

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MICHAELSON: Russia may have found a new way to get revenge for Ukraine strikes on its oil refinery. Still ahead, Russian drones take aim at places that have become a lifeline for many Ukrainians. That and our top stories next.

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[00:55:00]

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MICHAELSON: A U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet crashed and burst into flames in San Diego on Friday. The F-B35 jet went down just short of the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The pilot ejected and was taken for medical treatment. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. This type of jet, by the way, costs around $102 million each.

Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.