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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Trump Sued On First And Fifth Amendment Grounds Over Paid Truth Social Access; Crowley Pushes Unity After Surprise Win Against Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong; Karoline Leavitt Will Step Down As White House Press Secretary; Deadly Storms Tear Through The Midwest; 11 Arrested In U.S. Over Alleged Sham Marriage Scheme; New Exhibit Spotlights Repeating Cycle of Deportation; Interview with Co- Founder of United Farm Workers Dolores Huerta; Total Solar Eclipse Sweeps Across Europe; Outrage over Border Security Project at Big Bend National Park. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 13, 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: Followers on that platform. They got married Tuesday on the coast of Portugal. The rep said it was a private and intimate ceremony attended by their five children. The 41- year-old Ronaldo heads back to work with his Saudi team, Al Nasser, on Saturday.
Thanks for watching. The next hour of The Story Is starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: Coming up this hour, the story is cost of living. A new poll shows a majority of Americans disapprove of President Trump's job as they pay higher prices. What this means for the November midterms.
The story is catastrophic flooding, thousands still without power as endless rounds of storms battered the Midwest. Look at where those storms will hit next.
And the story is solar eclipse, the first one in Europe in decades. Our teams there for the magical moment.
I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles. The top story this hour is the U.S. economy and its impact on voters ahead of November's midterm elections. Seven candidates backed by President Trump have lost their races for Congress or statewide offices this primary season. Meanwhile, progressives have scored some gains against moderate Democrats. Both could signal that many Americans want a harder line against the president.
New Polling shows that 6 in 10 voters oppose U.S. military action in Iran and see it lasting a year or more. And the war has taken a toll on the economy. 56 percent of Americans in a new POLITICO poll say that the cost of living is their top issue. 29 percent cite the state of the economy, 22 percent say taxes and health care are most important.
Inflation may have cooled a bit in July, but economists warn that prices will remain high and President Trump's approval is at an all- time low, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, 32 percent approve of the job he's doing, 58 percent disapprove.
The Intercept and the Freedom of Press foundation are suing President Trump and his social media team. They claim that he is violating the first and Fifth amendments to the Constitution by charging for instant access to his Truth Social post.
The president frequently uses the platform to announce policy decisions and executive orders. An attorney for the plaintiff says the president's official statements are not the private data of a company but are owned by the United States under the Presidential Records Act. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Our panel back with us this hour. Dina Doll on the left, John Ziegler on the right. Welcome back. John, should the president be profiting off of his posts?
JOHN ZIEGLER, HOST, "THE DEATH OF JOURNALIST" PODCAST: No, this is wrong, but I don't know that it's necessarily illegal. This might be a shock, but those that wrote the first and Fifth Amendment did not have social media in mind when they were writing it. And sometimes extraordinary cases make for bad law. I can think of all sorts of bad precedents that this might create.
Like for instance, what if a cable news network had an exclusive interview with the President and they decided to hold that interview and then air it for their subscribers. Would that be not very similar to what the President does in posting on Truth Social? This is a situation where Donald Trump really creates a circumstance where no one anticipated we would ever have someone as president who would be making decisions like this.
This is clearly wrong. It shouldn't be happening. It creates all sorts of conflicts of interest, including with prediction markets and stock markets, but it shouldn't not necessarily be part of the law. This is something that's wrong, not necessarily illegal.
MICHAELSON: I was interesting, Dina, because I was anchoring on the night that the Iran war started, which was a surprise. And the first word we got from President Trump was not in front of the White House press pool. It was not an official statement. It was on Truth Social.
A video posted to Truth Social, that's a pretty important thing. That's not just some meme that's announcing a military conflict. And that's where he goes absolutely over and over.
DINA DOLL, MEIDASTOUCH LEGAL ANALYST: And the fact that he's charging something like $100,000 for even just a few seconds of advance notice shows how valuable that information is to trading. And they -- there is a First Amendment right to equal access to official presidential statements, which is what he is using that True Social for. I was a transactional attorney for Fortune 500 companies. The amount
of money and attorney resources companies use in order to comply with the Securities and Change Commission to make sure the public has equal access to inform company information is mind boggling. And here you have the President basically trying to profit off of the reverse, basically cheating in the stock market, allowing a few people to have access to information and rigging the system.
MICHAELSON: Well, so all of that is happening and we know that he's made billions of dollars during this term. A lot of that from crypo, while a lot of people can't afford basic stuff.
[01:05:04]
And we see that in the poll numbers. We see his poll numbers at record lows. We see the two biggest issues are cost of stuff in the economy, which are two ways of kind of saying the same thing. And yet it doesn't really seem like either party necessarily, John, is actually putting out real ways to fix this.
ZIEGLER: Our politics are totally broken. President Trump approval is exactly where it should be. As the last real conservative America who never supported him, that's what I've been doing for the last eight years, has been critical of Donald Trump. I'm not surprised by this at all.
He is, however, still more popular than the first day of school is in the teachers union. So I think he's got that going for him. But other than that, this looks very bad for Republicans. His popularity is horrendous.
And I think the great irony, to be serious for a moment, the great irony of his lack of popularity is that in large part it's because the most unprincipled man in the modern history of the White House took a principled stand, which was that Iran must not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. And he has paid a remarkable political price for that.
I find it rather ironic, bizarre. I'll never fully understand why this unprincipled President Donald Trump decided to stake everything on this and to die on this hill. I agree with him that was the proper goal, but it has not been effective. And people I think are understandably connecting this to the issue of the economy and affordability.
DOLL: I mean, I have to say, like it is not both parties. First of all, the Republicans are charge of all branches of government. They own this --
MICHAELSON: What's the Democratic plan to make life more affordable.
DOLL: But the reason why all the Democratic socialists are gaining so much traction around the country is because they are focused on affordability. They are focus on health costs.
MICHAELSON: What are they going to get? Medicare for all is going to pass. You think that's going to pass and they come into the Senate. DOLL: OK, so is it that you -- why not have bold ideas.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
DOLL: If you're saying neither party is doing anything and then you're also going to criticize an idea that actually would help Americans? I mean, at some point you have -- you have to introduce bold ideas. Do you get all the way with it? I don't know. Maybe.
ZIEGLER: That's not bold ideas. That's class envy. That's what you guys are doing. You're playing on class envy.
DOLL: There's nothing about having health care.
MICHAELSON: It is and credit to people that are bringing ideas. A lot of the establishment Democrats are not. I mean, a lot of the progressive Democrats are and a lot of established Democrats have not laid out a plan. And many of them do not back the idea of Medicare for all.
DOLL: And that's why a lot of them aren't successful partners.
MICHAELSON: But progressives in California, especially the Democratic Party, are now behind the idea of a wealth tax. Let's put up the information we're talking about up on the screen.
This is a one time fee of 5 percent tax on assets of all California billionaires. It is on the November ballot. It is being sponsored and led by Dave Regan and the SEIU United Health Care Workers. And he was interviewed by POLITICO on stage in Sacramento yesterday by Jeremy White. Here's some of what he said about how this would be a national month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE REGAN, ADVOCATE FOR CALIFORNIA'S BILLIONIARE TAX: If Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is watching, we would love your support. Congresswoman, we, you know, whatever we have to do, we're ready to help you get there.
Kidding aside, I do think this is now a national campaign. This issue we knew this was provocative. We knew this would touch a nerve. We completely underestimated how much interest and attention that this would generate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: All right, John, your thoughts? Dave Regan, by the way, standing by in the green room. He's going to be on to make his case. Your thoughts?
ZIEGLER: Well, first of all, to be clear, I don't think any of the three of us are eligible for this threshold. I know I'm not eligible. I know Cable News Network television doesn't pay as much as it used to.
MICHAELSON: Not in this time slot.
ZIEGLER: Right. So I don't think that we're talking about ourselves here.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
ZIEGLER: But to be more serious, this is the most important issue on the ballot in 2026, in my opinion, and not just because your next guest said this is going to be a national issue. This is about who we are as a country. And this, in my opinion, ought to be referred to not as a tax, but as theft. This is stealing. This is legalized stealing from people who have already paid taxes on their unrealized gains on an arbitrary threshold of a billion dollars. This is as unAmerican as it gets, claiming to be a one time deal.
I would ask anyone who has ever found a spouse cheating, who said it was only one time, whether or not they really believe that. Because that's what you're being asked to believe. This will only happen one time and that threshold will never get lowered if you believe that you will buy anything. This is a sham. This is a farce. This is theft.
MICHAELSON: It does say in the legislation that it would in the bill that it would be a one time thing, but go ahead.
DOLL: Absolutely.
ZIEGLER: Good luck with that.
DOLL: I mean, the fact of the matter is most people who have gotten to a billion dollars have not paid ordinary income tax on their wealth.
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So if we're going to start talking about fairness, the person who works a 9 to 5 job pays proportionately so much more in tax than a venture capital fund who gets 20 percent of capital gains. And also, once you get to the billionaire status, you never sell your stock, you never pay the tax. You just borrow and borrow.
And a wealth tax has been floated around for a very long time. I do think nationally it makes even more sense than the state. But the fact is we have a major wealth disparity in this country and Congress is not coming up with any problems. To your point, you know, nothing is happening to really solve the problems of the American people and perhaps what the theft is taking the hard work of Americans and making them pay more taxes than a billionaire.
ZIEGLER: That never happens. That doesn't.
DOLL: It's does (INAUDIBLE).
ZIEGLER: And one of the --
MICHAELSON: We're out of time, but last sentence.
ZIEGLER: But just insane as well. MICHAELSON: All right, John, Dina, thank you guys very much. We will
talk more about this with Dave Regan and let him respond to what you just said coming up.
Also, David Crowley is calling for unity inside the Dem Democratic Party. Just hours after securing the party's nomination for the Wisconsin governor's race, it's being hailed as a win for establishment Democrats. Crowley defeated Democratic socialist Francesca Hong, whose defeat comes as a blow to the progressive movement just one week after a notable win by Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Earlier, he spoke with my colleague Kaitlan Collins about his path forward as well as interparty dynamics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CROWLEY, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: When we think about what's happening in this country, there are a lot of not just Democrats, but independents, Republicans who quite frankly exhausted by MAGA and want a candidate that they can believe in. And when I think about what we have done about fully funding our public schools, making sure to provide health care and childcare for those who absolutely need it, but more importantly, bridging the gap between suburban, urban and rural communities all across this state is how we get ultimately we achieve our goal of defeating MAGA extremism in Congressman Tom Tiffany.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: There's a big question about your party in general, what direction it was going to take. The Wall Street Journal today called you, quote, the man who halted progressive momentum. Is that a characterization that you welcome?
CROWLEY: Absolutely not. I think that we have tried to tie progressivism to rhetoric, but I think when it comes down to being progressive, it's about the actions that you take. How do you pass policies and implement laws that actually has a positive impact on the communities that you represent? You know, living here in the state of Wisconsin, when I think about progressives, you know, I think people forget that some of the progressives here, when it started were actually Republicans.
We have taken that back when it comes down as Democrats. And I think that a lot of people have tried to focus on the, you know, progressives versus the establishment or insiders versus outsiders. All I know is that not enough people have had a seat at the table. And I was told that if you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu.
And when I think about our political spectrum, there are a lot of people who don't feel they have a political home. And that's why I wanted to get into this race to bring as many people up under the Democratic tent as much as possible. Let's have those tough conversations, but let's make sure that we're actually focusing on strategies that help us reach our goals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: David Crowley with Kaitlan Collins. Another shakeup in the Trump administration. White House press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is resigning, describing her as one of my most trusted aides. President Trump wrote that Leavitt will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect.
He added that Leavitt will still serve as an outside adviser. She made history as the youngest ever White House press secretary and also the first woman to be pregnant in the high pressure job.
Well, some breaking news just in, and this is bad news unless you're one particular person. Someone in Illinois has just won the eighth largest jackpot in Powerball history.
They matched the winning numbers for Wednesday night's drawing for a prize of just over a billion dollars, the biggest jackpot since last December. And since they're in Illinois, not California, they won't have to pay the wealth tax on it. They'll have the choice of taking the full amount spread out over 29 years, or a lump sum payment estimated at $433 million. So there you see the winning numbers on your screen. Congratulations to that person.
The International Energy Agency says there is a growing urgency to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the world rapidly burns through its oil stockpiles. Traffic through the critical waterway remains low, with just 14 vessels reported to have crossed the strait on Tuesday. Still, President Trump claims the strait is open and that the U.S. controls it.
Iran's ambassador to Pakistan and Pakistan's foreign minister sat down for talks in Islamabad, where they discussed closer ties between those two countries and regional issues.
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Pakistan, along with Qatar, has played a key role in mediating talks between the U.S. and Iran. Wednesday's meeting came one day after Pakistan's interior minister traveled to Tehran to meet with the Iranian president.
Colombia's president says the death toll from Monday's earthquake has now risen to at least 265. International teams are lending their assistance, much like they did when the two deadly earthquakes hit Venezuela back in June.
But the damage has been enough for the president to declare an economic emergency, which means he can pass recovery measures that would normally require the approval of Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The emergency I am proposing will create a miracle Fund, an entity that will channel national and international contributions toward the reconstruction of hospitals, educational centers, buildings, roads and airports that were damaged by the earthquake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Thousands were injured in Monday's 7.4 magnitude quake. The president says the man efforts now are on the hundreds who remain missing.
Much of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are facing the threat of more heavy rain and flooding as storms pound the Midwest for another day. They started hitting the region on Sunday and might not let up until Friday. Towns across Indiana are reported flooding roads and buildings with cars submerged in some places.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked on the phone, I looked and I saw water and then my fan gurgled. So I got my fan pulled and I had to go out and the water was starting to rise and within a matter of 30 minutes I already had 6 inches in the house because it was rising that quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you handle this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to rely on my faith, believe it or not. And I'm a minister, and I'll be honest with you, it's even hard for me. I mean this, this challenges everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Evacuations and rescues are ongoing in parts of Indiana. Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses are without power across the state. And authorities are warning residents that they might not have power in other utilities for several days. Indiana's governor says he expects to declare a statewide emergency.
The new U.S. Attorney General cracks down on so called sham marriages meant to help foreigners get American citizenship. We'll have the details.
Plus, union leader Dave Regan here to talk about his support for the proposed billionaire tax here in California. Why he thinks it should be a national issue.
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MICHAELSON: The U.S. Justice Department has unveiled charges against 11 people accused of arranging sham marriages. Prosecutors say the decades long scheme led to about a thousand of these fake nuptials, mostly involving Chinese nationals. The new U.S. attorney general says it shows how far people will go to cheat our immigration system.
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TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: These facilitators employed attorneys, tax preparers and marriage officiants. Some of the other charge defendants acted as recruiters by finding and recruiting United States citizens to participate in the scheme and other defendants acted as officiants officiating dozens of these alleged fake marriages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Foreigners allegedly paid those facilitators up to $100,000 and the U.S. citizens they were paired up to got about $30,000 for agreeing to the marriages.
Here in California, a union leader is working to push the state campaign for a billionaire tax to the national level. Dave Regan is president of one of the largest health care worker unions in the country. The measure he supports call for a one time 5 percent tax on the wealth of California's richest residents talking about their assets.
A number of labor unions and health care groups have come out against the plan. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom has been critical. But so far, the polling looks very good. Dave Regan from SEIU UHW joins me now here in studio live to discuss. Welcome to The Story Is for the first time.
REGAN: Thank you for having me.
MICHAELSON: This week you made news saying that you view this as a national model. What do you mean by that?
REGAN: Well, this is the first of its kind proposal, not just anywhere in the United States, but actually anywhere in the world. And the truth is our economy has really changed in the last century. We have a tax system that's based on the economy we had 100 years ago. And we're seeing this upsurge in wealth and income inequality.
And what we're proposing is what you just said is to look at the most fortunate, the richest people in the country and say in order to stabilize our health care system and make our state work, we have to look at the whole range of financial assets that are out there. And I think this is something that his, you know, the moment has met the issue.
MICHAELSON: So it's not just taxing their income, which is what people do now. It's looking at all the different ways where their money may be stored. Progressives love this idea. Bernie Sanders came out here to endorse it.
I interviewed him when he was out there. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not yet. But you're hoping that she will. Are we looking at a lot of national figures coming in to California? Who are you talking to?
REGAN: I think there's an incredible amount of interest out there, and we've really been surprised by that. But honestly, it's not just progressives, just regular voters really love this issue.
[01:25:02] What the polling shows is every identifiable demographic in California. Age, race, ethnicity, income level, with one exception has majority support for Proposition 40. The only exception is registered Republicans and we get over a third of them. This is something that makes sense to people and you know, we think we're going to continue to see that and people will be coming to the state.
MICHAELSON: Well, one person who doesn't like this idea is the governor of California who could be the Democratic president, presidential nominee next time around. He says that this is going to drive away business. This is going to drive away the main people that fund this state. Remember, top 1 percent of this state make up 50 percent of the revenue that comes into the state.
And he thinks that there should be a national billionaires tax. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: It's time for a national billionaires tax and a new social contract. Think about this. Just 10 percent of people, 10 percent of people in this country own 2/3 of the wealth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Why not do this on a national basis instead of a state basis so that way people can't flee the state?
REGAN: Well, first of all, that requires the United States Congress and the President of the United States. And I think anybody who thinks this is going to happen in the near future just isn't paying attention. What we're capable of doing here in California is fixing a problem that we have the resources to fix. And I would say to you, you're exactly right Elex that 1 percent pays a very large amount of taxes. The billionaires are not 1 percent. The billionaires are .00001 percent And the billionaires today, 250 individuals in California have as much wealth as over 39 million other Californians.
The system is off the rails and we need to correct that.
MICHAELSON: But they pay among the highest tax rates of anywhere in the country already in this state. And John Ziegler, who was on with us a few minutes ago here, described what you're doing as theft. Here's his argument.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZIEGLER: This is stealing. This is legalized stealing from people who have already paid taxes on their unrealized gains on an arbitrary threshold of a billion dollars. This is as unAmerican as it gets. Claiming to be a one time deal.
I would ask anyone who has ever found a spouse cheating, who said it was only one time, whether or not they really believe that. Because that's what you're being asked to believe. This will only happen one time and that threshold will never get lowered. If you believe that, you will buy anything. This is a sham. This is a farce. This is theft.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REGAN: I mean, Mr. Ziegler was kind of wound up. And in addition to being unhinged, every single thing he claimed is just wrong. I do think it's important that people understand, as Warren Buffett himself has said many times, billionaires pay lower effective tax rates than you and I do. And it's not close.
That's the real scandal. Teachers, firefighters, health care workers, journalists, we're paying far more than billionaires are. And the wealth they have can be shielded from our tax system, and handed down to their heirs completely tax free. The real scandal and the real issue here is for the first time in this country, we're having a debate about how lopsided our system is and that's why I think folks like Mr. Ziegler are sort of losing their cool.
MICHAELSON: Well, and it's going to get a tremendous amount of national attention because you could be doing something similar in other states. If it passes here, folks like Sergey Brin, the co- founder of Google, already spend $100 million against this. He could pay $13 billion if this thing passes, which is why $100 million is pretty small in comparison to that. This could be the most expensive fight in the history of California.
And it obviously has a much larger thing. As we know, sometimes what starts in California goes to the rest of the country. As Gavin Newsom says, our nation's coming attract so much for coming and sharing your views. We appreciate it.
ICE to help its officers overpower people who are not compliant. That story and more when we come back. Dolores Huerta, legendary civil rights leader, joins us live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:33:50]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Organizers of a new exhibit at the California Museum in Sacramento say that history often repeats itself, and the idea of mass deportations is nothing new.
They're brand-new exhibit is called "Help Wanted, Leave Now". It tells the story of the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, which was authorized by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower back in 1954.
More than a million people are estimated to have been swept up in that military-style campaign.
Joining me live to discuss that and more is Dolores Huerta. She co- founded the United Farm Workers. She's one of the best known and most influential Latino leaders in U.S. history, and she inspired Barack Obama's "Yes, We Can" with her Spanish version, "Si Se Puede".
Dolores, it's an honor to welcome you to THE STORY IS.
DOLORES HUERTA, CO-FOUNDER, UNITED FARM WORKERS: Well, thank you very much for having me.
MICHAELSON: You just attended the opening night reception this evening in Sacramento to this new museum exhibit.
[01:34:49]
MICHAELSON: We just showed you some of the pictures that are featured in this exhibit. What is the major lesson from it and why is it so relevant to an audience in 2026?
HUERTA: Well, because in the United States of America, we went to Mexico during World War II, and we asked them to send people here to work in the fields, to work in other industries, because our people had gone off to war. We had to support the war machine and our military.
And these are the people that were out there in the -- in the farmworker fields, you know, picking produce and feeding the nation.
And then, of course, this program went on for almost 20 years. It started in 1943. It didn't end until 1963.
Many of these workers were exploited. They were not treated right during the time that they were working here. And then, of course, came the time when they wanted to get rid of them so they started deporting them en masse.
Which is the idea of we need your help until we don't need your help and you're out and --
HUERTA: Exactly.
MICHAELSON: -- and do you see echoes of that now?
HUERTA: Well, we know that workers were not treated very well. Their working conditions were miserable. They were never given adequate food. They were never getting adequate housing.
Many people became very wealthy because our U.S. government gave every employer $1.75 a day for each worker.
And so oftentimes they had more workers than they -- than they had work for them. And so, after the program ended in 1963, our government actually legalized some of the (INAUDIBLE).
But what we see now is the level of cruelty that is now being delivered to our undocumented people is something that was not seen at that time. People were repatriated. They were deported to their home, but they were not put in detention centers. They were not put in prison as what we are seeing today.
MICHAELSON: There's a headline from CNN just out today. ICE plans to spend $20 million on electrical shock gloves for agents. What do you make of ICE planning to outfit officers with electric shock gloves. They say this will actually help to de-escalate situations. And they say when people are here illegally we need to get them out of the country.
HUERTA: No, that is not the way to treat human beings. And this is torture. You're hurting people when you're -- all of these methods that they're using right now. And we don't need to treat people like that because the people that they are putting in the detention centers -- again, they're working people.
There are nannies, the people are landscapers, are farmworkers. The people that really serve the community. And number one, they are human beings and they need to be treated like human beings.
And these are methods that ICE is using are just adding to the cruelty that they want to inflict on people. And our -- these are our tax dollars, and we should demand of our Congress that they prevent them from having these kinds of electronic gloves that they want to have.
We do not need these kind of occupation forces in the United States of America. This is a democracy. This is not a fascist country, and we do not deserve this kind of treatment for the immigrants and -- or anybody in our community, for anybody.
MICHAELSON: Dolores Huerta -- and I know it's rude to sometimes reveal a woman's age, but I know you're proud of it. 96 years old -- still very much an activist showing up at event after event, speaking your mind, and a role model to so many people, especially in your community.
Can you give us one "si se puede" to wrap things up?
HUERTA: Yes. And I want to thank everybody that has stood up to defend our immigrant community. We're very grateful, very grateful. And yes, of all of us working together, we could stop this madness.
Yes, we can. "Si se puede."
MICHAELSON: There we go. Dolores, thank you so much. Honored to have you on the show.
People across Europe --
HUERTA: You're welcome. Thank you.
MICHAELSON: -- were treated to a rare sight Wednesday as a total solar eclipse crossed over the continent for the first time in more than two decades.
For a brief time, the moon aligned perfectly with the sun, sending parts of the planet into varying degrees of darkness. It's an experience that many people will never have, and all those who do will always remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see, I'm going to take these off, the light as you say. It's completely different. It's a light unlike any other light I've seen. To be honest, it's not full darkness.
[01:39:52]
WARD: It's sort of glowing slightly and it feels kind of mysterious, which I think is appropriate because this is one of these extraordinary cosmic coincidences.
People are cheering. The light is disappearing. You can see as it gets darker, people are just getting an absolute -- wow.
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
WARD: You can see the suns coming back again, guys. The sun is coming back. And it is so beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: A rare instance when Clarissa Ward gets to talk about something positive. The next total solar eclipse forecast for next August with totality expected to last more than six minutes from Spain to the Middle East.
British actor Nicholas Hoult is joining the cast of HBO MAXs Harry Potter TV Series. Hoult will play Professor Gil -- Gilderoy Lockhart at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the shows second season.
The role was previously played by Kenneth Branagh in the 2002 film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". The series features an all- new cast, and each season will tackle one of the books in the bestselling series by author J.K. Rowling.
Season one is due out this Christmas. HBO MAX is owned by CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, at least for now.
I'm Elex Michaelson.
For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with more.
Thanks for watching.
[01:41:37]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: Big Bend in Texas is one of the more remote national parks in the U.S., but now it's under the spotlight as a border security project funded in part by Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill gets underway.
Bulldozers are clearing land inside the park with the intent to build hundreds of miles of border roads6, complete with vehicle barriers and surveillance cameras. Outraged protesters say it's unnecessary and unwanted.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: No border wall.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Raging anger is echoing off these canyon walls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This has nothing to do with border security and everything to do with corruption.
LAVANDERA; Protesters gathered in one of the most iconic spots in Big Bend National Park. They're horrified by the Trump administration's border security construction efforts, which is now being unleashed in this patch of far West Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are at war with these people. It's a peaceful war. But if you think what we've seen so far is bad, you wait until they unleash holy hell on this place next week.
LAVANDERA: Last week, crews started carving through the pristine wilderness of Big Bend National Park for what's being described as a surveillance road. The site was captured by a 27-year-old activist trying to stop what she calls this needless destruction.
NATALIE NEWMAN, ACTIVIST: Yes, more than anything else, I feel heartbreak over all of this.
LAVANDERA: Natalie Newman navigates the roads in Big Bend armed with her camera. She takes us to where construction crews have started their work.
You feel like you're just fighting a giant beast?
NEWMAN: Oh, yes. This thing is so much bigger than us. And that's why I'm glad it's finally getting out well beyond just West Texas, because there's not many of us out here. And this is -- this is huge.
LAVANDERA: The Trump administration's plan threatens to dramatically alter the landscape of not just Big Bend National Park, but much of the region surrounding it, stretching roughly 500 miles. The plan involves five different projects, costing more than $7 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection will build nearly 200 miles of border wall, install steel vehicle barriers and carve hundreds of miles of new roadways through part of the park's 800,000 acres and beyond.
All of this, in a sector that officials say only accounts for about 1 percent of all illegal border crossing apprehensions.
The early plan, unveiled by the federal government included a border wall inside the national park. But now DHS and CBP say that's not happening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not the end. This is the beginning. LAVANDERA: That hasn't eased the tensions. The anger over this plan is
visible all over the area. Banners blasting the border wall have popped up everywhere. Local Republicans and Democrats are unified in their opposition to what's happening.
THAD CLEVELAND (R), SHERIFF, TERRELL COUNTY: I'd be all for it if it was necessary, but it's not necessary.
LAVANDERA: Thad Cleveland is the Republican sheriff in Terrell County. He was also a border patrol agent for 26 years.
They want to put in vehicle barrier in a lot of this.
CLEVELAND: Yes, sir.
LAVANDERA: In his office, he showed us a map of where the plan in his county is to put about 160 miles of steel vehicle barriers along the Rio Grande. There's only one problem.
And these are places where its physically impossible to drive a car through.
CLEVELAND: 100 percent.
It makes no sense at all to put a vehicle barrier.
LAVANDERA: Must be scratching your head going like, what are we doing, folks?
CLEVELAND: Definitely. I'm very disappointed.
LAVANDERA: At the beginning of the first Trump administration in 2016, we came to the Big Bend region.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to tell Donald Trump that we already have a wall. Thank you very much.
LAVANDERA: And reported on what many feared the new president might bring to this area, and asked this question.
How in the world do you build a wall in this kind of terrain?
Ten years later, we're sitting down with the former superintendent of Big Bend National Park, Bob Krummenacher. He says the more pressing question is not how, but why the Trump administration is doing this.
BOB KRUMMENACHER, FORMER SUPERINTENDENT, BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK: I would say it is one of the most insane and destructive and yet ridiculous ideas I have ever heard. I never really thought anything this absurd would happen in any national park, let alone the one I know so well.
[01:49:47]
LAVANDERA: Most statewide-elected. Republicans here in Texas, like Governor Greg Abbott, have said very little about the controversy in Big Bend. Senator John Cornyn has written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging the agency to listen more closely to the fears and concerns of residents here.
But there are also a number of lawsuits in the works. There have already been filed to try to slow these projects down. But that will take time to work its way through the courts as well.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, at Big Bend National Park in Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Thanks, Ed.
Still to come, the man accused of murdering rapper, Tupac Shakur will soon get his day in court. More on that and the other headlines we're tracking in the day ahead, next.
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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS.
A live picture from Seattle, Washington's Space Needle looking beautiful as we approach 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.
It is already Thursday morning in New York City, which is also looking good. The Empire State Building all lit up in purple tonight.
Speaking of Thursday, here are the big stories we're tracking for the day ahead.
President Trump has hit a new low in popularity, according to a poll from Quinnipiac University. Only 32 percent of respondents say they approve of the way he's handling his job; 58 percent disapprove. Even the president's support among Republicans has fallen by nine points since June.
Colombia's president has declared an economic emergency after Monday's 7.4 magnitude earthquake. The move will allow him to bypass Congress to enact certain recovery measures. At least 265 people have been killed. The search for survivors is ongoing.
Jury selection is set to continue for a fourth day in the trial of Duane Davis, the man accused of orchestrating the killing of rapper, Tupac Shakur, back in 1996. Davis has pled not guilty to the charges against him. Opening statements are set to begin next week. This is the first time anyone has been charged in connection with Tupac's death.
Thanks so much for joining us here on THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.
The news continues right here on CNN after a break. Thanks so much for watching.
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