170+ Still Missing in Texas - CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
We begin today's show with an update on the flooding disaster that has claimed over 100 lives, a number that's expected to significantly increase with more than 170 still missing. Plus, President Trump lashes out at Vladimir Putin as Russia launches its largest drone attack of the war. And the Philadelphia "trash apocalypse" is finally over with a deal to end the garbage strike. But the trash talk continues in other US cities.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
E&E News
2 minutes ago
- E&E News
Enviros renew threat to sue over ‘Alligator Alcatraz'
Environmental groups plan to sue Florida and the Trump administration for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act through the construction of a migrant detention center in the Everglades. Located in a remote area within Big Cypress National Preserve, the detention center threatens the region's wetlands and endangered species such as the Florida panther and Florida bonneted bat, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Everglades and Earthjustice said in a notice Friday. Aerial images taken in the last two weeks suggest that Florida has filled in and paved over wetlands to construct the detention center without obtaining required federal permits, the groups wrote. The state also hasn't initiated consultation under the Endangered Species Act, even though the facility's 'loud noise, bright light, and vibrations' are likely to disturb endangered and threatened wildlife, they continued. Advertisement The detention center opened earlier this month on the site of a regional airport and will ultimately house up to 5,000 migrants. It consists primarily of large tents and old FEMA trailers, but also includes 'stadium-like' lights, the notice said.
Washington Post
10 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Judge orders halt to indiscriminate immigration operations in California
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in several California counties, including Los Angeles, and denying detainees access to lawyers, as the White House continues its sweeping immigration crackdown in the state that has set immigrant communities on edge and sparked protests. The lawsuit was brought this month by a group of individuals who had been detained or questioned, together with immigrant advocacy groups in Los Angeles, arguing that President Donald Trump's mass deportations involve tactics that are unconstitutional, including patrolling and rounding up individuals without reasonable justification and refusing legal counsel.
CNN
13 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump's increasingly aggressive attacks on Powell aren't what you think
CNN — President Donald Trump's attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are so commonplace at this point that they barely register in financial markets these days. The rapidly intensifying multi-pronged efforts by Trump's advisers to amplify and expand on Trump's attacks are a good reason to rethink that indifference. White House advisers are now unequivocally engaged in a coordinated effort to dramatically ramp up the pressure on Powell in public statements and through bureaucratic moves designed to give Trump more leverage. That leverage, sources say, isn't designed to trigger Powell's removal — at least not at the moment. But with Trump's frustration over the Fed's refusal to bow to his pressure to lower rates growing by the day, it is the most consequential step taken thus far to bring that threat to Powell's doorstep. It also serves as the clearest window into the expanding effort to change Powell's and the Federal Open Market Committee's insistence on independence. Just three weeks ago, Trump candidly acknowledged his attempts had failed. 'I call him every name in the book trying to get him to do something,' Trump said, expressing bewilderment over Powell's impervious response to his powers of persuasion. 'I do it every way in the book. I'm nasty. I'm nice. Nothing works.' Trump's advisers are now showing they aren't giving up. An escalation of a familiar playbook The speed with which the campaign against Powell escalated on Thursday was equal parts jarring and foreseeable for a White House that has approached Trump's second term with a maximalist view of executive authority and a granular understanding of the statutory and bureaucratic tools to further that view. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought triggered that sequence with a letter to Powell, which he posted publicly on social media, suggesting Powell may have broken the law in his stewardship of a planned renovation of the Fed's headquarters. Vought's letter cites Powell's congressional testimony last month and its connection to the National Capital Planning Act, which requires renovation projects to be approved by the National Planning Commission. Vought framed his letter as an effort to better understand the Fed's renovation project amid concerns about its cost and Powell's description of the project in his testimony. 'We will be asking tough questions with regard to the Fed,' Vought told reporters Friday morning. 'But this is about the president being offended at cost overruns, he's a developer.' But when asked if Trump wanted to see the Fed maintain its independence, Vought called the question 'immaterial.' 'The president has a policy view with regard to we need lower rates,' Vought said. 'He has a policy view with regard to the fact Jerome Powell has been late repeatedly. The Fed has been mismanaged.' Vought's letter coincided with a quiet move to replace three members of that planning commission with loyalists, a source told CNN's Kristen Holmes. All were sworn in ahead of the commission's meeting Thursday evening. The moves carry the hallmarks of a familiar playbook utilized by Trump and his top political aides over the course of the last decade. It starts with a little noticed allegation of malfeasance leveled by Capitol Hill allies against an opponent, which is then seized upon, amplified and then utilized as the basis of an investigation that at the very least can be utilized to delegitimize or serve as the basis for more consequential action. The central involvement of Vought, who is viewed as one of Trump's most loyal, knowledgeable and deeply effective lieutenants, represents an escalation in and of itself. 'I think political appointees have to be really aggressive in going back to underlying statutes to see what is possible,' Vought said in an interview last year on the podcast Statecraft, in what he described as one of his governing philosophies. 'It should not merely be a matter of preserving the status quo or asking Capitol Hill, 'Mother, may I?' The president has to manage his political capital, but you need to give him options consistent with the law.' The Fed on Friday published a 'Frequently Asked Questions' page about its planned headquarters renovation, pushing back on many recent claims about cost or other features of the renovation. The page included photos of leaks in the building, foundation cracks and previous efforts to contain asbestos. 'The Federal Reserve takes seriously the responsibility to be a good steward of public resources,' the page said. The Fed declined to comment further, including a CNN question about whether the page was a response to Vought. No active effort to fire Powell White House officials say there isn't an active effort underway to try and remove Powell, a longstanding Trump fixation that advisers have dissuaded him from pursuing due to significant concerns over legal constraints and market reaction. Trump reiterated on Friday that he's not going to remove Powell. Asked by CNN's Kit Maher if he planned to fire the Fed chair after the administration ramped up attacks against him Thursday, Trump replied from the South Lawn of the White House: 'No, I think he's doing a terrible job.' When CNN pressed if Trump would fire him, he repeated: 'No.' Those concerns haven't diminished, however, particularly in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in May underscoring Trump's power to remove executive officials. The court, however, explicitly made the point that Trump's authority did not extend to the Federal Reserve, which it described as a 'uniquely structured, quasi-private entity' warranting special independence. The more acute risk — and, sources say, the primary reason for Trump's reticence to act against Powell — is the expectation that any move would immediately trigger a significant market sell-off. The inevitable lengthy, complex and fraught legal battle that would play out given Powell's position that he would fight any removal in court, would likely consume a stable and resilient US economy for months. 'If there were an effort by the president to remove the chair, the market reaction would be very significant — well before any court had an opportunity to pass on the issue,' former Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said in an April interview with Harvard Gazette. 'The anticipated market effect is a disincentive to try to remove the chair, no matter how unhappy the administration may be with his policies.' Building pressure While some Trump advisers — including Vought prior to this administration — have questioned the statutory basis for the Fed's independence, there is a clear sensitivity within the administration about the market response. That sensitivity was underscored by one of Trump's most consequential actions to expand his own authority: an executive order placing government agencies long viewed as independent explicitly under his purview. Buried within that order was a critical caveat: 'This order shall not apply to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or to the Federal Open Market Committee in its conduct of monetary policy.' That reality hasn't changed, officials say, underscoring the extent to which the latest moves are more about leveraging pressure on both Powell and the other voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee. 'We're aware Powell doesn't make the decision on his own,' an administration official told CNN last week. 'Our view is that voting members have the responsibility to look at the data regardless of his view — and we think the data supports our case.' Replacing Powell That position has been bolstered by the ongoing race to replace Powell, whose term as chair is up next year. Kevin Warsh, who people familiar with the matter say is one of the three candidates viewed as most likely to get the nod from Trump, argued this week on Fox Business Network that tariffs are not inflationary and that the US economy was being held back by 'bad economic policies coming from the central bank.' Kevin Hassett, Trump's National Economic Council Director and another top candidate, has made similar arguments based on economic data. Ironically, it was Hassett, in his role as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in Trump's first term, who played an integral role in convincing Trump not to fire Powell after quietly researching the question with White House lawyers. 'We found that it may not have been possible for the president to fire him and told him in the Oval Office,' Hassett wrote in his memoir of his time in the first Trump administration. 'We could maybe fire him as chairman, but he would be able to stay on as a member of the board. The other members could decide to treat him as chairman, and that would be as far as matters could go.' A coordinated effort While Trump's anger over Powell, who he selected for chair in his first term, is longstanding, the aggressive public attacks on his policy views had been primarily his own. But the frustration Trump candidly acknowledged last month over his ineffective one-man, one-sided rhetorical warfare against Powell appeared to immediately spark his allies to join the fight. 'The president has been saying this for a while, but it's even more clear: the refusal by the Fed to cut rates is monetary malpractice,' Vance wrote in a post on X shortly after Trump's comments. Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who has been sharply critical of the Fed chair for weeks, called on Powell to resign a few hours after Trump's remarks. The effort has grown more intense in the last week. Peter Navarro, one of Trump's longest serving advisers and senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, published an opinion column in The Hill newspaper headlined 'Jay Powell is competing to be the worst Fed chair in history,' and then proceeded to appear on Newsmax, Scripps, CNBC and Fox Business to discuss the piece. Navarro's appearance on TV is always noted on Wall Street — his role as Trump's most hawkish trade adviser often signals a harder line on tariff policy from the administration. But Navarro repeatedly made clear he didn't want to focus on tariffs and had no intention of getting in front of the president on the issue. He wanted to talk about Powell. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, asked about Powell on Newsmax, wasn't subtle either. 'He's got to change and he's got to go,' Lutnick said. That statement in past administrations would've been extraordinary for a cabinet official. It barely registered this week. The ultimate goal, however, isn't about Powell's removal, advisers say. Instead, it's about driving the message and pressure on Fed board members ahead in the lead-up to their next meeting. It's a strategy best captured by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is Trump's top economic adviser and a critical messenger to Wall Street and foreign investors. Bessent, in an interview on Fox News Sunday on July 6, pointed to the differing approach of two legendary college basketball coaches to explain Trump's approach. 'There's the Bobby Knight school and the Dean Smith school,' Bessent said, citing the fiery former Indiana University coach and more refined and controlled University of North Carolina legend. 'Obviously, the president is in the Bobby Knight school and I will tell you, Bobby Knight won 3 national championships and Dean Smith only won 2, so working the refs seems to be effective.'
