new vote to try to break the republican filibuster on monday. join cnn as we explore the extremes of the far south of patagonia where the sea is teaming with life but the land is a desert. only here on cnn. thanks for your time today and this week on "inside politics." try to have a safe and pleasant weekend. fredricka whitfield picks up our coverage right now. hello everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield in new york. ana cabrera is off today. we begin this hour in kentucky. death toll has doubled today and is expected to double again. at least 16 people including children are confirmed lost to catastrophic flash flooding in the eastern part of the state. the flood waters were so strong and violent they swept an elderly man and woman from their homes. and in some areas the homes themselves were washed away. at last count about 300 people

had been rescued. some had scrambled on to their roof tops and some just ran for their lives. >> we've never seen something like this. folks who deal with this for a living have been doing it for 20 years. have never seen water this high. we still can't get to a lot of people. there's so much water, the current is so strong, it is not safe for some of the water rescues that we need to do. we'll be in the search and rescue certainly today and tomorrow and then we'll be looking at a year's worth of rebuilding. >> president biden has declared a major disaster across eastern kentucky and the national guard is helping to rescue people. joining us now from clay county, what is the situation where you are? >> reporter: well, fred, it is really hard, still, to get to the worst of this.

this is an ongoing situation. we're not really in the aftermath yet. my cnn crew dave and chris pulled over on the side of the road to talk to you and catch you up on what we are seeing so far. the important thing for people to know is this is an active situation. we are not really in the aftermath yet. as you drive around the radio comes on with that emergency broadcast system saying prepare for more flood waters. prepare for flash floods. this is still happening. 17 counties so far affected. as you said the death toll now 16 expected to rise. that is across four counties. these flash floods are so terrifying. i've covered them a couple times. the thing that makes them so scary is how fast they happen. the waters rise out of nowhere and take houses and cars and lives along with them. listen to some sound from people who went through the worst of this flash flood so far. >> you better be getting some clothes on and get your backpack. we got to get out of here. by the time we got up to the

neighbors to tony's double wide it had went from the back of the trailer to the car port. >> the living room completely crushed. >> i'm so sorry. >> it's okay. god is good all the time. >> just relieved to get out of there. i'm going to lose everything i have. for sure. but it's better than losing my life. >> just absolutely devastating to hear that, hear people talk. you mentioned the governor at the top of the piece. he talked a little bit about what has gone on so far. we expect to hear more from him this afternoon. my crew is making their way toward some of the worst of these flood waters and we'll have more for you and the audience as we go. but for right now we are in an active situation here in kentucky. people just absolutely devastated by these flood waters, fred. >> a terrible situation. seemingly worsening. evan mcmoro santoro, thank you so much.

our next guest works for a public charity that helps people in eastern kentucky and is now collecting relief funds for flood victims. with the nonprofit foundation for appalachian kentucky, good to see you. more than half of kentucky is made up of farmland. so how disastrous is this flooding particularly to the farming community? >> i know that the word devastation keeps floating around. but it's gone. several of my farmers, one of which we were really concerned we couldn't find her and that story is common. as your colleague was talking about, this is an active situation and we're still on search and rescue. so it's a matter of even finding people right now. and so we work hard to -- we're working hard to develop a local food network and that is just,

has just devastated -- >> my goodness. how do you do that especially as you say right now the priority is search and rescue. but along the way, in looking for people, you are also seeing the damage that is left behind by this kind of flash flooding. how are you mapping out a plan to try to assist people as best you can? i know you are collecting funds but then how do you prioritize and what ways will you be able to help people? >> i'm glad you asked that. that is something i really want to drive home is this is not just today and tomorrow, this week and next week or the next two weeks. i think the governor discussed that, too. this is going to be months maybe years of recovery. for right now we are focusing on what do people need right now. what do people need this weekend. what do people need in two weeks. what do people need in a year. and dividing those things up and focusing on priorities that way.

>> kirsten webb thank you so much for your time and all of the best in your endeavors to help as many as you can. >> thank you. >> of course everybody at home, you can help the victims of the kentucky flooding. go to cnn.com/impact to get more information. now let's take a step back for the big picture here. we'll go to the weather center. is the worst over for folks in eastern kentucky in terms of rainfall, damage, potentially more flash flooding? >> there is going to be a short term break and that will be good news for the recovery, the cleanup process, but then there is going to be more in just a few more days so that short-term period is very short term. in terms of getting a break from the rain. let's look back at the last several days. this is since monday. the focal point is basically from this west virginia/virginia eastern kentucky period all the way stretching back toward kansas city. you can see some of the pink

areas. right here in eastern kentucky and also areas around st. louis. those were the places where we've seen the 8 to 10 inches of rain in those shorter periods of time and then even higher amounts when you start to factor in two, three, even four days' worth of rain. some of the smaller creeks and streams, the good news there is that most of them have already crested. we're starting to see them come back down and pretty quickly and they are expected to remain low. the problem is the water has to flow somewhere. a lot of the bigger rivers where all of the water ends up going down stream they have yet to crest. take for example this is a kentucky river at heidelberg. notice we still haven't crested yet. it is not likely to happen for the next 12 to 24 hours. then we will finally start to see that water begin to recede but for areas right there in the communities right there along that point, you're going to continue to see that water go back up. these are the areas where we anticipate having the flash flood threat at least for today. you can see a pretty widespread

area. >> all right. thank you so much. all right. turning now to the monkey pox outbreak, san francisco has become the first major american city to declare it a public health emergency as vaccine demand surges there and the state of new york has declared monkey pox an imminent threat to public health. new york and california are the two hardest hit states. they account for almost half of the nation's confirmed monkey pox cases. cnn is in san francisco. how will this emergency declaration help people who have been exposed to or are seeking the vaccine there? >> reporter: hey, fred. ideally this gets them resources quickly because that's what officials here are saying. they're saying they need outreach. they need testing. they need vaccines. they need treatment. and this state of emergency should help get all of those

things a little quicker than expected and without road blocks. what officials here are saying is that they're seeing the cases increasing and increasing and doing so quickly. that's why they feel like they need more in terms of logistics and resources. but beyond that what they are really saying is they want the attention of the federal government because they say they need those resources from the government especially the vaccines, mayor london breed saying she reached out to the department of health and human services expressing her concerns and really asking for more vaccines. she says san francisco needs about 70,000 doses. she says so far they've only gotten about 12,000 so she says there is a huge need for these vaccines in this area. take a listen to how she described it. >> we want to make it known that san francisco has one of the highest case rates already of monkey pox of any other major

city in the country. we don't want to be ignored by the federal government in our need. so many leaders of the lgbtq community have also, weeks ago, asked for additional help and support and assistance. >> reporter: look, a lot of local leaders are saying this is kind of a dejavu moment for them. they remember the time when the federal government was not very helpful during the aids crisis. so what leaders here are saying is that they're going to try to do everything they can to help people, to also fight the stigma and the hate and instead show their support and their affirmation for the lgbtq plus community. >> and then when can cities like san francisco expect to see more vaccines coming their way? >> that's a great question. even the people and leaders here are asking the same question. when are we going to get those

vaccines? this state of emergency goes into effect on monday but really is unclear when they're going to get more vaccines. they say they've had to shut down some of the clinics because they do not have enough vaccines and they're also saying that people who need a second dose are going to have to wait until those vaccines come. for now, they are only allowing people to have the first dose just because there is not enough and they don't know when they're going to get the second or even the first dose for others who need it at the moment. >> thanks so much. as the federal government scrambles to meet the demand for the monkey pox vaccine work is well under way for an updated covid booster for this fall. the "new york times" reports that the biden administration plans to offer new versions of the moderna and pfizer boosters in september. they are expected to provide stronger protection against the ba.5 subvariant. it has become the dominant strain in the u.s. the white house says it will buy

about 171 million doses from the two companies pending authorization and cdc recommendation. straight ahead this hour, the principal of the texas elementary school where a gunman went on a rampage is back on the job today. we'll explain. plus an update on an indiana abortion provider who is the target of a state investigation. her lawyer says the complaints against her are unfounded. later, lotto fever is in full swing. tonight's billion dollar jackpot just got even bigger. a live report coming up. yment si was at work, in a giant hole, in a mine. but then s something amazing happened. hello? carvana worked with my shift manager and got everything sorted out so i didn't miss out on the car. super helpful. i was over the moon, even though i was underground. we'll drive you happy at carvana.

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all right. the criminal investigation into the january 6th attack seems to be heating up.

in a significant move the house select committee has agreed to share 20 of its transcripts with the justice department. the committee chair bennie thompson has said the doj is interested in individuals connected to the trump campaign's fake elector scheme. cnn's senior crime and justice reporter joining us now with more on this. so we just learned last hour that the committee interviewed former acting dhs secretary chad wolf months ago in fact and now there is reporting some of his text messages are missing. what more can you tell us? >> that's right. the committee seems to me making great progress but every time we're learning about the progress they're making there seems to be more work that they need to do. what we are now learning as of last night because of a washington post report is that there are missing text messages, more missing text messages at the department of homeland security than was previously known. so "the washington post" is reporting based on sources and on documents they received from a nonprofit called the project

on government oversight that there are text messages of chad wolf, the acting secretary at dhs, and his deputy ken cuccinelli from the days leading up to the january 6 attack. the crucial period where the house really wants to create a complete record of what happened especially in leadership of important agencies like dhs. the house basically was able to say that they learned this just now but this is something known within dhs and also by their inspector general watch dog for sometime now. and this pattern of learning about these text messages quite late after they have gone missing has already happened once to the house committee. this happened with the secret service recently, too, where text messages of key agents were also lost because of a technical migration within the department. so the chairman bennie thompson said this was extremely troubling in a statement last

night and there is the possibility they could have gotten better records he says from senior administration officials if they had known this earlier. perhaps at the time they interviewed wolf. >> i see. okay. and then you and evan perez also have exclusive reporting the doj is preparing for a court battle with former white house officials over executive privilege. what is happening there? >> reporter: that's right. we don't know if the case has been filed at this time but the justice department is gearing up to have a very significant separation of powers court fight related to their criminal investigation in the d.c. district court. what's happening here is that in recent weeks there have been people that have gone into the grand jury specifically from the office of the vice president that evan perez and i have learned about who were unable to talk about certain things donald trump may want to still protect as secret around the presidency. and so the way to get around that is the justice department may have to go to court and tick it through judges to -- take it through judges to create a

situation where they can compel those people to share what they know. they don't know everything yet but are going to move toward trying to get that. what is important about this, it sounds like a court fight. you might not follow every single step of it. one of the things that's important about it is it is very aggressive. this is the sort of thing that happens in a very significant criminal investigation trying to nail down not just what was happening around donald trump but what donald trump himself was saying up to and on january 6th. >> all right. thanks so much. and this just in to cnn. we have just learned that secretary of state antony blinken and russian foreign minister lab rov have spoken today on the heels of a cnn report the administration offered to exchange russian arms dealer viktor bout for detained americans brittney griner and paul whelan. what more are you learning? >> reporter: we are just learning from the secretary that

he did have a phone call earlier today with the russian foreign minister. we should note this is the first time that these two diplomats have had a conversation since russia's invasion into ukraine. and what he said is it was a frank discussion and he pressed the russian foreign minister for the russians to accept this substantial offer the united states has put on the table in hopes of securing the release of brittney griner and paul whelan. >> we had a frank and direct conversation. i pressed the kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of paul whelan and britney griner. >> reporter: what the secretary of state wouldn't do is characterize the russian response to his pressing them to accept this offer that is on the table from the united states side. he also wouldn't characterize if this is any more likely or less likely after this phone call

today. we did hear from the russians earlier this morning talking about the russian foreign minister saying he would be having a phone call with secretary of state tony blinken but also said that president biden and president putin had talked about prisoner swaps last year when they met and they had directed the appropriate folks to deal with that saying that the foreign ministry was not that group of people. so indicating that the russians may think that this is going to be an issue solved through other channels. perhaps through the intelligence community. >> okay. then, kylie, brittney griner's tribal with all of this negotiating potentially happening the trial continues next week as she is facing drug charges in russia. how does her trial play into these efforts to get her home? >> we know that the biden administration officials have been frustrated that they haven't gotten a substantial response from russia in response to this proposal they put on the table but there is also this ongoing trial as you note. we've talked to u.s. officials

who say they believe there probably wouldn't be any prisoner swap that is now under discussion until that trial is concluded. until there is an actual sentencing for brittney griner. we know there is another hearing next week on august 2nd on tuesday as part of the ongoing trial. so we will watch for that and of course whatever sentencing comes out of that because it could impact when this deal actually does potentially come to fruition. fred? >> all right. indeed. lots of moving parts. kylie atwood at the state department thanks so much. house speaker nancy pelosi will be leaving tonight for a tour of russia but last hour she dodged questions on whether her travels will indeed include a stop in taiwan. the possibility has escalated tensions between the u.s. and china. pelosi is a long time critic of china and beijing objects to foreign visits to taiwan. the government sees them as a show of support for independents. a pelosi visit has triggered warnings from beijing and has

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a lot of anger and finger pointing after senate republicans blocked a multi billion dollar bill. that would help millions of u.s. veterans who suffered toxic exposure to burn pits during their military service. 25 gop senators who previously supported the legislation voted against it wednesday. veterans activist jon stewart slammed lawmakers, blocking the passage. >> america's heroes. who fought in our wars outside sweating their asses off. with oxygen, battling all kinds of ailments while these -- sit in the air conditioning, walled off from any of it. >> earlier today cnn spoke to

army veteran leroy torrez who has had problems caused by his exposure to burn pits during his service in the iraq war. >> i see it as strictly repulsive partisan politics hurting the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our freedom. you know, i'm totally -- it's disgusting. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer says he plans to schedule another procedural vote for monday to break the filibuster. a doctor caught in the fallout from the roe vs. wade decision is taking steps toward a possible lawsuit against the indiana attorney general. dr. bernard performed an abortion on a 10-year-old ohio rape victim. the indiana ag is investigating her actions. the lawyer representing dr. bernard says the complaints against her client are from people who never interacted or communicated with the doctor. bernard's attorneys have taken steps toward a possible

defamation lawsuit against the indiana attorney general for his public comments about the doctor, calling the defamation claim baseless. the u.s. supreme court justice who wrote the decision overturn roe vs. wade is mocking foreign leaders who criticized it. justice samuel alito spoke at a conference on religious liberty at notre dame law school in rome. here is what he said about world leaders who disagreed with the u.s. supreme court ruling. >> i had the honor this term of writing i think the only supreme court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders one of these former prime minister boris johnson but he paid the price. what really wounded me was when the duke of sussex addressed the united nations and seemed to

compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the russian attack on ukraine. >> let's bring in cnn legal analyst and supreme court biographer, good to see you. what do you make of justice alito's remarks and some sarcasm there in his tone? >> good afternoon. that is exactly it. this is classic samuel alito. even when he is winning he can't help but take some shots at his critics. he has this tone of agrievement in so many instances, again, even though he is prevailing. he was able to hold on to five votes in the dobbs case, the name of the case he said he could not name to roll back a half century of abortion rights in america. but then he also has prevailed in other ways on religious liberties where he, the overall subject of the speech in rome

sponsored by the university of notre dame had to do with the increasing secularism in america but he has been winning with religious conservativism in so many different ways. obviously on abortion rights, but also this session as you know, fredricka, where the justices have required more public funding for religious schools and more religion in public places. so even though he at times has had the sense of persecution, he is definitely driving this court in a religiously conservative way. >> and this has been a pretty volatile year for the u.s. supreme court. two justices on opposing sides are now calling for civility, justices sonia sotomayor and amy coney barret appearing together for the first time for a public talk and barrett said justices can disagree, quote, without being nasty. so what does this reveal about

these justices? >> well, first of all, it is interesting that it's paired with justice alito's comments because justice alito can't help but sort of strike a nasty tone at times. justice barrett really seems to go to lengths not to be overly critical, not to take any shots. but it was justice sotomayor who from the bench made the comment on questioning whether the justices themselves will survive this stench of the political tone that comes with decisions and actions such as what we have in abortion. but she and justice barrett made a point in their joint appearance that despite what they say from the bench or despite what they say in opinions that they try to get along and a point that they do make is that they are the only justices, the only ones who know what they're going through. so despite their differences, and i have to say on the law justices sotomayor and barrett disagree lots of times on the law but that they try to look for the positive in each other

as human beings and that's what they were demonstrating in that joint appearance, fredricka. >> all right. fascinating. thanks so much. >> thank you. the principal of robb elementary school in uvalde, texas has been allowed to return to work after a brief suspension. mandy gutierrez was criticized for her handling of school security prior to the shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. she was placed on administrative leave during a school board meeting on monday. in an exclusive interview with cnn, gutierrez said she followed the training she was provided to the best of her ability. straight ahead, 911 families lash out at a saudi backed golf event happening at donald trump's golf course in new jersey. a live report coming up.

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jersey. the members of the 911 justice say trump betrayed them by not releasing classified documents about 911. >> we now have the documents. thanks to president biden. simply you lied to our face. you've continued your -- comments as recently as yesterday in your espn interview. it is simple. the saudis did it. they plotted it. they funded it. now they're trying to distract every one of those sins with a golf tournament 50 miles away from ground zero. it's deplorable. you along with professional golfers have also decided to accept blood money from this rogue saudi government. >> all right. the emotions are deep there. cnn's correspondent joining us live from bedminster, new jersey, what more are you hearing from the 911 family members? >> reporter: they are outraged, fred, especially after hearing from the former president in

that interview mentioned in which the former commander-in-chief basically suggests nobody has gotten to the bottom of the 911 attacks. what you're hearing from those families that came together, united their voices yet again here in the township of bedminster, new jersey, just a few miles from where that tournament goes on at this hour, what you heard is basically this collective call for donald trump to acknowledge what they say was the saudi role in the attacks and also the long running list of human rights violations allegedly committed by the saudis. six years later they feel that they have not been helped by the former commander-in-chief. instead, holding this large golf tournament here at his golf club. i want you to hear directly from sandra felt whose husband was aboard flight 93 the flight flown into a field in shanksville, pennsylvania on september 11 when those passengers basically revolted and tried to regain control of the aircraft. when you hear sandra you can hear the frustration in her

voice today as she hoped that it could be heard all the way down the street, all the way to where that tournament is taking place right now. >> there can't be no happy ending. what we want is accountability. i want my grandson to learn the truth about how his grandfather died and the people that supported it. that's what i want. that's why i'm here. >> reporter: basically what she is doing is adding her voice to the growing chorus of 911 survivors and the families of the victims that simply want the saudi government to acknowledge this alleged role that they had in the 911 attacks. as for the government itself they continue to deny any role not only in the 911 attacks but also the murder of "the washington post" journalist jamal khashoggi. back to you. >> thank you so much. as americans contend with sky high gas prices, oil companies are cashing in on your pain at the pump posting massive profits. this latest quarter exxon made

more money per second than many americans made per paycheck. that's going to make a lot of people mad. so break down the staggering numbers. >> reporter: staggering numbers for sure. big oil is minting money right now. keep in mind exxon did pretty well a year ago. they made almost $5 billion. not bad. now almost $18 billion. they nearly quadrupled their profit. that is in large part because of higher prices. they are investing in new supply but production is only up 4%. that is not really going to change much in terms of not having enough oil. let me break it down further. that amounts to $2,200 every second in the quarter. >> a lot of money. >> a lot of money. every two minutes. takes two minutes to pump 20 gallons of gas. it costs you $85.

exxon mobile over that span over a quarter million dollars. this is obviously frustrating to people dealing with very high gas prices right now. we should remember though that the oil industry did get crushed during covid. the world was shut down. oil prices went negative very briefly. >> people weren't driving as much. >> companies went bankrupt. exxon alone lost $22 billion during that span. the company says they continued to invest in new supply during that span even though they lost money. clearly this is a boom to bust industry. ups and downs. right now they are riding very high. >> i feel like even with that loss very few people will feel sorry for exxon especially now seeing the contrast of how much more money they've been making. so gas prices have gone down for over a month now. any reason to think this streak will continue? >> well, the good news, okay, gas prices 45 days in a row are down. they hit a record high $5.02 mid june. since then they're down.

this is not cheap. $4.26. it is not great but definitely a step in the right direction. there's actually 16 states that now average less than $4 a gallon. i think the bad news is that oil prices have started to creep higher. they actually traded above a hundred dollars a barrel earlier today trading around $98.75. we need to keep an eye on this. if they go above a hundred dollars i think we'll see a return of the dreaded rising prices at the gas pump. >> sadly we've gotten used to the $90, 80 something every time we fill up but we'd like to see it go down. >> good to see you. >> thank you. could you use say an extra billion dollars in change? the megamillions jackpot is more than $1.2 billion and counting ahead of tonight's lottery. a live report on lotto fever straight ahead. but first in california to understand what's behind catastrophic wildfires and how

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the countdown is on. in less than ten hours, someone could become a billionaire. the mega millions jackpot grew again. it's now worth more than $1.2 billion. before you spend that paycheck, here's a reality check. you have a better chance at being struck by lightning, killed by a shark or being hit by space junk than winning. boy, that is depressing. cnn's omar hjimenez is in chicao

with some uplift. people are feeling lucky. on average, how much are people spending for those hopefully lucky tickets? >> reporter: oh, my gosh. people are spending so much money, fred. and i will say just real quick, even though the chances are low, it's for a much happier outcome than some of what you were saying before. we've been at a few gas stations across the chicagoland area and people have been incredibly excited, but also having visions of what a life as a lotto winner, as a billion dollar lotto winner would look like. take a listen to some we talked to. >> i'm not a usual player, but since it was so big, i thought, you know, i guess the saying is, if you don't play, you can't win. >> for a billion dollars, when it crossed that threshold, what was the first thing that went to your mind? >> a house. no more working.

>> what do you do now? >> work. >> reporter: i think that's what is on a lot of people's minds. as big as this lottery number has gotten, it is still only the second biggest of all time. the first goes to a $1.5 billion number that went to a still anonymous person out of south carolina back in 2018. whoever that person is. >> i don't blame that person. i think i would follow suit. you've been talking to a whole lot of people, experts, in fact, and what are they saying in terms of helpful tips when trying to pick the numbers? >> reporter: that's right, so there are a lot of common numbers that are picked, but also when we just lay out everything in regards to this, we know the lottery amount is now up to $1.28 billion. it is the third time it's gotten past the billion mark in the mega millions and it's the second largest in history.

while you should keep playing, you can only win if you actually play, the chances are 1 in 303 million. also some of those common numbers, 7, 26, 53, 58, 15, and the most common mega ball drawn is 14 in the past two years. so take that what you will and good luck if you're going to play. >> good luck to you. i know you've got tickets. how many did you buy? >> reporter: oh, i've got five. >> that's a good number. nice and modest. i think i'll follow your suit. omar jimenez, thank you so much. everyone agrees, it was a shocking moment at the oscars. will smith slaps chris rock during the ceremony. and in a new video smith says he is deeply remorseful and offers this apology to rock. >> chris, i apologize to you.

my behavior was unacceptable and i'm here whenever you're ready to talk. there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. there's no part of me that thinks that's the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults. >> all right, who would forget that moment? and now the words of will smith resonating? well, he earned a ban from the oscars for ten years as a result of that moment. all right, this morning beyonce released her long-awaited seventh album "renaissance". take a listen. ♪ ♪

>> okay, just in time for the weekend. so it's been six years since beyonce released her last full-length album "lemonade" and queen bey says this is just one of the albums. the news continues next with alisyn and victor after this. woah! look out! [sfx: : submarine rising out of water ] [ sfx: minion spits bobber ] minions are bitin' today. [ sfx: submarine hatch closes, submarine dives ] ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hello! minions: the rise of gru, only in theaters. hey! when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-dai pill. wh uc got unpredictable,... check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq.

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