400,000 people. this was in the middle of the korean war. the election cycle was coming up in 1952. they used to say he had a 27% approval rating. he thought by speaking at the mall it might bring him up, it didn't and truman couldn't run for re-election. >> thank you, doug, appreciate that. sorry to cut you off. brianna keilar is picking up now. we'll be right back. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. welcome to our special fourth of july coverage. it is independence day here in america and celebrations are under way across the country. here in washington the july 4th parade is going on right now. later president trump will hold his controversial salute to america. cities and towns big and small across the country are decked out today. this is darian, connecticut, where people are coming out for

their 15th annual push and pull parade. iowa is getting the 2020 treatment this independence day. democratic hopefuls like joe biden, bernie sanders, kamala harris, beto o'rourke and pete buttigieg are fixtures at parades and barbecues there in the hawkeye state. iowa caucus goers are paying attention and making their voices heard loud and clear during this time. dueling chants just a short time ago made for an awkward moment for joe biden. watch. >> it's time, it's time, it's time for a woman in the white house. it's time, it's time, it's time for a woman in the white house. whoo! >> i say joe, you say biden. joe. >> biden. >> joe. >> biden. >> i say joe, you say biden. joe. >> biden. >> joe. >> biden. >> so this is all happening in the midst of a battle over race issues between former vice president biden and senator

kamala harris following their tense exchange on the issue of busing at the debate last week. now both candidates are having to answer for their positions on busing. i want to go live to iowa for the latest. cnn political reporter arlette saenz is following joe biden. kyung lah is following kamala harris. harris criticized biden and she's taken a position that is raising eyebrows. tell us about this. >> reporter: well, it's raising eyebrows not among her camp per se, because her campaign is saying they feel that this is all a distraction and it's being directed at them from the biden campaign. here's where it all began, brianna. there was a question yesterday in a reporter back-and-forth with kamala harris at an event. the question that was asked is whether or not she supports mandatory busing. she said yes. and then she followed up with this response. >> busing is a tool among many

that should be considered when we address the issue, which is a very current issue as well as a past issue, of desegregation in america's schools. so i think of busing as being in the toolbox of what is available and what can be used for the goal of desegregating america's schools. i believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district. >> reporter: well, that launched a twitter back-and-forth between the campaigns. from the biden camp i want to read you this tweet. quote, it's disappointing that senator harris chose to distort vice president biden's position on busing, particularly now that she is tying herself in knots trying not to answer the very question she poed sed to him. and then a snap back from the harris campaign. vice president biden said who the hell do we think we are that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white choeld.

he called busing an asinine concept. come on, y'all are better than this. the y'all being directed right back at the biden camp. that is all because of the harris answer. when we go back to the campaign, what does she mean by toolbox and federal mandated busing. in the 1970s it was a very different situation. she absolutely would support federally mandated busing. you cannot pick up that solution and drop it in on today's issues, brianna. the campaign is saying that certainly she feels it is one of a number of tools to be used to try to correct the issues in schooling today, bro aianna. >> thank you so much. let's head over to independence, iowa, and arlette. biden, his campaign has been reacting to this. he actually just took questions today from reporters. tell us about that. >> reporter: yeah, that's right,

brianna. just after he finished a fourth of july parade here in independence, iowa, biden spoke to reporter as this war of words has been erupting between his campaign and kamala harris's. i asked the former vice president specifically what he thought about kamala harris' current explanation on her position on busing. take a listen to what he had to tell me earlier today just a short while ago. >> she said that busing should be considered as part of a toolbox that school districts could consider when it comes to the issue of segregation. >> she's absolutely right. >> and do you think that there is any difference between what she was saying to you in the debate last week versus today? >> look, she's a good person. she is smart as can be. she feels strongly. it came out of nowhere. it didn't seem to be something at all consistent with anything i had been accused of before. >> reporter: now, biden also was trying to make the case that

democratic candidates need to start focusing on issues of the future, not necessarily looking at the past. he said he is not going back to other people's records for 10 or 20 years ago bringing up issues from there. of course biden has a much longer political record than the other candidates. but biden said they need to start focusing on issues such as health care talking to voters. i also got the chance to ask biden about his dropping poll numbers and what he thinks about those. he contends that he's still way ahead, but we know those polls are showing a tightening since his debate performance and including that exchange last week. >> arlette, thank you so much. kyung lah, thank you as well. happy fourth to both of you. joining me is a white house correspondent for bloomberg news and charlie dent, now a cnn political commentator. i wonder what both of you think about what we're seeing between kamala harris and joe biden as it's developing now. yes, it's 40 years later. her campaign, margaret is making

the case you can't drop this in 40 years later and joe biden's position in the '70s. what do you think about this? >> kamala harris was looking for a moment in the debates and she found it. but a moment in the debates is different than an ongoing conversation without a time limit on it. i think that's the reality that she's facing now. joe biden talks about how he wants to talk about the issues of the present, not the issues of the past. but of course even if busing is not going to be a driving issue of the campaign, disparity in public schools and the ability for a child to get a good education is a very important issue to a lot of voters. it is one of those sort of galvanizing issues for a lot of voters of color. and so it's something that he needs to be aware of. whenever you hear a candidate say it's important to have a conversation about that, it means i don't have a completely baked plan right now, so please wait until my ten-point plan comes out. so it's a real issue and demonstrated an opportunity for her and weaknesses for joe

biden, but i think, you know, over the course of the next few weeks, we're going to see her try to take maximum leverage from that window that the debates got her, biden try to get back on track and both scramble for fund-raising because when you look at president trump's fund-raising numbers, like a fight over busing compared to how do you get to $105 million is -- those are two really different issues. >> congressman, i wonder what you think watching all of this. because both of these candidates have their issues with their records. yes, biden supported civil rights broadly and he talked the talk. he definitely had a lot of support in the black community. still does. he also balanced as a senator the desires of white suburban voters in delaware and his record definitely reflects that. but kamala harris was a tough prosecutor and critics say that her actions were not enlightened on the issue of criminal justice. do you think this is a good debate for either one of them to be having? >> absolutely not, brianna. this is a terrible issue. there are a lot of very fine

people who supported the civil rights act and voting rights act but opposed forced busing. think about it for a second. on the one hand these democrats are talking about, in this case kamala harris, talking about forced busing and being okay with that but on the other hand saying we oppose school choice. heaven forbid if we let a parent send a child to another school district or private or parochial school. all opposed that, but they'll compel you to send your child to a school outside of their neighborhood school zone. in 1971 i was bussed too. we all went to school in allentown, pennsylvania, at the same sixth grade center. it was a local decision. not that big a deal as far as i was concerned, not the greatest idea in the world but they did it. but this is just -- the democrats talk about republicans being trapped in the past. here they are debating an issue that frankly no one has talked about for decades. >> could i ask you personally, having been bussed into a different school, could you see

that that changed sort of your perspective or your exposure than if you'd perhaps stayed in the school that you were initially mandated to be in? >> not at all. in fact many of those students -- this was elementary school. at that time sixth grade was still elementary school, not middle school. and so essentially many of those same kids who i was meeting in sixth grade ended up being in my junior high school a year later so it really had no real impact on me. by the way, that school is the same school that the great lee i coka went to who just passed away. one of allen town's greatest sons. >> it's interesting to hear your perspective on that. kamala harris has a very different one. a lot of people who have written about this issue have a different one, i just want to make that clear because i want to move on to the next topic, which is justin amash declaring his independence from the gop. what are the wider ramifications of this, margaret? >> there are two questions, but the most important one for the

country and political watchers is, is he laying the grounds work for a libertarian ticket for president and turn a negative focus on president trump. there is a secondary question which is can he run for re-election on a third-party ticket and what will happen. but you saw the president already out of the gate. i mean he's up this morning celebrating the fourth in his own way, golf. but took a moment out to -- well, you probably have the tweet. but he took a moment out to call justin amash a loser and say that he was never going to win and all this sort of stuff. so the president is going to enjoy beating up on him over this. the question is does amash have a long-term plan and does he have a next act. >> tweeting is how the president celebrates every holiday, every day. congressman, what do you think watching this with amash jumping out of your party? >> well, since i'm sitting here

in the shadows of independence hall in philadelphia, we should talk about justin's independence day here. first thing, justin -- look, i don't think he had any intention of running for re-election as a republican after he came out for impeachment of the president. i think the dye was cast then. justin as we all know was more of a libertarian. i too was a trump critic when i was in congress but i was also part of the governing wing of the party. i wouldn't say justin was there. he was a member of the freedom caucus. republicans are going to need to have a debate. amash is raising nfair issues. what is the republican party going to look like after donald trump. donald trump will be here a limited amount of time, four years or eight years. he's going to be gone. the question is does trumpism survive? we shouldn't be about banishing heretics, we should try to get people into the party. the problem with this party right now is that we've -- we're basically making it too sclus y

exclusionary. we have to be about addition, not subtraction. throw justin amash out of the party. that doesn't help you build your coalition. >> he's throwing himself out of the party now, congressman. >> yeah, i guess he quit. >> he did. thank you so much. margaret, thank you as well. former vice president joe biden will personally address the back-and-forth with senator harris when he and his wife, jill biden, speak with cnn's chris cuomo. you can see that interview tomorrow morning at 6:00 and 8:00 a.m. eastern. the trump administration reversing course. it will try to work around the recent supreme court ruling to get a question about citizenship printed on the census for 2020. also a look now at the statue of liberty on this independence day, just hours from now fireworks will light up the new york skyline. the city is getting ready for that. and right now in washington, residents and visitors are gathering on the mall to celebrate the fourth. in just a couple of hours here, president trump will speak live from the lincoln memorial. wi

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citizenship question on the 2020 census. all it took were a couple of tweets. under trump's direction, the department of justice now faces a friday deadline to find a legally available path forward just a day after officials announced they were backing off. with me now is cnn legal analyst shan wu. shan, the supreme court ruled that this was going back to a lower court. even the department of justice came out and seemed to think that this was a done deal because with the census being printed and everything going out in the fall, it seemed like the window had closed. now it's sort of back open. what is the government going to try to do here? >> well, they can only try to do what the supreme court allowed them to do, which is chief justice roberts gave them a window. he said you could come back with an alternative explanation. of course he called the one they offered contrived. so now they're in the awkward position of saying if you didn't believe that story, how about this one? the one they gave that were to

help enforce the voting act was soundly dismissed not only by the chief justice but three other federal courts that you say that ross was not being truthful about it. >> how is any other explanation believable when they came forward first with a contrived explanation? >> it's not. the only way you can walk through that minefield is to say, okay, that explanation, just forget about that. there are legitimate purposes for why we could put this on and just put it forth and swallow your embarrassment. >> for those who are against -- who are arguing against this question being on the census, would going back to the supreme court now reopen the process so that they could actually get in some evidence they wanted to present about the motive behind this question? >> that's exactly right. it's a real double-edged sword for them. in fact that maryland judge, one of the reasons he's pushing for a decision from the justice department is he says, well, if that's your position, then i'm going to commence discovery on

the issue. so all that would open up. >> do you see a situation where the question does change on the census? >> i think it's really hard for that to happen right now because supposedly they had already begun running the printing presses. we don't know if they put in a stop order on that. timingwise it's really, really hard to get that on there right now. >> shan wu, thank you so much. here in washington, the city is all ready for a fourth of july event hosted by president trump, but as cnn has learned, staffers are still scrambling to try to give away free tickets to this big show. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today.

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soul singer josh stone had a goal. ♪ everybody walk hand in hand ♪ push together ♪ >> she wanted to perform in every country on earth, visit every country as part of her total world tour. five years and 199 countries later, stone finally landed in her last destination this week, but the airport was as far as she got. this is what stone posted on instagram. >> well, i got to iran. we got detained and then we got deported. i haven't gotten to play yet

and -- >> well, it's unclear exactly what stone planned to do in iran since women are not allowed to perform solo concerts. she had explained her mission to immigration officials, to bring good feeling with what i have to give and show those who want to look the positives of our globe. from deportation to provocation. in a matter of days iran says it will start enriching uranium at levels above the agreed amount. president trump responded on twitter. he said iran has just issued a new warning. rouhani says they will enrich uranium to any amount they want. be careful with the threats, iran, they can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before. we have samantha here, a former senior advisor to the national security council during the obama administration. what do you think about this? it's not particularly unexpected after the u.s. pulled out of the

nuclear deal. >> it is not unexpected. this is a predictable move by iran, brianna, because we have to remember that iran's nuclear program is their trump card. it's what got the united states to the negotiating table when i was in the obama administration and what got several countries, including the united states, what we call the p5+1 to impose sanctions. iran is trying to throw its weight around to where we relieve economic pressure. the difference today, however, is that what iran is doing is illegal under international law. the united nations issued a resolution, u.n. resolution 2231 that lifted u.n. sanctions on iran because they were upholding their commitments under the iran nuclear deal. if iran keeps blowing through these commitments and starts enriching uranium below 3.67%, we could see the united nations

move to reimpose sanctions that mirror what the united states has already done. that could put even more pressure on iran at this point. >> since the president called off that strike against iran following the shootdown of an american unmanned aircraft, "the washington post" has reported that administration officials are laying down broad legal grounds for a strike. sam, could the president bypass congress with some sort of action like that? >> i don't think that we should rule out anything when it comes to president trump and domestic law. he tries to circumvent it at every juncture, that's why we've had so many legal challenges to things that he's done domestically. the administration has been saying that if they took action in iran, they could do so under kind of two different buckets. one is something called the aumf, the authorization to use military force that was created after 9/11 to fight al qaeda and remnants of al qaeda. that is a very weak legal case and would come under a lot of scrutiny. or the united states could make some kind of constitutional

argument -- excuse me, the administration could make some constitutional argument that the president is acting within his constitutional authorities by launching strikes within iran. that would also be a stretch. president trump launched strikes in syria, for example, without getting authorization from congress. i think what we'll see is the administration start saying that these are very targeted strikes. this is not war. this is about the national interest of the united states. again, just using jargon that would fit within his constitutional authorities. there will be, i think, strong bipartisan pressure for the president to consult with congress on any actual military action in iran, but the broader question is what kind of war is president trump trying to get us into? any strikes in iran would most likely be met by significant counterresponse that would put u.s. assets and allies in the region in direct -- in the direct line of fire of iranian proxies and iranian rockets. >> that's a very good point. sam, thank you very much.

this is a story that we have heard all too often. an off-duty police officer shot dead. an unarmed black teen sparking right riots. the difference is this didn't happen in the u.s., it happened in israel. protesters blocking streets, torching cars and this stems from sunday night when an off-duty police officer shot and killed a 19-year-old ethiopian israeli man. the officer felt his life was in danger, his lawyer says, police say, but he was taken into custody soon after the shooting. the israeli public security minister said he would create a body within the police force to examine accusations of racial discrimination. and on this independence day, we will be going live to the national mall where washington is hosting so many people, and even as you can see there, trump protesters who have gathered, including with this large trump balloon, ahead of his big speech tonight.

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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! america turns 243 years old today, and city officials say the largest birthday party will be held in new york. for nearly half an hour fireworks will be launched from the barges that you see right here. for the first time in several years from the brooklyn bridge itself. cnn's brynn gingras is in new york. the nypd has been working

tirelessly to ensure people are safe tonight. what does it take to prepare for something like this? >> reporter: yeah, brianna, it's a huge undertaking, right? this is something they have been planning for really since the fireworks went off last year. serious meetings beginning early this year and really the last week is when we have seen and heard about the major plans that are really put in place. we got this rare look into the nypd yesterday, their special ops units. these are the guys that are tactical, they have the specific skills, and we went along with them on their harbor units, the ones that are patrolling all the waters around these fireworks. we also went up with them in the aviation, in helicopters for those units. we learned a lot. you have to use scuba gear to get under those barges, maybe sure nothing looks suspicious before they put fireworks on there. they're going to put drones in the air to survey the crowds that are expected tonight, to be able to communicate with those crowds if need be. just incredible technology being used to really keep everyone

safe. i want you to listen to the chief of that special ops division as he gives us details on what's going to happen from their end. >> we do a lot of diving, proactive diving with the scuba unit, checking the barges before the fireworks are loaded onto them, checking areas where the public is viewing the event from, all along the waterfront, checking all of them. so it's a big week for all the special operations. >> reporter: yeah, they call it their super bowl. this is a big week for them or big night for them. of course they're in the waters making sure the boats that come to watch the fireworks are safe as well. it's going to be very safe according to the nypd. >> it should be spectacular, thank you so much from new york. here in washington the city is preparing for a major celebration spearheaded by president trump. he has promised his salute to america event will be the show of a lifetime. he's going to give a speech. there will be military flyovers, including an appearance from air force one. tanks are on full display here in washington, but there is a lot of controversy surrounding

just how political this traditionally apolitical event will get and just how much this will end up costing taxpayers like you. we're going to be taking all of this live. for days now we've been covering this newsworthy controversy surrounding this event so we want to ensure that you get to see it. you can make up your own mind as to whether the president politicized the event as some military chiefs, cnn has learned, are concerned he may do. or whether he used taxpayer dollars to celebrate america in a nonpartisan way. we have cnn national security reporter kylie atwood on the national mall for us. this is the site of president trump's event. cnn has learned up until last night staffers are still scrambling. they have free tickets they have been trying to give away to this show. part of this is they want to make sure that the national mall is full because they're concerned about having another inauguration crowd size disaster that the president would surely frown upon. how's it looking now? >> reporter: that's right. so we know that aides in the

white house were rallying to get folks out to the national mall so that president trump, who loves large crowds, would in fact have a large crowd. but one of the interesting things is that the president has sought to elevate the role of the military here in washington today. there will be tanks that are on display. he will be giving a speech in front of the lincoln memorial and he'll be flanked by military leaders. but we just watched this parade go by and it was not strictly a military parade. there was no u.s. weaponry on display. in fact it was much different than that. there were military units that were part of it, but there were also marching bands and there were members of dance troupes and there were really young boy scouts who were out there. so it was really a celebration. there was even a massive cake balloon to celebrate america's birthday. so it was a different feeling now. we'll have to see how the military increases its role in this day, in this celebration as we get closer to president trump's address, which will be

at 6:30. i want to pull in darrell. he came up here from florida. it's his first time in washington, d.c., for the fourth of july. how would you describe the atmosphere today in washington? >> i'd say it's very patriotic. nobody seems to be one side or the other, everybody is for america. >> why did you decide to make the trek up here? it's a long way. >> my daughter decided that she wanted to come to washington, d.c., so this is our summer vacation. we picked the fourth because of the celebration. >> that's awesome. thank you so much. really appreciate it. we should note he was here in washington for president trump's inauguration as well so he's back. there are folks from across the country who are here from florida, california, colorado, ohio, you name it, there's a lot of folks here. >> all the way from florida. thank you so much, we appreciate it. i want to bring in at-large member of the council of the district of columbia robert white. robert, this is your city.

it's my city as well, but this is your city and you're part of its leadership. do you have any concerns about the celebration tonight? >> i have a lot of concerns. what president trump has done is really taken the nation's holiday and co-opted it the way that he did with the national anthem, the american football league, and it's not fair. there are so few things these days that pull us together. we can't have someone put his ego in front of the nation. that's not what a patriot does. >> so some of his supporters would say, well, what's the matter with celebrating this, with honoring the troops, with honoring the country? what do you say to that? >> well, we honor our troops. i think all of us understand the sacrifices that our troops make. but what we've never had and haven't had in recent memory in the district of columbia around the country is using the fourth of july as a military show or to make it a partisan event. that just is not what it was meant to do. so people who see tanks in d.c.,

folks who lived here in 1968 during the riots when the national guard was called out, they see tanks in our city a little differently. also it's going to tear up our streets, tear up the mall and cost taxpayers and specifically d.c. resident taxpayers a significant amount of money for the nation's most expensive photo op ever. >> so tell us about that. because we know there are federal expenses that are going into the millions. it's hard to exactly figure out how many millions, but we know it's a lot. what type of expenses is the city incurring? >> so we have to plan our protection, our police protection around the president's ideas, which it seems are still being fleshed out now. so we don't know the total cost to the taxpayers. bringing tanks up to d.c. costs money. flying jets over d.c. costs money. an extra fireworks display costs money. all of these things require additional protection as well, not to mention handing out tickets on a partisan basis as if this was a campaign event. that is not fair to the nation,

certainly not fair to the residents of the district of columbia who are footing and bill and still owed over $7 million from trump's inauguration. >> tell me what part of tonight you will be participating in. >> i will be with my family away from the national mall, as most d.c. residents are. >> yep. >> not watching the fireworks. hoping that we are all really enjoying family an remembering what this holiday is about. it's one of our rare opportunities across partisan lines, across the country to come together, celebrate our nation, the progress that we've made and understanding that we have further to go. >> we know the mall can be a little bit of a mess. a lot of us in d.c. do tend to celebrate away from it. thank you so much, we appreciate it. you can catch the july 4th celebration as well as the president's tonight on cnn. his speech is expected to begin at 6:30. we do have some breaking news now. a moderate earthquake has just rattled los angeles. i want to get to sara sidner,

she is at our l.a. bureau. tell us about this. could you feel this? >> absolutely we could feel it. the building that we're in is about 15 floors. the entire building was shaking. you could look down on the streets and see that the light poles were moving back and forth. this was a pretty strong one, one that we haven't felt in some time here in the los angeles area. i can give you a little bit of information of where it was centered. it was centered in ridgeview, about 150 miles northeast of los angeles, to give you some idea of how far away it is and the impact. we certainly felt it here. we are located in hollywood. i also want to give you some sense of how big it is. they're saying the magnitude of this is 6.6. so a moderately strong earthquake certainly felt here in ridgeview. there's a population of about 27,000 people but obviously it has rippled out across this area. certainly they felt it northeast of here in, for example,

pasadena, someplace that a lot of people are familiar with. and to give you some idea of what a 6.6 is, when the last large earthquake that hit here did quite a bit of damage was northridge and that earthquake was 6.7, so this is just down a notch from that. but that earthquake, a lot of people remember because they saw, for example, you know, a highway that fell in and there was quite a bit of damage in the northridge area where that was centered. now this one is centered about 156 or so miles from los angeles. we could certainly feel it here across the los angeles area. we are hearing from people in other areas that are nearby, they certainly felt it. we do not have any information on whether or not there is damage, whether or not there are injuries. but it was certainly felt and we'll get more information to you as soon as we get it. the earthquake -- the folks here who are very familiar with how to deal with these are all gathering. the experts, the seismologists. i just talked to one of them.

they are opening the earthquake center which will be giving out more information as we get it. but i just wanted to say again, 6.6 earthquake in the ridgeview area, about 150 miles from los angeles, felt all over southern california. >> actually as you know these things sometimes change a little bit. usgs is now saying that it's 6.4. >> okay. >> this is still substantial. i mean 6.6, 6.4. >> it is, yeah. >> there's been at least one aftershock. that's what usgs is saying, sara. we'll stay with this and keep an eye on this. i'm a southern californian. i went through the northridge quake, but i was very far away from it. you're 150 miles from ridgecrest. it's important to note as it happens with all earthquakes, we're waiting to get in those local reports. >> right. >> because you're feeling a significant quake. imagine what is happening there at the epicenter 150 miles away, right? >> absolutely. they can feel it much more

strongly. it can create damage. even a 6.4, downgraded a bit from when they first looked at these numbers which was a 6.6. it depends on what kind of earthquake it was, whether it was back and forth or up and down. those can really create a lot of damage. it just depends on exactly how shallow, for example, this was. but we certainly felt it. i can tell you i've been here about five years. this is the first time i've actually felt an earthquake here in los angeles that was strong enough to move this building, which is about 15 floors, move it significantly where we could all really feel it. we knew immediately we were having an earthquake right now. it lasted for probably 10 to be 15 seconds here where you can feel it. time actually is a big deal. if this goes on for, for example, a minute, it can create a lot more damage, especially at the epicenter. it didn't feel that way here but we do not yet know exactly what it felt like and how long it lasted. this is now being called a 6.4

magnitude earthquake there in the ridgeview area 150 miles or so from here in los angeles. >> sara, stick with me, if you will, as you keep appear eye on this. i want to bring in our meteorologist tom sater in our weather center. this is in ridgecrest, the epicenter. >> correct. >> tell us a little about this, what you're looking at with the 6.4 and what some of the different factors are that could either give more or less damage in a situation like this. >> well, to be quite honest with you, brianna, we cover earthquakes it seems like every week on our sister network, cnn international. this is the very first time i can remember in about eight years where after an earthquake, you can't get the information from the usgs. >> really? >> their website is clogged. so we have little data. we will get it, it's just been slow and they have reamped and redid their website. what we know is pretty much between las vegas and bakersfie bakersfield. this is very close to death valley national park.

now again, as mentioned, 150 miles away. the most important thing is even though originally it was 6.6, typically they all drop a little bit. 6.4 is still significant. anything above 6.0 will do some the most important factor, though, is just how deep. 8 kilometers so you're talking a little over 10 miles deep. that's significant enough to absorb most of the shock and energy. however, a lot of it depends on the soil in this region. of course in southern california the wave action does pretty much provigate outwards. what we're going to find now are after shocks. there's another website called emsp like usgs they reported

since 5 after 10:00 there have been three smaller after shocks. now, that's typical. if we have something that shakes a little bit shocker that's a 6.4 that'll be considered tquak. in the last few weeks there's been a lot of interest in kind of swarm of smaller tremors that have been happening in california, and it's kind of sparked the interest on many seismologis seismologists wondering, hey, is something going to happen? are we going to see a larger release of energy? is this it, the 6.4? the usgs will provide us with a couple of graphs and show us a shake map, how many moderate, strong, very strong or violent.

that'll come out along with the possibility of injuries based on the population and where that shaking was taking place. in a few more minutes we should have much more information right now. but i've never seen the usgs site get crammed like this in eight years. >> we certainly are. i will tell you twitter is alight with people there in california reporting what they felt. i want to get back to sarah schneider, what can you tell us? >> reporter: there was a hotel in rich crest we were able to talk to. they had some damage, saw the floors rippling. so we're starting to hear some of what is happening where this earthquake was epicentered.

a 6.4, the talked about the building moving and floor rippling so they do have damage. the first report of damage we're getting in the ridge crest area about 150 miles from los angeles. i also want to tell you this, we have just spoken to someone in las vegas. that's about 269 miles away from los angeles, they felt this earthquake all the way in las vegas. as you know, the further away you get from the epicenter the lesser effect you're going to get from an earthquake. but the fact they felt it all the way in las vegas, they felt a shake or tremor is significant here. again a 6.4 is a muderately strong aek, it can do damage. and now we're hearing there is damage in ridge crest according to one hotelier there. for people who have never experienced this it's unlike

anything else. hurricanes, you get a forecast hurricanes are coming. earthquakes, not so much. there's some technology out there that'll give you sometimes 10 seconds. japan has great technology to give you time to take cover. but here in the states that's somewhere in between. you all of a sudden feel the ground moving underneath you or if you're a building like we are and you're elevated you start feeling the building sway. there's a lot of concern in california in particular about building codes. there are a lot of buildings not yet up to code, a lot of old buildings they have to retrofit, and so this is always a concern. if something is not built to withstand a certain magnitude earthquake there can be extremely devastating damage. we've seen that before. obviously there's a lot of freeways here with a lot of overpasses that can be pretty vulnerable to an earthquake. you saw it in north ridge, of course. and if you were anywhere in that area you certainly felt it. the folks in ridge crest would have had certainly the whole

population there about 27,000 people would have felt this one for sure since we felt it all the way here and they felt it 200 plus miles away in las vegas. i want to reiterate we have heard now a report coming into us of damage from a hotelier in ridge crist. and we will be getting some pictures i assure you. and we'll be heading to that area shortly as well. we should mention, 6.4. and now we've had an after shock of about 4.0 according to usgs. >> and part of the issue too is the damage that will be assessed afterwards even if god forbid there's not going to be damage like we saw obviously in something like north ridge. those quakes are few and far between thank goodness, but when you do have quakes of this size there's issues about the structural integrity of buildings, of homes, things that

are going to be assessed over time and afterwards. i was just texting with our contributinger who was in santa barbel ru. she said she felt an earthquake just before she went live with us a few minutes ago. i checked that out. she's a little over 200 miles from ridge crest, so this is certainly something people are feeling as you said much farther away than you are. and this is -- so right now we're expecting we're going to get obviously someone on the ground there in ridge crest. i also think when we're talking about floors rippling here, that's the question is what kind of damage is coming now. what kind of movement was this? was this jarring, was this rolling? and those are going to be the questions we're answering here in the short-term hopefully. >> absolutely. and we'll start getting those reports in shortly. the los angeles police department has put out a tweet if you felt it, let us know if

there's any problems, any injuries. all the apparatus us here, the rescue teams are all ready to assist in whatever way is needed. and yes, you know, look, we get earthquakes all the time as you heard from our fabulous meteorologist there. we get them all the time. they're usually small enough you actually don't even feel it. we have 1.1, 3.2s where you're not even sure something happened. you're not sure if that was an earthquake or somebody dropping something up above us. this one was unmistakable. it went on for quite a few seconds and so you knew this was a fairly big one because of the length and time and strength. >> stick with me. i'm bringing in tom seder again. tom, you've been saying it's been hard to get in touch with

usgs. have you been able to see anymore information from their website or anything? >> it will still down, briana, believe it or not. once it comes up, the shake maps are going to tell us everything. however, i'm going to give you information from the counterpart of the european company that does pretty much the same thing as the usgs. they monitor the world as well. first of all, let me just tell you between las vegas and bakersfield, pretty close to the death valley national park right in the center here. you see where los angeles is. i believe we might have a few graphics and i'm going to ask my producer taylor if he can bring that up for us. originally 6.6. the usgs does this, they recalibrate and look at the energy and waves. and again, 6.4, that's significant. the depth is the most important factor right now. 8 kilometers. when we cover these earthquakes around the world 6.2 or greater,

many of them, indonesia, you're going to find them 400 kilometers deep. that's significant. it absorbs all the energy. 8 kilometers there's significant shaking going on. 10:33, more of these tweets from this european company called emfc. they're saying now there's been a number of after shocks and they're right pretty close between 20, 25 miles around ridge crest. a 4.2 this is 13 minutes ago 32 miles northeast of ridge crest. they come down and of course they've got another one that's a 3.9. they're saying there's been already as many as five already. that is not unusual. a lot of times it takes time to release this energy, and after shocks could go on for days. they can go on for weeks. in some areas of the world when it's really strong like a 6.4, 6.6, 6.8, you could have after shocks continue for a month, even two months. we see this in parts of bali and

some of the earthquakes they had eight months ago. once that comes in and we'll be able to go through and look a bit better if we have anymore in the way of information. just to give you a quick glance here around the world anything from a 6.6 to 6.9 we've seen them all year. >> that is not many earthquakes. tom, stay with us. we're going to continue our coverage. that is it for me. i'm going to hand this over to brook baldwin to continue our coverage of this earthquake that's a 6.4 in california. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. here we go on this independence day. we continue with this breaking news out of southern california. thank you for being with me. i'm brooke baldwin. talking about this major earthquake. preliminary reports indicate it was a 6.4 magnitude quake. and just for