keep it moving. >> the debris in question comes from the 23 ton long march 5 b rocket which delivered a module to the chinese space station and is now in an uncontrolled descent, also the title of rudy giuliani's memoire. >> look, space junk is no laughing matter. "new day" continues right now. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world, it is thursday, july 28th and i'm brianna keilar alongside john berman this morning. a series of high stakes interactions around the world, the biden administration awaiting a response from russia on its proposed prisoner swap of a convicted arms dealer nicknamed the merchant of death

for detained americans brittney griner and paul whelan. >> the president expected to speak with his chinese counterpart this morning as tensions boil over taiwan and a potential trip by house speaker nancy pelosi. in ukraine the u.s. believes more than 75,000 russians have either been killed or wounded since the start of an invasion and 80% of their land forces are bogged down. and in north korea overnight a new warning from kim jong-un threatening to use nuclear weapons. let's get right to our reporters covering it all around the globe. >> reporter: i'm clare sebastian in london. the u.s. has revealed it's ready to trade convicted russian arms dealer viktor bout currently serving a 25-year sentence in the u.s. to secure the release of wnba star brittney griner and paul whelan, another u.s. citizen convicted of espionage in russia, that's according to people briefed on the matter. despite the offer being on the table since june a senior administration official subjected russia has yet to officially respond. the u.s. secretary of state

antony blinken says he expects to speak to russian foreign minister sergey lavrov in the coming days to discuss the potential swap. i'm selina wang in beijing. president joe biden and chinese president xi jinping are having a phone call today as tensions are running high. beijing is furious over a potential visit by house speaker nancy pelosi to taiwan. china has urged the u.s. to cancel her trip, threatening powerful retaliation. this is a high stakes moment and the call is a chance for both sides to lower the temperature and manage the tensions. pelosi's potential visits come comes before xi jinping is seek an unprecedented third term and the concern is that he will make a rash move in response to the visit since he cannot look weak at home. let's bring in cnn's global affairs analyst brianna golodryga and jim sciutto. the u.s. predicting 75,000 injured or killed russians in the conflict.

i wonder if that number is what you expected and how significant that is, but also does that put a lot of pressure on vladimir putin internally? >> i was surprised by that number, that was the first time i have seen the number as high as it was, you've even this ukrainians say the russians killed or injured in their estimationes is 40,000. you spoke with officials last week who indicated it ranged from 15,000 up to 25,000. this really ups the anti for vladimir putin if that is the case because they mobilized 150,000 troops at the start of the war. i don't know how many that are injured have now recovered and have been sent back into combat. that is a significant number, especially since vladimir putin hasn't officially called this a war so the draft isn't mandatory. >> jim, let me ask quickly -- >> just last week british officials were saying 60,000 killed and wounded, 75,000, so that's a jump and the u.s. has tended to be more conservative in its estimates than the british. that's about half the invasion force, typically with military units, if a quarter of your forces are lost, killed or

wounded, that unit becomes combat inoperative. so this is half russia's invasion force. it's a remarkable setback. by the way, it dwarfs what russia lost in afghanistan in the '80s in ten years in six months' time. >> and russia officially says they have only lost about 1,500 troops and the last number they gave out was back in march. the united states has offered a prisoner swap with russia for brittney griner and paul whelan, viktor bout, the merchant of death, a convicted arms dealer here. that's a significant concession. how important do you see this? >> two americans are coming home, if you are a member of their family that's a good thing. >> if. >> you're dealing here with an authoritarian nasty regime. there's pressure to make a dirty deal, but we shouldn't underestimate -- these two things don't go together, brittney griner, you know, who knows -- anyway, a minor crime

compared to what this guy was convicted of, including killing americans. supplying weapons to separatists, and he is a different category entirely. the other worry is russia, iran, this is basically hostage taking. they pick up americans on made up charges or trumped up charges and those are, therefore, bargaining chips that they can use for exchanges like this and of course the worry is, of course, you make a deal here, who is the next one who becomes a hostage. on the flip side this may be the only way to get those americans home. >> sure. does it encourage it, but are they going to play ball on particular case ultimately? >> i don't know why russia would want this man back, but they already en changed another convict and another arms smuggler a few months ago for trevor reed. we have seen this pattern and russia's behavior. they would like to drag this out as long as possible.

antony blinken and sergey lavrov have not spoken since january before the war so this would be the first high level conversation between two counterparts. i think ultimately they will go forward, it's a good deal on their end, they have two americans who don't have russian blood on their hands but will hopefully be able to come home. i would note that the judge who convicted viktor bout also signed off on this deal and said he served 11 years, not a good guy, a bad guy. >> there's domestic politics at play here. the biden administration can point to this this and say we've given a very good offer here, it's not that we are not doing anything to try to get these americans home. >> the political pressure was real, you heard it from the families, too, and understandably the families were pushing and saying they weren't getting enough attention for their family members. so from a domestic political angle makes sense. it's just we have to remember who this guy is compared to who the americans are who if it goes through are getting out. >> remember the first approach didn't work. the first approach from the u.s. state department had been to keep this hush hush as much as

possible, to not bring much attention to this, to brittney griner being in russian custody because they didn't want to elevate the status and get to this point. obviously talks were not going in the direction the u.s. hoped they would and thus now we do have this offer which nobody likes to see happen, this guy has american blood on his hands but we would like the americans back home, certainly their families. >> thank you so much for that. we are going to see you guys at 9:00 on "cnn newsroom." so a huge new deal this morning and a surprise at that. this is between senate majority leader chuck schumer and west virginia democratic senator joe manchin. this is a major piece of legislation, one that they say would pay down the national debt, cut health care costs, fight climate change and battle inflation. joining us now is someone who may have been a key player in making this happen according to the "washington post," former treasury secretary under bill clinton lawrence summers. he also served as director of

the white house economic council in the obama administration. thanks so much for being with us this morning. the "post" reports you had a pretty important phone call with joe manchin. talk to us about your role here. >> oh, i talked to officials from -- fairly frequently from time to time, but in order to do that i never talk about the confidential conversations that i have, but this is a good bill. this is an important step forward on inflation, which has been my preoccupation this last year, it's historic on the environment, it's going to make our society more fair and equal at long last, getting rid of the carried interest loophole, it's going to take important steps forward on access to health care and it's going to invest in the future of our country. so this is a very strong bill and i'm just delighted to see this agreement and i hope it all

moves forward as expeditiously as possible. >> i understand you don't want to tell us the details of your conversation with joe manchin so let's have a conversation between you and me, i'm john berman, i'm asking you, secretary summers, i'm concerned that this bill might be inflationary, that you're raising taxes on corporations, that you're spending money on climate change. how would you allay those concerns? >> so, john, first, this reduces budget deficits and so by reducing budget deficit it reduces the level of demand in the economy. second, this reduces prices directly by going after prescription drugs and getting lower prices and a better deal for taxpayers when they purchase prescription drugs. third, this increases supply by stimulating energy production and by subsidizing and

supporting our energy transition to renewables. so less demand, more supply and direct better bargaining for lower prices, those are the things that are involved in reducing inflation. >> just to go back historically -- and thank you for role-playing there with me -- i imagine that was something along the lines of what a conversation with a senator like joe manchin who is concerned about inflation might about like. when the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill first came up in the beginning of biden administration you called that historically irresponsible. i think that was the phrase that you used there. you see this as vastly different than that. >> i do. and there is a very good reason for it. the $1.9 trillion bill was unpaid for, this bill is more than paid for. i think if you use realistic revenue estimates and you assume that the huge progress on tax

compliance, on collecting the money that's owed that now escapes taxation, trillions of dollars worth of it, if you use realistic revenue estimates i think you're raising more than $2 in revenue for every dollar that you spend. in that original bill that i criticized you were raising no dollars of revenue for every dollar you spent and you were spending a vast sum of revenue, close to $2 trillion, and you were spending it all in one year. here we're spending it over many years and we're raising far more revenue. >> just so put a fine point on t you see this -- they are advertising this as fighting inflation. you see this bill as fighting inflation? >> this bill is fighting inflation and it's got a whole set of collateral benefits as well, but it's fair to call it the inflation reduction act because it's directly fighting the rate of inflation. >> there are some democratic senators from northeastern states who are disappointed that

there aren't the issues with state and local taxes. they want deductions for state and local taxes in this bill. what would you say to them if they were to threaten to hold this bill up to get that back in? >> i would say we've got enough hostage taking in this world and we have enough hostage taking in this senate and they would be hostage taking america's prosperity and middle class families' chance of not paying higher prices with inflation if they were to interfere with this bill. look, i've been very lucky in life and i'm a high-income taxpayer and it would reduce my taxes a whole bunch if they put back deductibility, but that doesn't make it the right or the fair thing to do. only 20% of people in our country even take itemized deductions, so that's a bill

that is -- that's a measure that is targeted towards those with the highest incomes and they are not the people who need most support in our society right now. so i understand how they feel, i understand the argument, personally it would mean a lot to me if they did it, but if you look at it from a point of view of the whole country i think it's just not the right thing to do. >> we are in the next hour and 17 minutes going to hear about gdp, about what the economy did in the last quarter. this prediction that i'm going to ask you to give it won't stand for very long because we're going to find out the news in an hour but what do you expect will happen? do you think the economy grew or shrank last quarter? >> i don't know. it will be on one side or the other side of zero, but if you look at a broader suite of indicators, which is what serious economists do, they

don't just look at one -- one statistic, i think it's pretty clear that as of right now the economy has been growing, i think it's pretty clear that things are in some jeopardy for the medium term, but right now, however this particular number turns out, you don't have an economy that's currently in recession that's creating 350,000 jobs a month, you don't have an economy that's currently in recession where you have the kind of consumer spending figures that we've been seeing. i do think because of a whole combination of factors and, frankly, mostly because we need to cool off an economy that got itself overstimulated by policy, i do fear that a recession sometime in the next year or two

is very likely, but i think we took a useful step in giving the fed a little more running room with the legislation that senators schumer and manchin have agreed on if that legislation can pass as expeditiously as possible. >> larry summers, you've been right in the middle of it. we appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> great to be with you. so a lot of news this morning, including this deal between joe manchin and chuck schumer and the proposed prisoner swap with russia. we will have white house communications director kate bedingfield to talk about it all. cassidy hutchinson is now cooperating with the justice department in its criminal probe into january 6th. who else is talking? ["only wanna be with you" by hootie & the blowfish] discover is accepted at 99% of plalaces in the u.s. ["only wanna be e with you" by hootie & the blowfish]

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there may be others. i want to bring in katelyn polantz on this reporting. what can you tell us? >> cassidy hutchinson was such a significant witness in this house select committee investigation, separately the january 6th criminal investigation by the justice department is bringing her in, having her cooperate in some way and the significance of that in that separate investigation aside from capitol hill by prosecutors is that it means now they are looking into the west wing. that was something we did not know that they were doing until we got this news this week. so former prosecutors for a long time were watching cassidy hutchinson speak publicly in that house select committee hearing, thinking, you know, it's only a matter of time until the justice department brings her in and replicates what she said. it does appear that that is what she may be doing, though i should say my colleagues who were reporting on this do not know the extent of her cooperation right now with the

justice department, but clearly what is happening in this criminal probe of january 6 out of the d.c. u.s. attorneys office is that it is expanding, it is expansive, it is continuing and it is aggressive. you mentioned that there are others that may be cooperating in addition to cassidy hutchinson we also know this week that there are two top aides to vice president mike pence who have gone into the grand jury in that investigation, we also just heard, i believe it was an interview you may have done with alyssa farah, the communications director from the trump white house, saying that there were others who had been contacted recently. and then on top of that, with that criminal investigation continuing on, the house select committee they're continuing to get their own additional information. the one thing we learned this week, yesterday as well from some of thigh colleagues on capitol hill, is that they're now trying to talk to secretary of state -- former secretary of state mike pompeo about what he knew was going on in the cabinet

in the moments after january 6th where there was this fear of the democracy being at peril. we have learned now that pompeo could be doing a closed-door interview with the house select committee. so they're continuing to investigate and obviously the justice department is continuing to investigate as well. brianna. >> really interesting developments. thank you for the reporting. so with all of this as the justice department does push forward with its criminal investigation into january 6th, what are the chances that former president trump could actually face criminal charges? john avalon with a reality check. >> it appears that ex-president donald trump is under investigation for a pent load of potential crimes related to his attempt to overturn our election, but there is a lot of disagreement about which, if any, charges might stick. to be clear we are in unchartered waters because no past president has tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

news of a grand jury broke this week. in georgia prosecutors have been far more vocal about investigations into a fake electors scheme and trump's infamous call trying to pressure georgia's secretary of state. >> all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. >> this is indelible evidence, it's such a brazen example of solicitation to commit election fraud that there's really no clear parallel in our recent history and in the battle days of damn knee hall corrupt political bosses never got caught on tape but you still hear smart lawyers say trump may never be held accountable for his actions, action that is would probably land any other person in prison. the way we can say that is because smaller pols have gotten

indicted and convicted for trying to manipulate vote totals to their advantage. for example last month in philadelphia a former congressman known as ozzy myers led guilty to election fraud charges. back in the late '70s he was kicked out of congress and locked up after he got caught talking bribes. he tried to remake himself as a local king maker in two south philly wards but old habits are hard to break and he started bribing local election judges to throw fake votes to preferred candidates in 2014. no some ways this is small ball stuff, right, as little as a few hundred bucks for democratic votes in two precincts but it was totally corrupt and he deserved to have the book thrown at him again. here is another case from north carolina's 9th congressional district where in 2018 the republican nominee seemed to narrowly beat a democrat by just 905 votes, but a judge declined to order the state board of election toss certify the results because of a very

credible fraud investigation. turned out a republican political operative allegedly paid folks to collect absentee ballots and fill them out to favor republicans. the election had to be redone but the republican candidate who denied knowledge of wrongdoing and was not charged didn't run again. dulles died before facing crime on the fraud charges. a case this year concerning a compton city councilman who seemed to win his seat by a single vote until it was found that he had gotten four folks from outside the district to help him get over the top. this is frowned upon. in fact, it's illegal so the court declared his opponent the rightful winner while he has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but he is face ago quarter million dollar fine for alleged campaign finance violations. these case right side rare as former strategist stuart rodney told me election fraud is rare, but these folks were all accused of breaking the law, scheme to go undercut the integrity of our

democracy for personal dban and all for a handful of fake votes. in contrast donald trump is on tape asking for 11,780 votes in a swing state. wasn't some consultant or councilman he was the president of the united states pressuring the lead election official from his own party to find just enough votes to win. he wasn't successful but attempted murder is still a crime and the larger principal is as big as it gets, equal justice under law. during trump's administration many felt constrained by a legal opinion which said that a sitting president couldn't be indicted. his lawyers even argued in court that trump could shoot one on 5th avenue and not be charged until he left office but that logic has its limits, namely whether some version of presidential immunity can follow someone forever. i'm not hazarding a guess on how this will all turn out and the prospect of indicting an ex-president is too serious. the only thing more serious is

an attempted coup and the need to strengthen our guardrails so that it doesn't happen again. and that's your reality check. >> for sure. and not to make light. john avalon, thank you very much for that. so what role did the president play in the surprising climate bill and a bill for lower drug prices on capitol hill, a bill that shocked everyone and does the white house have a response from russia for the proposed prisoner exchange. chris rock is speaking out about that infamous oscar slap by will smith. what's he saying? because proven quality sleep is vital to our health a and wellness, only the sleep number 360 smart bed keeps you cool, thenen sens and effortlessly adjusts for your best sleep. tells you exactly how well you sleptpt. your sleepiq score. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. so, you can be your best for yourself and those you care about most.

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major news this morning. democratic senator joe manchin has struck a crucial deal with senate majority leader chuck schumer on a significant piece of legislation. this is literally a big and unexpected deal that they say would include a historic level of spend to go fight climate change, aim to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030, allow medicare to

negotiate drug prices. this is a first in u.s. history. extend expiring obamacare subsidies for three years and set a 15% corporate minimum tax. joining me now is the white house communications director kate bedingfield. thank you so much for being with us. what role did president biden play in this deal? >> well, remember, these are some of the core things that president biden campaigned on in 2020, these are things that he promised to make progress on when he asked the american people for his vote. so he was incredibly gratified last night to see this breakthrough that senator manchin and senator schumer and so many others worked so hard on for many, many months. as you just laid out it is a historic step forward in our fight to tackle the climate crisis, it will help us meet the carbon emission goal by 2030 which is absolutely critical as our planet is burning. it is enormously important and it's also going to bring down costs, going to bring down health care costs and it's going to reduce the deficit. so it's going to do all this have while ensuring that corporations are paying their

share share of taxes and that no one making under $400,000 a year sees a tax increase. these were core promises that president biden campaigned on in 2020. >> he was in isolation until yesterday with covid. i'm glad that he's out. was he on the phone? did he speak to senator manchin in the last week? >> this is the work of many, many months. this has been enormously hard work across the course of many, many months to get to this deal. this is something that, again, the president is incredibly grateful to senator schumer and senator manchin and many others who put in hard work to do this. this is exactly what the american people are asking for, this is the action that they want to see and this deal that was announced last night represents an enormous step forward. >> has he spoken to senator manchin about this? >> i don't have any private conversation toss read out to you except to say that obviously a tremendous amount of effort by a lot of parties have gone into getting here and it takes persistent and hard work and it takes hard work on behalf of the american people. >> if not private conversations what about a public statement on

whether or not he has spoken to senator kyrsten sinema. we don't know where she stands on this and in the past over the last year, this has been going on for a long time or variations of this, she has opposed certain tax increases. what do you know about where she stands on this bill right now? >> well, look, i obviously don't speak for her or for any member of congress, i speak for the president, but there is a tremendous amount in this package that is going to have an enormous impact on the this i think that families across the country are worried b it was encouraging last night to see the reaction broadly from democrats who really embraced the incredible step forward that this represents on climate, on a commitment to a fairer tax code. so, you know, i don't speak for any particular member of congress but i think there is enormous energy and enthusiasm and a recognition that this is something we have to get done in order to meet the challenges we're facing. i think everybody feels the urgency of now here. >> you do speak for the white

house and there has been concern among some democratic senators from the northeast that the reinstituting deductions for state and local taxes is not part of this deal as of now. so what would you say to these democratic senators who might say, hey, we want this in? >> i would say that if you look at what this deal does, it reduces health care costs by expanding subsidies under the aca, it takes enormous strides on climate, it takes enormous strides to make our tax code more fair. these are things that the american people have been crying out for, have been demanding and this package does that, it meets that. these are promises, again, that the president made when he was campaigning and they will have a real tangible impact on families' lives all over the country. i would say there is an enormous amount here for everybody to be excited about because this is tackling the challenges that we're all facing in a really historic way. >> so you would ask them not to hold up the bill for the s.a.l.t. matter?

>> i'm not going to get into the specifics of legislating, i will let the congress do that but i will say that the president believes this is a historic piece of legislation that we should move it forward, that it is going to tackle things that americans are worried about and it will have a real impact on their day to day lives. >> so before this deal was announced the senate passed what would be historic legislation in an investment in the semi-conductor research and development, the chips bill. in the house now the republicans are saying they are going to whip against this, even though it was a bipartisan bill in the senate and there have been republicans who have supported in the house, now the leadership in the house is going to whip against it as a protest, i think, is my understanding, against this bill, the bill we were just talking about, the inflation bill. your reaction to that? >> look, i think it is incredibly unfortunate that republicans are choosing to play politics with a bill that many of them, in fact, supported as recently as yesterday because it's -- it is an incredibly

important bill that's going to increase our semi-conductor chips here in the united states which means it's going to lower costs on things like cars, phones, it has enormous national security implications, i mean, china is actively lobbying against this bill. china does not want to see us pass this bill. so it's incredibly unfortunate to see republicans, many of whom have actually supported this very measure, now choose to play politics because we are on the cusp of a historic agreement that's going to move us forward to tackle the climate crisis and bring down prices for americans. i'm not sure there's a lot of logic there to be honest with you. >> the president is going to speak to xi jinping in the next hour or so, what message will he deliver? >> i'm not going to get ahead of the president's direct conversation, but this is going to be the fifth time that they've spoken since president biden has been president, he obviously believes in the value of leader to leader communication and having an open line of communication. of course, there are issues of mutual interest between us and there are issues where we have friction and tension and the president certainly never holds back from being direct about

that. so we'll certainly have a readout after the call, we will tell you more about what they discussed, but as the president likes to say he doesn't do these conversations in public and i'm certainly not going to get ahead of him on that. >> any reaction or response from russia in the last 24 hours to the proposal of a prisoner swap for brittney griner and paul whelan to get them back to the united states? >> well, you can understand that these are the kind of negotiations that also have to happen in private, you know, what you saw secretary blinken say yesterday is we have put -- we have put a significant offer on the table to bring brittney griner and paul whelan home and, you know, we have shown that we're willing to take extraordinary measures to get wrongfully detained americans home. you saw that in the case of trevor reed is few weeks ago. obviously the specifics of these negotiations for reasons i'm sure you can understand have to remain private but what i can say is i have personally seen the president's engagement in this case, he spoke do shir rel griner a few weeks ago and has directed his team to do

everything in their power to ensure they come back to their loved ones. >> we appreciate the time this morning. thank you. >> thank you for having me. and in just moments we are going to speak to former u.s. marine trevor reed who was in the same situation that griner and paul whelan are. he was in that situation just a few months ago. his reaction to the possible prisoner swap. and in a cnn exclusive the principal of robb elementary school is breaking her silence. >> do you feel you share some responsibility? >> i believe that there is always room for improvement. i believe that i did my job to the best of my ability. ok, let's talk about those changes to your financial plan. bill, mary? hey... it's our form broker carl. carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant.

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call and start saving today. comcast business. powering possibilities. in a cnn exclusive interview the principal of uvalde's probrobb elementary school, mandy

gutierrez defends herself after a damning report criticizing how she handled school security after the devastating massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead. rosa flores is joining us live from san antonio. what did she tell you? >> reporter: brianna, she stands by her actions on that ill-fated day. she says she followed her training and that she really wouldn't change anything that she did in particular. as for the allegations that there was a culture of noncompliance at robb elementary school, she said that that is simply not true. >> when i was calling chief arredondo i heard three shots, the initial three shots. >> reporter: the principal of robb elementary school in uvalde breaking her silence and answering questions about allegations of lacked security at the school. >> i believe that i did my job to the best of my abilities. >> reporter: while law

enforcement's handling of that ill-fated day has seen the most scrutiny up until now the families of the victims -- >> did not give a damn about our children or us. >> reporter: -- turning their calls for accountability towards the school administration, including the principal who says she was suspended with pay this week spending a performance review related to campus security. last school year was her first year as principal. >> every -- starting at that school, at robb, that principal needs to be gone, all of the school board needs to be gone. >> i believe they're entitled to their opinion. i followed the training that i was provided with to the best of my abilities. >> reporter: the texas house investigative committee report revealed that robb elementary had a culture of noncompliance with safety policies, requiring doors to be kept locked, which turned out to be fatal. gutierrez responding to that criticism. >> was there a culture of

noncompliance at robb elementary? >> absolutely not. anytime that an alert went out, every single teacher on that campus took it to mean it could be a potential escalating situation and so every -- everybody follows protocol. >> so you disagree with the findings of the texas house investigative report? >> i disagree. >> reporter: according to the texas house investigative report, a coach that was somewhere on school property saw the gunman jump this fence, she used her radio to report it. the principal heard the call and tried to initiate a lockdown using a software application but the wifi was bad and she did not use the school intercom. >> it could potentially magnify a situation. >> reporter: that's the door that the gunman used to enter the school according to the report, the door was unlocked. had the door been locked as the policy required it would have likely slowed down the gunman. instead surveillance video showed the gunman walked into the building through an unlocked

door. >> why was that door unlocked that day? >> i am not sure why that door was unlocked. >> so that door was normally locked during the day? >> always locked. >> always? >> yes. >> reporter: then walked into a classroom which was likely unlocked according to the report. the report also states that the principal, teachers and even many fourth grade students widely knew of the problem with the lock to room 111, but no one placed a work order to repair the lock, not the principal, not anyone else. gutierrez disputes that account. >> what i know for a fact is that the door to room 111 did, in fact, lock. >> it did? >> the teacher has to use the key to enter. >> do you feel you share some responsibility? >> i believe that there is always room for improvement. i believe that i did my job to the best of my abilities. >> reporter: some of the families of the victims say any safety lapses were inexcusable.

>> what would you tell her? >> you failed our children. you failed our children. >> i am very close to my staff and my students and many of their families. it is an unimaginable pain to know that we don't have those individuals with us anymore and that there's families that are missing their loved ones every single day. >> reporter: the texas house investigative committee stands by their report, the chairman issuing a statement to cnn saying that their findings are based on multiple interviews with multiple agencies. brianna and john, as for the school district, we reached out and a spokesperson said that they're too swamped right now and they can't answer specific questions. >> rosa, thank you for that interview. we appreciate it. >> such an important discussion. >> so important.

the much anticipated gdp report is going to be released here in the next hour, so what is this going to tell us about a potential recession? and this morning progress in containing california's oak fire. ahead we are going to speak with w. kamau bell his episode of "united shades of america" explains how climate change is making wildfires stronger, hotter and deadlier. buying a cr should be something that gets you hyped up. and that your new car ought to come with newfoundnd happiness and zero surprises. and all of us will stop at nothing to d drive you happy. we'll drive you happppy at carvana. you go by lots of titles. veteran, dad, hair stylist. so adding a student title might feel daunting. national universy is here to support all your titles. national university. supporting the whole you. ♪ ♪

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"shake your thang" by salt n pepa chris rock is commenting on the infamous oscar slap from will smith while on comedy tour with kevin hart. he joked, anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face. i'm not a victim. yeah, that hurt but i shook that off and went to work the next day. i don't go to the hospital for a paper cut. here to talk about that and more is the host of united shades of gray w. kamau bell, the director

of the emmy-nominated series "we need to talk about cosby," which is excellent and co-author of "the new york times" best-seller "do the work: an anti-racist activity book." what did you think about what he said? >> mostly i'm just all tingly you dropped the "s" bomb twice on television. >> i know. tingly. >> i will say this about chris, i appreciate the fact he has not turned this into a whole tour or whole thing with everything going on in the world, a lot of people would have turned that into four more comedy specials about it. but chris rock is going on tour doing the job and we'll hear about it in his netflix special. he keeps it moving on. i appreciate it. >> i want to talk about your show "united shades of america." kamau, you're off prescient with what you look into. in this episode, you talk about devastating wildfires in northern california. i want to show a clip of that.

>> i think the campfire is really a story of stories, and so there is two words interchangeable a lot, that's bravery and heroism, but they're different. in bravery, in our job, is an expectation, right. but you're looking at two people who stayed in the fight that day, even though they lost everything they owned. and these two are in that rare area of being a hero because of that. >> i imagine no one would have blamed you both to say i have to be with my family. what made you stay? >> when i saw the house was gone, took a moment and said, all right, well, go back to work. i mean, there's nothing -- i just kind of shut that part of it off, there is nothing i can do about that, but here's what i can do, yeah. this is -- go back to your training. >> these are powerful conversations you had with firefighters and wildfire victims. what do they tell you about the impact these fires are having?

>> i mean, first of all, i want to say this episode was personal to me, i live in northern california, i've never been threatened by the fire specifically. many times my family had to leave the area because of the toxic air that comes off the fire. for me this sangoing on in northern california. the fire is bad enough, what is happening in the oak fire, but it is everything after that, are you getting paid back by the insurance company, all the disaster capitalism that happens that money is pulled out of an area where fire happens and isn't put back in the area. it isn't just the fire that is bad enough. it is everything that happens after. >> i woke up one morning to covering this story on our show and realized my aunt and uncle were in the evac map. this was last year, i think, it was. it is incredibly stressful. and it is becoming -- that's not how it was. it has become the reality of that. i woke up another morning, there was a fire in the county not far from where i grew up. it is something that has gotten

so much worse. >> yeah, and, you know, i think those of us who live in northern california remember september of 2020, the middle of the pandemic, prevaccine, the sky was just red all day long, red all day long because the fire had gotten so thick and the air so toxic, it was dark red all day. i don't think i'll ever recover from that frankly. it showed that, like, i lived in california since '97 and this has gotten worse. we talked to many people who say that fire season has gotten longer, more destructive, climate change is definitely affected it, it has gotten worse. >> sure has. kamau, great to have you. thank you so much. we're looking forward to this new episode. be sure to tune into it, all new episode of "united shades of america" with w. kamau bell. cnn continues right now.

this morning, an offer is on the table and the white house is waiting on the kremlin. i'm john berman with brianna keilar. vladimir putin has not yet responded to a proposed prisoner swap. the biden administration offered to send convicted russian arms dealer viktor bout, a man dubbed the merchant of death, in exchange for two detained americans, wnba star brittney griner and paul whelan. cnn was the first to report on this proposed prisoner exchange that president biden, we're told, personally signed off on. the justice department opposed offering the convicted arms trafficker as part of the potential deal. he is currently serving a 25 year prison sentence in the united states. >> secretary of state tony blinken expecting to speak with russia's foreign minister on the phone, here in the coming days. this is going to be the first time that the top u.s. diplomat has spoken to his russian counterpart since the war in ukraine began. and joining us now is trevor reed, former u.s. marine

imprisoned in russia for nearly three years. he was released in a prisoner swap in april. trevor, great to see you. i have to say, you are looking great. i know it has been quite a recovery for you. emotionally and physically, and so it is wonderful to see you doing so well here. as you're watching this all unfold, are you worried at all that the russians are not going to play ball with this deal? >> you know, i'm cautiously optimistic. i think that it is in their interests and in the united states' interest to get this done. so i am optimistic that they are going to agree on that. obviously, you know, i'm not positive, but i have a good feeling about it. >> you do have a good feeling about it. well, that's certainly very good news. and for you people who have been in this situation, you're one of them, what do you think it is like for brittney griner or paul whelan to know that there is

this offer that has been made, there are these robust efforts, there may be hope? >> yeah, obviously, you know, i'm not sure that they are aware of that. in russian prison, you know, it's sometimes difficult to receive information there from the outside. they do kind of like to keep you isolated there. i know that there were times where i didn't receive any outside news for, you know, weeks at a time. so i'm not sure if they're aware that that's on the table, or if anyone has told them that. but i'm sure that they have a lot of hope if they have heard that. >> and what about their families? i'm sure you discussed this with your parents, and your family. how do you think their families may be feeling right now? >> i think that they're probably overjoyed that the united states has taken this step and that

president biden