smerconish, in for chris on cuomo prime time. thank you, john berman. i am michael smerconish, in for chris cuomo. welcome to a special-holiday edition of prime time. hope you had a great independence day weekend. now, tonight, we have a central figure on the other end of that apparent-pressure campaign by team trump to change the outcome of the 2020 election in the key-battleground state of arizona. i emphasize arizona, because similar pressure was, also, applied on election officials in georgia in the run up to january 6th. this just came to light on friday night. and we played you the voicemails that surfaced from a freedom of information request made by the arizona republic. these were calls left by arizona s gop chair and rudy giuliani, on behalf of donald trump, to those overseeing election results in the state s most populous county, maricopa. a county that president biden won, by about 45,000 votes. i want you to hear it, again. by the way, the music underneath. t
republic. on behalf of donald trump to those overseeing election results in the state s most populist county, maricopa, a county that president biden won by about 45,000 votes. i want you to hear it again. by the way, the music underneath, that was part of the arizona republic s online post. hey, clint, it s rudy giuliani. i was very happy to see that there is going to be a forensic audit of the machines and i really want to talk to you about it, all right? if you would give me a call back, i would really appreciate it. thank you. hey, clint, it s kelly ward. i just talked to president trump and he would like me to talk to you ask also see if he needs to give you a call to discuss what s happening on the ground in maricopa of the give me a call back when you can. thanks, bye. so who is clint? clint hickman at the time was the chair of the board of supervisors in maricopa county, a republican. he says he never returned those calls or ones from the white house switchboard
24 people are confirmed dead. 121 others still missing. their families awaiting answers with hope for a miracle, all but gone. the demolition comes as tropical storm elsa takes aim at florida. watches and warnings now up for the keys and much of the state s west coast. the outer bands of the storm expected to have a broad impact. let s take you now live to surfside, florida and cnn s natasha chen live with our top story. natasha, bring us up to speed. what is the latest? reporter: boris, the search and rescue mission really resumed shortly after that demolition at 10:30 p.m. last night. i m told they got back on site 20 minutes later and continued searching and the families have been very grateful for that action. so urgently resuming. so right now that controlled demolition has really helped in making sure that they could access areas that they weren t able to get to before. prior to the demolition, it was difficult for the search and rescue teams to get to the part closes
so the impending arrival of tropical storm elsa in florida has dramatically moved up the timeline for demolishing what remains of a collapsed condo there. it could possibly take place as early as the next few hours. you are looking right now at a live shot of that condo. if left standing, there is now growing concern that the storm could topple the unstable 12-story structure. engineers now believe they can safely bring it down before that storm arrives. in the meantime, search-and-rescue efforts have now been suspended. search and rescue does have to pause temporarily while the demolition preparation is under way. and that there is threat to the standing building that is posed to the first responders, as we ve told you. and we will begin the search and rescue once again on any sections of the pile that are safe to access as soon as we re cleared. more tough news for the family. cnn s brian todd is in surfside, florida with the latest developments. officials here in sur
of you watching in the united states, canada and around the world. i m kim brunhuber. this is cnn newsroom. u.s. coronavirus case numbers are headed in the wrong direction, driven by the highly congaugious delta variant. authorities say the strain is the likely explanation for 10% rise in the u.s. infections this week, compared to the week before. experts say it s hitting states with the lowest vaccination rates the hardest. right now nearly half the u.s. population is fully inoculated and that s not enough to reach herd immunity, which happens when 70% to 85% of people are immune to the disease. health authorities say the delta variant could make reaching that threshold harder. in california where the positivity rate doubled, the strain is responsible for more than a third of new infections. now some officials are asking people to wear masks in indoor public spaces even if they re fully vaccinated. listen to this. we are not requiring people who are vaccinated to wear