Where these red areas are, the red dots, those are the aftershocks that have occurred in the past hour. How many of those dots are on there, natalie . Hundreds of them. I know. I counted about 17 4. 0 magnitude aftershocks already. Its unreal. Coming up in a few minutes, well talk with one of the people helping out a local official to talk more about what people are dealing with. Karen, thank you, as always. Well, coming up here, donald trump gets the crowd he always wanted on the national mall, but did he leave politics aside . Thats coming up. Plus, the census and citizenship. The Trump Administrations dwindling options for including a controversial question in the 2020 head its count. The United States is celebrating its 243rd birthday with fireworks displays from sea to shining sea. One of the most elaborate shows, the nations capital, where this year President Trump turned the festivities into a salute to the military. Heres more about it from cnns tom foreman in washington. Reporter despite scotching temperatures earlier in the day and intermittent rain, a reasonable sized crowd showed up here to see the president as he came out to give this unusual address to the American Public on Independence Day. And he focused generally on american exceptionalism, not only in the military, which was the theme of all of this, but in general as well. That same american spirit that emboldened our founders has kept us strong throughout our history. To this day, that spirit runs through the veins of every american patriot. It lives on in each and every one of you here today. It is the spirit daring and defines, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love that built this country into the most exceptional nation in the history of the world and our nation is stronger today than it ever was before. It is its strongest now. Reporter despite a lot of fears the president did not focus on partisan issues, but instead talked about americans as a whole, never really mentioning democrats or republicans and talking about as a group how americans can move forward. An important message, no doubt, on this fourth of july when his very actions in holding this rally caused a lot of division. Tom foreman, cnn, washington. Joining me now to talk about it is political analyst peter matheus. Always good to have you with us. Hi, peter. Hi, natalie. Good to be with you again. Lets start with President Trump crafting a july 4th celebration centered around the military. Should guns and the military be celebrated in this way, in your opinion, in a country that was founded on ideals, not so much the military . In fact, i dont think it should be because the ideals are much more important in terms of todays commemoration. Militarys important when it comes to a certain war or defending the country, but these ideals are what america is about and the declaration of independence that we celebrate says we hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have a problem with the trump economy. While there has been some growth, there has still been a huge gap between rich and poor. The growth in equality has also been growing and you have trade wars on the horizon. A lot of things need to be fixed. Not to mention the country being divided due to trumps leader. Well, before he spoke, the president s appearance on the mall drew criticism from democrats and members of the military, some of them, who accused him of using the troops and equipment as little more than political props. Why do you think the president staged his celebration this way . I think that he thinks this will really keep his base of voters with him when it comes november the year after next next year, i should say. Thats the thing hes looking at is the election, but he also somehow seems to take the superpatriotism to the extreme and covering up the problems we have in the nation. He should be working on immigration. Look what happened on the border, natalie. Kids torn from their parents and sitting in cages. Thats not an ideal this country can project to the world when were a country that believe in natural rights. She should go back to the american ideal of protecting natural rights and human rights. Maybe using the military is a way to hide whats going on. A democrat who served in the military remarked, tanks arent props, theyre weapons of war. The president , of course, flanked by tanks when he spoke. However, he did deliver a message that was unifying, peter, not political. Heres part of it. We are one people sharing one dream and one magnificent destiny. Was that encouraging . Well, the words were beautiful and he stuck to the script. Thats one reason he didnt get into problem. What are his actions . Thats what should count. The script was beautiful today, but the actions have to be followed through, and that is to unite people, to settle these problems and not divide us along economic lines and ethnic and racial lines. The president needs to become a uniter in chief, not a divider in chief. Its a very important ideal for a nation of immigrants. I dont see this happening. It hasnt happened for 2 1 2 years. Words can be beautiful. Actions are more important, natalie. Right. This country has been struggling to feel unified under this president. What else would you have liked to hear from him this day . Id like to have heard from him about some of the economic problems were facing and to say its important to provide Economic Opportunity because the American Dream cannot be realized by anyone unless the economy is fair and shared prosperity exists for everyone, not just the top half of the country, which is mainly the situation with trump, the trump economy has helped the top 10 more than the rest of us. Even his tax cuts, 85 went to the top 1 . Id like to address that more honestly and say what he could do to fix that. Its extremely important for americans to know that he cares about all of us, not just a few at the top, especially his donors. Well, there were donors into the crowd, for sure, and there were a lot of supporters of mr. Trump. They were also protesters as well. Did he was this mobilizing for his base and will we perhaps see this visual when we see the political ads for the next president ial election . Absolutely. He thinks that by holding on to that base of 37 , which by the way, a number of americans who say theyre going to vote for him. 37 is not enough to win but he thinks he can do that like he did before with the electoral college. He needs to expand that base. Look at these pictures, the fire and the violence directed because people are so upset and its wrong that this happened, but, you know, he really needs to bring people together. His base wont be enough, natalie, for him to win again. If he thinks he can rely on that, he may have Something Else coming, actually. Political analyst peter matheus, we always appreciate your insights. Thank you. Thank you, natalie. Good to be here. The Trump Administration has until the coming day to explain how it plans to proceed with the 2020 census, but with the forms already being printed, their options for including a controversial Citizenship Question are limited. Cnns sara murray reports. Reporter so much for fourth of july festivities. Instead, commerce and Justice Department officials are working, scrambling to fulfill President Trumps demand to add a Citizenship Question to the census. So important for our country that the very simple and basic, are you a citizen of the United States, question be allowed to asked in the 2020 census, trump tweeted. Department of commerce and the department of justice are working very hard on this, even on the fourth of july. Last week the Supreme Court blocked the Citizenship Question, at least for now, amid concerns about why the administration wanted to ask you it. You go through all this detail and youre not allowed to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen . Reporter the Trump Administration agreed tuesday to drop the question. Government lawyers told a maryland judge printing had begun without the Citizenship Question. Commerce secretary wilbur ross said the same. Then trump changed his mind. Tweeting in part we are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question. The judge noticed. I dont know how many federal judges have twitter accounts, but i happen to be one of them and i follow the president , he said, in a hastilyarranged call, according to a transcript. Justice department attorneys, one of whom was already on vacation, appeared blindsided. The tweet this morning was the first i had heard of the president s position on this issue, one of the lawyers said. I am doing my absolute best to figure out whats going on. Now the administration is weighing its options, including an executive order, which would be immediately challenged in court, a motion for the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision or a supplement to the census. Sara murray, cnn, washington. For our international viewers, thanks for joining us. Im natalie allen. African voices is just ahead for you. And for viewers in the u. S. , the news continues in just a moment. Ill be right back. [ ] [ ] check your Credit Scores for free and learn how to improve them at creditkarma. Heres to progress. Welcome back. Im natalie allen. Lets update you on our top news this hour. A state of emergency has been declared in the town of ridgecrest, california, following a 6. 4 earthquake. This is the strongest to hit the region in a generation and was felt from los angeles to las vegas. No fatalities have been reported. Many utilities were knocked out and damage is extensive, including several house fires. Donald trump stuck to the script, leaving politics out of his Independence Day speech in washington. Not even thunderstorms kept the crowds away. Mr. Trump honored the military in a ceremony featuring dramatic flyovers from each branch of the service. Theres one. Chicago police say at least 14 people were injured in the s stampede as they left the Fireworks Show at the citys navy pier. There was evidently a fight and someone yelled gun. There was a stabbing outside the security zone. Three people were wounded. Thursdays large earthquake in Southern California has triggered hundreds of aftershocks and more are expected in the days ahead. Damage in the community of ridgecrest has been extensive with downed power lines and ruptured water and gas pipes. Joining us now on the phone to talk about it is jeremy kern with the San Bernardino county fire department. Mr. Kern, thanks so much for talking with us. We know youre quite busy. Now, want to begin with these aftershocks. There have been so many. Are they continuing . Yeah, at this point we have received several aftershocks. After the initial quake we did receive, we immediately deployed resources out to the region. That included our heavy rescue, specialists, additional engine companies, ambulances and chief officers to help manage the incident. As those fighters started to ave live in the region, they started to experience several aftershocks as they started to deploy the resources to check for any damages throughout the community. Im sure thats the quite unsettling. As you speak, were looking at a house on fire. We know that many things happened to ridgecrest from this earthquake. Can you highlight whats the impact there for us . So we cover the area which is basically the epicenter of the incident itself out in the community, a community fairly small of about 1,000 residents. Our neighboring county, kern county, has ridgecrest, which experienced significant events throughout their community. For the area of corona, they experienced a lot of minor to major structural damage. Cracked foundations, buildings or double wides slid off their jacks or the foundation themselves. Some chimneys separating from the structures of homes out there as well as losing power. They also did experience several issues with roads being blocked, cracked asphalt from the major thr thoroughfares from in and out of the community. None of it limited access. We were able to get around those obstacles and worked with california Highway Patrol as well as caltrans to make sure that was corrected immediately. You mentioned the power outages. Its some 100 degrees fahrenheit so we certainly hope the people that dont have power will see it restored. Given the size of the quake, are you surprised there werent serious injuries . They seemed very fortunate that way. That is correct. Considering this is one of more most northern eastern portions of our county, we cover roughly 19,000 square miles, and this being the further point from the bulk of our resources that we serve here in the county. Just the logistics and the time delay of getting resources out there. We did have firefighters in the community initially on scene. They did the initial damage assessments for any immediate hazards. That being gas leaks or structure fires or even immediate calls for medical Service Related to the incident. So were about an hour and a half, two hours away from our larger rescue task force and those Structure Specialists to get out to that area. So thats the Biggest Issue we had is the logistics and actually getting our resources out there. We depend on our cooperators, our neighboring agencies. Even with ridgecrest who was handling their calls for service due to the quake, it was definitely one of our challenges that we did come across. Yeah, what are the concerns moving forward . We know there will be many more aftershocks. What are you concerned about for the people there . So at this point there is some power being restored to the community. We did have power at the local fire station out there which did have a generator, so a lot of the Community Members, its a very tight community, they will come to the fire station for their needs, charge their electrical devices and phones. Communicate with loved ones and they can get out of the elements as well. The concern being the aftershocks. Obviously with Mother Nature there is nothing you can predict. You cant say when or if something is going to happen, but as the days go on in working with the different agencies that are going to monitor that, those are our concerns, additional aftershocks which could cause a potential hazard. We recommend people just become informed. They stay connected with what is going on with the incident itself and also making sure their supplies are ready to go or if they need to leave the community theyre able to do that. Also, jeremy, ive heard many people that went through this describe just the severity of this earthquake. That they had never been through anything like this before. Are you hearing those kinds of stories . Yes, it is. And this was felt all throughout the county that we serve all the way down to our inland empire, the Valley Community as well as up in the high desert. It is an event that everyone really forgets about. We try to remember that every single year when we train during the great shake out, we talk about the preparedness, what to do during the incident, the quake itself and immediately after to maintain your safety for you, yourself, and your family members. Its a reminder we live in Southern California or california all over and we do have these hazards and people need to keep that first and foremost on their mind and be prepared that it will happen and they can handle the emergencies they do come across. And just to reiterate, you brought in extra Emergency Personnel or at the ready in case there is another major one, which some seismologists say could happen in the next week. Correct. And we do have staff, heavy rescued with specialized firefighters who are trained, Structure Specialists. Theyre able to assess buildings. These firefighters who went out into the communities did those secondary searches to make sure that the buildings are in tact and those that were not, they were red tagged and the Community Members were informed. These firefighters are specifically trained, they train all year round, theyre part of a Regional Task force that can be deployed for just this exact reason. We have our federal teams, the fema task force which can go all over the country and two other countries. Local firefighters with specialized firefighters for these specific events if something happens in l. A. County or orange county, kern county we rely on our neighbors and partners to bring these firefighters in to help us when were in need. And in turn, when there is an emergency in their county and their cities, well send our firefighters to them for take care of them as well. Yeah, thats the good part of these tragedies, to see that the help that is there and the comradery between all of these teams, and we appreciate them so much. And i know the people there do as well. Jeremy kern with the San Bernardino county fire department, thanks so much. We appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Well, we are hearing of new allegations against u. S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. Cnn has obtained emails that detail how an agent allegedly attempted to humiliate a migrant at a detention center. The emails were written by another agent who saw the incident. Our nick valencia has the story. Hes in el paso, texas. Reporter a customs and Border Protection says this incident happened in march here in el paso as a processing center. They say