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Suspect Identified in Idaho Ambush; Interview With Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE); Iran Set to Enrich Uranium in Just Months?; Republicans Push to Pass Budget Bill. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 30, 2025 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Hoped they pack some snacks. A marathon voting session under way right now on President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. Republicans are under serious pressure to pass this before Trump's self-imposed July 4 deadline, but there remain deep divisions between the Senate and the House on a bill that polls say most voters don't like. We will get you the details.

Plus, severe damage, but not total damage, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog contradicting White House claims that U.S. strikes set Iran's nuclear ambitions back decades, as new satellite images reveal renewed activity at a key bombed site.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And protests growing as Florida officials transform an airstrip in the Everglades into what they call Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial migrant detention center surrounded by marshlands and all the dangerous wildlife that lives there.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Happening now, a split screen moment, the White House getting ready to take questions from reporters as President Trump cranks up pressure on Senate Republicans while we watch closely on Capitol Hill a marathon voting session under way right now, the president's Big Beautiful Bill being put to the test as he insists on getting this legislation signed by July 4.

The debate largely centering on nearly 12 million Americans who could be left without medical insurance. Also, despite a call to slash the debt, a congressional estimate showing that this bill would spike the deficit by more than $3 trillion.

Let's get you right to Arlette Saenz, who's out on Capitol Hill for us.

So, Arlette, where do things stand right now on this marathon voting session? ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this voter drama has

been under way for more than 3.5 hours at this point, as senators continue to introduce amendments to President Trump's big agenda bill.

Now, Democrats are expected to introduce many amendments hoping to put some of these Republican senators in tough spots politically on certain issues. But one Democrat is warning that they shouldn't go on with this for too long. Senator John Fetterman, who has bucked his party at times, had said that Democrats should take a few messaging votes, but then move on with the show.

And here is how a Republican senator described what is happening on the Senate floor today.

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SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): We're about ready to walk into Thunderdome. I don't know how many they're going to be. But I think the Democrats are going to try to score some cheap political points. But the truth is, the rhetoric's really tired.

They got smoked in November with the same stuff, and they lost. And elections have consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, while many Democrats are introducing amendments, there are a number of Republican amendments that will be voted on today.

Some of the key senators to watch relating to those amendments are Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who is introducing one proposal that would reduce the federal payments to states that had expanded Medicaid under President Obama. There's also Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who is introducing one related to rural hospitals.

Senator Lisa Murkowski is also a senator to watch going forward. Now, all of this comes as Senate Republicans can only afford to lose three votes on this bill. That key procedural vote that happened over the weekend, two Republicans voted no, Rand Paul and Senator Thom Tillis, who later announced that he would not be seeking reelection.

And so, right now, Senate leadership is trying to keep and maintain GOP support for this bill as they are facing that July 4 deadline. A bit earlier today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked whether he has the votes, and he said, "We will know soon enough."

But even if this clears the House -- or the Senate a little bit later today, it still has to go over to the House, where some conservatives have said that the Senate proposal doesn't cut enough spending, and there are some concerns about the Medicaid cuts that have been brought up in the Senate bill, so still potentially a long road ahead for the president's agenda up on the Hill.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's going to be a delicate balancing act between both chambers.

Arlette Saenz on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

Let's take you to the White House now and CNN's Kristen Holmes.

And, Kristen, the president here leaning on loyalty as he tries to move this agenda forward.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, I mean, not that surprising, given what we have seen from President Trump before, and that was fully on display this weekend when he went after Republican Senator Thom Tillis, after Thom Tillis did not move to vote to move that bill along, Tillis then saying that he was going to retire, and really calling out the Republican Party.

But President Trump is leaning hard into this idea of loyalty, but also into the idea that he will take you on if you don't in fact vote to move this bill forward. This was one of the tweets or posts that he sent out on social media.

He said: "For all cost-cutting Republicans, of which I am one, remember, you still have to get reelected. Don't go too crazy. We will make it all up times 10 with growth more than ever before," so a little bit of a veiled threat there, particularly after he threatened to primary Tillis over the weekend, Tillis again saying that he was going to retire.

But like most things for Donald Trump, this is going to be who actually backs him and he will be able to give favors to those people. And one of the things we saw was the Republican Senator Josh Hawley essentially saying that he didn't support some of the stuff that was inside of the bill, but yet he was still going to vote yes on it.

Clearly there, the messaging has gotten through to him. Now, I have talked to a number of people at the White House who say they are feeling positive that this is going to eventually make its way through. But, of course, we will hear from the press secretary here any moment. Likely, this is going to be one of the topics she's hammering home.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we will be watching for that. Kristen Holmes at the White House, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And we are joined now by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senator, thanks for being with us.

First off, this bill looks likely to pass. If it does, how will your state handle any spike in people who no longer have Medicaid coverage?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, Brianna, the estimate from my home small state of Delaware is that tens of thousands of Delawareans, more than 40,000, will be thrown off of Medicaid.

I met with 30 nurses earlier this week, nurses who care for seniors in nursing homes, for disabled Delawareans, for newborns, and who help support the families who care for them. They came to D.C. with a message: Don't let Republicans throw millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Delawareans off of health care.

This will be the single greatest clawback of health care coverage in modern American history. It'll close rural hospitals. It'll harm families. It'll impact communities. And that's why I'm working so hard to try and make this bill less harmful.

Brianna, I just got a vote on an amendment. Sadly, it got 48 votes for it and 52 against it. It would have stripped away some of the worst of this bill. Republicans are determined to keep the most harmful aspects of this tragic bill.

KEILAR: Being in the minority, you don't have the votes.

COONS: No.

KEILAR: And so I know Democrats are, of course, eying the next election here. You have Senator Warner, your Democratic colleague from Virginia, saying that this bill will be a political albatross for Republicans.

Do you think Republicans are going to have the kind of summer that Democrats had in 2010 after the passage of Obamacare?

COONS: Absolutely.

And that's what Senator Thom Tillis said on the floor last night. Senator Tillis of North Carolina did the analysis, walked around his caucus, handed out a sheet of paper and said to his colleagues, here's the very real impact on your states, on your communities and on rural hospitals.

And yet they are barreling ahead with this bill. He's decided not to run for reelection because he wasn't able to persuade his colleagues to claw back some of the worst aspects of this bill. I think there's going to be hell to pay for the Republicans voting for this once their home communities learn just how harmful it is for them.

KEILAR: Do you think the potential political fallout of this bill could give Democrats a shot at the Senate? And I say that knowing, of course, that it's still a very tough map. But do you think that Democrats have a chance? How are you seeing it?

COONS: Brianna, we're going to have to communicate, engage the American people, help them understand how a president and a party who ran on lowering their costs are actually going to raise their costs, their costs for health care, for energy, for groceries, between Trump's failed tariff policies and this terrible big tax bill that's providing tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of health care for the middle class.

If we do that and do that well, yes, I think the Senate's in reach in the next election. It'll be an uphill climb, but it's doable. KEILAR: Turning now to Iran, President Trump had a lot to say to you

in the middle of the night. He posted on social media after you compared his administration's negotiations with Iran to former President Obama's Iran deal.

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He said actually: "Tell phony Democrat Senator Chris Coons that I am not offering Iran anything, unlike Obama, who paid them billions under the stupid road to a nuclear weapon JCPOA, which would now be expired, nor am I even talking to them since we totally obliterated their nuclear facilities."

What's your response to that?

COONS: So, Brianna, first on President Trump declaring immediately after the strikes that he had obliterated the nuclear program, like President Bush, he's rushing to declare mission accomplished, when we don't yet know that.

So what the American people and Congress and the administration should be doing is giving time for a depoliticized, clear-eyed assessment of just how much damage was done to Iran's nuclear enrichment program and what happened to the 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that Iran may very well have relocated before the strikes.

Don't believe me on this. Listen to the head of the IAEA, the U.N. agency that monitors Iran's nuclear program. His assessment is they may well have moved these critical 900 pounds of enriched uranium and they may be back on track to enriching in a matter of months, first.

Second, I was commenting on press accounts that the Trump administration was offering to Iran unfreezing frozen Russian assets and up to $30 billion of investment in their nuclear program in exchange for diplomacy that would secure an end to Iran's nuclear program.

I agree with lots of folks here in the Senate and the administration and around the world that Iran should never have a nuclear bomb. They are a threatening and aggressive regime that say all the time they want to impose death to America and they want to wipe out Israel. They shouldn't have a nuclear bomb.

But President Trump is racing to say he's achieved that goal, when we don't know that yet.

KEILAR: Whatever the effect of U.S. strikes on Iran, there was at least some setback, even if it was just a few months.

COONS: Yes.

KEILAR: What is clear, experts are saying, many, is that it should be coupled with a diplomatic solution here. So, when you look at those things -- and CNN is reporting some of what you said -- about what is on the table between the Trump administration and Iran, do you like what is on the table in negotiations? COONS: Well, I don't know what that menu is yet, given President

Trump's tweet.

It suggests that that's not the real menu. As you just read it to me on TRUTH Social, President Trump said we're not even talking to the Iranians. I do want to encourage diplomacy and negotiation. The Iranian regime is at its weakest in decades.

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KEILAR: I want to backtrack with you on that, because you're also aware that he has sort of said we may not -- I don't even know if it's necessary that we need a deal. And when you listen to experts, they say it's very clear that we do.

COONS: We do.

KEILAR: And I think there's an understanding that Trump may be sort of downplaying the necessity for a deal.

COONS: Yes.

KEILAR: With that -- with knowing that, this idea of possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian energy- producing nuclear program, easing sanctions, freeing up billions of dollars in restricted Iranian funds, this is what CNN is reporting the Trump administration has discussed possibly helping Iran access, what do you like about those things?

COONS: What I like about it is, it's moving towards negotiating an end to Iran's enrichment program and restoring 24/7 full-spectrum inspections.

We also have to pay attention to and end Iran's aggressive ballistic missile program and its support for proxy terrorist groups throughout the region. If we could achieve that through diplomacy, that would be a significant step forward for regional peace, for the security of the United States, and for the security of Israel.

KEILAR: Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much for taking the time for us today.

COONS: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Still to come, much more on what the U.N. is saying about what is left of Iran's nuclear program.

Plus, Idaho officials naming the suspected sniper who they say set a brushfire to lure and ambush firefighters, killing two of them. We have new details on that.

And then later: The White House says trade talks with Canada are back on after pulling the plug on them last week.

We will have these important stories and more all coming up this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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SANCHEZ: More than a week now after U.S. strikes, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is warning that Iran could restart enriching uranium in a manner of months.

That assessment seems to support an early report from the Pentagon that found that American attacks did not completely destroy the core components of Tehran's nuclear program. The White House has repeatedly insisted that the nuclear capabilities were obliterated. New satellite images from Iran's Fordow nuclear facility show that construction crews are actively working, though exactly what they're doing remains unclear.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is live for us at the Pentagon.

So, Natasha, walk us through this U.N. report.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, these are the first detailed comments that we are getting from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which, of course, has been responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear program.

And, according to the head of that agency, he said to CBS just this weekend -- quote -- "The capacities that they have," referring to the Iranians, "are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But, as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there."

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Now, this would seem to closely align with a very early intelligence assessment that was reported on last week by CNN and others that said that Iran's nuclear facilities have not been completely and totally destroyed and neither have some of the core components of Iran's nuclear program, again, based on very early intelligence.

But we should note that the U.S. official has pushed back as well on some of Grossi's claims there, telling CNN -- quote -- that: "Iran has no air defenses, so the idea that they can just start rebuilding a nuclear weapons program is nonsense. As the president has said, Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon."

Now, it's worth noting here, as you alluded to, that there are already signs that the Iranians are trying to gain access to some of those sites that were struck by the U.S. military earlier this month, particularly at Isfahan, the tunnels at Isfahan nuclear facility, where it is believed, according to U.S. officials, there is highly enriched uranium buried deep, deep underground inside those tunnels.

Now, we reported just last week that the top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, told lawmakers that the U.S. did not use one of those massive bunker-busting bombs on Isfahan because it is so buried deep underground that those bombs likely would not have been effective. So they used Tomahawk missiles instead.

Now it is worth noting that, of course, Republicans and other supporters of the president have made the argument, look, these military strikes obliterated at least the surface level of these facilities. So, if the Iranians even wanted to try to get down deep and access that uranium, which is, of course, a key component to making a nuclear weapon, they would have a really, really hard time doing so.

But, look, it's worth noting that Republican lawmakers, Democratic lawmakers, they all emerged from those classified briefings that were given by the administration last week agreeing on one thing, and that is that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium has not been completely obliterated by these U.S. military strikes, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Natasha Bertrand live at the Pentagon for us, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: We have some breaking developments.

Idaho authorities have identified the shooter accused of ambushing and killing those two firefighters in the mountains by Coeur d'Alene on Sunday. A third firefighter who was also shot is now fighting for his life after surgery. The local sheriff says they believe that the shooter, who was later found dead, set a brushfire to lure the crew to the site and then opened fire on them.

Here's dispatch audio as the attack unfolds.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send law enforcement right now. There's an active shooter zone. They're shot. BC3 is down. BC1 is down. Everybody is shot up here. Law enforcement, Code 3 now up here.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Mark Morales is here now with breaking details on this.

Mark, what are you learning about the suspect?

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, Brianna, we now know who law enforcement thinks did this shooting, and they have identified Wess Roley, 20 years old. He's from the Idaho area.

And, as you know, the identification in this kind of a situation is very, very important because now investigators can take that full- court press and really try to figure out what the motive here was. They could do search warrants on his home or places of business or they could even talk to loved ones, people that he knew, anything that can help them really dig into why he did this.

Now, law enforcement was able to trace his cell phone signal and that's how they were able to pinpoint exactly where he was on the mountain. But just as important was that initial 911 call. That's how first responders were able to learn, not just the treasure trove of information, but that they were walking into a hornet's nest. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got two unresponsive battalion chiefs, gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds. Two Coeur d'Alene firefighters are down. We need law enforcement to get up here. We could possibly get two -- the two wounded out.

I'm pinned down behind Battalion 1's rig. It's clear to me that this fire was set intentionally to draw us in.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MORALES: Now, Roley was found dead with a firearm near him and we're still waiting for more details on this. But, as we know, investigators in law enforcement are really pushing to figure out what happened here -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Have they gotten a hold on that brushfire that they say he set, Mark?

MORALES: Well, that's a really interesting part of this whole situation as well, because that fire increased to 26 acres overnight. And when you think back to how this all started with Roley setting this fire, first responders can't put that fire out because they're being shot at.

So it was in those initial moments that this fire probably could have been contained by now, but now at this point has reached and really, as we have seen, gone up to about 26 acres. And that's also an issue because, remember, because of this shooting, it's a crime scene. So investigators were having to pick up evidence as quickly as possible because there was a fire all around them.

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This fire is a significant issue. And if they weren't being shot at, who knows how quickly they could have put this under control -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly.

Mark Morales, thank you for the very latest on that.

Next, we are on verdict watch in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, and jurors have just asked their first question. We are in the courtroom bringing you updates from there.

Plus, Florida says its immigration detention center that has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz is ready to open. Hear the controversial plan to use swamp creatures as security.

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