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Musk Vows To Unseat Republicans Who Back Trump Agenda Bill; Bryan Kohberger To Plead Guilty To Idaho Student Murders; Suspect Identified In Deadly Ambush Of Firefighters In Idaho. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 01, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:13]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you're looking at live pictures from the White House. We are standing by to hear from President Trump. He's leaving shortly for a visit to Florida, and this will be his first chance to respond out loud to, really, this new round of the fight with his one-time friend Elon Musk who has gone after him again on the president's signature domestic tax and spending legislation.

Let me show you on the screen here what Elon Musk put out overnight. He put out a tweet that said, "Anyone who campaigned on the promise of reducing spending but continues to vote on the biggest debt ceiling increase in history will see their face on this poster in the primary next year." Not subtle there. It says "LIAR: Voted to increase America's DEBT by $5,000,000,000,000."

All right, with us now Lee Carter, strategic communications expert and pollster, and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.

Let me just start with you, Lee. There is this new round in this fight. Musk is putting himself out there again.

What will that feel like for those senators who have been up all night who have to vote on this shortly?

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT, STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER, PARTNER, MASLANSKY+PARTNERS: I mean, on the one hand it's not surprising that Elon Musk is doing this. He's been very consistent about spending. This is very much what he's been talking about the whole time. On the other hand the question is it's really just about his ego and are we getting in the limelight and having a fight.

But I think that the Republicans who are making the vote need to not be distracted by this. We're seeing though a huge fracture within the Republican Party. Seventy-five percent of MAGA Republicans support this bill but 75 percent of non-MAGO supporters -- Republicans actually oppose the bill. So you've got a huge fracture in the party, and I think Elon Musk is symbolic of what that is.

BERMAN: And just so people know, Trump, on his Truth Social platform, has responded to Musk already. We haven't heard from him out loud, which we may shortly. But among other things, Trump accused Musk of wanting subsidies. He says, "Elon may get more subsidy than a human being -- any human being in history by far, and without subsidies. Elon will probably have to close up shop and head back to South Africa."

So Julie, the significance of this new rift? What do you see?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: Well, first of all, Trump is not wrong in the sense that Elon Musk has a tremendous amount of taxpayer subsidies from the United States going to his businesses. And the reality is that if Trump takes away those subsidies or threatens them, I think Musk will cave the way he caved the last time when Trump came after him. I mean, this is not a -- this is not a balanced fight because Elon Musk is the client, and Donald Trump is the person who is providing him with the money in the form of the presidency.

So look, Musk can tweet all he wants but the reality is that if Trump actually moves against him and takes away his subsidies or threatens them, I suspect Musk will cave.

BERMAN: The one difference with Elon Musk whenever we're talking about him is just the huge amount of money he has. And one of the other things he's threatening is to launch this third party, or to fund a third party here.

You guys have both worked in this business and have for a long time. How real do you think that threat is and what difference would that make?

ROGINSKY: I don't think it's real because I don't think Elon Musk would be the richest guy in the world or have that money if Trump moves against him. I mean, if Trump actually uses his platform to disqualify Elon Musk and also to take away his subsidies for SpaceX, take away his subsidies for EVs, and everything else that Musk wants it's going to be very hard for Musk and Tesla, which is the primary derivative of his money --

BERMAN: Yeah.

ROGINSKY: -- to survive, especially because Tesla is already going down.

Democrats are not buying Tesla. And if Trump goes after him Republicans won't be buying Tesla either. It's just -- it's bad business practice for Musk if he does this.

If he does do this and people follow him -- and he does have a big following on Twitter and has this rift with Trump -- it doesn't help Republicans obviously because a third party will take away from them, and Democrats are certainly not voting for any Elon Musk-backed party.

So I don't think Trump is going to let it get to that point because if he does, he understands it's going to harm him, it's going to harm the MAGA movement, and he does have this big sort of Damocles hanging over Musk's head in the form of subsidies.

BERMAN: Lee?

CARTER: So my feeling is that Donald Trump is the one that has the huge following. And Elon Musk certainly helped Donald Trump in the election. There's no question about it. It gave him credibility. It gave him some voters that were on the fence.

But it wasn't Elon Musk who was centerstage and I don't that we're going to see people follow Elon Musk in the same way that we saw the MAGA movement. And certainly, we have evidence of that in the Supreme Court elections and other things that Elon Musk tried to have huge influence, and he ultimately failed.

BERMAN: So Donald Trump on his way to Florida. The president on his way to Florida shortly. And again, we could see him leave any minute now.

But he's going to visit this makeshift prison built by Ron DeSantis very quickly -- the governor there -- that they're nicknaming "Alligator Alcatraz." They're going to put detained, undocumented immigrants there ready for deportation.

What do you think of the optics and the politics of this?

[07:35:00]

CARTER: Look, I think this is a Donald Trump-Ron DeSantis special. They are really, really good at creating theater and symbolic gestures that totally encapsulate the debate, whether you talk about it as the wall, whether you talk about those flights to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard with immigrants. Now we've got "Alligator Alcatraz" saying that we can move quickly and we can get tough on immigration.

And I think it's the center of the debate. A lot of people are talking about the impact on the environment. A lot of people are talking about how inhumane it is.

But the center of all of this is this debate about immigration and how we need to get tough on it. And in that debate Republicans, Donald Trump, and Ron DeSantis are winning.

ROGINSKY: There's one more thing here. They're doing this today so that we don't talk about the big, beautiful bill. We don't talk about the cuts to Medicaid. We don't talk about the cuts to food subsidies. We don't talk about this incredibly unpopular legislation.

Trump is going down there because he knows, and he thinks that immigration is the number one issue for him. It's the best issue he's got. And he's appealing to his base on this and we're all talking about it. We're not talking about the horrible bill that's about to be passed and he knows that.

BERMAN: Well, we're talking about both --

ROGINSKY: Right. BERMAN: -- to be fair. But in -- but in terms of what he considers to be one of his best issues -- you know, nationwide border encounters in May 2024, 240,000; May 2025, 29,000. It's just a huge drop.

Politically speaking you can see why he would dip that into that well.

ROGINSKY: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But again, the timing of this is not coincidental. He's going down there today to distract from what's going on in Washington today, which is going to affect millions upon millions. It's going to affect all of us. And the reality is that he would rather talk about "Alligator Alcatraz" than he would about this bill.

LEE: But I think he's talking about a trifecta here. He is talking about the big, beautiful bill. He's not shying away about that. He's talking about immigration. He's talking about foreign policy. And on all fronts his polling in the last week has really increased because people are seeing him as a leader.

Now, the bill itself might be unpopular, but you know what people are saying? He's going to get things done. He's going to keep to his word.

And so I don't think he's avoiding that conversation. I think he's adding to that conversation and saying look, I'm getting -- I'm getting legislation passed. I'm keeping my promises on that. I'm keeping my promises on immigration, and I'm keeping my promises on foreign policy.

ROGINSKY: Except he's not keeping his promises, right? He promised not to cut Medicaid. He promised not to cut any of these programs in the social safety net and he's doing exactly that with this bill. And I think that's what's going to be very apparent to Americans -- 12 million of whom will be thrown off of health care if this bill passes.

BERMAN: All right, Julie Roginsky, Lee Carter. Thank you both again. I keep glancing over to the monitor to see if we get a glance of the president leaving the White House. We will be monitoring that over the next several minutes -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New this morning, speaking of the bill, President Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill -- he calls it that. But it could have really ugly consequences for your energy bill. Senate Republicans introduced a last-minute tax on the solar and wind industries which could make it harder to get new, cheap electricity onto the grid.

New data shows some deep red states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas would see really huge energy prices in the next 10 years or so if the spending bill passes as it is now.

CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joining me now with more on this. Give us some sense of what is this new tax.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's -- it surprised everybody to be honest. People knew that the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act for sustainable renewable energies were going to be pulled back. No one thought they would try to murder the entire industry of wind and solar and billions that are in the pipeline in development.

That's what happened over the weekend basically levying not just -- not just pulling away the incentives but a punitive tax that unless you could prove that your solar panels on your roof or your utility have no components made in China you would be taxed in a way that would just prohibitively keep people out of sun and wind, which are now the two cheapest forms of energy.

The sun and wind, plus battery storage account for about 90 percent of new energy installations right now. And so that tax just set everybody on edge.

Joni Ernst, of Iowa, and Sen. Chuck Grassley is supporting this, along with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to try to amend that and at least push the deadline back. If you started construction by 2027 you would still get these -- you know, you wouldn't be taxed on this.

But there's a huge fight right now, Sara, over this because people don't have to dream about abundant clean energy. It is now here. Texas leads the nation in solar and wind installations despite their politics. Despite "you do yours" sort of ideology.

It is the most economically sensible thing these days. The rest of the world is heading in this direction, and this one is -- this one's not over. This fight could get heated today.

SIDNER: Ultimately, who might this hurt the most?

WEIR: Well, that's the thing. It would hurt Trump supporters in deep- red states. Energy innovation is this think tank. Just crunch the numbers.

It said if you strip away these incentives right now the average household in Texas -- their electricity prices would go up almost 20 percent. You know, 750 bucks a year in the next -- by 2035. South Carolina up 16 percent. Oklahoma up 18 percent. Forgive me. I said 20 percent. It's 16 percent in Texas there.

[07:40:07]

But these red states -- and Democrats intentionally put a lot of these projects in red districts hoping that when the lawmakers and the -- and the citizens there would see the benefits of this it would be harder to rake back. And that's the fight we are seeing right now.

But honestly, everybody from Elon Musk to the North American Building Trades union is opposed to this. Industries -- even some energy industries aren't a big fan of this because it takes away so many options right now of sun and wind, which are desperately needed to keep up in the AI fight.

SIDNER: Yeah. It would be a real big shocker for people if their energy bills did, indeed, go up that much in places where it is so extremely hot. Bill Weir, thank you so much. I really appreciate your reporting on this. Really important reporting -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A quadruple murder case took a very unexpected turn yesterday, shocking the families of the victims. A source confirms to CNN that Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty. That he -- agreed to a plea deal, rather, that will have him admitting that he did it. Admitting he fatally stabbed and killed four Idaho college students in their home in the middle of the night.

He's expected to officially plead guilty in a hearing tomorrow. In exchange, the state will not seek the death penalty.

It's a wild twist, really, as the state had spent months and months preparing the case against Kohberger, which was set to begin early next month -- the trial.

The family of one victim, Kaylee Goncalves, is furious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE GONCALVES, FATHER OF KAYLEE GONCALVES: This is not justice. We had an outsider come to our community, kill our kids in their sleep while they're getting a college education and doing everything that they should do, and we don't have the courage to hold him accountable. No plea deal. Let's go for this guy 100 percent. Let's do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Shan Wu. It's good to see you, Shan.

What do you think of this plea deal -- what we know of it?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it seems a little bit surprising to me that the families looked like they were somewhat taken by surprise.

I mean, there is a crime victims manual for the state similar to the federal one that says that although the family victims -- victims of the family don't have a final say over a plea deal they are to be consulted, and they're certainly meant to be kept informed. It sounds like that may not have happened here, so that's some concern. Unfortunately, it doesn't give them any right to actually intervene in the case, but something seems a little bit amiss there.

And having actually tried a life without parole case I can tell you that's a very grim, very harsh punishment when that happens, and so he's certainly going to be facing a very harsh punishment. But one does to wonder why did they decide not to seek the death penalty.

BOLDUAN: Right. Add to the questions on that, is the plea deal a statement of the strength or weakness of the state's case against Kohberger?

WU: It can be but usually -- and I'm speculating. Of course, I don't know what they're looking at on the -- on the inside. Usually it's the sort of hesitancy of prosecutors that if they can get something for sure and not have to worry about going to trial, they'd rather have that certainty. However, looking at this from the outside their case seems very strong and there didn't really seem to be any good defenses. And therefore you have to wonder why they're being so cautious about this.

You know, I'm personally opposed to the death penalty. I don't think the states should be in the business of killing its citizens. But it's on the books there and so the evidence here certainly seems like it's strong enough to support it and obviously, the facts are very heinous. So it does leave me to wonder is there some problem in the case or are they just being cautious here.

BOLDUAN: What -- so the hearing happens tomorrow in Boise about all this. Is there any question left? Can the judge say no?

WU: Um, theoretically, the judge might not accept the plea, but it would be very rare to do it on the sense -- in the sense that the judge thinks oh, this is not a tough enough potential sentence --

BOLDUAN: Right.

WU: -- for the defendant. The only way that usually the plea gets tanked is if there's some question as to whether the defendant is really a) competent to understand they're accepting guilt, or b) that they're kind of fudging on it -- like, I'm going to plead guilty because the evidence is against me, but I didn't really do it.

So most likely it'll go down unless there's a problem as the judge asks the defendant questions and the judge thinks oh, there's something wrong here. He doesn't really understand this or he's not really admitting responsibility.

[07:45:00]

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Shan. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time, as always -- John.

WU: Good to see you.

BERMAN: All right, a sense of doom. Morale plunges as some Veterans Affairs health workers fear worsening shortages and staffing cuts.

And 60 percent of the time it works every time, or will it smell better than that? The new Trump perfume. Everything you need to know and smell.

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SIDNER: Authorities have identified the suspect in the deadly ambush of Idaho firefighters as 20-year-old Wess Roley. Now, officials say Roley's motives at this point remain unclear, but his grandfather told CNN he wanted to become a firefighter himself.

And police gave an update on how the fire was started. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF ROBERT NORRIS, KOOTENAI COUNTY: Roley was found to be in possession of a flint starter, and we believe that was his method for starting the fire that eventually led to firefighters responding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:50:08]

SIDNER: Those firefighters responded and came under fire. Two firefighters were killed. Coeur d'Alene battalion chief John Morrison and Kootenai County battalion chief Frank Harwood. A third firefighter, Dave Tysdal, was critically wounded. He remains in the hospital.

The Kootenai County fire chief told CNN that their fire teams, as you might imagine, remain shaken from this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHRISTOPHER WAY, KOOTENAI COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE: Uh, the team, as you can expect, shaken. The families are our focus. The families of the fallen as well as the injured are our focus. We're wrapping our arms around them, but -- and also at the same time focusing on our firefighters that were on the scene and survived and had to see this horrific incident unfold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And joining me now is former FBI crisis management and tactical operations leader, as well as a veteran firefighter, Jason Pack. Thank you so much for being there. I see your helmet there.

Look, Roley's grandfather said his grandson wanted to become a firefighter, but here he is luring firefighters to a scene just to shoot at them.

What does this tell you about him?

JASON PACK, FORMER FBI CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND TACTICAL OPERATIONS LEADER, VETERAN FIREFIGHTER AND CURRENT EMT IN KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning, ma'am, and thanks for honoring the firefighters at the top of your piece there. It's -- we've talked a lot about the investigation, but I think it's just --

SIDNER: Yeah.

PACK: -- as important to remember those brave men that have given their life serving their communities. So thanks for helping us honor those.

As far as the investigation goes, Ms. Sidner, we've seen the public information come out from the sheriff -- Sheriff Norris there about this incident. And what they've learned as we've been talking about and putting this timeline together, figuring out the pieces and the kernels and the breadcrumbs that might lead us back to the why of this case -- they were able to find former roommates, former neighbors, former colleagues that he may have worked with all with bits and pieces of information. So -- including sleeping in his car.

And there was some information that firefighters asked him to move his vehicle at the brush fire. That came out yesterday.

There was also a photograph, Sara, of an Instagram post that the sheriff held up.

SIDNER: Yeah.

PACK: All of these things when taken together kind of paint the picture a little bit of what they may be looking at.

So why would someone who wanted to be a firefighter attack firefighters? I think that's the million dollar question. And while it might be too early to tell, sometimes when somebody wants to be part of a closeknit family like the fire service and for whatever reason they're not able to make it, that could be perceived as a grievance. And just something as small as asking him to move his vehicle may have been the last thing that set him off as a sign of disrespect or a grievance -- something like that.

SIDNER: Yeah, it's a really -- that's a really interesting take on it as well.

I do want to go back to that picture. Can we put the picture back up that was shown by authorities from his Instagram? He has on, you know, camouflage and he's got this picture that is on there with it.

What does that tell you? It appears in this photo that he was going to war there.

PACK: Sara, what makes these things so difficult is this piece of information in and of itself may not say anything. But when you combine it with the facts you could consider this to be a little bit of leakage or fantasy -- like foreshadowing what may be happening.

Now just because someone does this on Instagram or social media every day doesn't necessarily indicate something bad has happened. But when you take this all into the total picture, like the investigators there in Kootenai County have been doing in Coeur d'Alene and interviewing the neighbors and the witnesses and talking about isolating -- it's isolating living in your car by yourself.

I heard that there were -- I've seen reporting that there were welfare checks of him leaving his car running for several hours. Just some odd behavior as we might call it.

So what they're trying to do is figure out the why to this, and that why that I've seen in these types of cases before is not one particular thing or another thing. It's usually a combination of a lot of these different things and then one incident, whether it was asking him to move his car at the fire scene, was probably the final thing that set him off. SIDNER: You talked about the firefighters as I did at the very

beginning. Can you give me some sense as someone who was a -- who was a firefighter himself of what this will do to not only those firefighters who were on the scene that day witnessing this horror and being terrified as they are literally being sniped at by someone with a high-powered rifle, but what this will do to firefighters just going forward every time they're called to a scene?

PACK: Well, right now, Sara, the firefighters are coming on shift in your community this morning. They're checking their trucks off. They're sitting around the breakfast table having a cup of coffee and I guarantee you they're talking about this. This has shaken firehouses across the country.

[07:55:00]

They train for active shooters, but they don't -- they train to fight fire, not take fire. So this will have to be another type of training that they'll have to put in. What if you start taking fire?

It's not uncommon for firefighters, particularly EMS folks, to be injured on the job, whether that's violent patient. You always want to make sure the scene is safe. That's a -- one of the first things they teach you when you are working this to make sure law enforcement has the scene safe before you go in.

But sometimes the unpredictability of that -- it's much different than responding to a brush fire, which undoubtedly, they have been doing every week, at least, up there and it's a routine call. Not -- every call is not routine but they're familiar with how to fight brush fires up there.

It's something you would never ever expect in a million years, but it has shaken firehouses across the country. And I know the fire service across the country and, indeed, across the world grieves with Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai County today.

SIDNER: Yeah, and our hearts go out to the Morrison and Harwood families there as well who lost loved ones in this senseless attack.

Jason Pack, thank you so much. That was great. Appreciate you coming on -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: One of the headlines we're watching right now, President Trump is now adding fragrances to the list of products that he is selling. The price, $249 for a 3.3 ounce bottle. The two new fragrances are called "Victory 45-47." They are being marketed, as you can see, a bottle for women and a bottle for men. And the branding emphasizes confidence and strength. A reminder though, it has become quite normal. It is not normal for presidents to profit off their presidencies though these are being sold, they say, as collectibles.

This morning quick-thinking bystanders are being praised after they pulled a man from a burning vehicle just moments before it engulfed -- it was engulfed in flames. It happened just after midnight on Monday on a Wisconsin -- on a Wisconsin interstate. Oh my God, look at that. Marcus Grant was driving by when he saw two vehicles crashed -- one already smoking. With no emergency crews in sight, Grant and others jumped and rushed in to help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCUS GRANT, GOOD SAMARITAN: Then I saw, like, four or so people on the passenger side trying to frantically pull this guy out. So I immediately got out of the car. I knew there was, like -- it was fresh. It was like I got there within seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: In all, Grant said he and about six to eight other people had stopped to help.

A terrifying moment aboard a Disney cruise. A young girl goes overboard. Her father jumps in after her. It happened on Sunday as the cruise ship was returning from the Bahamas. Crew members acted fast rescuing both of them from the water within minutes.

Disney -- which, of course, owns the cruise line -- is praising their quick response but it is still unclear how the child went overboard. The Broward County sheriff says that they are now investigating the circumstances that led up to the incident.

And survival from a cruise ship overboard incident is rare, which makes this rescue all the more extraordinary -- John.

BERMAN: I'm so glad it ended well.

All right. New this morning hiring freezes and staffing shortages plaguing Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country.

CNN spoke with more than a dozen employees at VA hospitals about the situation -- one, they say, is causing morale to drop and they fear the situation could get worse.

CNN'S Brian Todd has been digging into this. He is with us this morning. Brian, what have you learned?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, John. Well, as you mentioned, we spoke to more than a dozen doctors, nurses, and other employees of VA hospitals across the country. Most of them spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. They were even reluctant to disclose the facility or even the state where they work.

They say that right now morale in many hospitals is dropping. Doctors are voluntarily leaving because of the strain on the workforce and the supply chain, in some cases. And because of attrition and hiring freezes -- some of those freezes imposed during the Biden administration, we have to say -- there is not enough support staff they say.

Supplies have gone unordered. Appointments have gone unscheduled. Doctors and nurses have had to do some of those things in some cases. And this is before the layoffs at the VA had even occurred.

Now, VA says its goal is to implement a reduction in force that could affect as much as 15 percent of the VA's workforce and that amounts to about 70,000 people. And the doctors and nurses we spoke to are worried that when the layoffs actually do occur en masse and more support staff leave, that the situation will get worse.

We spoke to Irma Westmoreland, a nurse at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, who is also a top nurses union representative. We spoke to her at a rally for veterans and union members in early June, but we have kept in touch with her since then.

Here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRMA WESTMORELAND, NURSE, CHARLIE NORWOOD VA MEDICAL CENTER, AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, CHAIR, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: As they lay off support staff -- like our dieticians, our doctor staff, our housekeeping staff, and the staff that support us -- then we're going to be having to take on those jobs. And so, when we have to take on those jobs, that means our patients are going to have to wait longer for the treatment and care that they deserve and they need, and that's our concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And here are some of the comments that we've gotten from doctors at VA hospitals across the country.