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Kohberger Pleads Guilty to Idaho Student Murders; Soon: House Takes Final Vote on Trump's Sweeping Agenda Bill; Interview with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE): House Vote on Megabill, Border Security, Weapons to Ukraine; Judge Denies Bail for Sean Diddy Combs as He Awaits Sentencing. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 03, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The prosecution outlined detailed evidence it was planning to present at trial.

BILL THOMPSON, MOSCOW PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Each victim suffered multiple wounds.

CASAREZ (voice-over): The four college students returned home around 2 a.m. on November 13, 2022, after enjoying a night out. Between 4 and 4:25 a.m., a man all in black entered the apartment and stabbed the young students while they slept.

THOMPSON: As the defendant was either coming down the stairs or leaving, he encountered Xana, and he ended up killing her, also with a large knife.

CASAREZ (voice-over): During the investigation of the gruesome scene, a leather knife sheath was found next to Mogen's body.

THOMPSON: A DNA sample was taken from him, and it matched the DNA found on the knife sheath next to Maddie's body.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Without a trial ahead, some families of the victims are unsure they will ever learn Kohberger's motive. The father of Xana Kernodle writing in a statement.

I had hoped the agreement would include conditions that required the defendant to explain his actions and provide answers to the many questions that still remain.

CASAREZ: The families have questions. One of them is why did he commit these murders? The families will be able to give victim impact statements on July 23 during the formal sentencing of Brian Kohberger, right here at the Ada County Courthouse.

Jean Casarez, CNN, Boise, Idaho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, all eyes on the House floor, where Republicans are on the verge of delivering President Trump's first major legislative victory of his second term. Soon, his sweeping tax and spending bill is expected to head to a final vote after a handful of GOP holdouts fell in line overnight.

The only person, by the way, standing between Republicans and an expected yes vote, you see him there, Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader. He's been speaking now for three hours.

President Trump put the pressure on holdouts overnight because he wants the bill on his desk by tomorrow.

The issue's making lawmakers think twice. Nearly 12 million more people expected to become uninsured under this bill, and the national debt will go up another $3.3 trillion, those numbers coming from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill for us this morning.

What do you expect to happen?

You've got Johnson, Speaker Johnson, saying, hey, we're going to get this done by 8:00. It is 8:02, and Hakeem Jeffries has not stopped speaking.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Democratic leader has what is known on Capitol Hill as the magic minute. Essentially, he can go for as long as he wants to talk about this bill. We don't have guidance on exactly how long Jeffries is going to speak. Obviously, he has been talking now for more than three hours.

But just to give you a little sense of what will happen next, when Jeffries does wrap, which will happen at some point, we just don't know exactly when that moment will be, then you will have an opportunity to hear from Speaker Mike Johnson. He will also have what is known as a magic minute.

In his case, however, we expect that he will speak far shorter than what we've seen from Jeffries. And then they will move on, ultimately, to this final vote. Obviously, through the night, there was so much drama on the floor as they held open the rule vote, trying to corral some of those hardliners to support this bill.

And after hours and hours and hours of negotiations and conversations, those members finally got to yes. Only one Republican, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted against moving forward with this procedural vote. Obviously, leadership feeling very good about their chances on the final vote, which we could expect anywhere from the next hour to perhaps much, much later than that, depending on how long Hakeem Jeffries goes.

So that is the question of this hour. But ultimately, Jeffries can delay this process. He can't ultimately stop the end result if Republicans have the votes.

SIDNER: This is a delay tactic. I think we heard him saying that he was going to go on for -- that he was only halfway done. So this could go on quite a long time.

However, as you said, you were expecting this to pass, judging from the procedural vote. Lauren Fox, thank you so much for your reporting there from Capitol Hill for us --Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So we're standing by to stand by on that one, as always when it comes to Capitol Hill. And in the meantime, joining us right now is CNN Political Director and Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian and CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston. Hello, gentlemen.

So, Mark, take a broader view.

[08:05:00]

You've got Lauren Fox talking about what's going to happen kind of right -- and what is right before us. Take the broader view, though, of what is about to happen.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple of things. You know, this bill is incredibly consequential. This is going to affect a lot of people.

We're talking about extending the tax cuts from 2017. We're talking about not taxing tips, which is a huge populist message that Donald Trump said he was going to do and appears he's going to deliver on. The fact is, this is a huge win for Donald Trump, whether you like it or not.

This is a huge win, but there are consequences, OK. Remember, there are all the cuts that we've seen with DOGE. We're going to see a lot of the cuts that are, you know, made to this bill just to help pay for the tax cuts.

So early win for Donald Trump. No doubt about that. Long term, we'll see if Republicans will pay for it in the midterm.

BOLDUAN: And David, people are right to wake up this morning kind of wondering what changed, because the answer really is nothing changed with the bill. I mean, the way Punchbowl framed it is what makes it so remarkable is that they list some of the holdouts spend a huge chunk of time this week dumping all over the bill only to vote for it, meaning the rule with absolutely no changes a day later. So was it all Trump?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I mean, I think the answer is pretty simple. I think it is, yes. You are right, none of those holdouts got anything in exchange. Johnson was very clear he was not in dealmaking mode. He was in passing this Senate bill mode by their self-imposed deadline of July 4th.

You saw the president take to his social media platform, hammering away this. You saw a series of phone calls with members even in the wee hours this morning. Donald Trump was talking to members. I think there has been some indication that some of the priorities, that some of these Republican members had that they didn't see in this bill may come in the future. But there's no guarantee of that. But I think that was the bulk of the conversation.

And the other side of it was you got to do this because I, Donald Trump, am going to come down on you like, holy hell, if you don't, we need to get this done. And that is the reality of the Republican Party, one wholly owned by the president, remade in his image. And this is where he can exert that power to emerge with this victory.

Now, the Republicans are going to have a sales job, a sales job with the American people that they're starting on the back foot on. I mean, the bill is more unpopular than popular, according to a whole host of surveys. And so they have their work cut out for them now that they have the big legislative victory.

And Trump will tout that, no doubt, and rightfully so. They now have the next, what, 16 months or so to actually sell this bill to the American people.

BOLDUAN: Just as you know, Democrats are also selling a different aspect of what they say is happening with this bill. You've got Jeffries on the floor, Mark, telling stories about people on Medicaid, focusing in on very specifically and largely on the Medicaid cuts that are coming with this bill. They're vowing to make this the centerpiece of the midterm campaign to try and win back control of the chamber.

What's that going to look like?

PRESTON: Well, they need an issue, and they need an issue to get their base fired up, which we think that it's fired up anyway. What's interesting politically, too, about Jeffries holding the floor, holding the House floor, is that in some ways politically he has to do. The Democratic leadership right now is under so much criticism from within right now, from the Democratic National Committee all the way through congressional leaders. Even individual members are being criticized for not fighting hard enough against Donald Trump.

To their defense, it's very hard to fight against Donald Trump when Democrats don't necessarily have the tools to do so in Congress. But that's why Jeffries is on the floor right now, to show that there is a fight. But expect just to see Democrats talk about Medicaid over and over and over again, as well as all these other cuts that we're going to see -- that we've seen from DOGE or DOGE is going to come into.

This will be a selling game for Republicans, no question. This will be a game of offense for Democrats who try to push back against it.

BOLDUAN: And one thing I was just thinking about, you've got time before the midterm, David, but you also with that time is allowing these cuts to set in. I'm going to be speaking a little later in the show about rural hospitals and the impact of Medicaid cuts, what that means for them. This allows for that fallout to set in, for people to feel the good impact of the bill. And what people will say is going to be the bad impact of the bill. That has lots of people comparing this to the midterm fallout that came in the wake of enacting, of Congress enacting Obamacare in the 2010 midterm. Do you see that, David?

CHALIAN: Yes, I mean, Obamacare, remember, it finally got passed in the spring of 2010. So it was closer to that midterm election. And I don't think the impacts were largely felt.

It was the fear of what may happen.

[08:10:00]

And as you know, the history, Obamacare has gotten a lot more popular since passage because giving Americans a benefit tends to be more popular with time. Taking it away tends to be unpopular.

That's the Republican problem here. And to your point, Kate, there is time here for some of these impacts to be felt, which means there's also time, as it relates to the midterms, for Democrats to put human faces on these stories. That's what Hakeem Jeffries is doing on the floor right now.

But being in these communities, you could just see the campaign ads being made now about taking healthcare away from someone, having a testimonial about that, all to be able to give tax breaks to the wealthy. That's the Democratic frame on this bill. And there are popular components, as Mark mentioned, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, things like that.

But the larger frame versus individual pieces that may be particularly popular, that's the battle between the two parties as we head into '26.

BOLDUAN: It sure is. That's why today is important on so many levels. When you're looking at it very politically, you're looking at the framing being set, kind of the stage being set for what the lens through which this entire midterm is probably going to be playing out.

It's great to see you guys. Thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. Senator, thanks so much for being with us this morning. There was this fierce Republican opposition, some at least, from the Freedom Caucus on the right.

You had some moderates sort of in the middle there concerned about the cuts to Medicaid. It all seemed to crumble overnight. And now every Republican but one voted for the rule, and we expect it will be a similar outcome when the vote goes to the floor of the House in a few minutes, perhaps.

What does that tell you? What does it maybe tell you about Donald Trump's power?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): John, this is just a shocking degree of caving to President Trump by Republican House members who just in the last few days were saying how awful this bill will be for their home states. And it will be awful. $900 billion is being taken out of Medicaid.

That means that millions of Americans will be thrown off of healthcare. Between the Medicaid cuts and the ACA cuts, 17 million Americans. And those just aren't numbers, John.

Those are newborn babies. Those are Americans fighting addiction. Those are disabled Americans. Those are seniors in nursing homes.

I spoke to a close friend who's a doctor at one of our nation's leading children's hospitals. 40 percent of his patients, their care is paid for by Medicaid.

I met with 30 nurses from Delaware last week. They came to Washington because their patients can't. And they begged me to fight against this bill that will close hospitals and that will end healthcare for millions of vulnerable Americans, all so that President Trump can deliver a big tax cut, an extended tax cut to his billionaire donors.

This is not a good deal for America. The reason they're racing to meet the artificial deadline of July 4th is so that their members don't have to go home and face their constituents at town halls. Once Americans realize the real cost of this bill, they will be angry because it's going to impact every American.

Our healthcare costs will go up, our emergency room wait times will go down, and our nation as a whole will be sicker, hungrier, and less well-off as a result of this bill.

BERMAN: I suppose the question is, when are those impacts going to be felt, the detrimental impacts that you think will happen there? Because some of the tax cuts, and not just the extensions, but on overtime, Social Security, or, you know, deductions for seniors, and as well as taxes on tips, they go into effect right away. So some people will feel the tax cuts right away, perhaps before they see the benefits being cut.

COONS: Well, I think there will be very prompt impacts in terms of payments from Medicaid. You'll see hospitals begin to close. You'll see wait times begin to creep up.

The most significant impacts may take months or into next year. But frankly, for working Americans, they'll get a small tax relief if it's either tips, or overtime, or if they're someone who makes below $100,000. But the net impact on them will be their costs will go up.

Some of the cuts to construction projects, to clean energy projects, means electricity costs, and household energy costs will go up. So between the massive cuts to SNAP, to healthcare, and to electricity and infrastructure, the very thing that Donald Trump ran on most, bringing costs down, means that the costs for tens of millions of Americans, for healthcare, for electricity, for food, will go up. And that's not good for America. BERMAN: I want to ask you about a different number that came out over the last 24 hours, and this was from DHS, that said in the month of June, in the month of June, there were 6,000 border apprehensions at the Southwest border -- 6,000.

[08:15:00]

In June of 2024, there were 7,000 apprehensions the first two days of the month. That number 6,000 is historically low. What does this tell you about whether President Trump's border policies are working?

COONS: Well, John, having a lower number of people apprehended at the border is a positive. Securing the border is a good thing. The core difference and the core concern I have is how it's being accomplished, because accomplishing border security and greater deportations through cruelty is not a positive.

I think everyone in Congress agrees we should be deporting violent criminals who are here illegally. Many violent criminals were deported under the previous two administrations. But frankly, deterring people from coming to our border, making a long and difficult and expensive journey merely to try and cross our border illegally, deterring them is a good thing, but how it's happening and where it's happening and to whom it's happening is not.

BERMAN: Very quickly, a suspension in weapons deliveries to Ukraine that appears to be in effect right now. What's the impact of that going to be?

COONS: So President Zelenskyy has said this is encouraging Russia. Russia is pounding Ukrainian civilian targets every single night. They're hitting hospitals, they're hitting apartments, they're hitting schools.

Ukraine is striking back as they can inside Russia at exclusively military targets. And Russia is now delivering many, many more drones and missiles than Ukraine can intercept.

I was at the NATO summit, John. It was very positive. And President Trump had a constructive meeting with President Zelenskyy and said he was going to be delivering more Patriot interceptor missiles. Only the United States manufactures Patriot interceptor missiles, and they are crucial to stopping Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

This is not a fight between two equal countries where both of them are at fault. Russia is the aggressor here. Every NATO country, including the United States, signed off on a closing statement at the NATO summit that Russia is the aggressor and a long-term threat to the United States, to NATO, and to Europe.

And frankly, we need to keep that commitment and recognize that Ukraine and Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom. Suspending weapons transfers now merely encourages Russian aggression. I have a call later today with the Deputy Secretary of Defense to get answers on why this is happening.

BERMAN: Senator Chris Croons from Delaware, have a wonderful Fourth of July. Thank you for being with us this morning -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Sean Combs acquitted of the most serious charges against him, but convicted on two charges linked to prostitution, why the judge refused to grant him bail.

And we're standing by for some new economic numbers for you this morning. The June jobs report set to be released in just minutes. And you can see what the markets are doing right now, up just a bit this morning.

Get out while you can. We're expecting record-breaking travel for the Fourth of July. What you will face if you are traveling for this holiday.

[08:20:00]

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SIDNER: Get ready to be in traffic and long lines. This 4th of July is expected to see record-breaking travel, with AAA predicting more than 72 million Americans will drive or fly for the holiday.

CNN's Pete Muntean is tracking all of this. Pete, you can fly your own plane. The rest of us plebeians cannot do that. We have to be in traffic. We have to be with the masses that you are seeing here from those Getty images. Do you have any tips on just how to make it a little bit better?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Don't get it twisted, Sara. I'm going to be in some of that traffic, too. Be one with the traffic.

Now, leave early in the morning or late at night, because AAA says nationwide another 1.3 million people will drive 50 miles or more compared to the last July 4th rush. Maybe some are gas prices doing this because they're the lowest they've been since 2021, and the nationwide average is down about 35 cents compared to a year ago. But Independence Day falling on Friday this year is really making things interesting.

You know, technically, that's when the federal holiday is observed, but a lot of people already getting a jump on things. Yesterday was forecast to be the busiest on the roads before the holiday. But we are not out of the woods yet.

AAA says Sunday will be the busiest after the holiday. Here is the big advice from AAA. Avoid the afternoon rush today. In general, the worst time is between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., so really try to hit it before noon, they say. If you get on the road much after that, probably best to wait until 8 or 9 at night.

You might think of this as just a driving holiday, but it's also huge for air travel. And the FAA says today is the biggest of the rush in terms of the number of flights in the air. The TSA says when this rush is over, they'll screen a total of 18.5 million people at airport checkpoints nationwide. Again, Sunday will be the biggest in the air also. That's when TSA anticipates screening 2.9 million people at airports, pretty close to the all-time high. TSA screened 3.1 million people the Sunday after Juneteenth, June 22nd, just 11 days ago. That's the all- time record, so we'll get pretty close to that.

[08:25:00]

Here are the busiest airports of this weekend according to travel site Hopper. Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Chicago O'Hare, LAX. Hard to avoid these places, though. Some pretty big hubs for airlines, so expect some long lines. And the big tip, hope you have your Real ID. That mandate went into effect on May 7th.

The TSA says luckily, though, about 94 percent of people have complied with that new rule.

SIDNER: All right, Pete Muntean, thank you so much. Appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: I mean, you say, you know, you have to be with the masses. You know, it's get to be. We get to be there all together. It's, you know, a collective feeling of bliss.

All right, this morning, Sean Combs is behind bars, denied bail as he awaits sentencing on two prostitution-related convictions. He was acquitted, as you know at this point, of more serious charges.

Cassie Ventura's legal team says this is not exactly the outcome they had hoped for. CNN's Lisa France is covering this for us this morning. Lisa, what is next for Sean Combs?

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes, what is next for him is not what he expected. Sean Combs expected, John, to walk out of that courtroom, a free man, yesterday, and as you pointed out, bail was denied to him. He was encouraging to his family.

You know, the mixed verdict coming out was a huge win for him, but he encouraged his family, and during that hearing, when he found out that his bail was denied, he shared some love with them, told them that they would get through this, that he would see them when he got home. So he is anticipating getting back to his life, but the judge has let him know that he is not going to be able to walk free. As of right now, a hearing is scheduled for October for his sentencing.

Of course, his team would like that to be moved up, and so there's going to be a hearing about that and discussions about that, but it seems like, you know, Sean Combs is focusing on what's next for him, and, you know, like I said, encouraging his family and letting them know that they need to be strong right now -- John.

BERMAN: So what has been the reaction from some of the people who did testify, Cassie Ventura's legal team, other women who said that they were victims here?

FRANCE: Yes, Cassie Ventura's team is really focusing on her courage in coming forward. We have some of our exclusive interview with her attorney from yesterday, and we can listen to what some of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLAS WIGDOR, ATTORNEY FOR CASSIE VENTURA: Obviously, we would have liked to have seen convictions on the RICO charges and the sex trafficking charges, but Cassie prompted this investigation by the Southern District, and now Sean Combs stands before the court as a convicted felon of two federal crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCE: Yes, so as you can see there, they're really -- he's really hailing Cassie and looking at the positive of her coming forward and how this sparked this court case, John, because a lot of people believe that these criminal charges would not have been brought against Sean Combs were it not for her.

BERMAN: Right, Lisa France, thanks so much for keeping us up to date on all of this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us. In court to enter a guilty plea as part of a deal with prosecutors, we now have learned new details about what happened on the night of the murders in Idaho, those four college students, and what Brian Kohberger did to cover his tracks.

And President Trump -- President Trump's mega bill includes the steepest cuts to Medicaid ever, how rural hospitals could pay the highest price.

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