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Interview With Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton; Social Safety Net Targeted in Republican Budget Bill; Republicans Set to Pass Budget Bill. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 03, 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: A last stand. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries delivering a now-eight-hour-long speech slamming the president's megabill and holding up the final House vote on it. we will take you live to Capitol Hill.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, we have heard from witnesses, reporters, and lawyers inside the courtroom of the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, but CNN just spoke to an alternate juror who sat through this entire trial, but did not deliberate. Does he agree with the final verdict?

Also, he's every hot dog's worst nightmare, the one and only Joey Chestnut joining the show to talk about his highly anticipated return to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

We are following these stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Happening now: no voting until he stops talking.

Right now, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is on the brink of breaking a marathon speech record with one goal in mind, to delay the final vote on President Trump's megabill.

When that vote finally does happen, it likely will deliver another big win for Speaker Mike Johnson and the president, even with major concerns about how this bill might affect health care for millions of Americans and concern among deficit hawks about how much it's all going to cost.

Let's take you live to Capitol Hill with CNN's Lauren Fox.

And, Lauren, you just spoke with House Speaker Johnson. It seems like he's eager for Jeffries to wrap this up.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, he basically called this a waste of time, arguing that the inevitable is going to happen, that Donald Trump's agenda will at some point pass.

It's just a matter of when Leader Jeffries, the Democratic leader, decides that he is done talking. Now, just like you were alluding to a few minutes ago, this is -- could be the modern record if Jeffries gets passed about the 1:30 p.m. mark.

That is because the record in modern times comes from Kevin McCarthy. He spoke on the floor for 8.5 hours, roughly. Obviously, that may be something that Jeffries is working toward, but we just don't have insight right now when he might stop speaking.

Here's what he is messaging on the floor. He's essentially saying that these cuts that were made, especially to the Medicaid program, could be incredibly harmful for not just Americans, but he's arguing for some of the Republicans who could eventually vote for this.

He's referring here to swing state Republicans. Here's Jeffries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I'm looking forward to all 13 of you joining us to protect the health care of the American people that you represent.

That's the promise, Mr. Speaker, that your Republican colleagues made in this April letter. What's changed? We're looking forward to all 13 Republicans in this letter joining us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, Speaker Johnson is very confident that he is going to have the votes once this final tally begins.

Again, he argued that it is just inevitable. When Leader Jeffries stops speaking, Republicans are going to move to vote on Trump's agenda, and he believes that he is going to be successful in getting that through the House and to the president's desk before that Fourth of July deadline.

SANCHEZ: Lauren, there is that we know of one Republican holdout, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. Is there any update on the effort to get him from no to yes?

FOX: Yes, that was one of my first questions for the speaker. Is he still trying to court some folks who may be unwilling to support this legislation?

You alluded to Brian Fitzpatrick. He is a Republican from the swing state of Pennsylvania, and he has been very vocal over the course of the last several months about concerns that these Medicaid cuts were too steep coming back from the United States Senate's bill. He did vote against advancing the procedural rule vote last night.

He was the only Republican to do so. When Johnson was talking about his conversations with Fitzpatrick, he essentially said that he's very convicted in his beliefs and that he believes that he can keep having conversations, but he did not make any promises about getting Fitzpatrick's vote -- Boris.

[13:05:04]

SANCHEZ: Lauren Fox, thank you so much for the update.

Let's actually go live to Leader Jeffries, who is continuing his speech. He just said, "I'm not down with this situation," to raucous applause from his Democratic colleagues. Let's listen.

JEFFRIES: They go to church.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your time. Take your time.

JEFFRIES: Mr. Speaker, I said, some folks in this town, they go to church.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your time.

JEFFRIES: And I'm not questioning anybody's faith. I'm just making an observation.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: Got some folks in this town, they go to church and they pray on Sunday, P-R-A-Y, and then they come to Congress and prey, P-R- E-Y, on the American people. I'm not down with that kind of faith.

That ain't my faith. That's not our faith.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: That's not the faith that comes out of the Gospel.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: I can't find that kind of faith.

SANCHEZ: Leader Jeffries there saying that some folks who come to Capitol Hill and attend Sunday service when they pray are now preying, P-R-E-Y, on everyday Americans with some of the cuts to federal funding of Medicare and expansion states, as well as new eligibility and work requirements.

The leader there being met with applause, even some in the crowd telling him to take his time and continue as he gets closer and closer to shattering the House record with this speech.

Let's take you live to the White House now with CNN's Kevin Liptak.

Because, Kevin, the president wants to sign off on this huge bill on Independence Day. It seems like Leader Jeffries is trying to delay that potentially.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, I'm not sure anyone is losing sleep here at the White House. They do believe that this bill will eventually be passed, although they are watching this very, very closely.

President Trump today has been kind of going about his day. He spoke earlier with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He's meeting now in the Oval Office with the Israeli-American former Hamas hostage Edan Alexander.

So the president sort of continuing about his engagements, even as he's keeping a very close eye on the House floor and on Capitol Hill at what is going to be quite a consequential moment for his second presidency. He has been expending enormous amount of political capital getting this bill passed, even just in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday, we saw that parade of lawmakers coming here to the White House, the president really putting on the charm offensive in a lot of ways, taking photos, handing out swag for some of the members' kids, but also twisting arms and trying to explain to some of these members the benefits that he sees in this bill.

And, in fact, we had heard from some former holdouts earlier today describing some of the commitments that President Trump made in those meetings to really enforce the letter of the law once this passes when it comes to some of the permitting for green energy projects, so really trying to emphasize that he is on board with this bill and that he did not want to see them making any changes to it.

He didn't want to see any delay in this going forward. Now it all seems to be on track to pass. And this is now quite an important moment for the president. It ends in some ways the saga of trying to get it passed, but it will begin in a lot of ways the process of selling it to the American people. It's an unpopular bill, according to polls.

President Trump's task going forward, I think, will be to explain to the American people how they benefit from this ahead of the midterm elections.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and they are inching closer and closer, about a year- and-a-half away.

Kevin Liptak from the White House, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: So who are the big winners and losers in the president's megabill?

We have CNN senior reporter Matt Egan taking a deeper dive into the legislation.

So, Matt, let's start with who would be better off?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, the president has argued that this would be one of the most successful pieces of legislation in American history, certainly setting the bar quite high there.

But I think ultimately the beauty of this bill is going to be in the eye of the beholder. Some of the winners here, clearly the business community. We have seen a lot of business groups loudly applaud the Senate passage of this bill. And that's because the package would make permanent certain business tax breaks.

Now, small businesses and partnerships that are formed by lawyers, doctors and investors, they are also likely to benefit because this package would make permanent a special deduction for pass-through entities. Now, also some workers, right, people who make money from tips and overtime, they're going to be able to deduct some of that income. And that is very significant as well.

And then high-income Americans, they're really going to benefit here. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, they're estimating that the top 20 percent of earners, they're going to see their after-tax income go up by $13,000 per year because of this package. And if you look at just the top 0.1 percent of earners, their after-tax income is projected to go up by $300,000 per year.

[13:10:21]

So, look, this package, it's not going to end up helping everyone, but I think clearly the winners here are higher income earners and also many businesses.

KEILAR: And who would be worse off from this bill?

EGAN: Well, Brianna, as you know, this package would make very significant, really historic cuts to social safety nets. And so that's why lower-income Americans would be worse off, right?

We're specifically talking about some significant cuts and work requirements that have been added to food stamps and to Medicaid as well. There's estimates out there that millions of Americans could go uninsured by 2034. Now, also clean energy, that is another potential loser from this package because it would take away some of the clean energy subsidies and some of the support there.

And you think about Elon Musk and some of his criticism of this package. Electric vehicles, they could suffer from weaker demand because this legislation would also speed up when some of those E.V. tax credits will expire. Also, you think about the national debt and all of these concerns we hear about the deficit.

The national debt is projected, according to the CBO, to go up by another $3.4 trillion over a decade because of this package. And, of course, the United States already has a mountain of debt and this package could end up making it even worse, which ultimately really is a cost that falls on everyone, right? Every billion the government has to spend on interest to service that debt is a billion less that it can spend on priorities that we all care about, like education and fixing roads and bridges -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And the closing bell just rang early today for the July 4 holiday. How did stocks do, Matt?

EGAN: Yes, markets closed on this holiday-shortened day significantly higher, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finishing at all time highs. You see they're up by about 1 percent apiece, the Dow climbing nearly 1 percent, 344 points higher, closing in, just under 200 points away from setting its own record high, the Dow.

This would be the first record for the Dow since December. Now, I don't really think the markets are reacting all that much to what we're seeing in Washington. Investors really did anticipate that lawmakers are going to probably approve this package. A lot of that had already been priced in.

I think the big news that's really been impacting investors today has been that stronger-than-expected jobs report, which has eased some concerns about the health of the economy -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Matt Egan, thank you very much for taking us through that.

Still ahead: the Pentagon's new assessment on the U.S. strikes on Iran and what it tells us about the future of the country's nuclear weapons program.

Plus, an alternate juror in the Sean "Diddy" Combs criminal trial speaks to CNN. What he thinks about the verdict and whether the jurors got this right.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We will be right back.

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SANCHEZ: We have new details on the extent of damage to Iran's nuclear sites following U.S. strikes.

A Pentagon assessment says the bombing runs degraded Iran's nuclear program by one to two years. That's more damage than an initial intelligence report that suggested strikes did not destroy key components to enrich uranium and only set back nuclear ambitions by a few months.

The White House has consistently claimed that Iran's nuclear weapons program was obliterated.

Joining us now, former National Security Adviser to President Trump and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

Ambassador Bolton, thank you so much for being with us.

How confident are you in the Pentagon assessment that Iran's program has been set back one to two years?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it depends on what they're talking about.And I think there's a lot of misinformation and, frankly, ignorance going on in a lot of this debate.

I think the attacks caused significant damage. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the attacks had caused, his words, enormous damage.

I think the key point is, there's only one person who believes that it was totally and completely obliterated. I don't know anybody else who's serious who actually believes that, which is why the real question is, whatever the level of damage, what are we going to do, what is Israel going to do to make sure that the Iranians can't repair, rebuild from that damage, and indeed to look for other opportunities to reduce what's left of the program to rubble?

SANCHEZ: To that question of new opportunities, given the fact that it appears that Iran has maintained some quantity of enriched uranium, do you believe that that total obliteration, that that goal that you have in mind is possible through military means?

BOLTON: Well, it's possible if you're diligent and willing to pursue it.

The uranium -- enriched uranium may be deeply buried, but if you can't breathe down there, if you can't get access to it, it doesn't do anybody much good. This is a question of resolve and persistence. And I think that it will have impacts if we continue to surveil what the Iranians are up to and take action.

[13:20:14]

Declaring a cease-fire, as we did immediately after the U.S. attacks, I think was a mistake. And I think that we will not see the cease-fire last long if Iran does, from what we can appear to know already, to try and rebuild the program.

SANCHEZ: It seems like the U.S. might be -- or what you're saying is that the U.S. might be in a position where it winds up playing a game of Whac-A-Mole with Iranian nuclear technology.

And in an op-ed you recently published in "The New York Times," you argue that there is only really one path forward, that what's needed is a change in leadership and Tehran, regime change, because you say that trying to broker a new nuclear deal would be a waste of oxygen. You argue that Iran is not Iraq, that no boots on the ground need to be involved.

I wonder how that's possible, because if the ayatollah falls and is taken out of power, then you could see a post-regime landscape where the remnants of the military, warlords and militias, wind up fighting each other in mountainous terrain, potentially with nuclear material. What would keep that from happening, other than an occupying force?

BOLTON: Well, your question implies what some criticism has been of the strike, which is, if you don't destroy anything -- everything, you shouldn't destroy anything. And that's simply wrong.

This program has been gravely weakened. And I think continuing to eliminate its elements is a positive from anybody's perspective. But I do think, and I have urged this for many years, the only long-term solution is a new regime in Iran that rejects the strategic decision of the ayatollahs to seek nuclear weapons. Regime change means changing the regime. It doesn't mean inevitably

boots on the ground or anything else. I think the regime is extraordinarily unpopular inside Iran for many different reasons, which I'd be happy to specify. The young people are unhappy. Women are unhappy. Ethnic groups are unhappy. The entire country is unhappy about the economy.

And I think, at the top, they're in a strategic situation where they have had it demonstrated to the population, which is knowledgeable and sophisticated, that the Iranian regime cannot protect itself, let alone the country. I think, with a supreme leader who's 86 and not well, the country could be headed to a real crisis of leadership.

And those are the circumstances in which the people of Iran could see the regime crumble. That's what we're looking at. That is one way to get regime change.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador, I also quickly wanted to get your thoughts on President Trump speaking with Vladimir Putin shortly after the U.S. announced that it would pause certain weapons shipments to Ukraine.

Do you think this is getting closer to a real negotiation with Vladimir Putin, an end to the war in Ukraine?

BOLTON: No, I don't think so at all.

I think what I'm worried about is that the question whether in fact there's been a conscious decision made to cut off assistance to the Ukraine, both weapons ammunition and military intelligence. I am very doubtful about this Defense Department decision to pause, to hold up weapons shipments because of alleged insufficiencies in our own arsenal.

We will find out soon enough, I think, whether the president himself made that decision or whether it was made and announced before there was really any interagency consultation. My experience in government, my instincts tell me there's something very funny about this decision. Maybe it is Trump's decision personally. As I say, I think we will know soon enough.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador John Bolton, thank you so much for joining us.

We want to go back to Capitol Hill in just moments, where Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, is giving a record -- close to record-shattering speech. He's just moments away from breaking the record for the longest speech on the House side, trying to delay a vote on Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

We will be back in just a moment. Stay with CNN.

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[13:26:20]

KEILAR: Just now, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries here in the next few seconds is breaking that marathon speech record on the House floor as he delays the final vote on President Trump's megabill, taking advantage of that so-called magic minute that the minority leader gets.

SANCHEZ: Yes, he is now breaking the record set by former Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

CNN's Lauren Fox is live on the Hill.

Lauren, what are you hearing about this historymaking moment?

FOX: Yes, I mean, it was about 10 minutes ago that he said very soon he was going to begin closing this speech, and you heard from Democrats who were standing around him in the well of the House, essentially, take your time, keep going.

There is really this feeling right now on the floor that, yes, in many ways, the passage of Donald Trump's bill is inevitable once Hakeem Jeffries stops speaking, but you can see how important this moment was for Democrats to get their point across here.

SANCHEZ: Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JEFFRIES: All of the promises that were made by some people in this town that the top priority was going to be to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America, and then, all of last year, ran away from Project 2025.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on.

JEFFRIES: Acted like it didn't exist.

And then, Mr. Speaker, people come to town, and the majority now in every single part of the extremism that we have seen unleashed on the American people is connected to Project 2025.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: Every single part.

But here's why -- here's why -- here's why I still got hope, optimism. I referenced this earlier. Today, as we prepare to experience the 249th birthday of the United States of America, take it back to that original document, Declaration of Independence, 1776, Mr. Speaker, it had the aspirational part.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on down.

JEFFRIES: That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Come on.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: That's the aspirational part of the Declaration of Independence.

And, as House Democrats, we're committed, no matter what it takes, to bring that about. Imagine an America where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules can live the good life, afford to live the good life...

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: ... good-paying jobs, good housing, good health care, good education for your children, and a good retirement.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFRIES: That's what House Democrats are fighting for. That's the aspirational part.