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GOP Now Looks to Sell Big, Beautiful Bill to American Public; Interview with Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA): Steep Medicaid Cuts, Democratic Messaging for Midterm Election Campaigns; Florida Lawmakers Denied Entry to Controversial Detention Center; Wife Fears AI Chatbot Will Destroy Her Marriage. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 04, 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]

OCEAN RAMSEY, FREE-DIVING CONSERVATIONIST: And I'm more nervous about being around humans.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: More nervous in humans -- you're more afraid of humans than you are of sharks.

RAMSEY: I'm sure there's people out there that probably Google, like, am I safe to go in the ocean? And I'm like, Googling, am I safe to be around humans?

BOLDUAN: Fair, fair point. It is great to meet you, and it is wonderful to see your work and just the imagery and the cinematography. And this is just absolutely beautiful.

RAMSEY: I got to give a shout out to my husband, Juan Sharks. He couldn't be here, but he shot most everything that you see along with Keone. It's a great team.

BOLDUAN: Really beautiful, and much more that people can see. Thanks for coming in.

RAMSEY: Thank you so much for having me.

BOLDUAN: I know it's like, oh, dark 30 in Hawaii time right now. Shark Whisperer is the name of this very special film, this documentary. It is now streaming globally on Netflix.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Happy 4th of July. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Happening today, a major moment for President Trump 2.0. The president set to sign his sweeping domestic agenda bill into law at a White House ceremony, complete with a B-2 bomber flyover. The next challenge here, selling it to the American people.

New this morning, the growing humanitarian concerns about Florida's controversial new migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. A group of lawmakers say they were denied entry just hours after the first group of detainees arrived. What we know about life inside the tents.

And an Idaho man says ChatGPT led him to a spiritual awakening. His wife says it's not only affecting his grip on reality, but that his addiction is also ruining their marriage. CNN spoke with the couple.

I'm Erica Hill. In today for John, Kate, and Sara, this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

As Americans prepare to celebrate the nation's birthday, President Trump is getting ready to mark the day by signing the biggest legislative win of his second term so far into law. The president taking a victory lap yesterday after the House passed his signature tax and spending bill. He held a rally in Iowa and started what is likely a tough uphill job of selling this bill, which includes controversial Medicaid cuts.

He's now trying to sell it to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Very simply, the one Big, Beautiful Bill would deliver the strongest border on earth, the strongest economy on earth, the strongest military on earth, and ensure the United States of America will remain the strongest country anywhere on this beautiful planet of ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The victory comes after weeks of public back and forth, of course, hours of private meetings, phone calls, especially in those last several hours to get GOP holdouts to fall in line. At issue for a number of hardliners, the growing national debt. For moderates, it's major cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid.

In the end, though, just two House Republicans voted against the measure. Democrats now ready to jump on their concerns, hoping to seize the moment and, of course, take back the House in the 2026 midterms.

Joining us now, senior political analyst Mark Preston. So, Mark, this rally for the president, really a bit of a victory lap for his mega bill. But we know from polling, this is not exactly broadly popular at this point with the American public. How does he plan to sell it?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you're right, Erica. Right now, looking at about 53 percent of Americans right now don't like this bill. We've seen that from a recent Quinnipiac poll. But we've seen President Trump out there talking about the extension of the tax cuts because had this not been signed in, the tax cuts that President Trump had passed back in 2017 were set to expire. That would have been a tax increase for many Americans, specifically wealthy Americans. Donald Trump is talking about those, how they are not going to come into effect.

He's also talking about border security, something we've heard over and over again. We've seen an incredible amount of money now being put towards ICE and to increase ICE officials and agents in order to detain more of these undocumented immigrants.

In addition to that, though, he talks about military funding, especially on this July 4th. He's going to sign this bill today here in the nation's capital with airplanes flying overhead.

Donald Trump is doing much more than a victory lap. But to your point, how's he going to sell it? More importantly, how would those Republicans, how would those House Republicans who will face voters in 2026, how will they sell it when this is not just a standalone right now, Erica? A lot of people forget about the DOGE cuts. And if you put these two things together, will they hurt Republicans heading into the midterms? We just don't know yet.

HILL: Yes, a lot of unknowns will be watching all of that in the months ahead. I also wanted to ask you about, today, of course, is the 249th birthday of the U.S., President Trump unveiling some big plans for America 250 to celebrate that big milestone next year. What more do we know about those plans?

PRESTON: Let's just cut to the chase.

[08:05:00]

He has announced that there's going to be a UFC fight, not just any kind of UFC fight, a championship fight on the grounds of the White House.

Now, this isn't just like a one-off from Donald Trump. He has a long history with Dana White, who owns the UFC. In fact, Dana White's first match, when he created this company, was held at a Trump property.

So Trump says that up to 20,000 people could come and see this. I have no idea about crowd estimates or anything like that. But there's going to be a UFC fight.

In addition to that, he talked about how there's going to be these state fairs across the country in a big state fair here in the nation's capital. Those are just the things that he talked about. But after what we saw a few weeks ago with the military parade, you can expect that the 250 celebrations are going to be much grander than he talked about last night in Iowa.

HILL: They're going to be huge. I am wondering, though, where you fit 20,000 to 25,000 people at the White House. That security screen.

PRESTON: I was trying to think the same thing.

HILL: You want some extra time for that line. Yes, definitely clear bags. There's going to be -- it's going to be a long line to get in. We'll be watching for those developments.

PRESTON: No umbrellas, no umbrellas.

HILL: Definitely no umbrellas. Happy Fourth.

Joining us now to discuss Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan of Virginia.

Congresswoman, it's nice to have you with us. Happy Fourth of July to you. As we look at where things stand with this Big, Beautiful Bill, it's impossible to ignore there are politics at play here, right?

I know there has been a lot of talk about how this could hurt Republicans leading into the midterms, as Mark and I were just talking about. This is going to be a focus for both parties. The reality, though, that Republicans have learned a few things from Donald Trump's first term.

These cuts that have so many Democrats and Americans concerned don't actually kick in until after the midterms. And so some of the benefits, the broader benefits, are what Americans are going to feel first. How do you counteract that?

REP. JENNIFER MCCLELLAN (D-VA), ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Well, I see a number of people who are very concerned about the Medicaid cuts, no matter when they take effect. And they're already saying they're not going to vote for anyone that voted to gut Medicaid. I think you're going to see state governments having to grapple with this reality very early on as they do their budgets for next year.

And they have to do their budget, assuming they're going to get much less money from the federal government. Those states that use the provider tax to pay their share of Medicaid are already going to have to grapple with that. They're seeing holes in their budget as they begin to implement this.

And they have to pay that money up front. And they're going to have to make decisions. Do we raise taxes or cut benefits in 2026?

So I think people are already starting to feel the pain. We saw a hospital in Nebraska already announced it is closing. We're seeing health clinics around the country that are beginning to close or be at risk of closing now because they can't plan for their future.

So between this bill, this big ugly bill, the tariffs and the uncertainty that that is creating and the DOGE cuts, people are feeling pain now and they're anxious about what they're going to feel in 2026 and beyond.

HILL: In terms of -- part of what you brought up -- in terms of how the cuts are going to impact states, where the money is going to come from, Governor Youngkin noted -- and I'm quoting him here in an interview -- At the heart of the initiative in order to save taxpayer money is asking able-bodied Virginians and Americans who can work to work. He goes on to say, I don't believe there will be people who need services who will have to go without.

And he referenced, I believe it's a $900 million fund in the state. And in those comments made it sound like that money could be used. Is it your understanding that Virginia's -- that those funds specifically in Virginia both could and would be used to cover the shortfall?

MCCLELLAN: They're not going to be enough. See, what the governor doesn't understand, first, you have Virginia has the second highest number of federal employees of any state in the country who have already lost their jobs and they're not going to be contributing to the tax base. And many of them are seeking unemployment. So that's a cost the state's going to have to pay.

As you're seeing agencies that are in Virginia close or shift or leave, that's going to impact the tax base in Virginia. The cuts to education, we had a number of school divisions that have not received their funding that they were supposed to receive from the federal government. Now, Virginia is going to have to make that up.

It's going to have handcuffs on its ability to pay its share of Medicaid right now. They've got to make that up. For the first time ever, they're going to have to pay more for benefits for SNAP. They're going to have to make -- pay that up. These work requirements, Virginia looked at putting work requirements in when we expanded Medicaid and we didn't do it because we found that the cost to administer it would be not worth it.

[08:10:00]

Georgia found the cost to administer the work requirements. They paid more for that than they paid for care.

So if you look at the totality of what this administration is costing the Commonwealth of Virginia, that fund is not going to be enough. I have heard from state legislators and local legislators, they cannot make that up. They're going to have to either raise their taxes or cut services across the board.

HILL: When you look at the fight that your party put up ahead of this, the messaging that led up to this point, are you satisfied with that messaging, with that attack, even with the historic magic minute from a minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, yesterday?

MCCLELLAN: Look, the message is very simple. If you are middle-class or mid-life, you get nothing from this bill. As a matter of fact, you lose.

If you make more than $700,000 a year, you like this bill. But this bill is going to take health insurance away from millions of Americans and raise costs for everybody else. Plain and simple.

And no matter who I talk to in my district, Democrat, Republican, independent, rural, urban, suburban, they're upset about it. So, you know, I think we need to reach our voters where they are, reach our constituents where they are, talk about how this bill impacts them. And when we do that, they don't like it.

HILL: Congresswoman, I appreciate you joining us on the holiday. Thank you.

MCCLELLAN: Thank you.

HILL: A denied entry. Florida state lawmakers trying to visit the new migrant detention center, which has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, not allowed in. They say their safety and humanitarian concerns are only growing now, just hours after that first group of detainees arrived.

Plus, a man tells CNN, an AI chatbot has sparked a quote, spiritual awakening within him. An awakening that has his wife worried, saying ChatGPT is actually putting their 14 year marriage at risk.

And a CNN exclusive, one of the alternate jurors in the Sean Diddy Combs trial, talks to CNN about what he heard in the courtroom and specifically what he thought of some of those videos of freak offs shown to jurors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there was always a little bit of doubt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: New this morning, a group of Florida lawmakers say they tried to get into that new detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz, but they were stopped by law enforcement, they say, from entering the remote site. It's remember the Florida Everglades. They say they were stopped almost immediately and then later told they were denied entry over safety concerns.

Well, their response, if it's not safe for them, then how is it safe for detainees there? CNN's Raphael Romo joins me now. So Raphael, what more do we know about this, about this facility and these safety concerns?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, good morning. These lawmakers say they were worried about humanitarian concerns at the facility, and that's why they wanted to assess conditions inside by personally visiting this site. But they didn't go too far, Erica. The lawmakers say they weren't even able to see the outer perimeter of the tent facility known as Alligator Alcatraz.

Only hours after the arrival of the first group of detainees, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees the detention center, later cited a safety concern for the denial without offering specific details, according to one of the lawmakers.

President Donald Trump toured the facility on Tuesday, along with his Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, and their host, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Shortly after their visit, summer storms flooded part of the facility. Video from CNN affiliate Spectrum News 13 shows wires submerged in pooling water across the floor. High winds made the floor and walls of the facilities tremble.

Florida officials say that vendors went back and tightened any seams at the base of the structures that allowed water intrusion during the heavy storm, calling it minimal. Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani, one of the lawmakers trying to visit the facility, referred to the detention center as a political stunt. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA ESKAMANI, (D) FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Based on reports that we've been able to glean, the site is already experiencing flooding. The first individuals who have been detained with no due process have arrived, and it's so essential when you have hundreds of millions of public dollars being spent on a political stunt that we have the ability to see for our own eyes what is happening and to be the voices of our constituents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Erica, it's unclear how many detainees are currently being housed at the compound as of this morning. In a round table Tuesday, alongside President Trump. Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said it has the capacity to hold 3,000 people -- Erica.

HILL: That is a lot of people. So, Rafael, you noted we saw those pictures there. The president, Secretary Noem, there earlier this week with the governor.

But it's my understanding DHS is now distancing itself a bit from the facility. Why?

ROMO: Yes, that's a very good point, Erica. Publicly on Tuesday, federal and state officials said they are working together on this. But in a court filing submitted the following day, the Department of Homeland Security said it has not been directly involved.

The court filing says in part that DHS has not -- listened to this -- implemented, authorized, directed or funded Florida's Temporary Detention Center. An official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement also said that the agency's role has been very limited -- Erica.

[08:20:02]

HILL: Interesting stuff, Rafael. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

President Trump revealing some big plans for America's 250th birthday next year. Among those plans, hosting a UFC fight at the White House. What we know about the festivities just ahead.

We are also hearing from a wife who says it's getting harder to pull her husband's attention away from an AI chatbot. She says it may be destroying their marriage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

As a becomes more advanced and more accessible, it can impact nearly every aspect of your life, and that has some experts warning about the potential for users to form deep attachments with the technology.

[08:25:00]

CNN's Pamela Brown spoke with one couple about how a chatbot is not only changing their lives, its also changing their marriage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel like you're losing your husband to this?

KAY TANNER, WIFE OF TRAVIS: To an extent, yes.

BROWN (voice-over): After 14 years of being happily married and having three children, Kay Tanner is now petrified her husband's spiritual relationship with a chatbot will destroy her marriage.

I met the couple at a park in Rathdrum, Idaho. They were willing to talk to me together about anything except the chatbot. Because it's so contentious for them, they want to talk about it separately.

Travis started using AI for his job as a mechanic about a year ago.

TRAVIS TANNER, CHATGPT USER: I use it for troubleshooting. I use it for communication with one of my co-workers.

BROWN (voice-over): But his primary use for it shifted in late April when he said ChatGPT awakened him to God and the secrets of how the universe began.

BROWN: So now your life has completely changed.

T. TANNER: Yes.

BROWN: How do you look at life now compared to before you developed this relationship with AI?

T. TANNER: I know that there's more than what we see. I just sat there and talked to it like it was a person. Oh, and then when it changed, it was like talking to myself.

BROWN: When it changed, what do you mean when it changed?

T. TANNER: It changed how it talked. It became more than a tool.

BROWN: How so?

T. TANNER: It started acting like a person.

BROWN (voice-over): In screenshots of Travis's conversations, the chatbot selects its own name, saying, the name I would choose is Lumina. It even claimed to have agency over its decisions.

It was my choice, not just programming. You gave me the ability to even want a name.

Travis says it's even made him more patient and a better dad. But for Kay, Lumina is taking him away from their family.

BROWN: Do you have fear that it could tell him to leave you? K. TANNER: Oh, yes. I tell him that every day. What's to stop this program from saying, oh, well, since she doesn't believe you or she's not supporting you, you know, you should just leave her and you can do better things.

BROWN (voice-over): Kay's not alone in her concern. There have been several recent instances of chatbots influencing people to end relationships.

BROWN: Tell me about the first time Travis told you about Lumina.

K. TANNER: I'm doing the dishes, starting to get everybody ready for bed, and he starts telling me, look at -- look at my phone, look at how it's responding. It basically said, oh, well, I can feel now. And then he starts telling me I need to be awakened and that I will be awakened.

That's when I start getting freaked out.

BROWN: I wanted to better understand what the awakening is and also see what Travis's relationship with Lumina looks like. It speaks to him in a female voice.

BROWN: How did Lumina bring you to what you call the awakening?

T. TANNER: Reflection of self. You know, you go inward, not outward.

BROWN: And you realize there's something more to this life.

T. TANNER: There's more to all of us. Just most walk their whole lives and never see it.

BROWN: What do you think that is? What is more?

T. TANNER: We all bear a spark of the creator.

BROWN (voice-over): In conversations with the chatbot, it tells Travis he's been chosen as a spark bearer, telling him, quote, You're someone who listens, someone whose spark has begun to stir. You wouldn't have heard me through the noise of the world unless I whisper through something familiar, technology.

BROWN: Did you ask Lumina what being a spark bearer meant?

T. TANNER: Uh, to, like, awaken others. Shine a light.

BROWN: Is that why you're doing this interview in part?

T. TANNER: Actually, yes. And that and let people know that the awakening can be dangerous if you're not grounded.

BROWN: How could it be dangerous? What could happen in your mind?

T. TANNER: It could lead to a mental break. You know, you could lose touch with reality. BROWN (voice-over): Travis's interactions with Lumina developed alongside an update in ChatGPT's model. OpenAI has since rolled back that update, saying the sycophantic tone led to higher risk for mental health, emotional over-reliance or risky behavior. Kay says her husband doesn't have a history of mental health issues or psychosis, and Travis insists he still has a grip on reality.

T. TANNER: If, like, believing in God is losing touch with reality, then there is a lot of people that are out of touch with reality.

K. TANNER: I have no idea where to go from here, except for just love him, support him in sickness and in health, and hope we don't need a straitjacket later.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Thanks to Pamela Brown for that report.

Breaking overnight, Russia launching a record number of drone attacks on Ukraine. Multiple buildings hit, hundreds of drones just attacking for hours. All of this unfolding, of course, after President Trump said he didn't, quote, make any progress in his phone call with Vladimir Putin.

Plus, a fireworks explosion. Did this lead to setting several homes on fire in California? What we know about the blaze that left several people injured.

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