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Majority of Americans Oppose Trump's Domestic Policy Bill; MAGA Divide Deepens Over DOJ Decision Not to Release More on Epstein; Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): 85 Senators Co-Sponsor Russia Sanctions Package. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 16, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: ... defense is trying to say she was poisoned to death, but it wasn't at his hand. It was at her hand.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that she had suicidal tendencies, that she had issues, that she on her own words said she was broken and that led to this. Now, of course, at the hospital when she went there for the first time, they asked her, have you had any thoughts of suicide, said no.

By the way, they never tested her from poisons when she was in the hospital that whole time.

SIDNER: Right, and she'd been in a couple of different times before this. And they have six children, in this case, a very difficult one to watch. And lots of just explosive details --

CASAREZ: Yes.

SIDNER: -- coming out right at the beginning.

CASAREZ: We believe the daughters may testify today. A comfort dog will be under where they testify to help them get through it.

SIDNER: All right. Wow. All right, Jean Casares, thank you so much. You're always great at these stories.

All right, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL STARTS right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New warning signs for President Trump in a new CNN poll. Americans weighing in on the sweeping new tax and spending bill that he just signed into law. Sum it up. Big problems with the Big, Beautiful Bill.

And bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill should be celebrated. But this one in the because of the most bizarre reason and in the most bizarre way, the growing bipartisan calls now demanding the Justice Department release new information on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation just as Donald Trump is trying to is making clear he just wants this to go away.

And more than 10,000 summer and afterschool programs now facing new and real uncertainty as the administration moves full steam ahead to dismantle the Department of Education.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: New this morning. CNN polling showing President Trump's so- called Big, Beautiful Bill that he just signed into law is getting some ugly reviews from voters. Roughly six in 10 Americans say they oppose the president's sweeping tax and spending plan.

But the response is not entirely negative. Joining us now, CNN Washington bureau chief and political director David Chalian. David, can you break down for us how Americans feel about this mega bill? And there are lots of different parts, but overarching doesn't look great.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, this is going to be an uphill sales battle for the administration, which begins in earnest today when J.D. Vance heads to battleground Pennsylvania to do just that. Sara, take a look at the overall numbers you mentioned here.

61 percent of Americans in our brand new poll by SSRS oppose the mega bill that Trump signed into law on July 4th. 39 percent support it.

Look at it by party. Obviously, you'd imagine Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed. Republicans are in favor here. But if you look at the independent number, only 32 percent of independents support this bill. Two thirds of independents are opposed.

And I would note on the Republican line, one in five Republicans, 19 percent of Republicans, say they are opposed to the bill, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, so what does this spell out for the sort of overarching Trump approval rating?

CHALIAN: Well, Donald Trump's approval rating in our brand new poll stands at 42 percent approval, which is roughly where he was when we last checked in as well. So we're not seeing a ton of movement. Now, I should say, 42 percent is not where any president wants to be. He's upside down there by 16 percentage points. 58 percent of Americans disapprove of how he's handling his job as president.

But we're not yet seeing any kind of movement in his approval rating, which tends to be in the history of Donald Trump on the public stage, operating within a very narrow band. And we're seeing that here in the second term as he approaches the six month mark as well.

SIDNER: Yes, and certainly already Democrats are kind of seizing on these numbers and trying to use this as 2026 gets closer and closer. David Chalian, thank you so much for breaking that down for us -- the new CNN polling there -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin and former chief of staff to then Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.

So Alyssa, as David Chalian just laid out, two thirds of independents at this point oppose this bill that was just passed. One fifth of Republicans, which is very high for a Trump related situation here. What do you think of where this goes next?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is always a challenge you run into when you do a huge sort of omni bill where you combine a bunch of different policies together. So the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which were extended in this, were widely popular in the first Trump term.

If that had been a standalone piece of legislation, that would be something Trump could travel around the country and say, hey, the average family is going to save about $4,000 a year on their taxes because of my tax cuts. Some of the energy policy that's included is something he could brag about.

But then there's the less popular aspects of it. Some long term cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

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Those are things that end up getting lumped into the broader agenda and policy.

But I'd say this. We're more than a year out from the midterms. Are Democrats going to be able to harness that and tell their voters, hey, these cuts that haven't come, they're actually delayed down the road are a result of this bill? And I think it remains to be seen. Democrats have kind of struggled to find their messaging on this.

BERMAN: You know, Marc, it's interesting. In this same poll, and I don't have the number in front of me, but more voters than not say they do not approve of President Trump's priorities right now. One of those priorities has clearly been tariffs, which is something that you've spoken out against, many of the tariffs that he has tried to impose, then gone back on, then imposed again.

Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal this morning has an interesting take on the tariffs. He writes, Trump has been clear and single-minded about his goal. He wants tariffs, the higher the better, whether that is achieved unilaterally or via deals as secondary.

So even without deals, Trump has, by his own definition of success, already won his trade war.

Greg Ip's point, Marc, is that Trump's got these 10 percent tariffs, in some cases higher across the board, and that's a win for him. What do you think about that?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: John, I think that's right. I think that the president has actually had some pretty good economic news in the first six months.

The jobs reports have been strong. The inflation has stayed relatively tame. The markets have hit all-time highs. As Alyssa said, he just passed tax extension relief. But I worry that I don't think the tariff impact has really happened yet. I think the largest retailers in our country pre-purchased inventory, some of the largest auto manufacturers are still selling automobiles that were basically built with parts prior to tariffs taking effect. And so I think that there's a lot more damage to the economy coming with this protectionist trade policy.

And as Greg said in his piece, and as you're articulating, the reality is that the 10 percent baseline tariffs are already four times greater than what our average has been for the last couple of decades. And there's no indication they're going down, right? People question that the president is going to chicken out and actually threaten tariffs and lower them.

But still, the trend is to continue to bring tariffs up higher and higher. And so the costs are going to continue to grow, and I think you're going to see job implications of that as well in the second half of this year.

BERMAN: We did just see in the CPI numbers that came out yesterday, a little bit of an uptick in inflation there that a lot of people think is the first bite that these tariffs might be taking.

I want to shift to Jeffrey Epstein and the defense now that President Trump is issuing. And I want to play again what he said just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): And we just made this system worse. This system is strained. We're going to close hospitals.

People aren't going to --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, Debbie Dingell today playing the role of President Trump. I will read out loud for you a dramatic reenactment of what President Trump said about the Epstein case yesterday. Actually, we can have the actor do it himself.

This is President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. They were made up by the Biden -- you know, and we went through years of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, I want to read you what Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, who's a huge fan of President Trump, said about this. And I'm going to try to not swear. Scott Adams wrote on Twitter, The new blank covering story is the Epstein files were made up by Democrats? I expect better BS from my president, he says.

GRIFFIN: I remain stunned by how bad the PR around this Epstein issue has been. I sort of think that the president may have been caught flat-footed on how big of an issue this was to his base. And Donald Trump is rarely not in lockstep with where his base is on issues.

But listen, this is now a weeks-long story. I don't -- The White House first needs to punt this to DOJ. Say, we're not talking about it any further. This is fully DOJ's purview. And DOJ needs to get out there and they need to unite around, what is the narrative? Is there anything else that could be released?

It's almost certain that there's grand jury testimony, there's victim testimony, things that can be redacted but released to the public that might assuage some of this just skepticism, that there is nothing else there.

But if I'm the White House, I'm distancing myself. I'm making it a DOJ problem. And you're going to -- you got to give Pam Bondi a little bit of time to say, you got to figure this out or we're moving a different direction.

BERMAN: Was that President Trump distancing himself?

GRIFFIN: It didn't make any sense. And his base won't buy that. This is something that is so animating and is so deeply felt by his base. They feel like it is one of the most evil acts that could be committed and they want accountability. That's not going to pass.

BERMAN: You know, Marc, another thing the president sort of said yesterday to paraphrase is the people who are fueling this story are basically bad people, the only people interested in it.

These are his people. These are people who helped push him into office.

SHORT: Yes, John, I think it's important to step back for a second, that when Donald Trump came onto the scene in 2015, 2016, he positioned himself as the outsider who was going to reform government. And a lot of his supporters view him as the truth teller who's there to actually unearth many of the secrets that they think are hid from them.

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And so when last year itself, during the campaign cycle, your now attorney general, your FBI director, your deputy FBI director, your vice president all proclaim that there's a lot of nefarious information in those files and they're going to make sure that they're released.

And then you come into office and you say, I have the files on my desk. And then you say that we've had an issue that released the files to a group of social media influencers. And then your narrative becomes actually there are no files, and yet now the narrative is that the files were created by Comey, Obama, and Hillary. I think it's quite a remarkable narrative arc, and I think that's

really hard for a lot of people to try to stomach, because they view him as the guy that's come to D.C. and unearthed these things, and now it feels like it's a cover-up.

BERMAN: And just remember, you know, Epstein was arrested and put in jail, and then ultimately took his life during Donald Trump's presidency.

SHORT: That's right.

BERMAN: Just very quickly, each of you. Do you think Congress will ever take a vote on this? Do you think Republicans will let themselves take a vote on this, where ultimately they would suggest they were trying to force something?

Alyssa, first to you.

GRIFFIN: A discharge petition's the only way to do it. You'd have to get some Democrats to unite with Republicans and force a vote on the floor. I have no idea if that'll happen. Speaker Johnson, I don't think, would be eager to have that vote, but it could happen.

BERMAN: Marc, what do you think?

SHORT: I think the president still has a lot of sway over the members in Congress. I don't see them having a vote on this. I do think at some point there'll be pressure. They have to release something. Whether or not what they release will be sufficient, John, I think is the question.

BERMAN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, Marc Short, great to see you both. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So this morning, there is a new weather threat grabbing attention, a potential tropical system that could form this week along the Gulf Coast. It could be the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which is a marker that is not typically reached or hit until mid-August. CNN's Derek Van Dam in the CNN Weather Center with much more on this.

Derek, what's the latest you're seeing with this?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kate, regardless of whether or not this storm actually gets a name, which would be Dexter -- by the way, kind of an ominous name considering the show that we all are familiar with -- it's still going to produce a heavy rain threat, right? So it's tapping into moisture, abundant amounts of moisture, hence the reason we've had the flooding across parts of the mid- Atlantic and the East Coast lately. But here it is across the Gulf Coast, and this is what we're concerned about, especially heading into Louisiana later on this week.

We have a significant amount of moisture to work with, but the devil's in the details, as always with these tropical systems. The latest update as of 8 a.m. from the National Hurricane Center, the center of the storm is still onshore near Apalachicola. So if it stays onshore, it won't have that bathtub warm waters to work with to help fuel and generate a stronger system, right?

There's also a very hostile upper-level environment for this low pressure or this invest that we're looking at. So it's going to have some trouble forming, but one thing's for sure, it's got a lot of moisture to work with. So we do believe this will be more of a heavy rainmaker for Louisiana and the Deep South, the I-10 corridor, perhaps into 30A.

If you have any beach travel plans this weekend, heads up, it will be wet, especially on Friday and into the early parts of the weekend -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Derek, you're also tracking this wildfire in the Grand Canyon. What's happening there?

VAN DAM: Yes, so we do have some updated numbers here. It's still zero percent containment on both the Dragon Bravo fire and the White Sage fire. Remember, this is the one that catastrophically burnt down some of the lodging into the north rim of the Grand Canyon, closing it for the remainder of the season.

There's a potential for these dry thunderstorms to form today. That means thunderstorms that don't produce rain but could produce lightning, and that means additional sparks flying in the sky.

But there is some good news here. We have an influx of moisture across the Great Basin into the Grand Canyon, so this is going to help quell the fires going forward. Some formidable rain could potentially be in this forecast, so we want to see that, especially going forward.

And I want to leave you with this, because there was another fire just north of the Bravo fire into Utah that created a fire whirl earlier this week. And what's interesting to know, the National Weather Service went to go rate this fire tornado, or firenado as we often call it, and it's actually been rated an EF2 on the rating system, and that's one of the strongest tornadoes ever reported in Utah's history. It actually created some damage to local buildings in this area, but, Kate, quite a sight when these fires actually create their own weather patterns like that.

BOLDUAN: Wait, that is wild that it was rated as an EF2. That is amazing, and like, please, wildfires bad enough, then make it a tornado. It's like the source of our nightmares.

It's good to see you, Derek. That's great, great, thank you -- John.

BERMAN: It's like an NC-17 rating, I think, that that fire got right there.

BOLDUAN: Really, you're going there?

BERMAN: No, a firenado.

BOLDUAN: Yes. BERMAN: A firenado. It's hot.

BOLDUAN: Yes,

BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight. A new huge, deadly attack from Russia. Are they trying to exploit the president's new 50-day deadline?

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And billions of dollars in education funding blocked what we know about the people and programs most affected?

And young men helped President Donald Trump win the White House, but now they might be turning on him.

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BOLDUAN: All right, breaking overnight. A major attack in Ukraine while the U.S. special envoy, Keith Kellogg, is still in the country. President Zelenskyy's hometown, among the cities hit by hundreds of Russian drones targeting energy infrastructure, the barrage leaving behind massive fires.

[08:20:00]

This new attack comes as Ukraine's president is now speaking out in a new interview, saying that sanctions and offensive weapons both are needed to get Russia to the negotiating table. Suggesting anything short of that won't work. Zelenskyy telling Newsmax this.

President Trump and all of America and Europe know what we want. We want -- that we want peace and an end to the war. But the Russians understand only force. So only strong sanctions and only strong weapons. We are ready for action for a demonstration of force.

Yesterday, President Trump declared publicly he is not sending long- range missiles to Ukraine and does not want Ukraine to target Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should Zelenskyy target Moscow or deeper into Russia?

TRUMP: No, he shouldn't target Moscow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you looking to give long-range missiles to Ukraine as well?

TRUMP: No, we're not looking to do that.

I'm on nobody's side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

TRUMP: I want to -- you know the side I'm on, humanity's side. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He sits on Armed Services and Judiciary and many other committees. But along with Lindsey Graham, he is spearheading the push for the big Russia sanctions bill, gaining support in Congress with 80-plus co-sponsors now. Senator, thanks for being here. First, how do you interpret what I just read of President Zelenskyy saying in this new interview to Newsmax this morning?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): The president may well have mentioned providing the long-range missile systems to Ukraine through NATO, selling these armed systems to NATO, which then transferred them -- would transfer them to Ukraine. And the secretary-general of NATO has mentioned that possibility of long-range strikes. Everything ought to be on the table.

My personal feeling is that these long-range missile strikes ought to be possible for Ukraine to do. Putin has conducted, in fact intensified, the murderous, mercilessly aerial reign of terror on Ukrainian civilians, hospitals, homes. Hospitals are freely struck.

And so I think that Ukraine ought to be provided these kinds of long- range offensive weapons simply as a matter of defending against this murderous onslaught.

BOLDUAN: Senator, do you interpret when Zelenskyy says in this interview, Russia only understands force, so only strong sanctions and only strong weapons, do you interpret that as him saying that what was offered and announced on Monday falls short, is not going to be enough to get Russia to the table?

BLUMENTHAL: The president's decision to shift and to provide these kinds of very robust military aid along with economic sanctions are a good start. I agree with President Zelenskyy that more should be done. Peace through strength is the only way to go.

Putin is a thug and he understands only force. And the president's economic sanctions, for example, delayed by 50 days and only 100 percent secondary sanctions on India, China or Brazil are a good start. I think that economic hammer ought to be supplemented by a sledgehammer, which is what Senator Graham and I have proposed and 85 co-sponsors have supported as well.

Both sides of the aisle, bipartisan. It would be a force multiplier because European sanctions may well follow as well as a result of that impetus and momentum.

BOLDUAN: The president on Monday said that he, when he was in the Oval Office, said that he didn't think that there was much of a difference between 100 percent tariff, secondary sanction and the 500 percent that is in your bill. Do you think there is a difference?

BLUMENTHAL: There is a difference, obviously, between 500 percent and 100 percent, but the president should have some flexibility and our legislation would provide it if he finds in the national interest that 100 percent is preferable to 500 percent. Both are bone crushing, absolutely scorching sanctions that would hopefully change behavior by the Chinese, the Indians and the Brazilians who are buying Russian oil and gas and fueling the war machine.

Our goal here preeminently is not to reshore manufacturing or gain revenue for the United States. It is to change behavior and I think that the president is right that we have a common goal.

BOLDUAN: But Senator, on that point, Senator Rand Paul spoke out yesterday and called your bill one of the most dangerous bills ever to come before the Senate. He's saying that it is not going to change behavior like you suggest. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): The hawks in the Senate in both parties beat their chest and say, well, we will tell them, we will tell them what to do.

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But what do you think China's response will be when we tell them not to buy oil and gas from Russia? They're just going to say we don't care and we're going to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And to that you say what.

BLUMENTHAL: That's a prediction that has absolutely no basis in fact. The Indian and Chinese purchases of oil are 70 percent of Russia's sales. And they have to respect a sanction that is bone crushing in its magnitude.

It amounts to a virtual embargo, whether it's 100 percent or 500 percent. And the higher the better, but it definitely will affect their behavior because they can buy oil and gas elsewhere on the market. So the experts and the military and economic leaders that we've consulted say it will change behavior.

But one way or the other, they will pay. They can't play both sides of the street. They cannot support Putin in kidnapping children, in bombing civilian targets, homes and hospitals and other kinds of atrocities, violations of basic norms and human rights without paying a price.

BOLDUAN: I've heard you say that you want to move on this bill while -- within these 50 days. Do you now believe that there is going to be any change in behavior? Do you think that what the president proposed just isn't going to work?

I'm trying to figure out why move it now and not give what the president announced you said is a good step a chance.

BLUMENTHAL: Well, that's a central question, Kate. And I believe that passage of this bill will send a message to Putin that we are a unified Congress on a bipartisan basis. The president, we are, in effect, adding our voice, but even more important, specific requirements under the law, not just in executive order.

It also would help to deter any legal challenge because it makes it legally bulletproof for there to be legislation, a law in the books rather than just an executive order.

So the unity that we demonstrate between Congress and the president, between the United States and Europe, which is considering its own sanctions, as well as Democrats and Republicans, I think undermines any doubts Putin has about our determination to achieve peace. We want to bring him to the table.

President Trump rightly has taken off whatever rose-colored glasses he has about Vladimir Putin and made sure that he understands we are determined to support Ukraine as a matter of our own national security, which, unfortunately, I don't think Senator Paul and some of the critics understand.

BOLDUAN: Senator Richard Blumenthal, thank you very much for your time today -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, hear from a migrant family how the fear of being sent to countries that are not their native lands by the Trump administration is prompting them to take matters into their own hands.

And this morning, we're learning new details about the man accused of shooting and killing a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband. What the handwritten letter police say they found by the suspect said.

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