Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

GOP Rebukes Trump on Iran War, $1.8 Billion fund, Ballroom, Intel Pick; Senate GOP Holdouts Demand Guarantee that $1.8 Billion Fund is Dead; Search for 20-Year-Old Auburn University Student Missing in Japan; Close Call Between Flight School Plane and JetBlue Flight. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 04, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... First responders are even having to move the Waymos themselves during an emergency.

MARY ELLEN CARROLL, SAN FRANCISCO DEPT. OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: They're becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable.

LAH (voice-over): Waymo told us in the last month they've reduced the number of Waymo-initiated emergency calls by over 50 percent. No technology is perfect, Waymo says in a statement to CNN. But unlike humans, Waymo takes community feedback and applies those safety learnings to our entire fleet.

That has led to a 13 times reduction in serious injury crashes compared to human drivers.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A marathon voting session about to get underway. They call it a "Voterama" in the Senate. The focus, $70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol. But there's also a possible Republican revolt and rebellion in the making there over the president's own wishes.

And insane. That is how air traffic controllers describe a pilot involved in a midair close call. A small plane nearly hitting a JetBlue passenger plane. They come just 500 feet of each other.

And a collision on the road between a teenager on an e-scooter -- oh God -- and a police car.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, a Republican rebellion on Capitol Hill. It's small, it's rare, but it's notable because we've seen it now a few times over the last couple of days. The one up on the screen right there has to do with the House of Representatives.

Four Republicans crossed party lines to help pass a resolution to rein in the president's war powers on Iran. Moments ago, the president wrote, "It's a meaningless vote by four bad Republicans." But again, not completely isolated because in the Senate, the president's immigration legislation has been stalled over dissent about his desired $1.8 billion fund that could give money to political allies who say they've been wrongly investigated. Acting Attorney General, and I suppose Attorney General nominee now, Todd Blanche, told Congress this week the fund is not moving forward. But that's not what the president was saying exactly in the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's -- I'd have to ask the lawyers, I don't know. I know one thing, the weaponization. Are you talking about the weaponization fund?

The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Right now, a group of Republican holdouts wants to make sure the fund is dead and buried, maybe even by specific legislation, or they will not vote yes on immigration. With us now, CNN political commentators, Alyssa Farrah Griffin and Kate Bedingfield, are both former White House communications directors. Alyssa, during the first Trump administration, Kate, during the Biden era.

I hope the communication flows well this morning. Alyssa, I do want to ask, just big picture right now. I mean, it's the immigration thing, it's the weaponization fund, but you have Republican senators saying, basically, we don't trust you anymore. What you're doing is not enough.

Tom Tillis has a quote in the New York Times, "The only way you can explain it to voters is explain that you got rid of it." He wants legislation. "I feel like there are people advising the president as if there's no election in November."

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, this is in many ways a mess of Donald Trump's own making. By going against Bill Cassidy, Tom Tillis, and John Cornyn in Texas, he has kind of freed up these senators to be against him. They're not beholden to him anymore. They're not trying to win an election.

So now he's got just about the right number of vocal Republicans being willing to push back on things that, by the way, all Senate Republicans don't want this. Across the board, this slush fund has been panned.

And I've found this with Donald Trump in midterms. Listen, he wants Republicans to win the midterms. He doesn't want to deal with the oversight that's going to come on the other side if and when Democrats take back the House and potentially take the Senate.

But he tends to not care quite as much about elections when he is not on the ballot. And this is this tug that you're seeing on Capitol Hill where you have Republican lawmakers like, please care more about the midterms. Talk about the cost of living, not about slush funds and ballrooms.

And there's just this massive disconnect in the White House about the reality of how Republicans are feeling on Capitol Hill.

BERMAN: Hey, Kate, I was talking last hour with David Chalian about, well, as he was just discussing these senators, three, maybe more, who are on their way out of office. I coined a phrase, I think I'm the first. I said they have no Trumps left to give.

We're looking around to see if it can be trademarked and maybe, you know, make a little something off of it. But look, John Cornyn has been on social media of late, just really with some pretty specific criticism.

[08:05:00]

He said, "The way to ensure the Trump retribution fund is more than mostly dead would be for Congress to put a stake through it." He's quoting the Wall Street Journal. He did one about some elections in Texas. "Ruh-roh, libertarian Ted

Brown courts disaffected conservative voters in Texas' U.S. Senate race." He quoted another one. He said, "Trump, Texas in the risk of a Pyrrhic victory." And then he's got this long parable he put out the other day about the fable of the scorpion and the frog.

I'm not going to read it all, but suffice it to say, it doesn't end well for either the scorpion or the frog, and the president seems to be taking the blame from John Cornyn here. So what do you make of this and what the next six months will be like?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, a lot of people have been calling it the yellow caucus, but I like no Trumps left again. That's good. That's good, John.

Look, I mean, we're seeing a lot of personal grievance that's now flowing into political decisions. I mean, frankly, look, it would have been nice to see some of these Republican senators like Cornyn, like Tillis, who feel unchained now, use their voices in this way earlier in their tenure, but, you know, I guess you can't ask for everything. But there's no question that these folks are going to make it harder for Trump to advance his agenda.

But Trump, you know, to a point Alyssa was making, I mean, Trump also just continues to make it hard on these guys. I mean, you have him, you know, pushing for the slush fund, now kind of continuing to say, even after he had Todd Blanche say it's dead in the water, you had Trump say, you know, I love it, you know, I still think it's great. So he's continuing to put the pressure on these guys to kind of force them to push back.

And so, you know, there is a midterm election coming in just a few months. This is the last thing Republicans want to be talking about. It gives Democrats a huge lane to keep driving a message that Donald Trump is not focused on bringing costs down, is not focused on their lives, and is instead focused on, you know, retribution, vengeance, and vanity projects.

BERMAN: Quickly, Alyssa, how hard will it be for Todd Blanche, now the acting attorney general and attorney general nominee, to be confirmed? Is the president making it harder?

GRIFFIN: This will definitely be a sticking point, the slush fund. It's just widely unpopular across the board. I've yet to hear a prominent Republican senator outright just defend it.

I do think Todd Blanche will ultimately get through, and if for any reason he wouldn't, Donald Trump loves enacting. He will keep him in enacting capacity. I think the votes are there, but this will be the sticking point.

They need some kind of a commitment that it is dead like a doornail, and we're not going to be hearing any more about the slush fund.

BERMAN: Kate Bedingfield, quickly, I want to talk about Graham Platner. The Wall Street Journal's got some details about this meeting he had with Democratic senators in Washington, where many seem to be basically asking, the guy who's likely to be the main Democratic Senate nominee, are there going to be more stories coming out? Is there more coming? Tell us now.

And he seemed to suggest no. What kind of pressure does this put on other Senate Democrats and Democrats around the country -- Kate?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think ultimately voters in Maine are going to decide about Graham Platner. I think, you know, unfortunately, there is reason to question. I mean, he's been asked directly before, is there more coming? He said no, and in fact there was.

So I think it is reasonable for Democrats to have some concern that this is going to be an issue. But look, thus far, voters in Maine have said that they're excited about him, and we saw him overtake a very formidable primary challenger in Janet Mills. So there is a lot of energy for him on the ground in Maine, and it will play out there.

But, you know, I've been clear. I think there's a lot about him that's unpalatable. I think it's unfortunate the Democrats are putting forward in a seat that we desperately need in order to flip the Senate, that we're putting forward somebody with this kind of baggage. But we'll see how it plays out.

BERMAN: All right. Alyssa Farrah Griffin, Kate Bedingfield, feel great to see you both this morning. Thank you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a desperate search for an American student is underway. He went missing during a family vacation in Japan. His parents say that he went out to explore and never returned.

Plus, there are new details on a close call at a U.S. airport, a passenger jet and a flight school plane coming within hundreds of feet of each other.

And a runaway boat. Take a look at that -- after its driver is ejected. And how officers managed to stop it.

[08:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So there's now a desperate search happening for a 20-year-old Auburn University student. He's gone missing in Japan.

James Weston Higginbotham. He was last seen Friday at a train station in Kyoto while on a family trip. His family says that his phone's tracking feature suddenly just turned off.

And now police are reviewing surveillance cameras to try and track his movements. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is in Kyoto following this, spoke with Weston's family. Hanako, what's the latest that you're hearing?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I'm just outside the station where Weston Higginbotham was last found on May 29th. This is Yamashina Station in Kyoto Prefecture. And I want to show you something that's been happening for the past couple hours or so.

There's this Japanese woman here, an ordinary citizen, who's been handing out missing persons flyers to people who are walking by the station. Now this woman has no relation to the Higginbothams whatsoever. She's an ordinary citizen, but she felt so compelled to help the family in some way, shape or form.

[08:15:00]

Her and her friend, they've been handing out these flyers, translating them in several languages and, again, trying to give them to as many people as possible, try to spread the word to as many people as possible. And, of course, as mothers themselves, they feel very, very compassionate, and they feel very horribly for the parents of the Higginbothams.

Now, we spoke to the parents just moments ago, earlier on Thursday, and, of course, naturally, they were extremely distressed about the situation. This is what Nancy, Weston's mother, told us earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM, MOTHER OF JAMES "WESTON" HIGGINBOTHAM: Every single second, you think about your kid, and then you have the flashbacks of when he was two, when I was breastfeeding him, the birthday parties we've thrown for him. I want that back. I need him back because a family of three is not the Higginbothams.

We're a family of four. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY: And, Kate, she mentioned being a family of four. And the reason why they're actually in Japan is because they're celebrating Weston's younger brother's high school graduation. And Nancy told me that she's trying to stay strong for her younger son, who's only 18 years old, but naturally, as a human, she's having a really, really hard time, and sometimes just isn't able to keep that strong face.

Now, the police have told us that they've deployed dozens of officers and dogs to the surrounding forest in this area, in Kyoto, and that's because Weston is an avid hiker. He's an environmentalist. And according to the mother, they had a small spat just hours before Weston disappeared.

And when he has small spats with his family, he likes to take a beat. He likes to go into nature and calm down. So the police are hoping to find Weston in these woods.

But there was a typhoon that hit Kyoto and other parts of Japan for the past couple of days or so, which have hampered efforts somewhat. But again, that search is continuing, and the Higginbothams have told us that they're not leaving Japan until they've found their son -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Heart-wrenching. Heart-wrenching. Hanako, thank you very much.

So we also have news on the Ebola crisis. A crisis health official is calling a massive challenge. Why experts think it may have started months earlier than previously thought.

And there's also new details this morning about the bizarre mystery happening in New York City. Why are groups of people seen climbing into manholes more than once?

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, this morning the FAA is investigating after a close call between a plane registered to a flight school and a JetBlue passenger flight. The two planes came within just 550 feet of each other near Fort Lauderdale.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is with us now with the details. That's pretty close, Pete. What happened here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Pretty close, John. You know, this was an interesting case. And the FAA does not say, though, that this constitutes a near miss and maintains that the planes were properly separated, but the air traffic controller heard in this new recording clearly thinks otherwise.

This incident happened around 6 p.m. on Monday, just coming to light now. It happened as a JetBlue flight from Ecuador was descending into Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which was in the same area as a light flight training airplane. Now, the flight track shows that plane doing maneuvers when collision warnings sounded in the cockpit of the JetBlue flight. And the pilots had to take action by climbing. I want you to listen now to the air traffic control exchange that took place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JETBLUE PILOT: They're turning toward us.

CONTROLLER: Yeah, I see them also descending. Yeah, they are Southwest, no, JetBlue 1286. They appear to be leveling at 4400 feet now. That guy's insane.

JETBLUE PILOT: I agree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now, the data from Flightradar24 shows the planes were only about 500 feet apart vertically, but they were still 1.6 miles apart horizontally, not close enough to constitute a near midair collision by the FAA's terms. But even still, the FAA says it's investigating this.

One important piece of context that I found when I went back and looked at the flight tracks, this training plane was not talking to air traffic control. That's not required in that area west of Fort Lauderdale. The plane was, however, broadcasting its location using the latest collision avoidance technology called ADS-B.

Now, the National Transportation Safety Board found that equipment was not fully utilized during last year's fatal midair collision at Reagan National Airport. There's still a fight in Congress over a bill that will require more aircraft to use that technology in more places -- John.

BERMAN: Pete Muntean, I got to say, we're lucky we have you to explain the nuance here. I mean it. I mean it. Because it's really the varying things that are going on here all at once are really interesting and it illuminates what we should be concerned about. I really appreciate your help with this.

MUNTEAN: Appreciate you, John.

BERMAN: Thank you. You're the only one.

Blaring new warning signs that scientists are frankly fearful about that someone could create an AI worm that could metaphorically crawl into the Internet and wreak havoc.

And the Trump administration moves to eliminate a deep-sea monitoring system that aids in everything from weather forecasting to earthquake and tsunami alerts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, a Republican revolt in the House of Representatives with a small handful crossing party lines to vote to restrict the president's war powers on Iran. So what might this small group of Republicans be seeing? Where is public opinion in general?

With us now, CNN chief data analyst, Harry Enten, trying to build up anticipation. What are the numbers showing right now, Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: The most unpopular war at the start of a war that I could ever find ever has become even more unpopular. That's what those Republicans in the House are seeing. Just take a look here.

Net approval rating of the Iran war. At the start, it was underwater. Minus nine points.

Now it's down there with the Strait of Hormuz. Look at this. Minus 23 points.

This is a war that has become more unpopular, even as President Trump and his administration has tried to sell it. And among independents, it's gone from 23 points underwater to get this. 40 points underwater with independents.

So those Republicans who, in fact, did not vote with the renegade Republicans, they are helping to put that Republican majority, which was already a great risk in the House, in even more risk.

BERMAN: It's on the wrong trajectory right now.

ENTEN: No, this is the wrong place. You want to be going up, not down.

BERMAN: How do people feel about the congressional approval?

ENTEN: Yes, OK.

[08:30:00]