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Senate Expected to Start Voting on Trump Megabill Today; Iran Holds Funerals for Officials Killed in Israeli Strikes; Israel Accused of Deliberately Shooting at Aid Seekers; Decision Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Faces Growing Backlash; Adams Defends Relationship with Trump in Reelection Fight; Trump Ends Canada Trade Talks over Digital Services Tax; Bezos and Sanchez Get Married amid A-List Guests, Protesters. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired June 28, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, wherever you are in the world, you are. Now in the CNN NEWSROOM with me, Ben Hunte. In Atlanta. And it is. So good to have you here.

Coming up. On CNN NEWSROOM. A key vote for what president. Donald Trump calls his. Big, beautiful. Bill is set to happen in just. Hours in the Senate. But it's anything but smooth sailing ahead.

A wide ranging. Ruling from the supreme. Court leaves. Trump free to pursue his agenda more boldly. Than ever, including the potential for ending birthright citizenship.

And crowds gather in Tehran to honor leaders and nuclear scientists killed in Israel's strikes on Iran. This as the U.S. downplays the possibility of future work on potential nuclear weapons.

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HUNTE: Welcome. We begin in Washington, where U.S. senators are expected to start voting on a president's massive tax and spending bill in the coming hours. But it's still facing some hurdles among Republicans over spending levels and cuts to Medicaid.

Two Republican senators are already warning they are voting no. And several other holdouts aren't sure how they'll land. CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju has more for us from Capitol Hill.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump and Republican leaders are pressing hard to get his massive agenda through the Senate by the end of this weekend and Saturday is a critical day. That's when we expect the first procedural vote to open up debate on this bill. But, they can only afford to lose three Republican senators because all Democrats are going to vote no. Can they actually only keep the three defections?

That is the big question at this moment, because already two are threatening to vote against it.

That's Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. He is concerned about the impact that this bill would have on the national deficit. In fact, it's expected to add trillions of to the deficit over the next decade but he is also concerned about the $5 trillion increase that this plan calls for to the national debt limit.

And then there is Senator Thom Tillis, who is concerned about the cuts to Medicaid and the impacts that this bill would have on his constituents. He told reporters on Friday night that he is a no, period, saying that the fundamentals of the bill need to change. We'll see if that ultimately wins his vote, if there are changes made to win him over.

Several other more moderate senators have concerns; Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Susan Collins, a more conservative Senator Josh Hawley. They all say -- raise concerns about the Medicaid cuts. All of them want to see the details of this plan before they commit on how to vote. And some of the members want deeper spending cuts.

Senator Ron Johnson, a more conservative member, wants deeper spending cuts, would not say how he would vote on Friday evening. This is what Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who suggested that he, Lee, Johnson and Senator Rick Scott potentially could all vote as one bloc on the vote on Saturday. So that will be something to watch.

But, if this bill goes down today, that would be a huge and embarrassing setback for President Trump, who is putting the pressure on these members to vote yes by his self-imposed July 4th deadline and if that fails, they have to retool the package, potentially push it back to later this month.

If it is approved, then the Senate will descend into what's known as a vote-a-rama. That means a marathon series of amendment votes that will take place all through the day, Saturday, Saturday night, into Sunday. Potentially, that could go on for many, many hours, ultimately, before the bill heads to its final vote and final passage.

Then it would come back to the United States House and that's where so many House Republicans are threatening to vote against this measure because of their concerns about some of the changes the Senate made.

Then it will be up to Speaker Mike Johnson as well as Donald Trump to cajole members and the House GOP to fall in line to get it onto his desk by July 4th.

So a lot of work cut out from in this major bill that deals with a multi-trillion dollar overhaul of the United States tax code.

There is deep spending cuts, new work requirements on Social Safety net programs, hundreds of billions of in funding for defense programs, for national security programs, for border security measures, all of which raises this question, can Donald Trump get it over the finish line and win these members over?

It's uncertain at this moment, as the Republican leaders and the president have a lot of arm twisting to do to get a major victory on President Trump's desk -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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HUNTE: President Trump is celebrating what he called a giant win from the Supreme Court on Friday. A majority of the justices ruled to limit the power of lower courts to block his policies on a nationwide basis.

The case stemmed from the president's executive order to end birthright citizenship, which he signed on his first day in office earlier this year. But Friday's ruling does not settle the issue of whether the president can enforce the order. President Trump still praised the ruling and suggested that the Constitution's 14th Amendment is outdated.

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TRUMP: That was meant for the babies of slaves. It wasn't meant for people trying to scam the system and come into the country on a vacation. This was, in fact, it was the same date, the exact same date, the end of the Civil War. It was meant for the babies of slaves.

And it's so clean and so obvious. But this lets us go there and finally win that case, because hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country under birthright citizenship. And it wasn't meant for that reason.

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HUNTE: CNN's Paula Reid has more for us on the Supreme Court's recent decision and its potential far reaching consequences.

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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Friday's case is incredibly significant for the Trump Administration, because the president loves to govern through executive action. He has issued a record number of them.

And before Friday's opinion, any federal judge, anywhere in the country, could respond to a legal challenge against one of these actions by blocking it for the entire country, the so- called nationwide injunctions.

This is not a Trump phenomenon. This is something that every modern President, Bush, Obama, Biden, they have all faced these. But Trump faces them in record numbers because he so voluminously uses these executive actions. So now, after this opinion, the Supreme Court's conservative super

majority has limited the power that judges have to block policies for the whole country.

Now this is going to be a little bit messy but going forward, it appears that Trump will be able to sign an executive order and it will go into effect, at least in parts of the country and impact some people while it continues to face legal challenges and questions about whether that policy is constitutional.

Now when you talk about something like mass firings or birthright citizenship, allowing those policies to go into effect, even for a time, even for only part of the country, that impacts the lives of hundreds, thousands, even potentially millions of Americans, depending on what the policy is that we're talking about.

But, these still will likely face constitutional questions and I think we're going to see birthright citizenship over the next year or so.

But the justices have to look at whether Trump actually has the constitutional authority to do that, to limit that right where, if you're born here, you are a U.S. citizen, if you can do that through executive action. It's not clear if they'll be successful.

But, what is clear is this is a victory for the president. His lawyers told me, as soon as he was inaugurated, that he was going to issue executive orders with a very broad view, expansive view of executive power. And they knew they would face challenges. They knew they would lose at the lower courts.

They kept telling me, if they could just get to the Supreme Court, that that court would agree with them and affirm their view of executive power.

And that's why, after Friday's decision, President Trump does have more power and authority than he did the day before -- Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

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HUNTE: OK, let's dig deeper. Joining me now from Colchester, England, is Natasha Lindstaedt. She's a professor of government at the University of Essex.

Natasha, thanks for being with me.

How are you doing this morning?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Doing well. Thanks for having me.

HUNTE: You're so welcome. Thanks for being here.

We are seeing a real split between house and Senate Republicans at the moment from disagreements over Medicaid cuts to clean energy spending.

Does this breakdown suggest that Trump's grip on the party isn't quite as strong as it looks from the outside?

LINDSTAEDT: So I would say he still has a strong grip on the party. The problem. Is that. For the senators and. House representatives in. The Republican Party, they have their own constituents. That they have to deal with.

I mean, they've been facing all kinds of backlash from these. Town halls that. They've been holding. So they don't just have to please Donald Trump. They also have to please their voters.

And that's where some of the problems lie. And that's why we've seen -- there's been divisions between Senate Republicans who face different types. Of. Issues. And even between House Republicans and Senate Republicans, whether it be. On the issue of Medicaid.

And here we see divisions between the Senate and the House, as the Senate Republicans want to be a little bit more aggressive on the Medicaid cuts, where House Republicans are hoping for something a little bit softer because that's going to affect their constituents.

And you have divisions on clean energy funding. Now here, the Senate Republicans want to be more gradual in phasing out solar and wind energy credits, tax credits.

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And instead, the House Republicans want to move more rapidly. And then there's also issues of the $10,000 state cap on local and state local tax deductions. Here.

You might have some House Republicans that might be living in blue states where their constituents face higher state and local taxes that aren't in agreement of such a low cap that's being imposed by the Senate Republicans.

And then you also have these divisions between some of these more moderate Republicans in the Senate; for example, like Lisa Murkowski, like Susan Collins, that are worried about how aggressive this bill is.

And then you have the fiscal hawks that are worried that there's going to be an added $4 trillion to the national deficit over 10 years. And you have senators like Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson calling this immoral.

So there are divisions all over the place. But what we've seen is that these Republicans tend to get in line, even though there may be a handful of defections.

HUNTE: You just mentioned it there but some GOP senators are publicly calling this bill immoral because of the deficit. There is reportedly a $4.2 trillion price tag with this. Others are more quietly worried about how this is all going to play out in 2026.

Do you think this could become a massive issue within the Republican Party going forward? LINDSTAEDT: Well, it could be, particularly as we head into the midterms. And you have a lot of senators that are up for reelection. Of course, all House members are up for reelection in 2026.

And this big, beautiful bill is not popular. There's a Quinnipiac poll from June that showed there's just roughly over a quarter of Americans that support it. So not even the entirety of Trump's base.

And you have a lot more that are opposed, some that don't say that they have an opinion on it but you don't have a lot of public support. And then with all the different changes taking place to the bill, it may be more of a watered-down version.

But Trump. Doesn't the excessive military spending, the spending on border control $75 billion a year. And what we're doing to add to this deficit and pushing back the debt ceiling. I mean, all these kinds of questions are going to affect American voters. And so that's why there's a lot of concerns about what's going to happen with the midterms.

HUNTE: Makes sense. I want to also talk about the rulings from the Supreme Court yesterday, because they do seem to expand presidential authority, especially around the president's executive actions.

Can you just explain how this legally gives Donald Trump or any president even far more unchecked power than we've seen in recent history?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, the ruling by the Supreme Court, another incredibly alarming ruling that they made, maybe just as alarming as the July 1st ruling, that basically a president is immune from whatever action they take while they're president.

I mean, when you think about a democracy, one of the most important things you think about are checks and balances. And one of the most significant institutions that is a bulwark against executive overreach is the judiciary. That's what it's there for.

And what -- I was alarmed by in the majority ruling that Amy Coney Barrett wrote, which was basically saying, we have to check judicial power. I mean, that goes against the very foundations of democracy.

So what we're seeing is that Trump, with this support of this ruling, he can do whatever he wants to do. And while some states might be able to fight against it if they decide to file a lawsuit, other states might not engage in this kind of behavior, might not be filing lawsuits.

So that means that you have a very uneven application of the rule of law, which goes against what you would want in a democracy, where the rule of law is supposed to be equally applied to everyone.

So this trend is incredibly concerning. Of course, Trump got a big win because the Supreme Court has been incredibly pliant to whatever he wants to do. HUNTE: OK. Well, let's see what happens next. This is only the

beginning. Natasha, thank you so much for joining me. For now. I appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

HUNTE: All right.

Still ahead, crowds of people gather in Tehran for the public funerals of Iranians killed in Israeli strikes. Full details on that story after the break.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

Iran is holding public funerals for senior military commanders and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli strikes.

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HUNTE (voice-over): Images here from Tehran as large crowds gather to pay their respects to top officials and other key figures, including the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Reports say at least four women and four children were also be buried.

Iran's president was seen in a crowd of mourners alongside security officials.

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HUNTE: Meanwhile, the White House told members of Congress they are working to bring Iran back to negotiating tables. President Trump says he would absolutely consider further military action if Iran pursues nuclear weapons but he believes that's not on Iran's agenda right now.

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TRUMP: Time will tell. But I don't believe that they're going to go back into nuclear anytime soon.

QUESTION: Sir, are.

You concerned.

At all about.

Secret nuclear sites in Iran?

Can you talk. About maybe just.

Secret nuclear sites?

TRUMP: Yes, there.

Might be some.

That. Can I tell you, they're exhausted and Israel's exhausted to and I dealt with both of them. And they both wanted it settled. Both of them. And we did a great job. But they're exhausted. The last thing they're thinking about right now is nuclear.

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HUNTE: OK. Let's head to London and CNN's Nada Bashir.

Nada, thanks for being with me.

What message is Iran trying to send with the scale and the symbolism of today's funerals?

And how significant are Iran's losses in terms of its power and the actual military command structure?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Ben, from the announcement that there had been a ceasefire established, what we have seen in Iran is officials, Iran's supreme leader, state media framing this as a victory for Iran, a moment of triumph.

But clearly today is a moment of mourning and grief. Despite that framing of victory and what we have seen on the ground, according to our teams in Tehran, is tens of thousands of people gathering as part of this funeral procession.

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And what we've seen throughout that 12-day conflict is an attempt really to focus primarily on the civilian impact of those strikes carried out by the Israeli military. But, of course, as we know and as Iranian officials have acknowledged, this has also had a significant impact on its security apparatus.

Among those killed and among those being commemorated today as part of that funeral march and later buried in Tehran, are top military and security officials, as well as top nuclear scientists.

We know, of course, that among those killed was the head of Iran's highly secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. And, of course, in addition to that, what we've seen in the crowds today is a show of -- a show-up by the Iranian president.

But also, interestingly, we have seen a key Iranian official, Ali Shamkhani, making an appearance. Now he is a close personal aide to Iran's supreme leader, ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was also thought to have been killed, according to Israel. They had said that he had been killed after that initial unprecedented

attack by the Israeli military on Iran. His death had also been reported by Iranian media as well. However, Iranian media did later say that he had in fact not been killed.

But we have seen images now being shared by Iranian state media from today's procession, showing Ali Shamkhani present at this procession, leaning on a walking stick. But clearly a significant symbol there, for Ali Shamkhani to be making an appearance at this funeral procession.

He is, of course, not only a key figure within the Iranian security apparatus and political apparatus but also he has also been a key adviser over the course of negotiations around Iran's nuclear deal.

And, of course, there are many questions circling now around what potential there is for a nuclear deal to be salvaged, for any diplomatic progress to be made.

Now we did hear yesterday from Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, saying that Iran potentially could be willing to transfer its uranium enriched uranium stockpiles overseas in exchange for investment in Iran's energy program.

And, of course, potentially the lifting of sanctions. And we certainly had heard indications and suggestions that that may be on the table from the Trump administration.

However, what we've also seen is this continued tit-for-tat, Iran's supreme leader, again maintaining that this is a victory for Iran, saying that Iran will not surrender to U.S. demands.

And what we've heard continuously throughout the negotiation process is that Iran would not give up its enrichment of uranium. That is something that the U.S. continues to want to see.

And we've been hearing from the U.S. president and from the White House clearly indicating that, at this stage, it doesn't appear as though Trump is willing to lift those sanctions or move forward on that front just yet. Ben.

HUNTE: OK. Nada Bashir in London, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.

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HUNTE: President Trump is predicting there will be a ceasefire in Gaza soon but fighting in the enclave still goes on. Several people were killed and buried in the enclave under the sand when an Israeli airstrike hit tents sheltering people.

And first responders rushed to recover victims and put out fires after an Israeli airstrike hit a school building in northern Gaza. Gaza civil defense says it was housing individuals who had been displaced. This is what the U.S. president had to say about stopping the carnage.

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TRUMP: I think it's close. I just spoke with some of the people involved. It's a terrible situation that's going Gaza, he's asking about. And we think within the next week we're going to get a ceasefire.

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HUNTE: Now to some disturbing accusations in the daily "Ha'aretz" newspaper. An article alleges that Israeli soldiers in Gaza had been instructed by commanders to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites, even when it was clear that they posed no threat.

Israel's military says it rejects the report. CNN's Nic Robertson has more from Jerusalem. For us.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, these are incredibly serious allegations.

And the period of these allegations over the past month times out with a significant uptick in the number of Palestinians being killed, as they go to get aid from the new aid distribution point set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a humanitarian body established by the United States and Israel.

According to Palestinian health officials, over that period, since late May, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed either on their way to these aid collection points, near the aid collection points, waiting to get aid from trucks.

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We're also hearing from Medecins Sans Frontieres -- Doctors Without Borders -- who say that, over the past month, they've noticed what they describe as a stark increase in the number of gunshot injuries from people that have gone to collect food from these humanitarian distribution points.

What the "Ha'aretz" article alleges is that soldiers, that "Ha'aretz" says it's talked to, IDF soldiers, say that they were ordered by a commanding officer to fire at the people, unarmed people, waiting at the aid distribution points, waiting to get aid.

According to one of the soldiers, "Ha'aretz" says they interviewed, he described it as a killing field. Now the IDF rejects these allegations. The Prime Minister, the defense minister, called them blood libels, that it's an effort to tarnish the image and undermine the IDF.

But, according to "Ha'aretz," the IDF's Military Advocate General has tasked the military body to investigate whether the laws of war were broken, to see, in essence, if war crimes were committed. That's what "Ha'aretz" says is happening. If this were, if these allegations that "Ha'aretz" has uncovered here,

were proven to be true, this would be a huge blow for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid effort.

It would be a huge blow for the IDF and the Israeli government. But at the moment, it is being completely rejected top down. "Ha'aretz" is standing by their reporting -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem.

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HUNTE: I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. For viewers in North America. We'll have more CNN NEWSROOM after the break. But for international viewers, "Elite Escapes" is up next. See you in a bit.

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HUNTE: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wherever you are. You're now with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta, in the CNN NEWSROOM. It's so good to have you here.

The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with religious parents who want to opt their elementary school children out of the classroom when books about LGBTQ subjects are used or discussed.

Several conservative justices believe the government has gone too far in trying to honor the separation of church and state and instead have wound up discriminating against religion.

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TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: And the justices -- this is a court that is very supportive. Of religious rights. It's the court that is. Very supportive. Of parental rights.

And I think that what the justices perceived as the school district's inflexibility, they used to allow parents to opt their kids out of these things but they no longer did, I think, really set the justices off a little bit.

And they just thought it was unreasonable what the school board was doing. And this case provided the perfect vehicle for reaffirming the court's commitment to religious freedoms.

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HUNTE: Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion, saying, "Today's ruling threatens the very essence of public education.

The court, in effect, constitutionalizes a parental veto power and strikes at the core premise of public schools, that children may come together to learn not the teachings of a particular faith but a range of concepts and views reflect our entire society. Exposure to new ideas has always been a vital part of that project. Until now.

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HUNTE: Ten years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage. It was a very controversial ruling and a hot-button political issue at the time. Here's some of what the lead plaintiff, Jim Obergefell, said on June 26th, 2015.

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JIM OBERGEFELL, LEAD PLAINTIFF: Today's ruling from the Supreme Court affirms what millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts, our love is equal.

That the four words etched onto the front of the Supreme Court, "Equal justice under law," apply to us, too.

All Americans deserve equal dignity, respect and treatment when it comes to the recognition of our relationships and families. Now at long last, Ohio will recognize our marriage and, most important, marriage equality will come to every state, every state across our country.

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HUNTE: According to some polls, close to 70 percent of Americans approve of same-sex marriage today. But while president Trump has no issue with same-sex marriage, there is a brewing backlash among some religious conservatives.

At their annual meeting this month, Southern Baptists called for the passage of laws challenging the decision. Symbolic resolutions calling on the court to revisit the decision have been introduced in at least nine state legislatures.

Efforts to create a new legal class of marriage, the covenant marriage, based on conservative religious teachings -- that would be between a man and a woman -- and make divorce more difficult have sputtered so far in Missouri and Tennessee this year.

For context, House Speaker Mike Johnson entered into a covenant marriage in Louisiana.

And Kim Davis, a former county clerk from Kentucky, who drew nationwide attention when she defied court orders and refused to issue marriage licenses in 2015, after the Obergefell decision, is still fighting to have the Supreme Court revisit that decision.

Well, you know, I want to dig a bit deeper. So let's speak to Jonathan Lovitz, the senior vice president of campaigns and communications for the Human Rights Campaign.

Jonathan, thanks for staying up late for me. How are you doing?

JONATHAN LOVITZ, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF CAMPAIGNS AND COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: Good evening. Good morning. Who knows what time. It. Is?

But we're celebrating. The last weekend. Of. LGBT pride. Month here in the. United States. So it's just great to be awake and talking. To. You about. How great things are.

HUNTE: Well, thank you for making the time. We really appreciate it. Let's get straight into this. Ten years ago, this ruling changed the lives of millions of Americans. Today, it's reported that upwards of 70 percent of the country supports same-sex marriage.

So can you just break down for me?

How have we got to a place where that right is suddenly back under threat?

What's going on?

LOVITZ: Well. This week we celebrated 10 years. Of marriage equality and the Obergefell decision making love. The law of. The land. And as you mentioned in your intro, there. Is pushback. When people see. That this is settled case now and that the United States. Is moving. Toward greater equality for all.

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It is unfortunate. That there are attempts to undo this in the United States. We have over 30 states where there are trigger laws that. Would go into. Effect if the Supreme Court were to undo marriage equality, making it a state-by-state right.

And yet, to. Combat that. The Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest LGBT organization in the United States, helped pass the regulations and laws under the Biden administration, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, that helped make sure that it would be recognized between one state and another.

Even if that particular state doesn't allow it. So we have progress to do. But we've also put some protections in place to make sure that our community, as well as interracial marriages, are protected in the United States.

But if there's one thing we have learned from this fight, is that the work isn't over. Marriage equality was a tremendous step forward and a huge celebration.

But we have so much more to go, particularly protecting trans people, protecting our youth and making sure that all minority communities, of which LGBTQ people are present and a part of, have equal rights under law like Jim said.

HUNTE: We have seen some symbolic resolutions introduced in at least nine state legislatures calling on the Supreme Court to revisit Obergefell.

Do you see this as a serious warning sign right now?

LOVITZ: It's a serious warning sign that there are still hearts and minds left to change.

But as you said, over 70 percent of the United States is with us on same-sex marriage. They're with us in the concept of fairness, that no two people who live under the same Constitution, the same country, should have different rights. We're looking for equality between all people here.

And that's true of marriage. That's true of being able to be out in your workplace, in your school, at your home and feeling safety, comfort and dignity. So ultimately, those concepts will win as they did with marriage equality 10 years ago. But we've got a lot of work to do here and around the world.

HUNTE: I want to quickly take our viewers back to 2015, when President Obama marked the Obergefell decision with powerful words about a more perfect union and when then candidate Donald Trump doubled down on so-called traditional marriage. Let's take a quick listen.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today. We. Can say in no. Uncertain terms. That we've made. Our union a little more perfect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm for traditional marriage.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: But what. Do you. Say. To a lesbian. Who's married?

Or a gay man who's married?

Who says. Donald Trump, What's traditional. About being. Married? Three times?

TRUMP: Well, I -- they have a very good point. But you know, I've been a very hard working person. I've had actually, I have a great marriage. I have a great wife now. And the -- my two wives were very good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Here in those two very different visions of America. How does that contrast still shape the political fight for LGBTQ rights today?

LOVITZ: Well, as President Obama said and certainly President Biden did in recent years, you know, the affirmation that love is love is one thing. But I am particularly touched and heartened by what they have said about making us a little more perfect, because we are all equal.

You know, I would consider my marriage, which is almost 10 years old already, to be just as normal and just as equal and loving and wonderful as anyone else's. And so asking for that level of dignity and respect among your fellow Americans shouldn't be hard to, you know, hard to fathom.

So you know, as I said, we've got lots of hearts and minds left to change. But people know this is the right thing to do, both for each other, both for our community and for our economy, which was one of the major issues that helped move us toward marriage equality 10 years ago.

HUNTE: Well, let's see what happens over the next 10 years. Jonathan Lovitz in Washington, thank you for now. Appreciate it. Get to sleep.

LOVITZ: Thank you.

HUNTE: The jury is about to get the criminal case against Sean Diddy Combs underway. After two marathon days of closing arguments, jury deliberations are set to begin on Monday.

On Friday, prosecutors urged jurors to find Combs guilty, saying it was, quote, "time to hold him accountable."

Diddy's attorney argued that the prosecution exaggerated its case and has not shown evidence of a criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges that include racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

New York City mayor Eric Adams is defending his relationship with president Trump and he says voters are not concerned with the corruption charges that he once faced. The Trump administration dropped those charges in return for his cooperation with things like immigration enforcement.

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Adams tells CNN that voters should look at what he's done for the city.

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY: Well, I think look at the numbers. When you allow New Yorkers to hear the real story of the success and the turnaround of developing more jobs in our individual senior years in the history of the city.

In 3.5 years, we have ensured that we develop housing that's needed more than the previous two mayors combined.

And then when you look at the small business operating, the safety of the city, I ran on a public safety platform and we delivered on that. The last six months, we had the last lowest number of shootings and homicide in recorded history of this city. I am going to be able to tell the real story of how we turned the city around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: In November's election, Adams will likely face former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and the presumptive Democratic nominee, 33-year old Zahran Mamdani. Adams was elected mayor as a Democrat but he's now running as an independent. And sources tell CNN that Cuomo will also run as an independent.

There is so much more to come on CNN, including the U.S. president's sudden decision to end trade negotiations with Canada. That's coming up.

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HUNTE: U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Friday that he's ending a months-long trade talks with Canada. He's blaming a new Canadian tax on digital services, hitting such companies as Google, Apple and Meta. It was adopted more than a year ago and is set to go into effect on Monday.

CNN correspondent Paula Newton has more from the Canadian capital.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To many in Canada it had seemed as if the trade war with the United States would simmer down. Prime Minister Mark Carney, Donald Trump getting along so well during the G7 meeting earlier this month and a kind of flexible deadline for trade negotiations to wrap up later in July had been set.

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But then Donald Trump said it was the digital services tax that was going to be imposed by Canada. Now to be clear, this tax has been in place in Canada for about a year. The first payment from those digital companies was supposed to be paid. It's supposed to be paid on June 30th.

Donald Trump said no, it must be off the table in order for trade negotiations of any kind to go forward. Listen.

TRUMP: They were foolish to do it. And so I said, we're going to stop all negotiations with Canada right now until they, straighten out their act.

We have all the cards. You know, we do a lot of business with Canada but relatively little. They do most of their businesses with us. And when you have that circumstance, you treat people better.

NEWTON: The president isn't wrong about that. In fact, it will have a chilling effect over Canada's economy already teetering close to recession. I want you to listen now, though, to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Oh, I did speak to the president.

REPORTER: What do you -- any reaction to the meeting?

CARNEY: No. Look. We'll, we'll continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interest of Canadians. This negotiation.

NEWTON: Now Canadian officials say they will do their negotiating behind closed doors but this certainly was a salvo that means that the clock continues to tick down on a trade deal with Canada.

And the longer this uncertainty lasts, the more that the president is correct that this will continue to hurt Canada much more than it will hurt the United States. And the president likely believes that will get the United States a better trade deal in the end -- Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

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HUNTE: Two out of three major U.S. stock indices hit record highs on Friday, wrapping up a big economic week. That's despite Mr. Trump's vow to end trade talks with Canada.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite both closed up half a point and both set new records. The Dow got close, closing up more than 400 points within 3 percent of its all-time high.

A peace deal is in place between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The two nations signed the agreement on Friday in Washington. It's aimed at ending the devastating conflict in the eastern DRC. It also has an apparent benefit for the United States.

But as CNN's Larry Madowo explains, some remained unconvinced that it can end the conflict.

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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump taking a victory lap after this major peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. He has previously said he thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for helping make this happen.

He called it a dangerous part of the world and praised his senior advisor on Africa, Massad Boulos, for getting it across the line.

Massad Boulos is also the father-in-law to his daughter, Tiffany Trump. He hosted the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, their foreign ministers. He said they were very honored to be at the White House.

The parties have agreed to a raft of things. The key part of it is, the text here is important, includes the provisions on the respect for territorial integrity and the prohibition of hostilities, the disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration of ground state-armed groups.

And they will also establish a joint security coordination mechanism, which will be important to implement this, because there have been previous peace deals that have failed between the DRC and Rwanda.

Crucially, the M23 rebel group are not a party to this. They are the group that the DRC accuses Rwanda of arming and supporting.

Rwanda wants the DRC to disarm and stop supporting the FDLR, which they accuse of planning to overthrow the government of President Kagame. But President Trump also said something that raised a lot of eyebrows in Kinshasa, across the region and in the continent.

TRUMP: We're getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of the deal. They're so honored to be here. They never thought they'd be coming to -- look, this is a very tough part of the world.

They never thought -- they were just telling me, they never thought they'd ever be coming to the White House and they're so honored.

MADOWO: The Democratic Republic of Congo has the world's largest reserves of cobalt, which powers everything from mobile phones to electric cars. And the question here is, how did the DRC put those minerals as part of this agreement?

It didn't come up in the official signing that was led by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State and the two foreign ministers but suddenly, the text will be scrutinized to see exactly what they gave up there.

There is a lot of criticisms of Western countries aiming and vying for African minerals and this suddenly fits that description that's often criticized here.

Whether this deal does work, still remains to be seen and the question of how was this signed in Washington, not in an African capital?

Previous mediation efforts here in Nairobi and in the Angolan capital Rwanda did not bear fruit -- Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

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HUNTE: OK. Still to come, how Jeff Bezos' lavish wedding in Venice has boosted the city's tourism industry.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos married former reporter Lauren Sanchez in Venice on Friday.

The lavish, star-studded wedding weekend reportedly cost as much as $55 million and Venice could rake in over $1 billion from tourism. Dozens of A-list guests were in attendance as protesters tried to disrupt the festivities around the city. CNN's Melissa Bell has more from Venice. For us.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is day two of the three-day extravaganza. That is the Jeff Bezos and Lawrence Sanchez wedding here in Venice, held in the scorching heat.

We first caught a glimpse of the bride and former journalist today as she exited her hotel in style on a water taxi with two huge diamond rings and a bracelet with the initials "LB."

She was soon followed by the Amazon founder and a sea of photographers.

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As they headed over there to the private San Giorgio Maggiore island here in Venice, where they tied the knot in front of 200 guests, a barrage of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Usher and Tom Brady.

And we know that a performance by Matteo Bocelli is happening there tonight. He is the son of the legendary Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli and here is the now Lauren Sanchez Bezos on the cover of "Vogue" in her Dolce & Gabbana wedding gown finally revealed after much anticipation.

Italy's tourism minister said, Venice can expect to reap as much as $1.1 billion as a result of the billionaire's wedding.

But we have been kept almost entirely in the dark throughout the three days about exactly when and where the ceremonies will be taking place, not just so that they could keep the press and the paparazzi at a distance but also, of course, the protesters who are threatening to disrupt proceedings.

And so, it is from afar that if we have watched the happy couple tie the knot and dance the night away -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Venice.

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HUNTE: You've probably heard plenty of stories about breaking out of jail. But in one Georgia town, officers had to stop an attempted break-in.

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HUNTE (voice-over): Have a look at this. A young deer had to be rescued outside a jail in Coweta County, southwest of Atlanta. A deputy sheriff's body cam shows him approaching the panicked baby deer -- oh, look at that -- as it tried to get through the jail's fence.

The deputy picked up the freaked-out fawn and put it safely in his patrol car. And he drove to nearby woods and released the deer.

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HUNTE: Oh, we love good news.

That's all I've got for you for this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. But let's do it all again. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I'll be back with more news after a quick break.