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Senate To Begin Marathon Debate Session On Trump Agenda Bill; Government: Mexican Cartel Hacked FBI Official To Kill Potential Informants; Alligator Alcatraz. Aired 3-4pET

Aired June 29, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:01:43]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we continue to follow our breaking news on Capitol Hill. Live pictures right now at any moment, clerks are expected to finish reading aloud President Trump's giant 940-page mega bill on the U.S. Senate floor there. The word for word reading has lasted nearly 16 hours.

As soon as that is complete, senators can finally start beginning their marathon debate session on the President's so-called Big, Beautiful Bill. All of this follows a late night win for the President's sweeping agenda, as Republicans narrowly voted to advance this massive tax and spending bill.

We've got a team of correspondents covering today's developments. Kevin Liptak is at the White House, and Julia Benbrook is on Capitol Hill.

Let's begin with you, Julia. Bring us up to speed on what's happening and what we can expect to unfold.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Senate Republicans took a major step toward passing President Donald Trump's massive agenda package, or the so-called one Big, Beautiful Bill, and Trump is calling this move a great victory. But there are still some potential roadblocks ahead.

Only two Republican senators voted against advancing this bill, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. But several GOP lawmakers have been voicing concerns throughout this process.

This is a massive multi-trillion dollar package that would lower federal taxes. It would boost spending on the military and on border security, and it would downsize some government safety net programs, including Medicaid.

Now, following that late night vote, Democrats moved to start a delay tactic and that is having the clerks read the bill in full. It is a 940-page bill, as you mentioned, they are nearing 16 hours of reading that. Hopefully nearing the end as we speak, but after that's done, they'll be able to focus then on the debate portion, and we could see up to 20 hours of debate, that is split evenly between the two parties. We do expect Democrats to use all of their time, but Republicans may only use a portion of it.

Then we begin vote-a-rama, and that sounds a lot more fun than it is, but it is an open-ended series of votes on amendments. Some of them will be focused on political messaging, some of them more substantial. Then we may see that final vote there on the Senate on final passage.

Eyes then go back to the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson likely still has his work cut out for him. He leads with that razor thin majority, and they were able to get their version across the finish line, but there have been changes, so he does have challenges as they work to meet that self-imposed July 4th deadline to get this bill to the President's desk for a signature. Johnson said he is determined to do that.

WHITFIELD: Indeed, a long way to go. All right, Julia Benbrook, thank you so much on Capitol Hill.

Let's go to the White House now where Kevin Liptak is. So, Kevin, the President, you know, had a lot of arm twisting and dealmaking to do to get this far in the advancement of the bill. What more can you tell us?

[16:05:00]

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and he is going to have to continue doing that down the line as this goes to the Senate, as it goes to the House. It is pretty clear President Trump views Republican support for this bill as a loyalty test. And in fact, the White House said just that in a message to Capitol Hill yesterday, saying that failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal, and President Trump making clear that in at least in his view, those two senators who didn't vote for it are now ultimately betraying him.

Senator, Thom Tillis from North Carolina, the President actually, as this was being debated, said that he would potentially support a primary challenge to Tillis. Now, Tillis today saying that he will retire from the Senate, which I think gives you a sense of how much of a debate this has been among Republican senators. It has been pretty clear that this is now Trump's Republican Party, and there is very little room for disagreement.

Tillis ultimately deciding to call it quits. He says in his statement in retirement that this will allow him the freedom to call the balls and strikes as he sees fit over the next couple of years, and I think it gives you sort of a sense of how Tillis was approaching all of this going forward.

Now, President Trump, I think, will still clearly be wanting to look for some of these candidates in North Carolina. One name that's been floated around is his daughter in law, Lara Trump, herself from North Carolina as he looks for a replacement here, but clearly setting up now one of the most competitive Senate races in 2026.

It is also clear, though, that Trump is acknowledging some of the political difficulties that these Republicans are facing in getting behind this bill. He did lend voice to that this morning in an interview. Listen to some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Let's see, we are cutting, yes, $1.7 trillion. Think of it. I think I just saw the number a little while ago, $1.7 trillion. But we can grow our country so much more than that. And we are not going to have to do -- you also have to get elected, you know.

When you do cutting, you have to be a little bit careful because people don't like necessarily cutting if they get used to something. And what I want to do is do it through growth. We are going to have growth like we've never seen before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So you hear the President there saying, you have to be careful in what you're cutting. That's part of why Thom Tillis objected to this bill. He thought that the cuts were too deep to some of these social safety net programs. The challenge that President Trump faces, that there is a whole other set of Republicans who are worried that this bill actually still spends too much, that it adds too much to the deficit and in fact, just in the last hour, the House Freedom Caucus, which is that group of ultra conservative Republicans, put out a tweet saying that this bill, the Senate version of it, actually increases the deficit by much more than what they voted on in the House.

And so the President still clearly is going to have some hurdles here with members of his own party before he gets this across the finish line, but he has set that very ambitious deadline, he wants it on his desk by Friday.

WHITFIELD: All right, very good. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. And, Kevin, just a little minor update that reading aloud of this 940-page bill has now just ended, and you're seeing Chuck Schumer right now who is speaking. But soon there will be others who will be speaking there on Capitol Hill as they soon start negotiating, making some changes, modifications during what is called this vote-a-rama and it carries on to yet the next stage in this process.

We will take you back up to Capitol Hill momentarily.

All right, now, a stunning new report details how a drug cartel hacked an FBI official in Mexico to help kill potential informants. According to the Justice Department, the cartel hired a hacker to surveil the official as the agency was investigating the notorious drug lord, El Chapo back in 2018.

I want to bring in now CNN's cybersecurity reporter, Sean Lyngaas, and he is joining us from Washington.

Sean, I mean, this is a stunning breach of security. How did this happen? How are we now learning of it?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Well, the reason we are learning about it now, Fredricka, is because years have passed and usually the government feels more comfortable about disclosing this kind of thing than immediately afterward. But it came via a Department of Justice Inspector General report, where they're reviewing the FBI's security practices for protecting its sources and methods and trying to -- how the FBI can avoid being surveilled by both criminals and intelligence services.

And in this case, something, you know, as soon as I read this report, just my eyes nearly popped out because it was -- this is why we care about cybersecurity. It is when peoples' livelihoods that are threatened by a security breach like this.

In this case, the cartel, it was 2018 and the FBI and the U.S. government was preparing to prosecute El Chapo, the notorious drug lord who runs -- who used to run the Sinaloa Cartel, and as that case was getting ready to go to trial, the cartel allegedly hires a hacker to try to find out who the FBI is talking to in Mexico City.

[15:10:10]

And they had a lot of success because the hacker was able to use, according to the report, the Mexico City's camera systems to follow the official around. This was a senior FBI official based in Mexico City at the U.S. Embassy, and the hacker was able to provide that information to the cartel about who this person was meeting with and according to the report, in some cases, the cartel ended up killing people based on that information.

So it is a stunning breach of operational security. The FBI has been trying to get better at this. They say in the Inspector General report that they have a plan to try to address this sort of thing. The FBI would not comment when we contacted them for comment. They referred to the Justice Department, who did not respond.

But this is going to be a case study for years to come in terms of why we care about protecting data from hackers.

WHITFIELD: Right. And what are you able to reveal now about how the U.S. government may be trying to step up surveillance of the cartels and be able to protect, you know, other agents?

LYNGAAS: Right. This is an extremely high stakes game and the U.S. military, via its own hacking unit, has been trying to get better about infiltrating the cartels, picking up intelligence so they can track the cartels' movements. And CNN reported in April that the CIA was reviewing its authorities, its lethal authorities, to carry out lethal missions against the cartels in Mexico.

So it is obviously a Trump administration priority to go after the cartels. They've declared them foreign terrorist organizations, which allows more government resources to go after them, but they're going to want to think more and more about how they protect their assets in the field, because the cartels have proven very tech savvy, as we've seen from this report, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sean Lyngaas in Washington, thanks so much.

All right, just ahead, a fight in Florida to prevent the opening of a new immigration detention center in the Everglades, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz.

Plus, we will have the forecast for the 40 million people on alert for severe weather today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:54]

WHITFIELD: Protesters in Florida are pushing back against the construction of a new detention center for undocumented migrants, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. The facility is located near a remote airfield just six miles north of the Everglades National Park. Florida officials are rushing to build the center to push forward with President Trump's immigration crackdown.

Joining me right now is CNN national correspondent Rafael Romo.

So what are you learning about this so-called Alligator Alcatraz?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At first, people were wondering if this story was actually real or one of the million lies out there on social media, but it is real. Officials say it is actually happening in Florida.

State officials say the migrant detention facility will be, in their words, efficient and low-cost because Mother Nature will provide much of the security.

That suggests, Fred, they are counting on alligators and pythons, not to mention the oppressive heat to deter the migrants who would be held there from trying to escape, and it seems the federal government agrees.

Take a look at this, Fred. The Department of Homeland Security published an A.I. photo on X that shows several alligators wearing ICE hats outside of what appears to be a jail, a post considered deeply offensive by immigrant rights and others -- immigrant rights groups, I should say, and others. We reached out to DHS and they acknowledged the post is legitimate.

The first detainees are reportedly set to arrive at the facility as early as Tuesday, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier calls it Alligator Alcatraz and says the overall site is 39 square miles, and it would hold more than a thousand people.

It is being erected on a little used airstrip in the Everglades, and it would cost $450 million a year to run. According to a DHS official, the state can request reimbursement for costs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A crowd of protesters descended on the site this weekend to say no to

the detention facility, arguing that it not only violates the rights of immigrants, but also endangers wildlife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE JAVIER RODRIGUEZ, FORMER FLORIDA STATE SENATOR: What we see here is an effort to say that the Everglades are not a backdrop for political theater.

GIANCARLO CASTELLANOS, PROTESTER: They're using sacred land for such a sinister and vile goal -- end goal, which is not okay, right, in any sense of the word.

And on top of that, it is just the environmental impact that this will have as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Fred, in spite of these objections, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last week floated the idea of building another immigration detention center in his state as part of the state's aggressive push to support the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration. The second proposed site is located at a Florida National Guard training center known as Camp Blanding, about 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

But yes, it appears that they are getting ready to start bringing in the first migrants soon, as early as Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So that means the infrastructure is already in place. Is there anything that will stop this effort from any migrants being taken to that facility this coming week?

[15:20:05]

ROMO: Yes, not for the time being. There hasn't been any move or any lawsuit that would stop it for the time being, and it is hard to imagine that this is going to be an actual concrete building.

It probably is going to be more like a tent city, something like that because --

WHITFIELD: On the tarmacs there? I mean --

ROMO: Right, right. Because they cannot build something that fast for so many people.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Extraordinary. All right, keep us posted. Thanks so much.

ROMO: Of course.

WHITFIELD: Rafael Romo, appreciate it.

All right, today, millions across the Midwest, Central Plains and parts of the Mid-Atlantic are under a severe storm threat, including damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More than 40 million people are under the threat for severe storms today, mainly focused across the Midwest and into the Central Plains. Now we could still see some isolated scattered showers and thunderstorms across other areas, but the main target for those severe thunderstorms is going to be in this yellow shaded area you see here. That includes Green Bay down through Des Moines, Kansas City and back across portions of Eastern Colorado.

The main threats are going to be damaging winds with gusts of 60 to maybe even 70 miles per hour, and also the possibility for some large hail. And yes, we cannot rule out an isolated tornado. But it is not the only area, we also have this small portion of the Mid-Atlantic that could end up seeing some of those strong to severe thunderstorms.

Now, the timeline for a lot of these, it has already been ongoing today, but we are really going to see that line in the Midwest ramp up tonight. We are talking eight, nine, ten P.M. this evening. And the unfortunate part is, it is going to continue through the overnight hours. So make sure you have a way to get those emergency alerts on your phone to wake you up if some of these storms that are rolling through at two, three, four o'clock in the morning, it can wake you up in plenty of time.

Even going through the rest of Monday afternoon, you're going to see lots of those scattered showers and thunderstorms continuing across portions of the Midwest, especially around the Ohio Valley and into the Tennessee Valley.

Now for some of these areas, this is not just one day of rain. It is day two, day three, and in some cases it is multiple days of strong to severe thunderstorms, which means that ground is already saturated from previous rain and now, we are adding more rain on top of it. So because of it, there is also the potential for some flooding.

Any of the areas you see shaded in green have the potential for flooding, but the real target point is going to be right here in the yellow shaded area, including Kansas City, where we could be looking at several more inches of rain on top of what they've had the last few days.

WHITFIELD: All right, Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, it was a stunning upset in New York this week. We will take you inside Andrew Cuomo's campaign collapse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:07]

WHITFIELD: All right, we are back with more on our breaking news on Capitol Hill. Live pictures right now. Clerks in the senate actually just finished a 16-plus hour reading of President Trump's mega agenda bill on Capitol Hill. And right now, a variety of senators are giving their best pitch on the pluses and minuses of this bill.

A marathon debate session will take place momentarily, and it could carry on into the early morning hours. We are going to cover all of it as closely as we can and all of this follows a late night win for the President as Republicans narrowly voted to advance this massive tax and spending bill after making concessions to some GOP holdouts.

Republican leaders hope to vote on the package in its entirety as soon as tomorrow.

This morning, we showed -- we first showed that we have a brand new reporting from inside former Governor Andrew Cuomo's campaign for New York City mayor. And in a shocking upset, he lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer and self-described Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani's success defied nearly every poll and expert, making waves among the Democratic establishment. Here is what he had to say in a new interview this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS: Do you think the Democratic establishment is afraid of you?

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I think that people are catching up to this election. This is an election that went against so much of the analysis that had been told about our party and where we needed to head to, and ultimately, what we are showing is that by putting working people first, by returning to the roots of the Democratic Party, we actually have a path out of this moment where we are facing authoritarianism in Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN spoke to a dozen Andrew Cuomo aides and advisers to unpack what went wrong with his campaign and how and what does it mean for the future of the Democratic Party?

CNN's Isaac Dovere has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It was an earthquake week in New York City politics as Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor, beating former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Some of that was Mamdani's historic expansion of the electorate, some of that was other campaigns collapsing.

But as I detail in a new story up on CNN.com, it was also a Cuomo campaign where many things went wrong from a candidate who refused to be out on the trail much or do much to mitigate the heavy negative feelings against him to he and a close circle of aides who were not changing their pitch even as the race rapidly changed around them.

The story has internal conference calls, meetings and calculations that Cuomo and his aides were making that only a few people knew about. I talked to a dozen people deeply involved in the Cuomo campaign, and a dozen more who were integral to the race in other ways.

One Cuomo adviser told me this: You are not going to turn Andrew Cuomo into the new Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is Andrew Cuomo. He is exactly the person he always was. He was not going to build alliances. Not clear he could anyway. He wasn't all of a sudden going to be warm and friendly, and his operation wasn't all of a sudden going to be warm and friendly.

[15:30:13]

Cuomo, as I reported earlier this week, is keeping his name on the ballot as an Independent, but whether he actively campaigns is a big question, and some of that to aides is going to be about how much he rethinks some of what I report in this article.

Isaac Dovere, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Isaac, thank you so much.

All right, the United Nations nuclear watchdog says Iran could be enriching uranium again within months. What impact that could have for diplomacy and the Trump administration foreign policy, all next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:22]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

New today, Ukraine says one of its F-16 fighter pilots was killed and his jet crashed after a huge Russian aerial assault. That's according to Ukraine's military. It says almost 500 drones and some 60 missiles were launched across Ukraine. It is one of Russia's largest assaults in the war, according to a CNN tally.

Russia has intensified its airborne attacks in recent weeks. It has launched hundreds of drones and missiles almost every night.

Also new today, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran could restart enriching uranium in a matter of months. Rafael Grossi's comments appear to back an early assessment from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency that U.S. strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran's nuclear program.

Tehran today asked the United Nations Security Council to recognize the U.S. and Israel as aggressors in the conflict and that would potentially enable the Iranian regime to receive financial compensation.

With us now is Ivo Daalder. He is the former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and is now senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center. Great to see you, Ambassador.

IVO DAALDER, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Wonderful to be here.

WHITFIELD: So what is your response to Iran's request now to the United Nations Security Council like that?

DAALDER: Well. I mean, there is in some ways a bit of truth to the idea that Israel and then the United States started a war to take down a nuclear program that was still under international inspection. And in that regard, Iran was living up to its obligations. Now, there are all kinds of reasons to think that it was trying to cheat, but cheating is usually not enough to justify the decision to go to war.

You know, that said, of course, Iran has been engaged in the kind of behavior for many, many years, decades, really with regard to terrorism, with regard to arming and supporting proxy forces that have repeatedly attacked Israel, so the idea of who is right and who is wrong in this one is a little far-fetched. The idea that this is an innocent bystander that was attacked by Israel and the United States is a little too much to take.

WHITFIELD: So what questions now do you still have following the U.S. bombing of the three -- or three of Iran's nuclear facilities?

DAALDER: Well, the fundamental question is the question that we've been debating now for a good part of a week, which is how much of the nuclear program that Iran had before the U.S. strikes is still intact, and when you think about the nuclear program, you're really thinking about three sets of possibilities.

One is the knowledge, the knowledge in terms of the scientists, but just the knowledge of how to build nuclear weapons. That knowledge cannot be erased by bombing, so that exists. Number two is material. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you can't get your hands on the material, that creates either a nuclear fission or nuclear fusion device, that is a bomb that can actually go off, then it doesn't really matter.

Now it is quite clear from all the evidence that we have seen that the material, at least some of the material that had been enriched to 60 percent, a very high level of enrichment, not useful for peaceful, only for military purposes, that some, if not all of that material is still in Iranian hands with the briefings that were given to the Senate over the last few days, and even Republican senators said yes, the material was really not being targeted, and therefore, if it is still out there, it will be out there.

And then the third is the actual taking that material and enriching it further and making a nuclear weapon out of that, and there we don't know whether there are sufficient numbers of centrifuges that can be either reinstalled or whether they have survived the big strike in Fordow mountain.

But as you mentioned, Rafael Grossi, the IAEA head has said that he thinks they can start enriching in a matter of months in that regard, you're probably back to having a nuclear weapons program of some kind that might be able to have a bomb in by the -- you know, in a year or two and that's not that different from what it was before.

WHITFIELD: Well, have a listen to the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency and his comments on how much enriched uranium might be left after the attacks.

[15:40:08]

RAFAEL GROSS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Some could have been moved. So there has to be at some point, a clarification. If we don't get that clarification, this will continue to be hanging over our heads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Is it your feeling that stockpiles were moved ahead of the strikes?

DAALDER: I'd be surprised if they weren't moved. Th Iranians knew that that will be a key target. It is relatively easy to move as Mr. Grossi said, as well, in the last few days. So I think some of the material is still around and that gives me pause, and it is one of the reasons, by the way, that when other administrations faced the question of whether or not to bomb, they were hesitating. They were hesitating that you could do this in a way that would in fact, assure the total destruction of a nuclear program.

President Trump may be claiming that the program has been obliterated, but all the evidence points to the reality that some form of nuclear capability remains, and there is now a greater incentive to acquire nuclear weapons than there existed before, because, frankly, not having a nuclear weapon, apparently is not enough to deter either Israel or the United States, at least that would be the calculation in Tehran.

WHITFIELD: Do you think the public or members of Congress will ever get more evidence or intel about what damage was immediately done?

DAALDER: I think at some point we will know in one form or another, either because a diplomatic path is opened up and the Iranians decide that they are willing to have international inspectors back on the ground to verify what may or may not have been destroyed or, and the worst case, Iran demonstrates that it has a nuclear weapon, in which case we know it wasn't obliterated.

WHITFIELD: Ambassador Ivo Daalder, we will leave it there for now. Thanks so much for being with us.

DAALDER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still to come right in the middle of hurricane season, NOAA announces it will no longer receive satellite weather data from the Department of Defense. How this could impact people in the path of storms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:01]

WHITFIELD: All right, all eyes continue to be on Capitol Hill in the U.S. Senate. Soon, senators will begin debating President Trump's spending proposals.

Someone who knows all too well what this endeavor entails. Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. She was the first elected African-American woman to the U.S. Senate, and later continued to serve this country as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, add author now to her credentials. Now with her memoir, "Trailblazer" out, former Senator Carol Moseley Braun is joining us right now. I think that that's the nation's capital behind you, right?

How are you?

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I'm fine. Thank you so much for having me.

WHITFIELD: I am so glad you're with us. And I wonder if you could, you know, take a look at the live pictures, a familiar territory for you of the U.S. Senate chambers. And you know, soon there will be arguments and deal making about the spending bill. I wonder, looking at these live pictures, does it bring back memories for you? Or what kind of memories does it bring back for you?

BRAUN: Mostly pleasant ones. In fact, I saw my old seat from a minute ago next to the doors, and so my Senate years were wonderful on the one hand, they were difficult on the other, but they were also -- it was a great learning experience for me, and that's why I've written this book.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and in your book you talk about, you know, being committed to doing the job and not being a celebrity. So when you hear President Trump say, Republican senators who are opposing the legislation, they are grandstanding. You write about navigating that kind of responsibility, of being a senator, of being a lawmaker. What similarities or differences do you see in today's legislating compared to when you served 1993 to 1999?

BRAUN: You know, I will be honest with you. I think that he used the term grandstanding too loosely. A person is entitled to express their opinion of not supporting the bill or whatever. This is a huge -- it is going to add to the deficit, it is a huge bill, and so they're entitled to have their opinions. That's their job, to speak for their constituents.

And in fact, if anything, if there is one point about the book, that is what I want to drive home is that you have to be committed to the job, doing the work for the people, because it really is their seat. It is not yours, you know, it is their seat and you have to do the job they sent you to do.

WHITFIELD: And today, I mean, there are a lot of divisions and there is a lot of discord as there was likely something similar right, in the 90s, not everyone gets along all the time. How did you either work across the aisle or what were the levels of expectation of a bipartisanship to get things done?

BRAUN: Well, you have to have bipartisanship for the process to work. That's not me talking, that's generations of trying to save our democracy. You have to have both sides out because the voters are not -- the people are not R or D, they are people and they are trying to make a living and trying to make things work for their families.

[15:50:19]

And that has to always be your lodestar as a senator, you know, that's the job you're hired to do, to look out for your constituents and for the country.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and so today, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, you know, put out a statement. He went on the air and said that he is not going to seek reelection. And he also put out a statement saying that, you know, I think we have it -- oh, there we go: In Washington over the last few years, it has become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.

Again, he expressed reservations about supporting the bill and the process to get it over the finish line. The President put out on social media and in other ways, essentially saying he is not going to get his support and he will find other people, you know, to seek that seat. And then today, Thom Tillis said he is not going to seek reelection, even though he said he has been thinking about it for a long time.

So that bit of bipartisanship, it being leaders who are embracing that, being an endangered species, do you agree with that? Do you think it is going to be harder for people to work in a bipartisan fashion?

BRAUN: I don't -- no is the short answer. I think it is going -- it is very important for people to hold on to bipartisanship. It is very important to work together. I mean, again, voters are not R or D, you know, you don't pay -- the price of eggs is not determined by whether you're R or D, the price of anything.

We have to work together to make this prospect, this democracy work, fulfill its promise to the American people, and I just -- I am sounding like a politician now. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry.

WHITFIELD: I don't think -- I don't think you need to apologize. Hey, I mean, this is your life's work of, you know, serving the people, whether it be in the U.S. Senate or even as the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand. And in your book, you are reflecting on a lot of that and of course, you are also taking the approach that you want to enlighten people and about really what I guess encouraged you to become a public servant.

I mean, it was a dream conceptualized early in life, right? During the march on Washington in the 60s and how everything changed for you at that point.

BRAUN: Oh, that's my son, who is now an adult with twin babies of his own. And that's me, obviously, as a baby. That's my family picture.

The woman who helped me with this book did a good job in reaching back and getting all the historical stuff together. It was almost like she was a genealogical researcher. And so and that's my grandmother, who is my guardian angel. That's my son right there in the middle between me and Al Gore, and that's Alexis. She has unfortunately died last couple of weeks ago, but she was a dear friend and a great supporter, Alexis Herman, a great American.

So it has been a real road and that's why I wrote the book, because I hope somebody can take from my experience, some lessons for their own lives and make this -- that will help them make decisions and help them move forward in a positive and constructive way in their own life and that was the point of the book, and I hope that I've been able to communicate that. I am on a book tour now, signing books and whatnot.

WHITFIELD: That's beautiful.

BRAUN: Yes, it really is. It is wonderful actually and this book turned out to be a real liberation point for me. I was able to get it out there. How I saw all of this. And, you know, and that I am basically a workhorse. You know, I was there to do a job. I was determined to do it. I didn't care what anybody had to say. I was determined to do the job.

WHITFIELD: And you could have kicked back and instead you here you are back to being a workhorse. And it took a lot to put a memoir together and reflect and put it all together and relive and share it. And so it is an incredible memoir, "Trailblazer," Ambassador and Senator Carol Moseley Braun, what a pleasure. Thank you so much.

BRAUN: Thank you so much, Miss Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: All the best to you. And you're calling me Miss Whitfield. I mean, come on, it is Fred. Everybody calls me Fred. Thank you, though, for that. But enjoy the journey on your book tour.

BRAUN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Congratulations.

BRAUN: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:27]

WHITFIELD: A fireball falling from the sky. You see it right there. that's how people who saw that suspected meteor falling in the Atlanta Metro area on Thursday describe it. Emergency officials say they are investigating reports that a piece of a meteorite flew through a roof and right into a home.

Meanwhile, CNN affiliate WSB's Audrey Washington caught up with some meteorite hunters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS SANDERS, EDUCATOR: You walk through the streets and you look for them.

AUDREY WASHINGTON, WSB-T.V. REPORTER: This is something you don't see every day. What we believe is a piece of a meteorite.

SANDERS: Ye, 24 hours ago, it was a piece of an asteroid that somehow gravity sent it to us.

WASHINGTON: And now, it is in your hand.

SANDERS: And now it is in my hand.

WASHINGTON: The self-proclaimed meteorite hunters, one a former broadcaster and the other a science teacher, told me they found these pieces hours after a meteorite, about three feet in diameter, weighing more than a ton, landed in parts of Metro Atlanta.

SANDERS: I am super excited. I am a collector. I've collected for a while.

WASHINGTON: Chris Sanders and his partner Craig Zilman traveled to the McDonough area after they learned pieces of the meteorite landed off of Poland Road, and possibly through a roof on Cathedral Drive.

CRAIG ZILMAN, METEORITE HUNTER: In this case, it hit a house, so we knew that something actually hit the ground. And when that happens, we come down and we start -- we look at radar returns.

WASHINGTON: Thursday, Channel 2 Action News viewer sent us these images of the event. Brad Weber lives nearby and felt the moment the meteorite landed.

BRAD WEBER, LOCAL RESIDENT: I heard. Sort of a rumble when I was in my garage, stepped outside.

WASHINGTON: And here is another look at the meteorite here in my hand. I've got to tell you, it is pretty lightweight, and at first glance it looks like a rock. But the hunters told me when they took a look at it, they knew it was a piece of meteorite.

SANDERS: This is broken. So you see the inside of it, it is this white color. But the outside of it is dark and it is kind of black and shiny and a little bit frothy. And that's from where it burned up. It is called a fusion crust.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So fascinating. All right, that was Audrey Washington bringing us that report with CNN affiliate WSB. [16:01:27]

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