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U.S. Senate Debates Amendments To Trump's Domestic Policy Bill; Two Fatally Shot While Responding To Brush Fire; Dozens Killed In IDF Strike On Gaza Cafe; Senate Debates Amendments To Trump's Domestic Policy Bill; Extreme Heat Expected To Peak On Tuesday In Europe; White House To Ramp Up Fight Against Executive Order Challenges; Trump Says He Has A Buyer For TikTok; 'MAHA Girls' Want To Use Movement To Reach Young People. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 01, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:12]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to all of our viewers here in the United States and watching us all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.
It's going to be a very busy hour ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, including the vote-a-rama. It's marching on. The U.S. Senate now 15 hours into debating and amending Donald Trump's spending bill, inching towards a final vote.
Plus, why the president is heading to what his administration describes as Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial detention facility in Southern Florida.
And a heat wave and wildfires hitting Southern Europe at this hour with temperatures expected to peak in the coming days.
And welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
Let's start with U.S. senators. They are in the midst of a marathon voting session over President Donald Trump's so-called big beautiful bill. Some live pictures right now out of Capitol Hill as the -- as the clock strikes 12:00. And there appears to be no sign of a final vote, at least not yet. The bill's intended purpose is to fund his domestic agenda, but it's a little more complicated than that.
This vote-a-rama session has been full of wheeling and dealing with amendments and concessions still being floated to attract enough votes for approval. President Trump spent much of his Monday on the phone with congressional leaders, trying to pressure them to get the bill to his desk by his self-imposed July 4th deadline. But there are still some hurdles.
Now, if the Senate approves the latest version, it will go back to the House, where there is no guarantee that lawmakers will actually agree to the changes.
Let's bring in CNN U.S. national politics correspondent Eva McKend following developments live from Washington. Eva, already, as we go into midnight, what is the latest that you're
hearing about where this vote may be headed?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, the Senate has been going for more than 14 hours now, and it is what happens here in the wee hours that will determine if President Donald Trump's domestic policy agenda sinks or swims here.
This is all welcome news for Democrats. They are not in power but this is the best-case scenario because their theory of the case is that the longer this drags out, the more of an opportunity they have to message to the American public about the problems with this legislation. The hope is that Republicans, their constituents, will get so -- will put so much pressure on them that ultimately that they will walk back from some of these priorities that President Trump is trying to advance.
What's also going on now, Polo, is real divides being highlighted, ideological divides within the Republican Party. You have senators like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, deeply concerned about the impact of Medicaid cuts. But then you have members of the same Republican Party thinking that these cuts don't go far enough and are worried about the deficit essentially being blown up here.
So it is going to be a long night ahead. No indication that they are going to come to a resolution here any time soon -- Polo.
SANDOVAL: No doubt a long night ahead, Eva. We're glad that you're there to follow every step of the way. Do come back to us if you see any sign of a potential vote.
CNN's Eva McKend live on the Hill.
Let's get some more discussion now with Caroline Heldman, a Democratic strategist and professor of critical theory and of social justice, and also from Lanhee Chen. He's a former policy director for Republican Mitt Romney.
It's great to have you both tonight. Thank you so much for joining us.
LANHEE CHEN, FORMER POLICY DIRECTOR FOR MITT ROMNEY'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Thank you.
SANDOVAL: I'm wondering, Lanhee, if we could start with you, from a policy perspective, as we wait for a potential vote here soon, why shouldn't supporters of the president see this bill as a form of backtracking of what was his promise to leave Medicare untouched?
CHEN: Well, I think that what you're seeing has been first of all a lot of different changes have happened over the last couple of days and weeks to the legislation. I think that fundamentally what they're looking at are the tax pieces of this. That is really what they are hanging their hat on. So even though there are provisions, for example, in the bill that affect the Medicaid program which is the program that provides health insurance to lower income Americans, really, all of them, by and large, are focusing on the tax piece and what the implications will be if the tax legislation does not end up getting passed.
SANDOVAL: And on that note on implications, Caroline, I heard earlier that the party that controls nothing is responsible for nothing. So let's talk about what Democrats in both the House and the Senate are perhaps doing right now.
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What do you think this could potentially mean for Democrats, maybe even seeking to capitalize and certainly not to forget what could be the real-world implications for millions of Americans?
CAROLINE HELDMAN, POLITICAL SCIENTIST AND DEMOCRATIC SCIENTIST: Yes. And the real-world implications are that 12 million Americans are going to lose their health insurance, according to a CBO estimate. So I'm looking, I know we're all concentrated on the vote-a-rama and all of us political nerds are looking at what's going to happen between now and Friday. And I do think the bill will pass. The question is when and in what form.
But if you look past this, I do believe that the Republicans are handing the Democrats a bludgeon that they will use in the midterm elections, and it will go something along the lines of you reduced taxes on the wealthiest Americans, because most of this bill is going to affect the top five percent. They're getting the biggest break. You did that for the wealthiest Americans while you cut healthcare for poor Americans.
And by the time the midterms roll around, there will be people who have died because of these cuts. I'm not being hyperbolic. The Democrats are going to find them and they're going to put them in ads, and they're going to play this on repeat and maybe even use Thom Tillis' comments from the Senate floor where he talks about Donald Trump breaking this promise. So I think this is a bill that will get passed, but it's really risky for Republicans heading into the midterms.
SANDOVAL: Lanhee, the initial thought of this legislation here, paring cuts in health and food assistance, basically social programs across the board, tying that to tax cuts, which we've seen the analysis, many analysts expected to really benefit more of the higher -- the higher earners. How does that potentially impact the president's base? Does it create politically a toxic environment for him and Republican lawmakers?
CHEN: Well, first of all, the tax cuts that are in the bill are an extension of tax cuts that were originally passed in 2017 across the board. So if this bill doesn't pass, those taxes go up on many Americans. Not just higher income Americans, but Americans across the income scale. So I think the challenge Republicans are dealing with is that they're stuck a little bit between a rock and a hard place because they have to look at what the implications will be if the tax cuts from 2017 expire, which would affect millions of Americans negatively, would affect the economy negatively as well.
They're offsetting that, of course, against, as you note, and some have analysts have note as well, which is how they're paying for these tax cuts which does create a difficult political situation. There's no question about that. So I think it is this tradeoff between needing to get the tax reform done with the reality that in order to get it done in the context of budget reconciliation, which is the process that they're using on Capitol Hill to get this done, it creates some very tricky policy and political dynamics. That's the situation.
SANDOVAL: And staying with you, Lanhee, I'm wondering just looking at Thom Tillis essentially bowing out earlier, what should that tell us about the Republican Party right now? Obviously reminds us who is in charge of the Republican Party and who calls the shots.
CHEN: Well, Thom Tillis has served with distinction for the last several years. He's been a senator from North Carolina who has served in a difficult state in the sense that the politics there are quite mixed. But he's managed, I think, to -- by the account of most North Carolinians, do a great job in that seat. The challenge, of course, is that he is in a difficult political environment, and it's a political environment now that's really different than when he first got elected.
And now he's in an environment where, as a Republican, you really can't get on the other side of President Trump and on a number of issues I think he has found himself at odds with the president, including on this bill that's pending before the Senate now. So it is a very challenging political environment for Senator Tillis. I think obviously a lot of people hold him in high regard. He's going to be a maverick now.
He's going to have the opportunity because he's unconstrained by these politics to say what's on his mind, even if that goes counter to what the president wants. And you're already seeing some of that.
SANDOVAL: So essentially, if I'm hearing you right, Lanhee, you don't think he becomes obsolete. He very much still could be an influencer in the Washington circles.
CHEN: Well, I think he is going to be somebody who we will watch, we'll watch in this vote, we'll watch as the president's term and his own term, Senator Tillis' term concludes, to see what he ends up doing. And I do think he can have influence potentially on other Republicans. But, you know, at the end of the day, Donald Trump, President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, and his voice is going to be the most important one for many Republicans.
SANDOVAL: And now to you, Caroline, you, obviously you mentioned at the top, you're confident this will pass. What do you think that we should be expecting once -- you know, once it does clear the Senate to return to the House? What are perhaps some of the concerns that certainly we'll hear from Democrats but what do you hear -- what do you expect to hear from across the aisle as well when it gets back in the House, on the House floor?
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HELDMAN: I think we'll hear a lot of the same concerns in the Senate, a slightly different tenor. So the House, they can lose three votes, which makes it really difficult to kind of balance the deficit hawks, the small group of folks who believe that the tax cuts go too far in terms of adding to the deficit. It looks somewhere between $3 trillion and $4 trillion, depending upon which version of the bill.
And also, folks, moderate Republicans in the House who think that the Medicaid cuts go too far. So we'll see a healthy debate on that. And I do think it will pass for exactly the reason that Lanhee pointed out, which is that Trump has such incredible power in the party. And I find it interesting that Elon Musk came out today and said kind of a countervailing, I'm going to primary anybody who votes for this bill. And that's what Trump is saying on the other side. And I think Trump really has so much power here, as demonstrated by Tillis stepping down and trying to reassert some of his power, and saying I'm not going to do this if I can't be independent.
But I think almost immediately you will see Democrats messaging around this because it's a wildly unpopular bill. It doesn't matter what poll you look at. CNN, you know, Kaiser Family Foundation, FOX, they're all finding that about two-thirds of Americans dislike this bill. And I think Democrats will take advantage of that.
SANDOVAL: And I'll just piggyback off that last thought, too, Caroline. When you look at that CNN polling, also showing what -- how independents feel about this as well. How do you think that they are feeling about this legislative process as it continues to play out? What are their concerns?
HELDMAN: Well, if you look at the American electorate, it's about a third MAGA Republicans or staunch Republicans, a third Democrats and independents are a third. And according to CNN's own polls, it's says three to one dislike this bill. And there are some positive things, right? Like the family tax, child tax credit will move forward, probably doubled. There's a temporary relief on taxes on tips and overtime. But that expires in 2028. But smart move.
I do think, though, that these Medicaid cuts are going to hit, they're going to hit immediately and they're going to affect people's lives in very concrete ways. And I think Lanhee's right, the Republicans are kind of in a tough position where they're extending tax cuts so most Americans won't necessarily feel it. But boy, if you were to take it away, they would definitely feel that. So a rock and a hard place. But something that Republicans -- it's going to hurt them in the midterms.
SANDOVAL: And as we're hearing from you all, we're seeing those live pictures right now from the Senate floor, including one of the roughly five lawmakers that have expressed some concern. We see there Senator Susan Collins from Maine right now addressing her colleagues. Again, not only her, but Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Lisa Murkowski, and Thom Tillis, of course, as we just discussed.
There are plenty of concerns right now. We're going to be listening to more of what's happening there. For now, though, I do want to thank you, Caroline Heldman and Lanhee Chen, for your -- for both of your perspectives. It's so valuable right now as there are millions of Americans that are closely watching. And as you both agree, that there are certainly high stakes here. Thank you both so much for your time.
CHEN: Thank you.
HELDMAN: Thank you.
SANDOVAL: Well, meanwhile, we are learning new details about the deadly shooting in Idaho and the man police say intentionally targeted firefighters in an ambush. Those details are on the way.
Plus, the head of a hospital in Gaza says dozens are dead after an Israeli airstrike on a cafe. We're going to have the very latest on the aftermath, and the IDF's response on the attack.
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SANDOVAL: Want to get you an update now on our top story this hour. The U.S. Senate is continuing its marathon vote-a-rama with absolutely no end in sight. Right now some live pictures out of Capitol Hill where you see senators right now proposing changes to Donald Trump's massive domestic policy agenda bill and all of those amendments, they still need to be voted on. So we're still a long ways out.
Senate minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, he is accusing Republicans of making deals in secret as they negotiate the changes. So far Republicans have revealed new taxes on renewable energy and have authorized increased cuts to Medicaid, which would leave nearly 12 million more Americans without health insurance.
President Trump's 90-day pause on tariffs also running out next week since delaying massive tariff hikes on dozens of countries. In early April, his administration has had successful trade talks with the U.K. and China. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying that they will likely be a, quote, "flurry of trade deals," he says, that will lead up to July 9th to that expiration date. And he also had this word of warning for countries that are still negotiating with the United States.
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SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: We have countries that are negotiating in good faith, but they should be aware that if we can't get across the line because they are being recalcitrant, then we could spring back to the April 2nd levels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And meanwhile, President Trump complained about Japan closing its market to U.S. rice, warning that he will be sending Tokyo a letter implying higher tariffs on the nation except that claim isn't true. According to Census data, Japan actually bought close to $300 million worth of American rice just last year alone.
Stories developing at this hour, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in their apartment back in 2022, he's accepted a plea deal to avoid trial. With that deal, 30-year-old Bryan Kohberger, who previously pleaded not guilty, will now be pleading guilty to four counts of murder. And that's bringing an end to years long legal proceedings against him. In exchange, prosecutors have agreed not to pursue the death penalty.
However, not everybody is pleased with this. In a Facebook post, one of the victims' families said that they were furious at the state of Idaho and described the announcement of the plea deal as very unexpected. This case is expected to be back in court on Wednesday.
Well, authorities in Idaho they have now identified the suspect in a deadly ambush on firefighters who were responding to a brush fire in the city of Coeur d'Alene on Sunday.
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Twenty-year-old Wess Roley, he is the man who's believed to have opened fire before turning the gun on himself.
CNN's Nick Watt has more details about the shooting and the firefighters who were killed in that attack.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an active shooter zone. They're shot. BC3 is down, BC1 is down. Everybody is shot up here.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a routine brush fire call on a sunny afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unresponsive battalion chiefs. Gunshot wounds. Multiple gunshot wounds. It's clear to me that this fire was intentionally to draw us in.
WATT: Lit, authorities say, by 20-year-old Wess Roley, who we're told talked to firefighters when they first arrived on scene.
SHERIFF BOB NORRIS, KOOTENAI COUNTY, IDAHO: Here are some of his social media postings that were recently removed.
WATT: An Instagram story of the suspect, apparently armed and camouflaged, set to a song called "Hunter."
NORRIS: This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance. We did have reports that he was shooting at first responders via a tree.
WATT: Two firefighters killed, a third injured, fighting for his life.
BEN HECTOR, FIREFIGHTER: We're friends and co-workers and he's a -- he's a great guy. We haven't lost a member in the line of duty for a very long time.
WATT: For hours, around 300 law enforcement personnel hunted the gunman or gunmen. They didn't know which shots were fired. NORRIS: We had a cell phone activation. We honed in on that cell
phone, and we saw that there was a male appeared to be deceased with a weapon nearby. We believe that there was only the one shooter.
WATT: Authorities now believe the suspect died by suicide. His grandfather told CNN he wanted to be a fireman. "He was doing tree work and he wanted to be a fireman in the forest."
NORRIS: We don't know if there's a nexus to that desire and what happened.
WATT: Coeur d'Alene now in mourning, paying tribute to two of their own killed in what city leaders are calling a senseless tragedy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (on-camera): and we now have the names of the men killed. Frank Harwood, 42 years old, married with a couple of kids. He was the fire and rescue chief for Kootenai County. Also killed John Morrison, who was a battalion chief with the Coeur d'Alene fire department. Injured and engineer with that same department, Dave Tisdale. Tisdale has undergone two surgeries and we're told is still in critical condition.
Now the suspect's family is now cooperating with officials. They send their heartfelt condolences to all impacted and say, quote, "We do not understand why this happened."
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
SANDOVAL: Want to get you now to new developments in the war in Gaza. The IDF says that it is now reorganizing access to Gaza aid sites to, quote, "minimize friction with the population." The Palestinian Health Ministry says that more than 500 people have been killed as they approached aid sites or trucks in the past month alone.
On Friday, the U.N. secretary-general demanded that the killings stop, saying that the search for food must never be a death sentence.
A report from "Haaretz," Israel's longest running newspaper, says its soldiers have acknowledged firing on unarmed Palestinians who were waiting for aid, claiming that they were ordered to do it. Meanwhile, the IDF, they strongly deny that claim.
And hospital officials in Gaza say at least 41 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a bustling seaside cafe. It offered internet access, making it a very popular location among students and journalists alike.
Here's CNN's Jeremy Diamond with more from Tel Aviv.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, another deadly day in Gaza made especially deadly by a strike on the port in Gaza City. The target was a seaside cafe where at least 41 people were killed, 75 injured, according to the director of Al-Shifa Hospital. We can see in videos from the scene thick black smoke rising from the
site of this airstrike but then once you get on the ground to the aftermath of this strike, you can see how bustling this cafe must have been in the moments before the strike actually took place because there are victims all over the place, broken chairs and tables in what was clearly a bustling cafe where people would actually come to try and get access to the internet.
This made it a spot, Al-Baqa Cafe, for students, journalists and others trying to access the internet in Gaza where internet access has been so spotty. The director of Al-Shifa Hospital saying that the majority of the casualties were indeed women and children.
We do know that at least one of the people who was killed was a journalist, a freelance journalist, Ismail Abu Hatab, according to the Hamas-controlled government media office.
[00:25:05]
That makes him the 228th journalist to be killed by the Israeli military since the war in Gaza began. But as these airstrikes are continuing unabated in Gaza, there is discussion at very high levels in the Israeli government right now about the potential for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. All of this coming in the wake of that ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, and the 12 days of military conflict between those two nations, where we saw a series of stunning military successes for the Israeli military.
And in the wake of that, the Israeli prime minister is signaling that there is a window of opportunity now, perhaps to lead to a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal to release the hostages. And for the first time now, the prime minister is talking about the need to secure the release of the hostages as a priority. Whereas, as recently as a few weeks ago, he was making clear that defeating Hamas was the number one objective, he now seems to be signaling that releasing the hostages is the priority.
And so we will see, clearly there is disagreement within the Israeli government with right-wing allies of the prime minister advocating for intensifying the war in Gaza. The Israeli military seems to be signaling that now is the right moment for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. We will see what the Israeli government decides.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And, meanwhile, the Israeli military tells CNN that it, quote, "struck several Hamas terrorists" in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday and that this incident is under review.
Well, still ahead, well, actually, I should say that there are still new images that are now showing ongoing work at Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment site just over a week after the U.S. bombed the facility with so-called bunker busting bombs. Now, the images from overhead here appear to show some vehicles,
cranes, also even some personnel that appear to be working near the ventilation shafts, which were struck by the bombs last weekend.
Well, meanwhile, Iranian officials say that Israeli strikes in early June killed 935 people and that includes 38 children. Officials did not clarify how many of those facilities were military personnel or nuclear scientists. Israel's Prime Minister's office says Iran's retaliatory attacks during the 12-day conflict killed 28 people.
All right. Optimism from the White House. President Trump and his team expecting his domestic policy will pass eventually. And this despite a marathon voting session that's still ongoing. Those details are on the way.
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SANDOVAL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Let's take a look at some of today's top stories.
[00:31:01]
U.S. senators, they are more than 15 hours into discussions on amendments to President Trump's domestic agenda bill. Republicans, they are still unsure. They are still on unsure footing, with several holdouts still in their party. They face a very tight turnaround if they want to meet the president's deadline on Friday.
And President Donald Trump ramping up pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and intensifying attacks against Chair Jerome Powell, who is -- who he is accusing of costing the U.S., quote, "a fortune."
In a handwritten note that he sent to the Fed, the U.S. President also demanded Powell cut rates, quote, "by a lot."
And more than 50,000 people in Turkey have evacuated to safety zones after 263 forest fires broke out over the weekend across the country. In fact, four of them, they're still burning at this hour.
A major heat wave has sent temperatures soaring across Europe.
Well, Donald Trump is pressuring Republican lawmakers to pass a sweeping domestic policy bill in time for him to sign it by the 4th of July.
But as the Senate continues to vote on amendments at this hour, it's still not clear when a final vote will actually happen.
CNN's Kristen Holmes, in touch with White House officials. She's got more from Washington.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and his team say that they are still optimistic that this bill is going to get passed.
I spoke to one White House official who said that they like their odds at this time, despite the fact that this is continuing to go on.
HOLMES (voice-over): We're not really quite sure where it's going to end up. The White House, they seem pretty confident.
And I spoke to a number of administration officials who say this has been a real full-court press. You have had not only President Trump on the phone with various senators, congressional leadership, but you've also had members of the administration, allies of President Trump's. Anyone who has a relationship with any senator, they are calling them; they are pushing them.
And that's really because this is such an important part of President Trump's legacy. His team, and he believes that this is going to be what really cements that legacy, moving forward.
Now, we heard from the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, talking about this. Here's what she said.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch. And we are counting on them to get the job done.
The president is very well aware that this bill needs to not only pass out of the Senate, but it needs to go back to the House, and we need the full weight of the Republican conference to get behind this bill. And we expect them to, and we are confident that they will.
HOLMES (voice-over): Now, you can hear her expressing confidence there, but also saying that Republicans --
HOLMES: -- needed to stick together and really try to work this through, stay tough.
Now, perhaps part of the reason that the White House has confidence in this hour is because of what we have seen from President Trump.
HOLMES (voice-over): We saw him on social media, essentially kind of leveling some veiled threats at people who might try to stop this bill from being passed, saying, senators who are cutting costs, you need to be careful. Don't go too crazy. You still have to be reelected.
Of course, we saw him over the weekend, essentially saying that he would primary North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis when he voted against the bill. Thom Tillis shortly afterwards saying that he was going to retire anyway.
HOLMES: But this is obviously going to be something that's on these senators' minds as they are working through this process.
Again, we will be checking in with the White House as this progresses to see if anything changes. But right now, they are feeling confident that they still like their odds.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And the White House says that Donald Trump will be attending the opening of what he calls Alligator Alcatraz in the hours ahead.
That name, as evocative as it is controversial. This immigrant detention facility, it is being built in the Florida everglades.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that the facility will have just one road in and one road leading out, and that the only way out is on a one-way flight, she says.
She touts what she calls as the isolated nature of the facility that, quote, "is surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain."
[00:35:03]
Here's what President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, also had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Going?
TOM HOMAN, TRUMP'S BORDER CZAR: Can't wait for it to open. We'll put aliens in there as soon as we can.
COLLINS: How many people do you expect?
HOMAN: Hats off to Governor DeSantis, making that facility.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of migrants are you going to put in?
HOMAN: That's why we need the Big, Beautiful Bill, to get more detention beds. So, thank God that DeSantis came forward so quickly.
We've got to get the Big, Beautiful Bill passed so we can buy more beds. The more beds we have, the more bad guys we arrest; the more people we detain.
COLLINS: How do you decide who goes there?
HOMAN: If you're in the country illegally, we've got a problem.
COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Homan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: You heard him there. It all leads back to that ongoing legislation.
We'll be right back with much more news. Don't go anywhere.
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[00:38:45] SANDOVAL: Welcome back. And we trust you're trying to stay cool right now. As authorities across Europe, they are issuing warnings amid a heat wave and also wildfires.
Temperatures now topping 40 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, in places like Portugal, Spain, and France. Want to go now to Al Goodman, who shows us how people are trying to stay cool.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apocalyptic scenes in Izmir, Turkey, as wildfires forced residents to flee for their lives.
Aid workers carried an elderly man to safety just moments before flames swallowed his home. A harrowing escape, in searing summer heat.
Outside Madrid, firefighters battled a late-night blaze. Another front in a heat wave stretching from Greece to Spain and beyond.
Across Europe, an early and unforgiving summer scorcher is gripping the continent in parts of Spain, official temperatures soared above 46 Celsius, well over 114 Fahrenheit, leaving people and animals alike scrambling for any patch of shade or drop of water.
GOODMAN: Spain's national weather agency says it's the hottest June since records began 60 years ago. The afternoon sun is piercing, and overnight the temperatures won't fall enough to really cool things down.
GOODMAN (voice-over): In Seville, residents say it felt like the city itself was melting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's awful. It makes me collapse. We need to look for shade constantly. Air conditioning if we have it, and these devices keep ringing with heat warnings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel terrible about it. I can't sleep well and have insomnia. I also get heat strokes. I stop eating, and I just can't focus.
GOODMAN (voice-over): Some found refuge at the beach. Others trudged on to visit Europe's monuments despite the stifling heat.
In Athens, the government opened air-conditioned community centers and set up hotlines for medical help, as the mercury climbed relentlessly.
In Hungary, even the elephants at the Budapest Zoo needed cold showers to stay cool, with temperatures nearing 39 degrees Celsius.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a hot day. You're going to need it.
GOODMAN (voice-over): And in Britain, a country hardly known for sizzling summers, tennis fans at Wimbledon braved unusually high temperatures on opening day.
Scientists warn that human-induced climate change is fueling these extreme heat events, making them more frequent, more intense, and harder to predict.
And with the heat showing no sign of letting up, Europe braces for more scorching days ahead. And with them, the very real threat of new extremes.
Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And with that, I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. WORLD SPORT is next for our international viewers. If you're watching in North America, I'll be right back with much more after the break.
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[00:45:41]
SANDOVAL: Everybody, I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Welcome back to CNN's live coverage, as we keep a very close eye on the U.S. Senate floor as they continue with their so-called vote-a-rama.
Live images right now out of Capitol Hill show legislators still trying to -- Republicans essentially trying to work with
Democrats, announcing new amendments to Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill.
As it stands now, the multitrillion-dollar Trump bill will lower federal taxes. It's supposed to pour more money into the Pentagon, as well as Trump's border crackdown efforts; and dramatically shrink safety net programs, including Medicaid. And that is certainly one of the issues that's getting a lot of attention, especially for president's base -- President Trump's base, because officials estimating that it will add also roughly $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
So, we're certainly going to continue to watch that and bring you any potential sign of a possible vote out of Washington.
Meanwhile, after a recent Supreme Court ruling, the fight against President Trump's effort to ban birthright citizenship, it has entered a new stage, and it seems to have raised more questions than answers.
CNN's Paula Reid has the latest developments in a federal lawsuit seeking to block Trump's executive order.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The hearings on Monday were significant, because this is the first time we've heard judges weighing in on that historic Supreme Court ruling Friday, limiting the power that judges have to block a policy for the entire country.
REID (voice-over): In many ways, that decision was a lawyer full employment act, because it left open so many questions that now need to be decided by lower courts. Like, all right. What now becomes of President Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship? Who can challenge it?
And for example, the Supreme Court said that class action lawsuits may be one way to block these policies. But the Justice Department making it clear on Monday that they intend to oppose those kinds of legal maneuvers.
Now, in Maryland, we heard from lawyers representing clients and the -- the sort of the anguish that they describe that these clients are facing in the wake of all of this uncertainty.
One lawyer described a client as, quote, "being afraid of bringing more life into this world" and described the incredible stress, anxiety, and fear that their plaintiffs are experiencing, as this question remains open of who exactly will be a citizen at the end of the month.
Now, the Supreme Court put a hold on its ruling for 30 days. That's why I say the end of the month. At that time, the Supreme Court appears, in some form, could be letting this executive order go forward.
So, one of the questions that this judge really wanted to know was when will they start deporting babies, once this goes into effect?
Now, the Justice Department gave an answer that wasn't very clear. A lawyer for the Justice Department saying, "My understanding is that the executive order will not be operative for 30 days."
She asked, the judge, "Is that your understanding or the position of the United States?"
The lawyer just said, "It's my understanding. I can confirm that, but I have a high degree of confidence in that understanding."
So, this is a really big question. And the Justice Department could not give a clear answer.
So, the judge in Maryland demanding more clarification on that question.
And it's just an example of how much more still needs to be worked out in and around this executive order. All the confusion about who exactly will be a citizen at the end of this month. But this is the kind of confusion that the Supreme Court invited with this decision.
REID: Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And President Trump, he's keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve, demanding ultra-low interest rates again.
The U.S. president on Monday slamming Chair Jerome Powell and the central bank's board of governors, saying that they, quote, "should be ashamed of themselves." Words from the president there.
The White House press secretary said that Trump sent a chart ranking key interest rates from around the world, and a handwritten note to the Fed. And in it, he accused Powell of costing the U.S., quote, "a fortune" and demanded he cut rates by, quote, "a lot."
Now, one reason the Fed hasn't made that move is due to the major policy shifts since Trump took office, and the possible effects on the economy.
And President Trump says that he does have a buyer for the popular social media app TikTok. The announcement coming as the company faces a September deadline before being banned in the United States.
[00:50:02]
Here's CNN's Clare Duffy with the latest on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, after months of speculation about who could buy TikTok, we may soon finally be getting an answer.
These latest comments from President Trump, of course --
DUFFY (voice-over): -- come months after the law that requires TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell off the app's U.S. operations or face a ban in the United States.
Months after that law technically went into effect back in January, President Trump has now delayed enforcement of that ban three separate times. The current deadline for TikTok to find a new owner is September 17.
And President Trump has now said there is a buyer for TikTok, who he will announce in the next two weeks.
We don't know who that is. There have been a range of would-be buyers who have put up their hands to purchase this very popular platform. Those potential buyers range from a group that is backed by former Dodgers owner, billionaire Frank McCourt, and "Shark Tank" famous investor Kevin O'Leary, to the A.I. firm Perplexity.
But I think the most likely buyer in this case is that we will see a return of the investment group that was very close to purchasing the platform back in April. That deal would have seen private equity firms, venture capital firms, and tech companies joined together to create a new company to acquire TikTok's U.S. assets.
And that was very close to crossing the finish line before President Trump's increased tariffs on China snagged those negotiations.
And that is really going to be the question for whatever deal Trump announces in the next two weeks. Is -- is the Chinese government on board? Now, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sounded an optimistic tone on this on Monday. She said the U.S. government is having high-level negotiations with the Chinese government.
But that's the thing that I'll be watching for whenever we get this Trump announcement, is, is the Chinese government already on board, or is that something they're going to need to continue working towards as we approach the September 17 deadline?
DUFFY: Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: I have another fascinating story to share with you. This one has to do with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s main -- one of his big initiatives. You'll know it as Make America Healthy Again, known as MAHA.
Well, there's one group of influencers, as they describe themselves, the MAHA Girls, who want to promote -- promote the movement among their peers.
CNN's Meena Duerson spoke to them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEXI VRACHALUS, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: Should we say it together or say, I say, like, real food.
GRACE PRICE, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: We try to say it together.
VRACHALUS: OK.
PRICE: In sync.
VRACHALUS: OK. So, we're going to -- we're going to walk.
PRICE: Real food, packaged snack items.
VRACHALUS: Real food, packaged snack items.
OK. First try. That's good.
MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Grace Price and Lexi Vrachalus, with a little assist from Lexi's mom, are filming content for their new social media brand.
PRICE: You like it?
VRACHALUS: I think it's cute.
PRICE: If you've ever struggled with depression, anxiety, we created this account on how to live healthy in a world where we're told lies about our bodies. Please join the MAHA Girls movement today.
DUERSON (voice-over): "MAHA" is for "Make America Healthy Again," the tagline RFK Jr. coined last year. The girls are trying to bring the movement to a younger demographic.
VRACHALUS: And they have no added sugar or seed oils.
DUERSON: How old are you guys?
VRACHALUS: Nineteen.
PRICE: We're both 19.
Girls our age are looking for answers. They have this opportunity to take ownership of their health, or they're going to fall victim to big pharma and big food. I was like, what if we, like, actually did a girl group? But it's for health.
DUERSON (voice-over): Price discovered and recruited Vrachalus from her grocery store videos, which have landed her millions of views and over 160,000 Instagram followers.
VRACHALUS: Cookies. Buy or bye?
DUERSON (voice-over): They met up in Austin last month at the launch of a wellness foundation for college students.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you all have not met the MAHA Girls, wow!
DUERSON (voice-over): It was a chance to mix with some of MAHA's biggest stars. Vani Hari, the "Food Babe."
VANI HARI, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: When you try to change the food industry, they're going to unleash a gauntlet of attacks to try to stop your voice.
DUERSON (voice-over): RFK right-hand man Calley Means, whose sister is Trump's pick for surgeon general.
CALLEY MEANS, AMERICAN LOBBYIST AND SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE FOR HHS: The president of the United States said that our food is toxic, and we're going to figure out why. And I do not give a shit whether the lobbyists get mad about that or not.
DUERSON (voice-over): And longtime RFK ally Del Bigtree.
DEL BIGTREE, CEO OF ANTI-VACCINATION GROUP INFORMED CONSENT ACTION NETWORK: We're building an army. We're starting a revolution, and we're going to change the world.
DUERSON (voice-over): Price was already in the MAHA inner circle. She's "grammed" from the inauguration, the Senate, and the White House.
DUERSON: It's kind of wild. You have the ear of some of the people who are, like, making the biggest decisions for the whole country.
PRICE: Yes.
DUERSON: What's that like? PRICE: It's crazy. At the White House and all of these different
events, it's all adults. We're the only 19-year-olds there. We literally are.
So, what's the deal with that? Why is this not cool? Why is there not a Coachella for healthy food?
DUERSON (voice-over): Much of the guidance the girls share is backed by widely accepted science. Numerous studies have linked ultra- processed foods to diseases and health issues.
But some MAHA talking points --
PRICE: So, this toothpaste is not only fluoride- and paraben-free.
DUERSON (voice-over): -- like the dangers of fluoride and seed oils are less clear-cut and have sparked pushback from the mainstream medical community.
Neither teen is a medical professional. Price self-produced a documentary about cancer, and Vrachalus is a certified health coach.
[00:55:05]
PRICE: They'll be like, Oh, are we really supposed to listen to this 19-year-old?
And I'm not trying to claim any credentials. I'm just trying to bring you along with me on my learning journey.
VRACHALUS: Everyone is so bio individual -- individual. So, I think that everyone should take their information, do your own self- experimenting, and see what works for you.
DUERSON: Where do you guys get your information?
VRACHALUS: I started researching ingredients about 5 or 6 years ago. I'm constantly listening to podcasts.
PRICE: I was on PubMed, ScienceDirect. There are studies in plain sight that you can find on Google, or you can use ChatGPT, if that's your main search engine, to find the link to this article. Like, the information is there on the Internet, but you do have to search.
DUERSON: So how do you deal with misinformation?
PRICE: We are the No. 1 B.S. detectors, because our generation, I mean, we get fed this stuff all day. And if you're not being authentic with your audience, it's something that we can tell instantly.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: I'm honored to present you the MAHA report.
DUERSON (voice-over): The White House released its official MAHA report in May, laying out the administration's priorities for addressing chronic health problems in children. Shortly after our interview, news broke that a number of errors had
been discovered in the report, including studies that had been misrepresented or did not exist. The White House chalked up the issues to, quote, "minor citation and formatting errors," and has since updated the report.
We reached out to the girls, but they did not respond.
PRICE: This is not a political issue. We're here, because our generation is the No. 1 target of these big food companies, and we're trying to stand up to them.
DUERSON: But the phrase MAHA is inherently political.
PRICE: Of course. And I agree that, like, MAHA, it is unfortunate that it's so associated with other thing. But what MAHA has done is given voices to people in the health space. They haven't been a part of the mainstream health message.
And it makes no sense to not use that incredible traction in our own branding.
VRACHALUS: We are taste testing some ketones.
We all need real food. It's -- I don't think that it's that complicated or that it should be taken so controversial.
Refined coconut sugar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And we do want to watch. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. I'll be right back after this break with more of your headlines, including those ongoing developments out of Washington.
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