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Trump's Approval Ratings Drop On Immigration; Texas Lawmakers To Take Up Trump Plan To Add More GOP Seats; Five Killed, Dozens Injured In Russian Attacks; Trump Officials Considers Reopening Alcatraz. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 20, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, since March, the president's approval ratings on the economy have fallen from 44 percent to 40 percent. More Americans now say they disapprove of his handling of the economy. That number has gone from 56 percent disapproving to 60 percent.

Turning to immigration, another key issue for the president, his approval rating on that has fallen to 42 percent. That's down almost 10 points since March. A majority of Americans, 58 percent of them, disapprove of his handling of immigration.

All of this as President Trump fends off the political headwinds over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. That sets the stage.

Let's bring in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak now.

Kevin, how is the Trump administration marking this six-month anniversary? And how do they feel like things are going?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, President Trump thinks it's a moment to celebrate. And I think anyone would say that it's been an eventful half a year now that the president has been in office for a second time, and he has notched some significant wins in Congress, at the Supreme Court, on the world stage. But at the same time, there are these issues that continue to overshadow some of the president's accomplishments, including just this week, the matter involving Jeffrey Epstein, the president's supporters, at least many of them agitating for more information, displeased with how the administration has been handling it.

And the president clearly looking to tamp down on some of the discontent. But at least for today, he is sort of marking that six- month marker. He says, "Wow, time flies. Today is that six month anniversary of my second term. Importantly, it's being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any president. In other words, we got a lot of good and great things done, including ending numerous wars of countries not related to us other than through trade and-or in certain cases, friendship." And the president concludes, "Happy Anniversary."

So the president clearly eager to make the most of the day. Now, in a separate post this morning, he also referenced the Jeffrey Epstein matter and said that since that had been swirling, his approval rating among his supporters has actually gone up. Now, according to our CNN poll, the president's approval rating among Republicans stands at 88 percent. But overall, the president's approval ratings continue to be underwater.

He stands at 42 percent. And when you break it down, among the issues that have been so central to the president's second term, more Americans disapprove than approve. So on taxes, he's at 44 percent immigration, 42 percent. The economy 40 percent, and foreign affairs also 40 percent. So the six-month mark a moment to look back, but also a moment to look forward. And just this week, the president will be focused on a lot of these issues that have been so central to him.

He will at some point have to sign that bill that was passed that claws back funding for certain public broadcasters and for foreign aid. There will also be a court hearing in Massachusetts tomorrow on the administration's attempts to pull back federal funding for Harvard. He'll meet the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House this week. He's continuing on this trade war, sending tariff letters to countries as he works to strike new trade deals.

And then at the end of the week, he'll visit his golf courses in Scotland, but also meet the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to talk about the trade deal that the two men struck earlier this spring. So still a lot on the president's plate six months into his term. But clearly he's also looking to the next 42 months that he has left in office -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, much more to come.

Kevin Liptak at the White House, thanks so much.

And we are joined now by CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.

Let's start with the Epstein drama.

Scott, I want to start first with you. Why is this story sticking so much?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, people in the president's base did have a lot of questions about it. And they still have those questions. And so this story was floating around out there, not by the president. I think it's been overstated, actually, how much he personally actually talked about it on the campaign. But certainly it's true that a lot of people around him and that supported him wanted more information about it.

And so you've got that group of people that continue to agitate for it. And then you have Democrats coming along who didn't care about this until five minutes ago, and now they're piling on to it. And so, you know, the swirl of all that is keeping it in the news. And it's vexed the president a little bit because I think he's had an amazing six months. I think he's got a lot of accomplishments. And I'm sure he's frustrated that all anybody wants to talk about is

Epstein, instead of all the things that he's done to fulfill campaign promises. So we'll see what they do in the -- in the coming days. The president asked the grand jury materials to be released. He's also told the attorney general if there are credible documents that can be released, those should also be released. So we'll see how quickly those things get resolved.

DEAN: Yes. Listen, the president has been very open that he would like this to all move on.

[18:05:03]

And yet, Chuck, we have this new CNN poll that was out this week that half of Americans are not satisfied with the amount of information the federal government released on the Epstein case. What do you think about this whole kind of where we are? I mean, as Scott notes, you have the MAGA base who has been promised, frankly, by a lot of people very close to the president for a lot of transparency on this, including Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. And then you have Democrats who are also starting to jump on this as well.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: This is a classic the dog who finally caught the car, because that's all the Republicans, not all about Trump, he's talked about it some, but their entire base has been fixated on this. And I know we're going to talk about the midterm elections. I know we're going to talk about issues and the latest CNN polling. But let me tell you something as an election expert, is that the midterms are about motivation.

Every midterm election, I've been doing this for 30 some years. I'm trying to figure out how to motivate Democrats and Republicans are trying to figure out how to motivate Democrats. This is not good for motivation for their base. You add on to this, giving weapons to Ukraine, which I support, but their base does not, and other things that they feel disappointed in with our own CNN polling. Then I start -- you start seeing cracks in the fissure for motivation for a midterm.

DEAN: OK. And we are going to get to midterms. But, Scott, I know you want to answer to that. So go ahead.

JENNINGS: Yes. Look, I agree with the part of what Chuck said. Midterms are about base motivation. He's completely right about that. And right now Democrats, you know, and Republicans have sort of flipped in terms of who's got the more committed voters or frequent voters, I should say. But in terms of what the base is doing with Donald Trump right now, they support him on Iran. It's not true. They do support him on Ukraine, because what he's done is he's put NATO in the middle of this, and it's not U.S. tax dollars, it's European countries.

The base is with Donald Trump. In fact, it is true his numbers among Republicans continue to rise. They couldn't go up much higher because they're so good already. But the base is with Trump regardless of whatever is roiling or, you know, boiling in the -- in the political seas out there. You can't deny his numbers among his voters. His Republican voters are higher than they've ever been.

DEAN: I do want to -- I want to follow up one more thing on the -- on the Epstein piece of this, which is Trump now suing the "Wall Street Journal," Rupert Murdoch, the reporters.

Scott, is there concern -- do you have any concerns? Do those around him have any concern that by doing this, he does open himself up to a deposition, potentially to discovery, like why, I guess is my question.

JENNINGS: Well, look, he -- I mean, he maintains that he didn't do it, that this is not authentic. And as far as I know, the "Wall Street Journal" hasn't produced it yet. I wasn't there, I don't know what the truth is, but the president has been pretty adamant that this is not his words, that he didn't type this thing out and that this is kind of a made-up piece here to try to get at him in the midst of this thing, you know, blowing up in the media.

So, you know, I suspect if the president didn't feel strongly about the fact that he believes this didn't happen, he would not have pulled the trigger on a lawsuit. So I guess we'll -- I guess we'll see how it develops and if the documents in question ever actually materialize.

DEAN: Yes. But like, Chuck, at some point, like you have to think clearly as Scott saying Donald Trump feels strongly enough and feels like he's in the right enough to go forward with a lawsuit as a plaintiff. At the same time, the "Wall Street Journal" certainly knew what they were getting into when they published this story. You know, somebody -- at some point, the truth is going to come out, it would appear.

ROCHA: But Donald Trump does not like to be challenged. And this is what happens when you challenge Donald Trump. Democrats have learned that lesson the hard way, and lots of other peoples. He's going to see how far he can push somebody, whether it's a news organization, a newspaper or a university. You've been covering Harvard University for the last two hours on this network, or whatever the thing is of the day.

And until somebody makes him not do that, that's his protocol. That's what he always has done. And until you stand up to a bully, a bully is always going to push you in the chest.

DEAN: I do want to also touch on immigration. That's some -- we got some polling on that as well this week. And Scott, we were -- Kevin touched on this, too. But this new poll shows a majority of Americans think Trump has gone too far when it comes to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Obviously, we are six months in. They are getting, you know, they've had months now to show kind of what they want to do with immigration.

How do you think the Trump administration should think about that issue going forward?

JENNINGS: Well, there's always two parts of this issue. One was dealing with the border. And just by taking office and changing the attitude of the federal government, the southern border is effectively closed. So that's solved. And that's a good thing. And in the big beautiful bill, we've now have new investments for ICE and border enforcement. So that part is OK.

The messier part was always going to be internal enforcement, deportations. And there was a lot of polling during the election and since that the American people were A-OK with deportations specifically of violent criminals. But really, if mass deportations generally. I do think a lot of narratives have swirled about what they're doing that simply aren't true.

[18:10:00]

But this was always going to be messier because you're dealing with people who are already here, not people who are trying to get here and are being stopped at the border. So, you know, most supporters of the president that I know, most Republicans that I know are perfectly fine with what the administration is doing. They voted for an aggressive internal enforcement here. And so I see no signs that they're going to be slowing down.

This is one of the motivating issues that got President Trump into politics in the first place. It got him the Republican nomination in the first place. This is one of the issues why he exists in politics. And so I think it's full speed ahead, polling or no polling.

DEAN: Chuck, your thoughts before we go to break on that.

ROCHA: Look, I'm one of those rare Democrats that's a truth teller. And a truth teller would tell you that he's done a good job on the border, and you can write that down, but he's not going to get any credit for it because of the other thing that Scott talked about. The reason you see his numbers slipping, and I see it in focus groups in battleground states every day, is folks don't like to see the militarization of their streets and people being deported who shouldn't be deported.

Every Democrat, every independent and every Republican were all in for violent criminals who come here and break our laws and do something really bad, they should be sent back. But your mom and dad and your cousin down the street who came here 22 years ago, who are taking care of your kids, getting deported, that's what America didn't want.

DEAN: All right, Scott, Chuck, stay with us. We've got more to talk about. Those midterms, as you both mentioned, including some redistricting battle that could make or break the Republicans' narrow House majority. We're going to break down the GOP strategy and how Democrats are going to try to fight back. Plus, the notorious Alcatraz prison back in the spotlight. Why the Trump administration wants to reopen the federal penitentiary and how much that could cost.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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DEAN: This week the Texas legislature is set to convene for a special session where they are expected to take up President Trump's demand to redraw the state's congressional maps. And that's receiving some strong criticism from Democrats who want their party to fight back.

CNN's Manu Raju has the latest on this.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's push to add five new seats in Texas, five new Republican seats in Texas is prompting a major Democratic concern. They are worried that this push to redraw Texas lines could essentially give them a significant leg up to keep the House Republican majority, because there are just so few competitive districts truly at play in the 2026 midterms. And typically, redistricting fights happen at the beginning of each decade. Donald Trump wants it to happen now to help them in the midterms next year, adding five new Republican seats.

So what will Democrats do in response? That's a question that I put to Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, about this. And right now, Democrats are talking about responding in kind. Looking at several blue states to put to do essentially what Republicans are threatening to do in Texas, redraw the lines in those blue states and help them gain some additional seats to take back the House majority.

Among the states that they're looking at, California, Jeffrey's home state of New York, and Jeffries even told me New Jersey is on the table. We're also hearing from our sources. Other blue states are part of the discussion as well. Potentially, Washington state, potentially Minnesota, to try to pick up one Republican seat after another in order to essentially give them a leg up instead. But it is a risky strategy, one that could potentially backfire against either Democrats or Republicans, depending on how this is handled.

Those are questions that I put to Hakeem Jeffries when I talked to him just a few days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): They have no credible track record of success. That's why House Republicans are afraid of the voters in 2026, in the midterm elections, and they're trying to cheat to win.

RAJU: I've talked to some members of your delegation, Democrats who want New York to change the maps to try to add seats, Democratic seats in New York. Would you support that effort in your state?

JEFFRIES: Let me just simply say the maps in New York are not as fair as they could be.

RAJU: You just accused Republicans of rigging the election by changing the lines in the middle of the decade. Wouldn't Democrats be doing the same thing?

JEFFRIES: What we're committed to doing as Democrats in New York, in California, in New Jersey, across the country, is make sure that the congressional maps are as fair as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: And Jessica, Jeffries also told me that he plans to meet with Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York over the August recess, indicating that this is very seriously on his mind. A number of New York Democrats that I spoke to said it is time to change those maps in New York to respond to the Republican push. But the concern, of course, is among some of the more moderate Democrats that if you do that, you can make their districts potentially more competitive in the midterm election, general election, by putting more independent swing voters, maybe even Republican voters in their districts.

So a complicated strategy, but one in which the Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries believe they must move forward with in order to respond to Trump -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Manu Raju, thank you.

Our panel is back. Scott Jennings and Chuck Rocha are back with us.

Chuck, look, we're a little in the weeds here on redistricting, but I think it does matter because these sorts of things, when you have teensy little majorities, can make a big difference. Hakeem Jeffries didn't really answer that question that Manu asked there on New York. Do you think that redistricting is something Democrats should be considering trying to do themselves pushing for?

[18:20:03]

ROCHA: I like when we get down here in the weeds right up next to the pond. I don't wear this hat just because I'm trying to be funny. I'm from Texas. I know a lot about these congressional districts.

DEAN: Yes.

ROCHA: There are a lot of people that come on this network, and they talk about how great the Democrats are and how great the Republicans are. Watch what they do, not what they say. There's a reason why this has come up to begin with in Texas. It's because Republicans are worried about the midterm elections. If they weren't worried, they wouldn't be trying to do this thing that happens never in the middle of -- to adding more seats in play when we're only supposed to do this every 10 years.

And then everything you see the Democrats do are in reaction to that, because we don't want to lose five seats. We'll add five seats. But it starts with Republicans worried to death about the midterm elections.

DEAN: Do you think that's it, Scott?

JENNINGS: Well, look, redistricting is inherently a political process. Just ask the people in Massachusetts or Illinois or California already or New York already. I mean, these big blue states have already gerrymandered themselves, and now they're going to apparently go back and try to squeeze a little more blood out of these big blue turnips. I don't know how many more seats they have to squeeze, but, look, the reality is redistricting is inherently a political process. And I think Chuck and I agree, the House is incredibly close and will

be incredibly close next November. So I'm not surprised that either party or both parties are going to do everything they can inside of a political process to get an advantage. But to hear Hakeem Jeffries say what they're doing is bad, and what I'm trying to do is fair, is the height of hypocrisy, which is kind of par for the course for Hakeem these days.

DEAN: I do want to ask you, Scott, again, going back to more polling that we have, showing Democrats are more enthusiastic about Republicans when it comes to voting in the midterm elections. You see those numbers there. Do you think that's a warning sign for Republicans as we head into these midterms?

JENNINGS: We got a long way to go and enthusiasm will wax and wane for both parties based on events. I mean, look, the president just finished passing his domestic agenda. He does have unprecedented wins on the international space as well. But it will largely be about the economy. If the American people think the economy is on a positive trajectory, that he has rescued it from the ditch that Joe Biden had put it in, they will reward the Republicans.

They will say, oh, their program feels like it is working or on the cusp of working. If they don't feel that way, it will benefit the Democrats. We got a long way to go before we see what's going to happen. A lot of trade deals, the taxation stuff, you know, that's in play now. I mean, all the things that the president has done either via executive order or passed just now in the Congress, now it's going to have a chance to work and there's a long way to go between now and next November.

DEAN: Chuck, I want to get your thoughts on that and also point out that also in the same poll, the Democrats' favorability rating is at 28 percent. So you have this enthusiasm, but the favorability rating is quite low. How do you square all of that?

ROCHA: I think it's coming down to one thing, and it's the bill that just passed. It will have the biggest legislative impact. And if you look inside of that bill, you'll see that there are things like kicking 13 million people off of health care. But that does not happen until after the midterm elections. You see what Republicans will talk about, which is no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, which will happen immediately for people to feel. But then ends. It sunsets after the midterm elections.

What the midterms will come down to is who can sell this the best. Democrats talking about folks losing Medicaid, Republicans talking about tax breaks, trade deals, immigration like Scott was talking about, because Scott was right about one thing. 88 percent of Republicans still love Donald Trump. He was exactly right. But Donald Trump brought a lot of new people to the presidential election.

If they don't bring those people to the midterms, they're going to get shellacked in every one of these congressional races.

DEAN: All right. You're right. There is time -- JENNINGS: I will --

DEAN: Yes. Go ahead. Quickly, quickly. We got to go.

JENNINGS: Yes. Look, Chuck is right by the way. Republican -- Trump has brought a lot of people into politics that love Trump. They've never been converted to regular Republican voters.

DEAN: Yes.

JENNINGS: That's the main project for the party right now is to try to get these people to also vote Republican when he's not on the ballot. So I agree with Chuck about that. That's what the -- that's what the Republicans have to focus on from a turnout perspective, converting Trump people into Republican voters, even when he's not running for president.

DEAN: Yes, that will be certainly really interesting.

Scott, Chuck, our thanks to both of you on a Sunday afternoon. We really appreciate it.

ROCHA: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Good to see you both.

Coming up Russia is ramping up its attacks against key regions of Ukraine, even as Russian officials claim they're ready to discuss a peace deal. A deeper look at the Russian strategy. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:50]

DEAN: Ukrainian officials say Russian strikes killed at least five people and injured dozens more. Local officials in Ukraine's northern Sumy region say Russia carried out close to 70 attacks this weekend, one of several regions hit by Russia. Ukraine's president has called for a meeting with Russia next week to push for peace talks. But the Kremlin has tonight responded, saying Russia is ready to achieve peace but its main goal -- its main goal remains to achieve its objectives.

We're joined now by CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

Look, the bottom line appears to be Russia appears to be unwilling to change its goals and unwilling to really pursue peace. Is there a path to peace at this moment?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, it's really hard to see one right now, Jessica. I mean, eventually there will definitely be some kind of a peace settlement here. But right now we really can't see the Russians changing their goals. And that goal is basically to eradicate Ukraine as an independent or sovereign state. When you look at the types of movements that the Russians are doing from a military perspective, and you look at the diplomatic efforts and the things that the Russians are saying, it's pretty clear that they're staying with this goal.

[18:30:06]

Putin has not budged and we don't expect them to change their ideas at all at this particular point in time.

DEAN: And to that end, you know, as we've seen just this weekend, Russia's attacked regions in Ukraine from the north to the south. 70 attacks. It's -- they're just pushing forward. And it appears they continue to keep turning up the heat.

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's absolutely true. You know, when you look at the area that we're seeing right now, the Sumy region, that's in the northeastern part of Ukraine, that's an area that has basically been relatively unscathed, except for the very beginning of this phase of the conflict back in February of 2022. But from that time forward, once the Ukrainians regained that territory, it's been relatively quiet there.

Well, that has changed. The Russians are moving forward. They're using drone attacks in these areas, drone and missile attacks, and those drone and missile attacks have the effect of really hitting the civilian population very hard. So the goal of the Russians is to weaken the Ukrainians, both in a military sense, through a war of attrition, but also to weaken the civilian resolve to fight this war.

And they're trying very hard to make it really difficult for the Ukrainians to prosecute this war effort. The kinds of scenes that we -- that we see here from Sumy are basically being repeated throughout the eastern part of Ukraine. And what that means is that each of these areas is under increasing pressure by the Russians to, in essence, give up some territory. And that's a real problem for the Ukrainians because of population issues, military manpower issues, and of course, the weapons issues. And that becomes a serious, serious matter for the Ukrainians in order to sustain the fight.

DEAN: Right. And we know that U.S. and NATO are working with Germany to get Ukraine those Patriot missile systems. Is that what's needed most right now?

LEIGHTON: Well, that's part of what's needed. Certainly the Patriots are going to be a key element in providing missile defense for the Ukrainians, especially in populated areas like Kyiv or Kharkiv. Any of those areas, that's going to be critical. But the other things that are needed are basically longer range weapons, so that the Ukrainians can hold Russia at risk. If the Russians think that they're going to be hit in their home bases, just like they -- was the case with Operation Spider Web, where the Ukrainians used those drones throughout the length of Russia, that kind of thing.

If that can be sustained by the Ukrainians, that makes it far more likely for the Russians to seek some kind of a peaceful settlement than what we have right now. So Patriots are important, very critical element. But we need basically longer range weapons to get to Ukraine in order for there to be the prospect of a peace settlement that's somewhat favorable to the Ukrainians.

DEAN: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, as always, our thanks. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Jessica.

DEAN: It's once held America's most dangerous criminals. Now the Trump White House hopes to bring back the notorious Alcatraz prison. State Senator Scott Wiener joins us next to talk about why he thinks this is, quote, "setting taxpayer money on fire."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:38:01]

DEAN: The Trump administration is looking to reopen San Francisco's notorious Alcatraz as a prison for detaining undocumented migrants. Attorney General Pam Bondi visiting the site this week. But Trump's border czar says no decision has been made yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Alcatraz could hold the worst of the worst. It could hold middle class violent prisoners. It could hold -- it could hold illegal aliens. It could hold anything. This is a terrific facility. Needs a lot of work.

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: I think they're looking at it. I don't think any decision has been made yet. They looked at the cost of it. But I'm not -- I'm not in the loop on that. But again, we're looking for any available bed space we can get that meet the detention standards that we're accustomed to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Let's discuss now with California State Senator Scott Wiener. He represents the 11th District. That includes Alcatraz and San Francisco.

Senator, thanks so much for being here with us. I, first, you know, we quoted you going into that break there. It doesn't sound like your reaction is a fond one to this effort by the Trump administration. What's your thinking on this?

SCOTT WIENER (D), CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR: It's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in a long time. But there are a lot of dumb, deranged ideas coming out of Donald Trump's brain that have morphed into reality like sending prisoners to South Sudan. You know, Alcatraz is one of the top tourist destinations in the country. About a million and a half people go there every year. It's incredibly popular. An entire ecosystem of small businesses support it. And it's an amazing place. And turning this into a prison, I mean, it was closed down precisely

because it's so expensive to run. It doesn't have a sewer or water system. It just makes no sense. It truly is lighting taxpayer dollars on fire.

DEAN: And if -- a couple of things. Number one, you mentioned it being this incredible tourist site and a little, you know, all the money that that brings. And if that were to go away, I would think that that would be economically very bad for your constituents.

[18:40:08]

WIENER: Yes. Well, it generates about $60 million a year for the National Park Service. But for San Francisco and the Bay Area, it's a huge tourist draw and supports a lot of jobs, a lot of small businesses. It's one of the -- one of the reasons people love visiting San Francisco. It's up there with the Golden Gate Bridge. It would be a tragedy for that to go away. And it would be a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. And it would be adding to this police state that Trump is setting up with what the money, the slush fund that Congress just gave him for ICE.

DEAN: And then there's the second part of this, which is you mentioned the taxpayer dollars. Even Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said there it needs some work. I toured it a long time ago when I was in college. And even then it was -- it was rough. And we're looking at video now. It really is, I think it's fair to say in some places crumbling, it would need a lot of work.

Is that your -- would you agree with that?

WIENER: Well, needing a lot of work is probably an extreme understatement. You know, it was closed down in the 1960s by the federal government as a prison precisely because it was just a complete money suck. Again, no sewer system, no water system. They have to take the wastewater and put it, take it off, boat it off every day to put it somewhere. They have to bring water on every day.

They would have to basically tear down the entire facility and build it. And the foundation is not good. It's not -- it's an island that -- it's not like its bedrock. So it would be so expensive to do this, and it would destroy a national treasure. People come to Alcatraz from all over the world to visit it. Why on earth would we get rid of that other than because Donald Trump was probably watching "Escape from Alcatraz" one night and decided he wanted to do this. It's absurd.

DEAN: Is there anything within San Francisco government, state government, anything locally you all can do or want to do to push back on this idea besides speaking out, but practically?

WIENER: Yes. Well, we're looking at our options to see if there's anything that we can do, because Alcatraz is not a self-sufficient island. It -- right now its wastewater goes into the San Francisco municipal sewer system. I doubt that our city hall is going to want to continue to accept that sewage if it's now being used as some sort of ICE gulag where political prisoners are being held or whatever it is that these fascists want to do with this facility.

DEAN: Yes. I mean --

WIENER: And we're looking at other options as well.

DEAN: Yes. He said -- as Pam Bondi said, I think they said people who are here illegally or just, she said, you know, various criminals that they would want to put there, in her words, were the plans for that. But yes, it seems like what you're saying is practically that just seems all but impossible unless you're going to dump a tremendous amount of money into it.

WIENER: Yes. This will be so expensive for them to do. Such a waste of money. But again, they put so much money, $75 billion of new money for ICE, which is just unheard of. So they have a lot of money to throw around and I'm sure there will be a lot of waste and fraud coming from the Trump administration with all this new money.

DEAN: All right. Scott Wiener, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

WIENER: Thank you so much.

DEAN: We are getting a new look at the chaotic scene immediately after a vehicle plowed into a crowd outside an East Hollywood nightclub. This was the scene early Saturday when first responders arrived. At least 30 people were injured. Debris, blood and injured people sprawled out on the ground. You hear a lot of yelling and confusion. However, cell phone video from the moments right after the incident shows bystanders yanking the driver out of the vehicle and appearing to assault him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Whoa. Hey. Be careful. He's going to reverse. Yes. No. Chill, chill, chill. He's going to reverse. He's going to reverse. Are you guys OK? Where's your friend? Is everyone OK? Oh, my god. Look, he's going to reverse. Hey, get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out the way. Get out the way, bro. He's coming back. Hey, get him, get him, get him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, bro. Get that (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Oh, my god, bro. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:45:04]

DEAN: The LAPD arrested the 29-year-old driver, Fernando Ramirez, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police still looking for the gunman.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: World number one golfer Scottie Scheffler etched his name into the record books today, clenching his first open championship. The win in Northern Ireland puts him in the 20 -- puts the 29-year-old in rarified company and moves him one step closer to a career grand slam.

[18:50:07]

Patrick Snell has the highlights now from the historic day.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, Scottie Scheffler is a major golf champion for a fourth time. Now before this year's open in Northern Ireland, Scheffler admitted the joy of victory is fleeting, that life's true fulfillment for him at least is not in winning golf tournaments. What we should never doubt, though, is his desire and hunger to keep winning the sport's biggest prizes.

The 29-year-old in no mood for slip-ups at Royal Portrush Sunday. He took a four shot lead into the final round, a blistering start. And look at this stunning approach here at number one. A birdie to start with. Wonderful momentum for the American player. Putt read to perfection at five. Another birdie drops for him at one point. The big Texan with a seven-shot lead.

Scheffler, though, proving he can be human after all. Frustrations in a bunker would lead to a double bogey at the eighth hole, offering a mere flicker of hope for anyone able to take advantage. Nobody could, though. Scheffler by now on cruise control, and he taps in at 18 to seal a famous victory by four shots.

And look at this emotion here, arms aloft in celebration of winning the sport's oldest and most prestigious tournament. A Scottie Scheffler masterclass, Scheffler has said it will always be family first for him, a moment here to be cherished with wife Meredith and his son, the adorable baby Bennett. The toddler is getting used to seeing dad rack up major victories. So much so, it seems, he wants a little piece of the action himself, though.

Here he goes, a little stumble, though, on as he tries to negotiate a slope to join the champion golfer of the year on the green.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER, 2025 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER: I grew up waking up early to watch this tournament on TV, just hoping and dreaming I would get a chance to come play in this championship, and you know, it's pretty cool to be sitting here with the trophy. It's hard to put into words.

I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards moments like these. You know, I've literally worked my entire life to become somewhat good at this game, to be able to play this game for a living. And it's one of the great joys of my life, being able to compete out here and to be able to win the open championship here at Portrush is a feeling that's really hard to describe.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SNELL: And check this out. Amazing stat. The great Tiger Woods took 1,197 days from his first major victory to his fourth. Scheffler is exactly the same amount of days. And on that note, it's right back to you.

DEAN: All right, Patrick Snell, thanks so much for that.

Frustrated WNBA players used a simple shirt to make a big statement at the all-star game Saturday. The women warmed up for the competition wearing T-shirts that read, "Pay Us What You Owe Us." This after players were unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the league Thursday. The players say the two sides are quite far apart on issues like a better revenue sharing model, higher salaries and improved benefits. They have been playing without a deal since October.

Forty years ago, rock stars Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting and many more performed at a landmark music event to raise money for famine relief in Africa. See how the legendary concert came together, how the movement continued in a new episode of the CNN Original Series, "LIVE AID: WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL TOOK ON THE WORLD." Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

BONO, U2 FRONTMAN: I can't look back at this moment with two eyes because it was such a bad hair day.

This is a song called "Bad."

Like honestly, can you imagine one of your most famous moments of your life and your activism, you've got a mullet? I mean, it's not -- it's not good. It's just not good. And so I can't look at that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thing.

(MUSIC)

BONO: We thought, like so many other people, this is a humanitarian crisis. And the problem is not an African one or an Ethiopian one. It's a European and American one. We just have little tiny redistribution of resources, and we can sort out the problem. This is not true. But it was, as an act of charity, a masterful one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: A new episode of "LIVE AID: WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL TOOK ON THE WORLD," airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.

Still ahead this evening, the late-night wars are heating up, but this time it's a battle with the White House. The late-night host who's picking a fight with President Trump over the shocking cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:59:39]

DEAN: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And tonight we are six months into President Donald Trump's second term and new polling shows the president is losing some support on some of the biggest issues he campaigned on.

Since March the president's approval rating on the economy has fallen from 44 percent to 40 percent. More Americans now say they disapprove of his handling of the economy, with -- going from 56 percent disapproval to 60 percent disapproval.