Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Trump on Reopening Alcatraz; Trump Orders Tariff on Foreign- Made Films; Bomb Plot Foiled at Lady Gaga Concert; Some Republicans Won't Support Medicaid Cuts; Alyse Adamson is Interviewed about the Combs Trial; Stephen A. Smith May Run for President. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 05, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, this order will officially shorten the word "recession."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that's good. Recession will now be called recess. Fun, right? So, America, get ready for an historically long recess. I call tetherball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: "SNL" there poking a little fun at President Trump's ongoing trade war. In an interview on Sunday, he acknowledged volatility in the stock market and said he does take responsibility.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.
Both sides in the Sean Combs trial are getting ready for jury selection to begin this morning. At least four alleged victims are set to testify for the prosecution. Multiple serious charges are on the table, including sex trafficking. And Combs has pleaded not guilty.
Traditional red drapes installed on the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. This is where we will see our first glimpse of the new pope. Cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor inside the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday.
Also -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS: Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president of the United States unsure whether he needs to uphold the Constitution. NBC's Kristen Welker had been trying to get President Trump to answer whether U.S. citizens facing deportation should receive due process. On that question, he also answered, I don't know.
Now, the president also wants to reopen Alcatraz. He posted last night that he's ordering the Bureau of Prisons to rebuild the notorious prison so it can house America's most ruthless and violent offenders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a symbol of law and order, and, you know, it's got quite a history, frankly. So, I think we're going to do that. And we're looking at it right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Group chat is back.
I want to talk about that idea of the symbol, because I think the president cares a lot about symbols.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What it looks like.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: I think that a lot of his presidency, and how he - he really talks to his base, is doing these, what I like to call, not necessarily just performative, but things that look as if he's in charge and he says that he's in charge. Alcatraz, I think for many people, is a place to go and visit and have some fun with your family.
CORNISH: It is a tourist attraction.
CHAMPION: It's a tourist attraction.
CORNISH: That's a good point. Yes.
CHAMPION: And -
CORNISH: And, in fact, if you go to the website, I think, for -
CHAMPION: Yes.
CORNISH: They say, like, it had to be closed because it was so expensive to maintain.
CHAMPION: So expensive to maintain. And so to me it doesn't make sense if we're trying to save money too, why - why reopen such a thing that would cost more money. Like billions of dollars to keep it running.
CORNISH: Yes. CHAMPION: It makes no sense.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Right. At a time when you're sending aside (ph) through the federal government to save money, opening it doesn't make sense. But I think you're right, it's a symbol. It makes Trump look tough. And is probably one of those things, which he says very deliberately for effect. And they probably are never going to end up happening. He probably doesn't think it's ever going to happen, but he gets the points for saying it in the - in the moment.
CHAMPION: Sure. But this sounds good.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: Send.
CORNISH: Was that your typing?
CHAMPION: I was - I was typing. I'm on Twitter.
BRIAN TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is the way to maintain brand, right?
CORNISH: OK.
TODD: People trust - people trust Donald Trump to be tough on crime.
CHAMPION: Fair. Yes.
TODD: This is a vernacular way to enunciate that. He's talking in the language that regular Americans would talk about. And he's not going to reopen Alcatraz, but he is going to be tough on crime, and that's what he's saying.
CORNISH: OK, one more thing. The president is considering a 100 percent tariff on foreign made films that are shown in the United States. Let me see, I think we have him explaining that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Other nations, a lot of them, have stolen our movie industry. And I'm saying, if they're not willing to make a movie inside the United States, then we should have a tariff on movies that come in. And not only that, governments are actually giving big money. I mean, they're supporting them financially. So, that's sort of a threat to our country in a sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAMPION: Is there tariffs on intellectual property? Is that - is that a thing?
CORNISH: I'm not sure, actually.
TODD: (INAUDIBLE). CHAMPION: Is that really a thing? Like -
CORNISH: Yes, I think what intrigued me about this is, after the labor strikes, there was a fleeing from Hollywood of production companies, right? Because they were like, oh, OK, we don't want to pay this. So, he would be forcing them to come back. And a lot of these people gave to his campaign. I'm sort of surprised to be hearing this particular issue.
TODD: I can't wait to see the Hollywood coalition that rallies around Donald Trump's economic policy on bringing movie production back to the states.
CORNISH: If Shawn Fein could do it for Detroit, yes.
TODD: Yes. You know, I mean, I'm from Appalachia and the movie "Cold Mountain," you may remember that.
CORNISH: Yes.
TODD: It's about a soldier's trek across the Appalachians.
CHAMPION: (INAUDIBLE).
TODD: That was shot, I think, in Bulgaria. And so, he is on to something here that, you know, a lot of American creative material that comes back to American movies has been pushed offshore. Some of that's because California's regulations are so, so onerous, and it's hard to make moves there.
[06:35:03]
CORNISH: Well, some of that is because -
CHAMPION: But is he - but is he on to something or is he trying to get Hollywood to capitulate to him as a way the tech industry is? Is he trying to -
CORNISH: Capitulate?
TODD: Well - well, how about (INAUDIBLE).
CHAMPION: To literally have them say, how are you, how are you?
CORNISH: Yes.
TODD: Well, how about partner with - maybe he wants them to - maybe he wants them to partner with him. I mean maybe he wants to partner with them.
CHAMPION: I mean he's - he's done it with tech and we've seen it. And Hollywood seems to be very adamant about how they feel about this administration and him exactly.
CORNISH: So a little more reluctant, yes.
CHAMPION: So, maybe this is his way to say, guess what, I can get you here.
CORNISH: Stephen, it seems -
TODD: But you know what, stars in Hollywood do great when they go overseas. But you know who doesn't do well is the makeup artists, the grips (ph), the people who are - who are running the electric (ph) department, the blue collar workers that move production, they don't get the jobs when the movies go overseas. The stars still do.
CORNISH: OK. Stephen, let me let you jump in here.
COLLINSON: It's true that places like Toronto and the U.K., I mean they've - it's called competition. They're competing against some of these U.S.-based industries.
The thing here though is that movies are a massive export for the United States. It's a massive surplus. Unlike a lot of the goods the president is talking about, about the trade deficit -
CORNISH: Yes, the primacy of the movie industry in the U.S. is not in doubt.
COLLINSON: So, if foreign countries decide, OK, well, we're going to put 100 percent tariff on U.S. movies, it's not going to be very popular abroad, but that could really hurt the industry.
CORNISH: Yes.
COLLINSON: And, you know, I'm going to make a guess here that most of the people that watch foreign movies in the United States live in Democratic liberal cities. Massive generalization I know, but it's a cultural (ph) thing too.
TODD: (INAUDIBLE) mass market movies.
COLLINSON: Yes.
CORNISH: But to his point, it is about incentives, not punishment. It's often been an industry where its carrots, not sticks. So why would sticks be useful here? Like the reason why people go abroad is because they are given incentive to do so. Appalachia could have done that, right? Though West Virginia could have done that. They did not.
TODD: Well, but it's a skew. I mean subsidies are a skewing of the market by the foreign industries. And I think that the - the notion that we should make American movies in America is going to be pretty popular. I mean, let's see how members of the audience -
CORNISH: But it's not American movies. It's foreign made movies.
CHAMPION: Yes, it's all - yes, it's us (ph).
TODD: No, I think he's talking about movie - our movie industry, he said.
CORNISH: Yes. TODD: He's talking about movies that are American - made for the American audience, that are written in America, are produced across - I can't wait to see if the IATSE union rallies to him on this.
CORNISH: Yes, we'll see, because if we looked at the last Oscars, it was a lot of international films that made it to best picture. So, I'm sure people will care about this in that industry.
CHAMPION: Yes.
CORNISH: Group chat, stick around. We've got more to talk about.
But first we got to get to something pretty serious. There are two suspects in custody this morning for allegedly planning to bomb a Lady Gaga concert in Brazil. So, police say that these suspects were targeting the LGBTQ community and that they attempted to recruit people, including teenagers, to carry out attacks at Saturday's concert. The weapons, improvised explosives, Molotov cocktails. Investigators say a group that promotes hate speech and encourages violence among teens orchestrated this. One of them allegedly had an even darker plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA LUIZA MACHADO, RIO DE JANEIRO CIVIL POLICE (through translator): He claimed the singer had a satanist religious inclination, and as such he would respond in the same way, and that he would also promote a satanist ritual by killing a child or a baby in a live stream during the show.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Ken Gray joins us. He's a former FBI special agent and criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven.
It sounds like what we're hearing in the reporting is that they may have benefited from some U.S. intelligence sharing here. Can you talk about what you're hearing from police? Your reaction?
KEN GRAY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN AND FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: So, it's my understanding that the ministry of justice there in Brazil picked up on this through the internet and then provided that tip to the state police there in Rio de Janeiro. And so, they were able to - to hear this conversation going on, identify who some of the key players were, and then conduct a series of raids, to be able to go out and search the homes and find out whether or not they actually had these weapons.
Molotov cocktails are very easy to construct. A bottle with a rag in it with gasoline. Other incendiary devices, not fully described yet. But they conducted raids and made a couple of arrests. Three arrests that I know of. One of the leader of the group, one of a teen who was arrested for child pornography during the search of his computer. And the third person being the person who was planning to do the - the ritualistic sacrifice of a baby or child.
And so, very successful law enforcement stop of this attack on the crowd, a soft target there in Rio.
CORNISH: You said soft target. Just last august, Taylor Swift was forced to cancel her performances in Austria over an alleged suicide attack plot. Why are concerts still considered soft targets?
GRAY: And don't forget, a successful attack against the crowd there at Ariana Grande's concert there in the U.K.
You know, there - there is little security.
[06:40:03]
The security that does occur is at the entrance to the - the venues. But the attacks have been occurring outside the venues so far, where people are trying to get into the concerts, where there is no security at that point. A large group of people - look, down in New Orleans, the attack on New Year's Eve, that was a car driven down the street, running over people who were there celebrating. So, anywhere you have a large gathering of people, you have the possibility of terrorism.
CORNISH: That's former FBI Special Agent Ken Gray.
Thank you.
GRAY: Thank you.
CORNISH: So, House Republicans are looking to make big moves this week to enact what's being called one big, beautiful bill for President Trump's agenda. So, they're aiming to slash $1.5 trillion in spending over the next decade. How exactly they get there remains to be seen.
Over the weekend, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington seemed to signal that cuts to Medicaid are still on the table, suggesting changes there would save billions of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JODEY ARRINGTON (R-TX): You've got hundreds of billions siphoned out for other purposes than serving the Medicaid beneficiary. There is no work requirement for able-bodied adults like there is in every other means tested welfare program. And, in fact, Medicaid, because we give a higher federal match to able-bodied adult population, this is the Obamacare expansion population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss, Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst.
Ron, you've been writing a lot about this. You've been on the show talking about it. Can you help translate what the congressman is suggesting? Is this about straight cuts? Is this about reforms? What are you hearing?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, the soundbite you picked really kind gives away the game of where they want to go and whether they will be allowed to. I mean what the chairman there is really focusing in on are the 20 million lower income working people who have received coverage under - through Medicaid, under the expansion that was authorized by the Affordable Care Act in 2012. And - and the key point that he's kind of referencing is that to get states to do it, the Affordable Care Act gave them more money to offset the cost of these people than it did for the kind of basic Medicaid population. Twenty million people, Audie, are now covered under the Medicaid expansion, and many of them are kind of the classic profile of Trump voters. I mean they are low income people who are working.
The expansion, you know, raised Medicaid, kind of reach up the income ladder, not that far up, like $16,000 for an individual, $21,000 for a couple. At the same time, the Trump revolution has kind of extended the Republican reach down the income ladder. So, you now are in a situation where Republicans, who have historically looked to Medicaid for big cuts as a way to offset, you know, their desire to squeeze government, help fund their tax cuts, republicans represent big constituencies that rely on Medicaid.
As I reported with data from KFF, there are about 65 House Republicans where more Medicaid recipients than average live in their district. There are 32 where there are more recipients specifically from the expansion in their district, including every House Republican in Louisiana, including the speaker, Mike Johnson, have over 100,000 people receiving care through the Medicaid expansion in their district. And not only would those people be affected by the kind of changes that the chairman is talking about, all of the providers who would suddenly be asked to provide a lot more uncompensated care and would face risk of going under, particularly in rural areas, they would also have a lot at stake in the changes that are being discussed.
CORNISH: Ron, before I let you go, could this be a sticking point? Could this be something that could draw people, particularly moderate Republicans, away from supporting this bill, or is the legislation just too big? Is the bill just too large?
BROWNSTEIN: Too big to fail? You know, look, I mean, I've covered - the 1995=96 Medicaid battle - budget battle between Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress and Bill Clinton really centered on Medicaid, on the Republican desire to block grant and cut Medicaid. At that point, Republicans did not feel like it was a program that affected a lot of their constituents and were pretty, you know, comfortable about cutting it. We're in a different world now. As I said, a lot of low income, non-college, white, working people rely on Medicaid.
Medicaid is critical also, Audie, in the opioid fight. It - it provides - it's probably the - it is the biggest source of federal dollars for treatment. And more than half of all people on Medicaid who are receiving treatment through - half of all the people in the country who are receiving treatment through Medicaid do so through the expansion. So, Republicans have a lot of constituents with a lot at stake.
[06:45:01] And this is one of the lines where moderates are drawing sort of a line. You know, I mean, you have people saying they won't accept more than $400 billion to $500 billion in cuts over Medicaid over a decade. That is still plenty to significantly reduce the number of people receiving care through it. And 6.8 million total people in Republican held districts are receiving their health care through the Medicaid expansion specifically. And we'll see if and when House moderates draw the line at how many of those they are willing to see lose that coverage, you know, at the same time to pay for tax cuts that primarily benefit the affluent.
CORNISH: Yes. That's Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst.
OK, still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the trial of Sean Combs begins in just a matter of hours. What to expect as jury selection gets underway in a case that could send the music mogul to prison for decades if he's convicted.
Plus, we'll talk about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: By God's grace I did my duty that day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Former Vice President Mike Pence accepting an award for his actions on January 6th. What he says about that day at the U.S. Capitol. More from the group chat after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:50:19]
CORNISH: From chart-topping hits to a New York courthouse, the federal trial of hip hop star and music mogul Sean Combs starts today. And he faces serious legal charges. So, what's at stake is the potential jurors show up at the courthouse and as witnesses prepare to testify? We're joined now by former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson.
Alyse, good morning.
ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning, Audie.
CORNISH: So, first I have to show, if you live in New York, "Washington Post," "just one question, Diddy or didn't he?" The reason why I'm showing this is, how do you - what do you even ask a juror to weed them in or out of a trial that's as well-known as this?
ADAMSON: That's a great question. And it's headlines like that that's going to make this a very hard task for the defense, quite frankly, because everybody knows, or not everybody, but a lot of the population have heard about this case.
CORNISH: They have heard, yes. ADAMSON: Very salacious case. Very lurid details. People have been interested in this.
So, what the defense and prosecution are going to be focused on is whether or not a jury can be fair and impartial. They can't come in with any biases. They can't have strong opinions about things like intimate partner violence or having multiple partners. And those are kind of sensitive questions. And so, it's going to take very skilled lawyers to ferret out any potential biases here.
CORNISH: OK, when I looked at the charges, I understood them on their face of trafficking, abuse and things like that. But actually I want to get your sense of what it is prosecutors are saying he did. What do they have to prove in this trial?
ADAMSON: And that's a really good question. This is a complicated case. This indictment is charging technically complicated legal theories. It all boils down to coercion and force. They have to prove that everything that Sean Combs did was by force. These women were not consenting participants in this behavior. And I think we can expect that to be the defense. Yes, Sean Combs isn't a great guy, but all these women wanted to do this.
CORNISH: And that's a big part of the defense, right, like whether there might have been alleged drugs at a party. Anything you see, the - the person was there because they wanted to be. Is that basically the defense, and what does that mean for these witnesses?
ADAMSON: That's exactly right. The entire legal theory here, from the government's perspective, is that they were unwilling participants. It was all through coercion. So, the defense has to prove that they wanted to be there.
They - this is all going to turn on witness credibility.
CORNISH: Yikes.
ADAMSON: It's tough.
CORNISH: Yes. Yes. I'm not looking forward to that, frankly. But former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.
ADAMSON: Thanks for having me, Audie. Appreciate it.
CORNISH: OK, it's 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
New this morning, there's been a shooting at a restaurant in Glendale, Arizona. It left at least three people dead, five injured. Police say there may have been multiple shooters involved. Several people had been detained for questioning, but at last check no one has been arrested.
And seven days of delays and flight cancellations at Newark Airport. There's no end in sight. There are already dozens of cancellations just this morning. A shortage of air traffic controllers is getting the bulk of the blame. But the transportation secretary also pointed to the closure of a major runway and technology failures caused by outdated equipment.
And former Vice President Mike Pence received a JFK Profile in Courage Award last night, in part for his actions during the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: January 6th was a tragic day. But it became a triumph of freedom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Pence, at that time, was taken to a secure location as the riot was unfolding. Eventually returned to the Senate floor to certify Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
OK, so could we be talking about President Stephen A. Smith in four years? The sports commentator now openly speculating about running for the White House, something the current president thinks would be a good idea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stephen A. is - he's a good guy. He's a smart guy. I love watching him. He's got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him. You know, a lot of these Democrats I watch, I say, they have no chance. I've been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates. And I will tell you, I'd love to see him run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: During an interview with CNN this weekend, Smith laid out why he thinks he could win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN A. SMITH, TV AND RADIO HOST, ESPN: I believe that if I did take this very, very seriously and I moved forward and I decided that I wanted to be a politician, do I believe I could win? You're damn right. But it's by default. It's not because I'm the most qualified candidate in the world. It's because of the state of our politics in the nation's capital, the politicians that we're looking at, and the fact that we don't believe for one second that they are serving the interest of the American people, nor are they interested in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:55:12]
CORNISH: Group chat is back.
I'm going to play a clip in a minute of him talking about what he thinks is wrong with the Democratic Party. But during the break, Cari Champion, you called - you referred to him as sass.
CHAMPION: Uh-huh.
CORNISH: OK. This is your world. And as you've pointed out, he's talked about this before back in 2011.
CHAMPION: Uh-huh.
CORNISH: What's different, do you hear, in the way he's talking about it now?
CHAMPION: Well, I think with President Trump not only endorsing him, but the way in which President Trump leads, the way he talks, he's removed all the political, you know, jargon out of being a candidate, if you will.
CORNISH: Yes, kind of changed the credentials.
CHAMPION: He's changed the credentials. And the way that Stephen A. talks, the way that he performs, that plain speak, that tough on this type of image really does resonate for whatever reasons with the base. And you know consistently what you're going to get from Stephen A. Very much like you know what you're going to get from the current president. And so for him to say that about Stephen A. Smith makes - makes sense to me because he sees himself thinly in the way in which Stephen A. performs.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: Stephen A. has always been, and I've said this even working with him on "First Take," he's always been one of the greatest performers we've ever had on television. So, I guess that's what it takes sometimes.
CORNISH: He has talked about being socially liberal, fiscally conservative.
CHAMPION: Yes.
CORNISH: Here's what he said the Democratic Party would have to look like if he were to run kind of, I guess, affiliated with them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN A. SMITH, TV AND RADIO HOST, ESPN: I mean if I had to run, it would be as a Democrat. But I'm not happy with the Democratic Party. So, the Democratic Party, as presently constructed, it would pretty much need to be purged in order for me to assume that I would want to be associated with them, and I would garner their support because I don't like the way they've gone about doing a lot of things for a very, very long period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, a purge. Who goes? COLLINSON: So, if the Democrats are looking for bombast celebrity populism in the next election, if that's the answer to the Trump years, perhaps he has a chance. The thing is, though, that Democrats really like government. And all the Democratic campaigns I've covered, presidential campaigns, their details, they want people to talk about policy.
CORNISH: Yes.
COLLINSON: They don't necessarily want a populist. It seems more likely to me that a populist would be on the left of the Democratic Party than someone that's actually pretty much arguing for centrist politics and a lot of thing. You know, maybe the Democratic Party is such a strange beast. You could have a raging centrist populist, but it doesn't seem very likely.
CORNISH: I don't think it's that. When I look at say Project 2025 and Trump or even Trump one, he brought the performance, the energy, the connection, someone else brought the policy.
TODD: Well, but Trump - but Trump's secret sauce was -
CORNISH: And couldn't that work in this scenario? Aren't Democrats wondering if they can do that too?
TODD: Well, Trump's secret sauce was he ran against the Republican Party in 2016. Salena Zito and I wrote a book about it. And the realignment was cemented because he ran against the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Jeb Bush represented the old Republican Party.
CORNISH: Right.
TODD: Hillary Clinton, the old Democratic Party.
CORNISH: But a Stephen A. Smith would do that.
TODD: Right. That's the - that's what he's replicating here.
CHAMPION: Yes. But also Stephen A. said something I thought was interesting. He said, I'm not going to fall for this. He thinks - he thinks I could lose. That's why he's trying to encourage me to go out there and so it.
CORNISH: Yes, he wasn't smiling during that endorsement.
CHAMPION: He was like, I - yes. Yes. But he -
CORNISH: It was a very luke warm reception.
CHAMPION: He was like, I - he was like, don't know about this. But you're right, Stephen A. could do that because - and to your point, someone else could make the policy. He can go and do the performance.
TODD: What I don't know if anybody could get the Democratic nomination, running against the Democratic Party, because the Democratic Party right now is really homogenous, and they follow orders from headquarters. And so, I don't know if Stephen A. Smith could do that.
CORNISH: Well, seems like the cracks are in that facade, but -
CHAMPION: Yes.
CORNISH: Yes, I want to talk about what we're going to be keeping an eye on this week. It's only Monday.
Brad, let me start with you.
TODD: Well, the White House, last week, said that they're considering an executive order on college sports. The president went to the University of Alabama's campus, flew down with Tommy Tuberville. This is a very complicated issue. And Congress is actually - there's a place where there's actually bipartisan support in Congress for some ideas. And so I'm keeping an eye on to see if the president decides to wade into this.
CORNISH: I also learned that you were a sports writer when you first started out.
TODD: Yes.
CORNISH: So, I will be coming to you every minute now about that.
Cari.
TODD: I'm not in Cari's league.
CORNISH: I know. I know.
CHAMPION: It's fine.
CORNISH: That group chat will just say sports with like a ball.
OK, Cari?
CHAMPION: I'm actually looking forward to the WNBA season starting, which is May 16th. Preseason is underway. The reason why I'm interested in it is because Caitlin Clark was such a lightning rod last season. And now that she has, you know, settled and said, I will not be weaponized in any political way for any political party, I'm wondering if this administration will take notice and have things to say about this - about this particular group of women playing sports.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: And what that actually translates to, because people are having all these different conversations about women's sports.
CORNISH: And it could just be about the game, maybe.
CHAMPION: Perhaps.
CORNISH: Stephen Collinson.
COLLINSON: Keep an eye on Capitol Hill this week. I think the press is going to ramp up over the big, beautiful bill.
CORNISH: The details.
COLLINSON: I think generally the speaker has not been given enough credit for the way he's managed to marshal a very difficult majority.
[07:00:06]
But there's going to be real tensions between the blue Republicans in blue state seats who are looking towards the midterm elections, and some of the more conservative Republicans on fiscal issues. If he can get this through, it's a big thing for his own legacy and for the president's.
CORNISH: Yes. I'll be looking for those details as well. Stephen, thank you.
CHAMPION: Thank you.
CORNISH: Thanks to the group chat. And thank you all for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS STARTS" now.
