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Kremlin Calls Trump's Comments about Putin 'Emotional Overload'; Medicaid Changes Threaten GOP Budget Bill in the Senate; 'Original Sin' Exposes Missed Opportunity for Media to Cover Biden's Decline. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 27, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Dad or your mom, know that your loved one, to us, is a hero.

[06:00:06]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They gave everything, and we owe them everything and much, much more.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: And we hope you had a meaningful and restful Memorial Day. From Rahel, the team and I, thank you so much for watching EARLY START. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, May 27, and here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

Another deadly night in Ukraine. Tensions surge after President Trump's comments about Russia's leader going, quote, "absolutely crazy." Is Vladimir Putin sending a message?

Plus, the Senate gears up to take on the president's agenda. But how are the proposed Medicaid cuts going over with their constituents back home?

And three more inmates who busted out of a New Orleans jail have been arrested. Where they were found and the frantic search for the two still on the run.

Then later, President Biden's legacy under the microscope as a new book details his decline. One of the coauthors is here to discuss.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at New York City. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.

We're going to begin this hour with the story out of Ukraine. That's where Russian strikes overnight are putting potential peace talks in jeopardy. At least two people are dead, 16 others wounded after Russia launched

aerial attacks across Ukraine, as Ukraine also intercepted several Russian drones.

Now this comes just two days after President Trump had some choice words for Vladimir Putin following Russia's attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Trump saying Putin has, quote, "gone absolutely crazy," then saying this a few hours later.

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TRUMP: I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. I've always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people. We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

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CORNISH: And the Kremlin has since responded to those comments, calling it an emotional overload.

CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now from London. Clare, other world leaders are starting to weigh in. What are you hearing?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're hearing that, certainly from the European leaders, they are resurfacing calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine, reiterating their support for Ukraine.

We even heard from the German chancellor on Monday, who said that Ukraine no longer had any restrictions on using long-range missiles in Russia. That, we understand, is not a new policy. But certainly, hearing him voice that not only shows that this new German chancellor is willing to risk Russian red lines to show just how much he supports Ukraine, but also raises speculation that German long-range missiles with a range much longer than the U.S. and British missiles that Ukraine has already been supplied with, might be in play.

Certainly, Chancellor Merz has -- has made it clear that he's in favor of that.

So, that's what we're hearing from the Europeans. The Kremlin, though, in the face of those comments from Trump, "absolutely crazy," maintaining a very calm exterior, perhaps in part to disprove the absolutely crazy allegation.

The Kremlin, as you noted on Monday, saying that this was, you know, emotional -- emotional overload of everyone. So, not specifically even naming Trump.

And again this morning, we've heard from Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, saying the U.S. and Russia cannot agree on everything he said. But there is a political will to continue working together.

So, I think, look, despite those comments, despite the fact that we've seen Trump's frustration bubble over a number of times towards Putin in recent weeks, the Kremlin is still relatively confident here, relatively emboldened, because while there's been a lot of talk out of Washington, there hasn't actually been any action yet.

No new sanctions have been put in place, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked about this publicly in those congressional hearings last week, saying that the calculation is still that not putting more sanctions on Russia is the best way to keep Russia at the table.

And secondly, that same Truth Social post on Monday that described Putin as absolutely crazy, also criticized President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, saying that everything that comes out of his mouth causes problems.

So, I think the Kremlin is probably holding out some hope that that relationship, the breakdown of which, of course, led to the suspension of U.S. military aid temporarily in March, is also still on unsteady ground, and are continuing, I think, to do just enough to try to keep the U.S. engaged and keep that promised reset in relations on the table without, of course, compromising in its pursuit of its goals in Ukraine, where we see a significant escalation.

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CORNISH: That's Clare Sebastian in London. Thank you for that update.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, a car rams into a crowd celebrating Liverpool's soccer team. Why police say this wasn't an act of terrorism.

Plus, Diddy returns to the courtroom with another person from his inner circle set to take the stand.

And President Trump, front and center on Memorial Day, honoring the fallen, taking digs at his political opponents, and even working the World Cup in there, too.

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TRUMP: We have the World Cup, and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years, and now look what I have. I have everything.

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CORNISH: So, with Congress on recess following House passage of the president's tax and policy bill, it's now up to the Senate to take the next step. But the sweeping changes to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, they're actually meeting a lot of resistance from some in the Republican Party.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he stands by the changes being made to the program, for instance, adding work requirements.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We are the party about that -- that supports human dignity, and we find purpose and dignity in our work. It's good for the individuals involved. It's good for their community. It's good for society at large.

I'll go into any town hall anywhere in America, my district or otherwise, and explain this. And everyone nods in agreement and understands it.

So, the Democrats are trying to twist the facts. They're trying to put out misinformation, because they're going to vote against this.

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CORNISH: The problem is, it's not just Democrats who say they're going to vote against this. So, take conservative senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. He's digging in, saying he opposes any cuts to Medicaid. He says the bill goes far beyond the work requirements promoted by the House speaker.

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SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Over 20 percent of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of children, are on Medicaid, and Manu, they're not on Medicaid because they want to be. They're on Medicaid, because they cannot afford health insurance in the private market.

But we're not talking here about just work requirements. The House goes much, much, much further than that. This is real Medicaid benefit cuts. I can't support that. No Republican should support that. We're the party of the working class, Manu. We need to act like it.

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CORNISH: Then there are moderate Republican senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. They've also signaled opposition to the bill over Medicaid cuts, which could lead to hospitals closing.

So, joining me now in the group chat: Jerusalem Demsas, contributing writer at "The Atlantic"; Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under George W. Bush.

So, we wanted to talk about this, because the Medicaid expansion and its reach into red states has sort of flipped the politics on this, right? Like, I never thought I would see Josh Hawley of Missouri saying, actually, no, under no circumstances.

Do you know anything about this whole thing about work requirements? I'm under the impression, from research a long time ago, that it doesn't actually do anything but kind of push people off the programs.

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes. I mean, it's a great talking point. Everyone believes that if you're able- bodied and able to work, that you should work and not just receive government benefits.

But Arkansas has tried this, right? We have experiments of other states looking into what happens when you require Medicaid -- Medicaid recipients to work.

And the real thing is that you kick off 18,000 people off the rolls, but there are no positive employment effects. And the reason for that is because most people on Medicaid are either elderly or children. They're working already, or they're disabled.

The very small number of people who are not employed are not going to be -- the program becomes way too difficult for them to manage, if they're also asked to fill out all this paperwork, verify employment.

Also, it's not always in their -- their control, right? Like --

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: -- if you're working as a server, if you don't get the hours, that's not something that you can prevent losing your health insurance over.

CORNISH: So if the point is to kick you off and save money, good. If the point is for these people to suddenly start working, evidence is not there.

DEMSAS: Doesn't actually happen.

CORNISH: OK. I just had to set that out, because I don't know about you. I feel like I heard this before. Like, if you think back to even the Clinton years. You mentioned Arkansas, where it was like, we are going to reform these programs and put people back to work -- Chuck.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, there's a big difference -- for all of you who remember "Schoolhouse Rock," the Senate is much different than the House. When we say, well, now it's going to go to the Senate. It just went through the House. Way, two different things.

The first thing you should know at home is that these folks get elected every six years, and there's a whole bunch of them who are not up for election right now, who aren't up for election in four years. They don't feel the pressure that a congressman feels who's constantly having to run for reelection.

CORNISH: Right.

ROCHA: And that's why you see what you see from Josh Hawley, Murkowski. And for the senators who are up this year, Audie -- North Carolina.

CORNISH: That doesn't mean they don't feel pressure, though. It's just you're saying --

ROCHA: Reelection pressure.

CORNISH: Exactly. ROCHA: One specific pressure.

CORNISH: Ashley, what do you hear in this conversation?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, first of all, you're 100 percent right. And also, everyone's negotiating publicly right now on TV the bill, just like the House did.

CORNISH: To the camera. Yes.

DAVIS: Exactly. But Medicaid is a really tough issue for Republicans.

I think both Republicans and Democrats agree that entitlement reform needs to happen. It's just so difficult to do. And the reason --

CORNISH: They've never not agreed on that.

DAVIS: Exactly.

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: But no one can do it, right? Is money going to be around when we're old enough?

ROCHA: It calls for political pressure.

DAVIS: And Chuck salivating right now, because Republicans did take that vote. So, it's going --

ROCHA: In the dark of the night.

DAVIS: So, it's going to help him --

CORNISH: I think it was early morning hours.

DAVIS: -- take back the House.

CORNISH: You missed that day.

DAVIS: But, you know, if the Senate doesn't include Medicaid cuts, it's going to be all blame there.

CORNISH: There is no math there, basically, also.

All right. Before we go, I want to play one more thing. David Sacks, who -- I had to double check this -- President Trump's A.I. and crypto czar -- seem to be the people who know what's going on -- said this on his podcast regarding the Medicaid portion of the bill.

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DAVID SACKS, TRUMP'S A.I. AND CRYPTO CZAR: Bill cuts 880 billion for Medicaid over a decade, which is something that already is politically tough and controversial. It imposes work requirements for able-bodied adults.

This is similar to what Bill Clinton did back in 1996 with welfare reform, basically saying that you can't be a layabout and get welfare.

So, these are relatively tough things to do politically. It's like, do I want to see even more cuts? Yes, absolutely.

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CORNISH: OK. So, that's the word from the crypto community, which we know from the recent dinner, has -- has the president's ear.

Group chat, stay with me. We've got lots to talk about.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the big reaction to the new book on Joe Biden's decline. One of the coauthors is here live next.

The manhunt for the escaped inmates from a New Orleans jail, how officers finally caught up with three more of them.

And good morning, Philly. A beautiful shot as the sun rises over the city.

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JON STEWART, HOST, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW": Now, like most people in America, I am most looking forward to reading a book. But when? When?

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CORNISH: OK, that time is now. That book is here, and I want to go off script to discuss it. "Original Sin" not only brings to light revealing new details about President Biden's decline in his final months in office, but it's also sparking a fierce reaction.

You've got critics pointing out what they describe as the media's failure to cover up the story sooner, for example.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It" book. Like, I thought it was ridiculous and, just quite frankly, I think it's like journalistic malfeasance.

JOHNSON: The evidence of his diminished mental capacity. Subject of your book, of course. I wish it had been published a year earlier, because everybody saw it. Everybody saw what was happening.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is the book's coauthor, Alex Thompson, who's also a national political correspondent at Axios, also a member of the group chat.

Welcome back.

ALEX THOMPSON, CO-AUTHOR, "ORIGINAL SIN": Hi.

CORNISH: OK, so I want to talk about some of the response to this and some of the pointed critiques.

So, one is that it's just, like, anonymous sources like crazy. You don't totally know what their motivations are. You don't totally understand what they want to get out of this, especially after the fact of the election.

How have you come to think about why people wouldn't speak on the record?

THOMPSON: Well, the reason people didn't speak on the record before is because they were scared of helping Trump. And the reason they didn't speak on -- a lot of them. I mean, we do have some people on the record. But the reason some people didn't speak on the record afterward is because there was still fear of retaliation by the former president's camp.

But I think your -- your point about anonymous sources is right on. And that's the reason why we talked to over 200 people, because if we were relying even on 50 or even 100, you know, I think we were always worried about people having motives and told you so.

CORNISH: Yes.

THOMPSON: And so that's why we, like, you know, in just the course of from November 6th to January 31st, we talked to over 200 people. Because we wanted to make sure that we got as complete a story as possible.

CORNISH: All right. I want to talk about the day-to-day of how the White House was run, according to your reporting. You talk about this ever smaller, tight-knit group of people who that -- I think one of the quotes said that he was kind of a senior member of the board. How is this different from the traditional gatekeeping around any president?

THOMPSON: Well, and this is -- it's a great question, because this is how some people sort of tricked themselves into thinking this is OK, right? But in retrospect, they were, like, the level of gatekeeping was extraordinary.

And so, what would happen is even, like, cabinet secretaries or top senior aides that, in most White Houses would see the president regularly or would be part of a decision-making process, essentially, they would only be part of the process with those senior aides, the politburo, as some people called them.

CORNISH: They never quite made it up to --

THOMPSON: The president. CORNISH: -- being. All right. What about foreign leaders, then?

THOMPSON: Well, so we have one foreign leader, ex-foreign leader in -- in the book that basically says that, when they met with Biden, they saw the diminishment over the first two years. And they -- they saw that former secretary of state, Tony Blinken, would have to remind him of certain things, keep him on topic.

And this foreign leader thought he was not up for the task of running for reelection and was surprised that he did.

You mentioned Blinken. I'm also thinking of Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg. There are a lot of people out of that administration. We haven't really heard them talk about what has happened.

Do you think that they will be asked this question way more, especially for those who have 2028 ambitions?

THOMPSON: I mean, I think they should be. I mean, Kamala Harris, you know, was the chief -- basically went out there and became one of the biggest validators of Joe Biden's, both like cognitive and physical health after the Robert Hur report.

CORNISH: But as a vice president, I mean, that's kind of part of the job, right? Some of the loyalty there.

THOMPSON: Well, this is -- this is actually sort of the push-pull that was the case in -- you know, I think in every political job in Washington, which is what is your loyalty to the principle or to the larger institution? And usually those are the same thing.

But I think in this case, a lot of people within the Biden administration felt that there should have been more loyalty to the larger cause and the institution, the White House, the Constitution, rather than just to Joe Biden.

CORNISH: Right now, we have the country's oldest president.

THOMPSON: Yes, very much.

CORNISH: And right now we have an administration that is not really all that forthcoming about his health, right?

THOMPSON: That's understating it. We -- we don't know almost anything about Donald Trump's health.

You know, I wrote a story in 2023 about how little he had disclosed. He was older on his inauguration day than Joe Biden was on his. And we don't know very much.

[06:25:03]

And I also think that his -- his physical report, the one -- the medical summary they put out, raises a lot of questions about how candid they are being with Donald Trump. You just look at some of -- some of the statistics in there.

And the thing about the reason why we wrote this book, me and Jake Tapper wrote this book is because it's not just about Joe Biden, that there have been cover-ups of presidential health going back to George Washington.

CORNISH: Right.

THOMPSON: And there will be another one without any sort of forcing mechanism to mandate required disclosures.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, there is a forcing mechanism to leave office. Right? Nobody tried to invoke that.

But the reason why I'm asking this is because the implications going forward for reporting. You guys have taken a lot of hits for, like, when this has come forward, how it's come forward, what's the point of it coming forward now?

What lessons are there for political reporters going into the next administration, where it is only more combative in terms of getting information?

THOMPSON: Well, I'd say in terms of the timing, I understand the critique. You know, I had been very aggressive in reporting on this particular topic. And Jake, you know, had been just an aggressive Biden reporter.

CORNISH: You guys have become proxies for the bigger media conversation, right? That's why people are coming after this.

THOMPSON: And I understand. But the fact is that the Biden people, a lot of the people, were not willing to be candid. I mean, people that I --

CORNISH: Right. But I'm saying going forward --

THOMPSON: Yes.

CORNISH: -- how should political reporters think about this stuff. In your mind, when you think of the lessons to be learned, is it, hey, come out with your reporting as soon as you can? Maybe more will come out.

Is it -- like, what is it when you have an inner circle in the White House that is reluctant, combative, reticent?

THOMPSON: I mean, I think the reminder is that every White House, no matter which party, is capable of lying, capable of deception.

Actually, I think almost basically every White House lies. The degrees vary. But I think keeping that skepticism of power, I think, is like an important lesson to keep in mind.

CORNISH: All right. Alex, thank you so much for coming in.

THOMPSON: Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: Appreciate your time. Appreciate it.

All right. You, of course, can get a copy of "Original Sin." It is out now.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the Sean Combs trial set to resume. A former assistant who once reportedly dubbed Diddy "the devil" is about to take the stand.

Plus, is Vladimir Putin testing Trump? And if so, is President Trump flunking?

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