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Alyse Adamson is Interviewed about the Combs Trial; Twenty- Seven Killed Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza; Deanne Criswell is Interviewed about FEMA's Staff Cuts; DOGE Cuts go to Congress. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 03, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:31]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. 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.

Investigators say the suspect who threw Molotov cocktails at a peaceful rally in Colorado planned the attack for a full year. They say the 45-year-old told them he, quote, wanted to kill all Zionist people. Twelve people were injured in the attack. The suspect faces federal -- a federal hate crime and attempted murder charge.

The U.S. Marshals are looking into an Instagram video of a man who claims to be one of the fugitives from New Orleans still on the run.

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ANTOINE MASSEY: My name is Antoine Massey. I'm asking for help. I was one of the ones that was let out on the Orleans Parish jail.

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CORNISH: So, that video is nearly ten minutes long. In it, he claims he's innocent. He begged President Trump and rappers Meek Mill and Lil Wayne for help. Massey had been charged with domestic abuse.

And in just a few hours, opening statements will begin in the defamation lawsuit against MyPillow founder Mike Lindell. He's accused of defaming a former Dominion Voting Systems employee by spreading a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2020 election.

And this morning, prosecutors in the Sean Combs trial expected to call a former security guard to the witness stand. He worked at the hotel where Combs was caught on surveillance video assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016.

This also follows three days of testimony from Combs' former assistant, who has been identified as Mia to protect her.

[06:35:01]

She alleged -- she alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Diddy while working for him, and the defense team pressed her about why she didn't report it sooner. She said, "I wouldn't be believed. I would be wiped out. I would be abused, fired and somehow made out to look like I was a crazy person, making everything up."

With me now is former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson.

Alyse, I want to dig right into that because she's saying, I didn't speak sooner because no one would believe me. But then how did the defense cross-examine her?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, Audie, the defense was really rough on Mia, which I just want to say, as a point, isn't usually how defense crosses victims of abuse.

CORNISH: Yes.

ADAMSON: They usually do it gently so they don't alienate the jury. It's usually --

CORNISH: But we should be clear, she's a witness. She's not the victim in --

ADAMSON: No, that --

CORNISH: Yes.

ADAMSON: That is very true but she was making these -- these allegations of sexual abuse. And it's usually a female who crosses. And in this case, it was Brian Steel. It was a male. And what they said was -- I mean he basically insinuated that she was making these allegations up. He mentioned that she had met with prosecutors some 28 times but didn't disclose these allegations of sexual abuse until last June, 2024, years after she started to tell her story.

And from some of the reporting I've read, it may have been effective for a few jurors who seemingly were nodding along to the cross questions or even smiling when Brian Steel was questioning her very hard.

So, it seems like the gamble to be a little bit more aggressive in this cross might have paid off for the defense.

CORNISH: Today's witnesses are going to be focused on the 2016 hotel surveillance video, where Combs is seen abusing Cassie. How significant is this moment?

ADAMSON: So, the video is extremely significant. Weve heard it mentioned in opening statements. Cassie obviously testified to the events in the video. Right now prosecutors, I think, are trying to do two things. One, finish laying that evidentiary foundation. So, this is admissible evidence. They can rely on this in total during their closing arguments. But also, I think that they're going to get into the bribery allegations. Recall it's a -- it's alleged that Combs paid like $100,000 to security to obtain this video. The gentleman who's on the stand now asserted a fifth yesterday before court was concluded for the day.

CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE), basically didn't want to incriminate himself by answering that question, whether he was paid off to hold this video.

ADAMSON: That's correct. He didn't even answer a question. As soon as he took the stand, he pled the fifth, which meant any questions that were going to be asked of him would likely incriminate himself. So, that's why I'm thinking it's the bribery, because what was he doing as hotel security that if he testifies about could possibly put him in legal peril? An immunity order was granted. So, that means anything he says now he can't be prosecuted for.

But prosecutors need to establish that bribery. So, I think it's significant for two reasons. One, you're going to get a forensic analyst who's going to talk about what they're seeing on the film. There's been some questions about whether Diddy was recovering a phone or actually beating Cassie. And then also, you're going to get those allegations about the bribery, who paid who and why.

CORNISH: Alyse Adamson, thank you for explaining that, because it sounds like a significant moment. I appreciate your time.

ADAMSON: Audie, thank you for having me.

CORNISH: OK, there are more chaotic scenes this morning in Gaza near an aid distribution site. At least 27 people were killed. That's according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli ministry says it fired shots at those who were moving towards them and had deviated from the designated routes.

This is the third day in a row that people have been killed near the aid distribution sites. They're actually run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. And it's actually a controversial group backed by both the U.S. and Israel. It has only been in operation for a week.

So, what is the GHF? It was created amid accusations that Hamas was stealing aid and selling it. That claim CNN can't confirm. Reporter Jeremy Diamond, however, writes that the group "appears to have fewer safeguards in place to make sure that aid actually reaches those in need, compared to U.N. groups who typically check IDs and use a database of registered families.

So, we have Jeremy Diamond here now from Jerusalem. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning.

Jeremy, can you just start about this group itself? What are the other controversies in their very early start?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation only exists because of these Israeli accusations for which they have not, we should note, provided public evidence that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza.

And so Israel has basically said, we are no longer going to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip through the traditional humanitarian channels that have mostly been run by United Nations agencies, like the World Food Programme and UNWRA, which is the main U.N. agency in the Palestinian territories. They have instead said, we're going to establish a new aid mechanism which is now run by this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, with the support of both Israel and the United States.

[06:40:09]

Now, there has been extensive reporting as well on the origins of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation originating in Israel among Israeli officials discussing this type of a mechanism. And that's why we have seen United Nations officials and -- and humanitarian agencies saying that they will not participate in this due to concerns over the group's impartiality.

It's also important to note that the group's executive director, Jake Wood, until a couple of weeks ago, he resigned out of concerns of his own about a lack of impartiality and an inability to adhere to humanitarian principles by running this group.

And -- and -- and so now we are seeing, of course, these scenes of chaos unfolding in Gaza. The reports of the Israeli military firing on people. These are the exact types of concerns that humanitarian aid officials have long had about this type of model.

CORNISH: How has the group responded? I mean, I know when it comes to the U.N. there's been a lot of criticism. They don't support the group. We're also hearing from another humanitarian group, for example, the adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, saying what we're seeing are people who are not experienced, who do not know what they're doing, who are not guided by humanitarian principles are, in fact, are weaponizing food as a means of furthering the -- Israel's military and political goals in Gaza.

How is the group responding to this?

DIAMOND: Yes, one of the primary concerns that humanitarian aid officials have had about this model is that it is creating just a few sites in the Gaza Strip. It was supposed to be four. Over the last few days it's actually just been one site in southern Gaza, in the Tel al- Sultan (ph) neighborhood of Rafah. And so what you have are thousands of people who are all heading to the -- this one aid site at the same time, often going very, very early in the morning or overnight because they know that if they get there later, supplies will have already run out and it's forcing them to walk through dangerous combat zones, designated combat zones by the Israeli military, walking through Israeli military lines, whereas the U.N. model would have hundreds of these distribution sites much closer to where people are actually living, bringing the aid to where people are rather than making them walk several miles at a time.

Now, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, for its part, they have insisted that there's been no shooting at the site itself. But these shootings are happening now a half a kilometer or one kilometer away from the site. And the only reason that people are there is in order to reach this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site. So, they may be trying to draw some distance here, but they are very much part and parcel of what we are seeing on the ground.

Audie.

CORNISH: That's Jeremy Diamond, CNN Jerusalem correspondent. Thanks so much.

All right, turning to domestic politics for a bit. Will she or wont she run for governor of California? We are talking about Kamala Harris. And that's the question many Democratic Party insiders are asking now. She didn't appear in person at the state's Democratic Party convention, opting instead to deliver a video message. And that's fueling speculation.

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KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The people of California and our nation deserve leaders who make their lives better and make our state and our country stronger.

While this administration in Washington tries to divide us, we here know we are stronger when we stand together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

And, Chuck, I know you have thoughts on this.

CHUCK ROCHA, SENIOR ADVISER, BERNIE SANDERS' 2016 and 2020 CAMPAIGNS: (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: As someone who has worked, you know, with presidential campaigns.

ROCHA: Welcome to the Chuck Rocha Ted Talk. My God, this is --

CORNISH: OK. Yes. Get going. Get going.

ROCHA: So, look, she can win the governorship and she doesn't have to be there to do that. But it is a bad look on her behalf. It's a -- it's like you're taking this thing for granted. It's exactly, for all of you at home scoring, what happened in the presidential campaign when she was anointed to be the nominee without any primary. There's a lot of folks in the party who think there should have been some kind of process. This is her more or less saying, I don't have to participate in the Democratic California process either. I can just win this thing, if I want this.

CORNISH: Ashley.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I don't know about that. I just don't -- maybe she doesn't know yet. And I think that she doesn't -- I mean, obviously everyone knows who she is. I think it's hers to lose.

I think she personally should run. She has the Olympics that she could oversee. And if she wants a platform to go. But I don't think her -- I mean these conventions, like, do they really mean anything?

CORNISH: Oh, you said that. I heard it, Ashley. I'm going to underscore because I'm of two minds. On the one hand, yes, her being in a box somewhere kind of was part of the problem during the campaign, right? This kind of untouchableness to her. But also parties, do they matter? Like I have very diminishing -- I feel like there's diminishing returns when it comes to Democratic -- when it comes to partisan party infrastructure.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I do think so. I think it really depends on that partisan party infrastructure, right, and whether they still want her.

[06:45:03]

I mean, I heard the Biden campaign stronger together in that -- in that video. And I don't know that rerunning that campaign is what they want to do in California.

CORNISH: Right. Meaning, this is her opportunity to start to have her own public political persona.

KUCINICH: Right. Exactly.

ROCHA: Primaries are different than generals. And remember, in California, it's a jungle primary where the Democrats and Republicans are on the ballot at the same time.

CORNISH: I'll never like the term "jungle primary," but also, California produces some of the top politicians that this country has had. So, we're going to keep an eye on it.

Group chat, stick around. We have got more to discuss.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, hurricane season is here. Are the key agencies ready? We're going to talk with FEMA's former administrator about the challenges of staffing shortages.

Plus, Republicans in Congress trying to make Elon Musk's DOGE cuts permanent. Do they have the votes? More from the group chat after this.

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[06:50:17]

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GOV. JOSH STEIN, NORTH CAROLINA: That's why we have the federal expertise. And we need the federal resources, because the scale of these storms are so massive. To eliminate FEMA would be a manmade disaster when we need FEMA to respond to natural disasters. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: That's North Carolina Governor Josh Stein calling for FEMA to be spared, not slashed.

Now, I want you to look at this headline from "The New York Times," because it zeroes in on the senior leaders leaving an already depleted agency that could lose even more of its workforce by the end of the year.

Now, this comes as multiple sources say the acting head of FEMA, David Richardson, claimed in a briefing that he was previously unaware the U.S. even has a hurricane season. A rep for the Homeland Security Department says the comment was made in jest, adding, "FEMA is laser focused on disaster response and protecting the American people."

Joining me now to discuss this former FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell.

Deanne, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

DEANNE CRISWELL, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Audie. Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: So, one of the things we've learned is that the acting head of FEMA had actually scrapped the agency's strategic plan, right, and -- which is a plan, I think, you were involved in.

Can you talk about what that means? How should we think about hurricane season when strategy cut and people and resources cut?

CRISWELL: Audie, the strategic plan really provides the vision for the entire agency, not just the response and recovery to hurricane season, but for every part of the agency, whether it's resilience and -- and building communities back stronger, how we're going to respond, but also how we're going to support our workforce. It really gives that leadership intent. And with that gone and not something in place, I think that there's still some ambiguity then as to what's going to be expected of FEMA coming into this hurricane season.

CORNISH: I was learning, for example, that one thing FEMA would do is go door to door, right, to have a program where you would actually deal with survivors. That's the kind of thing that might be cut here.

I -- you told our producers that there was a contract of more than $20 million that now has to go through DHS for approval first. I'm asking about this because we've also seen states not get the relief they've requested right away. Arkansas, Washington state, North Carolina. I mean, at certain points, they were denied emergency disaster relief. So, what does it mean that this new system has to go through DHS and essentially get approval before you just get the support you need?

CRISWELL: One of the things that is the most important when you are responding to one of these severe weather events, or as you begin the recovery process, is making sure that you can do it in a way that's efficient and timely to get help where it's needed most, when it's needed most.

And any time you add a layer of bureaucracy, like having to get additional approvals for something that in the past was able to be done through the FEMA administrator is just going to delay that ability to be able to respond, and that can put lives at risk, right? We want to be able to pre-position resources. You want to get them in place ahead of the storm. And you want to be able to employ them as soon as the storm passes. And you need to be able to have the freedom and the autonomy to do that without extra layers of scrutiny.

That's one of the reasons (INAUDIBLE) why the FEMA administrator was given a direct line to the president when it comes to disaster response, to make sure that that extra layer of bureaucracy didn't happen.

CORNISH: We're at the -- at the end, I think maybe, towards the end of tornado season. There were more than 60 deaths. What are your concerns going ahead for hurricane season?

CRISWELL: Just making sure that FEMA knows what the role is that they're going to play, right? As you said, we used to go door to door. FEMA used to go door to door. There's so many people that when these storms happen, they don't have electricity, and they don't have cell coverage. And one of the ways that they can access that immediate assistance is by having some of these teams, they go door to door and they make sure that they've entered the system. But also, making sure that they know whether or not they're going to be able to get that disaster declaration. It's really about partnerships between FEMA, the state and the local. States and locals always have the primary responsibility for response and recovery. FEMA just augments that. And if states are unsure if they're going to get that help, it's just going to make it harder for them to protect their communities.

CORNISH: That's former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell.

Thank you for your time.

CRISWELL: Thank you, Audie.

[06:55:02]

So, speaking of cuts. Elon Musk is no longer in the picture in D.C. His DOGE cuts, however, remain. Today is the day the process begins to codify or formalize them through Congress. The total package is expected to be more than $9 billion.

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RUSSELL VOUGHT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: We want to send up general rescissions bills to use the process if it's appropriate to get them through the House and the Senate. We also have pocket rescissions, which you've begun to hear me talk a lot about.

So, there's a lot of things that we're looking at. All of them geared towards figuring out how to make these cuts permanent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This might be an uphill climb. An analysis by "Business Insider" concludes, "for the first several months of President Donald Trump's second term, DOGE seemed like an unstoppable force. Now, political gravity is about to kick in.

Group chat is back.

Who wants to define political gravity for me? How do we think about that?

KUCINICH: I mean, it's all fun and games to talk about cuts until it's your district's program, or it's something that your district needs as a member of Congress or your state needs. And I think that's what they're going to run into.

We know that congressmen have back channeled and gotten certain things taken off the chopping block, and senators have done the same. And now this is coming in and everything's outlined. I think they're going to have friction here as they --

CORNISH: Yes.

KUCINICH: As the, you know, you start looking at certain sacred cows.

CORNISH: And also there were so many moments where people realized the potential effects of the cuts, right?

KUCINICH: Right.

CORNISH: Like, once there is this issue of air traffic controllers, people started being like, wait, what were the cuts again? So, I think there's been a little more concern.

DAVIS: But these cuts are just -- the ones that are going up today, and the House is, from what I understand, is supposed to try to take them up next week, this is just the cuts for four -- not just, I don't mean it that way --

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: But it's foreign aid and it's the PBS cuts. So, it's not that -- there's not a lot of that that's going to hit individual members. This would be the most popular in regards to Republicans that they have cut. I think once you get past the -- so, supposedly Russ Vought is supposed to send up a bunch of rescissions over the next couple months, but we'll see.

And what I just found out yesterday, which I didn't even quite understand, what if -- especially in the Senate, if they take a vote on this package, or parts of the package and it fails, you can't bring it up again under the Senate rules of this --

CORNISH: Got it.

DAVIS: Because rescission packages aren't usually eligible (ph). CORNISH: So, the lobbying is fast and furious.

DAVIS: Yes.

CORNISH: If you can get your -- your cut taken out of there, shot down, you can be safe for a little bit.

DAVIS: Yes.

ROCHA: One thing that I get confused on, and my former boss used to talk about the millionaires and billionaires for Bernie Sanders. But if you think about $9 billion, I was thinking about conflating the things that we just talked about, which was the budget, trying to go through the Senate right now. That would add $3 trillion to the national debt. If you really want to cut something, were talking about 9 billion compared to 3 trillion. Seems like there's other things you could be doing.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: Yes.

CORNISH: And, of course, Elon Musk himself has criticized the bill, saying that this kind of negates the work DOGE was doing given the amount of spending.

DAVIS: But he didn't understand that the big, beautiful bill is different than -- like, that wasn't cutting the budget. I think he came back and understood that after he made those comments. I mean, it's a nuance of Washington that obviously he doesn't know.

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: But -- so.

CORNISH: Even the average billionaire has trouble with it.

DAVIS: Doesn't know.

CORNISH: OK, I want to hear from you guys about what you're keeping an eye on.

Jackie, let me start with you.

KUCINICH: Senate finance is taking up Billy Long to be IRS commissioner. There have been four acting commissioners since the beginning of the year at the IRS.

CORNISH: OK, let's underscore that since.

KUCINICH: Four.

CORNISH: Since January, four people have been in charge of the IRS.

KUCINICH: Yes. So, potentially, assuming he gets through Finance, they're on the way to having a permanent head for -- CORNISH: Lucky number five.

KUCINICH: Number five. We'll see.

CORNISH: Yes, OK.

Chuck.

ROCHA: The numbers are coming back for us political nerds who look at data files on actually who voted. And it's really bad for Democrats. We did worse than we even thought. And with Jake Tapper's book coming out and seeing what went on at the White House, I'm waiting to see if there's ever going to be any real repercussions in Democratic consulting.

CORNISH: This is like the longest political autopsy. It's like a vivisection. Like, guys.

ROCHA: The numbers always come back this late, but we don't normally get our butt whooped that bad.

CORNISH: OK.

Ashley.

DAVIS: The stablecoin bill, which would be -- is going through the Senate this week. There's a little bit of controversy. Senator Hagerty and Senator Lummis are moving this through. This would be really the first piece of legislation that could pass both bodies and be signed by the president on crypto legislation. It's kind of a big deal.

CORNISH: On Cryptocurrency.

DAVIS: Crypto.

CORNISH: So, we finally have some kind of law around cryptocurrency.

DAVIS: We need it. We need -- well, it's -- not yet. We're not there yet. But, I mean, it's --

CORNISH: Yes. Well, that's why that dinner happened, right? People are doing their lobbying.

DAVIS: It's -- it's something that needs to happen. For -- we're the only like major country that doesn't have some sort of regulation.

ROCHA: You mean we actually may get something through the House and Senate that's signed into law? I thought for so long the first six months, we haven't seen much legislation. We've seen a lot of executive actions, but we haven't seen a lot of legislating.

DAVIS: June. We've got (INAUDIBLE).

ROCHA: June.

CORNISH: It's June. And there's about to be a bill this week, Mr. Political Nerd.

ROCHA: Whatever. If this was Democrats doing this, they'd be in the streets throwing their cowboy hats in the air.

CORNISH: OK. Hold on to your hat, Chuck, because the bill debate is happening.

KUCINICH: Literally.

[07:00:03]

CORNISH: Group chat, we talked about a lot today. As always, you guys bring a lot of energy and joy to the morning.

And thank you for spending time with us. We know you could spend it anywhere else, but you're here with us. I'm Audie Cornish and "CNN NEWS CENTRA" starts right now.