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Jazmine Ulloa is Interviewed about Immigration Detention; Musk Threatens to Form New Party; Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) is Interviewed about Immigration; Democrats Strategy Playbook for Next Election. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 01, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:56]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I am Audie Cornish. And thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's 6:30 here on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.

Senators slogging through a marathon voting session on the president's agenda. They've been at it more than 21 hours now, voting on amendments on the big, beautiful bill. You can see Senator Ted Cruz there. We heard from Thom Tillis of North Carolina that it could be a few more hours before the final vote.

And ahead, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will speak to the European Central Bank Forum. It comes just one day after President Trump sent him a handwritten letter chastising him for not lowering interest rates.

And today the president heads to Florida to visit a new immigrant detention facility dubbed "alligator Alcatraz." It's a tent city being built at an airfield and is expected to house 5,000 migrants. Now, it's surrounded by miles and miles of the everglades. Alligators and other dangerous wildlife are present. So, Florida officials say it needs a little security.

So, there's clearly strain on immigration detention facilities across the country. I want you to take a look at this story in "The New York Times." It finds that more than 56,000 undocumented immigrants are currently in government custody, exceeding the capacity of 41,000. So that's, doing a little math, more than 15,000 extra people. And that's why the administration is pushing for the opening of more detention centers like this "alligator Alcatraz."

Border Czar Tom Homan told our Kaitlan Collins, the big, beautiful bill will actually help that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: We can't wait for it to open. We'll put aliens in there as soon as we can. We got to get the big, beautiful bill passed so we can buy more beds.

The more beds we have, the more bad guys we arrest, more people we detain (ph).

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: How do you decide who goes there?

HOMAN: If you're in the country illegally, you got a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: For more on this we're going to bring in "New York Times" national reporter Jazmine Ulloa.

Jasmine, good morning. Thank you for being here.

JAZMINE ULLOA, NATIONAL REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Good morning.

CORNISH: I want to talk just about how these detention centers have been operating if they're over capacity. What were you learning in your reporting about what's going on?

ULLOA: Yes. So, as soon as the -- the Trump administration started ratcheting up raids and -- and federal actions at -- at homes, at workplaces, at businesses, we -- we started hearing from lawyers that they were having trouble accessing their clients, that it seemed like staff was overworked, that we were hearing that detainees were being kept in rooms that were meant to be just for -- to hold people a few hours at a time. And so we -- we -- we've gone to ICE. We've -- we've asked U.S. Customs and Border officials to -- about these overcrowded conditions and what we were hearing from people. And they've categorically denied any claims that they are overcrowded.

But we've -- we've spoken with more than a dozen lawyers, people who have been detained, their relatives who say, you know, they're -- they're -- some people are going a week or more without showers. They are getting insufficient food. I heard from one mother here in New York who said her son was shuffled across facilities across the country, had a very hard time connecting with him. Once she did, in Pennsylvania, she said that her son had spotted worms in the sink that -- that -- where they are -- that they used to acquire water.

And so, we've -- we've heard some very disturbing claims from -- from people who are in detention, and their lawyers, about not being able to get medications and so forth.

CORNISH: And in your story you actually write that at least ten immigrants have died in ICE custody in the six months since January 1st, two at the facility in Miami, the Krome Detention Center, which some people may have seen images where the detainees earlier this month formed a human S.O.S. sign in the yard. And then there were at least two deaths who were -- who were suicides, apparently, in Arizona, in Georgia.

[06:35:01]

I know the administration has denied this, but they are talking about this push for expansion for more facilities. Is that an acknowledgment that they're -- whatever they're doing, they -- they need more room and support to do it?

ULLOA: They definitely are asking for -- for more money, $45 billion in the -- in the bill. That's ten times more than the current budget. And it's important to note that immigration detention has been expanded under both Republican and Democratic administrations for the last ten -- ten years, 20 years. But -- but this -- this is -- what we're hearing from -- from lawyers is that the push is just greater than it's ever been. It concerns people. It concerns people that are -- that -- many people who do not have criminal charges that have tried to -- to follow the law, that have tried to apply -- that have tried -- that have entered the country and have tried to do it the right way, applying through humanitarian parole programs, whether that's CBP One, that -- that -- that the administration now considers wrongful or that they should have been temporary to begin with.

CORNISH: What's significant about "alligator Alcatraz"? Do you see this as a turning point or a significant moment in this process?

ULLOA: It's -- it's -- it's one -- one more point of -- of how much this has escalated and -- and how much they're looking to escalate and -- and make it -- from what I hear from lawyers, just how -- making the conditions so difficult here in the United States that people will self-deport on -- on their own.

CORNISH: Jazmine Ulloa is a national reporter for "The New York Times."

Thank you for sharing your reporting.

ULLOA: Thank you.

CORNISH: Elon Musk plans his own personal political revolution if President Trump's big, beautiful bill becomes law. In a post on X, Musk writes, "if this insane spending bill passes, the American Party will be formed the next day. Our country needs an alternative to the Democratic- Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a voice."

Even the most moderate Democrats find themselves agreeing with the world's richest man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Elon Musk is right about this. He's got it exactly right. The idea of borrowing $3.5 trillion on the nation's credit card in order to be able to give tax breaks to the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg is financially nuts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now it looks like Musk may be getting DOGE-ed by the -- by Donald Trump. Shortly before 1:00 this morning, the president posted on Truth Social that without subsidies Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. Quote, "no more rocket launches, satellites or electric car production and our country would save a fortune. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard look at this. Big money to be saved!!!"

The group chat is back.

Where to begin?

So, first, strangely, Democrats lately have loved saying, I agree with Elon Musk. I'm not sure where they think that's going to go. What do you hear in that moment?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, so is the love affair over completely? Like, is it done? Are they going to get back together?

CORNISH: Well, a new one just begun, if you have Elizabeth Warren jumping in.

CARDONA: Oh, my goodness.

But look, I halfway agree with Senator Warren. Musk is right in terms of the massive cost of this bill. It's going to be almost 4 trillion that it's going to add to the debt. So, the hypocrisy.

CORNISH: But, wait a second, he's calling for a third party. He's calling Republicans and Democrats a uniparty.

CARDONA: No, no, I understand.

CORNISH: OK.

CARDONA: Which is why I only half agree with what Warren said when she said he's exactly right. I don't think he's exactly right.

CORNISH: Fair.

CARDONA: He's right -- he's right on the cost of it, and on the hypocrisy, which is why he is threatening Republicans themselves for, you know, running primaries. And I think this is part of the threat, starting a new party. I don't think that's going anywhere. How many people have tried to start a third party? It is just, you know, it --

CORNISH: Have any of them been the world's richest man?

CARDONA: Well, no. That's right. But we also found that money doesn't buy everything, right?

CORNISH: Yes. Yes.

CARDONA: He tried to buy the Wisconsin race, and it didn't happen.

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": I mean, yes, this -- the -- the limits of what billionaire --

CARDONA: Exactly. DEMSAS: I mean he's the richest man in the world, and he really can't get many of his policy preferences through. They're going after his industry, the clean energy industry. They're going after his core beliefs, which are around -- are around deficit reduction.

But the other thing that I think is interesting here is, despite his disillusionment with the Republican Party, it doesn't seem like he's interested in returning to the Democratic Party. He's just completely out in the wind on his own, which I find to be, you know, in some ways kind of an indictment of Democrats' ability to provide an alternative to Republicans in this moment. They should be going after anyone in the clean energy industry and asking them, hey, we're the party for you. We passed the IRA. We're trying to defend these things. But if the richest man in the world, whose money is made off of solar and electric vehicles, whose money is being taken away by this administration, doesn't see a home for himself in the Democratic Party, I think that's a big problem.

[06:40:10]

CORNISH: The other thing, looking at this, Ashley, I wanted to ask you, is like, just -- it smacks of a kind of patronage system. Like, when I'm for you, I'm excited. But when I'm not for you, I guess I'm going to line item you out of the budget. I mean, where -- like, what is -- in the past people used to joke about the U.S. being some sort of banana republic, but that does give me vibes of a country where whoever -- you pay to play.

ASHLEY DAVIS, : Well, I -- this is the problem in my mind that everyone is doing their politics on social media and the 24 hour news cycle, right? I mean, like, first of all, I don't care if Elon and the president like each other. I don't care if Elon and the Democrats like each other. Like, I -- first of all, it's a lot of self worth.

CORNISH: But there's money at stake, right?

DAVIS: There is a lot of money at stake.

CORNISH: Like, in budget, not in budget.

DAVIS: But -- and there's also -- I think that Elon's always been a libertarian more than he's been anything. And so, he doesn't like the Democrat Party, going back to what you're saying, because of overregulation. But he does like the clean energy part of things.

But he, you know, listen, I think the bromance or whatever it was was going to end, and it ended badly. But there are --

CORNISH: Yes, but it's interesting it's ending over spending, right? He's talking about -- like, this is kind of undermining what DOGE has done.

DAVIS: He's talking about spending, but he's really talking about the tax on the -- the potential tax that the Democrats --

CARDONA: Sure. DAVIS: The Republicans put up yesterday in regards to some of the clean energy credits, which is new. I mean that's what's really makes him mad. But it does go back that he has a ton of federal contracts. And I'm a huge believer with what he's done with SpaceX. What he's been able to do to cut out the bureaucracy of the federal government by doing it with the private sector is unbelievable. So, we have to, like, walk this fine line.

CARDONA: Except for he's gotten so much money from the federal government, and therefore it's just hypocrisy, right?

DAVIS: He has, but it's so much better than giving it to NASA, where it goes into a black hole, literally.

CORNISH: Well, in the meantime he's tweeting --

CARDONA: Literally.

CORNISH: He's tweeting that about donating to Thomas Massie's re- election campaign, who, you know, like, he doesn't have any contracts in that --

CARDONA: Yes, I saw that. Right.

DAVIS: And that's going to be a party of like four, right? I mean -- so, I -- it's just -- and I agree with you, starting a new party is going to be tough.

CARDONA: Yes. That doesn't go anywhere.

DEMSAS: But also, Elon kind of reminds me a little bit of Trump one, where they come into Washington and they think, I have a lot of money, I'm an executive, I'm used to getting my way, and then they realize, there's a lot of things in the way.

CARDONA: Not the way it works.

DEMSAS: I mean there's -- there's a lot of power in the civil service branch, a lot of power that's been distributed by our Constitution. You can't just point your hand and make everything go the way it does. When you're the CEO of a tech company, where you go, you know, there's funny stories about people not wanting to get in the elevator with Elon because he'll just ask them, what do you do? And if he doesn't like your answer, he'll just fire you on the spot. And so, like, you can't do that in the federal government.

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: And that kind of behavior, and that kind of, you know, initiative --

(CROSS TALK)

DEMSAS: That was supposed to.

DAVIS: Yes, exactly. CARDONA: And there's no selflessness in what Elon Musk is doing. You know, he talks about the America party. He doesn't care about America. He only cares about himself.

CORNISH: It will be interesting to see where that money goes, if back into this political system.

You guys, stay with me. We've got a lot to talk about ahead.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, Democratic Congresswoman Yasamin Ansari of Arizona joins us. I'll ask her what happened when she showed up at an ICE detention center unannounced.

And more from the group chat after this.

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[06:47:19]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ): I'm heading to Eloy right now. I want to investigate and perform oversight, as I'm legally permitted to do as a member of Congress, and make sure that every single person that is in these detention centers is being treated with dignity and with respect, and given the due process that they are afforded by our Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: A key piece of the president's spending bill is immigration enforcement. Of course, if it passes, the Trump administration would get a huge cash infusion for its mass deportation plan.

And the latest Senate version of the bill carves out $46 billion, as we mentioned, for the installation and maintenance of border barriers, along with another $45 billion towards those immigration detention facilities to expand capacity. That's not even counting additional funds to hire and retain ICE agents.

And this is all happening as a Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship gives the president a green light to deny citizenship to someone born in the U.S., at least for now.

So, it's part of why some Democratic lawmakers are visiting ICE facilities to see firsthand how that money might be spent and raise concerns about the human impact of this.

And joining us now to discuss is Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari of Arizona.

Thank you so much for being here.

REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ): Thank you for having me. CORNISH: So, you actually went to an ICE facility. We were hearing

earlier today about poor conditions at some of these facilities. You have Trump apparently going to be in Florida to talk about "alligator Alcatraz." What is your concern about the conditions for people being held in these places?

ANSARI: I'm horrified by the conditions. I -- I visited Eloy Detention Center. It's about an hour outside of Phoenix. And went in. The process to get in was quite smooth. I was inside the facility for about three hours. But the most impactful part was the ability to actually speak with dozens of women who were eating lunch in the cafeteria. Originally, the person giving me the tour allowed me to speak with them. And when I tell you that women were rushing to me to try to tell me their stories as quickly as possible, I'm not exaggerating. They -- they told me stories about everything from forced marches outside in the Arizona heat, which is deadly, and women passing out as a result, to extremely dehumanizing and degrading rhetoric that they regularly face --

CORNISH: Yes.

ANSARI: To purposeful turning off of air conditioning. Again, Arizona heat is deadly. And then after about 30 minutes, the person who allowed me to speak with them rushed over to say, actually, I shouldn't have let you talk to these people and -- and we have to keep going. And they really present you with a lot of diplomatic talking points during the tour.

So, it's overcrowded. We know that the companies profiting off of this policy, like GEO Group, CoreCivic, they have made billions of dollars because these quotas that the Trump administration is trying to meet, and often go -- mostly going after people who are not serious criminals, as they originally said.

[06:50:10]

It's also to make these companies massive amounts of money because they helped get Donald Trump elected to office.

CORNISH: Can I follow up on something you were just saying there because I was noting that ICE has arrested more than 130 Iranian nationals just in one week. That's double like the whole year's amount of arrests before.

ANSARI: Yes

CORNISH: And the acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, actually told Fox News that they're targeting high-risk, high-threat countries that want to do harm to the U.S. So, they are kind of rounding up people who may have military service -- served in Iran, where it's mandatory, frankly.

ANSARI: Yes.

CORNISH: I think we have some sound of him, how he's thinking about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD LYONS, ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: ICE had -- is at the forefront of making sure that we're rounding up all these individuals, or attempting to locate the ones that did get in. You know, you did see that list of individuals that were arrested. You have one that -- with admitted ties to Hezbollah. We also arrested a former sniper from a hostile country who snuck into the United States. So, those are the type of individuals we want to locate before they can do anything here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now we're hearing the term "sleeper cells." How do you think about all this? I know -- I believe your family is from Iran. Can you talk about this targeting?

ANSARI: So, on top of the atrocious way that Donald Trump handled the foreign policy aspect and the -- the fact that he almost got us into a massive war in the Middle East, another consequence of what just happened over the last couple of weeks with Iran is how Iranian Americans are now being treated and going to be treated in the United States.

There are about 1 million Iranians in the United States total. They've been here -- many have been here for decades. We know -- I have already gotten dozens of calls about folks who have been arrested or who are being, you know, detained. I don't know the specifics of every single case, but what I can tell you is I don't trust this administration to be going after real criminals across the board, whether or not they are Iranian or not. They want to justify their policies and the additional funding that we are seeing in the Republican budget bill right now to funnel more money to ICE. We know it's about ten times the amount of money that ICE currently gets.

And so, the fact of the matter is, they're going to go after folks. I -- I was called a "sleeper cell" by Laura Loomer just on social media last week. I mean you have people who are just deeply, deeply racist. Of course, you know, the U.S. and Iran have had tough issues over the last 45 years, but it's the Iranian people who have suffered the most under the regime. And the people in this country of Iranian heritage are the ones who have fled that regime, the ones who came to the United States in search of a better life, just like my parents did in the 1970s.

CORNISH: I understand in terms of the big, beautiful bill, you have a plan to be reading it on the House floor. I mean this is being debated in the Senate. This is really a performance. But what do you think is the value of this kind of performance?

ANSARI: So, we'll be outside the Capitol steps starting at 8:00 a.m. today to read the entirety of the most recent version of the bill that we have. What we know for a fact is that the more Americans find out the details of this bill, the less popular it is. It is becoming more and more unpopular by the day, because why would it be popular? Seventeen million people will lose their health care. Millions of jobs will be lost because of tax -- taxes on the clean energy industry. People will lose food assistance. More money will go to an emboldened ICE.

So, I think the more that Democrats can do to push back and to show to the public all of the horrific aspects of this bill, we're going to read every single line of this piece of legislation. There's other members of Congress joining us.

CORNISH: Yes.

ANSARI: We have youth groups, high school students, college students, the rest. And we have to keep putting the pressure on.

I don't think this is over. Of course, it's a long shot, but I think we have to fight till the bitter, bitter end because people's lives are literally on the line here.

CORNISH: All right, Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, thank you so much for being here.

ANSARI: Thank you.

CORNISH: Appreciate your time.

ANSARI: Thank you.

CORNISH: All right, it is now 53 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

The suspect in the case of four murdered University of Idaho students has agreed to a plea deal. Sources familiar with the deal tell CNN that Bryan Kohberger pled guilty to four counts of murder and likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. He's avoiding the death penalty and also waiving his right to appeal.

Jury deliberations continue today in the case against Sean "Diddy" Combs. Just one hour into deliberations yesterday, the jury sent a note to the judge saying that a wild card juror apparently cannot follow the judge's instructions. So, the judge sent a note back reminding them of their duty to follow the rules. That juror is a 51- year-old male from Manhattan who works as a scientist.

And President Trump threatening Japan with more tariffs after claiming the country, quote, "won't buy our rice." That's not true. Just last year, Japan bought almost $300 million worth of rice from the U.S. And in the first four months of this year, $114 million worth. That's according to the U.S. Census Bureau's trade data. The Japanese government declined to comment on Trump's claim, but they do say trade talks are ongoing.

[06:55:01]

And it wasn't that long ago that we were hearing Democrats talking about the roadmap for Republicans during last year's presidential election dubbed Project 2025. And they were talking about it like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENAN THOMPSON, COMEDIAN: You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?

MALLORY MCMORROW (D), MICHIGAN STATE SENATOR: They went ahead and wrote down all the extreme things that Donald Trump wants to do.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO: Donald Trump's Project 2025 would abandon our troops, abandon our veterans, our allies and our principles.

MALCOLM KENYATTA (D), PENNSYLVANIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Usually Republicans want to ban books, but now they're trying to shove this down our throats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now Democrats may be getting ready to make a book of their own. They're going to call it Project 2029 for the next presidential election. According to a report in "The New York Times," outside Democratic strategists plan to roll out an agenda over the next two years. Ultimately, quote, "the goal is to turn it into a book, just like Project 2025, and to rally leading Democratic presidential candidates behind those ideas during the 2028 primary season."

The group chat is back, where Jerusalem Demsas is already chuckling. You might have wanted to have given it a minute until I had finished.

What is it about this that you --

DEMSAS: It's making me laugh. I just -- we just saw this lineup of Democrats holding up Project 2025, and it was a big albatross around the neck of Donald Trump. He tried to disavow it. He said it wasn't about him. He said -- I mean, obviously, he's actually passing many of these policies now, but he saw it as a negative over explanation of many of the more unpopular parts of his agenda. And now Democrats are like, let's copy the thing that almost helped Trump lose last time. Why don't you call it something else? Why don't you call it like a plan to make America, you know, better or whatever it is. Like, you know?

CORNISH: That's not sexy, and that's why that's not your job.

DEMSAS: Well, that's right.

CORNISH: So, let me move on.

Here's the thing about Project 2025. First of all, it was very good at whittling down ideas and distilling them, gathering the, quote/unquote, best -- kind of best minds of the community, creating a kind of loyalty, like benchmark, for, like, do you agree with this? Do you not? And also creating a scenario where they, like, actually then went on to implement huge chunks of it. That's --

DEMSAS: Yes, but that's the point of think thanks and that's the point of that (INAUDIBLE). So, it's not (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Yes.

CARDONA: That's -- well --

CORNISH: So, for you, do you actually look at this and see -- is it just silly to call it Project 2029, or was there something there that you see worth emulating?

CARDONA: I think what's worth emulating is to actually have a plan.

CORNISH: Yes.

CARDONA: Once we have a candidate, and once that candidate hopefully wins the White House.

CORNISH: Do you think because Project 2025 had Trump, there was something to kind of line up behind?

CARDONA: Yes. But here's the problem. I think the reason why Project 2025 was so successful in terms of now we're -- we are seeing the implementation of everything that Democrats had our hair on fire about, right? And the difference is that all of those horrendous policies that are now being implemented are things that are going to hurt the country for years to come, and the middle class, and working class, and everyone that Trump promised to help.

CORNISH: Yes.

CARDONA: Fr Democrats in 2029, I don't really care what it's called. It's going to be the ideas and the candidate that is going to drive this. The reason why Project 2025 worked so well is because Trump was an empty vessel. He didn't have any ideas of his own, except for maybe one or two, the tariffs, which we know he talked about forever.

CORNISH: Yes, let me let Ashley --

CARDONA: He didn't have any ideas. And so it was easy to insert these horrendous extremist ideas into him that he now is calling his own.

CORNISH: When I was researching the -- the Project of 2025, one of the things they said was, before, if you wanted to be in the government, you had to have prior experience, and that meant you were part of the Bush era, and they kind of wanted the Bush folks to go away. So, I'm asking you --

CARDONA: Yes, no one likes us.

DAVIS: Well, Democrats like us now.

No, but, I mean, let's go back to like "Contract for America." I mean, like, these plans have -- I don't know why they're calling it Project 2029, but plan -- as you said, I would think Democrats, as well as Republicans, need something to go behind to stay on message.

Obviously, the -- the president's issues were tariffs and they're closing the border. And that's what he's doing. Everyone's getting behind it on the Republican side. And I'm assuming the Democrats are going to figure out what they're for.

I mean, look, the messaging right now with the candidate in New York for mayor, that's kind of not going to be the mainstream messaging for probably the rest of the country. I mean, you're not going to go behind some of his issues. And so, having something that the Democrats can support too.

CARDONA: Except for affordability.

DAVIS: Affordability. Yes. Yes.

CARDONA: We can all get around --

DAVIS: That's true.

CORNISH: Yes.

CARDONA: Get -- get behind affordability --

DAVIS: That is true. Just not free affordability.

CARDONA: Which was the number one issue.

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: Yes. Yes. Yes.

CARDONA: You know, it's -- the approach is what will differ, right?

DAVIS: Yes.

CARDONA: But affordability, I think, is the one thing that Democrats should continue to talk about regardless.

CORNISH: Let me give the last few seconds to Jerusalem --

DEMSAS: Yes.

CORNISH: Because I don't know what they're going to get behind --

DEMSAS: I mean --

CORNISH: Abundance, housing, zoning. Like, what are we talking about here?

DEMSAS: I mean, I -- I would hope. That's an entire dream.

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: Everyone get behind that.

But I think the -- the real problem for Democrats is this -- it feels like likely to turn into the same thing we saw in the 2020 election, 2016 election even, where you have groups demanding that every candidate fall in line behind their various goals.

[07:00:10]

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: And so, as long as it doesn't turn into that, I think it's, you know, it's good for the Democratic Party perhaps.

CORNISH: All right, as we speak, I think we're hearing, is it J.D. Vance heading to the Senate to help? We don't have video, but we hear he's going to his old stomping ground to do some handshaking. Still debate on that big, beautiful bill.

I'm Audie Cornish. And the headlines on that are coming up next on "CNN NEWS CENTRAL."