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Jury Resumes Deliberations in Combs Trial; Senate Scraps A.I. Regulation; Trump Questions Mamdani's Immigration Status; Julie Rovner is Interviewed about Medicaid Cuts; Musk Threatens to Primary Members of Congress. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 02, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: What is next in the trial for the rap mogul. Well, the judge is pressing the jury to keep deliberating, even as the jury told the court they have, quote, "jurors with unpersuadable opinions on both sides."

Inside the courtroom, Combs seems to be focused on his family, whispering to them before they left for the day. Quote, "I'll be all right. Love you."

Joining me now to talk about this case is CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams.

Elliot, usually we talk about a bunch of things, but today we're going to focus on just this.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: OK.

CORNISH: What does it mean that these jurors would say, sex trafficking, we think you may have done that. All these other cases, you may have done that. And then they stop at, what, you may have had other people work with you in doing that? What is it that they're pausing on?

WILLIAMS: RICO, or racketeering, is just a far more complicated charge because you have to establish that the defendant established a criminal enterprise or was part of a criminal enterprise that served to commit a number of other criminal acts. It's just -- there's a lot more going on there. It's very different than saying, I brought this person across state lines to have sex with them or to coerce them to engage in a sex act. So, it's just bigger, more complicated.

CORNISH: You're -- the charge is saying, I got others involved in helping me do that?

WILLIAMS: Yes. Arson, drug trafficking or arson or drug trafficking or witness tampering or sex acts or whatever else. It's just more complex.

Now, you know, it's not impossible. And based on the evidence that's been established so far, certainly a jury could find a conviction on a RICO charge here. But, yes, it is just a more complex charge than the other ones here.

CORNISH: How long can the judge keep them deliberating?

WILLIAMS: Well, he can keep them as long as he wants. Now, if the question is, when will they actually be deadlocked? There comes a point at which a jury will say, we cannot come to -- to a unanimous decision here.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Now, it is incredibly --

CORNISH: Because the judge said yesterday, go back.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes.

CORNISH: In a gentle way.

WILLIAMS: In a gentle way.

CORNISH: But he can do a more formal instruction.

WILLIAMS: He can do a more formal instruction that says that you have a legal obligation to find unanimity in some way. Juries often come back saying that they can't agree. The judge kindly and gently sends them back into the back room, and they usually work it out or often work it out as long as they can. And as they made clear on the very first day here, at least one juror, maybe others, were so dug into their positions, even from the moment they sat down, that it did not appear that they were going to find consensus.

CORNISH: And before I let you go, I emphasize the jurors. The idea that there is more than one person who is unpersuadable, according to these jurors.

WILLIAMS: Yes. And again, that's not uncommon either. It's -- different people come in with -- with different positions. Now, it does appear, just based on that fact, that there are at least some votes to convict, leading to the suggestion that they're probably convicting him on some of the other charges that aren't RICO, because of the fact that at least some of the people on racketeering, pardon me, on the other charges, you know what I mean?

CORNISH: Yes. Yes.

WILLIAMS: But at least some -- at least somebody is voting to convict him on racketeering. So, we'll see what happens there.

CORNISH: OK. All right, Elliot, I'm sure we're going to see more of you today as this conversation continues.

WILLIAMS: Do we need to? I don't know. You know, we shall see. I don't know.

CORNISH: I mean, I like you, but I'm biased.

WILLIAMS: Oh, look at that. (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams.

All right, so far, President Trump's controversial tax cut and spending bill is turning out to have some winners and some losers. Among the winners, big tech and A.I. A proposal to block states from regulating artificial intelligence for ten years. Well, that has been scrapped. It was soundly defeated in the Senate on Tuesday in a 99-1 vote. The measure faced stiff resistance from both parties and some of the president's biggest backers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREEN (R-GA): When we look to the future, we cannot take away states' rights to regulate or make laws to protect the people in their state.

STEVE BANON, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: There should be no compromise of this. It should be the states, you know, they should not block the states for ten years. This moratorium against the states for ten years is -- is absolutely -- is absolutely outrageous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Kate Knibbs, senior writer for "Wired."

So, Kate, I wanted to talk to you because it is so rare for lawmakers to vote on something 99-1. And this legislation would have prevented states from regulating A.I. for a decade. There was an attempt at a compromise. What happened to it?

KATE KNIBBS, SENIOR WRITER, "WIRED": Yes. So, on Sunday night, Senator Blackburn and Senator Cruz presented Congress with updated language for the provision, and it knocked the pause down from a full ten years to five years, and then it also included some carveouts for things like child sexual exploitation content, child safety, things that Senator Blackburn really cares about because she has a big constituency in the music industry. So, things like right of publicity. She was really hoping, I think, that they would be able to take this and make something work because the White House really wanted this moratorium in the bill.

However, the response to this compromise was just about as negative as you can get. I think I saw Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders come out against it, which you don't see very often.

[06:35:04]

CORNISH: I was noting that ahead of it Howard Lutnick, at the White House, was saying that he supported that compromise. And he also tried to say that the reason why it was necessary, it "counters attempts by Gavin Newsom to impose a divisive, race-based A.I. agenda nationwide." Sort of the argument here that there would be kind of a rush by maybe blue states to regulate. Why do you think that argument fell short? KNIBBS: I think it was just completely overwhelmed by all of the very

legitimate concerns that a very diverse group of people had about the language in the compromise. There were a lot of fears that the compromises language would basically give big tech a blank check to do whatever they wanted because of how broadly it defined undue burden, which, you know, it was just sort of sloppily written and people saw that and they just strongly opposed it.

CORNISH: This reminds me of this hearing in May where you had some -- some tech leaders who were asked about their concerns about heavy- handed government regulation on artificial intelligence. For example, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM ALTMAN, CEO, OpenAI: I -- I think that would be disastrous. I believe the industry is moving quickly towards figuring out the right protocols and standards here, and we need the space to innovate and to move quickly.

MICHAEL INTRATOR, CEO, COREWEAVE: A patchwork of regulatory overlays will cause friction in -- in the ability to build and extend what we're doing.

BRAD SMITH, PRESIDENT, MICROSOFT: We have to be very careful not to have these pre-approval requirements, including at state levels, because that would really slow innovation in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Kate, we've seen CEOs from the A.I. industry, you know, they were in the Saudi court with the president. Like, they have been involved in trying to move this industry forward. But where are we now? Where does regulation go from here?

KNIBBS: So right now, because the moratorium was stripped from the bill, state lawmakers are still capable of passing the patchwork of laws that so many of the tech CEOs fear. I think everyone involved wants there to be some sort of federal regulatory framework for A.I., but we are sort of back to where we started.

CORNISH: All right, Kate Knibbs, senior writer at "Wired," where you can follow her work. Thank you so much.

KNIBBS: Thank you.

CORNISH: It is official, Zohran Mamdani is the Democrats' choice for New York City mayor. Yesterday, a final count of the city's ranked choice votes secured him the win. He clinched the nomination during last week's primary. He's made promises of free busses, low cost grocery stores, even stopping ICE from deporting New Yorkers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Zohran Mamdani, who in his nomination speech said he will defy ICE and will not allow ICE to arrest criminal aliens in New York City. Your message to communists Zohran Mamdani?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, then we'll have to arrest him. A lot of people are saying he's here illegally. He's -- you know, we're going to look at everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, a couple facts for you. Mamdani legally migrated to the U.S. as a child from Uganda. Mamdani responded to the president on Spectrum News One last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: What we're seeing in President Trump's rhetoric is an attempt to focus on who I am, where I'm from, what I look like, how I sound, as opposed to what I'm actually fighting for. Because to do so would be to display the stark contrast in our sincerity and actually delivering for the very working people who've been left behind by our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

Kristen, I want to start with you because he is, obviously, because of his success in New York, become a kind -- literal lightning rod, right, where people are drawn to criticizing him. House Republican Andy Ogles tweeted that Mamdani is, quote, "an anti-Semitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great city of New York," which I kind of expect to hear something like that, but it was the second part, a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, "calling for him to be subject of denaturalization proceedings." He's a naturalized citizen, I think, as of 2018.

You have Laura Loomer tweeting about him.

Can you talk about this effort to basically say, you're not American? Not that you're a bad politician.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well --

CORNISH: But you're not and shouldn't be an American, and maybe we should do something about that.

ANDERSON: Yes, if you believe in free speech, then you should believe that somebody can say something you disagree with and that does not remove their right to be an American. This feels very ugly to me.

And, frankly, a lot of this, in some ways, is a gift to Mamdani. To the extent that he won this Democratic primary, which is not a really high turnout affair and is going to be headed into a general election in November, where it's not likely that a Republican will win, but there are going to be the independent challenge from Eric Adams, et cetera. Being this lightning rod and being someone who is on a very national level, coming under fire from Donald Trump and from the far right of the GOP, is something that I think can only help Mamdani to kind of unify even skeptical, more centrist Democrats behind him.

[06:40:04]

CORNISH: Sabrina, you're nodding. I mean, is it the idea of going after him for that versus just being a sanctuary city? I notice New York Governor Kathy Hochul saying that, you know, "if you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you're picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers, starting with me."

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, I mean, I fully agree with what Kristen said here 100 percent. I mean, the -- the reality is, this is drawing even more attention to Mamdani. This is drawing even more attention to his platform.

I think it's unifying people who maybe don't agree with some of the more left leaning proposals that he has. You know, we've seen, in the immediate aftermath of the election, you know, more centrist Democrats kind of struggling with, oh, you know, some of the perception around what he said before about Israel or some concerns about, you know, wanting to do city run grocery stores and some, again, more of the left-leaning positions that he has.

But when you have Donald Trump talking about deporting him, that sort of brings together a lot of people to say, wait a minute.

CORNISH: Yes.

RODRIGUES: I might not like some of the policy positions he has, but we're talking about something completely different.

CORNISH: But in a way over time it has worked in the past to go after the reputations of members of the squad, so to speak, in the House. I don't know, Zach, how you're feeling kind of about, as I like to use from your newsletter, what matters here.

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER: I mean, I -- I don't think that the White House minds having a fight, and they -- with Mamdani. They would love to build him up and have him be kind of the person that, you know, people associate with the Democratic Party. That's something -- that's something that they would invite. And I don't think that they care about if the language that they use to do it is ugly or is, frankly, wrong.

CORNISH: Yes.

WOLF: That's not something that's going to concern them.

CORNISH: I'm going too long here, but, Kristen, I have to ask, like, it's one of those things where it's one thing to call someone a Muslim socialist who is not. It's another thing when someone is basically, like, you can't hurt me with those words, right? Like, these are the things that he stands for. And it's a new sort of position in the Democratic Party of strength. Democratic, a democratic socialist.

ANDERSON: Yes, this was -- this was a surprising win. And -- and it is, I think, notable about where at least the Democratic base is in a city like New York. I don't know how transferable that is to things like a broader Democratic Party nationwide. But our politics look very different than they did 10, 20 years ago.

CORNISH: Yes. And for a time we looked at New York and thought, are things changing there? So, we'll -- we'll see.

Group chats, stick around. We got a lot more to talk about.

In fact, still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, as Elon Musk and Donald Trump are at it again, why the president is now threatening to turn DOGE on the former first buddy.

Plus, Republicans are racing to pass Trump's agenda through Congress, but what will that actually mean for you? We're going to take a closer look at how the cuts to Medicaid could be felt for millions.

More from our friends here at the table after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:24]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I wish every senator who voted for this had to shadow a doctor like me for just one day. They'd see the patients that I had to talk to about affording their chemotherapy, mothers rationing their kids' insulin because they can't afford it, and people dying too young, not because medicine failed them, but because finances did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, so Medicaid may, in fact, end up looking very different if the president's spending bill passes. And now Republicans seek to add a new work requirement that could impact millions. It's part of an effort to rein in the nation's safety net program with up to $1 trillion in cuts. While the bill would cap and reduce taxes states impose on hospitals, it would also require most adults to work, volunteer or study 80 hours a month to qualify for enrollment.

So, what does that mean for the millions of people who rely on the program? Well, we're joined now by Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Family Foundation Health News.

Julie, good morning.

JULIE ROVNER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, KFF HEALTH NEWS: Good morning.

CORNISH: So, I want to talk about this work requirement. The idea of work requirements is not new. States have done it for a while. Can you talk about what's distinct about how it's done in this bill?

ROVNER: Yes. Most people on Medicaid already meet these requirements. They either work or they go to school or they care for someone at home. The problem isn't the work requirement itself. The problem is the

paperwork that's involved with the work requirement. What we found in states that have tried to do this is that people have difficulty reporting these activities or proving that they've done these things. They have trouble uploading documents. Someone described it as like having to file your income taxes every month. That's how eligible people end up losing coverage. And indeed, the Congressional Budget Office says that perhaps as many as 12 million people could lose coverage if this bill becomes law.

CORNISH: I also want to talk about the effect on hospitals, because I don't always understand hospital math, right? How do changes to Medicaid affect everybody else? What does it mean for that industry?

ROVNER: Well, people get sick regardless of whether they have insurance. So, if they have Medicaid and they get sick and they come to the hospital, the hospitals get paid. They don't necessarily get paid as much as they would if the people had private insurance or Medicare, but they do get paid something. If these people lose their insurance, they're still going to come to the hospital, the hospital is still going to treat them, but now they won't get paid. This is a huge problem for hospitals that have large populations of Medicaid patients. That includes inner city urban hospitals, but also rural hospitals where a lot of people are on Medicaid. So, if these people become uninsured, the hospitals could well go under.

CORNISH: And finally, the math. I don't know if it's semantics about whether these are cuts or changes or increases.

[06:50:05]

Help me understand the talking points.

ROVNER: Yes, this goes back years and years and years to when Congress used to try to cut Medicare and there were arguments that we're not really cutting it. It's true that Medicaid spending will continue to grow. But if it doesn't keep up with the cost of health care or the number -- the numbers who are eligible, then there will be less money. There will -- for these hospitals, for these people. So, yes, the -- in the aggregate, Medicaid spending will go up, but that doesn't mean that people won't lose their coverage and hospitals won't be hurt by the fact that they're going to have to treat patients who don't have any insurance.

CORNISH: Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Family Foundation Health News.

Thank you. Julie.

ROVNER: Thank you.

CORNISH: It is now 50 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Paramount agrees to pay a $16 million settlement over Trump's "60 Minutes" interview lawsuit last year. Trump accused the company of editing a question with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Now, as part of the settlement, Paramount agrees to release full transcripts of all future presidential candidates. The settlement money will go directly to Trump's future presidential library. Notably, the settlement does not include an apology.

And the man accused of killing four college students in Idaho is set to enter a plea deal today. The deal helps Bryan Kohberger avoid the death penalty. At least one of the victims' families is not happy with this. There are still so many questions unanswered that likely would have come out during the trial, including why the students were targeted.

And overnight, the European wildfires have now turned deadly in Spain. Two people were killed. It's a combination of extreme winds and record high heat that are causing these dangerous conditions. But some relief is in sight. A cold front is expected to move in by midweek.

And a California warehouse of fireworks up in flames. You can see multiple explosions sparked at the facility yesterday. This is, of course, just days before the Fourth of July holiday. It's unclear what caused the blast, and officials have not yet said whether anybody was hurt.

And in the next few hours, we're going to learn Tesla's latest sales numbers. Wall Street analysts are bracing for more fallout from CEO Elon Musk's latest feud with Donald Trump. Tesla's share prices slipped again this week as Musk reopens his battle with the president over the tax and spending bill making its way through Congress. Musk has been slamming the bill for increasing the deficit and says members who vote for it will, quote, "lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this earth." The latest attacks from the former first buddy are drawing the ire of President Trump. He's now threatening to unleash Musk's old government job, the Department of Government Efficiency, against the man who created it in the first place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We might have to put DOGE on Elon, you know? You know what DOGE is? DOGE Is the monster that have -- that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Musk responding to those comments on X, writing, "so tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now."

The group chat is back.

It's the last thing he'll do on earth, folks, but he's planning to go to Mars. So, I feel like maybe that's not so long.

ANDERSON: That's an interesting out. I hadn't thought about it.

CORNISH: I don't know. I don't know. OK, so, let me go back to what's in the tax and spending bill if we

can put that up because one of the things I noticed is an end to EV tax credits. And Tesla, of course, would like automated vehicles. And Tesla itself benefits from these tax credits.

Are we looking at a business spat or just this is really a personal breakdown? Because I thought Musk had apologized, or at least withdrawn.

Anyone?

WOLF: I -- who -- who knows?

CORNISH: I know.

WOLF: But it's definitely a spat. I think that's -- that's what we can confirm.

You know, it -- the -- the -- Elon Musk's politics are so weird in a lot of ways because, on the one hand, he's very interested in climate change. He wants to go to Mars because he feels like the human race is, you know, going to end if we don't get interplanetary.

CORNISH: Yes.

WOLF: There's something driving him there. But he also wants very little government. So, I mean, the guy is kind of everywhere.

CORNISH: I know. Well, no, it's interesting you say that because I think of that very much in line with the tech right, which is what he's the leader of, right? Like, they care about population. They care -- they care about clean energy. It doesn't fall along the typical party lines.

ANDERSON: Well, and what makes it extra challenging for Musk in particular is that so many of the businesses that he has are in markets that are not sort of good, commercial, ripe markets for consumers.

CORNISH: Yet.

ANDERSON: So, you are reliant on --

CORNISH: Yet.

ANDERSON: Yet. And so, you are reliant on government contracts for your rockets, for tax credits for your cars. I mean, I think some of his other companies are things like they -- they bore a lot of tunnels. Like, that's the sort of thing where you can see there being a big role between his business and the government. It's kind of tough when you're also of the mind that government ought to be doing as little as possible.

[06:55:07]

RODRIGUEZ: But it's also personal. I mean they had a close relationship. You know, Elon Musk was on the campaign trail with Trump, was really locked in at the beginning of this administration. I mean he became sort of like the boogeyman for Democrats, framing everything around what Elon Musk was doing.

CORNISH: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: So, some of this just feels like a really bad breakup that has like gone to the public and -- and hearing sort of that back and forth over, yes, policy, but again, just like a personal, personal gripe.

CORNISH: So, there may not be this like big movement behind him, political movement. But looking at the latest Quinnipiac poll, it did find that the big, beautiful bill has taken a big hit in this debate, in this -- you're nodding. Is that true?

ANDERSON: Well, the big, beautiful bill, I mean, most polls are showing opposition as a majority or higher.

CORNISH: Yes. This one's from Quinnipiac.

ANDERSON: But the -- the thing that's tough about polling this bill is I -- I -- this bill is like the Cheesecake Factory menu of policies.

CORNISH: Great reference.

ANDERSON: I mean there's -- everything is in there. And so, Republicans are voting for it because it has some things that they really love, even if there are some things that maybe not all of them love, as we saw in that -- that Murkowski clip earlier. And that means that how you frame it in a question, which items off that menu you decide to put at the foreground of your poll question, will affect it.

I've also seen polling that says, if you talk about it as, we're going to make sure that benefits are just for legal Americans, and we're going to have work requirements, that those things can test well. The question is, when they're implemented, then what does it look like for the American people?

CORNISH: Yes. And something we played earlier I want to bring back, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. This is a good example of the awkwardness now around talking about this thing, right? You mentioned in your newsletter that, you know, she managed to get what she needed done for her state.

WOLF: Yes. And, you know, her state needs a lot of federal funding. I think it's more federal spending per resident than most -- than the vast majority of states, maybe not the most, but it's a lot.

At the same time, there are a lot of people on Medicaid in Alaska. So, this bill will disproportionately affect them in a way that I don't think she really understands.

And, by the way, that sound bite was so amazing because she -- she --

CORNISH: Oh, we got to play this again. So, somebody actually asked her about her vote. She voted yes on the bill after a lot of reluctance. Here that is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN NOBLES, NBC NEWS: Senator Paul said that this was -- that your vote was a bailout for Alaska at the expense of the rest of the country.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Oh, my.

NOBLES: That's what Senator Paul said. (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, we've got the --

NOBLES: I didn't say it, ma'am. I'm just asking for your response.

MURKOWSKI: My response is, I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska.

Do I like this bill? No, because I try to take care of Alaska's interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, as an ex-Senate reporter, that was the longest 14 seconds of silence in my life.

WOLF: And this --

CORNISH: I still feel it, and it wasn't my question.

WOLF: But it's like, you know, she needs an Oscar for that because she was going to get that question. She looked so surprised, but she absolutely knew that was coming. And she had to know how she was going to answer it.

But thanks to, you know, Ryan Nobles, our former colleague --

CORNISH: Yes.

WOLF: He -- he -- he stuck with it and didn't -- didn't give up. So, good for him.

CORNISH: And I want to ask you guys now what you're keeping an eye on. We are just here in the middle of the week. We're obviously paying attention to the Diddy verdict maybe and this House vote.

Sabrina, can I talk to you? What are you keeping an eye on?

RODRIGUEZ: Tariffs. The deadline. The 90-day deadline that -- that President Trump had set to -- to negotiate.

CORNISH: With all these countries.

RODRIGUEZ: With all these countries is up next week. So, I think --

CORNISH: How many people have actually made deals so far? RODRIGUEZ: Very limited. They've made headway on certain conversations. But in terms of the 90 deals in 90 days, we're very far from that. And Trump himself said this week in an interview that he, you know, was, well, we don't need to have deals with all of them. So, I think the tariff conversation is going to come back up. And I will say, personally, I'm following a lot of "Love Island." So, that's my -- my cleanse.

CORNISH: "Love Island" is a job. I can't commit.

Kirsten, you? What are you keeping an eye on?

ANDERSON: Oh, I'm so much more boring than that.

I'm keeping an eye on this North Carolina Senate race. It's one of the most contested Senate races that's going to be coming up next year. Democrats obviously eager if not to outright win control of the Senate to at least make some inroads, make it harder for Republicans to corral all of their -- herd all of their cats over there, so to speak. And the possibility that Lara Trump could enter this race. I expect that she would clear the field, because I don't think anybody wants to be on the other side of the Trump family in a contest like that. So, that's all (ph).

CORNISH: OK, Zach, last minute to you.

WOLF: Does Elon Musk follow through with his America party? And what does that look like? Who -- who does this thing appeal to? Like, you know, we talked about his weird politics before, but just, you know, the idea of a third party. You have a Democratic socialist in, you know, winning the Democratic primary in New York.

CORNISH: Yes.

WOLF: You have Elon Musk on the right. Both people that Donald Trump apparently wants to try to deport, by the way.

[07:00:02]

So, you know, kind of an interesting, you know --

CORNISH: And both people who have a deft use of social media.

WOLF: Yes.

CORNISH: Elon Musk, just through the sheer force of will, and Mamdani just showing he can really execute in that social media space where you can get a lot of attention and momentum and break through sometimes with mainstream audiences.

You guys, thank you. We talked about a lot today. We did it all.

I want to thank you all for being with us, for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

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