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House Debates Trump Agenda; Jury Partially Acquits Combs; Mychael Schnell is Interviewed about the House Vote; U.S. Announces Trade Deal with Vietnam. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 03, 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]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: CNN THIS MORNING.

The verdict is in for Sean Combs. Why he was denied bail despite being found not guilty on his most serious charges.

Plus, we're keeping a close watch on the House flood as Trump's big, beautiful bill gets closer to that vote and a green light.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Good Thursday morning. I'm Erica Hill, in today for Audie Cornish. Thanks so much for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

6:34 here on the East Coast. Let's get you caught up on what's happening right now.

Some late night negotiating, and the House is now on track to begin voting really any minute on the president's spending and tax mega bill.

[06:35:04]

The president, of course, had set his own deadline for the bill. He wants it on his desk by tomorrow.

This morning, Sean Combs waking up once again behind bars as he awaits sentencing. A judge denying him bail after his partial conviction. He now faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing tentatively scheduled for October. The defense, however, is hoping to get that moved up.

Israel says it is serious about reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, accepting the latest U.S. proposal, which would include a 60-day ceasefire.

Returning to our breaking news at this hour. Within the next 90 minutes, House Republicans appear prepared to hand Donald Trump the most significant win of his presidency by passing this big, beautiful bill, as it's known. This recent Quinnipiac poll, though, like a number of other national polls, finds Americans oppose that bill by a two to one margin, making it a tough sell for Republicans to their constituents. The group chat is back.

Sort of picking up where we left off in terms of this being a tough sell. There's also the sell on, Lulu, on the creative math here, and whether the math is mapping, as we say. That is certainly playing out, and we're hearing it in all the sound bites. The reality, though, will kick in.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I mean, I think that's one of the most interesting things about this bill is that you have all these different groups opposed to it for very different reasons, which says that when you have so much stuffed into one big thing, it is, as has been called by many people, a big, beautiful mess. And certainly one of the things that I think is a really big red flashing sign for Republicans is that Democrats were united against this bill.

And what that says to you is this. Looking at the political fallout, leaving aside the actual economic fallout of this, there are many Democrats who are in swing districts who, if they felt that it was good for them would have voted for this, would have joined with Republicans. We've seen that before. None of them did. Neither in the Senate or in the House. And that says to you that they feel very strongly that what's in this bill is going to be beneficial for them and hurt Republicans.

And this math is really hard to actually stitch together because what you have here is a bill that is going to cost so much money to the American taxpayer in the long run, run up the deficit, and really take away entitlements. You know, we've seen independent group after independent group score this as basically millions of people losing their health care, as, you know, essentially lots of people having to pay more out of pocket for things that they should have gotten before.

So, I think this is going to, in the long term, hurt the GOP.

Audrey, when -- when we look at this, there are -- there are two -- we see all these independent analyzes, right? And we're also hearing from Republicans -- a lot of Republicans, that doesn't play. We have fiscal conservative Republicans who have been very concerned about this aspect of it moving forward, and yet they are voting for it. How much could this hurt Republicans as we look at the deficit?

AUDREY FAHLBERG, POLITICS REPORTER, NATIONAL REVIEW: I think fiscal conservatives clearly are concerned about that. But what is really interesting is that a lot of these debt and deficit hardliners who had spent days railing against this bill on the floor, speaking with reporters, are now voting for this Senate-passed bill with no changes. So, that is pretty remarkable.

I do think that one of the biggest political cudgels that the president has had going for him is, as you said, this is expected to be the biggest signature legislative achievement of his second term. And as, you know, I'm sure we'd all pay to be a fly on the wall in his private conversations with Republicans in person and over the phone, you know, I'm sure he -- he continued to -- to stress the reality that a vote against this bill is a vote against border security funding, which is a big deal for fiscal hardliners in those deep red districts, as we've discussed before, but also a vote to side with Democrats and letting the 2017 tax cuts lapse.

But this is an imperfect bill. Speaker Johnson has said as much. He said something along the lines of, you know, this is maybe -- this is the best we could do given the slim margins. But it is over -- also really interesting to look back at what the Senate passed and how that came to pass. And it was over 24 hours of a vote-a-thon earlier this week, and a lot of Senate Republican aides told me that they didn't really know how this was going to go. They didn't have the votes, right? It only came together early in the morning, right when they got Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski on board.

HILL: Yes. We're going to have to leave in the middle --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The -- the headline I have to say, though -- the headline, I have to say, was really funny in "Politico" this morning. It said "EACO," which is that basically, you know, that everyone always chickens out, in both the House and the Senate. Congress.

HILL: So many -- so many acronyms, so little time.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes.

HILL: We do have to cut it there right now. But stay with me. Much more to cover on the show.

We do have to turn back to the partial acquittal of Sean "Diddy" Combs. His team now awaiting, of course, that decision on sentencing. An attorney for Cassie Ventura, the star witness in the case, said she, quote, "paved the way for a jury to find him guilty" on the prostitution transportation charges and that she "left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice."

[06:40:06]

There are questions, though, about just how robust the prosecution's case actually was. His long time rival, Suge Knight, joined my colleague Laura Coates last night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUGE KNIGHT, FORMER CEO, DEATH ROW RECORDS: I wouldn't say they prosecuted him because at the same time, not that I want to see him do life. I don't, I don't, I, I truly feel he don't, he do not deserve to be doing life in prison or die in prison.

The government, you're trying to tell me that the government is stupid because they were trying to do a RICO case, case on him, they would have put somebody like KePD on the stand. They have put some guys on the stand. They didn't put nobody on the stand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now, CNN's senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.

Elie, you actually made this call, right? When the trial started, I saw you had reposted this, you or our colleague Elizabeth Wagmeister, who's done such excellent reporting around this. You were not at all surprised that those most serious charges, specifically the RICO charges, they were not -- this did not work for the jury. They did not feel the prosecution proved their case.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Erica, you're going to make me say a sentence I never thought I would say on air, but I agree with Suge Knight's legal analysis that he said right there. I think this racketeering charge was an overcharge from the start. I said it shortly after the indictment came down.

And the reason is, if you -- if you try to show racketeering, as a prosecutor, you have to show that there was an organized criminal enterprise, that there was some structure to this, that there was a criminal operation that was ongoing and that committed multiple crimes. They just did not have that proof. Could they prove Sean Combs was a horrible human being, physically abusive, engaged in domestic violence? Yes, yes and yes. But none of those are racketeering. None of those are the charged crimes. And that's the task for prosecutors. It's not enough to show a jury that your defendant is a bad guy. You have to prove the actual charges you bring beyond a reasonable doubt.

HILL: And so this is where we're at.

Elie, I know you're tight on time, but I do want to get your take on something else that came down yesterday in terms of asylum claims and a court finding that basically the president cannot rewrite immigration law and can't automatically, correct me if I'm -- if I'm saying this incorrectly, but cannot automatically deny asylum to anybody who shows up at the southern border seeking asylum. What's the real world impact here, especially given the ruling that we got from the Supreme Court most recently?

HONIG: Well, you said it exactly right, Erica. So, Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office essentially suspending and denying all asylum claims that come in from the southern border. That is in conflict with a set of laws that Congress passed long ago essentially allowing people to apply for asylum and to receive asylum if they would be under threat of persecution or torture if returned back to their country. And what this federal district court judge said yesterday is the president can't just cancel that, can't just override Congress on it.

Now, the wrinkle here that you touched on is, less than a week ago, this past Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court said, OK, district court judges can block things the president does, but they can't issue what we call nationwide injunctions, meaning they can't just block the president's actions across the country. And so, what this judge then did in response is say, very well then, I will certify this as a class action, meaning a lawsuit where these plaintiffs in front of me right here will represent all similar plaintiffs across the entire country.

Now, I've seen that characterized as a runaround, an end run by the judge. And it is an end run. But it's also the exact end run that the U.S. Supreme Court, in their opinion, said might be OK, might be workable. So, this one's going to go up on appeal, and it's really going to be the first test of the Supreme Court's major ruling that we saw last week.

HILL: Appreciate it, as always, my friend. I know you got to run out the door. Thank you.

HONIG: Thank you, Erica. I always have time for you.

HILL: Likewise, my friend.

HONIG: See you soon.

HILL: All right, still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, we are, of course, very closely watching Capitol Hill, the latest on the battle over President Trump's big, beautiful bill following another all nighter. I believe we're still looking at live pictures here. So, we are just shy of the two-hour mark for the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, there, using his magic minute. When will we get to a vote? We will keep a close watch on.

Plus, the man accused in the killing of four college students in Idaho pleading guilty to that crime. The victims' families, though, not all feeling as if justice has been served.

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[06:48:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): And then we'll be voting on final passage between 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 a.m. We'll just see how it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: All right, we are firmly in the window now. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, though, still speaking there. That high stakes vote on President Trump's spending bill is coming soon. It's expected to be a big win for his domestic agenda.

The president also adding some pressure of his own on Republican lawmakers. Earlier this morning, after that bill stalled on the House floor late last night, he did manage to sway some holdouts. Posting on Truth Social at one point, "what are Republicans waiting for? What are you trying to prove? MAGA is not happy, and it's costing you votes."

Joining me now, Mychael Schnell, congressional reporter at "The Hill."

I'm not sure if you've slept, but you look like you have, so that's a win. This has been quite the all nightery. In terms of where things stand now. Minority Leader Jeffries is still speaking. As we just heard from the speaker, though, he's hoping to get this to a vote within the next hour or so. Does that timeline still hold right now? MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "THE HILL": That timeline, Erica, is really all up to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Essentially, in the House, there's something called a "magic minute" during these debates, which allows leaders in both parties, whether you're in the majority or the minority, to speak on the House floor for as long as possible.

Now, Hakeem Jeffries is about to approach the two hour mark of this speech that he's been delivering on the House floor in opposition to the Republican's mega bill.

[06:50:01]

Sources had been telling us before today that Jeffries had only planned to occupy the floor for about an hour, give about an hour-long speech, and then let proceedings continue. But as I just mentioned, he is approaching hour two. You can see right there that binder on his -- on his podium. It's quite thick when you look at the pages left.

And I can tell you, Erica, I was just in the House chamber watching from above, and I ran down here. On that table that he's standing at, he has several other binders lined up. So, this speech could go much longer than just two hours.

Again, unlimited. The record is held by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who held the floor for about eight and a half hours back in 2021. So, what -- the question about when this final passage vote can actually happen, well, it depends on, a, when Jeffries wraps up his speech, and then Speaker Mike Johnson gets an opportunity to deliver a magic minute speech. He told me earlier he doesn't plan on going as long as Jeffries may, but it could still add some time onto this timeline.

HILL: Could add some time when you spoke with him and he said he didn't anticipate going as long as Jeffries. Did he give you a sense of what he would say, though, and how long it could take?

SCHNELL: I suspect that he'll be touting different provisions in the bill. This is a big moment and a big achievement for House Republicans, Senate Republicans and President Trump. So, I suspect he'll be talking about that and the journey to get here.

But as you had mentioned, he said that he anticipated final passage vote happening sometime between 8:00 and 8:30. So, that's the timeline we're working on right now. But again, this truly is in Jeffries' hands as we get to the final step of this mega bill process.

HILL: What's your sense of, based on your reporting, what it was that finally swayed some of those holdout Republicans? Was it the president or was it something else?

SCHNELL: I think it was a combination of forces. I certainly think the president was a big factor here. President Trump had hosted a number of Republicans, not just conservatives, but moderates as well, at the White House earlier yesterday in the morning to talk through some concerns with the bills. I reported overnight that President Trump actually spoke to some of those holdouts directly on a phone. The phone call happened at about 1:00 a.m. this morning. Some of those holdouts were huddled in a room just off the House chamber, along with Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise. And during those conversations, having talks about assurances they needed with the bill and why they should vote for it. That conversation on the phone was also coupled with those posts on Truth Social that you had shown earlier.

So, we know that President Trump has this really strong grip over the House Republican conference. Republicans do not like to -- to cross him, to go against him. They fear his ire, his primary challenges, what have you. So, I certainly think that the president was a big factor here.

But we also have heard from a number of Republicans that once they were able to sift through the bill more, they were able to understand some of the provisions that they maybe didn't understand so much previously.

Now, that's what folks are telling us, but we're certainly going to dig in to see if there was any back room deal in the interim because, again, these hard line conservatives were adamant as recently as yesterday they had no interest in voting to this bill. They thought it was a bad bill. And I even heard from a number of Republicans who said they needed substantive changes to the legislation in order to win their support.

Of course, they didn't get those. So, the big question is, what was the linchpin that had them flip their stance?

HILL: Absolutely. I look forward to your reporting, as I always do Mychael, appreciate it. Thank you.

SCHNELL: Thanks, Erica.

HILL: All right, let's see, just about 53 minutes on the nose there past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Bryan Kohberger pleading guilty to killing four Idaho college students. He accepted that plea deal to avoid the death penalty. In court on Wednesday, he admitted to the murders on camera for the first time did you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you, on or about that same date, in Moscow, Idaho, kill and murder Kaylee Goncalves, a human being?

BYAN KOHBERGER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madison Mogen, a human being?

KOHBERGER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Xana Kernodle -- Kernodle, pardon me, a human being?

KOHBERGER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ethan Chapin, a human being?

KOHBERGER: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: His sentencing hearing set for July 23rd, where he faces a life sentence for each of those four counts of murder.

The streets of Philadelphia are lined with trash this morning, as the largest labor union in that city hits the picket line for now the third day in a row. Thousands of city workers, including trash collectors, walked off the job on Tuesday. The union is fighting for higher pay and health care benefits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Wild there. Dash cam video catching the moment those power poles, as you see, started falling like dominoes in Las Vegas. The driver luckily was able to get out of their car safely. An intense dust storm, there it is again, has been hitting the city for days at near hurricane force winds, causing trees to be ripped from their roots and, understandably, knocking out power.

A spark in prices this Fourth of July. Tariffs on China impacting the price of fireworks this year.

[06:55:02]

A number of stores around the country, though, trying to keep them -- their prices, rather stable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just are absorbing the cost this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you personally noticed any price difference from last year's shopping to this year? Fireworks shopping?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Other shops reporting taking more of a hit. China manufacturers, by the way, about 99 percent of America's fireworks.

One of the steepest tariff hike threats in Trump's trade war seems to be over. On social media Wednesday, President Trump announcing a new deal with Vietnam, which will result in most Vietnamese imports being taxed at 20 percent. Originally, Trump had set rates against Vietnam at more than 40 percent. In turn, U.S. goods in Vietnam will be told -- sold tariff free.

Vietnamese officials have not publicly confirmed the deal, though, with the United States, it's important to note. This would mark just the third trade deal announced by the Trump administration since the so-called liberation day. That announcement, of course, back in the beginning of April, was an across the board tariff rate hike. This is set to go into effect for many other countries next week. That July 9th deadline, of course, looming, which the president has been teasing now for months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think what's going to happen is, we're going to have great deals. And, by the way, if we don't have a deal with a company or a country, we're going to set the tariff. We just set the tariff. It's something that we think --

REPORTER: How soon?

TRUMP: That will happen, I'd say, over the next couple of weeks.

Over the next two to three weeks, I think, Scott and Howard will be sending letters out essentially telling people -- it will be very fair, but we'll be telling people what they'll be paying to do business in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The group chat is back.

Isaac, you're on deck since I didn't get you in the last segment.

So, the president has said repeatedly, and we've heard from the administration, there are deals. There are going to be dozens of deals. In April, in an interview with "Time" magazine, he said, "I've made all the deals. I've made 200 deals."

Again, Isaac, there have been three announced so far and sort of with a -- with an asterisk there. What does this tell us about what's in store for Wednesday, next Wednesday, that deadline?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It tells us that we're nowhere near 200 deals. And the president keeps talking about how there are all these deals coming. And so far, all that we have had is a lot of uncertainty injected into the economy.

Now, maybe that's the point here from the president, but what -- what it -- remains true is that the president, who from long before he was in office, was talking about how good of a deal maker he is, has not been able to land deals when it comes to trade negotiations and tariff negotiations with other countries.

HILL: Audrey, is there any concern within the White House about how this is impacting the stature of the United States on the world stage?

FAHLBERG: Look, I think in the past few weeks and months administration officials have -- have fought back against critics by saying that these tariffs -- the tariff policy has not had the big inflationary effects on Americans as critics have warned, as we're seeing that starting to change.

I think when it comes to this Vietnam deal in particular, look, that 20 percent tariff on imports is going to remain. So, there is going to be a lot of criticism from free traders, business groups about the inflationary effects. But I think in the coming weeks we'll -- we'll see -- or coming days, excuse me, we'll see if they're able to strike more deals. But right now, as, you know, we were just discussing, I don't think that there are that many deals.

HILL: Lulu, it's also interesting to watch how, in many ways, certain alliances are reforming or becoming stronger without the United States being a part of that.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, I mean, I think we're really seeing that in real time.

And in regards to this Vietnam deal, what's really interesting about it is a couple of things. First of all, you know, Vietnam, and their trading deal, is really upsetting China because China is actually Vietnam's biggest partner in terms of, you know, sort of mercantile exchanges. And so they're saying, hey, if this deal hurts us, we're going to actually be tougher with you when you're trying to work out your deal, you know, with China.

And so, you know, as these deals go on, it's a domino effect. People are looking to see what kind of deals are being cut, how is that going to affect them, and then that changes their own posture. So, the idea that this is somehow going to be wrapped up in a matter of days, everyone that you hear from that is involved in this deal is, in fact, when you hear from countries themselves and trade negotiators, they are confused by what the administration wants. They feel the process is chaotic. They feel like Trump says one thing and his trade representatives say another. And so, there is a great deal of confusion still persisting on what exactly the objective is of these trade negotiations and what ultimately the president himself wants to see.

HILL: Yes, especially since we keep being told he's just going to tell people what they will pay.

We will be watching for all of that. Nice to see all of you this morning. Thanks for joining us in the group chat.

Thanks to all of you at home for watching. I'm Erica Hill, in for Audie Cornish. Stay tuned. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.