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Tillis Calls Out Trump's Aides, Criticizes Trump; Ex-FBI Director, Ex-CIA Director Under FBI Investigation; Toymakers Brace for Tariff Price Hike Impact on Consumers. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 10, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:03]

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's easy to see why Trump wanted to grab onto all the energy of these folks when he was campaigning, but now he is finding this issue is a lot like an electrical wire. It's easy to pick up, but hard to put down; and you can get burned badly along the way.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

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M.J. LEE, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm M.J. Lee in Washington, D.C. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

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SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): So, I told the president and, you know, texted (ph), it's time to start looking for my replacement. Because I don't deal with that kind of bull-(EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: He dared to defy Donald Trump and sacrificed his seat in the Senate. Now, Senator Thom Tillis is not holding back.

Plus --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime you have a collapse in a tunnel behind you, there was only one way out of that.

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CORNISH: Trapped underground. Dozens of workers stranded below a construction site. So how did they make it out?

Also, A.I. out of control. Elon Musk's new chatbot goes haywire, praising Hitler, while one of his top executives heads for the door. And --

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CHRIS COCKS, CEO, HASBRO: If prices are going to be raised across the industry, the consumer will probably start to see them in the August through October time frame.

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CORNISH: Could Santa be leaving a lump of tariffs in your stocking this holiday season? I spoke with the CEO of Hasbro Toys to find out how high toy prices might climb.

It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Good morning to Capitol Hill and good morning to everybody who has joined us.

I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for waking up with me here on CNN THIS MORNING.

Here's where we're going to start, with one of the few dissenting voices in the Republican Party suddenly growing louder. It's a CNN exclusive.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of the only Republicans to vote against President Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill. Well, he's already announced that he's retiring next year.

He's not exactly going quietly. Instead, he's taking aim at President Trump's inner circle. And he's not holding back. Here's what he told our colleague Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TILLIS: I don't have a problem with President Trump.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

TILLIS: I've got to -- I've got a problem with some of the people I consider to be amateurs, advising him.

TAPPER: What do you make when you -- when you go on --

TILLIS: So, I want to make it very clear to them guys, when you act like the president, when -- when he's out of the room, you don't impress me. And they'll hear more of that in the coming months.

TAPPER: Who are you talking about specifically? Stephen Miller or --

TILLIS: We'll get to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Tillis clearly did not like the fact that President Trump ripped him online over his opposition to the bill.

Here's what he told Jake Tapper about a text exchange he had with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TILLIS: I told the president that he's clearly got the votes, that I will try and work to get something done in the House. He didn't need my vote. And that I would be respectful and quiet and try to do my work on the House side.

And then I got that, that text. And I texted him -- or I saw the -- I never read it, but I saw, like, the first sentence. I told the president in another text. I said, now it's time to start looking for my replacement, because I don't deal with that kind of bull-(EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Joining me to discuss in today's group chat, Sara Fisher, media correspondent for Axios; Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania; and Meghan Hays, former director of message planning in the Biden White House.

So, Charlie, I think you know I'm coming to you. OK? Because you know about exits, which you did in 2018. Help me read the code of what he was saying. The first thing I noticed is he wasn't blaming Trump himself.

CHARLIE DENT, FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Well, Tillis is uncorked. And he was trying to give the president useful advice about, in this case, the Medicaid provisions of the -- of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. And the president ignored it.

You know, I dealt with the same thing in 2018. I was giving the president advice about Medicaid, and I got -- I got reamed out for it. But I told him. I voted against the bill.

But he doesn't always take advice well. He's listening to people who don't always have his interests -- And I think he was -- I think Tillis was referring to people like Stephen Miller and Peter Navarro and others who don't give the president very good advice.

Tillis is a smart guy. He represents a swing state. He's been elected to things, unlike a lot of these people giving advice, who don't understand.

CORNISH: Yes. But why don't people talk? Why do people wait until they're leaving to talk?

DENT: Well, I didn't, but I -- well -- well, I think they have -- there's a certain amount of feeling of liberation; that they can say whatever they want now. They're not going to be held accountable by the -- by the voters.

So, they feel they can just say whatever they want. I suspect he's pretty comfortable financially. So --

CORNISH: Yes. DENT: He's having a good time.

CORNISH: Well, he's being very specific about his warnings about the bill, in particular.

[06:05:02]

So, one of the things he was saying is that, in terms of messaging, having to go out and talk about this bill, this is a problem for Republicans. Here's what he had to say about that.

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TILLIS: I told the president, I really do believe it could be his Obamacare.

TAPPER: Because of the promise that he made that was not true: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

TILLIS: Yes. And now it's like, if you like Medicaid and you're eligible, you can keep it. That's fundamentally untrue, because the funding mechanisms are probably going to take people who are eligible for it off of it over time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Meghan, the boogeyman of Obamacare.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING IN BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: I mean, sure. People seem to like the ACA now, so that's interesting. But --

CORNISH: But it was tough going when it was being passed and talked about.

HAYS: Absolutely. But it -- also, the voters like it. And the voters still like it. And they -- they tried to repeal it how many times in -- in Congress, and it didn't work.

I just -- you know, people talk now, because it's not just that they're liberated now to talk. It's just because they're not -- And I will give him a lot of respect for -- for speaking up.

Because a lot of times people don't talk, because they want to show deference, and they do it in private. And they want to be respectful, and they want to have the negotiations behind the -- behind the scenes. Because what's necessarily in the media isn't what's necessarily going on behind the scenes. And there's a lot moving and a lot of negotiations.

But I do give him a lot of credit for coming out now. I wish he would have had a backbone earlier on some of these nominations that went through that he talked about in that interview. But I commend him for speaking out now. I just wish he would have done it earlier.

CORNISH: Yes, yes. To your point, and Sara, I want to come to you, but because you brought up nominations.

HAYS: Yes.

CORNISH: He was also asked about the defense secretary's job performance at the Pentagon, which a lot of people are asking about right now. Here's how he talked about Pete Hegseth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TILLIS: I think it's clear he's out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization. So --

TAPPER: Yes. What was your reaction to the Signal-gate situation?

TILLIS: Well, that's just one. I mean, this whole idea of having a pause in Ukraine defensive arms.

TAPPER: Right.

TILLIS: That's just amateurish. I mean, that's from somebody who doesn't understand large organization dynamics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: What do you hear in how he's been talking?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I think that its notable he's saying this now and not earlier, because I think a lot of Republicans actually agree with this behind the scenes, especially following Signal-gate, because that was embarrassing for the party.

I also think he brought up a point that I hear all the time on Capitol Hill, which is the Pentagon is a large institution that requires managerial skills.

Even if you think Pete Hegseth is the most wise and experienced person on covering defense issues and understanding them, understanding how to lead an organization of that size and scale is a whole different skill.

And I think for a long time, Republicans were going to be deferential to Donald Trump, to your point, because they didn't want to embarrass themselves and get called out by him.

It's notable, obviously, that Thom Tillis is the one saying this, now that he's halfway out the door.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: I don't think he would have said this if he was running for reelection.

CORNISH: Yes. Though he implied throughout the interview that kind of more people were feeling this way, that we might be hearing more in the coming months. It'll be interesting to see if that pans out.

You guys stay with me. We've got a lot to talk about this morning.

Still ahead on CNN, NASA bracing for some big changes. We're going to take a closer look at how planned cuts could impact the agency, as the president names a new interim director who's a former reality star you might know.

Plus, tales from the flood zone in Texas, as firefighters call for a code red that went unanswered for at least six hours.

We're also going to talk about two former intelligence officials under FBI investigation. How the current CIA director kick-started the probe.

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[06:13:09]

CORNISH: So, the investigators are now under investigation. The FBI is probing former CIA director John Brennan and former FBI director James Comey.

A source briefed on the matter tells CNN Comey and Brennan are being looked at for allegedly making false statements to Congress in a 2016 Russia election interference probe. And it comes after a referral by the current CIA director.

President Trump said this when asked about the probe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to see these two guys behind bars?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I know nothing about it other than what I read today. But I will tell you, I think they're very dishonest people. I think they're crooked as hell. And maybe they have to pay a price for that. I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So, whatever happens, happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, John Brennan says he had no idea he was under criminal investigation until the reports came out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I think this is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence community, of the national security process.

And quite frankly, I'm really shocked that, you know, individuals are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency to continue to do Donald Trump's bidding on something that clearly is just politically based.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. The group chat is back.

I wanted to talk about this because, again, specific targeting of people specifically for their relationship to Trump's kind of legal issues in the past.

Sara, what do you hear in the way Brennan responded?

FISCHER: I mean, the 2016 date is just absolutely wild to me, because Donald Trump had four years to investigate in his first term for anything that he alleges happened in 2016.

We're now in 2025, and we're still looking at comments made to Congress, which are public? That's a pretty wild level that you're stooping to at that point.

[06:15:09]

I think that Brennan's comments echo what a lot of people are saying, which is, is this how we're going to be utilizing our federal government, our investigators' time, energy and resources?

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: It feels like a huge waste.

CORNISH: Your answer kind of sounds like Trump's answer on Epstein, where he was, like, why are we still talking about this?

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: Meanwhile, there's a file cabinet somewhere being opened on Brennan and Comey.

Can you guys talk about what you're hearing and how the president was, like, I'm not involved in this?

DENT: Well, look, we had the -- we had the Mueller report. We had the Durham report. And now we're going to do this again, except this time go after individuals. It's clear to me that people are being targeted.

Hey, it was only a couple of months ago that the president issued an executive order going after Chris Krebs, who oversaw CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. All he did was declare that the 2016 election -- or the 2020 election was safe and secure.

And for that, you know, he's being -- he's -- Trump directed the Justice Department to go investigate him and Miles Taylor who was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) security.

CORNISH: Do you think these investigations really become a big thing? Or is it really just creating an irritant, trying to make the lives of those people more difficult?

DENT: It's -- well, he's -- it's more than an irritant if you're being investigated. I mean, this is going to cost these people a lot of money and time and aggravation. There might -- these might be hostile and malicious prosecutions, but it's still -- it's going to be very traumatizing, I suspect.

HAYS: The reputational damage to these people that happens every time that this gets talked about in the media, and every time that Trump says something.

Also, the financial damage that this does to people, this is ruining for people financially. It's the same thing going on with the Comey investigation. People have to pay for their own lawyers, and it's tens of thousands of dollars a month that these people are having to pay. And they are public servants.

Yes, they have been out now, and they probably have -- are sitting on boards making more money than we -- we probably all make together. But I just -- it's -- I don't think people understand the impact that these, like, very flippant remarks from the -- from Trump and his team, what it causes to people at a human level.

FISCHER: I just want to add to that. Do you remember in 2016, all we were talking about was Hillary Clinton's emails, and that still was the thing in 2020. I think at this point, we're no longer talking about Hillary Clinton's emails.

That's kind of what this feels like to me. Like we're grabbing onto something old so that we can have a message that's in the media to remind people of who the foe is, when in reality, this is really a dated complaint that doesn't really have much. I mean, we'll see what these investigations turn up.

But, you know, to my understanding, it feels less based in solid fact and more based in politicization.

CORNISH: It is also something to talk about that's not Jeffrey Epstein --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: -- or some of these other things that these very departments, right, like FBI in particular, have struggled with and sort of fallen on their -- their faces on.

You guys stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about this morning. Coming up on CNN, the frantic search for the missing in Texas. We're going to have a member of the Cajun Navy on their search and rescue. They're going to tell us what it's really like on the ground in the flood zone.

Plus, I'm talking tariffs with the CEO of Hasbro. How much more will those toys cost come Christmas?

And good morning to Los Angeles County, where they're celebrating this morning. Thirty-one construction workers were rescued overnight. We're going to have more on that ahead.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. You know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, so much for Christmas in July. Maybe your kids will just have to have less toys. That was President Trump's solution a few months back to the rising concerns over toy price hikes amid all the tariff back and forth.

Companies like Hasbro, which turn out a wide range of toys, are crunching the numbers on how much those couple of bucks could really cost you.

So, for this week's "Assignment," I went and sat down with Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks about whether consumers should be bracing themselves for higher prices this fall. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: I was reading that toy prices have already jumped like 2 percent, 2.2 percent, from -- by May 2025. Has Hasbro had to raise prices, or have you had to sit around a boardroom and talk about what raising prices would look like?

COCKS: I often have to sit around a boardroom, but not necessarily about tariffs. That's just part of the job.

We've talked about tariffs a lot. We've had to do a lot of kind of contingency planning on it. We have changed where we source volumes. You know, China is still a big market for us in terms of where we produce. But, you know, we've moved things around.

We've enhanced how much production we've done in the U.S. for, like, board games in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. We've increased production in places like Vietnam and Turkey and India.

And to date, we haven't raised any prices related to tariffs.

You know, the industry might have from a fairly modest basis so far. I would expect if prices are going to be raised across the industry, the consumer will probably start to see them in the August through October timeframe, just based off of the production timelines associated with toys.

Because usually it takes somewhere between 3 to 5 months between a -- an order to be placed and a toy to be put on shelf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, I also talked to Chris about the questions he's asking going into this week, as the president has his deadline -- pushed his deadline on tariffs.

[06:25:00]

And he was like, yes, there are still things we don't know in the next couple of months. What will it be for China? What will it be for India? What will it be for all of these others?

But you're nodding. Are you -- is this something that you think you're hearing from the business community?

FISCHER: Yes, just general uncertainty. So, the Trump administration came out and said they were going to do a lot of deals.

If you take a look at how many deals have been struck, it's actually not that many. I think "The New York Times" reported it was like three out of the 90 deals that they said they were going to do.

So, a lot of times when you hear that things are being announced -- OK, we have a new tariff on this good or that good -- we assume this is posturing to get to a deal.

Posturing is uncertainty, because it's not definitive that that's going to last, depending on how a company is going to respond.

So, if you're a company and you hear things that are being announced -- just recently, a big new tax on copper from Europe, for example -- you have to weigh to what extent is this going to be permanent, so that I need to adjust my supply chains?

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: It's very, very complicated.

CORNISH: Because he was saying the toys on the shelf right now, they're already made. He's got to figure out what to do going forward.

DENT: It's not just the uncertainty and the lack of predictability. It's creating an atmosphere of paralysis.

Because many of these businesses -- I've talked to plenty of folks. They are not making investment decisions, because they simply don't know, you know, what the tariff rates are going to be. This on-again, off-again nature --

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: -- of the tariffs is really paralyzing these businesses from making investment decisions, which is going to have economic impacts beyond the increased prices as a result of the tariffs.

HAYS: And it impacts small businesses probably more than, like, a company like Hasbro. But it's interesting to hear him talk about how the supply chain and it takes 3 to 5 months.

They're going to be making their Christmas orders soon, and they need to make that probably by the end of summer. How do they know? Because how do you -- how can you even predict what people are going to be able to afford and how -- you're going to end up with either too little supply or too much supply, which is also going to drive prices for consumers.

And so, then that just comes back to the two -- two dolls versus 30 dolls.

CORNISH: Yes.

HAYS: That's not his choice to make. You should give the American people this ability to understand what they can afford. And that all stems from businesses being able to make decisions.

FISCHER: Just a quick thing, a ripple effect of this. It's not just sales. It's marketing, too.

HAYS: Yes.

FISCHER: Because if you don't know how much supply you're going to have, you don't know how much you can spend on marketing, who to market it to.

So, I'm seeing on the media side, the advertising industry, all of our forecasts are weaker. And it's not because consumers aren't spending. It's not because we're in a recession. It's just the uncertainty, to Charlie's point.

HAYS: Which also then leads to layoffs in these major companies.

CORNISH: Yes. Which I should mention, Hasbro did end up doing layoffs, I think, on the order of 3 percent in just the last couple of months.

So, you guys stay with me.

And remember, if you want to hear more about that story or other episodes of "The Assignment," they drop on Thursdays.

All right. Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, upheaval at X. The company's chat box going rogue while its CEO hits the road.

Plus, from "The Real World" all the way to space, the former reality show star who's now the boss at NASA.

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