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Senate GOP Pass Trump's $9B DOGE Cuts Rescissions Package; Trump Bill Raises Concerns About ICE Funding, Overreach. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired July 17, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST: New CNN polling this morning shows Democrats are fired up for 2026. But can they seal the deal with swing voters? CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
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ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY GOVERNOR: And we have a huge opportunity right now.
CORNISH: The numbers, the messengers and the voting blocs up for grabs. Five hundred tons of food meant to help starving people paid for by US taxpayers now set to be destroyed. Why it's all being wasted?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This volume of immigration officers is going to change the tenor of daily life in a lot of places in America.
CORNISH: A newly empowered IC, the changes we could see after the boost in funding for the agency. President Trump's latest tactic on Epstein Gate blamed the people who believe it. What could that cost him?
No Drama Obama, the rumors the Obamas have finally put to bed.
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CORNISH: It is 6:00 AM here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at a gorgeous sunrise over New York City. Good morning, New York.
Good morning to you for joining us. It's Thursday, July 17th. I'm Audie Cornish and this is CNN THIS MORNING.
So this time last year, President Biden was dazed from dropping out of the presidential race. This time next year will be in the thick of campaigns for the midterm elections. And six months into Donald Trump's second term, DC Republicans have lined up to make sure the president gets his way.
Overnight, Senate Republicans handed Donald Trump yet another item on his wish list. Nine billion in cuts to things like public broadcasting, US foreign aid, clawing back money which they had originally approved. Now, new polling just in to CNN shows some voters are starting to get tired of single party rule over Washington.
When asked if Republicans having single party control of the federal government was good, almost two thirds of independent voters said that was a bad thing for the country. The new poll also finds 72 percent of Democratic leaning registered voters are extremely motivated to vote in 2026. That's 10 points higher than a month before the 2024 election and 22 points higher than Republican leaning voters right now.
Joining me to dig into the numbers, CNN's Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian. Good morning, David.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Audie.
CORNISH: OK. So that enthusiasm number for Democrats, not unusual ahead of midterms, right?
CHALIAN: Exactly. So whenever there's one party control, like history shows us, voters get a little restive about that, right? And so, I agree with you that it's not terribly unusual to see that kind of like, hey, maybe it's not a great thing for one party to control everything.
You noted the Democratic enthusiasm, and I think that is something that Democrats will be eager to capitalize on if they can. But there's --
CORNISH: The if.
CHALIAN: There's a big but.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHALIAN: Because Democrats in our poll are woefully unpopular, even more so than Republicans. Both parties do not fare well with the American public. But look at these numbers here.
Just favorability, the Republican Party, 33 percent of Americans see the Republicans as favorable, 51 percent unfavorable. But for Democrats, it's even worse. Twenty eight percent favorable rating for the Democratic Party, 54 percent unfavorable. That 28 percent number for the Dems, lowest number of favorable we have in the history of our polling. So they are --
CORNISH: Oh, I'm sorry. Is the 33 percent good?
CHALIAN: No, it's not good. It's just that the 28 percent is worse. In fact, that 33 percent, that's the lowest we've seen for Republicans since January 6, 2021, since around that time of the insurrection.
CORNISH: All right. I was also talking about which party deserves reelection. I thought that was like an interesting set of numbers. Republicans, more likely of course to say yes. But in the Democrats, there were some interesting things in the data.
CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, if you look here, we asked -- so members of your own party, OK, most members of your own party, do they deserve reelection? This is what you see as part of the Democratic problem right now that they are trying to solve.
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Dems are just down on their own folks. So 68 percent of Democratic and Democratic leaners say most members of their own party deserve reelection. You see that Republicans are a little more supportive of their own here. Seventy five percent say that their members of Congress deserve reelection.
And we see that in other places as well. There's -- among Democrats, if you look at the age split, you see this thing we've talked about when it cut --
CORNISH: The generational divide.
CHALIAN: It exists and it's a problem for Democrats. So under 45 years old, if you're a Democratic aligned voter, 52 percent say yes. Most Democrats in Congress every election, 48 percent say no. But if you're an older Democrat, overwhelmingly you do think your party deserves reelection.
CORNISH: Lastly, I want to talk about Elon Musk who, you know, a year ago I didn't think I'd be talking about here. But he probably was the single most consequential kind of actor in Trump's cabinet in the first three months at least. And right now, here's how voters are talking about it.
We are seeing with GOP aligned voters unfavorable. Tell me what's going on here.
CHALIAN: So this is his overall Americans broadly here, registered voters, opinion of Elon Musk, 23 percent favorable, 60 percent unfavorable. I just want to say that I think Elon Musk will go down in like graduate school dissertations of studying like why corporate chieftains choose not to go into politics because it can really hurt the brand.
CORNISH: Right.
CHALIAN: Right? And I think you see that here. I mean, look at -- this is among Republicans. In March, Republicans had a 72 percent favorable opinion of Elon Musk. Now it's down to 44 percent among Republicans. So clearly, his time in the White House, and probably most significantly his time after and the way in which he left and the battle with Donald Trump.
If you're wondering among Republicans who has more sway, wonder no more. Donald Trump won that battle.
CORNISH: Implications for that given that he also wants to have a third party. So I know we're going to be watching these numbers. David, stay with us. Thanks so much for breaking it down.
I want to get to some breaking news this morning. A massive deadly fire consuming a large shopping center in Iraq's eastern city of Kut. At least 61 people were killed in the five story market. Dozens more were rescued.
The market had only been open for seven days. Iraq's Interior Ministry has opened an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, Israel is sending a message to Syria as it launches a bombardment in the heart of Damascus. And make Coca-Cola sugary again? That's President Trump's latest mission. And Trump's defense in Epstein Gates, stop me if you've heard this before, it's a big hoax created by Democrats, he claims.
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SETH MEYERS, NBC LATE NIGHT HOST: Yes, it's just a Democrat hoax. A fiendish plan perfectly executed by those dastardly masterminds in the Democratic Party. You know, the guys who didn't even know which candidate they were running five months before the election.
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CORNISH: It's now 11 minutes past the hour and here is your morning roundup. The UK lowering the age to vote, allowing 16 and 17 year olds to take part. The proposed changes still need to be approved by Parliament, but it would align the voting age with Scotland and Wales.
And New Orleans bracing for flooding as a sprawling tropical system churns in the Gulf Coast. It could bring up to a foot of rain to Southern Louisiana, could cause severe flooding for millions of people from Texas to Florida.
Coca-Cola lovers, brace yourselves. President Trump says Coke has agreed to change its recipe and swap high fructose corn syrup for real cane sugar, which they do in other countries. Trump says it's just better. A spokesperson for Coca-Cola actually did not confirm this change, but said more details will be shared soon.
And the actress we know as Hermione Granger may have to hop back on a flying broom. Harry Potter star Emma Watson banned from driving for six months after failing to appear in court yesterday for a speeding violation last year. She was going eight miles over the limit. And this is Watson's second time having her license revoked.
Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, big money coming for ICE and the Big Beautiful Bill, but is there a downside if the agency becomes too big too fast? Plus, pushing conspiracy theories how President Trump helped create the Jeffrey Epstein mess he's now desperately trying to clean up.
And good morning to Seattle, yes, we know it's early. Stay with us. We'll be back.
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GARRETT GRAFF, JOURNALIST: America has never been a, you know, papers, please country before. We associate that with the Gestapo or Fascist Italy or the Soviet Era Iron Curtain. And there are a lot of people in America who are going to start feeling like they need to carry their passports and their birth certificates to go down to the grocery store.
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CORNISH: ICE now becomes one of the highest funded law -- federal law enforcement agencies in the country all thanks, of course, to the President's new spending bill. It's giving ICE the ability to hire more and arrest more.
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TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: We do have collateral arrests in many areas because we're out looking for those public safety threats, but we're going to enforce immigration law too.
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CORNISH: So with all the hiring of new agents and the billions of federal dollars now at their disposal, critics are raising concerns about whether ICE could, in fact, end up growing too big, too fast. That's what I discuss on this week's assignment with journalist Garrett Graff. He's actually been tracking the growth of ICE and ICE activity across the country for years.
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GRAFF: I think one of the things that we're starting to see very quickly is ICE, for most of its 20 year history, has gone after "bad criminals," gang members, drug cartel members, people associated with violent crime in the United States. That's really resource intensive. And to meet the numbers that the White house is demanding, 3,000 people a day, ICE has to go after America's grandmas. You know, they have to go after the easiest low hanging fruit that they can find.
CORNISH: ICE has to grow under the new law by 10,000 new agents. What are the dangers of growing that big, that fast?
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GRAFF: A big part of the challenge is, any law enforcement agency that has ever had a surge like this in the past has had to cut hiring standards, cut training standards, cut educational standards, and cut supervision standards of new agents in order to meet those hiring quotas. Because in very simple terms, you know, hiring 10,000 agents in the next two years means that there are going to be thousands of people selected into ICE who would not have been hired in the normal pace of applications right now. We've seen that before, and often in very notorious and infamous circumstances. The Border Patrol underwent a similar hiring surge in the bush years, from 9,000 to 18,000 agents. And what it ended up doing was creating a wave of criminality and misconduct and corruption that resulted in more than 2,000 of those officers and agents being arrested for misconduct crimes or corruption.
So much so that from 2005 to 2012, one CBP officer or agent was arrested every single day.
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CORNISH: OK. If you want to hear the rest of that discussion, you can. We'll have it online. But I want to bring in the Group Chat because he's bringing a lot of interesting data there. I know you do defense issues, and I'm just wondering about those -- this concern he's raising. What did you hear, Betsy?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Oh, I think it's a really massive concern for any American who is a person of color, who is the collateral damage that we saw Tom Homan talk about. It's a really serious issue for Americans who are living in these areas where they're seeing this kind of enforcement.
And what's interesting is that ICE enforcement was actually higher during the Biden administration than it was during the first several months of this administration. What's different here is, they have this massive cash infusion. And there was something really interesting that Garrett said elsewhere in that podcast.
He said if you took the FBI, the ATF, the Secret Service, and the Marshals through the DEA in there, you still wouldn't get to the level of funding we are now giving to ICE. I think that just underscores the scope.
CORNISH: Yes. We'll be spending, he said, the same amount as we spent on the US marines.
SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I also think what was interesting that Garrett raised, and that's known, is that they're being asked to make quotas, and these are quotas on people. This isn't like parking tickets. We're talking about quotas on arresting and rounding up, and deporting people.
And what's happening is exactly what Garrett said, is that they're going to go after people that have been in this country for 30 years. And I'm -- by no means saying that we shouldn't enforce our immigration laws. But when you have a story of a grandfather who has three sons, two of which are serving in the Marines, being pulled and arrested by ICE agents, is that really a good use of resources and funding when it comes to, you know, I thought were targeting criminals and people who are violent.
CORNISH: I mean, previously ICE was INS, right? And people got mad at that. Like it's gone through many iterations as a relatively young agency compared to other federal agencies. What do you see and kind of what Garrett's talking about?
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR: Well, I see answer to an election that we just had in which immigration and border control was one of the major topics, if not one of the top two topics for the election. The American people wanted that border, southern border secured, also wanted something done about the millions of illegal migrants that have come into this country over the last several years. And this is answer to that. So, yes --
CORNISH: But is there any lesson to learn from the past? I mean, when I heard that about the CPB, I was like, what? Like I kind of forgot what --
DUBKE: Audie, what are we supposed to do at this point? Are we supposed to just gradually grow ICE or do you flood the zone, do you flood the system? And yes, are there going to be some bad actors?
Possibly, but at some point you've got to take action. And I think too often, you know, these half steps and half measures are never enough. It was very clear in November of 2024 what the American people wanted and this administration is delivering on that.
SINGH: But Trump's numbers, especially when it comes to immigration, are falling in this. People want to see immigration laws enforced --
DUBKE: Yes.
SINGH: -- and they want to see it done lawfully. And I have no, you know, he did come in on that promise. But how it's being done and how it's being appreciated
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CORNISH: -- to their vote, I don't know. You talked about some polling too.
KLEIN: Yes. So people like the provisions in the so called Big Beautiful Bill for increasing funding for immigration enforcement by an 8 point margin. But with that said, Americans are very wary of deporting people who have a job, people who have been here for years, people who have no criminal record, people obviously support at large numbers deporting criminals.
CORNISH: Yes.
KLEIN: But when you the rubber meets the road and they got to hit these quotas --
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CORNISH: Because I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong, right? Like people definitely may have voted for this, but they're also allowed to react to what's being done and what happens if starts to shift.
DUBKE: Well, look, I mean, if we have to hit quotas, we can just, you know, arrest Emma Watson nine more times for speeding and take care of that.
CORNISH: Got it.
DUBKE: But seriously, on this is, this is the -- rhetoric matters here. And the President, I think part of the reason that we've seen interventions at the border drop so much is because of the rhetoric of the Trump administration as opposed to the rhetoric of the Biden administration. So that's step one.
But step two of this process isn't just stopping individuals at the border. It really was addressing the millions that are in the country now. And I think that's part of the funding here. We can have this debate but your point of 8 point margin for Americans wanting to address this issue, the One Big Beautiful Bill is fulfilling a promise --
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: -- with this funding that was made during the election.
CORNISH: And one thing's clear, with this many officers soon to be on the streets, people are actually going to see what you're talking about.
DUBKE: Absolutely. And then we'll see where the poll numbers go.
CORNISH: You guys stay with me, we're going to talk about a lot more. And by the way, if you want to hear the rest of that conversation, you can hear it today. And new episodes of THE ASSIGNMENT drop every Thursday.
Up next on CNN THIS MORNING, Republicans motto for 2025, Getting Rid of Waste, Fraud and Abuse, we got to note that now 500 tons of US taxpayer-funded emergency food is being destroyed, which some might see as the definition of waste. And the Obamas addressing the speculation head on after rumors about a divorce.
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