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GOP Lawmakers Have Concerns about $1.8B Fund; DOJ Indicts Former Cuban President as Tensions Rise Amid Oil Embargo; Harvard Makes It Harder for Undergrads to Get "A's". Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired May 21, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:08]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, the Republicans raising questions about President Trump's anti-weaponization fund. Some are ready to kill it, but do they have the votes?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're dealing with appropriated money, that's got to come through us. We're going to fight hard against it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And dangerous flooding. Drivers stranded during rush hour traffic, and more rough weather could come today.
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TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: This isn't about pressuring the Cuban -- the Cuban government. This is a very clear message to the American people that we will not forget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Cuba's Raul Castro indicted. Could he ever set foot in a U.S. courtroom?
And Harvard will make it harder for undergrads to get "A" grades. Isn't this just grading on the curve?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I heard he's a big MAGA person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, did Trump just sink Spencer Pratt's campaign for mayor of L.A.?
And billionaire Jeff Bezos says you can tax the rich, but it won't do much for the middle class. We're going to ask whether he has a point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF BEZOS, CEO, AMAZON: Could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you make of this $1.7 billion fund for, you know, partisan --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: News: we're going to try to kill it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Are we looking at a GOP revolt brewing over Trump's anti- weaponization fund?
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and we're going to start with the resistance that's brewing within the president's party. Republicans joining Democrats who are concerned about the $1.776 billion fund created by the Justice Department.
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SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): I will tell you, my -- my first reaction was, this doesn't pass the smell test.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): It sends a signal, hey, go breach the Capitol, destroy the building, assault police officers. You may even get compensated for it some day. That's absurd.
REP. KEVIN KILEY (I-CA): Every policy, actually, that I look at, I look at it through the lens of is -- is -- what impact is this going to have on affordability? And so --
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you think this weaponization fund is wasted taxpayer dollars?
KILEY: I think that would be putting it mildly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE" So, you want to stop it?
REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Oh, 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The last lawmaker you saw there, Brian Fitzpatrick, wrote to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, raising questions about transparency, oversight, and legal authority. Here's Blanche just a short time ago.
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TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: People can keep on complaining, but it's not going to stop us from -- from doing what we know is the right thing to do for the American people. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Elena Schneider, national political reporter from "NOTUS"; Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director; and Meghan Hays, former Biden White House director of message planning.
I want to start with you, Mike, because we're talking about these Republicans who are pushing back. What do you think it is about this reparations fund that they are somehow feeling confident they can push back on publicly?
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, they must feel like they have the votes. I mean, bottom line, I don't see any of these folks stepping out if they don't think in the House, you know, with its slim margins, if they don't have the votes, I don't see them coming forward on this.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: That's No. 1.
CORNISH: Especially after these primaries earlier in the week.
DUBKE: Well, yes.
CORNISH: Right?
DUBKE: Especially that.
CORNISH: Where the message was sent that Trump can -- yes.
DUBKE: A very clear message was sent.
CORNISH: And yet, here we are in the middle of the week.
DUBKE: We are. But the -- you know, these are the primaries that are at the end of primary season.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: So, a number of these lawmakers have already had filing deadlines passed or the primaries happen. So, we can get that out of the way.
The other part of this is, and the part that wasn't mentioned in the -- in the -- in the lead-up is this "get out of jail free" card for Trump and the Trump family with the IRS.
I think that, when that -- when that was released, that news was released.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: I think that's when you saw a number --
CORNISH: And for people to know, this was an -- an addendum --
DUBKE: Yes.
CORNISH: -- to the agreement that had never been filed with the judge or Congress that said, thou shalt not go back and look at Trump- related tax audits.
DUBKE: Or family in perpetuity. And not --
CORNISH: And -- yes.
DUBKE: And that is when the brave souls in Congress stood up and said --
CORNISH: Let's talk about one of those souls. OK? Fitzpatrick, because he, actually, I think, had an uncontested primary.
And Trump was saying about him, "He likes voting against Trump. And you know what happens with that? It doesn't work out well."
[06:05:02]
Here is what Fitzpatrick had to say when he was asked about this last night.
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FITZPATRICK: I've been primaried five times from the right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if he pours millions of dollars into someone's race --
FITZPATRICK: Listen, anybody can do what they want. You know, it's not going to change how I conduct myself. You know, I believe in -- I believe in the institution. I believe in democracy. I believe in giving people a voice. And, you know, that's the way I've always felt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, a little hard to hear there. But he says, "I've been primaried five times from the right." He already feels like, look, I've made it through. He feels confident.
But to Mike's point, can they stop any of this?
ELENA SCHNEIDER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "NOTUS": Well, look at Brian Fitzpatrick is right. He's representing -- representing a district that Kamala Harris won in 2024. He is one of the few Republicans who can win that district.
So -- and he, as you pointed out, already passed through his primary process, which happened on Tuesday. So, there's not much of a threat to his political future imminently.
But I think it's important to note, too, that it's not just the primaries that we saw, you know, Trump's grip on the Republican Party here. It also left behind a lot of quasi-lame duck senators and members of Congress, be it those who were redistricted out of their seats --
CORNISH: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: -- because of redistricting in the House, or you've got Senator Cornyn, whose runoff is next Tuesday, who was -- you know, Trump endorsed against.
CORNISH: Yes. Or Massie, who was like, I've got seven months left, guys. YOLO.
SCHNEIDER: Exactly. There's a lot -- there's a much, much thinner majority here in which to be able to rally these votes. So, there's a real possibility here that appropriators could assert some control.
CORNISH: Here's what Democrats are doing. I called it reparations. Trump calls it anti-weaponization fund. Democrats call it a slush fund. And Congressman Jamie Raskin plans to introduce a bill called the No Taxpayer-Funded Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2026.
Here's how he explained it to Kaitlan Collins last night.
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REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): We're going to shut down right now this so- called anti-weaponization fund. We're not appropriating money for that. You can't spend one cent on it.
And if you try to get around it by ripping off the judgment fund in other ways, we're going to specifically prohibit any money from going from the judgment fund directly to the president, the vice president, other members of the cabinet, other political officials, and their families. You just can't do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: There's a couple of ways I hear this being talked about, which is, hey, maybes the Biden should sign up -- sign up for it. You know what I mean? Or this legislative method.
Talk about the different strategies here.
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Yes. I mean, there are a lot of people who got hauled up in front of the oversight who had to pay for their own legal fees from the Biden administration. That that was about the auto pen, which was complete nonsense. They're not going to be able to get that either.
So, I just -- this is just more ways that Donald Trump is corrupt. He's just showing the American people what he values, and that is making himself and his family more enriched off the taxpayers.
That 100, almost $1.8 billion could go to health care. It could go to the SNAP benefits they cut or the Medicaid benefits that they cut. It's just I think that the American people are just tired of seeing Donald Trump getting rich.
CORNISH: Because there's so much money flowing in so many directions. And I have to be honest, I've been surprised at why this particular billion dollars has caught the mainstream imagination.
I mean, even when you started talking about the audits, it's like people have been complaining about going after his taxes for a long time. Republicans have been saying, stop going on that fishing expedition. And now somehow, this agreement has pissed off a lot of people.
DUBKE: Well, a couple of things here. One, and we'll get into the politics in a second. I think it's -- it's very different about a fishing expedition versus a "get out of jail free" card.
I mean, that -- that was a really bright, bright line.
On this, there -- there are -- there is precedent for this type of fund --
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: -- for whistleblowers and others. So, this, again, all of this --
CORNISH: Ones that have gone through Congress, major difference. They went to Congress.
DUBKE: But the Raskin thing here, that really bugs me. And this is -- I'm just -- I'm just stepping back here.
Jamie Raskin is the worst person the Democrats, if they really want to kill this, could put forward. He politicizes this even more. And he's doing that on purpose, because this is a great deal for him. He can trash Trump all he wants to.
Let Fitzpatrick, let the other Republicans kill this the way that --
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: -- we've seen them talk about. That is pure politics.
CORNISH: All right. We're going to talk more about this, because now questions are being raised about who qualifies for this fund. So, we're going to talk about that later. In fact, what if January 6th rioters, who have been pardoned, now apply for this money?
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BLANCHE: This Department of Justice does not stand for assaulting law enforcement.
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CORNISH: But Todd Blanche did not say that they wouldn't be able to get a piece of the pie. Plus, call it a rich slap. Jeff Bezos takes heat for talking about
wealth and that teacher from Queens.
And next, Cuba's Raul Castro, now under indictment for murder. Will the U.S. military move in to arrest him?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been waiting for this moment for 67 years.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first step for a free Cuba.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're enjoying the moment, because it's one of the steps to the freedom of Cuba.
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CORNISH: Cuban-Americans in Miami, hailing the indictment of former Cuban leader Raul Castro. The Department of Justice unsealed that indictment yesterday in Miami.
The 94-year-old is accused of murdering U.S. citizens in a 1996 shootdown of civilian planes flying near Cuba.
Now, this indictment comes after months of U.S. pressure put on the island with an oil embargo, which is causing an energy crisis on the island.
The charges are also fueling escalation of a U.S. military operation in Cuba, similar to the raid to capture Venezuela's leader just a few months ago.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should we expect any escalation here, or should they expect anything?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: With Cuba?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: No. No, you won't. There won't be escalation. I don't think there needs to be. Look, the place is falling apart. It's a mess. And they've sort of lost control. They've really lost control of Cuba.
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CORNISH: Joining us now in the group chat, Sabrina Singh, CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary.
So, even though your experiences is with the Pentagon, I want you to parse something that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Because he was asked directly, is this just part of the pressure campaign: coming up with this indictment? Relevant crime, but this indictment now, is it because you're ramping up pressure? Here's what he had to say.
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BLANCHE: This isn't about pressuring the Cuban -- the Cuban government. This is a very clear message to the American people that we will not forget. We will not forget you.
And so, here you had 30 years ago, four Americans blown out of the sky by -- by the Cuban regime. And they were doing nothing wrong. They were in international waters. And so, this is -- this is us solving a murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: What is it about the Justice Department's participation that paves the way for military cooperation?
SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, as -- and on Todd Blanche's comments, I mean, he's partly right in that this is seeking justice for Americans that were killed.
But he's wrong in that this has nothing to do with what's happening within Cuba and the Cuban regime. I mean, it's very clear this administration has kind of trained its thoughts on an idea of some type of change within Cuba. So, this --
CORNISH: But why bother with this part of it?
SINGH: Yes.
CORNISH: Same thing with Maduro. Why bother with the -- oh, you're a drug runner. We've got to go get you? What is what they're trying to avoid?
SINGH: What the indictment is doing is laying out the case for military action. It is essentially presenting to the people: here is the indictment and charges against Raul Castro. That gives us the ability and, basically, the responsibility to go in and potentially do some type of operation that would be very precise, and to, you know, potentially what happened --
CORNISH: An extraction thing. Yes.
SINGH: An extraction like what we saw with Maduro in Venezuela, or to do some targeted strikes.
Now, the conditions in Cuba, I mean, the economic situation on the ground is deteriorating significantly. And this is just one more lever of power that the United States is using in its arsenal of many, many things that do not include military action. But I do think this is laying the groundwork for future strikes.
CORNISH: One more thing on laying the groundwork. I want to play to the group Marco Rubio, secretary of state, doing something we don't see all that often, which is speaking Spanish, frankly.
This was a message that he delivered to Cubans. I want to play part of it for you. We'll talk on the other side.
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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: Today, Cuba is not controlled by any "revolution." Cuba is controlled by GAESA. A "state within the state" that is accountable to no one and hoards the profits from its businesses for the benefit of a small elite. And the only role played by the so-called "government" is to demand that you continue making "sacrifices" and repressing anyone who dares to complain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: What's the point of a propaganda of this style? Meaning is this for Cuban Americans, or is this for Cubans?
SINGH: They are being very intentional, especially when you do messaging like that in a -- in a different language like Spanish. That is messaging that will be used to target not just Americans here at home, Cubans in Miami or across the country, but in Cuba itself.
I mean, when I was at the Pentagon, we would run campaigns. And -- and, you know, get out information from some of our briefings. And we would get that translated into different languages, particularly when we were in the Middle East to message to audiences there --
CORNISH: Yes.
SINGH: -- what we were doing.
CORNISH: Although where do you send it if there's no Voice of America now?
SINGH: That is a great question. There are other ways.
CORNISH: OK.
SINGH: And there are other channels to distribute messages like that. And that, I think, was a big mistake that the administration made.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: OK.
CORNISH: We don't have to -- the message is not important. What's important is what we're saying to the Cuban people, something we would have said to the Venezuelan people. We're going to do you a favor. And now they're still living under the same regime. We said to Iranians, we're going to do you a favor. They're living
under the same regime.
We are now telling Cubans, your government is bad. We're going to come do you a favor.
DUBKE: We're also speaking to the international community. I think, for the DOJ actions, that's the one part that we're not really talking about here.
In order for the U.S. military to go in and do anything, you have to set up the premise of why, for the international community, why this isn't just one state actor going after another state actor.
CORNISH: I thought they didn't care about the international community.
DUBKE: They do. They do.
SINGH: Yes, it's almost like they didn't do that with Iran.
CORNISH: Really?
DUBKE: They do care. They do care. And this is obvious that they do.
SINGH: Do they? I mean, with Iran -- with Iran, they didn't lay out the case with the -- they didn't even let their Gulf countries, the allies, know that they were going to launch strikes in Iran.
DUBKE: This is --
CORNISH: OK. We've got to let our reporter in. What do you think? Do the White House -- do they actually care?
SCHNEIDER: Well, look --
CORNISH: And I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I mean, they have not -- they don't see those international cooperative organizations as being viable or useful or effective.
SCHNEIDER: Well, look, they have laid out that they are going to operate within both diplomatic, and military options are still on the table. So, I think that there is a sense of wanting to create some sort of pretext, even if it's not necessarily the be-all, end-all of how they're going to move forward. I think that they obviously have shown that they're willing to do this without that.
[06:20:10]
But sure, this does set up a little bit of a pretext or a little bit of an explanation of what is going on here, of a reason or an explanation for the international community, even if that international community is far less important in their minds than in previous administrations.
CORNISH: OK. Interesting. Sabrina, thank you so much for being here.
SINGH: Thank you.
CORNISH: I always appreciate it.
After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about a rebuke of the president. A lame duck congressman warning the GOP about their loyalty problem.
But first, could there really be such a thing as an easy "A" at Harvard? Professors take aim at grade inflation.
Good morning to a little town near Harvard, better known as Boston, my hometown. Hey, everybody.
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CORNISH: All right, getting an "A" at Harvard is about to get harder. The school's faculty just voted to cap the number of "A" grades given to undergraduates at around 20 percent per class. So, the goal is to reverse years of grade inflation, or too many "A's."
So, the dean there hopes the move will strengthen the academic culture of Harvard and encourage other institutions to confront similar questions with the same level of rigor and courage.
Now, other schools, including Yale, are also taking on grade inflation. And joining me now, the president of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth.
Michael Roth, welcome back. Good to see you.
MICHAEL ROTH, PRESIDENT, WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: Nice to see you, too. You're always getting me in trouble, talking about Harvard.
CORNISH: I am, I am.
Listen, so the thing about grade inflation -- help me understand it. Because from the point of view of some of these kids, especially the kids who actually pay the real tuition, maybe they feel like, look, you need to give me the grade that I expect. I'm paying the money.
ROTH: I don't think that's -- I think it's simpler. I mean, these are -- to get into Harvard, you're in the 99th percentile on standardized tests. And so, the fact that a lot of them get "A's," not so surprising. I mean, this is a non-issue. Nobody -- and it became a big issue in the 90s because people were worried about political correctness.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROTH: It's now another time when reporters and professors are talking about it. Because they're afraid to talk about the politics of higher education, which is a real mess right now.
I don't really care if more people get "A" minuses at Harvard than "A's" I think grade inflation is -- is -- sends a bad signal to students.
CORNISH: Do you have that at Wesleyan? What's the deal at Wesleyan?
ROTH: If we want grades --
CORNISH: If I go there, can I get a bunch of "A's"?
ROTH: Well, I mean, I think if you get into Harvard, you've already gone through this tight little filter. Most people -- they take less than 5 percent of the applicants.
At UC Berkeley, which is a very hard school to get into, the grades are lower. They do just fine. At Michigan, another very hard school to get into, they do just fine.
I think the -- American education has so many problems. Harvard's "A's" is not one of them.
People aren't learning to read in the Los Angeles School District or in the New York City School District, even though we now know how to teach kids to read. That's a real problem.
Then the one half of 1 percent of Americans who are qualified to get into Harvard or Yale, that they get "A's," I mean, who cares? What we should care about is are they working hard and learning a lot? Whatever the grade is, I don't know if it matters that much.
I'd like to give more "B's" and "B" pluses myself, because I think it does give students an incentive to do better. But I don't really think that's the pressing issue in American education.
CORNISH: People often look at what happens at Harvard as a kind of proxy for other questions about college education, just like you and I are talking about.
In the age of A.I., right, where a lot of students are using these apps. And I don't -- we talked about it on the panel. None of us put our GPAs on our resumes. It feels like --
ROTH: Yes.
CORNISH: -- this is not even relevant to kids' learning experiences or to the outcome of their learning experiences. I mean, I know you said it's a non-issue, but is that another reason it's a non-issue?
ROTH: Yes, exactly. I mean, the real issue is are students working hard when they have an opportunity to learn a lot from great teachers? I mean, that's what you want, right?
You want a student at a college, whether it's Harvard or a local community college, to -- to be incentivized to work really hard to expand their horizons intellectually, morally, you know, even interpersonally.
And you don't want them to be lazy. You want them to work hard. So, the key is how do you get them to work even harder than they expected? And I find at Wesleyan, sometimes giving a low grade actually tells
them, hey, you could do a lot better than this. And even a very smart kid who gets into one of these fancy schools, they can do a lot better if they're incentivized to work really hard.
You know, athletes know this. Musicians know this. They have to go back and practice and work harder to do better.
And the problem with grade inflation is that it sends a signal to students that, OK, I've done enough, but they haven't done enough. Smart people and average people, they -- if they work harder, they can learn more. And that's what we should be trying to do for our students.
CORNISH: OK, well, Michael Roth, I did not get you in trouble this time. OK? So, let's just be clear.
ROTH: Oh, good.
CORNISH: Thank you so much.
Michael Roth is the president of Wesleyan University.
And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, who could benefit from President Trump's compensation fund? CNN has learned January 6th defendants and Proud Boy members are already applying.
We've got Congressman Kevin Kiley joining the group chat. What's his take?
And then we're going to talk about Spencer Pratt getting some props from President Trump. He's also comparing himself to Barack Obama.
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