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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Two Fatally Shot While Responding to Brush Fire in Idaho; Senate Braces for Vote-a-Rama on Trump Agenda Bill; Ukraine Reels from Another Russian Attack. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 30, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MIN JUNG LEE, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world, I'm MJ Lee in Washington. We are following breaking news out of Idaho, where authorities say they've recovered the body of a man they believe unleashed a deadly attack on firefighters.

It happened on Canfield Mountain in the northwest city of Coeur d'Alene. The local sheriff says they believe the suspect intentionally set a brush fire on Sunday and ambushed those who responded, and that he acted alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB NORRIS, SHERIFF, KOOTENAL COUNTY, IDAHO: We believe based on the information that we've been able to collect, that we believe that there was only one shooter, and we based it on the weapons that we found at the scene. The type of injuries that were incurred by that weapon. So, as of right now, from a -- from a very preliminary determination, we believe that there was only the one shooter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The terrifying first minutes of Sunday's attack were captured on a dispatch call. Here's a part of that audio.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send law enforcement right now, there's an active shooter zone. They're shot. There's BC 3 down, BC one is down. Everybody shot up here. Law enforcement code three now up here. There's an upper parking lot. Upper parking lot up on the dirt parking lot. We need law enforcement up here immediately. Law enforcement up here immediately. We've got two unresponsive battalion chiefs, gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds. Two Coeur d'Alene firefighters are down.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LEE: Police and fire trucks with the Spokane Valley Fire Department held a procession honoring the two firefighters who were killed. A third firefighter was injured and is in stable condition. That procession taking place as a community is shaken and shocked by the shooting targeting firefighters. We heard earlier from the assistant managing editor of the "Coeur d'Alene Press".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BULEY, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, COEUR D'ALENE PRESS: I just came back from that procession outside of the Kootenai Health Hospital, and they're on their way to Spokane. And it was very moving to see all the people that came out. And they just kept coming out even after the procession was done, people kept coming out to stand along the highway and hold their flags, and they just stand there with their arms around each other.

So, it's a -- I think a lot of people were hit hard to think that this could happen. One to the firefighters, the frontline guys who were there to protect them. And they know these firefighters. You know, it isn't -- Coeur d'Alene is a pretty small community. People know who these frontline guys are and hold them in a great amount of respect.

So, when this happened, I think a lot of people were really shaken and just really wanted to come out and show their support for the firefighters and for their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And a local county commissioner called the shooting senseless and tragic beyond words and spoke to CNN about the support the community is receiving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE MATTARE, COMMISSIONER, KOOTENAI COUNTY: It's devastating. It's absolutely devastating. And the show of support so far has been overwhelming with a procession, just the number of people who have come out to show their support. But it's just something that doesn't happen here. And so, like I said, people are just -- they're still processing it. I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The commissioner also called the response to the shooting phenomenal, saying authorities were able to stop the situation fairly quickly. We are also following breaking news here in Washington where President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill is inching closer to the finish line. The U.S. Senate adjourned about three hours ago after debate on the package of tax cuts and spending priorities.

Senators are now bracing for a marathon voting session on amendments, also known as vote-a-rama, after they convene at around 9 O'clock in the morning. Several Republicans have raised concerns about the bills spending levels. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate version of the package would cost far more than the House- approved bill, adding more than $3 trillion to the deficit. Amy Kiley is following the latest developments. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMY KILEY, CNN NEWSOURCE (on camera): By no means is this bill final.

(voice-over): The fate of President Donald Trump's budget bill remains uncertain ahead of today's vote-a-rama in the Senate. Democrats are united in opposition.

[05:05:00]

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): A handful of billionaires get a big break, while working people lose their Medicaid, while hungry kids lose access to food funding.

KILEY: Most Republicans are united in support of the bill.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): We have before us today, a once-in-a- generation opportunity to deliver legislation to create a safer, stronger and more prosperous America.

KILEY: But if more than three Republicans oppose the measure, it's likely to fail. Senator Thom Tillis says he'll vote no and retire at the end of his term.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding is not there?

KILEY: Senator Rand Paul says he voted no to a procedural measure because he thinks the bill would add trillions to the deficit.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): That doesn't sound at all conservative to me.

KILEY: Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski wants carve outs for her state. Maine Senator Susan Collins is signaling she'll propose an amendment. And Senator Josh Hawley says he'll vote yes, but --

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): We can't be cutting healthcare for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations.

KILEY: I'm Amy Kiley, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Democrats emphasized the bill would extend 2017 income tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. That's true. And since the cuts are based on percentages, the wealthiest Americans stand to save the most money. And Thomas Gift joins us now from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he's the Director for the Center on U.S. Politics at the University College London.

Thomas, there's been a lot of arm-twisting and backroom negotiations, and even a last-minute accounting gimmick from the Republicans to try to get this bill through, and all of that, ironically, for a bill that the public largely doesn't want. I mean, this is an unpopular bill. Tell us why.

THOMAS GIFT, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON U.S. POLITICS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, it's great to be with you, MJ, thanks so much for having me. You're right, the Republicans in Congress are eager to hand Trump a legislative win with this Big, Beautiful Bill. But they are running into stiff resistance from the public. You know, polls from Pew, from Quinnipiac, the "Washington Post", they all show that fewer than 30 percent of voters support the bill in its current form.

And I think that, that suggests either a failure by Trump and the GOP to effectively pitch the package, or that voters just don't like what's on offer. And I think that's more likely. You know, one area where Democrats really have landed their message is on proposed cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

They framed them as draconian, especially for low income Americans, including many in Trump's base. Republicans have essentially countered by saying this isn't going to affect most Americans, it's only those who aren't working and are able-bodied. But you're absolutely right. You know, Democrats, I think, have won the political argument, at least so far here.

LEE: And do you see the main rift within the Republican Party right now as being between the fiscal hawks versus the fiscal doves, or is it more accurate to say, you know, as with so many things in Washington right now, that it's more about getting in line behind President Donald Trump versus standing up to him?

GIFT: Well, I think it's a combination. You really laid that out well. The Big, Beautiful Bill is revealing a deeper identity crisis within the Republican Party. You know, fiscal conservatives still argue that this bill doesn't go far enough in slashing spending. CBO said it will add $3.3 trillion to a federal deficits over the next decade.

Senator Rand Paul has warned of blowback if deeper cuts aren't made. And I think that, that puts Republicans, particularly Trump Republicans in a bind, because they spent so much time under the Biden years preaching fiscal restraint. And now, they risk looking hypocritical. At the same time, you know, GOP senators are facing backlash over the bills impact on entitlements.

A CBO analysis found that the poorest households could lose around $1,600 a year due to cuts in Medicaid and food stamps. So, that's an enormous hit for some voters. And again, many of these voters are Trump voters.

LEE: And I want to talk to you about Thom Tillis. He is, of course, the Republican Senator from North Carolina who came out against this bill that angered President Trump so much that the President threatened to back a primary challenger to Senator Tillis. And then Tillis announced that he is retiring. I mean, if you are a politically-vulnerable Republican right now, what lesson do you take away from that?

GIFT: Well, the lesson is, you get in line or you end up not in Washington anymore. Trump is really going to step in as the GOP's closer, I think in the next 24 hours. And that certainly means pressuring party leaders and rank-and-file senators with a very clear message, which is either back the bill, we're going to primary you into oblivion.

I think the pressure is very similar to what we saw Trump exert during his cabinet picks, when he elevated figures like Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel.

[05:10:00]

Some people said this can't be done. Trump comes in, makes some phone calls, all of a sudden, it's a done deal. So, Trump isn't in his honeymoon anymore, and his leverage isn't unlimited. But no one else commands the kind of loyalty of the GOP base like he does. So, you can definitely be assured that Trump is going all in, making phone calls over the next -- over the next day.

LEE: And if this bill were to pass and we're going to watch how things unfold on Capitol Hill in the coming hours, but if it were to pass, how do you think Republicans will contend with and message the steep cuts to Medicaid and food programs that have been quite controversial?

GIFT: I think it's going to be a real challenge for Republicans as a result. And I think Democrats are certainly going to campaign on some of these cuts in the 2026 midterms. I think Republicans have made a number of 11th-hour changes to help win over GOP holdouts, and also to try to sort of blunt some of the more negative impacts of this bill.

One is a $25 billion relief fund for rural hospitals. Increase in the salt cap to $40,000. The delay of a Medicaid provider tax, addition of snap waivers for Alaska and Hawaii, new requirements for wind and solar projects. But that's not going to entirely appease the Republican electorate who don't like this bill.

LEE: All right, Thomas Gift, thank you so much for joining us.

GIFT: Thank you.

LEE: And weeks after strikes on Iran, Israel says getting back the hostages taken by Hamas two years ago is now its top priority. What may be behind the change of focus and how families of those still missing are reacting next on CNN. A massive Russian attack hits central Ukraine. We'll tell you what Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is saying about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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LEE: Iran's ambassador to the U.N. says his country's uranium enrichment will never stop because Iran has what he calls an inalienable right to do so for peaceful activity. The comments on "CBS News'" "Face the Nation" came one week after the U.S. launched strikes on several key Iranian nuclear sites. Now, despite Donald Trump's claim that those attacks set back Iran's

nuclear ambitions by decades, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says Iran could begin enriching uranium again in a matter of months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there. It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it is not total damage, first of all. And secondly, Iran has the capacities there, industrial and technological capacities. So, if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: President Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. strikes, quote, "completely and totally obliterated Tehran's nuclear program." And following its attacks on Iranian targets, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says rescuing the hostages held by Hamas is now the country's primary goal.

The comments came during a visit to a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel, where he praised the security agency for its role in removing two lethal threats to Israel's existence. Netanyahu says Israel now has the opportunity to focus on other priorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL (through translator): First and foremost, to rescue the hostages. Of course, we will also need to resolve the issue of Gaza to defeat Hamas, but I believe we will achieve both missions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The hostage families forum released a statement reacting to Netanyahu's statement, saying, "we welcome the fact that after 20 months, the return of the abductees has been set as a priority by the Prime Minister." Our Paula Hancocks is following the story and joins me now with more. Paula, what can you tell us about the Prime Minister's apparent change of focus.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, MJ, we've certainly seen pressure coming from the U.S. President Donald Trump, when it comes to sorting out the situation in Gaza. We saw him post on social media on Sunday morning, saying, quote, "make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back".

And we heard similar sentiments from him when he was at the NATO meeting last week, saying that he believes there will be good news soon, and he believes there has been progress made. So, of course, this will have an impact on the Israeli Prime Minister. We also know that he is feeling confident after what he sees as a success against Iran over recent weeks. And the mediators when it comes to Hamas and Israel, are hoping that

they can use this kind of momentum to secure a ceasefire deal. He does have pressure from the other side as well, though. We know that Netanyahu has some very far-right elements within his coalition who do not want to see a ceasefire and want to see the fight against Hamas continue.

Now, the deal as it stands at this point, or at least the proposal that has been made by Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy is as follows. It would be a 60-day temporary ceasefire. We understand there would be ten living hostages released and also 18 deceased hostages released in exchange for an undefined number of Palestinian prisoners.

[05:20:00]

Now, during that 60 days is when Hamas and Israel should then be negotiating to try and secure a permanent ceasefire, something which Hamas has said that it wants to see. It wants a permanent end to the war, and something which Israel has been resisting up until this point, because they didn't believe that they had sufficiently destroyed Hamas.

Now, we are also hearing from a security source that the Israeli military is recommending that a political solution is sought at this point. We have been hearing from different military sources over recent months that the IDF believes that the way forward is a political way forward, and they cannot just continue with the military war at this point.

We are hearing, though, also that there are fresh evacuation orders from the Israeli military to parts of northern Gaza, and we are still seeing dozens of Palestinians being killed every day over recent weeks, many of them hundreds, in fact, while they are waiting for humanitarian aid. So, certainly, the momentum appears to be on the side of a deal being done at this point.

But of course, there are many who are very cautious as it has appeared to be close to a deal many times in the past. In fact, there has been a ceasefire deal only for it to collapse at the last moment. But there does appear to be, at least, in the way that the Israeli Prime Minister is speaking, a push towards a ceasefire. MJ?

LEE: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thank you so much. One of Russia's biggest aerial attacks on the war has left a Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot dead, and at least, 11 people injured. Russia targeted six areas across the country with hundreds of drones and nearly 60 missiles. Ukraine says the pilot was attempting to fight off the attack when his jet crashed.

This building in central Ukraine was hit, leaving several people wounded, including a child. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for allies to provide more protection for his country and ramp-up pressure on Russia to end the war. For more, CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now from London. Clare, what more can you tell us?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, MJ, I think it's important to point out big picture that really the only thing that has materially changed since the U.S. started its efforts to try to mediate an end to this conflict is that this air war has gone up exponentially, especially, of course, on the Russian side.

That was on Saturday into Sunday, the biggest air attack of the war so far. Russia followed up again overnight into this morning with another more than a 100 drones. We've seen reports of several fires breaking out over a large area in Kharkiv, for example, eight people injured there, including one child.

So, this is continuing in the death, I think of an F-16 pilot in that massive attack Saturday into Sunday, really underscores the wholesale effort that Ukraine has to put up to try to repel these attacks known as mobile fire groups, its F-16 pilots, its Patriot Missiles, all of this feeds into the reason why we see these now mounting calls for more air defenses.

The message that is being reinforced by the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, who has turned up in Kyiv this morning. Germany is the second biggest backer of Ukraine after the U.S., so, I think this is also an effort optically to reinforce that united front from Europe that we got at the NATO Summit last week.

And it's why I think -- the mention, the vague mention by President Trump last week at NATO that they would look into providing the Ukrainians with more Patriot Missiles is getting so much attention, though, of course, we don't know any more about that as of yet. But this is not just about providing weapons.

We hear increasing calls, as you noted from President Zelenskyy, for more pressure on Russia from the U.S., for more sanctions. And this is a message that was reinforced by some of the leaders that I spoke to at the NATO Summit last week. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER STUBB, PRESIDENT, FINLAND: We of course, engaged a lot with President Trump --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes --

STUBB: Because I personally believe that he's the only one who can force peace with Putin. And therefore, I think the next step is to threaten with the sanctions. The step after that is to have a peace negotiation on the highest possible level.

DOVILE SAKALIENE, DEFENSE MINISTER, LITHUANIA: The statements regarding Putin's behavior are different. When we look at different days and different weeks, but what is not different is the behavior by Putin. And I think that it will sink in very clearly that Russia cannot be trusted, that Russia is going to try to annihilate Ukraine and its other neighbors unless it is stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SEBASTIAN: Two countries, those are two countries, MJ, that of

course, are close to Russia's border. And you hear the real urgency, if not fear, in the tone there. I think the hope is now to build on the momentum that we saw last week. We did see President Trump's tone harden a bit towards Russia. He called Putin misguided.

[05:25:00]

He admitted, I think for the first time that Russia's ambitions may extend beyond Ukraine, and of course, build certainly from Ukraine's perspective on that long and substantial, as Zelenskyy called it, meeting with President Trump to try to reinforce again the message that he thinks that the only way is to get tough on Russia.

LEE: Clare Sebastian in London, thank you so much. And still to come, why a new migrant detention facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz is prompting heated protests in Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEE: Protesters in Florida are pushing back against the U.S. government's plans for a new migrant detention facility. It's nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz. It's being built near a remote airfield just six miles north of the Everglades National Park and it's set to open on Tuesday.