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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Protesters Object To New Migrant Detention Site In Florida; Senate Ends Debate On Trump Bill, Braces For "Vote-A-Rama"; Temperatures Soar Across Europe. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 30, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: 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 -- and it's set to open on Tuesday.
CNN's Rafael Romo explains why the government has chosen a controversial spot for a controversial facility.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Florida state officials say the migrant detention facility will be, in their words, efficient and low- cost because Mother Nature will provide much of the security. That suggests they're counting on alligators and pythons, not to mention the oppressive heat to deter the migrants who would be held there from trying to escape, and it seems the federal government agrees.
The Department of Homeland Security published an AI photo an X that shows several alligators wearing ICE hats outside of what appears to be a jail -- a post considered deeply offensive by immigrant rights groups and others. We reached out to DHS and they acknowledged the post is legitimate.
The first detainees are reportedly set to arrive at the facility as early as Tuesday according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier calls it "Alligator Alcatraz" and says the overall site is 39 square miles and it would more than 1,000 people.
It's being erected on a little-used airstrip in the Everglades, and it would cost $450 million a year to run according to a DHS official. The state can request reimbursement for costs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A crowd of protesters descended on the site this weekend to say not to the detention facility arguing that it not only violates the rights of immigrants but also endangers wildlife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we see here is an effort to say that the Everglades are not a backdrop for political theater.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're using sacred land for such a sinister and vile goal -- end goal, which is not OK, right, in any sense of the word. And on top of that it's just the environmental impact that this will have as well.
ROMO: In spite of these objections Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, last week, floated the idea of building another immigration detention center in his state as part of Florida's aggressive push to support the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration.
The second proposed site is located at a Florida National Guard training center known as Camp Blanding about 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Still the come, President Trump is teasing a potential new buyer for TikTok. We'll tell you what he's revealed about them so far.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:37:20]
LEE: Canada says trade talks with the U.S. are back on and that's because Canada is canceling its tax on online services. The digital services tax was supposed to begin today and it's a way to tax online services as opposed to physical products. The move comes after President Trump announced that he was ending all trade discussions with Canada.
U.S. stocks have been on a tear lately with the market closing at an all-time high on Friday even though just a few months ago it was flirting with bear market territory. Now investors are looking to close out June with a big finish.
Here is where things stand in premarket trading. The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq are all up. Let's see what happens when the markets open and as we see more of what's coming for U.S. trade.
And now to CNN's Anna Stewart with your business minute as she previews a very busy week ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it must be summer because central bank governors are once again gathering in sunny Portugal for the ECB's annual forum on central banking. The big highlight will be tomorrow when Fed chair Jerome Powell will speak. That comes as speculation grows that President Trump may appoint a shadow chair.
The big economic data release of the week is the U.S. jobs report. That will release on Thursday. The Fed will have to watch that one very closely. Jobs have been resilient so far this year but this month there are expectations it could come in a little bit softer.
U.S. markets close early on Thursday and are totally closed on Friday. That is for Independence Day. So we can expect to close out the week with some fireworks and perhaps some political fireworks as well as it's also the deadline that U.S. President Donald Trump has set for Congress to pass his one big, beautiful bill.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: And President Trump says he has found a potential buyer for TikTok but he's not revealing any names just yet. It comes months after Congress signed a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to sell of the social media app or face a ban in the U.S.
Speaking with Fox News the president said he will reveal who the buyer is soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way. I think I'll need probably China approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it, you know?
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST, "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES WITH MARIA BARTIROMO": Who is (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: I'll tell you in about two weeks.
BARTIROMO: A big technology company?
TRUMP: Yeah, very, very wealthy people. It's a group of very wealthy people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: And President Trump has, so far, signed three orders delaying the enforcement of the TikTok ban in the U.S. The only outage was for about 14 hours back in January.
[05:40:00]
And still the come, as the Senate debates President Trump's big, beautiful bill polls show Americans are not fans of the sweeping multitrillion-dollar legislation. We'll break down the numbers.
(COMMERCIAL)
LEE: Welcome back. I'm MJ Lee. Here are some of the stories we are watching today.
Police believe there was only one shooter in the attack on firefighters in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Sheriff's officials believe the body of the suspect was found near the scene on Canfield Mountain with a rifle nearby. Two firefighters were killed and one wounded in what police call an ambush after the shooting deliberately set a brush fire.
[05:45:05]
Canada says trade talks with the U.S. are back on. That's after Canada canceled its digital services tax that was supposed to go into effect today. The tax targeted online services as opposed to physical goods bought online. President Trump ended trade talks last week calling the tax a direct and blatant attack on our country.
And U.S. senators spent the night debating the contents of President Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill. Now he's issued a Friday deadline for the finished bill to be on his desk and he's pressuring lawmakers to make it happen. If the bill passes a Senate vote it still must go back to the House for approval.
So what are the odds that the bill will pass by President Trump's July Fourth deadline? We asked CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, OPINION COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG: I don't know about July Fourth, but the history is that presidents have traditionally passed this bill. I mean, really going back to Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Every president except for George H.W. Bush has essentially consolidated their first year economic agenda into what we are now calling one big, beautiful bill -- a reconciliation package that you can pass through streamline procedures in the Senate. And it's often been hairpin turns and a tightrope to get there but they have historically passed them.
Now, what makes this more complicated is that Republicans are trying to do two things at once. They are trying to cut taxes in a way that mostly benefits people at the top and at the same time they are cutting social safety net programs that mostly benefit people at the median income and below.
And they are doing them both in the same bill for the first time since 1995 when Newt Gingrich tried to do this and was ultimately stopped by a veto from Bill Clinton. They found it very difficult to defend the idea of cutting programs for the middle and working class at the same time that they were funding tax cuts for the rich.
Then, and in the polling, they are finding it very difficult again. In the end, I would be they get there but there are probably going to be a few more twists along the way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: And meantime, new polls show how Americans feel about the bill and the numbers are not in the president's favor.
Harry Enten breaks down the latest data on President Trump's big, beautiful bill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: As the Senate debates the one big, beautiful bill, how do the American people feel about it? Well, data from across the month of June shows that the adjectives that the American people would use to describe it are awful, horrible -- and to quote Charles Barkley, "terrible, terrible, terrible."
What are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look at the net favorable ratings of the big, beautiful bill. I don't just got one poll for you up here on the screen, I've got five -- and they all tell the same story.
The Washington Post -- look at that. The net favorable rating minus 19 points. Nineteen points underwater. How about Pew? Twenty points underwater. How about Fox News? Twenty-one points underwater. How about Quinnipiac? Minus 26 points on the net favorable rating. Holy cow! How about KFF -- the worst of the bunch at minus 29 points.
But no matter how you look at it it's terrible -- from minus 19 points to minus 29 points on the net favorability scale. This isn't one big, beautiful bill as the American people are concerned it's one big bad bill.
Now, here's the question. Obviously during the month of June the bill has been debated, and the American people have learned more about it. Has that made them change their mind for the better? Uh-uh.
Take a look here. The change in the net favorability rating of the big, beautiful bill according to Quinnipiac University -- well, look in early June. It was minus 26 points. How about in late June? The same -- minus 26 points.
The American thought that the bill was awful in early June. The same numbers say that it is awful in late June, at least on the net favorability scale.
Now the question is why? Why do the American people not like this bill? Why is one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation that I can recall that's on the cusp of potentially going in and becoming law? Well, it all goes down to the argument -- does the one big, beautiful bill actually help your family?
How do the American people feel about this? Well, 'Trump's Policies and Your Family.' Help -- the big, beautiful bill -- just 23 percent of Americans say that the big, beautiful bill actually helps their family. Compare that percentage to the hurt, 49 percent.
And this is so much different as how the American people viewed Trump's first term and the policies there, and why he was elected back in November.
Look at this. Trump's first-term agenda. Forty-four percent of Americans thought that his first-term agenda helped their family compared to 31 percent who said hurt. So a much considerably larger proportion of the American public said his first-term agenda helped than hurt their family, which is the exact opposite of how they feel about the big, beautiful bill with a clear plurality. Twenty-six points more of the American public saying it hurts than helps their family.
[05:50:00]
And that, my dear friends, is why this bill is just so unpopular at this point -- historically unpopular. As I said at the beginning, the American people see it as awful, horrible, and "terrible, terrible, terrible," to quote Charles Barkley.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Andrew Cuomo's failure to clinch the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York was a major shock. And now CNN has brand new reporting from inside Cuomo's failed campaign.
The former governor of New York lost to political newcomer and self- described Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani's success defied nearly every poll and every expert, making waves among the Democratic establishment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN WELKER, NBC MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": Do you think the Democratic establishment is afraid of you?
ZOHRAN MAMDANI, CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK: I think that people are catching up to this election. This is an election that went against so much of the analysis that had been told about our party and where we needed to head to. And ultimately, what we're showing is that by putting working people first and by returning the roots of the Democratic Party we actually have a path out of this moment where we're facing authoritarianism in Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: CNN spoke to a dozen Cuomo aides and advisers to unpack what went wrong with his campaign, and also what does this mean for the future of the Democratic Party.
CNN's Isaac Dovere has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It was an earthquake week in New York City politics as Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor, beating former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Some of that was Mamdani's historic expansion of the electorate; some of that was other campaigns collapsing.
But as I detail in a new story up on cnn.com, it was also a Cuomo campaign where many things went wrong, from a candidate who refused to be out on the trail much or do much to mitigate the heavy negative feelings against him to he and a close circle of aides who were not changing their pitch even as the race rapidly changed around them.
The story has internal conference calls, meetings, and calculations that Cuomo and his aides were making that only a few people knew about it. I talked to a dozen people deeply involved in the Cuomo campaign and a dozen more who were integral to the race in other ways.
One Cuomo adviser told me this:
"You are not going to turn Andrew Cuomo into the new Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is Andrew Cuomo. He's exactly the person he always was. He was not going to build alliances -- not clear he could anyway. He wasn't all of a sudden going to be warm and friendly, and his operation wasn't all of a sudden going to be warm and friendly."
Cuomo, as I reported earlier this week, is keeping his name on the ballot as an Independent, but whether he actively campaigns is a big question. And some of that, to aides, is going to be about how much he rethinks some of what I report in this article.
Isaac Dovere, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Europe is sweltering under the first heat wave of the summer. Still ahead we'll go live to Spain to see how Europeans are coping with the soaring temperatures.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:57:10]
LEE: A major heatwave is sweeping through Europe sending temperatures soaring across the continent. Tourists and residents alike are seeking shelter and trying to stay hydrated.
In London, temperatures rose to over 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, well above average. And Spanish authorities warned of extreme temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. That's a scorching 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Let's get more now from journalist Al Goodman. He joins me live from the sweltering Spanish capital of Madrid. Al, I think it is just about noon where you are. So how hot is it feeling now, and how long is this heatwave expected to last?
AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Well, I'm in the shade. If I crossed the street where the big park is and got in the sun over there it would be sweltering. So I'm just -- this will be in the sun soon. And this heatwave will last until the mid-week and this wave -- these temperatures are higher than normal for this time of the year, authorities say.
In Spain, the weather service says it's the hottest June in terms of temperatures since records began 60 years ago. So today, in Seville, 41 degrees Celsius, 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Just a little bit less than that in Madrid.
Go over west to Portugal, to Lisbon, a similar deal -- 40s and over 100. High alert and heatwave there.
Italy also. The big cities -- Rome, Milan, Napoli also under heat alerts. And one region, at least, trying to prevent people from going to work outdoors in the hottest part of the day.
And finally, in England, the Wimbledon tennis tournament starts today and officials there say it's going to be the hottest, highest temperature start ever in this tournament. If it gets to 30.1 Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit there will be mandatory 10-minute breaks during the matches -- MJ.
LEE: Al Goodman in Madrid. Thank you and stay in the shade.
Space company Blue Origin has successfully launched a new flight of tourists into space.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zero. Emission. Liftoff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: After a string of delays due to weather the rocket finally lifted off with six tourists aboard. The flight lasted about 10 minutes, taking them just past the internationally recognized boundary for space and giving them a brief moment of weightlessness. The rocket, known as New Shepard, is the 13th tourist flight launched by Blue Origin.
And a close call for Beyonce during her hometown show in Houston Saturday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Her flying car prop malfunctioned and tilted mid-air during the song "16 Carriages," prompting her, as you heard there, to call for the music to stop. Luckily, the singer stayed strapped into the safety harness and was lowered to the ground. Her team says no one was hurt and the show went on.
[06:00:10]
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts now.
