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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Senate Debates Amendments To Trump's Domestic Policy Bill; Idaho Authorities Name Suspect In Deadly Ambush On Firefighters; Hamas "Serious And Ready" For Permanent Ceasefire With Israel. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world.

Rahel Solomon is off. I'm MJ Lee. It's Tuesday, July 1st, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and his team say that they are still optimistic that this bill is going to get passed.

EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: What happens in the wee hours of the morning here determines whether President Donald Trump's domestic policy agenda sinks or swims.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Smoke rising from the forest in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a call prompting firefighters and then police to rush into action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an active shooter zone! They're shot. BC3s is down, BC1 is down. Everybody's shot up here.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Essentially, what's been happening is that Europe is experiencing a heat wave and temperatures that normally experiences sort of later in the summer, end of July, August, except it's been having them in June.

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Apocalyptic scenes in Izmir, Turkey, as wildfires forced residents to flee for their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

LEE: Senators here in Washington will soon see the sun rise after working through the night on President Donald Trump's so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill". They've been debating what could be included in the massive legislation package that's meant to fund the president's domestic agenda.

But there's still no sign of a final vote in sight. Although Republican Leader John Thune did say they are getting close. The vote- a-rama allows any senator to propose any kind of amendment to the legislation. And after more than 20 hours in talks, only two amendments have been adopted so far.

President Trump spent part of Monday on the phone with congressional leaders, pressuring them to get the bill to his desk by the 4th of July holiday on Friday. But there are still some hurdles. If the Senate approves the latest version, it will go back to the House, where there is no guarantee lawmakers in that chamber will agree to the changes.

CNN's U.S. national politics correspondent Eva McKend joins me with the latest.

Eva, it's been a long night for everyone there. What movements have we seen in the Senate in the past few hours?

MCKEND: Well, MJ, I would say getting close is a relative term. About four hours ago, the Senate majority leader said that the Senate was in the home stretch, so it still could very well be a while.

They have come to some agreement on some of the amendments. So, one of them that passed by voice vote was an agreement that federal unemployment benefits shouldn't go to people making more than $1 million a year. But there are deep disagreements on a whole host of other provisions. And that is why this process has taken so long.

Senate Democrats are happy about this long slog. They believe that the longer it takes, the harder it is for Republicans to ultimately pass this bill and that they have more time to communicate and message to voters. The problems as they see it with this legislation, in terms of Medicaid cuts, in terms of restrictions on food stamps.

And some Republicans actually see some issues with this as well, including Senator Lisa Murkowski, as well as Senator Susan Collins. We have seen them throughout the night, huddled with other Senate Republicans. Clearly, some negotiations going on here as Senate Republicans know that this is one of the limited opportunities that they have to advance President Trump's sweeping domestic policy agenda.

Now, there are some major ideological differences among Republicans. Some Republicans believe that the cuts in this bill actually don't go far enough. So, we saw that gang of Republicans huddled as well.

Still no end in sight here, MJ, although the hope among Senate leadership, Senate Republican leadership is that they can get this wrapped up in the coming hours -- MJ.

LEE: All right. Well see if that really happens. Eva McKend, thank you so much.

Let's discuss this more with Julia Manchester, a politics reporter for "The Hill".

Julia, it's been a sleepless night in the Senate. Republicans here have very little room for error. They can only afford three defections from their party. And already, we've had Senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis come out against this legislation.

[05:05:04]

That is some really tough math. Are Republicans going to be able to keep almost everybody else in line well?

JULIA MANCHESTER, POLITICS REPORTER, THE HILL: That's the big question, MJ. And really, all eyes are on Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska, as well as Maine Senator Susan Collins, two moderates who have voiced a lot of concerns about those Medicaid cuts, as well as SNAP cuts or cuts to that food assistance program known as SNAP.

We've seen throughout the night that there has been a whipping operation led by Majority Leader John Cornyn, to really try to convince Lisa Murkowski to get on board. We'll see if that ultimately happens. But like you said in her report, there's still these ideological divisions that exist within the conference. You have the moderates like Murkowski and Collins concerned about some of these cuts to these government programs.

But then on the other side of it, you have fiscal hawks, fiscal conservatives like Senator Rick Scott, who's proposed an amendment that would essentially pare down the Affordable Care Act's expansion in the state. So definitely disagreement there within the Republican conference today.

LEE: And, Julia, Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke with our Kaitlan Collins last night, and she said, basically, I agree with Elon Musk that this bill is terrible. She said the idea of borrowing $3.5 trillion on the nation's credit card in order to be able to give tax breaks to the likes of Elon Musk, is financially nuts.

You talked about this a little bit, just about the fiscal conservatives. But how vocal have they been in general throughout all of this?

MANCHESTER: Well, we've seen them certainly raise concerns. And we saw, for example, like I said, Rick Scott introduced that amendment. But I think Elon Musk, particularly the posts on X, he's been sending, you know, throughout the day yesterday, last night, you know, it will be interesting to see how it impacts the Senate.

But, you know, I'm curious to see how it impacts the house. Yesterday he was, you know, tagging a number of freedom caucus members in his post, certainly launching a pressure campaign. Of course, the bill would have to pass the Senate before it goes into the house, but he is certainly trying to launch this pressure campaign. He's talked about starting a new political party, primarying some of these members. Now, you have President Trump back on Truth Social, talking about Elon Musk. So maybe a reigniting of that feud we saw earlier this month. But look, I think the fiscal conservatives certainly have a lot of

concerns. You've already seen Senator Rand Paul. You know, he seems opposed to the bill because of how much it contributes to the deficit. So we'll see if any more hop onto that bandwagon.

LEE: Yeah. And let's talk a little bit more about the other chamber, a cheaper version of this bill previously barely made it through the House. I mean, what do we already know about how challenging this bill will be to get through the lower chamber?

MANCHESTER: I think it could be more challenging to get through the lower chamber because we already saw, like I said, a lot of these fiscal hawks in the Freedom Caucus already voicing concerns about the price tag on the last bill. And now we see that this legislation is even more expensive. And I think that was somewhat, you know, sort of expected going into the Senate.

Obviously, the Senate and the House have slightly different constituencies. Senators have, you know, more of a broad group to appeal to. Youve heard, you know, I would say probably disagreements from Republicans over those Medicaid cuts. A more vocalized in the Senate. But in the House, I think you'll see that you could potentially see that freedom caucus, those fiscal conservatives, where there are many more of them in the house, continue to raise those concerns.

And if you have someone like Elon Musk empowering them, that makes leaderships job as well as President Trump's job, a lot more difficult going forward.

LEE: And, you know, so many of these lawmakers are thinking about their political futures. They're thinking about their reelection battles coming up. There is potentially a really serious political price that Republicans could pay, including, of course, in the midterm elections next year. And this is not a popular bill.

I mean, ultimately, how do you think Republicans will try to message this bill to their political benefit?

MANCHESTER: Well, we've already seen them message this bill in the House and the Senate by talking about how this is a tax cut for the American people. You're already seeing the house Republican campaign arm rolling out ads, calling this bill a major tax cut across the board. They'll just have to be able to get ahead of Democratic messaging on the bill, which is essentially, you know, accusing Republicans of seeking to cut government programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

But you're already seeing, I think, Republican frustration with how this is going. And maybe some of the results of that. Yesterday, we heard a congressman, Don Bacon, who's from Nebraska's very competitive second congressional district. He wasn't necessarily stepping down because of this bill, but he stepped down amid negotiations following North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis deciding to retire as well ahead of 2026.

I think that shows how politically perilous this is for Republicans facing tough reelection in their states or districts.

LEE: All right. Julia Manchester, thank you so much.

MANCHESTER: Thank you.

LEE: U.S. investors are cheering a second quarter comeback on wall street as volatility caused by Donald Trump's tariff policy has subsided.

On Monday, the last day of the quarter, stocks climbed with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closing at record highs. The S&P posted its best quarter since December of 2023, and for the Nasdaq, it was the best quarter in five years.

This all marked a major rebound after markets saw a dismal first quarter. And we're now just hours away from the opening bell. Here's a look at where U.S. stock futures stand at this hour. In contrast to yesterday we are seeing expected drops across the board for the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

And President Trump's 90 day pause on tariffs runs out next week. Since delaying massive tariff hikes on dozens of countries in April, the Trump administration has had some successful trade talks with the U.K. and China.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there will likely be a, quote, flurry of trade deals leading up to the July 9th expiration date. And he also said this word of warning for the country still negotiating with the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: We have countries that are negotiating in good faith, but they should be aware that if we can't get across the line because they are being recalcitrant, then we could spring back to the April 2nd levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And authorities in Idaho have identified the suspect in the deadly ambush on firefighters who were responding to a brush fire in the city of Coeur d'Alene. On Sunday, 20-year-old Wess Roley is believed to have opened fire before turning the gun on himself.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN NEWSOURCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smoke rising from the forest in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A call prompting firefighters and then police to rush into action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send law enforcement right now, there's an active shooter zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm pinned down behind Battalion One's rig. It's clear to me that this fire was intentionally to draw us in.

VARGAS JONES: The gunman now identified as 20-year-old Wess Roley, according to the sheriff, spoke to first responders, then used a shotgun to kill two firefighters and seriously injure another.

SHERIFF BOB NORRIS, KOOTENAI COUNTY, IDAHO: We do know that he did contact the firefighters when they came on scene and there was a discussion.

VARGAS JONES: After the ambush, law enforcement said they exchanged fire for 90 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got two unresponsive battalion chiefs, gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds.

VARGAS JONES: Bullets, they say, seem to be coming from multiple directions, leading law enforcement to believe they were engaging with more than one gunman. In the end, a single suspect was found dead with a firearm near his body.

NORRIS: It appears that he shot himself. We believe that he engaged deputies from the troop.

FIRE CHIEF TOM GREIF, COEUR D'ALENE FIRE DEPT.: Yesterday was one of the most absolute darkest days.

VARGAS JONES: Coeur d'Alene Battalion Chief John Morrison and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Frank Harwood died in the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief Harwood is married, has two children. He is also a former Army National Guard combat engineer. So he's a veteran as well.

GREIF: Battalion Chief John Morrison sustained fatal gunshot wounds yesterday and died in the line of duty. He has served the city of Coeur d'Alene in this community for over 28 and a half years.

VARGAS JONES: Another firefighter is still in critical condition.

Firefighter Ben Hector got an all hands page to come in after the shootings like many here, he knows the victims well.

These were your guys.

BEN HECTOR, FIREFIGHTER, COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO: The chief was my chief. We know each other well. My friend in the hospital, he owns a really cool Christmas tree farm. My sons have gone to work for him. We're friends.

VARGAS JONES: Today, he is collecting donations with other volunteers for the first responders who are still fighting this fire.

KASSI ALLEN, COEUR D'ALENE RESIDENT: We have seen the heartache of losing an officer in the line of duty. And your hope is that it never happens again. So to have this happen with fire is awful. [05:15:01]

HECTOR: It's shocking for sure.

VARGAS JONES: Does it change the way that you see your community or the work that you do?

HECTOR: No, no, that's an outlier. That's not the people here. Doesn't change anything. There's still just work to do. You don't get time off because it was a bad day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VARGAS JONES (on camera): Such resilience from the firefighters of this community who continue to show up to fight the blazes just behind me here, these roads still closed off as they are fighting this fire, trying to contain it.

But we are also learning more details about this shooter. Wess Roley, who did not have a criminal record, authorities said, although they did have some interactions with him on the law enforcement side. He was believed to be living out of his vehicle, a vehicle that authorities then had to push out of a ravine as they were exchanging fire with him, hoping that he could not make it back and run away from them.

But CNN also spoke to his grandfather, who said that his grandson actually wanted to be a firefighter, and he had been working as an arborist to figure out his career path. But that was his aspiration himself to one day become a firefighter.

Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

LEE: Still to come, the latest developments in Israel's war in Gaza. What the IDF claims it's doing after being scrutinized for opening fire and killing Palestinians at Gaza aid sites.

And cooling off in any way they can, we'll show you how people across Europe are coping with an extreme heat wave.

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[05:21:05]

LEE: There are new developments in the war in Gaza. The IDF says it is reorganizing access to Gaza aid sites to, quote, minimize friction with the population. The Palestinian health ministry says more than 500 people have been killed as they approached eight sites or trucks in the past month.

On Friday, the U.N. secretary general demanded that the killings stop, saying the search for food must never be a death sentence.

And meanwhile, a Hamas official told CNN that the militant group is, quote, serious and ready for a ceasefire agreement to permanently end the war in Gaza. Let's go now to Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi.

So, Paula, what is the latest on a possible ceasefire deal? How realistic is that at this moment in the conflict?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, MJ, we're certainly seeing some movement that we haven't been seeing for many months, as you say, Hamas has said that it is ready to sign a ceasefire if there is a permanent end to the war. It's something that Israel has resisted up until now, preferring a temporary ceasefire so that it could continue with military action if it felt it needed to.

But what we have been seeing over recent days is a change from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that now the main focus is to get the hostages back, saying also that this is due to the success that Israel had in its strikes on Iran.

Now, we understand that there have been two days now of top-level meetings with the senior advisers and ministers around the Israeli prime minister. A source familiar with those talks says that they haven't yet made a decision. They haven't come to a final policy decision, but that the Israeli prime minister does favor a comprehensive hostage deal.

There are rights, far-right wing elements within his coalition, though, that do not want to see the war end. So, he's certainly feeling pressure there.

We are understanding as well that the Israeli prime minister will be heading to Washington. He'll be heading to the white house for his third meeting with the U.S. president potentially around July 7th is the latest date that we've heard. And the U.S. president has been very vocal in his support for a cease fire hostage deal. In fact, just last Friday, he said he believed a deal could be done within the next week.

So, putting a time pressure on that. So potentially we could see some kind of decision coming very soon and it could not come soon enough for those citizens of Gaza who are still being caught up in the violence. More than 40 were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a cafe just close to the Gaza port near Gaza City.

Now, this was at the Al-Baqa Cafe. It was popular with students, with journalists, with anyone remote working because it had internet. And obviously that is a luxury in many parts of Gaza at this point.

We understand more than 40 were killed, more than 70 were injured. The director of the Al-Shifa Hospital, which is just close by where the dead and the wounded were taken to, said that many of them were women and children, and especially many of them were students who would have been trying to work at the cafe. We hear from the Israeli military, though they say that they had target targeted a number of Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza, not specifically mentioning this strike itself, but they say that the incident is under review -- MJ.

LEE: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thank you so much. U.S. senators are still debating, negotiating and proposing amendments

to Donald Trump's massive domestic policy bill. The latest on that controversial legislation just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:33]

LEE: Republican Leader John Thune says senators are getting close to a final vote on President Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. Republicans and Democrats have been proposing amendments for nearly 21 hours. Only three have passed so far.

And as it stands right now, the multitrillion dollar Trump bill would lower federal taxes, pour more money into the Pentagon and Trump's border crackdown, and dramatically shrink safety net programs, including Medicaid. Officials estimate it will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican lawmakers --