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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
"Vote-A-Rama" Continues As U.S. Senate Debates Trump Bill; How Florida Developed A Trump-Approved Detention Site; Extreme Heat Expected To Peak On Tuesday, Wednesday In Europe. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 01, 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: Republican leader John Thune said 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 to pass that sweeping domestic policy bill in time for him to sign it by Friday, which is the Fourth of July.
CNN's Kristen Holmes has more details from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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. I spoke to one White House official who said that they like their odds at this time. Despite the fact that this is continuing to go on we're not really quite sure where it's going to end up. The White House -- they seem pretty confident.
And I spoke to a number of administration officials who say this has been a real full-court press. You have had not only President Trump on the phone with various senators and congressional leadership, but you've also had members of the administration -- allies of President Trump's -- anyone who has a relationship with any senator -- they are calling them. They are pushing them. And that's really because this is such an important part of President Trump's legacy. His team and he believe that this is going to be what really cements that legacy moving forward.
Now we heard from the press secretary Karoline Leavitt talking about this and here's what she said.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Republicans need to stay tough and unify during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done. The president is very well aware that this bill needs to not only pass out of the Senate, but it needs to go back to the House. And we need the full weight of the Republican conference to get behind this bill and we expect them to, and we are confident that they will.
HOLMES: Now, you can hear her expressing confidence there but also saying that Republicans needed to stick together and really try to work this through and stay tough.
Now, perhaps part of the reason that the White House has confidence in this hour is because of what we have seen from President Trump. We saw him on social media essentially kind of leveling some veiled threats at people who might try to stop this bill from being passed, saying senators who are cutting costs -- you need to be careful. Don't go too crazy. You still have to be re-elected.
Of course, we saw him over the weekend essentially saying that he would primary North Caroline Sen. Thom Tillis when he voted against the bill. Thom Tillis, shortly afterward, saying that he was going to retire anyway.
But this is obviously going to be something that's on these senators' minds as they are working through this process.
Again, we will be checking in with the White House as this vote progresses to see if anything changes but right now, they are feeling confident that they still like their odds.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Still to come, how Florida's Republican governor pushed to create a migrant detention center in the Everglades and why it has become such a flashpoint.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:37:25]
LEE: The White House says Donald Trump will attend the opening of what it calls "Alligator Alcatraz" in the hours ahead. The immigrant detention center is being built in the Florida Everglades. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the facility will have just one road leading in and that only one way out is a one-way flight.
CNN's Randi Kaye brings us the backstory of this controversial new facility.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: We had a plan that we put out and told them hey, we can execute this.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): That plan, to build an immigrant detention facility deep in the swamplands of the Florida Everglades and call it "Alligator Alcatraz."
It was the brainchild of the state's attorney general who says Florida has been at the forefront of deportations. He's quick to tout the unique security system surrounding the new facility given the Everglades are known for alligators and pythons.
JAMES UTHMEIER, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We need additional detention space, and this location is ideal because of its surrounding area. It's a low-cost, already developed, 30 square mile area surrounded by the Everglades. So "Alligator Alcatraz" has a nice ring to it.
KAYE (voiceover): The facility is in both Miami-Dade and Collier county and is one the same footprint as an old airport that has been used for military training. It's expected to house at least 5,000 detainees.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calls it "one stop shopping" complete with a nearly 11,000-foot airstrip.
DESANTIS: There needs to be more ability to intake, process, and then deport, so this answers that. We've got a massive runway right behind us where any of the federal assets that they want to fly these people back to --
STEVE DOOCY, FOX NEWS, FLORIDA-BASED ANCHOR: Right.
DESANTIS: -- their own country they can do it one-stop shop.
KAYE (voiceover): DeSantis gave a tour of the facility to Fox. He, too, was quick to tout the location's natural barriers and built-in security.
DESANTIS: This is as secure as it gets. I mean, if a criminal alien were to escape from here somehow -- and I don't think they will -- you've got nowhere to go.
DOOCY: No.
DESANTIS: I mean, what are you going to do, trudge through the swamp and dodge alligators on the way back to 50-60 miles just to get to civilization? Not gonna happen.
KAYE (voiceover): With over 50,000 immigrants already detained in this country Gov. DeSantis says the Department of Homeland Security has told him what they need is more detention space.
DeSantis and President Donald Trump seem to have found some common ground on immigration, but it wasn't that long ago they were at odds vying for the White House.
DESANTIS: The State of Florida is all in on President Trump's mission.
KAYE (voiceover): Not everyone is happy about that.
[05:40:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got blood on your hands, buddy.
KAYE (voiceover): Over the weekend protesters, including environmentalists and immigration rights activists, came out blasting "Alligator Alcatraz" and those behind it.
ROBIN HASEN, PROTESTER: Well, the Everglades in itself is just a very sacred area, and the habitat here needs to be preserved and taken care of.
GIANCARLO CASTELLANOS, PROTESTER: They're using sacred land for such a sinister and vile goal -- end goal, which is not OK.
KAYE (voiceover): Florida's governor helped to fast-track this project using an executive order and citing what he sees as an illegal immigration crisis. It will cost about $450 million a year to run it but FEMA is expected to reimburse the State of Florida for that.
Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Deliberations have begun in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial. Coming up we'll have details on one of the notes the jury sent the judge and how the judge responded to their concerns.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:45:30]
LEE: Welcome back. I'm MJ Lee. Here are some stories we are watching today.
U.S. senators are more than 20 hours into discussions on amendments to President Trump's domestic agenda bill and they've only agreed on three amendments so far. Republicans are still dealing with several holdouts in the party, and they face a tight turnaround if they want to meet President Trump's Friday deadline.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week, according to a White House official. A meeting with President Trump is scheduled for July 7. The official says the two leaders are expected to discuss Iran, Gaza, Syria, and other regional challenges.
Authorities in Idaho have identified the suspect in the deadly ambush on firefighters who were responding to a brush fire. They named 20- year-old Wess Roley who they believe opened fire from a tree on Sunday killing two battalion chiefs. Authorities say he was found dead at the scene in Coeur d'Alene, and it appears he also shot himself. His motive is still unknown.
The jury on Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial will begin day two of their deliberations in the coming hours. On Monday they sent several notes to the judge, including one raising concerns about one of the jurors. The judge reminded all of them to follow his instructions on the law and to avoid revealing any specifics about their deliberations in future notes.
Combs faces five counts and could get up to life in prison if found guilty of the most serious charges.
This case has kept many trial watchers riveted from day one with so many salacious details and harrowing witness testimony. And plenty of social media influencers have taken notice as well livestreaming their thoughts on the proceedings right alongside the more traditional media outlets.
CNN's Brynn Gingras reports
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MS. PLEASANT, LIVE STREAMER: We down here at the Diddy trial.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Meet Ms. Pleasant, AKA maker of the "Da Pop Off Show" on YouTube.
PLEASANT: We're going to do a fit check.
GINGRAS: She's one of nearly a dozen live streamers you'll find outside the federal courthouse in New York City while inside Sean "Diddy" Combs sits on trial facing live in behind bars.
NIQUE LACLAIRE, LIVE STREAMER: Hey, what's up? What's up? It's your girl Nique.
GINGRAS (voiceover): Rain or shine, here for the past eight weeks.
GINGRAS: What compels you to actually be here every day?
MS. PLEASANT: I'm nosey. It has celebrity. It has sex. It has crime. It has drugs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh, you look nice today, mama Combs. You step in.
GINGRAS: How many followers did you have at the start of this and -- versus how many you have now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had about maybe like 5,000 or so. Right now I've got about 16,000. So I gained about maybe like 11,000 so --
GINGRAS: That's pretty good.
GINGRAS (voiceover): Many have amassed a huge following.
GINGRAS: You just read these comments? What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I'm reading the comments. I'm interacting with the people.
GINGRAS (voiceover): By giving unedited access to the chaos surrounding the courthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see Barney, just do one of these. GINGRAS: Are you livestreaming all that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we're live, man. We're all live.
GINGRAS (voiceover): Some streamers read courtroom transcripts word- for-word.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They kept his money. They kept his wallet.
GINGRAS (voiceover): This man reads off his own handwritten notes. Others chase down witnesses and Combs' family members.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just now I just had to run when the girls came, so I'm also doing the journalism. We're doing that. But then I'm doing the TMZ and I'm getting happy feets sliding in for the count to catch my little footage. So I'm doing --
GINGRAS: So you're capturing everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm doing everything.
LACLAIRE: There is a type of way that we can talk to them that legacy media probably can't really give an opinion. They can't -- you know, we can be like uh-uh, I wasn't feeling that, or I didn't like that, and they feel a relatability.
GINGRAS: Oh, you're on live, too. Oh my.
KEALOHA CONNER, LIVE STREAMER: Multiple batteries. Multiple charges in case one breaks.
GINGRAS: Yeah.
GINGRAS (voiceover): Kealohalika was in marketing before a friend convinced her to step in front of the phone and livestream.
CONNER: Guys, P. Diddy trial update.
The first day I was like oh, it's not going to be anything and then boom -- like, that first day I peaked at 21 -- 20,000 and some change on people.
GINGRAS (voiceover): Now she's not looking back.
CONNER: I want to go into journalism now because of all this.
GINGRAS: Are you able to monetize yet on this?
CONNER: Yeah. I was able to monetize on this from day one.
LACLAIRE: I do also get people who want to donate. They give cash apps. Then on YouTube there's a thing called super chats. They want to support your journey in any way that they can.
GINGRAS (voiceover): The trial now in the hands of jurors with arguably more people tuned in for the verdict than ever before. [05:50:05]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is as big as the O.J. trial. We do want to get closure and understand what this case is going to be. You know what I mean? What is it going to wrap up to be?
GINGRAS (voiceover): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: The U.S. is bracing for severe storms that are expected to sweep through major metro areas throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic today. Multiple rounds threaten to bring damaging winds and frequent lightning as a cold front pushes through D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston lasting into the evening.
Right now more than 75 million people are in the path of the threat and forecasters warn that the storms could lead to commute troubles along the I-95 corridor and power outages stretching from northern New Jersey all the way to Baltimore.
And Europe's extreme heat wave is expected to peak in the days ahead. Players and fans alike were sweating at Wimbledon as the famous tennis tournament began on Monday with the hottest opening day ever.
In parts of France, Spain, and Portugal the temperature is topping 40 degrees Celsius, which is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
And those hot, dry conditions have triggered wildfires with fires breaking out in France and Italy and forest fires forcing the evacuation of 50,000 people in Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia.
Let's get more now from CNN international correspondent Melissa Bell. She joins me live from Paris. Melissa, when I checked in with you in the last hour you said things were already scorching. How are you holding up now?
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, just doing our best, MJ. But it is another relentlessly hot day here in Paris as it is in Rome, in Madrid, across southern Europe. And what we're seeing is this heat dome as they call it -- this heat wave which continues to intensify. And these are not cities that are really equipped to deal with the kind of heat that has become, sadly, the new normal over the course of the last few summers.
What's changed this year, MJ, is that the extreme heat that we saw back in 2023, which set the records then. In 2024, again, records were broken. What's happening this year is that it's actually starting sooner. So this is June -- the end of June. We're just entering into July. Spain is about to announce its hottest June on record.
And, of course, the extreme heat that we're seeing earlier in the season is bringing the usual consequences. So wildfires that you mentioned in the Izmir province of Turkey. Wildfires also that have been declared around Athens. There have been some now declared in France. And the fear is that this is going to continue to worsen over the next few days because for now there is no respite in sight when it comes to the heat.
So Europeans already doing what they can to stay cool. Here in France it is more than 1,000 schools that have had to close today because again, the buildings are not equipped with the air conditioning you have in the United States.
In fact, Paris is the city in Europe where you're the most likely to die as a result of the heat, according to a report in The Lancet, simply because the constructions are not made to alleviate these sorts of temperatures for people living inside them.
So a lot warnings across Europe. Italy, Spain, France -- parts of those countries seeing extreme weather warnings with people urged just to stay indoors and do what they can to stay cool. Because, of course, of the real consequences not just for things like wildfires but back in 2023, MJ, which is the last year for which we have the figures, it is nearly 50,000 people who lost their lives across Europe as a result of the extreme heat.
LEE: All right, try to stay cool. Melissa Bell in Paris. Thank you so much.
Still ahead the popular social media app TikTok may finally have a buyer. That announcement from President Trump up next.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:53:00]
LEE: President Trump says he has found a buyer for the popular social media app TikTok. The announcement comes as the company faces a September deadline before being banned in the United States.
CNN's Clare Duffy has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. After months of speculation about who could buy TikTok we may soon finally be getting an answer.
These latest comments from President Trump, of course, come months after the law that requires TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell off the app's U.S. operations or face a ban in the United States. Months after that law technically went into effect back in January President Trump has now delayed enforcement of that ban three separate times. The current deadline for TikTok to find a new owner is September 17.
And President Trump has now said there is a buyer for TikTok who he will announce in the next two weeks. We don't know who that is. There have been a range of would-be buyers who have put up their hands to purchase this very popular platform. Those potential buyers range from a group that is backed by former Dodgers owner, billionaire Frank McCourt, and "SHARK TANK" famous investor Kevin O'Leary, to the AI firm Perplexity.
But I think the most likely buyer in this case is that we will see a return of the investment group that was very close to purchasing the platform back in April. That deal would have seen private equity firms, venture capital firms, and tech companies join together to create a new company to acquire TikTok's U.S. assets. And that was very close to crossing the finish line before President Trump's increased tariffs on China snagged those negotiations.
And that is really going to be the question for whatever deal Trump announces in the next two weeks is: is the Chinese government on board?
Now, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sounded an optimistic tone on this on Monday. She said the U.S. government is having high-level negotiations with the Chinese government.
But that's the thing that I'll be watching for whenever we get this Trump announcement is: is the Chinese government already on board or is that something they're going to need to continue working towards as we approach the September 17 deadline?
Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[06:00:10]
LEE: Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington, D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
