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Senate-Passed Trump Megabill in House for Possible Vote Today; Combs Guilty of Prostitution, Acquitted of Most Serious Charges. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 02, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:33:52]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': -- So the people who make the least will have their incomes lower by 2.3 percent in the next 10 years. And those who are in the top fifth of income earners in America would see a 2.3 percent increase in their after tax income. How is that prioritizing working families?

REP. JASON SMITH, (R-MO) CHAIRMAN, WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE: Those numbers are very skewed. What I will tell you is, this is the largest tax cut for any income group, is anyone who earns $15,000 to $30,000. And that's a more than a 20 percent tax cut, which is the largest of every aspect. Two-thirds of all of the tax cuts in this bill are people who make less than $500,000 a year. We're providing no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief for seniors, tax deduction for autos created in the United States. These are things that help working class families, small businesses, and farmers. And that's what this bill delivers on.

BASH: It's just looking at this, with the way that the tax structure is, it's going to be maybe hard to convince people that the wealthiest Americans are not getting tax benefits, whereas those who make a lot less are going to have trouble.

SMITH: You know, Dana, the Democrats, this is their talking point, is saying that this bill is a tax cut for billionaires and millionaires. What I'd like to point out is when the Democrats controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate, they passed two different reconciliation bills that both had tax chapters and they never increased the tax rate that they are complaining about. In fact, there was an amendment over in the Senate with the vote-a-rama just two days ago where the vast majority of Senate Democrats voted against increasing the top tax bracket for people who make more than $25 million. It's hypocrisy. It's just absolutely hypocrisy.

BASH: And you're not worried as Senator Hawley has said, that there will be some backlash against, I mean, the whole notion of Trump's Republican Party right now, if you look at the way that the votes have been going and the way that the shift in the demographics towards Republicans have been going is that you have become more of a party of the working -- of the working class. Is there any concern that you have, honestly, candidly, that this bill will hurt that cause? SMITH: This bill was created over the last two years in traveling to more than 30 different states and listening to real working moms and dads, farmers, small business owners. And that's what developed the policies in this. We're delivering what those individuals came to us. Not lobbyists in Washington, D.C., but real Americans. My very first committee hearing, Dana, that I ever held as chairman, was in Petersburg, West Virginia at a lumber yard called State of America's Economy Appalachia, where we heard from working moms, coal miners, small business owners, and the issues that they were facing are addressed in this bill and we're delivering on it.

BASH: Last question, Elon Musk, as you I'm sure know, he issued a pretty wide threat to Republicans. He posted every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame and they will lose their primary next year, if it is the last thing I do on this earth. The bill would increase the deficit by $3.3 trillion over 10 years according to the CBO. What's your response to Musk?

SMITH: I would say I disagree with the CBO scores to begin with. They projected GDP at 1.8 percent over the next 10 years. I believe the GDP is clearly going to come in at 3 percent or more. If it comes in at 3 percent or more, we will in fact be reducing the deficit by $0.5 trillion in this piece of legislation. This legislation, Dana, also cuts more than $1.4 trillion in mandatory spending which is the largest cuts in mandatory spending in the history of America. DOGE did great, but they only cut $175 billion. This bill alone cuts $1.4 trillion. We're not going to fix everything overnight, but it steps in the right direction.

BASH: The Chairman of the Powerful Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith, thank you so much for being here. You said you're confident that the votes are going to be there. Just real quick, is it going to happen today?

SMITH: It's going to happen before July 4th.

BASH: OK.

SMITH: I guarantee you that.

BASH: All right. Thank you for coming on, sir. Appreciate it.

SMITH: Thanks, Dana.

BASH: Coming up, our panel of reporters will be here to talk about this race to the finish line for President Trump's megabill. Plus, more on the breaking news out of New York, the judge in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial will decide any moment whether or not Combs will walk free as soon as today.

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[12:39:12] BASH: We are still tracking breaking news in New York where Sean "Diddy" Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges in his trial. But first, you just heard my interview with the Chairman of the Ways and Means Tax Writing Committee, on his push to get President Trump's giant megabill over the finish line as soon as today. And I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here to discuss, CNN's David Chalian; Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times; Marc Caputo of Axios; and CNN's Eva McKend.

Nothing going on today, huh, guys? David Chalian, you heard Jason Smith predict that he will -- that they will get the votes. Three votes is not a lot when you hear all of the sort of complaining and ire from both the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative, and some of the moderates who, let's be honest, historically tend to fall in line.

[12:40:00]

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BASH: And I've just put -- as you answer, I'll put up on the screen the list of the moderates who we believe could still be meeting with the president, at least was about an hour ago.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah. It's interesting because, obviously, we've heard from different factions within the Republican Conference, different concerns about the bill. And it makes a little more sense to me that the president would meet with this group here, to given his public commitment to voters that he was not going to cut Medicaid in any way beyond what he calls fraud, waste and abuse. And clearly, there's some concern among these members about the Medicaid cuts. And so, it sort of makes sense that the hardliners from the Chip Roys of the world --

BASH: Yeah.

CHALIAN: You know, the politics of this are so different, right? If you -- as we know, in our lives, so many of these districts are safe. And so, politics become primary politics. And if you're a Republican in a safe district, the primary politics is like, you're not going to go against Donald Trump. That's just the reality of what the primary politics dictate if you're going to keep your job. The folks in the middle, they have to make a more complicated calculation about needing Trump and the support from the base in tougher districts, and not alienating that, but also needing to make a broader appeal, which is why I think we're seeing this group sitting down with the president.

BASH: Yeah. Particularly since in the Senate, you saw Susan Collins vote no. You saw Thom Tillis vote no and say, I'm out. And these are -- I mean, if you take any three of these people, I guess it's fair to say if you take any three of any Republican in the House, there goes the majority. But because you mentioned Chip Roy, I do want to listen to one of the things he said about this bill this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. CHIP ROY, (R-TX): Those of us in the House that are reviewing the bill after it came through the Senate, and we believe it falls short, we believe that it will create too much spending. And that is too much in the way of deficits over the next four or five years in particular, with backloaded savings and more deficits upfront.

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ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: We've had a number of Republicans make comments criticizing the increase -- how this bill would increase debt or cuts to Medicaid. And you're already seeing some Democrats, some critics of this bill start to hone in on those comments as well, sort of seize on them to put some of these Republicans on their heels as well, some of these holdouts. We talk about implication for the midterms. I just -- every time I see some of the criticism of this bill, it's easy to think that that might come back in a way when you're forced to defend, if you vote yes on this, right?

You were right. There's sort of two dueling points of pressure right now. Those who are worried about how this would increase debt and those who have already made consistent -- multiple comments about cuts that it would have to Medicaid and how that would impact their base. Both of those points can come around to impact you in 2026. But at the same time, look, I look at the White House and some of the comments they've issued in recent days saying, any Republican who would oppose this, that would be an act of betrayal.

You have seen the president really at the apex of his power when it comes to power over the legislative branch.

BASH: Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: In previous times, fiscal hawks, even those who have criticized, like, some of the president's proposals have come around. It's tough to see that they wouldn't this time too.

MARC CAPUTO, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: I'll be cynical. Here is one reason these guys and gals, I don't know who specifically is saying, oh my God, these deficits and these Medicaid cuts are so terrible. They're saying it because they have to, they have to get caught trying to improve the bill. But in the end, it's tax cut bill and the Republican Party, despite paying lip service to deficit reduction for a long time, hasn't really practiced it and the president wants it.

So, I see this as kind of performative stuff by a lot of these folks, so that it's not going to be used against them. It's going to be used by them in their campaigns, like, well, I tried to stop the Medicaid cuts. I tried to do this, but the president wanted it. It's a tax cut though.

BASH: OK. But historically, getting caught trying is -- if your constituents are really mad at you --

CAPUTO: Sure. BASH: -- is not going to stop them from being really mad at you and potentially voting you out. I mean, we have seen big bills historically in the past that have had that effect.

CAPUTO: Sure. It's still the party of one though. And it's Donald Trump's party, and he announced another media outlet that his campaign is political committees. They have more than $1 billion in cash and in commitments, and they're already targeting Thomas Massie and letting everyone know if you step out of line and you go the way of Massie, Donald Trump's coming for you.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: But this could be a real political opportunity. And it's hard to even talk about the politics because so many people, poor people in this country could be devastated by the outcome of this.

[12:45:00]

But it is a political opportunity for Democrats to wrestle back the narrative on the economy. Time and time again, cycle after cycle, Republicans, get the benefit of the doubt on the economy with voters. But now, Democrats can really own this argument. I was at an event yesterday, in Virginia, with the Virginia gubernatorial candidate. Just outside was a union organized event with people sharing their Medicaid stories. And so, Democrats have to remain connected to the people closest to the pain and uplift their stories. It's one thing for a woman who told me yesterday, that she doesn't know when this is all said and done, if she's still going to have a roof over her head.

BASH: Yeah.

MCKEND: Talking about that theoretical, but this could actually come to pass.

BASH: Let me just show you, I mean, we have talked broadly about what's in this bill, extending the tax cuts. You said it's mostly a tax cut bill, overhauling Medicaid, and food stamps, no taxes on tips or overtime, phasing out the green energy tax credits, and so forth. But what I want to look at is some of what you're talking about, Eva, the specifics of where Democrats think that they have some political leverage here. New 80-hour a month work requirements for Medicaid recipients, co-payments under Medicaid, expanding SNAP work requirements, a temporary tax break for senior citizens.

Obviously, that's not -- that's something that a lot of people are going to be OK with, cap on student loan borrowing, tax-free savings accounts for children. That's something you heard Jason Smith talk about. There are, I guess, you can argue there are a lot of things in there for everybody, but it is the working class voters that Democrats, as Eva was saying, think that they have a political wedge issue on.

CHALIAN: Yeah, I mean -- I think it's -- if you see the Republican messaging, you heard it from the chairman. You've heard it from some Republican groups. There are things that they can point to that are popular and as they try to sell this bill, which I presume is going to pass, to the American people. And they have an uphill sales job in front of them because right now, the bill is unpopular, more unpopular than popular with the American people. So, Democrats have a head start on the messaging.

Republicans are going to point to some of the things you've listed there, some -- whether it's no tax on tips or no tax on overtime or even the argument when you make the small slice argument of, what's wrong with saying able-bodied Americans should be, people get that, but the Democrats have the broader advantage on the frame right now. It seems to me with the American people, if you look at all the polling, which is just the top-line message of you are cutting health insurance for those that need it in exchange for giving wealthy people a tax break. That is going to be for the next year-and-a-half what we hear from Democrats and the question is, so are some of these individual line items that may be popular that the Republicans are going to try as their sales job going to be able to combat that overarching frame?

BASH: And real quick, you come from the real world.

CAPUTO: Well, to a degree, notably, the Trump White House privately floated the idea of raising taxes in the very wealthy.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BASH: Yeah.

CAPUTO: Because they knew this argument was going to happen.

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BASH: That's right.

CHALIAN: That went out the window. Yeah.

CAPUTO: It didn't happen in 2005, I'm dating myself.

BASH: President himself did it.

CAPUTO: Jeb Bush tried to overhaul Medicaid in Florida. He did. And there were all these -- there's all this discussions (inaudible) over it, and there was a belief that these Medicaid voters would come out and vote. They didn't. And in the end, until Republicans feel that Medicaid voters actually exist and will vote against them, I think you're going to see them vote this way in Congress for a while.

BASH: OK, everybody, thank you so much. Don't go anywhere. Up next, what does Cassie Ventura think of the stunning Combs verdict? We're going to bring you an exclusive interview with her attorney, after the break. This while we do wait for the judge to decide if Combs will be able to walk free as soon as today. Stay with us.

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[12:53:20] BASH: Now, back to our top story. One of the most powerful people in entertainment was just found guilty of prostitution, but Sean "Diddy" Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges in his federal trial. That includes sex trafficking of Cassie Ventura whose dramatic testimony shook the New York courtroom. Let's go to CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister outside the courthouse.

Elizabeth, you had a really interesting exclusive interview with Cassie Ventura's lawyer for an exclusive post-verdict conversation. What did he tell you?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, I spoke to Cassie Ventura's attorney, Doug Wigdor, and I asked him if he's spoken to her. He said that she has, he said she's very proud of herself. Cassie is not expected to speak out herself. Remember, she testified eight months pregnant. She is a new mother of three. So, he said she is at home, focused on her family. But I asked him what he thought about the defenses closing because you remember, that they said she was the winner of this trial because she received that monetary settlement from Combs. So I asked him about that. Let's take a look, Dana.

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DOUG WIGDOR, ATTORNEY FOR CASSIE VENTURA: She is primarily and has been focused on her family. She did testify when she was eight months pregnant. And she is really trying to look forward and when I gave my statement after her testimony, I made very clear that she was looking forward. She did not want to think about the case any longer. She had given her testimony and now wanted to just concentrate on her family. And she's done that.

[12:55:00]

I mean, obviously, it's almost impossible not to see some of the media about the case. And so, she has seen some of that. I can tell you that some of the comments that were made in the closing argument, I thought were repugnant, frankly, calling those sorts of behaviors as modern day relationship, saying that she enjoyed sex, saying she was a gangster, things like that. I don't think, even with the jury verdict, that they would have given that any credit. And I don't think anyone who actually listened to the testimony and watched the testimony would either. And I thought that those were sort of gratuitous comments that really weren't based on any real facts.

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WAGMEISTER: Now, Doug told me that even though Combs was acquitted on the most serious charges, that he believes that the jury did believe his client, Cassie Ventura. Now, we have not heard from Combs' defense team yet. But in just a few minutes, they are filing a motion asking the judge for Sean Combs to walk free as he awaits the sentencing. They do not want him in jail as he awaits the sentencing, they said this morning because again, he was acquitted on the most serious charges. So, we are standing by for that, Dana, and we should have news on that this afternoon. BASH: OK, Elizabeth, thanks again for this and for all your tremendous coverage. I want to bring in Lisa Respers France. She covers entertainment for us, and she joins us from Atlanta. Lisa, Combs' trial has spawned its own trial-tainment industry dominated by podcasts, influencers. What has the reaction been there, the immediate reaction to this verdict?

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, you know, of course, Dana, there's the legal court and then there's the court of public opinion. And immediately following this, there was a lot of shock. This has been a very divisive case, as is always the case whenever there's a celebrity involved. You have the fan base, many of whom don't want to believe that someone that they enjoyed their art so tremendously could be guilty of anything.

So you have some people who are very surprised, and then you have some anger. You have some people who say that they feel as though this is yet another case of a rich and powerful man who was up for justice and then escaped justice. But as we see, the jury did their job. They determine what they determine, and we have to go from there.

BASH: And you have reported on past trials that have captured the nation's attention. The O.J. Simpson trial in particular, I know you were writing for the LA Times back during that trial. The cases could not be more different. But when it comes to the public sort of the zeitgeist, what similarities do you see?

FRANCE: There's absolutely the similarity of race being a big part of that. I think it's fair to say that I don't think Sean ""Diddy Combs enjoyed the same support among the black community that O.J. Simpson did at the time. But in both cases, they involved allegations of domestic violence, but also I think both men became surrogates for what could happen in the criminal justice system when you have a black man in particular, who's able to, in a way, level the playing field, because they could afford really good attorneys. They could afford to have the best representation.

And so, that factors into it, not only were they both black celebrities, but when it comes to having black men accused of crimes in this country, a lot of times there's this feeling of finally you have someone who's able to get the type of defense that is available to a non-person of color. And so, that's always a part of the conversation. And I've written about this before when it's come to the R. Kellys of the world, the Bill Cosbys of the world, the Michael Jacksons of the world, the O.J. Simpsons, and now the Sean "Diddy" Combs, they become representative of what can happen in the justice system -- in the judicial system for someone who can afford to have the very best representation.

BASH: And you heard Cassie Ventura's lawyer responding to how the defense characterized their relationship, her relationship with Combs. He also told CNN that Cassie would continue to fight for survivors. What about that part of this case?

FRANCE: Interestingly enough, earlier, I called into the Atlanta Radio Station V-103 here to -- they wanted to ask me a few questions about this case. And I heard from some of the callers prior to me, a lot of victim shaming. So while you know Cassie Ventura, we were able to see actual evidence of some of her allegations, we were able to see thanks to the video that we broke here at CNN, her being physically assaulted. There still is a great deal of victim shaming that happens. One woman that called into V-103 basically hailed and said, I have sons. I know what it's like. These women try to bring these powerful men down.

And unfortunately, that's the sentiment among some people. Some people support Cassie and they hail her because we know, and it's very clear that there would have probably been no trial had she not come forward. So, there's still people that -- this is a difficult case and they are still --