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Inside Politics

Jewish Groups Deny Endorsing Trump's Far-Right Pick for Watchdog Chief; at Least 119 Confirmed Dead in Catastrophic Texas Floods; New Mexico Rocked by Floodwaters That Surged More Than 18 Feet in an Hour; Trump Plan Would Slash NASA Budget by 24 Percent; MAGA Figures Erupt After DOJ Says No Epstein Client List. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 09, 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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[12:30:25]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': And now, to new reporting about the Trump Administration's choice to lead the Office of Special Counsel, the government's top watchdog. Paul Ingrassia is a lawyer with six months of government experience, has a history of sharing racist and sexist posts. And he's claimed that straight white men were the most intelligent demographic group. Ingrassia is an Alex Jones defender who has shared conspiracies about 9/11 being an inside job, and he has promoted comments from a white nationalist and notorious holocaust denier.

On Twitter, Ingrassia called the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel a "PsyOp" or a psychological operation, and the administration spokesperson claimed to CNN that Ingrassia has the support of many Jewish groups. When CNN asked for specifics, they named four: Zionist Organization of America, that was one of them, the Israeli Defense and Security Forum; the third, the Israel Heritage Foundation; and the Holocaust Council which doesn't exist.

The administration later explained that they meant the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, but CNN's K-File, which did this reporting, reached out to the groups the Trump Administration listed. Most said they don't support Ingrassia and didn't even know who he was. One group, the Israel Heritage Foundation, did tell CNN they support Ingrassia, but only after their executive director initially told CNN they were not supporting his nomination. CNN did reach out to Ingrassia for a comment. We have not yet heard back.

My panel is back here, Laura?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: When you look at Ingrassia, I mean, this appointment, he fits a pattern within the administration, which is that if Trump feels as though, and those around him feel as though someone is a loyalist to the president, and someone will do the president's bidding, then they're a good fit for whatever office it may be, even though the special counsel's office is expected to look into federal employees' claims of wrongful dismissal. So, what if a federal employee comes forward to Ingrassia and says, I've been wrongly dismissed and he says, no, you weren't -- you simply weren't loyal to the president. You didn't do what the president wanted you to do. I think that he fits a pattern of not just him, but there are others across the White House, be it -- across appointments in the administration, be it Ed Martin, be it others within the Pentagon and State Department that the administration has hired who have expressed very similar extremist views, be it anti-Semitic views or others.

BASH: And this just bluntly flies in the face of claims that what the administration is trying to do on college campuses and beyond are to fight anti-Semitism. I'm not saying that they don't have that desire, but why don't they have that desire with their own appointments?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, it sort of, I guess, depends on which anti-Semitism they would like to battle against, not broadly rooting it out everywhere. It also just speaks to a flagrant, like vetting process that is absolutely not where it needs to be. I mean, we can you think of any administration that this kind of vetting would occur?

BASH: Trump one.

CHALIAN: Yeah, the only other administration, exactly. It just seems like a completely broken down thing. And to Laura's point, I don't think so. It's sloppy and they're not guarding against what could be problematic, nevermind problematic for the country that this person should be serving in that role, problematic politically for the administration because above all else is the loyalty.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I got to agree with that. This is a vetting thing. I mean, I hear what you're saying about the loyalists, and it's true. And I think that what you're saying in terms of the person they're looking for to run that office, that is exactly what they're looking for. I've never -- this is not somebody who is around during the campaign every day. This is not somebody who we talk about on a regular basis who is known to be a Trump person. So, I'm not really --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Not even sure (inaudible) someone's list.

HOLMES: He's on some -- that's what I mean. He's on someone's list. But I'm not sure where he came from in terms of this, but I think this really speaks to a larger issue, which is this vetting process of like, how did this guy get here into this position that really does fly in the face of everything that they're saying that they're doing. And it does feel more like what we saw in the sloppier Trump 1.0 than what we've seen this time around. And yes, there's Ed Martin, but Trump ended up retracting that. We've seen Matt Gaetz, Trump ended up retracting that.

[12:35:00]

It -- this is more, to me, just surprising that they let it get this far, that somebody -- nobody was checking on this person.

BASH: Well, Ed Martin is still around. He didn't have to be confirmed.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Yes, exactly.

BASH: Yeah. Thank you all. Thanks to the K-File for that terrific reporting.

Up next, once in a lifetime rains and floods. It's a phrase we hear on repeat. We're going to talk about why that is and whether that's really true anymore with the one and only Bill Nye.

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BASH: We're continuing to follow the desperate search in Texas. Last hour, officials said at least 119 people have died and even more remain missing.

[12:40:00]

In New Mexico, residents experienced similar panic during record- breaking, that's what they called it, flood waters. That was yesterday. A river free surged from less than two feet to more than 20 in less than an hour. At least three people were killed, nearly 100 people were rescued.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLYN CARPENTER, WITNESS: A really big flood just came like a wall of flood. It came and it started going through, and that's when I started recording because it just -- it got so wild, so quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: In Central North Carolina, another "once in a 100-year flood." In Chicago, a "one in a thousand year rain event." That's all just this week. Joining me now to try to make sense of this and more is Bill Nye, The Science Guy. Thanks for being here.

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: It's good to be here. I'm sorry -- I really am sorry for all the trouble.

BASH: It's terrible. And so, just that last part of what we were describing, you keep hearing once in a lifetime, once in a hundred years, once in a thousand years. At this point, it's not anymore. It's just where we are with the climate and the environment.

NYE: That's, as we like to say, our side of it, the science side of it. This is exactly what was predicted. It's very difficult to tie any one weather event to climate change. However, the warm weather events are actually easier to tie to climate change. And so, the other problem that happened in the hill country in Texas is this business of the Balcones Escarpment, where the air mask got lifted, so it spread out and the rain came down even faster.

But it'll happen again, to your point, and everybody has talked about this for years, and there are the technologies for warning systems exist, where people have tidal or tsunami events. These sort of warning systems can be put up, but you got to get to higher ground very quickly. And the thing, the point that I believe was being made in the moment -- in the video a moment ago was the mass of the water, a 20-foot high mass of water in a half hour is -- you can't -- you can't just float your way out of it.

BASH: Yeah.

NYE: It knocks everything over. Everybody knows -- you pick up a bucket of water, you know how heavy it is. And you get a lot of water going that fast. So, what are we going to do about it is the ancient question, and it would be to stop burning fossil fuels. When you're in a hole, stop digging, and so on. But the fossil fuel industry has been very successful in getting organizations like the U.S. Congress to think that it's really not happening.

BASH: Well. And the first six months of the Trump administration, we've seen an end to some of the federal efforts on not just fossil fuel, but other efforts that had been in place government-wide to promote alternative energy.

NYE: Yes. To be the world leader, to be -- to have the U.S. lead the world in renewable energy sources, so that we would be able to export our technologies, that people would want to come to the U.S. to learn how to do this up and so on. So, the opportunities still exists, but we do need to turn things around. And this is, of course, you are getting my side of the story.

BASH: How do you feel about that? Well, I mean, it's the science side.

NYE: Yeah. Well, yeah. And I'm a big fan of this everybody.

BASH: Oh, yeah?

NYE: The U.S. Constitution article -- I like to show this to people -- Article I, Section 8. Article I is the legislative branch, Congress. Section 8 is the miscellany (ph) letters of mark about piracy and the progress of science and useful arts. The word 'science' is in the U.S. Constitution.

BASH: Guess what? We even have a graphic made, so that the people at home can read that small print.

NYE: That's good.

BASH: So you can read it again.

NYE: But I mention it because these guys in 1787 realized the value of science for our health, our welfare, and our international competitiveness. It's not a new idea. And so, to set science aside is not in anyone's best interest. And so, I spent the morning on Capitol Hill in Lindsey Graham's office, Ted Cruz's office, and then Adam Schiff's office. So, these are two very conservative guys, one very progressive guy, and everybody shares the idea that NASA is the best brand the United States has.

BASH: Let's talk about that.

NYE: Yeah.

BASH: Because, as you said, you're here to lobby on behalf of --

NYE: Well, we don't lobby. That's a -- that's a legal word.

BASH: OK. Sorry. Sorry.

NYE: We are advocating.

BASH: To talk to people who make decisions in their offices about proposed cuts to NASA.

NYE: Yeah.

BASH: And --

NYE: Really, I mean, extraordinary cuts, I mean --

BASH: Yeah.

NYE: Cut in half kind of thing.

[12:45:00]

BASH: I just want to say that your organization, the Planetary Society, created a visual which we can also put on the screen --

NYE: Oh, yes.

BASH: -- of the cuts, the most since 1961. And that was before an American astronaut went into space.

NYE: Yeah. Yeah. The cuts proposed are really extraordinary. And if I may, out of this world. And where exactly the proposals come from is not clear to anybody that we spoke with this morning, but everybody's dealing with it, and they're trying to make these cuts to existing programs, existing missions. And 'missions,' everybody, is a big word that includes the spacecraft and all the people on the ground that are running around maintaining it.

BASH: So, you're saying that nobody sort of claimed authorship of the cuts?

NYE: That we spoke with this morning, who had knowledge or said they had knowledge, but it's obvious --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Do you think you're going to be successful in getting the money back in?

NYE: Well, they're trying. So, these are very conservative politicians who are trying to put money back in and they'll be -- right now, it looks like it'll work. It'll work. But it's very wonky, Dana. I mean, it's -- it's the authorization versus appropriations versus the reconciliation versus --

BASH: Yeah. Welcome to Washington.

NYE: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

(LAUGH)

NYE: So just everybody, your tax dollars at work, it is very -- there's many, many traditions where these people reach agreements, but what's been happening as far as we can tell is the executive branch has been trying to go around.

BASH: Yeah.

NYE: -- the long traditions of the legislative branch.

BASH: Well, that's what Elon Musk, who certainly likes science and -- well, likes space was working on cuts (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

NYE: So everybody keep in mind, NASA is a big customer for SpaceX.

BASH: Yeah. Yeah.

NYE: I mean, it's -- they're related. It's not one thing -- it is not one or the other.

BASH: Before I let you go, and you've been very generous with your time, I know that you were receiving a lot of texts --

(LAUGH)

BASH: -- from the HHS Secretary, Robert Kennedy, Jr., trying to convince you the science of connecting autism to vaccines, which you can tell me about the science there, to the point where you had to block him?

NYE: Well, I mean, you guys, everybody, texts take up your phone time. He was relentless, page after page after page. So this year, as you may know, is the 41st anniversary of Spinal Tap and there's posters. Spinal Tap is a movie, everybody, it holds up -- we watched it last year. It's good. But the drummer, the first drummer that explodes is Ed Begley. I don't want to give too much away. He lived down the street from me. And he knew Bobby Kennedy, Jr. when the two of them were very involved in environmental issues.

BASH: Yeah.

NYE: So, that's how I started getting texts from Mr. Kennedy. BASH: Real quick because we're out of time. Did you -- I assume you tried to push back on him?

NYE: I just told him, he has confused causation with correlation, the same old problem. Just because you -- somebody got a vaccine -- vaccination and then somebody else got autism, doesn't mean one caused the other. This is science. This is a long time. So that is -- Mr. Kennedy's views have been debunked up and down, but I think respectfully, the president likes things to be chaotic. So he hires people who are controversial on purpose. And here we are.

BASH: Bill Nye, it's always good to see you.

NYE: Thank you, Dana. Great to be here.

BASH: Thanks for being here.

NYE: Keep up the good work.

(CROSSTALK)

NYE: First Amendment. Keep it going.

BASH: Yeah. Thank you. We'll be right back.

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[12:52:48]

BASH: This time yesterday, President Trump was visibly annoyed after a New York Post reporter asked about Jeffrey Epstein during a cabinet meeting. Here's how the president responded.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration. But --

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BASH: That led to a lot of frustration online and elsewhere, among people who are pretty influential with the MAGA base. Here's just a sampling.

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BENNY JOHNSON, HOST, THE BENNY SHOW: Right. This is absurd. Pam Bondi was talking about Epstein. Kash was talking about Epstein. Bongino was talking about Epstein. Elon Musk was talking about Epstein. Trump has been talking about Epstein. He started his presidential campaign in 2016 by linking the Clintons to Epstein. JACK POSOBIEC, HOST, HUMAN EVENTS DAILY: She says that we don't need to hear about Jeffrey Epstein ever again. You know what this sounds like? I'm going to tell you exactly what this sounds like. Pam Bondi sounds like Hillary Clinton right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Laura Barron-Lopez is back with us. First of all, if you're MAGA, those are fighting words, to talk about Pam Bondi as Hillary Clinton. But, I do want to just say one other thing, which is those are just sort of some examples. It was all over social conservative social media. We're just going to put up a few more examples starting with Roseanne Barr, who is a supporter of the president. And the first thing she said was, Mr. President, yes, we still care about Epstein.

BARRON-LOPEZ: No, this is mass disappointment almost on a religious level. I mean, this was a key pillar of MAGA canon for years. I mean, all throughout the election cycle, the MAGA base really built this up. Not just the MAGA base, but key figures that are now inside the president's administration. Whether it's Pam Bondi, whether it's Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, the leaders of the FBI, they were talking about this nonstop and putting it -- presenting it as something that was representative of accusing Democrats of hiding the ball on this, of building this up as some grand conspiracy theory.

[12:55:00]

And now, cognitive dissonance. Now, no, there is no -- nothing to see here. There's nothing to release. There's even internal fighting about it. So, this is something that is incredibly confusing, clearly, for the MAGA base.

BASH: And turning on the president personally, suggesting that he has something to hide, which we don't have any evidence of. I want to say that for the record, just going back to something that Elon Musk said. Time to drop a really big bomb, Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. By the way, he deleted that after he was trying to make nicer with the president. We are out of time, but I wanted to say, you are moving on to different pastures.

BARRON-LOPEZ: I am. I am.

BASH: And we are going to miss you. Congratulations on your new gig.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Dana, thank you so much. You've been incredibly important to my time here at CNN and I'm going to miss you a lot, the "Inside Politics" team and all of CNN. So, thank you for --

BASH: It is --

BARRON-LOPEZ: -- is letting me share my reporting here.

BASH: It is definitely mutual. We're going to miss you a lot and we'll be cheering you on wherever you are.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you. BASH: Thank you. And thank you for joining "Inside Politics." CNN News Central starts right now.

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