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The Situation Room

CVS Caremark No Longer Covering Weight-Loss Drug; Day Two of Deliberations in Sean Combs Trials; Hamas "Ready" For Ceasefire. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 01, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

REP. MARLIN STUTZMAN (R-IN), BUDGET COMMITTEE: -- spending has increased dramatically over the past several years. But the other thing is with a slow economy, the government just doesn't take in the revenue that historically we're used to. And so, that's also an important piece with the one big beautiful bill that we want to keep, tax rates where they're currently at. There's a lot of good things in the bill that started in the House, but it seems like the Senate wants to keep the tax policy in the bill, but then they go back to adding spending and some carve outs, which, again, we just know that Americans don't like carve outs when it comes to these big bills that pass in Congress.

And so, it looks like Alaska may have one. We're going to you to be looking at the bill very closely, but having more time to look at it and make sure we get this right, I think is important.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to ask you about what's been going on among some of your colleagues in the Republican Party. You have Republican Congressman Don Bacon and Republican Senator Thom Tillis deciding not to seek reelection, both lawmakers have split what the president. What do you think about that? I mean, is there no room in the party for dissenting voices like them in your view?

STUTZMAN: No, I think there's obviously -- you know, you look at the Republican Party today and it's very broad. But at the same time, I do think that there are disagreements with the president in the president's direction.

I mean, the president, he liked the one big beautiful bill that came out of the House. I wish the Senate would've stayed on that track. But I know that there's also senators that aren't, you know, big fans of the president. And it seems like that's maybe what Senator Tillis is doing. I've -- I it's not just between Senator Trump -- I'm sorry, President Trump and Senator Tillis, I've heard a lot of other voices out of North Carolina that have been very frustrated with Senator Tillis.

And here we are. Republicans have control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. We should all be working together as a team to get this passed, but it seems like there's more interest and special interest than there is and actually the -- you know, the American people's interest. And so, I think that's what we're seeing in the Senate version is that there's a lot of special interest at work that should not be part of this bill at this point.

BROWN: And, Senator Tillis, I'm sure you heard his speech on the floor. He says that his concern is about the Medicaid cuts and how it would impact his constituents in particular. Congressman Marlin Stutzman, thank you for coming on. We appreciate your time. We'll see how this plays out.

STUTZMAN: You bet. Thanks Pamela. Appreciate you having me on.

BROWN: Thanks. Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And coming up, a CVS Caremark says it will no longer cover the very popular weight-loss drug, Zepbound. The reasoning behind the decision that has patients confused and outraged.

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[10:35:00]

BROWN: Well, starting today's CVS Caremark will no longer cover the cost of the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound. That means for a one- month supply, patients could pay up to $1,000. CVS says it's all part of this effort to push drug makers to lower the cost of weight-loss medications.

BLITZER: CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard is taking a closer look at the options for people who rely on this medication. What are the options they now have?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Wolf and Pam, the pharmacy benefits provider CVS Caremark is essentially dropping Zepbound and prioritizing coverage for Wegovy. So, starting today, July 1st, people using CVS Caremark's prescription benefits will have to switch to Wegovy if they want to avoid paying full out-of-pocket costs for Zepbound.

Now, keep in mind this change is only for patients using CVS Caremark benefits. So, if someone has a Zepbound prescription and they just so happen to be picking it up at a CVS pharmacy, but it is covered by another provider, this will not affect them. This only affects people using CVS Caremark.

The question though is why is CVS Caremark doing this? While the company says this is not to reduce access to these medications, but by pitting Zepbound and Wegovy against each other, the aim is to balance access and affordability.

In a statement last week, CVS Caremark said, quote, "We're confident our decision to prefer Wegovy on our commercial template formularies will enable wider, more affordable coverage for weight management drugs while preserving clinical integrity," end quote. That statement also noted if you previously were authorized to use Zepbound, you will not need a new authorization to switch to Wegovy.

Now, both Wegovy and Zepbound, they are under the umbrella of GLP-1 medications. They've both been found to be effective for treating obesity, but of course every person is different. So, someone may respond more to one medication over the other, or they may experience more side effects with one medication compared with the other. The main difference is their active ingredient. Zepbound is a type of medication called tirzepatide. Wegovy is semaglutide.

They both, however, work by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone in the body to help regulate appetite, which can lead to help with weight management, Wolf and Pam.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: Jacqueline Howard, thank you very, very much Pamela.

BROWN: All right. More news to come right here in the Situation Room. We are live right outside court as day two of jury deliberations in the criminal case against Sean Diddy Combs our underway.

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[10:40:00]

BROWN: Happening now, jurors in the Sean Diddy Combs trial are back for a second day of deliberations. This morning's proceedings kicked off with the judge sending a note back to the jurors about the definition of drug distribution. Yesterday, the jury foreperson sent a note to the judge raising concerns about whether or not one juror on the panel could follow the court's instructions.

Let's go live now to CNN's Laura Coates. She joins us live from right outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Tell us more about what's going on with the jury and these notes that are being exchanged.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, the jury wasn't even deliberating an hour yesterday, Pam, when they hit their first note in, that went about questioning the ability of one of the jurors to follow the judge's instructions.

[10:45:00]

Remember, there were two and a half hours of instructions yesterday, so it was quite quizzical in that moment. But today, the judge answered yesterday's late afternoon question, and this one was about drug distribution. To paraphrase here, the jury had asked whether if the person who asked for the drugs and they received the drugs, is it still distribution? The judge directed their attention to the actual instructions that said, indeed, there is no requirement of sale and passing over or handing off drugs can constitute distribution.

Now, we're told they want to have another note and they want to have transcripts provided to them from Cassie Ventura and also a man named Dan Philip, who was one of the male escorts who testified about his experience with Diddy and Cassie. And in his case, he testified at least in one instance that he heard slapping sound, witnessed some sort of violence between the two and was able to sexually perform, resulting in the failure to be paid. So, this is where the prosecution is having their case essentially develop even further to suggest that this was a sex worker and this is what they're focused on today.

BROWN: All right. Laura Coates, keep us posted. Thanks so much. Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up, Hamas now says it's ready to agree to a ceasefire to end the war in Gaza. What it says is required in any proposal from Israel. We'll update you on that. And an expert on this issue will weigh in on what all this means for discussions.

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[10:50:00]

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): -- on the concrete. We're not using any of the other stuff now. Now, as you'll see, there's a lot of concrete, so there very well may be. I know Secretary Noem and her team have said as soon as the president departs, we will be open to start receiving folks. And so, we'll see what the tempo is. We do have the 2000 and Northeast Florida that will open very soon. So, it is possible to do.

One of the things I think that is exciting about this is we're offering up our National Guard and other folks in Florida to be deputized, to be immigration judges. We're working with the Department of Justice for the approvals. I'm sure Pam will approved.

But then you have -- I'll have a National Guard judge advocate here. Someone has a notice to appear. Biden would tell him to come back in three years and appear. Now, you'll be able to appear in like a day or two. So, they're not going to be detained hopefully for all that long. We'll have people here in this facility that can make -- you know, it's a bureaucracy. The president's got to deal with the bureaucracy.

Now, that Supreme Court ruling was good because that's going to allow him to be able to exercise Article 2 the way founders intended, but you still have bureaucracy. So, we want to cut through that so that we have an efficient operation between Florida and DHS to get the removal of these illegals done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you still prioritize in going after the worst of the worst or are you now arresting anyone who is here at the --

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're doing the worst of the worst, always first. And I think it's great government, what we've done. And nobody can ever forget what this group of people, Biden or whoever it was, because you don't -- it probably wasn't even Biden. I don't think he knew what hell he was doing. But Biden, whoever it was, what this group of people, a small group that circled the resolute desk, what they did to this country.

Think of it, what your time -- all the time you have to waste doing this. It's an unforced era. We had nothing. We had no problem with this. There was never anything like --

BLITZER: All right. So, it looks like that connection with Florida with the president and the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is breaking up a bit. We'll continue to monitor what's going on. You know, it's interesting, this whole story, what they're doing down in Florida, it's not that far away from Miami, this -- you know what's called this Alligator Alcatraz.

BROWN: Yes. And, you know, this is the image imagery that the White House wants, right? This is exactly what it wants to be doing. The timing here is certainly significant, and I know our CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes can talk about the timing here and why the president is visiting. Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela and Wolf. It couldn't be more significant. And a lot of that is because of what we're seeing with this spending bill currently in Congress, currently going through this procedural process. That's because President Trump is pressuring these lawmakers to push through this spending bill at a time that they believe, and he says that this will aid in helping with those deportations. So, this is part of that.

And as you said, Pamela, this is a lot of showcasing that imagery, talking about alligators and crocodiles and pythons and how you have to face the alligators if you even are able to get free from one of these detention facilities. And we have heard a lot of praise of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, particularly from around the administration. President Trump, not so much. But within the administration of what he has been doing in Florida.

And this kind of atmosphere in the Everglades, on this airstrip, again, with all of these kind of dangerous creature --

BROWN: All right. Kristen, I'm going to interrupt because President Trump is speaking now about the bill. Let's listen.

TRUMP: No, no. We're not going to be playing with Medicaid. Only waste, fraud, and abuse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- million Americans could lose that --

TRUMP: Yes. The Democrats have it wrong. Yes. Waste, fraud, and abuse. We -- in fact, if you look at what's going on, we've gone way back. We take care of Medicaid. We take care of Medicare. They will blow Medicare and Medicaid because they have no idea what they're doing. Just like they don't have any idea what they did on the border. They have no idea. Medicaid is in big trouble with the Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you promise anyone who loses their healthcare coverage, that is because of waste, fraud and abuse?

TRUMP: Waste, fraud -- only, waste fraud, and abuse, which is what everybody wants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Russia has about 50,000 troops stationed outside of Sumy in Ukraine. What will you do if Russia authorizes an offensive?

TRUMP: We'll see what happens. I'm watching it very closely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About Prime Minister Ben Netanyahu's visit next week. What are you hoping to get out of that and do you think there'll be any progress towards --

TRUMP: Well, it's going to be a very quick celebration. We had a great hit. It was an obliteration. OK. Now, it turns out it was an obliteration. You know, they demeaned, CNN, mostly and The New York Times, fake New York Times, they demeaned these great soldiers.

[10:55:00]

They went over there 17 hours flying and they hit bullseye after bullseye after bullseye. It all blew up. Everybody saw it. Then they get back and CNN said, well, they did OK, but maybe it wasn't. Let me tell you, it was beyond obliteration. They can't -- nobody can even get down there. The tunnels are busted. Everything fell into the well. It was a total and complete obliteration. And we should celebrate these heroes.

And what I'm doing is I'm bringing them, Ron, we're bringing them to Florida or to the White House. I gave them their choice. I think they're going to take the White House.

DESANTIS: Probably.

TRUMP: I shouldn't tell you this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, there's going to be a new bill called Make American Elections Great Again.

TRUMP: I love it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forcing the U.S. Census Bureau to redo the census, to actually get an account of how many Americans with proof of citizenship are in our area, in our country redistricting some of the House districts. Your thoughts on that?

TRUMP: Well, I'll speak for both of us. We love it. OK. You didn't like this one. I know all about it. We want to bring our elections back. The election in 2020 was rigged, millions and millions of votes. It had to do with COVID and a lot of things, but it really had to do with their crooked people. The Democrats are very good at cheating on elections. And that's why I said too big to rig. They tried this one too. But after about 902, they gave up too many votes, you know, too big to rig.

Ron would love it. I would love it. Christie would love it. That's what they have to do. They have to bring it back. And we have to look, you know, Ron they include anybody that happens to be in your state.

DESANTIS: Well, California would lose like five seats if they did a fair census. And even beyond that, the Biden census jipped (ph) Florida of at least one seat. We only got one seat in the last census. Are you trying to tell me that Florida only had one seat in that? We should have had at least two. Texas should have had another one. That could be the difference in the House of Representatives and the majority.

So, I would love for them to redo the census for 26. My legislature will redistrict those lines. We'll get it to where it's fair. But as it's right now, this country is not fairly apportioned. I've got so many more millions of people in Florida that have representation because of that flawed census.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --

TRUMP: I think it's going to do very well. A lot of people -- I don't know if you've heard about it, it's like it's captivated the country. Everybody wants it. It's going to get in, it's going to pass, and we're going to be very happy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Elon Musk is ripping into this bill again, are you concerned that Republicans are going to be swayed by Musk and his money?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so. I think what's going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk. And if DOGE looks at Musk, we're going to save a fortune. Thank you very much, everybody. I don't think he should be playing that game with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, July --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody.

BLITZER: All right. So, there's the president of the United States continuing this assault on Elon Musk and Elon Musk continuing his assault on the president of the United States. It's amazing, you know, Pamela, how these two individuals who are once very good friends now apparently hate each other.

BROWN: Yes. This is round two, right at the back and forth. He said I don't think you should be playing those kinds of games with me. I want to go back to Kristen Holmes at the White House. Kristen, President Trump spoke about a range of issues, not just Musk, but also the bill that's currently in the Senate. That's really central to his agenda and talking about his visit day to Alligator Alcatraz as its dubbed.

HOLMES: Yes. And, Pamela, I do just want to touch on the Musk thing really fast because what's been really interesting to watch this kind of devolution over the past several days. I mean, just a reminder, it seemed as though they had come to some sort of a detente. And one of the things that we had reported on was that there were Trump allies, lawmakers, friends of both of them, people who became close to Musk during the time he was close to President Trump, who were reaching out to Musk, reaching out to him, getting him -- asking him to stop attacking the bill, saying it was important for him to be on the same page as President Trump. President Trump behind the scenes was asking questions during the first round of this, is this because Elon Musk might be on drugs? Because of some reporting that he had been out there about that. They then had a phone call in which things started to get incredibly quiet between the two of them. We even heard Elon Musk or saw him posting, saying, he regretted some of the things that he said about President Trump going too far.

But then in the last 24 hours, he has re-escalated this fight. Now, you see President Trump hitting back on this saying, I don't think he should do that. He shouldn't take me on, et cetera, et cetera. So, watching this, again, devolve seeing what's behind the scenes here as kind of playing out in public is quite fascinating.

Now, when it goes to that bill, I think one of the most interesting things that he said is completely contradictory, or at least largely contradictory to what some own Republican senators have said about this bill. He said that the Medicaid would only cut waste, fraud, and abuse. And we heard North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis saying that that wasn't the case over the weekend, as he pushed back on this and did not decide or voted against moving this bill forward.

BLITZER: All right. Kristen Holmes, if the White House, we'll stay in very close touch with you.

[11:00:00]