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State of the Union

Honoring World War II Veterans; Interview With Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI); Interview With Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA); Interview With Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). Aired 9-10a ET

Aired May 25, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Standoff. A victory for President Trump's agenda, as the House speaker squeezes through tax and spending cuts.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The bill is passed.

(CHEERING)

TAPPER: But Senate Republicans say, not so fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a long way from the finish line.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): The big, beautiful bill, I think that's the Titanic.

TAPPER: Will concerns about the fallout stall Trump's big, beautiful bill?

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's next. And then Senator Ron Johnson responds live.

And update. Trump abruptly threatens new tariffs that could sink your next upgrade.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not looking for a deal.

TAPPER: More economic uncertainty, as Trump expands his political targets.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): And the American people deserve a lot better than this. Is it bluster or just the beginning?

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Michael Bennet responds ahead.

Plus: honoring the fallen more than 80 years later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We lower our heads in gratitude and respect.

TAPPER: How American troops from World War II are finally getting a burial worthy of their sacrifice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Hello.

I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, D.C., where the state of our union is thinking about those who died to protect us on this Memorial Day weekend. Thank you for joining us.

President Trump marked the holiday with a speech Saturday to new graduates of West Point, an institution his administration has worked to change drastically and dramatically in his first few months in office, just part of a larger cultural shift led by the president, who this week targeted Harvard and Columbia universities.

And, frankly, he is just getting started. But Mr. Trump did get his own party to toe the line this week, with a big victory for his agenda in the House of Representatives. More than a year ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson began to map out the legislation that would become what Trump calls his big, beautiful bill, a tax cut and spending cut legislation.

He and the president, Johnson and the president pushed it through a divided, tiny Republican majority, some of whom represent swing districts and who were concerned that the cuts to the social safety net like Medicaid and snap were too deep, others who thought that they were not nearly deep enough and that this legislation will grow the debt.

In the end, Speaker Johnson pushed the bill through by one single vote. Now it heads to the U.S. Senate, where Republicans' concerns about the bill and its political fallout may be even steeper.

And joining me now is the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Speaker Johnson, thanks so much for joining us.

Republican senators have made it clear that they want to make some changes to the House bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN the Senate is going to write its own bill. Even though they have a larger majority than you do, what is your message to your colleagues in the Senate?

M. JOHNSON: Thanks, Jake. Great to be with you.

Look, I have been very consistent with our colleagues in the Senate. We worked hand in glove with them all through this process, remembering that the House began this more than a year ago. It was March of last year when we got our committee chairs together and told them to begin to repair for this massive reconciliation package. We believed at that time, more than a year ago, that we would win the

White House, the Senate and the House, and have unified government and have this really once-in-a-generation opportunity to do so much in one piece of legislation.

So I met with the Senate Republicans, all my colleagues, over there last week on Tuesday at their weekly luncheon. And I encouraged them to do their work, of course, as we all anticipate, but to make as few modifications to this package as possible, because remembering that we have got to pass it one more time to ratify their changes in the House.

And I have a very delicate balance here, a very delicate equilibrium that we have reached over a long period of time, and it's best not to meddle with it too much.

TAPPER: Let's talk about what the legislation actually does.

I want to play something that you said back in January about the national debt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. JOHNSON: The number one threat to our nation right now is our debt. We take that very seriously. Congress has kicked the can down the road for decades, and we're out of road. And so we understand that it's our responsibility to fix this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So there are five different independent scores of this legislation. Every one of them says that it will increase the deficit somewhere between $3.3 trillion and $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

Now, I get you take issue with the Congressional Budget Office and that they don't have dynamic scoring, all this, but this is the emergency -- emerging consensus among everyone analyzing. They say you're kicking -- not only are you kicking the can down the road, but you're making the problem worse. You're adding to the debt.

[09:05:10]

M. JOHNSON: Well, I think that is dramatically overstated. And here's why.

Everyone can -- those same groups can objectively see and acknowledge that this is the largest cut in spending in at least 30 years and arguably of all time. We're cutting over $1.5 trillion in federal spending, while we check all the boxes and bring about a pro-growth economy.

And the CBO has been panned because, as you said, they don't do dynamic scoring. What that means is, they don't account for the growth that will be fostered by all the policies that are in this big piece of legislation. This is not theoretical, Jake. Just remember the last Trump

administration. After the first two years, we brought about the greatest economy in the history of the world, not just the U.S. The growth was off the charts. It was an average about 3 percent of growth in GDP. Why? Because we cut taxes and we cut regulations.

We're doing the same thing this time around, but on steroids. This is a much larger package, a much more robust package with all these features that will really get the economy going, because wages will rise. Job creators, entrepreneurs, risk-takers will have more ability to expand their businesses. U.S. manufacturing onshore is being incentivized.

All these things will work together to make the economy grow faster than must have -- many of these projections are putting forth. So we're not buying it. We will see what happens, and we have the evidence to prove it from the past.

TAPPER: So the CBO doesn't get a vote, but my next guest, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, does.

And he wrote in "The Wall Street Journal" -- quote -- "The one big, beautiful bill will almost certainly add to our deficits and debt." And he even called the bill the Titanic. What do you say to him?

M. JOHNSON: Look, I love Ron Johnson. He's a dear friend. And he and I agree on our philosophy. We're limited government conservatives. We want to limit the size and scope of the government and make it work more efficiently and effectively.

My response to him, and we have spoken about this over recent months, is that we're doing the best we can with the vote numbers that we have. In other words, we have got to turn this aircraft carrier. You don't turn an aircraft carrier on a dime. It takes a mile of open ocean to do it. And it took us decades to get in this financial situation.

We can't just flip a switch and get out of it overnight. One of the people that my friend Ron Johnson really respects is Russ Vought, who directs the Office of Management and Budget. And Russ is a big champion for this piece of legislation. He calls it historic.

And he's a fiscal hawk. And so am I. So we're doing as much as we can. And I just encourage Ron to remember in our -- in the House, we have 220 Republicans, a wide range of perspectives and a wide range of districts represented.

And I have got to get to 217 votes to get this thing over the line, so as much as we can, in as big an increment as we can. I think we have achieved that here. And I just want them to remember that. We have got to deal within the realm of what's possible.

TAPPER: So, in addition to people like Senator Johnson, who think this bill doesn't do enough to cut spending, you're going to have to convince people like Susan Collins of Maine and Josh Hawley of Missouri, who are worried about cuts that this bill proposes. President Trump repeatedly insisted he would not touch Medicaid and

that Americans would not lose their insurance. Here's what he said just five days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're not changing Medicaid, and we're not changing Medicare, and we're not changing Social Security.

(CROSSTALK)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you guarantee that your voters who supported you in the election, particularly working-class voters, will not lose health insurance under this bill?

TRUMP: Oh, they won't lose health insurance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The CBO found that nearly eight million Americans will in fact lose their insurance coverage because of the changes this bill makes to Medicaid.

So how do you reconcile that with what President Trump said?

M. JOHNSON: It's directly in line with what the president said. I have said the same. We are not cutting Medicaid in this package.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about this, Jake. The numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. So, what do I mean by that? You got more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid.

Medicaid is not intended for non-U.S. citizens. It's intended for the most vulnerable populations of Americans, which is pregnant women and young single mothers, the disabled, the elderly. They are protected in what we're doing, because we're preserving the resources for those who need it most.

You're talking about 4.8 million able-bodied workers, young men, for example, who are on Medicaid and not working. They are choosing not to work when they can. That is called fraud. They are cheating the system.

When you root out those kinds of abuses, you save the resources that are so desperately needed by the people who deserve it and need it most. That's what we're doing. And that's why this is a -- the morality of what we're doing here is precisely right, and it comports with all the public opinion polls.

When people ask whether young men, for example, who are able-bodied and have no dependents should be working, everybody says yes. And that's what our package does. So, these estimates that you're hearing are accurate, but it's dealing with those numbers of people in the population. And that's going to make the -- preserve the program and strengthen it for those who need it most. [09:10:14]

TAPPER: So 1.4 million people in your home state of Louisiana are on Medicaid. More than 800,000 receive SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps.

Is it your contention that, if any of those Louisianians lose their benefits, it's because they shouldn't have been receiving them, because they were committing waste, fraud or abuse?

M. JOHNSON: Yes.

Look, my district, as every district in America, has people who are on the program who shouldn't. And when you're talking about -- I keep using this example, a young able-bodied man with no dependents, there's no reason he should not be working.

We are the party about -- that supports human dignity, and we find purpose and dignity in our work. It's good for the individuals involved. It's good for their community. It's good for society at large. When you're talking about work requirements, by the way, it's very flexible.

It just means that you either work or you volunteer, do something meaningful in your community, or you're in a job or work training program, 20 hours a week. I mean, this is not some huge demand. If you're going to be on the public wagon, you have to do something to help pull it if you're able.

And, again, Jake, the purpose of this is to preserve these very necessary, very important safety net programs for the people who actually need and deserve them, and not those who are gaming the system. And I think I will go into any town hall anywhere in America, my district, or otherwise, and explain this, and everyone nods in agreement and understands it.

So the Democrats are trying to twist the facts. They're trying to put out misinformation because they're going to vote against this, and there's no way to defend it. What it means is, they're going to be voting for more fraud, waste and abuse, instead of the elimination of it, which is what our package does.

TAPPER: It's not just Democrats, though, right? I mean, there are voices in MAGA world sounding the alarm that cuts to Medicaid could really impact Trump's own supporters.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Medicaid, you got to be careful, because a lot of MAGA is on Medicaid. I'm telling you, if you don't think so, you are dead wrong. Just can't take a meat axe to it, although I would love to.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): This is real Medicaid benefit cuts. I can't support that. No Republican should support that. We're the party of the working class, Manu. We need to act like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That was Steve Bannon and Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. What is your response to them?

M. JOHNSON: Yes, look, I don't disagree with that. Of course, there's lots of people on Medicaid in our party and in others.

But, again, if they look at the final package and the details of what has come through the House, I think we reached the right point. And, Jake, it also brings out the very important point that we're trying to do this on a very aggressive timetable. The reason I tried to get this done and we did get it done before Memorial Day and send it to the Senate is so the president can be signing this into law by Independence Day on July 4.

Why is that so important? Because we have got to get relief to the American people and that we also need to, for political purposes, show, give a lot of time, enough time for everyone to see that this package actually is what we say. It's going to help the country. It's going to help the economy. It's going to help all boats to rise, just as we did after the first two years of the first Trump administration.

And so we're anxious to get this signed into law so people feel it and see it before that midterm election and they understand it is the Republicans who are doing the best for hardworking Americans, low- income families, and everyone who deserves a better shot.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about something else. President Trump held a closed-door event Thursday night for top investors in his private cryptocurrency.

We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country. The president has, of course, a huge role to play when it comes to regulation, regulating crypto.

I really have a difficult time imagining that, if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn't be outraged.

M. JOHNSON: Well, look, I don't know anything about the dinner. I was a little busy this past week, as you know, getting the reconciliation package over the line. And so I'm not going to comment on something I haven't even heard about. I'm not sure who was there, what the purpose was.

But I will say this, President Trump is very active. He's very engaged. He's the greatest dealmaker -- one of the greatest dealmakers of all time. He is working on these trade imbalances that we have had and having tremendous success. We have got over 75 countries now renegotiating their trade agreements with America.

It's going to make it better for all of us, everybody in the country. And he is encouraging new technologies, crypto, and the advancement of A.I. He's appointed a czar for the first time. We have an A.I. czar in David Sacks who's an expert in the industry from Silicon Valley.

There's a lot of exciting things happening. The president is trying to encourage that along as much as he can. And I think the vast majority of the country is applauding those efforts. So I'm one of them. I think the result of all this is going to be extraordinary for all -- everybody in the country.

TAPPER: You oversaw, as speaker, a congressional investigation into President Biden's ties to his son Hunter's questionable business dealings to enrich him.

[09:15:05]

You seemed to think it was your responsibility to look into this sort of thing then.

M. JOHNSON: Yes, Jake, the big, important distinction, the Biden crime family, as they were named, earned that title.

Why? Because they use shell companies, fake LLCs, series of what appeared to be money laundering operations. And Hunter Biden, of course, with his difficult past and his -- the corruption in his past, the family on the public dole -- or on the president's dole.

The president lied about his involvement in the business dealings, all of that. The evidence just piled up. And, by the way, at the same time, the evidence of his diminished mental capacity, subject of your book, of course. I wish had been published a year earlier, because everybody saw it. Everybody saw what was happening.

He used the autopen. And, by the way, there's investigations right now going on in the House of Jamie Comer in the Oversight Committee -- or will be investigating the use the autopen, when the president's mental capacity declined and whether all those things are even legally valid now, given the obvious fact that he was not the one making the decisions.

It's huge implications from all this. And so I think the American people had a reason to doubt. And we had great reason and I think a responsibility to investigate those things. The difference, of course, is that President Trump does everything out in the open. He's not trying to hide anything. There's no shell companies or fake LLCs or fake family businesses.

TAPPER: Well...

M. JOHNSON: He's putting it out there, so everybody can evaluate for themselves.

TAPPER: On the book, I wish the more than 200 people that talked to me and Alex Thompson, my co-author, after Election Day, I sure wish that they had talked to us a year ago. I agree with you on that.

But on this matter with the crypto, shouldn't we at least just know who was at the dinner? Wouldn't you want to know that list of people?

M. JOHNSON: I guess.

I mean, again, I don't know anything about that dinner. I do know that President Trump is the most transparent president in the most transparent administration probably in history. He has nothing to hide, and he's out there trying to advance America's interests. That's what America first policies are all about.And that's what our big reconciliation bill will deliver for the people. We're really proud of the product.

TAPPER: Mr. Speaker, I know you have a lot of military veterans and Gold Star families in your congressional district. I know your son is at Annapolis. I wish you a meaningful and peaceful Memorial Day weekend.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

M. JOHNSON: Same to you, my friend. God bless.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: So, that was Speaker Johnson's message for the Senate. My next guest is a skeptic. Senator Ron Johnson will join me to respond.

And Democrats say, this time, they have a plan. OK, what is it?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:10]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

The House had its say. Now Senate Republicans specifically will get a crack at President Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill, spending cut and tax cut legislation.

My next guest says in no uncertain terms that he will not vote for what the House passed unless there are major changes.

Joining us now, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of the great state of Wisconsin.

Senator, thanks so much for being here. So you just heard Speaker Johnson. He said this bill is a serious attempt to address the deficit and the debt and have the economy grow. On a scale of one to 10, how serious do you think this House-passed legislation actually is when it comes to reining in the debt?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Well, first of all, let me say I have nothing but respect for Speaker Johnson. I understand and sympathize with the challenge he has. I have nothing but support for what President Trump is trying to do.

I love the way he's acting boldly and swiftly decisively to fix the enormous messes left by the Biden administration. So, from my standpoint, this is a budget reconciliation process, so we ought to talk about numbers. One of my disappointments with what the House process is, about the only number we ever heard about was $1.5 trillion, which sounds like a lot, but it's only $150 billion per year.

And this is put in context of the fact that, in 2019, we spent $4.4 trillion. This year, we will spend over $7 trillion; $150 billion on that is basically a rounding error.

TAPPER: Yes, you're talking about the spending cuts.

R. JOHNSON: So we need to get serious about this. We need to establish -- right, we need to establish goals.

Listen, this is the weekend we honor the service and sacrifice of the finest among us, the more than a million that died to defend this nation. I don't think they served and sacrifice to leave our children completely mortgaged, their future and their prospects diminished because of it.

So we need to be responsible. The first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit. This actually increases it. But let me describe the mess. President Obama averaged about $910 billion of deficits per year. President Trump in his first three years averaged about 810. Then COVID hit, over $3 trillion in deficit.

It should have ended there. We should have immediately returned to a pre-pandemic level spending, but President Biden averaged $1.9 trillion of deficits over his four years. And, according to CBO, those deficits now averaged $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years. We will add $22 trillion.

And I'm sorry, the House bill would probably add, I have calculated $4 trillion. You're saying you have these independent analysts saying it's $3.3 trillion to $4 trillion. I agree with that. We have to reduce the deficit. And so we need to focus on spending, spending, spending.

TAPPER: So, what changes...

R. JOHNSON: You don't defeat the deep state by funding it.

TAPPER: Right.

So what changes are you going to push for in this bill when the Senate takes it up? You want to make $6 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, you say.

[09:25:06]

Just for comparison, that's the equivalent of almost the entire federal budget from last year. Here's where all that money went last year. We're just holding up a chart. You already know the percentages here of how much is going to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Pentagon and on and on. Where would you make cuts?

R. JOHNSON: So, first of all, you take a different approach.

You don't start at $7 trillion, a completely unjustified level spending, and then subject yourself to death by 1,000 cuts. You start with a reasonable pre-pandemic level spending. You have heard people talk about zero-based budgeting. I'm talking about a budget of $5.5 trillion to $6.5 trillion.

Those are options from Clinton, Obama, and Trump, where you just take their actual outlays, plus them up by population growth and inflation, leaving Social Security, Medicare, and interest untouched. That would leave you somewhere between $5.5 trillion and $6.5 trillion. So you start there, but you have to do the work, and you need the time to do the work.

I have to believe, when you go through $7,000 billion of spending, if you go by -- line by line, like DOGE has done, you will find hundreds of billions of dollars. And I have proven this in terms of where the spending occurs, hundreds of billions of dollars of spending if you eliminate -- nobody would even notice it, other than the grifters who are sucking down the waste, fraud and abuse.

TAPPER: So President Trump has suggested that...

R. JOHNSON: So, we got to do the work.

TAPPER: Yes.

President Trump has suggested that the debt is not really top of mind of his concerns. He wants Republicans to fall in line. He wants Republicans to pass the bill. You told CNN -- quote -- "Somebody's got to be the dad that says, I know you all want to go to Disney World, but we can't afford it. I guess I'm going to be that guy" -- unquote.

So how determined are you to be that guy if it actually means telling President Trump you are going to vote against the bill and you're going to try to get other Republican senators to join you unless there are major, major changes?

R. JOHNSON: Well, in 2010, I sprang out of the Tea Party movement.

And as I did praise my -- I would shout, this is a fight for freedom. We are mortgaging our children's future. It's wrong. It's immoral. It has to stop. I haven't changed. My campaign promise in 2010 and every campaign after that was to stop mortgaging our children's future. It's immoral. It's wrong. It has to stop.

And so he may not be worried about that. I am extremely worried about that. That is my primary goal running for Congress. This is our moment. We have witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending, 58 percent since 2019, other than World War II.

This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending. And, again, I think you can do it. And the spending that we would eliminate, people wouldn't even notice. But you have to do the work, which takes time. That's part of the process.

TAPPER: Yes.

R. JOHNSON: Part of the problem here is, we have rushed this process. We haven't taken the time. We have done it the same old way, exempt most programs, take a look at a couple, tweak them a little bit, try and rely on a CBO score, and then have that score completely out of context with anything that really we ought to be talking about, like the $22 trillion of additional deficit over the next 10 years.

TAPPER: So, we're out of time, but I'm just wondering, if you could just give me a number, how many other Republican senators do you think share your concerns and are willing to make -- work to make major changes to this bill?

R. JOHNSON: I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.

TAPPER: Senator Ron Johnson, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. And I hope you have a peaceful and meaningful Memorial Day.

R. JOHNSON: You too.

TAPPER: My next guest is a Democratic senator running for governor of a purple state. Is the Democratic brand a draw or a drag?

Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:33:13]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

This week, the Trump administration has targeted Harvard and Columbia, floated new tariffs on Europe and smartphones, charged a sitting member of Congress, and made deep cuts to the National Security Council. Democrats are objecting, but what, if anything, more than -- can they do?

Joining us now, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Senator, good to see you.

So you're going to have a chance in the next few weeks to push back against President Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending cut bill. You just heard Senator Johnson lay out his concerns about how it will balloon the debt. Other Republicans like Josh Hawley, Susan Collins say they're not on board with the bill's cuts and changes to Medicaid.

Majority Leader John Thune can't afford to lose more than three Republican votes, gives Democrats an opening to stop this legislation. Do Democrats have a strategy?

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): Well, I think we're going to make sure the American people understand what's in this bill.

It is completely incoherent. The Republicans can't agree on what they're trying to do with it. And the cuts to Medicaid are going to be devastating to rural America and to rural Colorado. I have spent a ton of time listening to health care providers in red parts of the state that voted for Donald Trump that are not engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse.

They're engaged in trying to deliver health care on a shoestring as it is, no O.B. services, no -- none of the things that anybody in the industrialized world expects to have out of their health care system as it is. And now Trump and his allies are going to cut Medicaid.

And it's going to drive a lot of these providers out of business. It's going to make it impossible for people that live a very long way from Denver to be able to get health care for their kids. And I hope we are able to stop it.

[09:35:00]

But, if we can't, if the 53 Republicans in the Senate insist on ramming it through, the American people are going to know who owns this piece of legislation.

TAPPER: So, you just heard Speaker Johnson say that -- I cited the CBO figure that eight million people are going to be affected by these cuts to Medicaid, and he said those are just the eight million who should not be on Medicaid.

He said it's more than a million people who are undocumented immigrants. He said it's able-bodied males who could be working, but are not. You say that that's not true, huh?

BENNET: It's not true.

Look, I -- before I was in the Senate, I was a school superintendent. Most of the kids were kids living in poverty. Their parents were working two and three jobs. The issue is not that they weren't working. It's that, even though they were working, they couldn't get their kids out of poverty because our economy hasn't been working well enough for working people and for the middle class.

The same is true in the rural communities that I was just talking about that are being served by those hospitals. I -- and, by the way, it's not just about Medicaid. I had a conversation the other day with -- just last week with a woman who's graduated from Western in Gunnison, Colorado, who said: "I'm going to be off my parents' health insurance in a year. Is it really true that I'm going to have to have two or three jobs just for the privilege of paying for health insurance?"

That is crazy, Jake. And that is the health care system that America has today that Trump is going to make worse. Democrats should be figuring out not just how to stop these cuts, but to give the American people a vision for what a modern health care system that looks like the rest of the industrialized world would look like for the American people, because these decisions that we're going to make really do -- in the end, it's not about the rhetoric of Speaker Johnson.

It's about how it's going to affect people in their daily lives. And I'm sorry to say this bill is going to affect them in a major way.

TAPPER: So you announced last...

BENNET: In a negative way.

TAPPER: So you announced last month that you're going to run for governor of Colorado, a decision that you say is driven by your frustration with Congress and, frankly, with Democratic leadership.

I just wonder, given your party's record low popularity right now, does the Democratic brand help you or hurt you, even in a purple -- purple blue state like Colorado?

BENNET: I don't think -- I don't think nationally the Democratic brand helps very much anyway, I mean, anywhere. If it did, we wouldn't have lost to Donald Trump twice.

I know a lot of supporters of mine and friends of mine are furious at Donald Trump -- I am -- are furious at people they think aren't standing up enough -- standing up enough to Donald Trump. I am.

But I'm also furious at the Democratic Party that has lost twice to Trump. Donald Trump could not get appointed to any job in the state of Colorado. He couldn't get hired on 17th Street, which is our business street here in Denver, Colorado. But he's been sent to Washington twice to blow the place up because, among other things, people are sick of what they see as the self-interested partisanship there.

I think they're sick of a Democratic Party who hasn't been able to show how we're going to address an economy where the middle class continues to shrink and where over the last 20 years we have actually lost ground in terms of the achievement of our kids in school.

We need to address those things. So I think it's very important for us to stand up against the insanity that Trump represents and the chaos that he represents and show that there's something better.

But we should understand that there were a lot of people that voted for him for a reason, and that's because they wanted to blow up Washington, D.C. They're not surprised by his corruption. That's sort of a ratification of who he is. And we need to show people something different.

I see no reason why Colorado can't be the best place in America to raise a kid. And that's why I have decided to run for governor here, because it's important to Colorado, but I think it's also important to have that positive vision for our country.

TAPPER: Thank you so much, Senator Bennet. Good to see you, sir. I hope you have a meaningful and peaceful Memorial Day with you, with your family.

BENNET: You too. Thank you, Jake. TAPPER: Some of America's fallen service members buried overseas

under the wrong marker. Well, now there's an effort to change.

That story's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:11]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

This Memorial Day weekend, we have a special story for you about service members killed overseas during World War II and the remarkable effort one group is making to give these heroes, who are Jewish American in this case, burials appropriate to their faith.

My co-anchor Dana Bash brings us this remarkable story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST (voice-over): In this cemetery outside Rome lay more than 7,800 Americans killed in battle liberating Italy during World War II, now buried alongside rows of beautiful Roman pines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Faith in each other.

BASH: And on this day, families of three soldiers traveled to Italy from the U.S. to honor their sacrifice.

RABBI JACOB J. SCHACTER, PRESIDENT, OPERATION BENJAMIN: Today we are setting the historical record straight. We will give them the marker that is appropriate for their faith.

[09:45:04]

BASH: More than 80 years after they died, correct inadvertent errors. Burial beneath Latin crosses instead of Jewish stars.

SHALOM LAMM, CHIEF HISTORIAN & CO-FOUNDER, OPERATION BENJAMIN: We're all here in some way to honor those who have rested here for all of these many years under an incorrect identity.

BASH: All thanks to the nonprofit Operation Benjamin, which works with the American Battle Monuments Commission. Shalom Lamm is chief historian.

(on camera): Many of the servicemen, who are buried under crosses, even though they're Jewish, it's because they didn't want to show that they were Jewish on their dog tags.

LAMM: Right. There was a real fear of being captured. And if you were captured by the Germans in particular, that was really terrifying. These are not purposeful. These were true errors. America really tried to get it right, but they naturally missed some.

And our job is to come back through all these decades and find those guys. It has happened again and again and again that I introduce people to someone who's just a shadowy figure in their memory. They were real flesh and blood human beings. And we know that story.

BASH (voice-over): Stories like that of Technician 4th Grade Ben Bernstein. His nieces and nephews finally learned details of their uncle's sacrifice, a member of the elite 1st Special Service Force, killed by a Nazi grenade on December 3, 1943, in the Battle of Monte la Difensa.

(on camera): Your name is Ben.

BEN SHERIDAN, NEPHEW OF BEN BERNSTEIN: Correct.

BASH: You are named for your uncle.

SHERIDAN: He was a hero. He was always a hero in everybody's eyes. But we knew so little. We knew he stormed a hill in Italy and died. We knew he was a paratrooper. We knew he volunteered for force. That's about it.

BASH (voice-over): Now they are here giving their uncle a proper burial.

(on camera): This is the grave site of 2nd Lieutenant Sheldon Finder, who was shot down and killed on August 16, 1943 during World War II. As you can see here, he was Jewish and he's laid to rest beneath a Jewish star.

Well, the only other person to die in that very same mission in August of 43 was Paul Singer. He was also the only other Jew in that mission. He's under a cross. That's going to change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In death, they are nine feet apart. In life, they were three feet apart. One was the navigator. One was the bombardier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paul, on behalf of the members of your family, and on behalf of the Jewish people, we welcome you home.

BASH: Your cousin Paul Singer died 82 years ago, and he's been under a cross until today. What did it mean to you to be here and to be a part of the ceremony to honor his Jewish faith?

JODI REFF, COUSIN OF PAUL SINGER: We are very committed Jews. It's so special to have something from your religion that's now and that's connected families.

BASH: He was orphaned at 16. He was an only child.

J. REFF: Right.

BASH: It's probably why it took so long to have this changed.

J. REFF: Right, because they were trying to contact these aunts of his, but, right, you know, they didn't -- there wasn't any other family. So it's nice to be able to be here and represent the family to be able to do this. BASH (voice-over): Sheldon Finder's family feels the same way.

(on camera): So this is your uncle.

JONATHAN FINDER, NEPHEW OF SHELDON FINDER: That's my uncle Sheldon. I have a great picture of my father and my uncle as children.

BASH: Did your dad talk about him?

FINDER: Very little. Very little. I feel like, by being here today, I honor his quiet grieving for his entire life.

BASH: Until now, there was never a proper funeral.

FINDER: No. As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone in my entire family has ever been here before.

BASH (voice-over): The two families met here in Italy for the first time.

J. REFF: I knew the name and I knew he was buried here. I didn't know he was buried this close, but then to meet them is really incredible.

RICKY REFF, RELATIVE OF PAUL SINGER: It puts a lot of meaning to this whole experience, that it's not just about one person. It's about all of these individuals.

BASH: Headstones in military cemeteries can only be changed with approval from soldiers' families. Shalom Lamm does the research.

LAMM: The amount of proof we're required to deliver it to the American Battle Monuments Commission is really huge. It's really tough, and it should be tough. We're changing something for eternity.

BASH: The stone from the cross that's removed never leaves the cemetery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We lower our heads in gratitude and respect to these silent civil sentinels who have so majestically stood guard over these young men for all of these decades.

[09:50:02]

How magnificent is it that these men here on these grounds were comrades in arms against a common foe, good on one side and absolute evil on the other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Thanks so much, Dana, for bringing us that moving report on this Memorial Day weekend.

What I will be thinking about tomorrow after this quick break.

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[09:55:13]

TAPPER: Tomorrow, as you enjoy your time with your family and maybe a barbecue, I hope you will take a moment to think about the service members, the men and women who gave their lives to protect ours, the young father who will never get to meet his son, the young woman whose parents still miss her every day.

This weekend, we take a moment to honor their bravery and their sacrifice and their selflessness. I will be thinking of them. I'm sure you will be as well. And, to their families, we say thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for spending your Sunday morning with us.

"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" starts next.