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It is Tuesday, June 3rd, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. He acted because he hated what he called the Zionist group. A firebombing attack at a pro-Israel rally in Colorado, the latest in an alarming trend. Can anything be done to stop the violent cycle? Plus, growing opposition to the president's tax and spending bill. Can it pass in the Senate without major changes?
Then disturbing testimony in the trial against Sean Combs why his ex-assistant says she didn't come forward with sexual assault claims sooner. Later, is FEMA ready for hurricane season? With the new boss said in a briefing that didn't exactly inspire confidence.
It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And we are going to start with that story out of Colorado. Investigators say the man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and using a flamethrower and an anti-Semitic attack there had been planning it for a year. Forty five year old Mohammed Sabri Solomon is now charged with
a federal hate crime, and multiple counts of attempted murder. The DA says they found 16 unused Molotov cocktails. At least 12 people were injured. They were gathering in support of Israeli hostages. And then witnesses say they saw huge flames, people getting water from a nearby fountain there to pour on the victims. - Mr. Solomon stated that he had been planning this attack for a year. And when he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets.
and he would go back and do it again. Investigators say he yelled "Free Palestine" and a court affidavit alleges he said he wanted to kill all Zionist people. The victims include six members of one congregation. It's just shattering that, you know, some of that dream has been smashed in this horrific attack. They were violently and brutally attacked by fire. And it's like, brings up horrific images of our past.
you know, just the idea of someone who's literally got their body on fire. Joining me now is CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. She's a former Homeland Security assistant secretary. And Juliette, I often turn to your writing because you talk a lot about political violence. So thank you for being on the show this morning.
Thank you. Thanks for having me. So I was looking at the numbers from the Anti-Defamation League. They say they recorded more than 9000 anti-Semitic incidents in 2024, and that's a 344 percent increase over five years. Given the cuts to the Justice Department grant programs that actually deal with hate crimes and prevention,
Is this DOJ even positioned to deal with a rising problem? Yes, it is in a tougher position than it was before. There still exists a civil rights division, although it has been
fundamentally gutted at this stage. And that's the group that prosecutes these federal hate crimes. But there's pieces of the government that we don't see a lot. They're the one, you know, they're not in a courtroom. And these are the grants and funding that you mentioned. Both the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, there are grants to support community security efforts as well as nonprofit efforts
security, nonprofit group security. And those often included synagogues, Jewish community organizations and other places that would have supported protection as well as reporting on anti-Semitism. So there is a link between sort of the decision to not really focus on prevention. That was sort of the decision by Doge and all of these cuts.
And that will have an impact on both reporting and the protection of various communities, and in particular the Jewish one. You talk about the performative intimacy of this kind of violence. What do you mean by that?
Yeah, I actually had not seen the clip from that rabbi at the end. It was exactly what I had thought when I saw these images. If you put both what happened in D.C. two weeks ago and what happened in Boulder, you're seeing a focus in terms of the anti-Semitic crimes on a very intimate sort of, and I mean that in a way sort of disgusting,
perverse attacks in DC it was essentially a hot a hunt what we understand now is the two victims have been shot multiple times trying to run away in Boulder you have a flamethrower and then the Molotov cocktail is that rabbi said burning of the flesh is not only a horrible way to die it has symbolism for the Jewish community of course given what happened in the Holocaust
When I look at political and social violence, I also think to the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, even the attempts on President Trump's life. How are you thinking about political violence and are we seeing a distinct rise?
Yes, we are. And they're all different. And so and what's important to remember, or at least for people in the public space or people commenting on this, is that there is no as I say, there is no but you can't say it's wrong to assassinate. But I don't like, you know, United Health Care or it's wrong to kill people. But what's happening in Gaza is horrible. It's that conjunction of but that has really muted the the the horrors.
horror of what's going on. And so as a community and civil society, we need to condemn it without qualifications. We have big debates. I've been on air through the Israeli Hamas war. I've had big debates about what is going on there. None of them would justify what is happening now, which is the
Jewish Americans, in this case, or Israeli diplomats with Israel. And that is what is so scary about anti-Semitism because it's not conduct, it's not opinion, it is just who the Jewish community is. And that equation of Israel with, that equation with Jewish identity with Israel's policy, very distinct things, is what we're seeing in these anti-Semitic
attacks, is that these killers are merging those two things. I want to say this has nothing to do with Palestine. Both killers screamed free Palestine or this is for Gaza. This has everything to do with anti-Semitism. This has nothing to do with supporting what is happening in Gaza, let alone peace in the Middle East for Israelis as well. That's Juliette Kayyem, CNN senior national security analyst. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Coming up on CNN this morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants to pass the president's agenda by July 4th. Is that even possible? And is FEMA ready to respond to a major disaster like a Hurricane Helene, for example? The former administrator is here to weigh in. And he may be on the run, but he has still got time to post on Instagram. A New Orleans fugitive pleads for help in a now viral video. Meet Bill's Donald Trump, Lil Wayne. Please help me.
I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm exploring Spain and its 17 regions to see how the land and its people have created one of the world's most exciting cuisines. Eva Longoria, Searching for Spain, Sunday at 9 on CNN.
Fault lines are forming among Senate Republicans as they chart a path forward on President Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is setting out an ambitious timeline to pass a bill by July 4th, and he says they're on track to do it.
It is still a closely divided Senate, though, and you have one group of Republicans who are concerned about Medicaid specifically because they're from states which depend on it. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito says she heard a lot of concern in her state over the proposed changes. Some senators want to see more cuts across the board. The House did a pretty good job, in my opinion. We can we can.
We can do more, I think, in the Senate. And I've said repeatedly, I'm all for reducing spending until we run out of votes. But we need to pass something because we need to renew the tax cuts. Another group of senators threatening to vote no over concerns about the deficit. House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised the bill doesn't increase it. Senator Rand Paul says the bill contains a measure to raise the debt ceiling, something he and a few others oppose.
You can say it doesn't directly add to the debt, but if you increase the ceiling $5 trillion, you'll meet that. And what it does is it puts it off the back burner, and then we won't discuss it for a year or two. So I think it's a terrible idea to do this. Has his president called you? Have you spoken to him about this yet? I spoke to him this week. I had a lengthy discussion with him. How did that go? He did most of the talking. He didn't convince you?
Joining me now in the group chat, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and senior advisor to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. And Ashley Davis, former White House official under George W. Bush. Welcome, guys. Good morning. Thank you to have you. Jackie, I want to start with you because you heard there even the senator, Paul, was
on the phone with trump so obviously trump is leaning in to try uh and crack some of those who are putting some um who are raising opposition to the bill uh what are your reporters saying about what they're learning you know i think it's trump also got on the phone with josh hawley who's another senator who's been very outspoken about from missouri and and he's he's had a new york times op-ed about his concerns about cuts to medicaid and i it does seem like they have a lot
to talk about in this bill? And the Senate, when has the Senate not wanted to change something that the House sent over? So what can they change that won't upset Mike Johnson's math? That's the open question at this point. - Hawley actually said he spoke to Trump. He wrote on Twitter/X, "Just had a great talk with President Trump "about the big, beautiful bill. "He said again, no Medicaid benefit cuts.
Problem solved. I mean, does that... Does he sound convinced? Like, what do you make of that? Well, I think what you're hearing from House Republicans is that they're not cutting Medicaid. They're cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. I don't know if that's going to fly when senators actually start digging into it. That's messaging, not necessarily what the bill does. Okay, you guys. When you start explaining how you're not cutting Medicaid, the explaining part is what political consultants like because you're cutting Medicaid. It could be folks that they deem not qualified to be on Medicaid, and that's their right. But to
to me it's cutting Medicaid and when I make a TV commercial it'll say cut Medicaid. This is what Senator Holly doesn't want. This is what a lot of Republicans in the midterms don't want. And I understand that we have a budget debate and we can go through the policies and the nuances and I'm not going to be the policy expert. I'll leave that to my friend Ashley.
I will say that for making political ads, if you cut Medicaid, that's what I'm going to say. Okay, Ashley, I want to get to you, but Chuck just brought up this idea about political ads. The Conservative Club for Growth is already releasing ads targeting Lisa Murkowski and Kevin Cramer, some people who are also reluctant, and they want to put some pressure on them. Here's a little bit of it.
One big, beautiful bill. We love that bill. But there's one big problem. Senator Kevin Cramer opposing Trump's bill because it guts Biden's climate law, saying, quote, there are too many things in there that are too important. Tell Murkowski, don't block Trump's agenda. Make tax relief permanent because strong hands built Alaska.
Okay, so the voice actors who do these kinds of ads are going to be busy because it's like tell so-and-so that they're screwing you. But I also think that's going to play differently in Kramer's in North Dakota than it is in Alaska. But it's the fact that the ads are targeted, I think. Yes, and which is the new way of life right now, right? I mean, in general. But let's just go back to the bill for two seconds. The Senate Republicans are meeting today. Thune's going to tell him he wants this done by June 20, you know, the week of June 23rd on the floor.
So that means that it passes by July 4th. We'll see if that happens or not. You have five committees this week coming out with their package of the bill. They're not going to do markups in their committee. You have Ron Johnson and Rick Scott who've kind of changed their tunes over since last night in regards to like, listen, we want certain things. We're concerned about the deficit.
We're concerned about the budget. However, we want this bill to pass. And then you have Josh Hawley kind of stepping things back a little bit. So there is-- I feel like I need a chart. You're really dealing with-- and the other two senators that you're really dealing with are Murkowski and Collins, right? So that's your universe to get on board.
But they're moving quick and he's gonna try to get this done. So you think even the speed is a factor? I think speed is the most important factor. They gotta get this done. Yes, this thing hangs out there longer. You start losing people. It's gonna be bad. I think they...
The bill gets passed, number one, and I think they get it passed by the recess because they kind of have to. Yeah. OK, group chat. Stay with me. We're going to talk more about this and other things later coming up on CNN this morning. Is she in or is she out? More on what former Vice President Kamala Harris's absence from a convention could signal about her plans when it comes to running for California governor.
Plus, their haves and have-yots will dive deep into a new book exploring how the ultra-rich are dominating everyday life. And good morning, Orange Beach, Alabama, as the sun rises on this Tuesday morning. There's your family room. Scare your family? Do you have wall-to-wall carpeting on your walls? Did you willingly shipwreck your home? I'm Retta.
We'll be right back.
Are you living in a democracy when Mr. Musk can spend $270 million to elect Trump and then becomes the most important person in government? That is the reality of American society today. The very rich getting richer. Working class people are struggling. 800,000 people sleeping out on the streets.
Got to go off script for a second and talk about this new reality we are living in where a world that has a handful of billionaires that don't just influence our everyday lives, they kind of dominate it in a lot of ways. Like more than half of Americans believe that's a very big problem, along with a growing gap between the rich and poor. That's according to a Pew Research Center poll.
And that's the backdrop for a new book called The Have and the Have Yachts. It's a deep dive into how the ultra wealthy are not just living differently, but wielding outsized influence and shaping the rules we live by. Joining me now is the author of that book, journalist Evan Osnos. Good morning, Evan.
Good morning, Audie. Glad to be with you. The senator raises an issue there that you write about, which is that Elon Musk had the effect of pulling the ultra rich into our field of vision. Talk about how significant that is.
Yeah, I'd say it's now a subject of conversation more so than any moment really since FDR a century ago. I think people are just very aware of the fact that the ultra rich in this country have achieved extraordinary power. We've never had a situation when the richest man in the world had quite literally an office in the White House complex.
and a department of government that he could use to fire tens of thousands of federal workers. So this is something that people are aware of even more than they have in the past. - We're also subject to their worldviews. In Elon Musk's case, he talks a lot about pro-natalism, having lots of children. There's also a world of the ultra rich where they're basically doomsday preppers. I don't even know how that works when you're that rich. What did you learn about them?
Yeah, as one Silicon Valley CEO said to me, I keep a helicopter gassed up all the time. He has a bunker with an air filtration system. Others, I went to New Zealand and talked to people who had houses there. There is a missile silo in Kansas that has been reinforced and turned into luxury condos underground.
The reason is that some of them feel as if they can sense the tensions in society. They see it, in fact, on their own social media platforms in some cases, and they worry that it is contributing ultimately to a breakdown in society. And if that happens, they want to protect themselves.
The wild part is they're protecting themselves, but you also have them influencing policy. And you talk about this, the gilded age of tax avoidance, for example, which is very relevant in this week when we're talking about a new tax bill. How does Donald Trump fit into this? Like, how does his approach to wealth and power kind of govern this moment that we're seeing? In many ways, I think, Adi, that Donald Trump has kind of
he's sort of reified this era of the domination of the ultra-rich. He basically believes that they should have more room to operate in society. He put and named 13 billionaires to his administration, to the upper ranks. He, of course, gave Elon Musk a kind of power that nobody had ever had before. The reality is today that
the richest people in society have a larger share of America's wealth than even the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies and the Rockefellers did a century ago. And Donald Trump has said very explicitly that he believes that he wants to put people in power who have
prospered the way he has. But the reality is this country is on paper has never been wealthier, but half of all Americans say they couldn't afford a thousand dollar expense. So I think the real question we've now reached a point where it's about a decision point. Are we going to take steps that will ensure that there is, in fact, more of those resources are shared with more people?
- Finally, I have to ask, is there any evidence of backlash or are we all just scrolling through images of people's yachts on Instagram? - Yeah, I think there is some fascination people have. And yet the reality is, I think the good news honestly is that we had been through this as a country before, about a century ago, gone through the Gilded Age. That was a very similar time. New technologies, huge concentration of wealth,
And what happened was that Americans, including many elite Americans, looked around and said, if we continue on this course as is, it's not gonna be sustainable. They made choices that ensured that there was a little more money going into the pockets of people at the bottom of the income scale. And it made a huge difference. The 20th century ended up being an immensely innovative and prosperous time for this country. And I think the lesson is, can we take some lessons from the progressive era and the New Deal and apply them to today? Maybe a lot better off. - Evan Osnos, one of my favorite writers. Thank you for being here.
My great pleasure. Thanks, Adi. And if any of you want a copy of the Have and the Have Yachts Dispatches on the Ultra Rich, that is out today. Ahead on CNN this morning, a humanitarian aid group backed by Israel and the U.S. now operating in Gaza. Are they there to help those who need it? Plus, a former hotel security employee about to take the stand in the Sean Combs trial.
Good morning everyone, I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour and here's what's happening right now. Investigators say the suspect who threw Molotov cocktails at a peaceful rally in Colorado planned the attack for a full year. They say the 45-year-old told them he "wanted to kill all Zionist people." Twelve people were injured in the attack. The suspect faces federal a federal hate crime and attempted murder charge.
The U.S. Marshals are looking into an Instagram video of a man who claims to be one of the fugitives from New Orleans still on the run. So that video is nearly 10 minutes long and he claims he's innocent. He begged President Trump and rappers Meek Mill and Lil Wayne for help.
Massey had been charged with domestic abuse. And in just a few hours, opening statements will begin in the defamation lawsuit against MyPillow founder Mike Lindell. He's accused of defaming a former Dominion Voting Systems employee by spreading a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2020 election.
And this morning, prosecutors in the Sean Combs trial expected to call a former security guard to the witness stand. He worked at the hotel where Combs was caught on surveillance video assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016. This also follows three days of testimony from Combs' former assistant, who has been identified as Maya to protect her.
She alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Diddy while working for him, and the defense team pressed her about why she didn't report it sooner. She said, I wouldn't be believed. I would be wiped out. I would be abused, fired, and somehow made out to look like I was a crazy person making everything up. With me now is former federal prosecutor Elyse Adamson. Elyse, I want to dig right into that because she's saying, I didn't speak sooner because no one would believe me.
But then how did the defense cross-examine her? Yeah, Adi, the defense was really rough on Mia, which I just want to say as a point, isn't usually how defense crosses victims of abuse. They usually do it gently so they don't alienate the jury. But we should be clear, she's a witness, she's not the victim. No, that is very true, but she was making these
these allegations of sexual abuse. And it's usually a female who crosses. And in this case, it was Brian Steele. It was a male. And what they said was, I mean, he basically insinuated that she was making these allegations up.
He mentioned that she had met with prosecutors some 28 times, but didn't disclose these allegations of sexual abuse until last June 2024, years after she started to tell her story. And from some of the reporting I've read, it may have been effective for a few jurors who seemingly were nodding along to the cross questions or even smiling when Brian Steele was questioning her very hard. So it seems like
The gamble to be a little bit more aggressive in this cross might have paid off for the defense. Today's witnesses are going to be focused on the 2016 hotel surveillance video where Combs is seen abusing Cassie. How significant is this moment?
So the video is extremely significant. We've heard it mentioned in opening statements. Cassie obviously testified to the events in the video. Right now, prosecutors, I think, are trying to do two things. One, finish laying that evidentiary foundation so this is admissible evidence. They can rely on this in total during their closing arguments.
But also, I think that they're going to get into the bribery allegations. Recall, it's alleged that Combs paid like $100,000 to security to obtain this video. The gentleman who's on the stand now asserted a false
yesterday before court was concluded for the day. - Pleaded the fifth, basically didn't want to incriminate himself by answering that question. - That's correct. - Whether he was paid off to hold this video. - He didn't even answer a question. As soon as he took the stand, he pled the fifth, which meant any questions that were gonna be asked of him would likely incriminate himself. So that's why I'm thinking it's the bribery, 'cause what was he doing as hotel security that if he testifies about could possibly put him in legal peril?
an immunity order was granted. So that means anything he says now, he can't be prosecuted for. But prosecutors need to establish that bribery. So I think it's significant for two reasons. One, you're going to get a forensic analyst who's going to talk about what they're seeing on the film. There's been some questions about whether Diddy was recovering a phone or actually beating Cassie. And then also, you're going to get those allegations about the bribery, who paid who and why.
Elise Adamson, thank you for explaining that because it sounds like a significant moment. I appreciate your time. Adi, thank you for having me. Okay. There are more chaotic scenes this morning in Gaza near an aid distribution site. At least 27 people were killed. That's according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli ministry says it fired shots at those who were moving towards them and had deviated from the designated routes. This is the third day in a row that people have been killed near the aid distribution sites.
They're actually run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. And it's actually a controversial group backed by both the U.S. and Israel. It has only been in operation for a week. So what is the GHF?
It was created amid accusations that Hamas was stealing aid and selling it. That claim CNN can't confirm. Reporter Jeremy Diamond, however, writes that the group appears to have fewer safeguards in place to make sure that aid actually reaches those in need compared to UN groups who typically check IDs and use a database
of registered families. So we have Jeremy Diamond here now from Jerusalem. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning. Jeremy, can you just start about this group itself? What are the other controversies in their very early start?
Well, listen, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation only exists because of these Israeli accusations for which they have not, we should note, provided public evidence that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza. And so Israel has basically said, we are no longer going to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip through the traditional humanitarian channels that have mostly been run by United Nations agencies like the World Food Program and UNRWA, which is the main U.N. agency in the Palestinian territories.
They have instead said, we're gonna establish a new aid mechanism, which is now run by this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with the support of both Israel and the United States. Now, there has been extensive reporting as well on the origins of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation originating in Israel among Israeli officials discussing this type of a mechanism. And that's why we have seen United Nations officials
officials and humanitarian agencies saying that they will not participate in this due to concerns over the group's impartiality. It's also important to note that the group's executive director, Jake Wood, until a couple of weeks ago, he resigned out of
concerns of his own about a lack of impartiality and an inability to adhere to humanitarian principles by running this group. And so now we are seeing, of course, these scenes of chaos unfolding in Gaza, the reports of the Israeli military firing on people. These are the exact types of concerns that humanitarian aid officials have long had about this type of model.
How has the group responded? I mean, I know when it comes to the UN, there's been a lot of criticism. They don't support the group. We're also hearing from another humanitarian group, for example, the advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council, saying what we're seeing are people who are not experienced, who do not know what they're doing, who are not guided by humanitarian principles, are in fact are weaponizing food
as a means of furthering Israel's military and political goals in Gaza. How is the group responding to this? Yeah, one of the primary concerns that humanitarian aid officials have had about this model is that it is creating just a few sites in the Gaza Strip. It was supposed to be four. Over the last few days, it's actually just been one site in southern Gaza in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah. And so what you have are thousands of people who are all heading to this one aid site
at the same time, often going very, very early in the morning or overnight because they know that if they get there later, supplies will have already run out. And it's forcing them to walk through dangerous combat zones, designated combat zones by the Israeli military, walking through Israeli military lines, whereas the UN model would have hundreds of these distribution sites much closer to where people are actually living, bringing the aid to where people are rather than making them walk
several miles at a time. Now, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, for its part, they have insisted that there's been no shooting at the site itself, but these shootings are happening now a half a kilometer or one kilometer away from the site, and the only reason that people are there is in order to reach this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site. So they may be trying to draw some distance here, but they are very much part and parcel of what we are seeing on the ground. Adi?
That's Jeremy Diamond, CNN Jerusalem correspondent. Thanks so much. Returning to domestic politics for a bit. Will she or won't she run for governor of California? We are talking about Kamala Harris, and that's the question many Democratic Party insiders are asking now. She didn't appear in person at the state's Democratic Party convention, opting instead to deliver a video message. And that's fueling speculation.
The people of California and our nation deserve leaders who make their lives better and make our state and our country stronger. While this administration in Washington tries to divide us, we here know we are stronger when we stand together.
Group chat is back. And Chuck, I know you have thoughts. Someone who has worked with presidential campaigns. Welcome to Chuck, what's your TED Talk? Okay, yeah. Get going. So look, she can win the governorship and she doesn't have to
be there to do that. But it is a bad look on her behalf. It's a it's like you're taking this thing for granted. It's exactly for all of you at home scoring what happened in the presidential campaign when she was anointed to be the nominee without a primary. There's a lot of folks in the party who think there should have been some kind of process. This is her more or less saying
I don't have to participate in the Democratic California process either. I can just win this thing if I want this. Ashley? I don't know about that. I just don't. Maybe she doesn't know yet. And I think that she doesn't-- I mean, obviously everyone knows who she is. I think it's hers to lose. I think she personally should run. She has the Olympics that she could oversee. And if she wants a platform to go. But I don't think her-- I mean, these conventions, like, do they really mean anything? Ooh, you said that. I heard it, Ashley. I'm going to underscore, because I am of two minds. On the one hand, yes.
Her being in a box somewhere kind of was part of the problem during the campaign, right? This kind of untouchableness to her. But also, parties, do they matter? Like I have very diminishing, I feel like there's diminishing returns when it comes to Democratic, when it comes to partisan party infrastructure.
I do think so. I think it really depends on that partisan party infrastructure, right? And whether they still want her. I mean, I heard the Biden campaign Stronger Together in that video. And I don't know that rerunning that campaign is what they want to do. Meaning this is her opportunity to start to have her own public political persona. Exactly.
Primaries are different than generals. And remember, in California, it's a jungle primary where the Democrats and Republicans are on the ballot at the same time. I'll never like the term jungle primary. Also, California produces some of the top politicians that this country has had. So we're going to keep an eye on it. Group chat, stick around. We have got more to discuss. Still ahead on CNN this morning, hurricane season is here. Are the key agencies...
ready. We're going to talk with FEMA's former administrator about the challenges of staffing shortages, plus Republicans in Congress trying to make Elon Musk's doge cuts permanent. Do they have the votes? More from the group chat after this. That's why we have the federal expertise and we need the federal resources, because the scale of these storms are so massive. To eliminate FEMA would be a man-made disaster when we need FEMA to respond to natural disasters.
That's a North Carolina governor, Josh Stein, calling for FEMA to be spared, not slashed. Now I want you to look at this headline from the New York Times, because it zeroes in on the senior leaders leaving an already depleted agency that could lose even more of its workforce by the end of the year. Now this comes as multiple sources say the acting head of FEMA, David Richardson, claimed in a briefing that he was previously unaware the U.S. even has a hurricane season. A rep for the Homeland Security Department says the comment was made in jest.
adding FEMA is laser focused on disaster response and protecting the American people. Joining me now to discuss is former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. Deanne, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Good morning, Adi. Thanks for having me. So one of the things we've learned is that the acting head of FEMA had actually scrapped the agency's strategic plan, right? And which is a plan I think you were involved in. Can you talk about what that means? How should we think about hurricane season when strategy cut and people and resources cut?
- Audie, the strategic plan really provides the vision for the entire agency, not just the response and recovery to hurricane season, but for every part of the agency, whether it's resilience and building communities back stronger, how we're gonna respond, but also how we're gonna support our workforce. It really gives that leadership intent. And with that gone and not something in place, I think that there's still some ambiguity then as to what's gonna be expected of FEMA coming into this hurricane season.
I was learning, for example, that one thing FEMA would do is go door to door, right, to have a program where you would actually deal with survivors. That's the kind of thing that might be cut here. You told our producers that there was a contract of more than $20 million that now has to go through DHS for approval first. I'm asking about this because we've also seen states
not get the relief they've requested right away. Arkansas, Washington State, North Carolina, I mean, at certain points they were denied emergency disaster relief. So what does it mean that this new system has to go through DHS and essentially get approval before you just get the support you need?
One of the things that is the most important when you are responding to one of these severe weather events or as you begin the recovery process is making sure that you can do it in a way that's efficient and timely to get help where it's needed most, when it's needed most.
And any time you add a layer of bureaucracy, like having to get additional approvals for something that in the past was able to be done through the FEMA administrator is just going to delay that ability to be able to respond. And that can put lives at risk, right? We want to be able to pre-position resources. You want to get them in place ahead of the storm, and you want to be able to employ them as soon as the storm passes.
You need to be able to have the freedom and the autonomy to do that without extra layers of scrutiny. That's one of the reasons in Pecamra why the FEMA administrator was given a direct line to the president when it comes to disaster response to make sure that that extra layer of bureaucracy didn't happen. We're at the end, I think, maybe, towards the end of tornado season. There were more than 60 deaths. What are your concerns going ahead for hurricane season?
just making sure that FEMA knows what the role is that they're going to play, right? As you said, we used to go door to door. FEMA used to go door to door. There's so many people that when these storms happen, they don't have electricity and they don't have cell coverage. And one of the ways that they can access that immediate assistance is by having some of these teams, they go door to door and they make sure that they've entered the system.
but also making sure that they know whether or not they're going to be able to get that disaster declaration. It's really about partnerships between FEMA, the state and the local. States and locals always have the primary responsibility for response and recovery. FEMA just augments that. And if states are unsure if they're going to get that help, it's just going to make it harder for them to protect their communities. That's former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Adi.
So, speaking of cuts, Elon Musk is no longer in the picture in D.C. His Doge cuts, however, remain. Today is the day the process begins to codify or formalize them through Congress. The total package is expected to be more than $9 billion.
We wanna send up general recisions bills to use the process if it's appropriate to get them through the House and the Senate. We also have pocket recisions, which you've begun to hear me talk a lot about. So there's a lot of things that we're looking at, all of them geared towards figuring out how to make these cuts permanent.
This might be an uphill climb. An analysis by Business Insider concludes, for the first several months of President Donald Trump's second term, Doge seemed like an unstoppable force. Now political gravity is about to kick in. Group chat is back. Who wants to define political gravity for me? How do we think about that? I mean, it's all fun and games to talk about cuts until it's your district's program or it's something that your district needs as a member of Congress or your state.
And I think that's what they're going to run into. We know that congressmen have back-channeled and gotten certain things taken off the chopping block, and senators have done the same. And now this is coming in and everything's outlined. I think they're going to have friction here as the president
you start looking at certain sacred cows. And also, there were so many moments where people realized the potential effects of the cuts, right? Like, once there was this issue of air traffic controllers, people started being like, wait, what were the cuts again? So I think there's been a little more concern. But these cuts are just, the ones that are going up today in the House is, from what I understand, is supposed to try to take them up next week. This is just the cuts for foreign, not just, I don't mean it that way, but it's foreign aid and it's the PBS cuts. So it's not,
There's not a lot of that that's going to hit individual members. This would be the most popular in regards to Republicans that they have cut. I think once you get past it. So supposedly Russ Voigt is supposed to send up a bunch of recisions over the next couple months. But we'll see. And what I just found out yesterday, which I didn't even quite understand, especially in the Senate, if they take a vote on this,
or parts of the package and it fails, you can't bring it up again under the Senate rules of this, 'cause rescission packages aren't usually dealt with. - So the lobbying is fast and furious. If you can get your cut taken out of there, shot down, you can be safe for a little bit. - One thing that I get confused on in my life
My former boss used to talk about the millionaires and the billionaires for Bernie Sanders. But if you think about $9 billion, I was thinking about conflating the things that we just talked about, which was the budget. I was trying to go through the Senate right now that would add $3 trillion to the national debt. If you really want to cut something, we're talking about $9 billion compared to $3 trillion. It seems like there's other things you could be doing. Yeah. Yeah.
And of course, Elon Musk himself has criticized the bill, saying that this kind of negates the work Doge was doing, given the amount of spending. But he didn't understand that the big, beautiful bill is different than, like, that wasn't cutting the budget. I think he came back and understood that after he made those comments. I mean, it's a nuance to Washington that obviously he doesn't know. Even the average billionaire doesn't.
has trouble with it. Okay, I want to hear from you guys about what you're keeping an eye on. Jackie, let me start with you. Senate Finance is taking up Billy Long to be IRS commissioner. There have been four acting commissioners since the beginning of the year at the IRS. Let's underscore that. Since January, four people have been in charge of the IRS. Yes, so potentially...
assuming he gets through finance, they're on the way to having a permanent head. Lucky number five. Lucky number five. Yeah, okay, John. The numbers are coming back for us political nerds who look at data files on actually who voted, and it's really bad for Democrats. We did worse than we even thought, and with Jake Tapper's book coming out and seeing what went on at the White House, I'm waiting to see if there's ever going to be any real repercussions in Democratic consulting. This is like the longest political autopsy
It's like a vivisection. Like guys. The numbers always come back this late, but we don't normally get our butt whooped that bad. Okay, Ashley. The stable claim bill, which is going through the Senate this week. There's a little bit of controversy. Senator Hagerty and Senator Lummis are moving this through. This would be really the first piece of legislation that could pass both bodies and be signed by the president.
on crypto legislation. It's kind of a big deal. On cryptocurrency. So we finally have some kind of law around cryptocurrency. Not yet. We're not there yet. But that's why that dinner happened, right? People are doing their lobbying. It's something that needs to happen. We're the only major...
country that doesn't have some sort of you mean we actually may get something through the house and senate and sign into law i thought for so long the first six months we haven't seen much legislation we've seen a lot of executive actions but we haven't seen a lot of legislating there's about to be a bill this week mr democrats doing this and be in the streets okay cowboy hats hold on to your hat chuck because the bill debate is happening
Group chat. We talked about a lot today. As always, you guys bring a lot of energy and joy to the morning. And thank you for spending time with us. We know you could spend it anywhere else, but you're here with us. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now.
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