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This is CNN breaking news. We are following two major breaking news stories out of the nation's capital this morning. Overnight, two Israeli embassy staffers gunned down outside a Jewish museum. A suspect now under arrest. And on Capitol Hill, another all-nighter for lawmakers as House Republicans attempt to pass the president's agenda.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me on this very busy Thursday morning. I want to start with that deadly shooting on the streets of the nation's capital. So this happened last night as two Israeli embassy staffers were leaving the Capitol Jewish Museum.
Police say a man was seen pacing back and forth prior to approaching, and then he opened fire. Police have identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. Video obtained by CNN shows the moment of his arrest. He was chanting, "Free, free Palestine." There was an eyewitness who told CNN about her interaction with the suspect.
I say, do you know where you are? He doesn't say anything. And I say, you're at like a Jewish museum. And immediately he takes a few steps back and he starts yelling, I did it. I did it. Talking about shooting and killing the innocent people outside who had just attended the event, who had just left. And he's screaming, I did it. I did it. I did it for Gaza. I did it for Palestine, free Palestine.
So right now, CNN also learning new information about the victims. This morning, the embassy posted a photo of them. The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. said they were a couple about to be engaged. The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of free Palestine. It's a young couple about to be engaged. The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.
Israel's president reacting to the news overnight, saying in part, I'm devastated by the scenes in Washington, D.C. This is a despicable act of hatred of anti-Semitism. President Trump sending his condolences to the victims' families and going on to say hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Joining me now, former assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security and CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, thanks for being with us this morning.
-Yes, thank you for having me. -Right now, the FBI is assisting in the case. I want to listen to a minute to the assistant director in charge. -Tonight, a heinous crime was committed, and the FBI stands with the Metropolitan Police Department to help not only investigate the homicide and provide support, but also to look into ties to potential terrorism or motivation based on a bias-based crime or a hate crime.
So let's talk about that. We played tape earlier of the suspect yelling, "Free Palestine." Talk about how law enforcement assesses the hate crime or terrorism aspect of this.
Yes, and this is sort of early, obviously, in this horrible, essentially assassination from what we can tell. And so there's going to be two pieces to it. This is, of course, the homicide in the streets of D.C. or outside the museum. So the Washington police are going to be investigating it as such. Things like how did he get to D.C.? Why did he choose this place? Was it a public event? I
I was in contact with people who had been in the event last night. It was for young professionals with about 30 different diplomatic offices represented. So it wasn't just an Israeli-hosted thing. And it wasn't exactly public, right? People would know what was going on if they looked for it. So you want to know, how did he know about this event? The other piece, of course, is the piece that we can't deny.
which is obviously the suspect said free Palestine. He killed two Israelis. There may be either a hate crime or a federal crime, of course, and then the fears or the concerns that there's an international nexus. Both of those things will have to be investigated because we don't know much about this suspect.
Why did he leave Chicago? Why did he pick this place? Was he radicalized and how? So that's going to be the two different pieces. They'll merge once we have a once these these pieces are put together and there is a theory of the case that can be made in court. You know, what we're hearing now now has to be proved to bring the federal nexus aspects to it.
- So that's what's going on with the suspect, with the investigation. I also wanna talk about what this means for Jewish communities, which of course are gonna be on high alert. Here's what the mayor of DC said last night.
We have a long history and a lot of practice in our city of working with Jewish organizations around safety and around protection. We'll be talking to all of our organizations from schools to synagogues to other organizations to make sure we are supporting in every way that we can.
Should there or is there any kind of concern about copycats at this point? Absolutely. Mayor Bowser is talking about a pretty sophisticated system in which Jewish communities, Jewish sites, synagogues,
are given grants and training and programs to protect themselves in this heightened environment of anti-Semitism and attacks on the Jewish community. Those will be ratcheted up, one can assume, not just in D.C., but around the country as there are events that are of concern. There are schools, there are synagogues.
Friday is the Sabbath, tomorrow is the Sabbath. So I think you will see that sort of leaning in by local authorities to protect these organizations and institutions and synagogues. They also all have generally have private security. There's some reporting from last night that is actually it was private security that engaged the gunman after he had killed the two innocent Israeli diplomats. So all of that will be ratcheted up. But
look, I mean, there's a specific incident and then there's the environment we're in. And you cannot separate the fears that this will ripple through the Jewish community, given the heightened anti-Semitism in this country and the concerns that anyone could be a target. So in that sense, there's there's
It's harder to protect yourself from because it's just it's a well-grounded feeling of a sense of being targeted. And what happened last night just confirmed that feeling, that cowardly act of of thinking that you you you are representing some cause and you kill innocent diplomats. That's that's something that's going to have ripple effects throughout the Jewish community. I just want to add one thing. It is exasperating.
It's exceptionally rare. Take the specific politics of Israel and Palestine out of this. It is exceptionally rare for there to be attacks on international diplomats in this country. I was just looking at my notes. You know, there's in the '70s and '80s a Turkish consulate, a Chilean consulate. This is not--this is a brutal act, and also the international national security implications
for not just Israeli diplomats, but for the diplomatic core that calls DC home. So you're also gonna see, I believe, sort of ratcheting up in terms of safety and security for the overall diplomatic community. If Americans believe that they can solve international crises through assassination,
That is very, that's a very scary place to be for Israel and for the diplomatic community here. Yeah, and we're already hearing about Israel tightening security at its diplomatic stations around the world. Juliette Kayyem, CNN senior national security analyst, thank you. Thank you.
Coming up on CNN this morning, the other breaking news we're following. Another all-night push on Capitol Hill. This is a live look right now at House Republicans still trying to get the president's bill across the finish line. Plus, why attorneys for the Idaho murder suspect accused of killing four college students want more time. And there was a dramatic turn in the Oval Office when President Trump repeated false claims about white genocide to South Africa's leader.
Things got pretty heated, and the president of South Africa actually said, "I'm sorry, I don't have a plane to give you." And then, to mess with Trump even more, he gave him tickets to see a Springsteen concert in New Jersey.
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This morning, the House is wrapping up after an all-nighter as Republicans look to push through President Trump's agenda. So right now, we're looking at House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries actually just finished, and they're speaking at the tail end of a debate of an effort to delay the legislation.
The bill does, however, appear to be on track to eventually pass. Most of the hardline conservatives who were threatening to tank it allowed the bill to proceed to a floor to this floor final vote. They were worried it didn't cut enough of the national debt. But just one Republican congressman spoke out on the House floor against it.
We're going to rack up, the authors say, $20 trillion of new debt over the next 10 years. I'm telling you, it's closer to $30 trillion of new debt in the next 10 years. Mr. Speaker, we're not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We're putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg.
Joining me now in the group chat, Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics senior reporter, Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist, and Doug High, a Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Morning. I want to talk about this bill, and we played Massey not because he is a movable object. He will never be convinced. He's also a resistible force within the GOP. Exactly, in any context. However...
He is the one who talks about the math of this. So Doug, talk about how people got over the math. - The math is pretty simple how they got over it. Donald Trump went to the House Republican Conference. They met earlier than they used to do, partially because of the timeline that they're in. And then he got on the phone and brought members to the White House and he worked them individually.
Republicans were always going to get there. The question was of a how and what that process was that we've all seen play out. The overnight rules meeting, I don't recall a rules meeting ever happening, rules committee meeting, real process nerd talk. I don't recall one of those ever going on
all night before. We haven't really seen Sunday sessions the way, Sunday votes the way that we have. - Which was that pressure, and you've been in this world as well, was that pressure like you explain to your coworkers why you're here on a Sunday? Or was that like, we're getting this done?
We're getting this done because we have artificial timelines and real timelines. We're coming up on Memorial Day. So the speaker was nervous that, you know, he's speaking now. They're going to have the vote and then they're going to adjourn because we have Memorial Day weekend. The speaker was nervous that if this went to this afternoon, certainly tomorrow, that Republican members might start leaving and going home and then they'd have a real math problem.
Yeah, I think that's true. There was a very real timeline, but there was also the speaker and moreover the president not trying to leave with egg on their face. When you have the White House and he is supposed to be the biggest dealmaker, the idea is that I have to whip these because I think that there was a lack of certain amount of strength from the speaker. So he went in and had several individual meetings, tried to push people as far as he could, trying to get that trying to get that vote before the break.
They were up against that and obviously losing votes based on people going home was an intense concern. Which is real, folks. Don't underestimate a lawmaker's interest in going home ahead of a holiday. Stephen, you know, I want to turn to you because the president has done so much, quote, on his own through executive orders. But this is where the rubber meets the road on like codifying the things that he wants. What do you see in how this debate is playing out?
I think there's two really interesting things about this. The first one is how this bill kind of cuts through the MAGA coalition and what it tells us about the Republican Party. You've got the traditional Republican tax cutting part of this bill, which seems to benefit
Americans who are better off. But there are some provisions in this, some of Trump's tax things that he talked about in the campaign, no tax on tips, et cetera, that are much more populist, aimed at the working class. The question is, where does that balance sit eventually? - Right, the reality of it. - And that will be played out when it gets to the Senate. The other thing that's really interesting, I think, is that, you know, we heard a lot of talk about should the Republicans do this in one big, beautiful bill or keep sending bills to the president's desk.
The process here seems to suggest that, you know, they may only be able to get one big, beautiful bill through this very thin majority. And it shows probably that this was the right tactical decision to push everything, immigration, tax, and everything else into one bill. We're also looking at the midterm calendar.
And they're trying to move things as fast away from that as possible. Because a lot of the cuts here are quite steep. When we're talking about Medicaid, when we're talking about the extensions that they're going to have to do in Medicare as well, when we're looking at the changes to food stamps, when we're looking at the potential elimination of millions of people.
from the memorial day weekend it's not there's not some official rule like this is a self-imposed deadline we're watching right now as we said they're on the house floor live to see if they meet it group chat stick around we're gonna talk more later uh next on cnn this morning the jewish community right now in mourning after two people who worked for the israeli and
embassy were killed near the Capital Jewish Museum. We're actually going to be joined by the CEO of the organization that was hosting an event there where those two staffers were. We're also going to talk about the Sean Diddy Combs trial that's rocking the hip hop world, what this case could force in terms of the music industry confronting issues of abuse going forward.
The Diddy Trial is raising some uncomfortable questions for hip hop about power, silence and accountability in the industry. Questions like how one man became so powerful that he was able to avoid scrutiny for so long. What did the music industry know about Sean Diddy Combs and did it choose to look away? I want to get into all this this week on our episode of The Assignment. That's where I spoke with the music journalist Soumya Krishnamurthy
about what this trial could actually force hip hop to reckon with. I would urge people, whether it be fans or artists, the industry, to go deeper than that because this case truly could be a watershed in how we deal with power dynamics, Me Too, the treatment of women, but it really is up to...
Oh, stop. Wait, wait a second. Go into that more. Because when I look at hip hop, it has been very, very resistant to this conversation. Yeah, I mean, I like to say that when I was a kid, there were more women in power in hip hop than there are now. And this is across the board from the media, executives at record labels, decision makers, managers. We are in a...
in many cases, I would say like a crisis moment, not just in hip hop, but in society of how we talk about misogyny, toxic masculinity. Those things are at an all time high and culture is very interconnected. So as a society, if certain things are allowed, it's boys will be boys, it's locker room talk.
We can't expect it to change in hip hop. There has to be either a cultural reason to change from a larger scale or a financial reason. We're going to dig into that a little bit deeper. I'm bringing back my friend, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst, Elliott Williams. Elliott, I wanted to talk to you about this because our conversation was about power, how he had reached the cultural heights and all that came with it.
And I noticed that with the court, they're trying to prove that he was like the head of a criminal enterprise. So help me understand, was he powerful or not? What in the legal community does that really mean? It's like, stop, you're both right. Yes, he was certainly powerful.
Now, the question is-- Because security guards, like, there's the world of people who worked for him. And also attempting to assert control over those around him, at least as the allegations suggest. Now, no one's disputing some of these acts of violence. No one is disputing the acts of sex. No one's really disputing the drugs. The evidence is there. The question is, how is that all going to be linked together
toward this notion of a criminal enterprise. That to me isn't entirely clear yet. I think what is clear are the things that we talked about. It's yes, he appears to have been quite abusive with partners and enjoyed these somewhat avant-garde sex parties or whatever else. But getting to that next step, it may not be there yet. Now I say yet,
very importantly, because this is an eight-week trial, and who knows what else they call to establish this pattern of conduct. We heard from one of Sean Combs' ex-assistants yesterday. Do you know who else we're expecting to hear from and how that could kind of impact the things we're talking about? Exactly. So Kid Cudi arrived.
who had been in a romantic relationship with Cassie Ventura. What I find truly fascinating about his testimony is it's not just the mess in the industry or hip-hop he's there to talk about, he's there to talk about arson. One of the things buried in the indictment is arson. This notion of it's not just sex and drugs and trafficking and so on, but that
- And to clarify for people, the allegation is that his car was blown up by a Molotov cocktail. - Yes. - And Cuddy, at the time, to the New York Times confirmed,
that the allegations were true. It'll be interesting what he says on the stand. And moreover, there was testimony at trial that Sean Combs said he was going to burn Kid Cudi's car as a way of sort of getting back at Cassie Ventura. It's one of those other crimes, and at a certain point, perhaps the jury just buckles under the weight of them because there's so many of them, allegations of them piling up.
Is there a link between all of them under this umbrella of an enterprise? Elliot, it's going to be fascinating to see how this case unfolds. As always, I appreciate you coming, talking legal with me. You can learn more about this topic. There's a new episode of The Assignment and new episodes drop every Thursday.
Up next, the latest breaking developments from a deadly shooting that happened overnight in D.C. It left two Israeli embassy staff members dead and another clash in the Oval Office. More on what happened when President Trump put South Africa's leader in the hot seat. At New Balance, we believe if you run, you're a runner, however you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way.
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This is CNN breaking news
We continue to follow two breaking news stories this morning out of Washington, D.C. Police say a suspect shouting "Free Palestine" has been arrested, accused of killing this couple who worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington. Police say the suspect was pacing back and forth outside the Capitol Jewish Museum and then approached a group of people and opened fire. He then waited around the scene and was eventually arrested.
The other breaking news: the House is voting now, not on President Trump's agenda, but it's one last gambit by Democrats. You're looking at live images now. If this fails, then the bill will go to the floor where it appears to be on track for final approval. Back now to that shooting outside a Jewish museum in D.C. This morning, Israel is tightening security at embassies worldwide following the killing of the two staffers.
We have been in touch with our colleagues in the embassy in Washington DC, with our colleagues in Jerusalem. All of our embassies are on high alert after this attack. The sole suspect has been identified and arrested. A witness says that he was yelling, I did it for Gaza. Attorney General Pam Bondi says that the Trump administration will work hand in hand to protect the Jewish community.
We'll be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight our Jewish community. We will follow the facts, we will follow the law, and this defendant, if charged, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Joining me now, Chief Charles Ramsey, CNN senior law enforcement analyst. Good morning. I want to talk more about the suspect because I was reading some reports that he waited around the scene, essentially presented himself. What is the first step in this investigation and in this kind of situation?
Well, there are a lot of steps in the investigation now. He's under arrest. He's from Chicago. We don't know yet. At least we don't know yet how he got to Washington, D.C. Was he in a hotel? Did he have a car? So there are numerous search warrants that are being executed, many of which probably already have been.
executed. There'll be a review of his social media footprint if he has one to see what they can learn from there because they want to know, first of all, you know, the motive. Why did he do it? We believe we know free Gaza, but free Palestine rather. But we need to be able to confirm that. We also need to know with anybody else involved.
Now, he went inside the museum, but apparently didn't have an intent to do more damage inside. He didn't have the gun. He actually ditched the gun. In fact, the people inside thought he was a witness and a victim of sorts initially until he admitted that he did the shooting. So there are a lot of moving parts. You have the FBI, you have ATF, you have the Metropolitan Police Department.
They'll use all the resources they need to really, you know, develop the case they need to develop, to charge this guy and to convict him. How do you go about investigating sort of his background, his motivations? Because we're going to be talking about this possibly as a hate crime, as an act of terrorism. Are there particular ways of going about that kind of investigation?
Social media, family, friends, a lot of these people leave a lot behind. They leave a pretty large footprint. And I have no doubt that he probably did as well. And that's the purpose of executing these search warrants and so forth, to get as much information as possible. And so there'll be a lot of interviews that will take place, many of which probably already have taken place, again.
And if he's cooperating, he'll provide authorities with a lot of that information as well. I mean, he did confess saying that he did it and he took him to the firearm that he used to commit the crime. So if he continues to cooperate, they'll be able to get a lot of information. Again, now it's about building a strong case against this individual. And that's exactly what authorities are doing now. Chief Charles Ramsey, CNN senior law enforcement analyst. Thank you. Thanks, Audie.
All right, we're going to talk next about those White House Oval Office meetings, because yet another world leader found himself in the hot seat following a tense meeting with President Trump. So initially, it seemed to be going fine between Trump and the president of South Africa. Then things turned when the president pressed him on false claims about genocide against white South African farmers. In fact, Trump went on to play a video about it.
We have thousands of stories talking about it. We have documentaries, we have news stories. Excuse me, turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It's right behind you. Johan. There's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land.
So what that video went on to show were South African opposition politicians. And after it played, South Africa's president said what was on the videos doesn't actually represent his government. The group chat is back. And Stephen, I want to start with you because in a way, I think this has been the single most revealing Oval Office meeting in terms of showing the president's priorities and helping us understand politics.
how he sees the world. Right. That meeting was the latest Oval Office smackdown we've seen by the president. And world leaders now have a big decision to make, I think, because as we saw with President Zelensky of Ukraine, they come into the Oval Office and in a sense they become a prop for the president's domestic priorities. You know, South Africa has a lot of problems, the legacy of apartheid, some mismanagement by the African National Congress over the last 30 years.
But there is no evidence that there is a white genocide of South African farmers taking place. But this is something that's very popular among some of the more nationalist aspects of the present space. And some of the more prominent political commentators-- I know Tucker Carlson has done a lot about this on his show--
But I guess what I'm wondering is the South African president, you know, he brought the top golfer. He brought like all of these gifts. He spent the first few minutes talking about what Trump had done for him with COVID. It's not as though he wasn't prepared to be in that space. And that's, I think, the question when you're a diplomat and you're preparing your head of state to come and visit the president, you have to ask, is it worth it? Because
These leaders are not just dealing with Trump. They have to be careful about their own constituencies back home. We saw this with Keir Starmer. We saw it with Mark Carney when he was over here, the Canadian prime minister a few weeks ago. He had to worry about undermining his own political standing with his own voters who had just elected him because of the confrontation that he faces in the Oval Office. When you guys are watching these kinds of performances, to your mind, who is it for?
It's for the audience in America. It's for his MAGA base. But it is also largely, you have to remember that everything that Trump does has more than one special ingredient of white nationalism. And that is not something that just exists in America. His foreign policy ideology is also heavily influenced by white nationalism. To have the South African president come, and he also recognizes this white nationalist bent of President Trump, to bring two
white, very prominent leaders along with him. He did that purposely. This is a guy who was smart. - The chief of agriculture from the opposition party who was white. And so you had this thing where white South Africans were trying to explain to Trump that there was no genocide. Doug, who's this for? - Well, I think it's also a global audience. He wants heads of state for other countries to see, I can treat you like this if I want to. Obviously we saw that with Zelensky. That's not going to change.
But this also predates the first Trump administration. I think the rules of engagement for diplomats changed in the first Trump administration. Lord Kim Derrick was the UK ambassador to the United States, was tremendously effective in his role, very popular here in Washington. Cables that he would send to London were leaked. That was politically motivated. And obviously we see that these politics don't stop.
Okay, guys, I want you to stick around. There's more to discuss. I do want to return to one of the big issues of the day because we're continuing to follow this breaking news. Two Israeli embassy staff members killed outside the Capitol Jewish Museum. I'm actually going to talk to the CEO of a group that was hosting an event where that couple had just been. And nobody got a lot of sleep in the house last night. They actually pulled an all-nighter right now. They are preparing to vote on President Trump's agenda. It's
a live look at the House floor. And of course, we'll have more from the group chat after this. Back to our breaking news this morning. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a photo of the two staffers killed in a D.C. shooting. The victims, a young couple about to be engaged. Police say the suspect chanted free Palestine as he was arrested.
Now, this video obtained by CNN from an eyewitness appears to show him being patted down by law enforcement outside the Capitol Jewish Museum. The couple had just left an event there organized by the American Jewish community. We're joined now by that group's CEO, Ted Joy. She's also a former congressman from Florida. Thank you so much for being here this morning. And I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. Well, thanks as am I.
This was a Young Diplomats event, so there were people kind of from all over the city, different communities. But I understand that the theme was turning pain into purpose. I can't imagine what is going through your head this morning, given all that. Yeah, last night...
really our worst fears came true. This was an event, it's an event we all look forward to every year, that brings together AJC's young leaders, American Jewish Committee's young leaders. This year the focus was on humanitarian diplomacy. It was on finding ways to work together in an interfaith way across the region to help bring peace and
And there were Jews, there were friends and allies of the Jewish communities, people from across the diplomatic world. And all of the good feeling was shattered immediately after when these two...
when these two beautiful young souls were taken by this murderer, this is a horrific reminder to the Jewish community and the world that antisemitism often, most times, is not violent until it becomes violent. And when it does, it can become deadly. And that's what we have to stop. Were you familiar with the victims? Have you heard anything from their family or friends?
Very familiar, very familiar with both of the victims. This is, I mean, Aron is an Israeli Jew. Sarah is an American Jew. Sarah was deeply involved with AJC. She's traveled with AJC. She cared deeply for our work in the diplomatic space
And she and Yaron had a beautiful relationship. It's a tragedy of the worst magnitude that these beautiful young people were taken from us. And it happened at a time when the Jewish community in the United States and around the world was feeling very much lost.
as if the threats were rising. Understanding that what starts as words can turn into violent action. And when people are screaming at Jews, when they're not allowing Jews to walk in certain places, when they're telling people, telling Jews to go back to Poland, telling them to go to the gas, telling them that they're not welcome and then labeling them with all kinds of horrific names,
that that can lead to violence. And that's what was on full horrific display last night. It can't be tolerated, not by the Jewish community and not by the broader community that also is impacted so dramatically when something like this takes place.
I recall after the Tree of Life synagogue shootings, there was such a concern about how to protect the Jewish community in particular. How are you thinking about security now? This was supposed to be, as you said, it was a big event and it was at a museum. It's actually very rare to see kind of the shooting of diplomatic staff here in the U.S. How do you think about this going forward?
Well, you ask an important question and we think about security. I point out as we head toward a weekend that
that on Sunday churches across America will have their doors wide open welcoming to everyone who arrives. And sadly, because of the situation that the Jewish community faces, virtually every synagogue in America will have some kind of significant security, whether it's a metal detector or police out in front. The physical security is real and it needs to be a focus,
But the bigger question is, how is it that we should have to worry that when a group of Jews gather in one place that they represent a target? That's the bigger challenge. That's why we have to come together, not just the government. And the government reaction has been strong. The reaction to what happened last night by the Trump administration, by Mayor Bowser and her administration in D.C., we're really grateful for.
for. But more than that, it's everyone across society, it's college professors and doctors and lawyers and store owners, all of them standing together saying they're not, we will not tolerate this kind of anti-Semitism and hatred that can lead to this kind of horrific violence
We have to come together to say that and to give those words real meaning. Everyone has a role to play. Everyone has a role to play. And when we sit back and we see the kinds of normalization of anti-Semitism that's transpired on social media, that we've seen in too many instances in Philadelphia at the bar with the sign that said, F the Jews, the music video to a song called Heil Hitler, we can't tolerate that.
We can't just turn away. We have to stand up and stand with the Jewish community to push back, to fight it, to protect not just the Jewish community, but to protect our democracy, to protect our values and ideals. That's what's at stake here. Ted Dorch is the CEO of the American Jewish Committee. Thank you so much.
We've got an update on another breaking story because right now you're looking at it. The House is voting on President Trump's big, beautiful bill. The group chat is back. Now we wait. Basically, we're just watching the numbers tick up in the end. I don't think this bill was as difficult.
for lawmakers as sort of it had been talked about. What's going through your mind, Doug, as you look at this? Is this about House Speaker Mike Johnson and his ability to get the job done? Is this about Trump? What are we looking at? Every conversation I had this week with Republican colleagues was,
will this get through or not? And I heard the same thing every time. Well, I don't think so, but every time I've bet against Mike Johnson, he's won. So he's gonna win today, this is great news for him, but ultimately this is still Donald Trump's agenda and of course he had to get involved to get this past the finish line. - Can you talk about what Democrats, kind of how they played this experience? Was it effective? I know I heard a lot about Medicaid
But like, how do they talk about this going forward? You brought up midterms. - Yeah, I think Democrats played it in the only way they could. They don't have the numbers and this was going to be on a strict party line vote either way. What they tried to do was make sure that people in the communities knew what was at stake. I think that to a certain extent they waited a little bit too long to do so.
after the town halls were initially canceled by Republicans early on. It is the Medicaid cuts. It is threats to Medicare. It is SNAP. It is what we're seeing with Pell Grants, the grants that allow for low-income people to be able to actually attend college. All of those things matter. And they're going to keep pressing the flesh, so to speak, when it comes to this, because it's going to have massive midterm consequences for Republicans. And we're going to see, you know, whether what happens.
because Trump doesn't care about the midterms as much because he can shift around with his own agenda and skip Congress in general. We've seen him do it with some of the Doge efforts and other things. - I think he cares about the midterms. - As well as the executive orders. - He likes to win things. - If he cared, he would not have done such a huge great American heist when it comes to creating this chaos around this bill essentially because he knows that it's going to
profit the upper class, millionaires and billionaires. Meanwhile, it is going to screw over the middle class and make the poor class widen. That's what this does. OK, so we have a sense of what the message will be going into those midterms for Democrats. Do we have a sense of-- I mean, people don't really know what's in it, if I'm being honest. We've just been saying big, beautiful bill. There are lots of changes that will happen after this is passed. That's true.
To your point, I think it's going to be very interesting to see where this settles because although the Democrats have a lot to work with here, talking about Medicaid cuts, cuts to food assistance, the polls show us that Americans are almost as down or perhaps more down on Democrats than they are with the president because of his own popularity that is receding.
It's interesting when you watch presidents, sometimes they get their big first legislative bill through. There's a great sense of celebration. And then it ends out that a lot of people voting on that are actually voting on a bill that will cost them their seats in the coming midterm elections. So I think the end game here is hugely important. Yeah, very much what I think of Obamacare, right? In the Obama era. I was on a call this week with the Speaker's office and they said, "This is step six of nine." The reality, it may be 29 steps.
This goes to the Senate. There's going to be a lot of ping-ponging back and forth. This is not what ultimately is going to become law.
But I think it is interesting or helpful to this president to have some kind of legislative win. We've heard a lot about what he can do by himself. Some people have said, has Congress pretty much given up on its job in many ways? There is still a job for them to do and execute it. We're looking right now at the House floor. I have sat through many of these votes as you guys have, watching those numbers change.
tick along. We see one present, which I think we're going to learn who that was. But in the end, Democrats more or less held together. Nobody broke. We're going to take a listen. On this vote, the yeas are 215, the nays are 214, with one answering present. The bill is passed. USA! USA! We can see House Speaker Mike Johnson there.
And a lot of applause from Republicans in this moment. As Doug said, there was a fractured caucus on the way to this process. Andy Harris from Maryland, the hardliner, was the present vote. That's one he's going to have to explain, not just to the president, but to his constituents.
So I want to talk about this as even just, I'll call it a victory for the House speaker, because there was a time where it felt like no Republican speaker could survive even the most basic votes or process. And like he's managed to do that. That's true. And this was a speaker that came pretty much from nowhere after the chaos, after the oust of Speaker McCarthy. And I think he has confounded the expectations of many people in...
building and knitting this very fractious Republican coalition together. But I think your point is a good one. A lot of the things that he had to put in this bill to get it through the House by that one vote
They're going to be very problematic for certain Republican senators, some that are running for reelection. When it comes back, it's going to be really interesting to see what it actually looks like. What kind of pressure does this put on the Senate now? Because there is going to be a lot of conversations as they kind of reconcile their part of the legislation. What do you think folks are going to be pointing to, talking about?
Medicaid for sure. We've already seen op-eds that have been written by Republican Senate leaders in their local newspapers as well as in the New York Times. - Republican Senate leaders. - Yes. - Okay. - Because they recognize that this is going to shut down rural healthcare. It is going to eradicate the already fragile healthcare system in many of their districts.
particularly because there is a larger percentage of Medicaid recipients who reside in red districts than any place else. So I think that for them, they're paying attention because they know that this is going to have an effect on midterms. But moreover, their states cannot afford to lose that level of coverage.
One constant in Washington is that regardless of party, the House and the Senate usually do not see eye to eye on things. This is certainly going to play out over the coming weeks when they come back from the Memorial Day recess. Can I ask what you guys are keeping an eye on, what you're going to be looking for in the days ahead? Stephen? There's a gala tonight out at the President's Golf Club for people who bought into his meme token. This is the crypto gala. That's right. Yeah.
And it shows us, I think, about how a lot of the ethical concerns that normally shadow a presidency have been obliterated because a lot of people are worried that there are foreigners who are buying influence with the president. And it hasn't got that much attention.
And I think that tells us the story. I think some of it is people are confused about how crypto works, but there's great movement and he is, people talking about profiting from this moment. Amisha, what are you going to be looking for? Well, the Workforce and Education Committee hosted a hearing yesterday. It was an anti-DEI hearing. And I think that what we're going to continue to see from this administration is leaning in more on anti-DEI policies and what that actually means, not only for colleges and universities, but also in the workforce. We're going to see a lot more people
passed in the states, but I also think that we're going to see more bills introduced at the federal level that basically eradicate progress and those areas of progress and success for black and brown people. Doug, hi. What are you going to be keeping an eye on?
In the coming weeks, store shelves. We've heard a lot about how there are fewer cargo ships coming in and that those cargo ships have less cargo on them. That means less truckers are delivering things to stores. And if we start to see empty store shelves at your Targets, at your Walmarts, and so forth, that's going to be a very real political problem.
All right, you guys, thank you so much for being with us. It's a very difficult day. CNN's following a lot of news right now, including that shooting at the Capitol Jewish Museum here in D.C. I want to thank you for being with us. And CNN News Central starts right now.
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