House Pulls All-Nighter
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Your payments are showing. But with Apple Cash, your payments are private by design. There are no public feeds. Send and receive money privately in messages or with tap to cash. Switch to Apple Cash. Apple Cash services are provided by GreenBot Bank member FDIC. It is Thursday, July 3rd. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. An all-nighter in the house. GOP rebels now on board to move the president's big, beautiful bill forward. A final vote could happen any minute now. Plus.

Today is a victory of all victories for Sean Combs. Sean Combs found guilty on just two of five charges. His bail, however, denied. So how long could he be behind bars? And he is the Star Trek legend known for fighting injustice off screen. How George Takei's lived experience has shaped his views on patriotism, protest and the state of democracy.

6 a.m. here in live pictures of the House floor where Hakeem Jeffries has been speaking for just a little over an hour for the so-called magic minute there. Lawmakers continue to debate President Trump's sweeping domestic policy agenda. The minority leader, of course, leading that there. Good morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in today for Adi Cornish. Great to have you starting your day with me.

Boy, a lot to cover there in Washington. It is the breaking news we'll be following with you throughout the morning. This record-breaking all-nighter in the House to get President Trump's big, beautiful bill to the finish line. At this moment, that measure is on track for a full vote in probably about two hours. Getting there, though, no small feat. Despite hours of arm-twisting, five were

Republicans voted no on a key provision to move that bill forward last night, leaving it in a state of limbo. House Speaker Mike Johnson, of course, can only afford three defections, and he's also facing that July 4th deadline, which was set by the president to get the bill passed. President Trump, of course, keeping his thumb on the scale all night, complete with this Truth Social post.

Shortly after midnight, quote, what are the Republicans waiting for? What are you trying to prove? MAGA is not happy and it's costing you votes.

CNN's Brian Todd is live on Capitol Hill. He's been literally burning the midnight oil, now the 6 a.m. oil. So as we inch closer here, Brian, to this full floor vote, the fact that we got to this point, how did that happen? How was the speaker or maybe the president able to get enough support just to move that?

Well, Erica, it was through a marathon engagement of negotiating, kind of leaning on people, courting them. This has been going on for weeks, and especially over the past 24 hours, Speaker Johnson and President Trump have really been trying to

to court those hardliners who are holding out into turning to their side. And finally, finally, a couple of hours ago, we got word that they had in fact turned and were going to vote yes. A couple of hours ago, it seemed uncertain whether they would even get past that procedural vote in that motion to then move forward. But they did get past that because four out of the five Republican holdouts

did come to Speaker Johnson's side. Now, the latest guidance we're getting now is that this final vote on the passage of this House bill could come, could start actually within about a half hour. It could start between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. So it's coming fast. You see Hakeem Jeffries on the floor there. As you mentioned, he's been on the floor for about an hour. But they're going to be wrapping up this debate fairly soon.

We believe this vote could start maybe between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. But again, for Speaker Johnson, it's just been an excruciating few weeks, and the past 24 hours especially have been challenging for the Speaker as he's tried to wrangle these last few votes. There were five Republican holdouts on the floor until just a couple of hours ago. They were Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick,

Thomas Massey, Andrew Clyde, Victoria Sparks, and Keith Self. Four out of those five came around to Speaker Johnson's side. The only one who remained a no throughout was Brian Fitzpatrick, the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania. And of course, all of these members and all of those holdouts thinking about how this is going to play in their midterm re-election campaigns next year. And this is going to be a big part of

you know, whatever fallout comes from this bill on the Republican side. And we'll see how that plays out, of course, in the next several months. But again, this was a very tough process for Speaker Johnson. He was under enormous pressure to get this bill to the president's desk by tomorrow, the 4th of July. It looks like he's going to get there. Speaker Johnson and his allies have said they believe they have the votes for passage. They are confident in that.

It is not a certainty, we have to say, but they are very confident at this point that they will get to the finish line. They seem to be pretty close to it at this point, Erica. Yeah, that's for sure. Brian, appreciate it. Thank you. And you'll keep us posted when that vote ultimately begins. Join me now in the group chat. Isaac Dover, CNN senior reporter. Lulu Garcia Navarro, New York Times journalist and podcast host.

and Audrey Falberg, who's a politics reporter with the National Review. Nice to see all of you this morning. So, Isaac, let's kick things off here. As Brian noted, looking like this is going to pass, is there any wiggle room here at this hour?

It doesn't seem like it. And I'll tell you, Erica, I spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill yesterday standing right off the House floor. I'm paid to follow what's going on here. You are too. All of us are. And it is incredibly hard to make sense of what even this process has been. An amendment on the amendment, a vote on the rule.

And very little attention, first of all, I'd say, to what is actually in this bill, whether it's the Medicaid changes or the immigration funding for more of what the administration wants to do there, changes about how AI might be regulated, changes about clean energy credits. There's a huge amount of things in this bill, and yet what we have seen is it moving through literally overnight in the Senate and in the House over and over again, where the

And the attention has just been on which votes are going to switch, which aren't. Not a huge surprise given how the Republicans in Congress have been approaching things these last few months that they are voting where Donald Trump wanted them to be. And now I think the question does move to the politics of this.

The Republicans were claiming a mandate. Donald Trump was claiming a mandate just a couple months ago. These razor-thin margins in these middle-of-the-night votes call that someone into question, whether they have anything close to the mandate they talked about. And look, for the Democrats, they had a big event yesterday before all the voting started, and they were feeling like they were probably going to lose, but that this may be the thing that powers what the midterms look like next year.

That is the hope for Democrats, obviously, from their view that they want this to power the midterms. For Donald Trump, Lulu, when we look at this, it's fascinating the way that elements of this bill are structured in terms of the things that the Democrats are really going to hit on, right? Let's say Medicaid, health care access,

Those may not be felt as immediately as some of the benefits that Republicans will want to point to. How do you see that playing out, Lelou? Yeah, I think it's one of the most interesting parts of this, which is Republicans learned from 2017, when they passed their first tax cuts, of which this actual bill extends when it becomes a law, that if you wait to give the good stuff,

it's not going to be felt by the American people and so what this is going to do is it's going to give the good stuff first, which is Americans are going to get their tax breaks before the next time that they pay taxes and the bad stuff

according to Democrats, are the hard stuff, which is basically the cut to entitlements, Medicaid, SNAP, etc., isn't going to be felt until later. Now, that doesn't help vulnerable Republicans because it's still going to happen before the midterms, but it certainly, in terms of the way that this is going to be viewed by the American people, is going to delay some of the effects of this. And I think that makes the case that Democrats are making a little bit harder, at least in the short term.

And when we look at where things stand in terms of the president, even just his true social post last night, Audrey, looking at this, MAGA is not happy. It's costing you votes. We know the president is leaning into the politics of this. It's also yet another example, I think we could argue, of just what a stronghold he has on the party.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, he's been ramping up political pressure on holdouts for months now. Of course, he's on the phone with some of these holdouts throughout this vote last night. And of course, this also demonstrates that when House GOP lawmakers hold a big vote ahead of a recess, they can dangle that recess.

ahead of these lawmakers who just really want to also be on vacation with their families, of course. But look, this is a massive win for House and Senate Republican leaders. The president had largely delegated the particulars of this legislation to congressional GOP leaders while maintaining the border security provisions are something he's cared about, the populist tax break policies that he campaigned on.

uh... no tax on tips overtime pay car loan interest is of course temporary in the bill he's really cared about those with the particulars he's left the congressional g_o_p_ leaders and so i think you as we've seen over the past few weeks has been a massive conflict between the fiscal hawks who are saying you know these medicaid

modest Medicaid reform proposals in this bill that moderates are caring about. These don't go far enough for fiscal hawks, right? But one of the challenges for Republicans, as Lulu said here, is with these Medicaid reforms. You know, they're not even huge Medicaid reforms, but these are huge challenges for moderate Republicans because in recent years,

The GOP has become a more working class party. Many of these people rely on entitlements. And so this is going to be a challenge for Republicans in the midterms. Again, not fiscal hawks, most of whom hail from deep red districts and won't be worried about any kind of effects of Medicaid in the coming midterm cycle. But this may be a challenge for moderates. But again, a lot of those work requirements don't kick in until later.

All right, crew chat, stay with me. Lots more to discuss, of course, throughout the hour. Also ahead here on CNN this morning, as we follow this breaking news in the House preparing to vote on the president's agenda, there are questions about the math and whether, as the kids say, it's actually mathing.

and a closer look at how voters feel about this massive bill. Plus, Sean Combs denied bail after a mixed verdict. Why the judge cited the defense in his decision to keep the music mogul behind bars. And why are the streets of Philadelphia lined with trash? We'll explain. Yeah, I better just pay them workers whatever the hell they're asking for. Because I would hate to live on this street. I would hate. No, no, no, no, no. That is, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy, this week on the podcast Terms of Service. For doctors, diagnosing diseases early is a huge priority, but doctors can't know everything. In recent years, though, some doctors have added a new tool to their screening toolkit.

And that's AI. So overwhelming to be in the seat of a patient. To help me understand how this works, I invited Dr. Pierre Elias to our studio. It's super hard to try and navigate all of that information. And I think this can be a wonderful resource in helping people do that. Listen to CNN's Terms of Service with me, Claire Duffy, wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Spotify.

On behalf of every single American, I'm on this House floor after 6 a.m. and I'm planning to take my sweet time.

Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries there just moments ago, of course, on the House floor. He actually began speaking, I believe it was 4.55 a.m. Still going there for the so-called magic minute. A little over an hour and 20 minutes at this point. House Speaker Johnson, though, is expecting a vote to come.

possibly even could happen within the next hour, telling our reporters he really hopes to have the president's agenda by 8 a.m. So we'll continue to keep an eye, of course, on Washington and on those developments for you. We're also following other developments, though, out of here in New York. Sean Diddy Combs still behind bars this morning after a split verdict in his federal criminal trial. Of course, the question is, how long will he remain behind bars?

Let a puppy go! Let a puppy go! Let a puppy go! Supporters out there chanting, of course, in the wake of that verdict announcement on Wednesday. Combs was acquitted on the most serious charges, which could have resulted in a life sentence. His defense team taking a victory lap outside the courthouse. Today's a great victory. It's a great victory for Sean Combs. It's a great victory for the jury system.

Combs will not be free right away, and it turns out his attorney's own words may be the reason. Combs is facing sentencing on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. His lawyers had asked for him to be released on bail. The judge, however, denied that request, citing Combs' violent history, telling his legal team, quote, you full-throatedly in your closing argument told the jury that there was violence here, and domestic violence is violence.

Joining me now, Dave Ehrenberg, former state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida. Dave, nice to see you as always. So when we look at where things stand here this morning, the fact that the judge, right, then told Diddy's defense team, look, I'm using your words. You're the one who said there's violence now. What does that tell you about where things could end up in terms of sentencing?

Erica, good to be with you. Yes, the defense was hoisted by their own petard, to use a Shakespearean phrase. But keep in mind that generally in federal court, if you're convicted of a crime that can get you up to 10 years in prison, you're going to be taken into custody pending sentencing. So that shouldn't be a surprise here. And Judge Subramanian mentioned Diddy's propensity for violence. That sort of tipped his hand as to where he's going on sentencing, which makes me believe, yes, he's going to give

Diddy prison time. Now, how much? Well, there are sentencing guidelines and the judge is not supposed to use stuff against him that he was acquitted of, like racketeering, like human trafficking when it comes to sentencing. But he can use his violent tendencies. I mean, Judge Supermanian saw that

awful video that was first aired by CNN from the Intercontinental Hotel. He heard about Diddy's drug use. And so he's going to give him a prison sentence. And I would say probably at least maybe two years, maybe two to a maximum of five years. Remember, he gets 10 months of time as credit that he's already served. And the sentencing, I know, was scheduled for, I believe it's October 3rd. But there is some wiggle room there, the judge saying that could actually be moved up sooner.

Correct. And the defense wants him out as soon as possible. Diddy does not want to be incarcerated another day. He's used to the high life, the life of privilege and to be able to enjoy that lifestyle, not be stuck in this horrible facility he's in now. But, you know, actions have consequences. And no matter what, no matter how many supporters he has outside the courtroom pouring baby oil on each other, I mean, what has happened to our society today?

that he will always be the guy who manhandled Cassie. That's on the video. That's what everyone can see. So he's going to have to live with that legacy and afford a public opinion. There's been a lot of discussion about the three charges, right, where he was found not guilty. One of those, that racketeering conspiracy charge. Do you believe that the SDNY overcharged here?

I do. And I was a state attorney for Palm Beach County for 12 years. And I often talk about not overcharging. When you overcharge, you lose credibility in the jury's eyes. And so I do think this was overcharged.

And the defense used it against the prosecutors because they said, you know, this is a group of individuals who may be loyal to Diddy, but it's not an ongoing criminal enterprise. And I think the jury believed that. And as far as the human trafficking, well, that hurt their credibility when it came to human trafficking, which there was strong evidence.

I was surprised actually he got acquitted on the human trafficking as relates to Cassie. I mean, they had that video. You need to show commercial sex acts with force, fraud or coercion. What was on that video was forced. And all you need to show is one, one time that Cassie said no, one time when there was force. But apparently the jury just didn't believe them. And this is a post me too world we're living in, Erica. Instead of believe all women, it's doubt women who don't leave right away, I guess.

It is interesting to see whether even this court of public opinion, very different, obviously, from what happens in a courtroom, but whether it could impact people coming forward in their own instances. Dave, really appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you.

still to come here on cnn this morning as florida opens a migrant detention camp dubbed alligator alcatraz audi sat down with george takei for his take the actor of course spent part of his childhood in u.s and turbot camps during world war ii plus we are of course keeping a very close watch on capitol hill congress holding another all-nighter as this big beautiful bill faces its final hurdle that final debate underway right now the vote up next the american people

There's a sense of loyalty to the men and women you serve with, a sense of family. Star Trek legend George Takei continuing to captivate audiences, of course, with his iconic role as Tulu, a character who embodies courage, resilience, and loyalty. Offscreen, he's lived those same values, from fighting for civil rights in the '60s to becoming an LGBTQ activist. In his new book, "It Rhymes with Takei," he shares the experiences that made him and what they reveal about democracy today.

He is Audie's guest on the assignment this week, reflecting on hope, the importance of taking a stand and how his family's incarceration in a Japanese internment camp shaped his life. We had very protective parents. They and they were exemplars for me. And after the war, too, they my father explained to me that

The American Constitution is a great form of government. He used to quote to me Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. He said those are noble words. That's what makes American democracy great. But...

The weakness of American democracy is also in those words, because people are fallible human beings and they make mistakes. Even great presidents can get swept up in the hysteria of the times because to Roosevelt, the West Coast of the United States was just like Pearl Harbor.

It was open, unprotected, and vulnerable. And here were these people that look exactly like the people at Bonne Pearl Harbor. And so he panicked.

out of ignorance. And this is where teachers and librarians are the pillars of democracy. They can teach them this truth that people, even great presidents, can be stampeded by hysteria. And that's what we're going through right now. You have a president who is now saying he's carrying out mass deportations because it's popular or saying that he has popular support.

for going after undocumented migrants. And it made me think, as I was reading your book, about the fact that a majority of Americans at the time, in the 40s, supported the removal of Japanese Americans.

And so how does your experience of that inform your thinking of the way the president is saying now that there's somehow there are at times popular support for these kinds of these kinds of actions? The important thing, and my father taught me this when I was a teenager. I have many, many after dinner conversations. People, Americans need to speak out.

We were a small minority and cowed really under the force, the huge tidal wave force against us. And the Japanese Americans, when you have rifles with bayonets pointed at you. And I, as a five-year-old, I saw a bayonet pointed at my father right at our front door. I was terrified. I'll never forget that. But

Politicians lie and people believe that lie because there is hysteria rampant at that time and in our time today, right now. And it's a situation that is completely anti-American. People must speak out. And you can catch, of course, new episodes of The Assignment every Thursday.

Just ahead here on CNN this morning, the verdict is in for Sean Combs. Why he was denied bail despite being found not guilty on his most serious charges. Plus, we're giving you a close watch on the House floor as Trump's big, beautiful bill gets closer to that vote at a green light. I think he comes by his views.

Live Aid brought together the world's biggest musicians for one important cause. 40 years later, a new CNN original series explores how it came to be. Live Aid, when rock and roll took on the world. Premieres Sunday, July 13th at 9 on CNN.

Good Thursday morning. I'm Erica Hill in today for Audie Cornish. Thanks so much for joining me on CNN this morning. 634 here on the East Coast. Let's get you caught up on what's happening right now. Some late night negotiating and the House is now on track to begin voting really any minute on the president's spending and tax mega bill. The president, of course, had set his own deadline for the bill. He wants it on his desk by tomorrow.

This morning, Sean Combs waking up once again behind bars as he awaits sentencing, a judge denying him bail after his partial conviction. He now faces up to 20 years in prison, sentencing tentatively scheduled for October. The defense, however, is hoping to get that moved up. Israel says it is serious about reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, accepting the latest U.S. proposal, which would include a 60-day ceasefire.

I'm returning to our breaking news at this hour. Within the next 90 minutes, House Republicans appear prepared to hand Donald Trump the most significant win of his presidency by passing this big, beautiful bill, as it's known.

This recent Quinnipiac poll, though, like a number of other national polls, finds Americans oppose that bill by a two to one margin, making it a tough sell for Republicans to their constituents. The group chat is back sort of picking up where we left off in terms of this being a tough sell. There's also the sell on Lulu on the creative math here and whether the math is mathing, as we say, that is certainly playing out and we're hearing it in all the soundbites. The reality, though, will kick in.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the most interesting things about this bill is that you have all these different groups opposed to it for very different reasons, which says that when you have so much stuffed into one big thing, it is, as has been called by many people, a big, beautiful mess.

And certainly one of the things that I think is a really big red flashing sign for Republicans is the Democrats were united against this bill. And what that says to you is this. Looking at the political fallout, leaving aside the actual economic fallout of this, there are many Democrats who are in swing districts who, if they felt that it was good for them, would have voted for this, would have joined with Republicans. We've seen that before.

none of them did, neither in the Senate or in the House. And that says to you that they feel very strongly that what's in this bill is going to be beneficial for them and hurt Republicans. And this math is really hard to actually stitch together because what you have here is a bill that is going to cost

so much money to the American taxpayer in the long run, run up the deficit and really take away entitlements. You know, we've seen independent group after independent group score this as basically millions of people losing their health care, as, you know, essentially lots of people having to pay more out of pocket for things that they should have gotten before. So I think this is going to in the long term hurt the GOP.

Audrey, when we look at this, we see all these independent analyses, right? And then we're also hearing from Republicans, a lot of Republicans, that doesn't play. We have fiscal conservative Republicans who have been very concerned about this aspect of it moving forward, and yet they are voting for it. How much could this hurt Republicans as we look at the deficit?

I think fiscal conservatives clearly are concerned about that. But what is really interesting is that a lot of these debt and deficit hardliners who had spent days railing against this bill on the floor, speaking with reporters, are now voting for this Senate passed bill.

bill with no changes. So that is pretty remarkable. I do think that one of the biggest political cudgels that the president has had going for him is, as you said, this expected to be the biggest signature legislative achievement of his second term. And as you know, I'm sure we'd all pay to be a fly on the wall in his private conversations with Republicans.

in person and over the phone. I'm sure he continued to stress the reality that a vote against this bill is a vote against border security funding, which is a big deal for fiscal hardliners in those deep red districts, as we've discussed before, but also a vote to side with Democrats in letting the 2017 tax cuts lapse.

But this is an imperfect bill. Speaker Johnson has said as much. He said something along the lines of, you know, this is maybe this is the best we could do given the slim margins. But it is also really interesting to look back at what the Senate passed and how that came to pass. It was over 24 hours.

of a vote-a-thon earlier this week. And a lot of Senate Republican aides told me that they didn't really know how this was going to go. They didn't have the votes, right? It only came together early in the morning, right, when they got Alaska Senator Lisa McCrory's request. The headline I have to say, though, the headline I have to say was really funny in Politico this morning. It said, Moco, which is that basically, you know, that everyone always chickens out in both the House and the Senate.

Congress. So many acronyms, so little time. We do have to cut it there right now, but stay with me. Much more to cover on the show. We do have to turn back to the partial acquittal of Sean Diddy Combs, his team, now awaiting, of course, that decision on sentencing. An attorney for Cassie Ventura, the star witness in the case, said she, quote, paved the way for a jury to find him guilty on the prostitution transportation charges and that she left an indelible mark

on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice. There are questions, though, about just how robust the prosecution's case actually was. His longtime rival, Suge Knight, joined my colleague Laura Coates last night. Take a listen.

I wouldn't say they prosecuted him because at the same time, not that I want to see him do life. I truly feel he do not deserve to be doing life in prison or die in prison. The government, you're trying to tell me that the government is stupid? Because if they really was trying to do a RICO case on him, they would have put somebody like Keefy D on the stand. They would have put some guys on the stand. They would have put nobody on the stand.

Joining me now, CNN senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Ellie Hoding. Ellie, you actually made this call, right? When the trial started, I saw you had reposted this. You are colleague Elizabeth Wagmeister, who's done such excellent reporting around this. You were not at all surprised that those most serious charges, specifically the RICO charges, they were not. This did not work for the jury. They did not feel the prosecution proved their case.

Well, Erica, you're going to make me say a sentence I never thought I would say on air, but I agree with Suge Knight's legal analysis that he said right there. I think this racketeering charge was an overcharge from the start. I said it shortly after the indictment came down. And the reason is if you need if you try to show racketeering as a prosecutor, you have to show that there was an organized criminal enterprise, that there was some structure to this.

that there was a criminal operation that was ongoing and that committed multiple crimes. They just did not have that proof. Could they prove Sean Combs was a horrible human being, physically abusive, engaged in domestic violence? Yes, yes, and yes. But none of those are racketeering. None of those are the charged crimes. And that's the task for prosecutors. It's not enough to show a jury that your defendant is a bad guy. You have to prove the actual charges you bring beyond a reasonable doubt.

And so this is where we're at. Ellie, I know you're tight on time, but I do want to get your take on something else that came down yesterday in terms of asylum claims and a court finding that basically the president cannot rewrite immigration law and can't automatically, correct me if I'm saying this incorrectly, but cannot automatically deny asylum to anybody who shows up at the southern border seeking asylum. What's the real world impact here, especially given the ruling that we got from the Supreme Court most recently?

Well, you said it exactly right, Erica. So Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office, essentially suspending and denying all asylum claims that come in from the southern border. That is in conflict with a set of laws that Congress passed long ago, essentially allowing people to apply for asylum and to receive asylum if they would be under threat of persecution or torture if returned back to their country. And what this federal district court judge said yesterday is the president can't just

cancel that, can't just override Congress on it. Now, the wrinkle here that you touched on is less than a week ago, this past Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court said, okay, district court judges can block things the president does, but they can't issue what we call nationwide injunctions, meaning they can't just block

the president's actions across the country. And so what this judge then did in response to say, very well, then I will certify this as a class action, meaning a lawsuit where these plaintiffs in front of me right here will represent all similar plaintiffs across the entire country. Now, I've seen that characterized as a run around an end run by the judge, and it

is an end run, but it's also the exact end run that the U.S. Supreme Court, in their opinion, said might be okay, might be workable. So this one's going to go up on appeal, and it's really going to be the first test of the Supreme Court's major ruling that we saw last week.

Appreciate it as always, my friend. I know you got to run out the door. Thank you. I always have time for you. Likewise, my friend. All right. Still to come here on CNN this morning. We are, of course, very closely watching Capitol Hill, the latest on the battle over President Trump's big, beautiful bill following another

all-nighter. I believe we're still looking at live pictures here. So we are just shy of the two-hour mark for the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, there using his magic minute. When will we get to a vote? We will keep a close watch on. Plus, the man accused in the killing of four college students in Idaho pleading guilty to that crime. The victim's families, though, not all feeling as if justice has been served. And then we'll be voting on final passage between 6, 7, 8 a.m. We'll just see how it goes.

All right. We are firmly in the window now. Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, though, still speaking there. That high stakes vote on President Trump's spending bill is coming soon. It's expected to be a big win for his domestic agenda. The president also adding some pressure of his own on Republican lawmakers earlier this morning after that bill stalled on the House floor late last night. He did manage to sway some holdouts.

Posting on Truth Social at one point, what are Republicans waiting for? What are you trying to prove? MAGA is not happy and it's costing you votes. Joining me now, Michael Schnell, congressional reporter at The Hill. I'm not sure if you've slept, but you look like you have. So that's a win. This has been quite the all-nighter in terms of where things stand now. Minority leader Jeffries is still speaking. As we just heard from the speaker, though, he's hoping to get this to a vote within the next hour.

hour or so. Does that timeline still hold right now? That timeline, Erica, is really all up to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Essentially, in the House, there's something called a magic minute during these debates, which allows leaders in both parties, whether you're in the majority or the minority, to speak on the House floor for as long as

possible. Now, Hakeem Jeffries is about to approach the two-hour mark of this speech that he's been delivering on the House floor in opposition to the Republicans' mega bill. Sources had been telling us before today that Jeffries had only planned to occupy the floor for about an hour, give about an hour-long speech, and then let proceedings continue. But as I just mentioned, he is approaching hour two. You can see right there that binder on his...

podium it's quite thick when you look at the pages left and i can tell you erica i was just in the house chamber watching from above and i ran down here on that table that he's standing at he has a several other binders lined up so this speech could go much longer than just two hours again unlimited um the record is held by former speaker kevin mccarthy who held the floor for about

eight and a half hours back in 2021. So the question about when this final passage vote can actually happen, well, it depends on A, when Jeffries wraps up his speech, and then Speaker Mike Johnson gets an opportunity to deliver a magic minute speech. He told me earlier he doesn't plan on going as long as Jeffries may, but it could still add some time onto this timeline. Could add some time when you spoke with him and he said he didn't anticipate going as long as Jeffries. Did he give you a sense of what he would say, though, and how long it could take?

I suspect that he'll be touting different provisions in the bill. This is a big moment and a big achievement for House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and President Trump. So I suspect he'll be talking about that and the journey to get here. But as you had mentioned, he said that he anticipated final passage vote happening sometime between 8 and 8.30. So that's the timeline we're working on right now. But again, this truly is in Jeffrey's hands as we get to the final step of this Megabill process.

What's your sense of, based on your reporting, what it was that finally swayed some of those holdout Republicans? Was it the president or was it something else?

I think it was a combination of forces. I certainly think the president was a big factor here. President Trump had hosted a number of Republicans, not just conservatives, but moderates as well, at the White House earlier yesterday in the morning to talk through some concerns with the bills. I reported overnight that President Trump actually spoke to some of those holdouts directly on a phone. The phone call happened at about 4 p.m.

1:00 AM this morning. Some of those holdouts were huddled in a room just off the House chamber along with Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise. And during those conversations, having talks about assurances they needed with the bill

and why they should vote for it. That conversation on the phone was also coupled with those posts on Truth Social that you had showed earlier. So we know that President Trump has this really strong grip over the House Republican Conference. Republicans do not like to cross him, to go against him. They fear his ire, his primary challenges, what have you. So I certainly think that the president was a big factor here. But we also have heard from a number of Republicans that once they were able to sift through the bill more,

they were able to understand some of the provisions that they maybe didn't understand so much previously. Now, that's what folks are telling us, but we're certainly going to dig in to see if there was any backroom deal in the interim because, again, these hardline conservatives were adamant as recently as yesterday

They had no interest in voting to this bill. They thought it was a bad bill. And I even heard from a number of Republicans who said they needed substantive changes to the legislation in order to win their support. Of course, they didn't get those. So the big question is, what was the linchpin that had them flip their stance? Absolutely. I look forward to your reporting, as I always do. Michael, appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Erica.

All right, let's see, just about 53 minutes on the nose there past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Brian Kohlberger pleading guilty to killing four Idaho college students. He accepted that plea deal to avoid the death penalty in court. On Wednesday, he admitted to the murders on camera for the first time. Did you honor about that same date in Moscow, Idaho, kill and murder Kaylee Gonzalez, a human being? Yes. Madison Mogan, a human being? Yes.

Yes. Zana Kernodle, pardon me, a human being. Yes. Ethan Chapin, a human being. Yes. His sentencing hearing is set for July 23rd, where he faces a life sentence for each of those four counts of murder. The streets of Philadelphia are lined with trash this morning as the largest labor union in that city hits the picket line for now the third day in a row. Thousands of city workers, including trash collectors, walked off the job on Tuesday. The union is fighting for higher pay and health care benefits.

Wild there. Dash cam video catching the moment those power poles, as you see, started falling like dominoes in Las Vegas. The driver luckily was able to get out of their car safely. An intense dust storm, there it is again, has been hitting the city for days near hurricane force winds, causing trees to be ripped from their roots and understandably knocking out power.

A spark in prices this 4th of July. Tariffs on China impacting the price of fireworks this year. A number of stores around the country, though, trying to keep them at their prices rather stable. We just are absorbing the cost this year. Have you personally noticed any price difference from last year's shopping to this year's fireworks shopping? No, not really.

Other shops reporting taking more of a hit. China manufactures, by the way, about 99% of America's fireworks. One of the steepest tariff hike threats in Trump's trade war seems to be over. On social media Wednesday, President Trump announcing a new deal with Vietnam, which will result in most Vietnamese imports being taxed at 20%. Originally, Trump had set rates against Vietnam at more than 40%. In turn, U.S. goods in Vietnam will be sold tariff-free.

Vietnamese officials have not publicly confirmed the deal, though, with the United States. It's important to note this would mark just the third trade deal announced by the Trump administration since the so-called Liberation Day. That announcement, of course, back in the beginning of April was an across-the-board tariff rate hike. This is set to go into effect for many other countries next week. That July 9th deadline, of course, looming, which the president has been teasing now for months.

I think what's going to happen is we're going to have great deals. And by the way, if we don't have a deal with a company or a country, we're going to set the tariff. We just set the tariff. It's something that we think that will happen, I'd say, over the next couple of weeks. Over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out, essentially telling people, it would be very fair, but we'll be telling people what they'll be paying to do business in the United States.

The group chat is back. Isaac, you're on deck since I didn't get you in the last segment. So the president has said repeatedly, and we've heard from the administration, there are deals, there are going to be dozens of deals. In April, in an interview with Time magazine, he said, I've made all the deals. I've made 200 deals. Again, Isaac, there have been three announced so far and sort of with an asterisk there. What does this tell us about what's in store for Wednesday, next Wednesday, that deadline?

It tells us that we're nowhere near 200 deals and the president keeps talking about how there are all these deals coming. And so far, all that we have had is a lot of uncertainty injected into the economy. Now, maybe that's the point here from the president. But what

But what remains true is that the president, who from long before he was in office was talking about how good of a dealmaker he is, has not been able to land deals when it comes to trade negotiations and tariff negotiations with other countries. Audrey, is there any concern within the White House about how this is impacting the stature of the United States on the world stage?

Look, I think in the past few weeks and months, administration officials have fought back against critics by saying that the tariff policy has not had the big inflationary effects on Americans, as critics have warned, as we're seeing that starting to change.

I think when it comes to this Vietnam deal in particular, look, that 20 percent tariff on imports is going to remain. So there is going to be a lot of criticism from free traders, business groups about the inflationary effects. But I think in the coming weeks, we'll see or coming days, excuse me, we'll see if they're able to strike more deals. But right now, as you know, we were just discussing, I don't think that there are that many deals. Lulu, it's also interesting to watch how in many ways certain alliances are reforming or becoming stronger with

without the United States being a part of them. Yeah, I mean, I think we're really seeing that in real time. And in regards to this Vietnam deal, what's really interesting about it is a couple of things. First of all, you know, Vietnam and their trading deal is really upsetting China because China is actually Vietnam's biggest partner in terms of, you know, sort of mercantile exchanges. And so they're saying, hey,

"Hey, if this deal hurts us, we're going to actually be tougher with you when you're trying to work out your deal with China." And so as these deals go on, it's a domino effect. People are looking to see what kind of deals are being cut, how is that going to affect them, and then that changes their own posture.

The idea that this is somehow going to be wrapped up in a matter of days, everyone that you hear from that is involved in this deal is in fact, when you hear from countries themselves and trade negotiators, they are confused by what the administration wants. They feel the process is chaotic. They feel like Trump says one thing and his trade representatives say another. And so there is a great deal of confusion still persisting on what exactly the objective is of these trade negotiations and what ultimately the president himself wants to see.

Yeah, especially since we keep being told he's just going to tell people what they will pay. We will be watching for all of that. Nice to see all of you this morning. Thanks for joining us in the group chat. Thanks to all of you at home for watching. I'm Erica Hill in for Adi Kordish. Stay tuned. CNN News Central starts right now.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. George Takei is a cultural force. Teachers and librarians are the pillars of democracy. They can teach that even great presidents can be stampeded by hysteria. I'm talking to George Takei about the cost of silence, the power of protest, and what his life says about democracy in a moment when it feels like it's under threat.

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.