Idaho Ambush!
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It is Monday, June 30th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. We do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional. Firefighters ambushed by a sniper while trying to put out a brush fire. This morning, the suspect is dead. Why officials believe he may have planned the attack. Plus this. That doesn't sound at all conservative to me, and that's why I'm a gnome.

The Senate gets ready to vote on the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, except there are still two holdouts. Can Republicans get to that magic number? And jury deliberations begin in the trial against Sean Combs. Have prosecutors done enough to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at the Capitol because senators are getting ready for a busy day. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And we begin with breaking news this morning. A wildfire call Sunday afternoon at a popular hiking trail in northern Idaho quickly turned into an active shooter situation.

We need law enforcement to get up here. We could possibly get two, the two wounded out. I'm 10 down behind Battalion 1's rig. It's clear to me that this fighter was sent intentionally to draw us in.

You can hear those desperate calls from first responders who were met with gunfire. Two firefighters were killed, another was wounded. It happened in Coeur d'Alene. That's just about 30 minutes from Spokane, Washington. After an hours-long manhunt, SWAT teams eventually found the suspect dead with a gun nearby. Based on the preliminary information, we believe that is the only shooter that was on that mountain at that time.

So there is no threat to the community at this time. So the local sheriff says the shelter-in-place order, it's now lifted. Firefighters are still working to get the wildfire itself under control. Joining me now to talk about this is Sean Turner. He's a former communications director at U.S. National Intelligence. Sean, thanks for being here.

Good morning, audience. Good to be with you. So this is probably going to be a complex situation, right? I mean, there's an active wildfire going on while you're trying to investigate. Can you talk about some of the factors at play here? Yeah, first of all, I think it's really great that law enforcement was able to bring this situation to a close so rapidly. But now, as you indicated, this turns to the investigation. And I really think they'll be looking at this on two different levels.

First of all, you know, they'll look at this individual right now behind the scenes. There's a lot of work going on to really understand who this individual is and what motivated them to carry out this attack. Those two levels will be first looking at whether or not there was some sort of

some sort of strife, conflict between local law enforcement and this individual that had a history that may have caused this individual to act out in such a horrific way. So that'll be the first thing to look at. But then they'll take a step back and open the aperture a little bit.

little bit and look at whether or not this individual is someone who had a broader sort of anti-law enforcement or anti-government worldview and that that may have driven him to launch what really looks like it's at this point looks like a fairly complex attack where he intended to harm more people than he did.

I also want to play for you something the sheriff was talking about the conditions for those first responders, right? What they were dealing with as they realized what was happening. Here's that. When you have an environment where you don't know where the bullets are coming from because of the trees and the shrubbery and what have you, it's...

It is daunting for police officers, let alone firefighters who are there just to put out the fire. Sean, we also heard that audio of firefighters earlier who sounded like they were pinned down or something. Can you talk about how complex this was, given, as you said, they were able to kind of end that standoff?

Yeah, you know, as I was listening to that, you know, I spent a long time, spent 21 years in the Marine Corps, and I listened to that, and I could hear in their voices the kind of tension that I would hear under very stressful situations in the military.

I mean, look, as he said, they had no idea where the bullets were coming from, how many shooters they were. They knew that this was a sniper. And on top of that, you create the complexity of having someone who it appears set this fire in order to have some cover as they were firing against these firefighters.

So in this situation, you really do have to work very hard to stay calm and to try to understand the environment, to set up a perimeter, to contain this individual, but at the same time, not knowing the direction the bullets are coming from, not knowing how many shooters are, creates an extremely complex situation that I will tell you that based on everything I've seen, these law enforcement officers were able to deal with fairly well under very stressful situations.

Yeah, and just to update people, that manhunt is over. Shelter in place is lifted. We're probably moving now into the investigative part of this. And Sean Turner, you've given us a lot to think about. Thank you. Thanks, Audie. Good to be with you.

Coming up on CNN this morning, how far do the U.S. really set back Iran's nuclear program? A new report shows maybe not as far as the White House had hoped. Plus, saving TikTok? There could be a buyer for the threatened app. And a late night for lawmakers as they debate the president's agenda bill. Will the GOP have enough votes?

I want to the people of North Carolina to withhold my affirmative vote until it's demonstrated to me that we've done our homework.

I'm CNN's Francesca Street, and this is the podcast Chance Encounters. Imagine you're standing in front of the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, and you're about to toss three coins into the fountain and make a wish. Two, three. All of a sudden I heard this voice just saying, you know, if you want the wish to come true, you must throw with the left hand because it's closer to your heart.

We're chronicling the summer loves that turned out to be more than just a vacation romance. All roads lead to Rome with Catherine Tondelli, who just threw three coins into the Trevi Fountain and made a wish. Follow CNN's Chance Encounters wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, while some of you were sleeping, the Senate was debating President Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. Everyone agrees it's big, the beautiful part, not so much. The Senate is in recess for a few hours, but this morning they will transition to the voterama stage of the process. That's when senators are allowed to offer changes or amendments, and the goal is to get it all done before a vote on final passage. Then the measure goes back to the House.

The president's bill made it this far in the Senate despite no votes from two Republicans, Senators Rand Paul and Tom Tillis. Even using the formulas that the supporters of the bill like, the deficit will grow by $270 billion next year. That's just not good if you profess to be fiscally conservative. Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise.

So after refusing to support the bill, Tillis actually said that he wouldn't be running again. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Trump's tax and spending law would add nearly $3.3 trillion to the deficit. That would be over the next 10 years.

Joining me now in the group chat, Stephen Collinson, CNN politics senior reporter, Zolong Kano-Young's White House correspondent for The New York Times, and Noel King, co-host and editorial director of Today Explained podcast. Thank you so much for being here, guys. Good morning. Okay, I'm going to go to you first, Stephen, because you write that Trump's bill blends tax cuts and reductions in social safety net spending. And you talk about it having...

far-reaching implications for his legacy and also the party, which is the point, no? I mean, this is their attempt to rewrite things after the Biden era. Yeah, and this is one of those really strange Washington moments when you have a bill which is massively unpopular with the public, yet everyone who is on the Republican side is desperate to pass it because it's key to the prestige of the president.

Republicans were elected to come to Washington to, as you say, reverse the Biden era.

They're under pressure from their own constituents to do that, so they're doing it. And this is all playing into this political momentum we've seen from the present in recent days following the Iran war, other power plays, and it's part of his attempt to codify, if you like, MAGA thinking, not just through executive action, which he's been doing a lot, but into law. So it's going to have massive reverberations for the present,

And who knows how this is going to play out given its unpopularity in the midterm elections next year. Yeah, in terms of popularity, in a minute I'm going to play some clips from actual people. But let's talk about Josh Hawley of Missouri because while we heard Tellis and Rand Paul talking about costs, Hawley has been leading the charge around the issue of Medicaid cuts, which has really signaled a kind of shift in the conversation. Let's see if we have him from Saturday. We can't be cutting...

healthcare for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities. If we're gonna be a working class party, we've gotta protect working people. And I guess the Medicaid stuff here I think is bad. And I think we've delayed the worst of it.

-I thought this was pretty fascinating and a rare sort of moment of candor here. It provides a glimpse into how at least some Republicans are seeing this debate as a moment to also wrestle with the party's identity moving forward. You add after the last election, Republicans at least claim

that they were going to move forward with policies that benefit the working class. Here, Hawley says, look, if we're pursuing a bill that has substantial cuts to Medicaid, as a CBO score indicated it would this weekend, in order to essentially give tax credits to corporations, that undermines that claim that you're actually a party for the working class here.

Also, just we haven't even seen this bill pass yet. And already moments like this are providing fodder for the midterms. I saw definitely prominent Democrats, former Biden administration officials reposting those comments from Hawley, basically saying this is going to make it into Democratic ads come from midterms. Yeah, the party seems torn between people who realize who voted for Donald Trump. Right. A lot of people who voted for Donald Trump are Republican.

working-class people who do not make enough money and therefore they're reliant on Medicaid. I think Hawley's been a realist about this in a way that some other Republicans

don't seem to be acknowledging our constituency has changed and therefore perhaps the way we vote has changed. I think many Americans who voted for Donald Trump did not vote for increased debt and they did not vote to have their healthcare taken away or cut. It's gonna be a problem. - I wanna play for you just a little bit of sound of some people who live with these programs or dealing with these programs and how they're seeing what these changes could bring.

If any changes are made, there will be this trickle-down effect that will impact families like mine. It's not a luxury. This is not a luxury thing. Like, I am not, I do not have my daughter enrolled on Medicaid so that we can have fancy things. I have my daughter enrolled in Medicaid so that we can keep her alive.

Stephen, I'm going to end with you. Fundamental shift I see is the idea that Medicaid, this health care for poor people and children, et cetera, is somehow an entitlement that people who don't want to work are using. That kind of for a long time was the conservative idea.

sort of idea that like you don't have to worry about those folks because they should be working. That's true and of course the president pledged not to touch programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security during his campaign. That is a very valuable reminder that you know we're not just talking about the midterms here, we're talking about people's lives

And I think this bill shows the power of populism in the Republican Party, but also its limits. A lot of things that Trump's put in there, like no tax on tips, they are part of this transformation he's wrought, as you were saying, towards the working class in the party. But massive tax cuts, trying to cut down on social programs, that's the classic conservative fiscal Republican argument that's still quite strong in the party. And it's interesting that Hawley, for example, is making his political bet

on his political future on the populism side. Very much so. I'm sure we're going to be talking about that more. Group chat, stay with us. We've got a lot to talk about today. Head on CNN this morning. Let Bibi go. President Trump is sticking up for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Why Trump is calling the prime minister's corruption trial a witch hunt. And Houston, we have a problem. What got Beyonce stuck in midair at her hometown concert?

Okay, it's now 22 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. United Nations chief nuclear watchdog says that Iran could restart uranium enrichment in a matter of months. And that contradicts President Trump's claims of setting Iran's nuclear program back decades. Iran's ambassador to the UN says the country's uranium enrichment will quote, never stop. And the president teasing a potential buyer for TikTok, the announcement could come very soon.

Remember, Trump signed three executive orders to delay the TikTok ban in the U.S. The new deadline for the app's parent company to hand over control of TikTok's U.S. operations is now September 17th.

And the show must go on. A scary moment for Queen B in Houston over the weekend. A technical mishap led to Beyonce's flying car prop to tilt during her Cowboy Carter tour. She didn't miss a beat, of course. She was lowered down and then finished the show.

And after the break on CNN this morning, Republican Senator Tom Tillis stands up to his own party and now he's feeling the consequences. Plus, firefighters ambushed as the investigation begins the questions officials hope to answer soon. And good morning to Baltimore. You've got a beautiful sunrise over the city.

Psst, your payments are showing. But with Apple Cash, your payments are private by design. There are no public feeds, awkward reactions, or unnecessary payment drama. Apple Cash lets you send cash and messages right in the conversations you're already having. Or, with Tap to Cash, pay someone next to you without looking up a username or scanning a QR code. Just hold your iPhone near someone else's to send. Switch to Apple Cash and start sending privately. Apple Cash services are provided by Green Dot Bank member FDIC.

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 morning, everyone. I'm Adi Cornish, and thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's about half past the hour here on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.

So the Senate will begin a marathon voting session on the president's big, beautiful bill in just a few hours during the so-called "voterama." Senators will be able to offer up as many amendments as they want before the final vote. If it passes, then it will need to go back to the House before heading to President Trump's desk.

Today, jurors will begin deliberations in the case against Sean Combs. After seven weeks of intense testimony, Diddy is charged with racketeering, conspiracy and sex trafficking. If convicted, on all counts, he could face up to life in prison.

And two firefighters are dead, another in the hospital after an apparent ambush in Idaho. Investigators say a man started a brush fire and then began shooting at responding officers. The suspect was found dead more than five hours later. And it all began when the sheriff's office received a call about a brush fire on Canfield Mountain. They now believe that the suspect set the fire on purpose to lure fire crews there.

We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush, and it was intentional. And yeah, we do believe that he started it, and it was totally intentional what he did.

Investigators say the fire, which is now contained, still burning, was approaching the suspect's body when they found him dead. They were then forced to move the body. They believe he acted alone. Joining me now to discuss former FBI Special Agent Ken Gray. Ken, thanks for being with us this morning. And I want to start with the sheriff saying that they believe he was a lone gunman. Investigators are now going to be looking into his background. What do you think they'll be looking for?

Good morning, Aldi. Glad to be with you. So the tactical aspect of this case is over. Now they are moving over into the investigation phase and evidence collection phase. And when they are looking to see who he is, what he's about, to try to build a complete picture of who the shooter was. We mentioned earlier that they had to remove the suspect's body. I want you to take a listen to a little bit more from the sheriff on that.

We scooped up that body and as far as the preservation of the scene, you know, it's not perfect in this particular situation, but it's something that had to be done. So you have to evaluate each particular circumstance and at this time we felt like since the fire was approaching, we needed to scoop up that body. Should there be any concerns about that? You could hear the sheriff sounding and kind of explaining, look, this is why we had to do it.

Well, extraordinary situations require extraordinary means and if the body had been left in place and the fire had moved to the totally moved into that area, any evidence that was there would have been burned up. So moving the body was a good move in this case.

Additionally, since the shooter is dead, there's not going to be a prosecution of the shooter. And so preservation of evidence is very important, but it is not the most important thing in this case. I think probably the right move at this point. But nonetheless, were this to go to trial, that would be an issue. All right, Ken Gray, thank you so much for speaking with us. Thank you.

I want to turn back now to the president's spending bill because there's yet another issue holding it up. Over the weekend, Senate Republicans added a provision that would place a new tax on wind and solar farms. It also scales back federal support for renewable energy projects. It's a move drawing fresh criticism from former first buddy and Trump senior advisor Elon Musk.

So in a post on X, Musk called the bill utterly insane and destructive, saying it gives handouts to industries of the past. The back and forth isn't exactly new, because if you remember when both Trump and Musk were going at it over just a few weeks ago. - Look, Elon and I had a great relationship.

I don't know if we will anymore. I was surprised because you were here. Everybody in this room practically was here as we had a wonderful send off. He said wonderful things about me. You couldn't have nicer.

And the group chat is back. The reason why I was playing that tape is because back then, Trump sort of implied that Musk was maybe mad that his industries weren't benefiting. And then we see this comment referring to industries of the past. Can you talk about who else might be upset at this? What other lawmakers might see this as a problem? Yeah.

I remember writing shortly after Trump came into office, there was a group of House Republicans that sent a letter to the incoming Trump administration. It was basically like, look, we heard what you said about these tax credits that would basically support clean energy. And we heard you say that you're going to unwind them wholesale, right?

But there were some Republicans that were like, this isn't just about the climate and the environment. This is about manufacturing jobs. And now we got to go back to our voters and talk about why this company that previously was going to invest in our county might not because there's this uncertainty around these tax credits. Right. So it wasn't really just about the environment for some Republicans. You're seeing them also now nervous about having to go back and explain why this money, these jobs might not.

be there at this point. - Yeah, it was interesting. I was looking at a map where there were schools that were doing solar installations. And it's not just like an East Coast thing in California or something like that. I mean, you look at these states where schools had been in the midst of doing these projects or planning to. Noelle, what do you see in this attempt? - This is a very weird economic move, right? Elon Musk, say what you will about him, he really does care about the future of energy and the future in many ways, right?

And he's making a really fair point. This bill appears to be prizing old forms of energy over this new green revolution, which everybody exists, whether they want it or not. Clean energy is a big business. And it was interesting to read in The Times this morning the president of the Chamber of Commerce coming out and saying, look, taxing energy is just

it's not something we should be doing. But I remember when Trump was in the White House with like coal workers behind him. Yeah, I mean, is this another kind of like your base, who you're catering to versus where you put your money? Well, I also remember Trump's campaign speeches when he meanders into this routine about how windmills are killing birds and everything else. It's a weave, it's a weave. Yeah, okay. So, but...

I think you're right that this is ideological rather than economic. The problem with it is, whatever you think about climate change,

whether humanity is contributing to it, the green energy revolution is taking place in terms of industry. And this is going to really set back the U.S. against competitors in Europe and especially China. There's one, I think, provision of this amendment which says that taxes will rise on green energy products

unless they get rid of all the components that are made in China. I mean, if you introduce that across the economy, that would be absurd. So I think this shows how it's discriminating here against this particular industry. And we talk about squaring with the base, too, just again. Most of the funding from these tax credits went to red states.

Right? So there's kind of the squaring it with the base on the ideological sense. But when it comes to the money and the jobs, a lot of this was actually benefiting his supporters. And then so we'll be keeping an eye on certain lawmakers, too, who care a lot about energy. Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Jerry Moran of Kansas, and others. You guys, thanks for talking about this. We've got a lot more to get to in this half hour. I want to shift gears to the corruption trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Turns out he is a pretty influential supporter in President Trump.

A hearing in this long-running case against Netanyahu was scheduled for this week. It was delayed again shortly after Trump took to Truth Social, calling for Israeli prosecutors to let Bibi go. And it's all raising questions about whether political pressure, both foreign and domestic, could be at play in Israel's judicial process. Mr. Netanyahu has long wanted to fight Iran because

That way he can stay in office forever and ever. He's been there most of the last 20 years. But I think we should be trying to defuse it.

And following Israel's strikes in Iran, Netanyahu is said to be focusing his efforts on the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. So how much of the prime minister's focus is on governing versus surviving both legally and politically? Joining us now for more on this is former Israeli deputy national security advisor Chuck Freilich. Chuck, welcome to the program. Thank you.

First, I want to go back to something, which is that we heard from the IAEA chief over the weekend, because there's been some back and forth over whether Israel and U.S. accomplished their objectives with those recent military strikes. I want you to take a listen. Ah, no worries. So we don't have that, but there's this debate we've been having in the U.S. about how much damage there was. How is this actually playing out in Israel? Do people see this as a 12-day war, or do they see it as more to accomplish?

Well, this isn't the end of the story, that's clear. The Iranian nuclear program has not been completely destroyed. But I do think, based on the information that I have, that a great deal was accomplished. The three primary nuclear sites that the U.S. attacked were either fully put out of operation, at least two of them, and the third one in

So I think this was quite successful. And of course, Israel hit these and other targets as well. The only or the critical question now is whether Iran has secret enrichment and conversion facilities to convert the uranium gas back into a hard metal to make the actual bomb core.

Now, is it possible that they do? Yes. No one knows for sure. But I think what we saw in this war was that Iran is so deeply penetrated by both American and Israeli intelligence that the likelihood is quite low. And if that's the case, then we've probably gained not a knockout blow, but a few-year postponement.

Has the success of this military mission made Netanyahu untouchable in a way? We hear that this hearing for this corruption trial has been delayed. You have Trump weighing in. We know he's very popular in Israel. Can you talk about how the dynamic may or may not have changed for Netanyahu? Well, there's no doubt that this strengthened his position politically. This is something that he has really made his life work for the last 20 or more years.

And he correctly deserves credit in the same way that I, for example, and others demanded that he be held to account for the catastrophic failure of October 7th. He deserves credit for a very successful operation here.

The electoral question is how many votes will be shifted from the pro-Netanyahu camp, the coalition, and how many will come from the center and from those people in the right wing part of the coalition.

I think what we've seen from the polls already is that from within the right wing, there is a clear movement towards him. But the number of votes that will swing from the center, which is what he needs to really be able to come back, so far at least, the number is very small.

We've heard from some people that there's the potential for him to call, let's say, a snap election. Earlier we played that clip of Bill Clinton basically saying that Netanyahu wants to be in power for as long as possible. Are any of those things looking more and more plausible in the next few months?

Well, he may decide to call snap elections if the polls show that it's to his advantage. Otherwise, he still has the elections must be held by November 2026. And of course, he can move them up if he thinks it's to his advantage. I think we have to differentiate here between two very important things. One is there is no doubt that Netanyahu wants to stay in power forever. He is a...

He wants to be reelected, and he particularly wants to be reelected because he believes that he can use the office of prime minister to potentially derail the trial completely and at least get a plea bargain or something like that out of it.

But at the same time, there is a second truth, a strategic truth, which was that Iran was very close to the ability to break out to a bomb. There's intelligence that's been gathered in the last few months showing that they renewed the capability to break out rapidly. They were also trying to ramp up from something like 2,500 people

ballistic missiles today to close to 9,000 within a period of two to three years. So Israel had overwhelming reasons for wanting to do this now. That's Chuck Freilich, former Israeli deputy national security advisor. Thank you for being with us. Thank you.

Straight ahead on CNN this morning, they've heard from nearly three dozen witnesses. Now the jury's about to begin deliberating the fate of Sean Diddy Combs, plus alligator Alcatraz, why so many people are protesting plans to build an immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades. We'll have more from the group chat after this. Mark, how do you feel? Let's go, let's go.

Sean Diddy, Combs' attorney, ready to go. We are now just hours away from deliberations in the trial of the rat mogul. After hearing from 34 witnesses over a span of six weeks, it will now be up to the jury to decide Combs' fate. On Friday, the jury heard from the defense one final time in a four-hour closing argument that was at times almost mocking the evidence against their client, arguing, quote, boxes of astroglide.

taken off the streets move I feel better already lead defense attorney mark Agafia said adding that the streets in america are safe from the Astro glide prosecutors however got the last word with the final rebuttal to lay out their sprawling Rico case and they ended with this quote the defendant is not a God he's a person and in this courtroom he stands equal before the law overwhelming evidence proves his guilt it's time to hold him accountable

and find him guilty. So joining us now to discuss Elise Adamson, former federal prosecutor. Elise, welcome back after many weeks of talking about this. First, can we go back to the mocking and the sarcasm? I have to assume they felt that after watching the jury for all this weeks, something like that would fly.

Can you talk about the thinking there? Yeah, no, I agree with you. You have to read your jury and Mark Niffalo is a very experienced attorney, so he knew what he was doing. I think what he was trying to do there was just inject this feeling of unseriousness, like what are

are we doing here? What are we talking about sex trafficking or RICO? Your evidence is astroglide. It's trying to undermine all of the government's case. Just like the idea that this is some serious racketeering conspiracy. I think it might back

fire, Adi, because this is also a case about sexual violence. And even if the jury might have agreed with some of the defense points, there's no question that Cassie Ventura and Jane were victimized here. So I understand what he was doing. Not sure how it landed.

Meanwhile, the prosecution in a way has leaned into seriousness, right? They've taken away the charges that were just attempted arson or attempted kidnapping. What have they done instead? That's right. And I think that is so key to understand. There was a lot of reporting last week that the government had dropped charges. They didn't. In a RICO conspiracy, the jury must find two predicate racketeering acts. That just means the jury needs to find that Sean Combs and his enterprise committed two underlying crimes.

The government had charged a ton of crimes here. I think 10, call those completed substantive crimes, but it also charged their attempted version, which is the lesser included offenses. So kidnapping, for instance, they charged kidnapping. Remember Capricorn Clark taken from her apartment at gunpoint? They also charged attempted kidnapping. So what the government decided to do was take the attempted gunfight

crimes off the table because it's kind of confusing to explain to a jury. - To the juror, yeah. - Like they kidnapped but they also attempted to kidnap so they wanted to streamline it and so it would make it easier for the jury to deliberate on the important stuff which is those completed offenses that the government believes that they proved. - So that leads me to the judicial instructions. People may recall from their TV watching that this is when the judge turns and says here's what you've gotta think about

How critical is that and are you expecting anything in particular from this judge? - So the jury instructions are so key. They are a very critical part of a trial and they're a part of a trial that doesn't get as much airtime, right? It's not as sexy as like the big opening statements, but it's important because what the judge is going to do today is explain to the jury what the law is, what is the legal standard,

What are the charges that have been brought in this case? Obviously, the defense and the prosecution have framed that up, but only the judge can actually tell the jury. And finally, what the government must have established beyond a reasonable doubt to find Combs guilty. And if you remember, there was an hours-long charging conference last Wednesday. That's when both sides were hashing out what the judge was going to tell the jury the law was. Legal interpretations change. That's why we have case law.

and how the law is interpreted could be more favorable to one side or the other. So both sides wanted to convince the judge, no, no, no, you got to see it my way. So coercion, for instance, that's going to be very important for the judge to explain. And then sex trafficking, what the judge is going to instruct the jury is that they don't even need to have completed it. It's just that

Combs was intending to traffic Cassie and that is very key when it comes to that 2016 incident that we caught on video at the Intercontinental Hotel. And when the judge explains that to the jury, they might be more inclined to convict on those facts, understanding that it didn't have to be completed. - This is a lot resting on this jury. - A ton, a ton.

There's so much evidence, seven weeks, and there are questions. And so it is very hard to read the tea leaves. I know everybody wants predictions, but it's very difficult to do that. I don't try and predict with a jury. No, never. Not on a case like this. Elise Adamson, former federal prosecutor. She's hosted the At Least You Heard It podcast. Check that out.

Okay, it is now 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Canada is now backing down on its threat to tax digital services in the U.S., like online companies. This comes after President Trump threatened to cancel trade talks with our neighbor to the north, calling the tax...

Egregious. Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have agreed to resume negotiations with hopes of signing a deal by July 21st. And today, several witnesses in the Brian Koberger murder trial will appear for a hearing. A Pennsylvania judge is set to decide whether their testimony stands up and if they should be compelled to travel to Idaho for the trial starting in August.

It's unclear how they fit into the case. Koberger is accused of fatally stabbing four Idaho students last year. And the immigration detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" set to open tomorrow. Over the weekend, protesters lined up near the construction site, arguing the facility is a threat to the endangered species in Everglades National Park. President Trump is actually expected at the opening.

And Senator Tom Tillis took a stand and then took his medicine. The North Carolina Republican announcing he will not seek re-election next year, one day after publicly declaring his opposition to President Trump's sweeping agenda bill. It is inescapable that this bill in its current form will betray the very promise that Donald J. Trump made in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room when I was there with Finance where he said

We can go after waste, fraud and abuse on any programs. Senator Tillis says he is very concerned about the bill's cuts to Medicaid and the impact that will have on his constituents. President Trump calling Tillis' decision not to seek reelection "great news." The group chat is back. I believe the president has also talked about people going against this bill as a betrayal, which is pretty strong language.

But I was just talking to Senator Lisa Murkowski last week. She's a Republican from Alaska. And I asked her what it means to go against the president in these moments. Maybe there are people who are willing to be that voice in the middle, even if it means that, you know, you're roadkill in the middle. That's what happens when you stand in the middle of the road.

It felt like Tillis was playing that out a bit. He is in a position that feels absolutely deranged to me, where he really does seem to be concerned about what Medicaid cuts are going to do for the people who voted for him and for Donald Trump. And I think he's not seeing a way around that. There is no fix here other than to vote no and, as you said, take his medicine.

and hit the exits, which I kind of over the years, probably the last decade, we've seen this purge of people who it's not even the middle anymore. It's just if you can't

handle the heat of Trump. - Or if you show any hint of dissent against Trump, then there might not be room for you in this current version of the Republican Party. You have to fall in line here. And here you see a senator saying that he's pretty much had enough of that and that it won't be a means to any kind of bipartisan work. - I think Tillis responded, "Thanks for the retirement wishes, Mr. President. Looking forward to working with you on a successful 2026."

And I thought that was interesting, him just kind of like giving up the ghost. Someone said that his tie was a Yolo Bolo. I can't unhear that.

You know, this feels like it was a slow boil and suddenly the lid has just blown off. There's been some occasions where Tillis has been prepared to criticize the president and he's fallen back in line. He's not one of those sort of Liz Cheney Republicans who went and sought confrontation with the president. Or even a Murkowski who people are always like, are you going to vote for this? Are you going to vote for this? And she has her own particular political constituency in Alaska, which is quite unique to her.

I think the question here is going to be interesting, is what this means for the midterms and that seat. Yeah, so we should say there's a lot of people already lined up, potential candidates for that seat, including Pat Harrigan, who I believe might be a Navy SEAL, he's a Republican, and then also former Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat. Yeah, and potentially even Lara Trump.

The president's daughter-in-law might be in the frame for that one. We just came off a governor's race where the Republicans chose Lieutenant Governor Robinson, who was a very Trumpy, quite problematic candidate, and they lost that race. The question is, does Tillerson's movement here, does that reflect the critical block of thinking in North Carolina that could really reshape this Senate race?

or is it just a personal thing? But it's going to be very close. I think the Democrats especially think if they can get Roy Cooper, who has a history of winning Republican independent votes there, to run, they'll think this is a, you know, in a very difficult year, this actually might be a win or lose. North Carolina is always an interesting state to watch in these elections. Because it's Monday and because it's the summer, this is usually where some news editor says, like,

ah, it'll be a slow week. So that's cursing the week for the rest of us because then there's a lot of news. So I want to ask you guys what you are looking ahead to in our last few minutes. Noelle, let's start with you. What are you keeping an eye on? I mean, it was a last week story, but it's also a this week story. Zoran Mamdani winning in New York and what that means for the Democrats. This guy is everywhere and he is charismatic on camera. He is. I have to show the New York Post on this. The New

melting down. Zoran's so far away.

So I'm going to keep my eyes fixed on him for a couple more days, through this week, I think. Yeah. Okay. We published an investigation today that's a follow-up on this investigative series we've been doing on the Trump administration's embrace of President Bukele and El Salvador. What we found is that in order for Trump to deport those around 200 Venezuelans to a terrorism prison in El Salvador, that the Trump administration had to throw in a sweetness.

And that's actually agreeing to hand over high-ranking MS-13 gang members that were already in U.S. custody, already had been investigated to Bukele. Both administrations say these people will face justice. However, investigators have told us, hey, this actually undermines U.S. law enforcement efforts and kind of cracks through. We went through the whole process with them. Right. We went through this process. It kind of cracks through this image of a law and order president looking to see the fallout of that.

relationship. Stephen, last minute to you. I'm looking to see what more seeps out about these attacks on Iran, whether there is an honest assessment inside the administration of the intelligence. We're seeing outside indications, perhaps in the IAEA and some other indicators that perhaps they weren't as successful as the president said. Is the administration now going to make policy based on what actually they find out what happens?

Or is this going to be skewed because the president has so much invested in them being a massive success and the nuclear program being obliterated? Yeah, it's funny. I'm going to be watching both Trump and Netanyahu and the supreme leader of this triptych. Who comes out? What do they say? I think there's more conversation there. Thank you to the group chat. We talked about a lot today. Appreciate you guys. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now.

This week on The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish. Consensus should not be a dirty word in the political process. Could a leader like Lisa Murkowski still rise to power in today's GOP? We won't survive as a bitterly divided nation. We can't eat ourselves up with our own internal divisions. And that's where we're headed right now. What did she learn from her comeback story that has helped her thrive in the Trump era?

And what's it like to be in the dwindling number of independent-leaning lawmakers when threats, both political and physical, are commonplace? Listen to The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.