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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Police: Man Detained After Car Plows Into Crowd Into UK; Putin Defies Trump With Largest-Ever Strikes On Ukraine; Trump Delays Tariffs On European Union To July 9; Rahm Emanuel: Dem Brand Is "Weak", "Woke" & "Toxic". Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 26, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: No one is sure why or when this tradition started, but it is truly amazing. And it is gaining more attention every year. Competitors now come as far aways as Australia and the United States.

And you see, they warn people this is dangerous activity. It's a steep hill and it's a -- it's a frisky piece of cheese.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: I suppose having, you know, free health care is helpful in an instance like this. All of this for a wheel -- I like cheese, I don't know, cheese is pretty good.

SANCHEZ: Big cheese guy. I don't know, I don't know. That's -- yeah.

KEILAR: There it is.

SANCHEZ: We're being told to wrap. Thanks so much for joining us today.

KEILAR: "THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT."

SANCHEZ: "THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Breaking news right now in THE ARENA. Kasie Hunt is off. I'm Manu Raju.

Right now, we're following new developments in what is being called an appalling scene in the U.K. Police say a car has plowed into a crowd of people during a parade for Liverpool's football club.

Let's get right to CNN's Max Foster. He's live in London.

Max, what are you learning?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's clearly serious. This scene earlier would have been packed with hundreds of thousands of people, Manu.

This was Liverpool, one of the main clubs in the U.K. celebrating the cup win. It was a day of celebration towards the end of the day, a car collided with people. We don't know why that was, but so many people asking how on earth a car managed to get into a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people.

Now, the area has been cleared and it's full of emergency services. Just to express how seriously this is being taken. The prime minister put out a statement very quickly, saying he's being kept abreast of this on a public holiday. So, he's very involved.

We've heard from Liverpool football club saying they're liaising with the police in quite a, you know, a sign of the solidarity in how the country is feeling right now. Everton football club, which is the other main club in Liverpool, a major rival, has also come down, talked about expressing their sympathies as well for the club and what happened in Liverpool today.

So, a day of celebration gone horribly wrong. We just don't know how. Have any facts?

One interesting thing though, Manu, that we've heard from the police, is that a 53-year-old white British male has been arrested, so we know that they've taken someone in of interest. What's quite extraordinary about that statement is that they would never normally give the ethnicity or nationality so early on in the process, but they've been very clear that they don't want speculation online about what happened here. And there's been a huge amount of it, which obviously were not going to mention, but they're trying to manage the speculation here.

But, you know, its also been criticized because you can also read motives into that statement as well.

RAJU: But we don't know, Max. We don't know anything about the motive of the he suspect here. Do we?

FOSTER: No. So initially they said a road traffic incident, notably not an accident. In the UK, they are very clear to just stick to core information, but they've given us more than they normally would because they're so concerned about all the speculation. They are not saying what it was.

So, all options I think we can read being on the table right now. There were a huge amount of witnesses you can imagine, you know, literally thousands of them. So, they've got a lot of information and there's a lot of video circulating as well.

RAJU: All right. Max Foster live for us in London. Keep us posted as we learn more about this very tragic and troubling development. Thank you for that report.

And also today, as we come on air this Memorial Day, President Trump spending the public part of his day at Arlington National Cemetery on a day to honor those who have fallen in service to our nation.

But today, there is new evidence that piece and one of the world's biggest wars, a war he promised to end within 24 hours. Well, that looks even further away. Russia again launching new strikes across Ukraine for what's now the third day in a row from around the capital, Kyiv, to areas near the Black Sea. Ukrainians are right now searching for survivors after days of relentless targeting by Russian forces.

Those deadly attacks now prompting rare public backlash from President Trump against Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. I've always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. Okay?

We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: About two hours after those comments, Trump posted on social media that Putin has, quote, gone absolutely crazy with the word crazy in all caps. The Kremlin, though, brushing it all off, saying those remarks are the result of, quote, emotional overload. But what a difference a week makes.

Just one week ago today, President Trump and Putin had just finished a two hour phone call. Afterward, President Trump said the call went, quote, very well, adding Russia and Ukraine would immediately start talks towards a ceasefire.

[16:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I said, when are we going to end this, Vladimir? I know him for a long time now. I said, when are we going to end this bloodshed, this, this bloodbath? It's a bloodbath. And I do believe he wants to end it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: If Putin does want his war to end, as the president suggests, well, he's not showing it.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also not immune from criticism from President Trump. In that same post where he called Putin crazy, Trump wrote, quote, everything out of his mouth causes problems, referring to Zelenskyy. And over the weekend, Zelenskyy said America's silence only encourages continued attacks by Russia.

But the notion of Putin not being interested in the ceasefire is something Zelenskyy brought up in that now infamous Oval Office meeting, reminding Vice President J.D. Vance about a 2019 ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. That was over very shortly after it started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: He broken the ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy, J.D. you are speaking about? What do you mean?

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: My excellent panel is here, along with CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. She's live on the north lawn.

So, Kristen, how else did President Trump spend this Memorial Day?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, I do want to just quickly note one thing about this conversation that we're having about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, because this is the first time we've seen an escalation in the attacks since the two had that phone call that you mentioned after Donald Trump got out there saying he believes that Vladimir Putin still wants peace. So, he came out there saying that these talks were going to start almost immediately. And instead, what we saw was another escalation in attacks, which gives you some idea into the frustration behind Donald Trump's remarks here and the really turn of tone.

Now, as for Donald Trump spending Memorial Day, he started it off with what we've kind of grown accustomed to these airing of grievances on any holiday. He posted this to his truth social on Memorial Day. He said: Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds.

Obviously, you can see that the post goes on and on. He lashes out at federal judges. He talks about immigration and again singles out his perceived political enemies. After that, he went to Arlington, where he delivered a mostly solemn speech. He singled out members of the military families who had lost someone. He singled out people who had died overseas, who had paid that ultimate sacrifice.

But he also still made some veiled political comments, in particular swipes at Biden at one point saying that he is fixing the republic after a long and hard four years, essentially saying who would let that happen? People pouring through borders unchecked. Obviously, they are referring to his predecessor, Biden. And now, for the rest of his day, he we expect him to be at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, playing golf before coming back here to the White House.

RAJU: All right. Kristen Holmes, live for us outside the White House, thank you.

And my excellent panel joins me now. CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg; host of "The Chuck Toddcast", Chuck Todd; CNN political commentator Ashley Allison and former White House official in the George W. Bush administration, Ashley Davis, and CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger.

Nice to see you all.

David, I'm going to start with you. You have new reporting today on this Trump, Putin, back and forth. The headline of your piece, Trump condemns Putin's killings in Ukraine but doesn't make him pay a price.

So, what are you hearing, David, from your sources, about whether Trump is actually going to go as far as slapping Russia with new sanctions?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Manu, first, just as you wind this back to last week, after that conversation with President Putin, he then -- President Trump then spoke to a number of European leaders. And what did he tell them? He said, look, I'm not going to join your sanctions.

I don't think they're in American interest, despite saying that the conversation was excellent, he told them in private you know, he's not really ready to end the war. He still thinks he's winning and so forth. And that's exactly how it's played out.

But the president has not yet connected the attacks of, say, this weekend with his announcement that he's not going to join the Europeans in putting any pressure on the Russians. So, this is, you know, sort of all jawboning about what a horror it is. And obviously it is a horror, but the U.S. has given up most of its few remaining ways of influencing Putin. Not that sanctions would be all that useful right now, given the degree to which Russia's already being sanctioned.

RAJU: Let's dissect this Trump post and his remarks about Putin, shall we?

[16:10:01]

You know, he says: Putin has gone absolutely crazy. Seems surprised. I mean, is Trump the last person here and in the United States or in much of the world that sees Putin as ruthless and relentless in trying to pursue his objectives?

CHUCK TODD, HOST, "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": I think that's the most generous way to put this is that he is now come to the conclusion that pretty much anybody in the mainstream foreign policy community, the mainstream left or mainstream right, had concluded for decades. I'd argue this is not just a new phenomenon, but again, he's only doing rhetoric.

I mean, without he's got to have Putin face consequences, and sanctions aren't consequences anymore, right? I think we know that, however, these sanctions, Putin sanctions have just not been the effective tool. Whether it's been you could argue it's been somewhat effective with Iran, but not great, certainly not been effective here.

What is effective arming Ukraine? What is effective? Getting Ukraine to be able to push Russia back. Thats what Putin listens to. He listens to strength, not words.

RAJU: But there's no indication that Trump was going to do what chuck is laying out there, giving Ukraine more money, more resources, which they're asking for right now.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I mean, look, I entirely agree. I mean, Putin's nature, it's Aesopian, right? The scorpion has to sting the frog. Bears have to use our national forests as toilets. Like, Putin is a murderous thug and a war criminal, and that's just who he is. And to pretend that you're surprised by it because he's defying you gets sort of some of Trump's narcissism and all of this.

Trump has not, you know, I think Trump has been morally irresponsible about Ukraine, but he has not stopped Europeans from sort of basically repurposing stuff they buy from us to give to Ukraine. That's one of the last cards.

What part of the problem is David brought up is that in the first hundred days between Pete Hegseth's statements, J.D. Vance's statements and Trump's statements, almost all of the negotiating cards that America had with Trump, Ukraine's entry into NATO, all sorts of things like that, boots on the ground, none of these things I think America should do, but they should at least threaten to do them. They took it off the table.

They took them off preemptively with no concessions in exchange. And so why Putin would take us seriously if it's just jawboning is a mystery to me.

RAJU: But that's the thing, right? Putin really has no incentive to cut a deal here because he sees U.S. support waning.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: Absolutely. And I was just sitting here thinking, there's absolutely no way Congress would ever give them more money. This -- the Ukraine war, right or wrong, you guys know I'm a Bush -- I mean, my old boss said he used to -- he would see Putin's soul when he looked into his eyes.

RAJU: George W. Bush.

DAVIS: Yeah, George W. Bush. So, I mean, listen, but this war is so unpopular with the American people, right or wrong, especially people that don't live in the -- you know, east and west coasts, that they don't want more money spent.

So, I think what I am watching, and I think with Congress being out this week, this coming week, is Lindsey Graham can't put his package forward, which are just the additional sanctions. But that's going to be a big just message that obviously Trump let that happen.

RAJU: And there are 80 co-sponsors on that bill.

DAVIS: And that will pass.

RAJU: The question though is if Trump wants that to pass. DAVIS: I think he -- but he did say last week and it was I can't control my Congress, if they want to do that, if we don't come to a good conversation, I will. Which means to me that Lindsey is sitting there ready to do it when he's told.

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Donald Trump has the ultimate control over the Republican House and Senate. I agree with you that a lot of Americans don't want more money to be sent to Ukraine. But I think what we should all look at on the global stage is what does it mean for other of our -- our allies and our enemies to see how we are handling this current conflict with Putin and Zelenskyy? And it is much more. It has a larger implication than just what happens to Ukraine. It is a global conversation that I think does really weaken our standing.

Again, you know, we're moving this out of politics for a second. I know it's hard to do that in this city. We need Donald Trump to be successful in this negotiation because we cannot afford as a country, as a globe for Putin to succeed. And his current approach, despite, to Chuck's point, everyone's advice, but his narcissism has let him be unable to really see who Putin is. And not just that, the way he actually treats our allies. It's one thing not to send money to Ukraine, but it's another thing to be completely disrespectful to their leader and undermine his leadership in those negotiations.

RAJU: David Sanger, I want to bring you back in this conversation as we talk about the resources and support or lack thereof, of support in this town, to providing more money to Ukraine at this key moment. This is what "The Washington Post" wrote about the weapons stockpiles that are dwindling as it right now, it appears.

[16:15:01]

The Trump administration appears loath to make big announcements on weapons deliveries to Kyiv, believing that could derail negotiations. They seem to think we have a huge announcement of giving Patriot missiles to Ukraine. Thats not something they want because it will make Putin very angry.

But is that a concern you're hearing from your sources that they simply don't have the defense mechanisms -- Ukraine doesn't -- to defeat or to try to push back, intercept these ballistic missiles that are being sent from Russia into Ukraine?

SANGER: Well, first of all, just on the practical element of this, we saw over the weekend, the Russians launched nine ballistic missiles and all of them got through. And that tells you that the Ukrainians are running low on the Patriot missiles. And it's not clear the Patriots can intercept all of these. So, that's just on the practical part of it.

Look, you can't have it both ways. You can't say it's going to anger him. If we give the Ukrainians defensive weapons. And of course, those air interceptors are all defense. They're not offense, and then also say, we've got to go put more pressure on him in some way to bring things around. I think the administration got off to the wrong foot, as you were just

discussing before, because they should have held out the possibility that they would continue to find ways to arm Ukraine one way or the other, whether the U.S. did it or Europe did it with us help. There were all kinds of creative ways. Instead, every signal the administration has sent since its first days in office was this is Europe's problem, not America's problem. And the old concept that if they took Ukraine, a NATO country could be next is not something they have discussed in public at least.

RAJU: All right. David Sanger, thank you for your expertise. Appreciate it as always.

The panel is going to stay with us. There's much more to discuss.

Up next, the quote very nice call that led to President Trump delaying a major tariff on the European Union.

And ahead, more news of a more from our breaking news out of the United Kingdom. A car ramming into a crowd of people in Liverpool.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:35]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And she asked for an extension on the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiations. July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. Could we move it from June 1st to July 9th? And I agreed to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. President Trump says he has agreed to delay his 50 percent tariff on European Union imports until July 9th. He said he had a, quote, very nice call with the European Commission president, which led to the date being pushed back. But here's what the president said. Well, just this past Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not looking for a deal. I mean, we've set the deal. It's at 50 percent. But again, there is no tariff if they build their plant here. Now, if somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: We've also learned that earlier today, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and the E.U. trade commissioner spoke about the deal by phone.

My panel is back with me.

So, what is the impact of these on again/off again tariff threats not moving forward and then moving forward and not moving forward? ALLISON: Well, insanity it feels like. But practically to the American

public, I think for people who support Donald Trump and don't and are willing I guess to endure some of that short term pain that they talked about after he was elected, it makes him feel like he's holding up his end of the bargain. So he's still giving some red meat to them.

But the Americans who don't want prices to go up, it may be delaying some of that. I will just say, though, the fear of increasing prices, this is Memorial Day weekend. I was reading something recently. Bathing suits, burgers. HVAC systems with air needing air conditioning.

All those prices are starting to slowly creep up. Even with this negotiation with the E.U. So, it gives a little red meat to his base. Like I'm the tough guy, but it also prevents some of this economic harm that people really want relief from. Because of his election.

RAJU: And Trump's been talking about what the United States should be producing or the amount of toys that kids should be buying, he said. Maybe two toys instead of 30 toys. But he also said this just yesterday about what the U.S. should be producing when it comes to attire and clothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to make -- do the A.I. thing with the computers and the -- many, many, many, many elements.

But the textile -- you know, I'm not looking to make T-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well at other locations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I'm not looking to make socks or textiles. I mean, Republicans are supposed to be the party of the free market. This is clearly not the party of the free market right now.

DAVIS: I mean, obviously, it's very unconventional what's happening. I'm not going to ever say it isn't. But, you know, for the last few presidents, we've been saying, and, you know, this we've been saying that we need to change our trade practices and we've never been able to -- I mean, maybe with Mexico and Canada, we got a little better deal with this latest package that was under his first term.

But I -- it brings people to the table. I mean, what Secretary Bessent has been saying from the beginning is that the E.U. is going to be the hardest trade deal to do, even harder than China, because you're obviously dealing with so many different things and so many different countries. And it brought her to the table today. So, we'll see.

[16:25:00]

TODD: But I'm sorry, you can't take -- the problem, you can't take President Trump at his word. DAVIS: No.

TODD: Nobody can take him at his word. Whether you're a partner trying -- a trade partner in Europe, if you're in in business, this is -- I mean, he continues to screw up the economy because all he's doing is making every business have to sit here and say, well, I don't know. So we're just going to pause.

You're going to do any investment? Nope. Not until we find out what the rules of the road are. Well, what are the rules of the road? Well, we'll delay it another month. You think July 9th is a hard deadline?

No. Of course it's not. Every deadline he says, you can't take him at his word at all on this. So, look, he's -- and he's not a very good negotiator. He keeps throwing away all his leverage.

We talked about it with Ukraine. He's done it with these trade deals. Everybody figured out. They watched what China did. China ate his lunch. And now every other trade partner is going, well, we know he can't handle the threat of higher prices.

And what it is, is he wants to do this. And then he sees the reality of the impact and he goes, oh, I can't do that. Those are my voters.

DAVIS: But what's the alternative? Are we just supposed to let everyone take advantage of us?

GOLDBERG: So I completely, all due respect, completely reject your premise. I think that tariffs and protectionism vis-a-vis China, the national security arguments, Trump the economic arguments, the idea that Canada or the E.U. was ripping us off, I just think is false, just flatly false.

And I think that Chuck got to the real issue here, which is that at the end of the day, Donald Trump does not believe in a lot of things. He believes he's awesome, and he believes that trade is -- that when we send money for goods, we're getting ripped off, right?

So that means every time I go to the barber, I have a trade deficit with my barber because I give him money, he gives me a haircut. Every time I buy a cup of coffee, I'm being ripped off. Even though I'm voluntarily giving money for a cup of coffee. He thinks at scale, that's the way international economics works.

And I just think that is a boneheaded, weird view of economics. And whenever he talks about it, what comes through isn't the politics. What comes through is he just really believes it. He thinks it's true. He really likes tariffs.

It feeds his sense of power and authority to do these things sort of unilaterally. And there is no persuasive by my lights economic argument for throwing tariffs. The only reason we have a trade deficit with Canada is because they sell U.S. oil below market prices. That's a great deal. And he wants to blow that up because he thinks trade is being ripped off. TODD: And if a Democratic president behave this way, there would be

bipartisan outrage. There would be all of this craziness. Theres not a single -- I don't want to say that there's about five Republicans that think what he's doing is a good idea.

DAVIS: I'm not sure about that but I do have --

TODD: There's 95 percent of Republicans.

DAVIS: -- do have to say, though -- here's what I think, though, whether you agree with it or not. We've had two years of him talking about this, and the American people, over 50 percent of this country elected him, and he's doing it. I mean, going back to your comment of --

TODD: They didn't elect him to raise the prices.

RAJU: But they may not --

DAVIS: Yeah.

TODD: They elected him to lower the prices.

DAVIS: Talk about tariffs.

ALLISON: Here's the thing I will --

DAVIS: Let's say if he lowers tariffs.

ALLISON: I actually think that there are -- to your first question, Manu, was there are so many. There are people who just will support Donald Trump blindly. And even if every economist, even when their prices go up.

And so, the conundrum that Democrats and we as people who just want to have a stable economy need to face is how do we actually engage with those people who are going to just support him blindly, or do we just say we need to find another coalition to actually be him, because we don't want people who are willing to walk off a cliff with him to tank this entire economy.

I have a prediction on how this story ends, that on July 9th, 2029, he'll still be negotiating these trade agreements.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLISON: And I was just trying to do the math.

TODD: 2029, okay, you have him getting another.

ALLISON: No, no, no, 2028, July 9th, 2028. He's still going to be negotiating these tariffs.

(CROSSTALK)

TODD: Put it in my calendar right now. All right. ALLISON: I retract the 2029. I stand on 2028.

TODD: There you go. CNN panelist says.

ALLISON: Got my numbers wrong.

RAJU: Meantime, you know, part of the thing that he's trying to argue is give this time to take effect because my economic policy is at large, need to be implemented, whether it's this or what's happening on Capitol Hill. And on Capitol Hill is his so-called Big, Beautiful Bill that is now in the hands of United States senators, including Republican senators, who want lots of changes to the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren't going to explode the debt. The problem is the math doesn't add up.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I encourage them, you know, to do their work, of course, as we all anticipate. But to make as few modifications to this package as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: John Thune is facing the same problem that Mike Johnson faced. He's facing pushback on the right, who says this is not going nearly far enough to cut the deficit. It would actually increase deficits, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by nearly $4 trillion over the next several years.

[16:30:04]

And then some of the more moderate members, like Senator Lisa Murkowski, who are worried about the cuts being too onerous.

But do you think at the end of the day, the Republicans hold their nose and vote for it because this is all they got?

GOLDBERG: Yes. I think one of the things that Mike Johnson let a lot of people do is reinforce their political brand. So, the House Freedom Caucus guys got to say they really believe in fiscal responsibility and bleat and whine. Let the SALT -- people who wanted the SALT tax stuff fixed for New York, they got let them all be on the record. And then at the end of the day, they all fell in line and voted for it.

I suspect you're going to see the exact same thing in the Senate. Let everybody get their yayas out and then they fall in line.

RAJU: Yeah. And we'll see if that ultimately happens. And they're trying to get it done before July 4th. That seems a very, very difficult road to go. But we'll see.

More to discuss ahead and more on our breaking news out of Liverpool, England. A car ramming into a crowd of soccer fans at a parade. The latest details next.

And Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi will join us live in the arena to talk the future of the Democratic Party and his own plans for 2026.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:37]

RAJU: More now on our breaking news over the United Kingdom. Police say a car has plowed into a crowd of people during a parade for Liverpool's football club.

CNN sports anchor and correspondent Patrick Snell joins us now.

So, Patrick, give us an idea how large of a parade this was in the amount of fans who were out there.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Manu. Yeah, really concerning scenes in northwest England on this day, a holiday weekend, a bank holiday weekend over there in the U.K. And I tell you what, this was meant to be a day of celebration, of jubilation for one of the most iconic names in world football, the mighty Liverpool football club, just being crowned champions of England for a record equaling 20th time.

And look, reports of in excess of 1 million people attending the open top bus parade as the recently crowned English champions weaved their way through the city to the applause and absolute delight of those fans. I will say the red half of the city. Iconic names like Mo Salah on the open top bus parade.

Liverpool celebrating their second Premier League title, 20th as I said overall in terms of English top flight titles, but they're second in the Premier League era, that's to say, since the 1990s. Now, the last time they won the Premier League title, that was in 2020, at the height of the COVID era.

And this is really important because they weren't allowed due to restrictions at that time, Manu, to celebrate, there was an empty stadium, so fans had been really looking forward to this day, as I say, hundreds of thousands out there for the three-hour plus victory parade with a prestigious Premier League trophy possibly in excess of 1 million, according to reports.

But the day has ended in a really concerning manner, really concerning to see how this has played out. We'll stay across all the very latest for you.

RAJU: Extremely concerning. A scene of jubilation turned into tragedy.

Patrick Snell, thank you for the details. And more news now, including one Democrat rumored to be eyeing a presidential run who's also becoming one of the party's more vocal critics. That's Rahm Emanuel, the former ambassador, Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff.

He's out what many see as a soft launch of a 2028 bid. Even the former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, not helping quash those rumors, saying this past Friday that she thinks he will run.

And Emanuel, recently writing in "The Washington Post" saying, quote, recall that we, meaning Democrats, spent 2024 trying to convince Americans that our democracy was in Trump's crosshairs, that message failed. We now need to paint the reality we know and the public perceives, but which Trump show often obscures the administration in its Capitol Hill minions are beacons of the three C's, corruption, chaos and cruelty. Set aside the rhetoric about fascism, oligarchies, or Democratic weakness.

With us now is Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. He's a Democrat who sits on the oversight and intelligence committees, and he's also running for a Senate seat to replace the retiring senator, Dick Durbin.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with me this afternoon.

I'm wondering, do you do you agree with Rahm Emanuel that the message of the Democratic Party failed in 2024, and that you should set aside the rhetoric that the democracy, democracy is at risk and that oligarchs control the country.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Not so much set it aside as kind of emphasis onto kind of the economic problems that people are really talking about constantly, whether you're working poor, middle class or growing a business, right now, they're facing economic chaos.

They're facing a situation where, you know, for instance, the public housing and food stamps that sustain my family. When we were going through hard times is on the chopping block. And really not there to support others who might be falling down and need a hand getting up. They need us, Democrats, to kind of tend to their economic needs more than anything else right now.

RAJU: So, Emanuel has also described the brand of the Democratic Party. Rahm Emanuel called it, quote, weak, woke and toxic.

Is there truth to that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think the Democratic brand does need, need improvement. I think that what we need to do is we need to realize that everyone right now feels like the American dream is slipping out of grasp.

[16:40:06]

And I think that we need to point out that Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are standing between people and the American dream when they talk about closing the department of education and closing off access to career technical education or vocational education for the 60 percent of Americans who don't have a four-year college degree, that's a big problem, or cutting Medicaid to the tune of 8 million people losing access to Medicaid because of this, quote/unquote, big, beautiful bill, which is actually a large, lousy law.

That's what we need to emphasize right now and then present our own ideas for how they can better access the American dream.

RAJU: Mr. Krishnamoorthi, the recent -- most recent CNN poll shows about 72 percent of voters disapprove of the way Democratic leaders in Congress handling their job. Thats actually the highest disapproval rating in the history of our polling.

I'm wondering, what about you? Do you approve of the job Democratic leaders are doing in Congress?

KRISHNAMOORHTI: Well, I actually support my own leader, Hakeem Jeffries. And I think that we need to continue, as I said, to change emphasis onto those economic issues. And we're doing it. But obviously the proof is going to be in the 2026 elections where I think we need to take back the House and we need to have an effective check on the president.

I think a lot of our constituents and voters right now feel as though Donald Trump is fundamentally changing kind of government and perverting it in a way that they don't -- they don't even recognize.

It's no longer the government that, for instance, attracted my family to America. And so, that's what we need to focus on again.

RAJU: I noticed that you said you support your own Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, but you didn't say Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader. Do you support the job he's doing?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think that Chuck Schumer, he was -- he was somebody that, during the last fight with the with regard to continuing resolution, he ended up voting a differently than the way I did in the House. Now, we have to figure out how do we strategize to prevent that situation from arising again. And so, if I were privileged to be in the Senate, I definitely want to hear his ideas for how do we meet the moment right now, those economic problems that beset people. How does he want to tackle them? Because I think that is the urgency of the situation right now.

RAJU: But at the moment you won't say yes or no if you vote for him to be the next Democratic leader if you are elected to the Senate?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: You're putting the cart before the horse. I need to win first. If I'm privileged to be in the Senate, I definitely want to hear his ideas for how do people afford a home, how do they educate their children, and how do they retire with dignity. So, they also have access to Social Security and Medicare, which, by the way, are under threat by this very bill, this reconciliation bill in Congress right now. RAJU: Congressman, if you do win your race, I want to I'm curious

where you might differ from the man you're running to replace Dick Durbin. By our count, Durbin voted to confirm five of President Trump's cabinet nominees. That includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Do you think that was the right vote?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I do at the time. I think that since then we've seen that Marco Rubio has not been the independent voice that we were hoping that he would be. I think that, for instance, when USAID is completely demolished and, you know, Marco Rubio basically seems to put a rubber stamp on it, that's a big problem. Or with regard to Ukraine, he doesn't seem to be the independent voice of reason to back Ukraine the way that we need to. That's another problem.

RAJU: But you wouldn't -- you wouldn't have voted. You wouldn't have voted for -- if you were the senator, you wouldn't have voted for rubio.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: No, I'm saying that at the time I may have voted for him the way that Senator Durbin did. Look, Dick Durbin is a legend, my friend. I mean, he's a titan of Illinois government and politics. I'm not going to second guess his judgment with regard to his votes on certain confirmations. I think that he is somebody who has done tremendous yeoman's work for Illinois.

RAJU: Okay. All right. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking time and talking with us. Thanks for your perspective.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.

RAJU: Absolutely. Up next, President Trump's latest threat against Harvard as his administration pushes for a list of foreign students currently on campus.

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[16:49:14]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which were probably not going to be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. I'm not going to have a problem with foreign students, but it shouldn't be 31 percent. It's too much because we have Americans that want to go there, and to other places, and they can't go there because you have 31 percent foreign now. No foreign government contributes money to Harvard. We do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Well, as a matter of fact, Harvard received more than $151 million in contributions from foreign governments between January 20th and October 2024, and its international students make up 27 percent of the student body, not 31 percent, as president Trump repeatedly says. Small details that may matter as the feud between the president and the ivy league continues to escalate.

[16:50:01]

In a Truth Social post this morning, Trump announced he is after a list of all foreign students enrolled at the university.

My panel is back.

So where does this feud end?

GOLDBERG: In courts.

RAJU: Yeah, I mean, it already -- Trump has been stopped by one federal judge and trying to prevent international students from going to Harvard, but they're going to keep fighting it. And there are a whole host of other actions they're taking against Harvard, too.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. And I mean, in some ways, it's good that they're going after Harvard because Harvard's got -- you know, Harvard is kind of like a private equity fund that teaches kids on the side. So, it's got the resources to be able to deal with this.

And I think, look, I think Trump is directionally right about some of his criticisms of Harvard and in higher ed in general, the reliance on foreign students isn't just -- it's problematic for a bunch of different reasons, in part like they get to play diversity games, where they will take rich kids from Africa and Asia and count them towards their DEI numbers and all these kinds of things. That's all fine.

It's -- the problem is, is the method by which he is doing this is just so -- it's not -- it's not using a scalpel or even a hatchet. It's using hand grenades and it's a mess.

TODD: This is -- you could say the same thing with DOGE. You could say the same thing with tariffs. You could say the same thing, everything.

He may -- you know, this has been -- and this is a warning to my Democratic friends here, which is you know, they think that the publics frustration with Trump and unhappiness. It's not about his goals, it's about his execution of the goals, its competency. And he's going about this.

But, you know, this is one of those cases where he probably will lose in the courts. But it's politically aware, right? There is no downside for him attacking Harvard.

RAJU: You agree? No downside politically.

ALLISON: I guess I wonder if it stops at Harvard. It feels like that is the person that he is jousting with now. But I went to Ohio State. We have a large number of international students there. Is he going to go to a red state with a red governor, where his vice president is from, and actually went to school and asked for a list there? And the question is, why does he want these students?

So, I do think that it is not -- I think Harvard needs to push back. I think universities need to push back. I don't think what Donald Trump is doing and the way he's doing is right, but I don't think it is the political win writ large in the story to take Donald Trump down.

RAJU: Look, the concern is the impact across higher education. This is what "The Wall Street Journal's" conservative editorial board wrote about this effort, led by Kristi Noem of the security secretary, saying that Mr. Noem's order will echo around the world as a signal that the U.S. is no longer open to educate the worlds brightest young people. Foreign students will get the message and take their talents elsewhere. They go on to say, this is the opposite of making America great.

DAVIS: I've heard this argument. I think it's a concern, but I also think that I don't think he goes after public universities. I think he keeps it in this group, right or wrong again. But here's what I would suggest. What's working for the other universities right now? And I know you three are going to yell at me.

They need to have a conversation. There needs to be a private conversation between the president of Harvard, the president of United States, and cut some sort of deal because otherwise he's going to find every single thing to go after Harvard about, and then it will just be they'll be in the courts for the next.

RAJU: Some universities try to do that.

DAVIS: Yes. Columbia has done it.

RAJU: Yeah, but they're still being targeted by the Trump administration.

DAVIS: Not -- there's -- I think that they're not in the target like Harvard is. Let's just put it that way.

ALLISON: Yeah, but will it last? So --

DAVIS: Will it last?

ALLISON: At the beginning of the story -- the show was you can't take Donald Trump at his word. So, you negotiate this just like the letter that came out that they said, they --

TODD: It's what you say, he'll back down because he does lose interest.

RAJU: Yeah.

ALLISON: Yeah. Fair enough. Yes.

TODD: He loses interest. And at some point, he'll lose interest in fighting Harvard.

RAJU: Yeah. We'll see how long that takes. And if it does -- (CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: -- in a minute.

RAJU: That's exactly --

ALLISON: Right.

RAJU: All right. Coming up, how the country is honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

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[16:58:35]

RAJU: This Memorial Day, President Trump, Vice President Vance and Defense Secretary Hegseth honored those killed while serving their country by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here are some of the other sights and sounds honoring the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

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RAJU: Thanks to my panel and thank you for joining us.

THE LEAD starts right now.