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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Republicans Voice Frustration As Trump's Demands On His Restrictive Voter ID Bill Paralyze GOP Agenda; Mamdani-Backed Candidates Sweep NYC Dem Primaries; New Clues Point To MSG Wedding For Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce. New Clues Point To MSG Wedding For Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce; Is It A Birthday Party Of Just Politics As Usual?; The Great Coupon Comeback. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired June 27, 2026 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERENA WILLIAMS, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM TENNIS CHAMPION: -- I've had many opportunities to have it, but I'm not giving up to answer your question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that tells you all you need to know about the great champion's mindset. Wimbledon starts on Monday, so we will just have to wait and see whether she can shatter another record, the beauty of sport.
That's all we have time for though. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you again next week.
[12:00:43]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to The Arena Saturday.
Who's going to blink first? President Donald Trump or Senate Republicans? This week saw the President so frustrated with members of his own party that he felt the need to personally go to Capitol Hill to address them. At the core of it, his demand that Congress pass a bill that would, among other things, require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote and curtail mail in balloting.
It is such a priority for him that he refused at the time to sign a popular bipartisan bill aimed at making housing more affordable. The President describing passing his elections bill as a national emergency. The trouble is, a few Republican senators disagree with him, and they've made it clear that the math just isn't there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. THOM TILLIS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: This is a waste of time. It's a distraction, and it's not going to get -- it's not going to happen in this Congress.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: If he chooses to hold up his own agenda because he wants action on the SAVE Act, that's, I guess his call. It is not helpful to him. It's not helpful to the country. And it's not moving the needle.
If you don't have the votes, sir, you don't have the votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: If you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes.
All right, my panelists here in The Arena. Former Federal Prosecutor, CNN Legal Analyst, Elliot Williams, Co-Host of the Interview Podcast from the New York Times, and a CNN Contributor, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, former DNC Communications Director, Xochitl Hinojosa, and Republican Strategist Brad Todd, they're both CNN Political Commentators.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.
Brad Todd, the President is managing to just snatch victory or, you know, from the -- snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on, like, the one issue that Americans say is most important and the one thing that Republicans want to go home and be able to sell. Why? What is -- why?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the President believes that the SAVE America Act is integral to this election, the next election, and every election. And, you know, the core component of it is voter ID, photo voter ID, which, according to Pew Research, 83 percent of Americans agree with him on that.
But the SAVE Act has more things in it than that. And I think it's time for the President and Republicans to narrow the SAVE Act down to just voter ID and dare Democrats to be against it and then move on to other issues. But I would have signed the housing bill this week. I would not have --
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
TODD: I would not have missed that chance to buy (ph) the football and then do this the next week.
HINOJOSA: Yes, I mean, it's unbelievable that Donald Trump was put in the White House on the number one issue of affordability. And when given every opportunity, whether it is tariffs, whether it is the war, whether it is not signing the housing bill, he is not doing anything to lower costs. And I think this is a gift to Democrats.
Democrats want to lower prices. The Republicans are in power. They're not doing it. It's something else. On the SAVE Act, I'll say this isn't just about Democrats. Republicans are saying that they don't have the votes on it. And also, guess what? We have four months until an election. All of a
sudden, we want to throw out our laws and just kind of put something else new. That will only cause chaos in our system.
We are for secure elections. But this noncitizen --
TODD: Voter ID.
HINOJOSA: -- noncitizen --
TODD: How do we get Democrats for voter ID?
HINOJOSA: I will say noncitizen voting is already illegal. And I think they would be for voter ID. But this is about -- this right now, it's about eligible voters not being able to vote because they don't have a birth certificate or a passport. And that is a problem.
TODD: But when Democrats have their own voter ID bill, they did their own voting law changes bill. They did not have voter ID in it. The Democratic politicians oppose voter ID, even though Democrat voters are for it.
HINOJOSA: Why do we care about this? It's four months before the election.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You're getting the weeds of voter ID. It's not just about the votes. It's not just about counting the noses. There are aspects of the bill that Republicans don't -- many Republicans do not like because of the way in which the SAVE Act might nationalize certain aspects of the elections process, which was a lot of conservatives --
TODD: I share those --
WILLIAMS: Share those concerns, right?
TODD: -- some of those concerns, yes.
WILLIAMS: And so -- and just for viewers background, the Constitution makes clear that elections are administered at the state level. The idea of federalizing elections makes many Conservatives very uncomfortable. And that's why --
TODD: But the Constitution says Congress may intervene.
WILLIAMS: Sure. Here's the thing. You know, again, we're getting into the weeds of the SAVE Act. You know, this isn't -- the President once again stepping on his own tail when, you know, he had a win on housing, a no-brainer win, big bipartisan majorities in Congress, this could have been an opportunity. And he's now talking about this bill that is not going to become law, at least in this Congress.
[12:05:14]
HUNT: Well, and here's the other thing, too. Not only did he potentially have a win that it was a bipartisan bill in the Congress, right, that the President could have taken credit for, he could have taken that win. The reality is, though, he won the elections in 2024, like all of them, the House, the Senate, the presidency, which is a point that Thomas Massie made quite clearly earlier this week. Let's watch that.
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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R), KENTUCKY: I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling election fraud. I mean, we won all the damn elections. And we're in charge, and what are we doing with it?
We're bankrupting the country. We're starting new wars. We're violating the Constitution. We're not cracking down on the fraud. The problem is not the elections. We won the damn elections. The problem is we're wasting our opportunity that the voters gave us.
And the Republicans are going to pay for that in November. It'll be an absolute shellacking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Lulu?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Cosign. I mean, it is, again, not that mysterious why President Trump is doing this so. Why would President Trump be stepping on his own message? Why would he be not signing a housing bill trying to get this, you know, SAVE Act passed right before a midterm election where there might be a shellacking?
What could the reason possibly be? Let's think about this. Oh, yes, he wants to preempt what will inevitably be a bad election for Republicans by trying to intervene. There are many provisions in the SAVE Act which meddle in states' elections asking for voter rolls, which is something that the states have tried to repeatedly stop the federal government from having for all sorts of reasons that are legitimate.
Also, it would, right before the election, cause a lot of confusion to voters, again, disenfranchising people. There are many reasons why this is a bad idea. But most of all, the timing is a bad idea. Right before an election is not the time to be messing in elections. And I think Republicans and Democrats understand that, which is why this is going nowhere.
HUNT: Well, and it would potentially be a legal problem, right, to make major changes to election law right before an election.
WILLIAMS: Oh, absolutely. And sort of -- the actual thing that would undermine the result of an election would be ambiguity about what the laws were right before the election. It's both practically risky and politically bad and also substantively not great in many ways.
You know, the interesting thing about all of this, and we talked about this earlier in the week on your program, Kasie, this idea that the President seems to not appreciate the power that Congress has as a branch of government. And this is Congress flexing its power that the Constitution or the framers gave them to do, which was decide what the laws in the country ought to be.
TODD: This also is just a -- this is one episode. There is a major schism right now between Republicans in the United States Senate and the President.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
TODD: The SAVE Act is the source of a lot of the President's frustration, but it's only part of the frustration that the members of the United States Senate have. And we don't have many legislative days left to look like we know how to run the railroad. And so, I think that it's more important, you know, you're fighting on an ideological basis and on a momentum basis, and we need momentum. Republicans need momentum before the midterm election.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So why do you think he's doing this? I mean, I'm curious.
TODD: He believes the SAVE Act is critical to protect the country. He thinks that Democrats are going to cheat and rig election laws in blue states to their own advantage. That's his belief. And so he thinks the SAVE Act is necessary.
By the way, Democrats wanted to federalize all our election laws too. When they took Congress in 2018, their very first bill, H.R. 1, they called it, was a federalization of state election laws. So both parties would like to set rules nationally when they're in charge.
HUNT: Brad, what is it that Senate Republicans are more upset with the President about?
TODD: I think they're upset with Bill Pulte. I think that some of them are upset with the MOU on the Iran war and think that we're quitting too soon without accomplishing our objectives. I think there is a cornucopia of disagreement between the Republicans in the Senate and the President right now.
HUNT: And Xochitl, where are -- where's Democratic thinking right now on the possibility of retaking the Senate?
HINOJOSA: Well, I think that Democrats are feeling good about, obviously, the House. I do think that there is some sort, you know, people -- we believe that we could potentially bring back the Senate. It will be very hard. It will be -- it would potentially require Texas. We have seen what has happened in Maine.
Michigan has a very interesting primary right now. I think --
TODD: It's one word for it.
HINOJOSA: -- to say the least. I think that if the President continues to ignore the issue of affordability, Democrats do see a path when it comes to the Senate. We just need to make sure that we are disciplined in our message and do not have any other sort of mess ups like we did in Maine or any other distractions whatsoever. And if we can do that, then we could potentially in the Senate.
[12:10:04]
TODD: If you assume Maine's off the table because they have a nut, then Democrats have to enforce states that Trump won in the Senate races. That's a lot.
HUNT: Very, very, yes.
WILLIAMS: But he's got a 35 percent approval rating.
TODD: Yes.
WILLIAMS: It's going to be an interesting year.
TODD: Still a big lift.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And I don't think Maine's off the table. Just --
HINOJOSA: I agree, yes. I actually think Maine is very much on the table.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Exactly.
HINOJOSA: I don't think that voters there care about --
TODD: It's off the table if Democrats have consciences, then it's off the table.
HINOJOSA: Say that about your own party. Look at Texas.
HUNT: We are unfortunately out of time, as much as I would love to let that play out. But coming up here in The Arena, how New York's mayor plans to translate his primary winning streak this week to the general election. That's our quote of the week.
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MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: We've heard from Republicans time and again that they're going to try and make these candidates the face of the Democratic Party. To them, I say that we are ready for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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MAMDANI: I see these results as a reflection of, are the fact that New Yorkers are hungry for a new kind of politics. They are hungry for a politics that understands working people should be at the heart of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:15:48] HUNT: The New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party this week when all three of his endorsed candidates won their primaries and two of them beat incumbents. It raised new questions about the direction of the Democratic Party and how Republicans will attack these New York Democrats in the midterms. That, of course, brings us to our quote of the week. Mamdani says we're ready for that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAMDANI: We've heard from Republicans time and again that they're going to try and make these candidates the face of the Democratic Party. To them, I say that we are ready for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Now, I'm not sure if he gets to declare that for every Democrat across the map, Xochitl.
HINOJOSA: It is not.
HUNT: But how do you think, I mean, the shockwaves and the sort of warning signs, yes, Hakeem Jeffries says, you know, is out there saying this doesn't represent the country, it's a blue city, but it -- in many ways tells us something is out there, something is happening, and it also does give some openings for Republicans to criticize the party.
HINOJOSA: Well, I also think it, when it comes to incumbents, I do think that they should be worried, that they need -- they essentially, they can't just be sitting around. They need to go out and campaign. There needs to be some energy. We've seen, you know, the name of the game is authenticity when it comes to our candidates.
And the reality is, is that there's like generally this anti-incumbent sentiment that is happening not only in the Democratic Party, but in the Republican Party. We're now seeing John Cornyn, who was just given the boot recently, and a few others. And so I do think that voters have had it with the status quo.
I do believe that they want to shake things up. Do I believe that what happened in New York gets us to winning the majority? No, it does not, right? It does not. It is New York and it's very different place. I will say what happens in New York is not the same thing that's going to happen in my home state of Texas, where it is much more moderate.
But I do think it should send a signal to all those incumbents in Congress that you're not safe. Even if you are not in a purple seat, when you -- it is possible that a Democrat runs against you and you lose your primary and you better start getting up and you better start campaigning.
TODD: But this wasn't just about incumbents being asleep. I mean, the people who won these seats in New York are further out than we've seen in American politics against police, against prison, saying any deportation is immoral, nationalizing rent control all over the whole country. I mean, these are bona fide kooks and they're going to pull the entire Democratic brand leftward.
They're going to pull it all leftward. And so, I mean, it's going to be -- if every Democrat who's out there, no knows that the mob is coming for them next.
WILLIAMS: Oh, come on.
TODD: And so --
WILLIAMS: Remember, the interesting point though, remember when Nancy Pelosi, when she's asked a question about the squad, this is a couple of years ago said, well, look, it's like six people, whatever. I've got a party to run.
TODD: It's a platoon now.
WILLIAMS: It's -- but it's still a big national party. And I just wonder, yes, the question here becomes how much can Republicans nationalize it and how much can Republicans tie those folks to the folks running in Texas. And again -- but I think Nancy Pelosi is on to something that this happens in political parties all the time. There's a vocal minority. Does it take over the whole party or does it just become something you can make fun of?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, Jewish space lasers, anyone? I mean --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- you know --
TODD: We live through this with the Tea Party --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, but this is what I'm -- I mean --
WILLIAMS: That's my point.
(CROSSTALK)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, this is my -- but this is my -- sure. But what I'm saying about this is that there are extremes in both parties that come up that have very, you know, ideas that aren't part of the mainstream in the middle. And that is actually the challenge of this era of politics. And one could argue that the right and Donald Trump has opened the door to that in a way that we haven't seen before and that those extremes are now actually sitting in government and being enacted.
And so, you know, that the Democrats are having this debate is clear and that, by the way, these people coming up, what I will say actually to Democrats is that this is very different than 2018. These people want a civil war in the party. They are not trying to come in and try to influence the party like AOC did.
They want to take over the party and are very explicit about that. So I think the problem, if problem it is, is quite a bit larger than what we saw several years ago. [12:20:05]
HUNT: I mean, Lulu, does this not -- when I look at this, it strikes me that we are seeing something similar happening to Democrats as to --
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: -- what happened to Republicans --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, 100 percent.
HUNT: -- that led to the rise of Trump.
TODD: And it keeps going because crazy is contagious. And so you're going to see it play out in the Michigan Senate primary. You're going to see it in subsequent primaries this year. This will pull everything leftward.
WILLIAMS: Yes. It's not just the rise of Trump and MAGA. It's also the Tea Party, which you mentioned earlier. It's when a party is out of power and in the wilderness and doesn't have a clear leader, and it's not clear what the election result is going to be. That's what happened in the early Obama years with the Tea Party and then ultimately the rise of MAGA.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --
WILLIAMS: That's happening on the left now too.
HINOJOSA: I think this is a headache for Hakeem Jeffries in terms of governing. Yes, I do think that there is going to be a far left faction where if he is the speaker, it will be hard to deal with them. When it comes to future elections and 2028, there is one thing that is clear about Democrats. They want to win.
And if you learned anything about 2020, is that as soon as Joe Biden was not leading, everybody was counting him out. And you can talk about whether that was a good idea or not to nominate him. But when it was Bernie Sanders who was making inroads, the party coalesced, they came together and they were winning.
TODD: Ran everybody else out of the way.
HINOJOSA: They ran -- yes. And they voted for Joe Biden because they want someone who could win the general election. I don't --
TODD: But they've rigged two nominations. I bet they can't rig a third one.
HINOJOSA: They did not rig that nomination.
TODD: Sure it was.
HINOJOSA: No, they -- the voters voted. At the end of the day --
TODD: He won one primary.
HINOJOSA: The voters --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But can I just -- OK --
HINOJOSA: -- based on the calendar, they ended up rigging (ph) the nomination.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I really don't want to relitigate that election yet again.
TODD: I'm glad to --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, the President's doing enough of that as it is, so like we can perhaps leave it aside. You know, what I will say, and everyone hates it when I do this because Americans don't like to talk about other countries, but I'm going to do that because I was a foreign correspondent. And we are facing what has happened in many countries that when the pendulum goes like this, we are now having, you know, we have a very hard right government that has enacted quite radical change.
And what we are seeing is the pendulum going in the opposite direction. And that is actually a problem for the United States of America writ large, because when you have these big swings left and right, left and right, it's the middle that gets eaten.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that is where I think most people live.
WILLIAMS: And I think to Xochitl's point, where I disagree with you a little bit, yes, I assume Democrats want to win, but they're vastly different ideas of what --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
WILLIAMS: -- it sort of means to win. And there's a big centrist base of the party that has an idea of it and an insurgent socialist wing of the party --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's where all the energy is. It's where all the energy is.
WILLIAMS: Where all the energy is. So I don't know if I'm --
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: -- as rosy as you are that everything comes together.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The energy is not in the center.
HINOJOSA: I think Talarico is not far left, so.
HUNT: I will just say covering a Hillary Clinton rally in 2016 was a hell of a lot different than covering a Bernie Sanders rally. And he was running in the primary and she was running in the general election.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: It's a lesson I keep coming back to in this moment.
All right, coming up next here in The Arena, the birthday party with a side of politics, or maybe it's a political event with a side of birthday. We'll discuss.
But first, how does a summer garden wedding sound? The mystery over the nuptials of a power couple, the power couple. Well --- yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it MSG?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually asked Travis last night. He laughed at me. So, no. I'm half expecting there just to be a jumbo jet on a runway and they put us on a plane somewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did we score a wedding invitation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we'll be there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be there. I'm wearing a blue suit, so that's all I got.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have nothing else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it MSG?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually asked Travis last night. He laughed at me, so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm half expecting there just to be a jumbo jet on a runway and they put us on a plane somewhere. I don't have expectations because I know it's going to be amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:28:09]
HUNT: Travis Kelce apparently laughed at his fellow tight end, George Kittle, there. Also, apparently in the dark about where exactly Taylor Swift will be saying I do to her lover. It's the question everyone's been debating this week. Will Taylor and Travis actually get married at Madison Square Garden over July 4th weekend?
The rumors, fueled by a mysterious permit application submitted by a company known to plan weddings, have also raised the important question. Will New York City security officials be ready for it? CNN spoke to a dozen NYPD officers stationed around The Arena, all of whom said they've not been told to prepare for anything. Quote, "A Taylor Swift wedding is going to be huge. We're tired." One MSG security guard said. Yes, I bet.
Another police officer dismissing the rumors entirely saying, quote, "She's a glamorous girl. She wouldn't get married here."
I've never been to the garden. It does -- I mean, it doesn't, you know, it's a -- anyway. Online, many Swifties famously fond of their Easter eggs also seem to doubt that MSG is really where Swift would choose to hold the wedding of her wildest dreams.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she's doing an all-out concert bash ceremony first elsewhere, and then they get bussed in to Madison Square Garden for the concert of a lifetime of her nearest and dearest musician friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New theory, Madison Square Garden is the meeting spot that they're telling everyone to go to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing will convince me that Taylor Swift is getting married in a domed arena. She has always been stealth. These are Easter eggs, but they're not the right one. Yes, this is the wrong bunny dropping these off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: My panel is back. Elliot Williams --
WILLIAMS: Oh God.
HUNT: -- you managed to work -- how many was going to show this week?
WILLIAMS: It was eight.
HUNT: Eight song titles.
WILLIAMS: Yes. HUNT: You had four in that script.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: And they didn't even use "Welcome to New York," which --
WILLIAMS: They didn't "Welcome to New York." I didn't think this would ever happen in my wildest dreams.
HUNT: We just use that one.
WILLIAMS: I know. I know. I think I'm out of Taylor Swift concert.
HUNT: But that was a fearless trial.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: She is not getting married in Madison Square Garden. I --
WILLIAMS: Oh, stop being an anti-hero.
HUNT: How much money were you willing to put down on that?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm willing to put down a lot of money on it. I just -- and the idea that on her wedding day she is going to want to put on a concert is like, have you ever, I mean, at my wedding day, the last thing I was going to be doing is like, let me work.
HUNT: Working, yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, work. So, yes. I say nay. I have no inside knowledge, but that is my projection.
HUNT: I mean, I will say, I think that the theorist, the woman that we played who said that, I mean, listen, a reception at Madison Square Garden with between, because that permit is for between I think 500 and 1,000 people. I mean, that sounds fun to me, but I don't know. Walking down the aisle.
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. There are a few things I do agree with she's likely getting married somewhere else. And whether she has a reception there, whether it is a meeting location, something seems to be happening at Madison Square Garden. With that said, she has a publicist, her name is Tree that everybody knows can just knows how to deflect as much as possible and is in on the, she knows how to run an event like this.
If you want someone to have to put together a secret wedding for you and the best wedding of a lifetime and handle the policy around it. She knows how to do this. And so I -- there will probably be lots of surprises. I keep on joking that Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen with their special on July 3rd. Like, I hope that they do it outside of Madison Square Garden for this reason because wouldn't that be great? Anderson and Andy talking about Taylor Swift's wedding.
HUNT: We could probably talk to Anderson about that. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Long facilities though. You know, Travis Kelce is a football player. So why wouldn't MetLife Stadium be --
WILLIAMS: Drones.
HUNT: Drones.
TODD: -- in place? Well, it also is being used by the World Cup right now, but perhaps we can find a different football.
WILLIAMS: Look, I'm the one here who grew up outside New York City. I've been to Madison Square Garden a lot. I don't buy all of your hate for MSG. It is a glorious place. I saw the circus there. They brought elephants in back before the circus got canceled. I'm just saying she could have a pretty sweet wedding in Amazon Square Garden. I think Taylor Swift has the money to put all the hydrangeas and orchids or whatever else she wants, make this a less cruel summer if she can.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But this is amazing, though, that we still don't know, like, hats off to the most famous couple in the world not being able, you know, to have their own wedding the way that they want. And we still don't know what that is.
HUNT: Well, and if anybody gave it up, I think it was Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York. Here was what Mr. Mayor had to say about the upcoming, well, this is his version of what's coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: July 4th, America 250, Taylor Swift's wedding, all happening at the same time. And we are so excited to welcome the world here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you been invited? Are you going? Do you like -- is there anything we need to know about that, sir? Thank you.
MAMDANI: No and no. I wish them a lovely wedding. I'll listen to only the young at home on my own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: What do you think, Elliot? Did the mayor give it away?
WILLIAMS: Who knows? You know, he's a smart politician. He knows how to tap into some of the mystique and intrigue here. And he's in it for clicks as well. And I think that was a smart answer.
HUNT: The other option people were really hot on, Xochitl, was the Rhode Island house, which, let me tell you --
HINOJOSA: Yes.
HUNT: -- like, if I'm jealous of a celebrity residence, it's Taylor Swift Watch Hill historic, I mean, it is a beautiful property. I think we can put it up on the screen. There it is. Apparently she had her bachelorette festivities here.
HINOJOSA: Yes.
HUNT: And there have been tents that keep, there's the tent, tents keep popping up. People keep speculating. I mean, if I were her, I would try to figure out how to do it at a place like this.
HINOJOSA: Yes.
HUNT: Maybe I'm just like a homebody.
HINOJOSA: I think that's right. I think that it's possible that there -- she has so much money that she can just drop Easter eggs everywhere. She can talk. She can put the money into Madison Square Garden and make it seem like it's there. She can put the tent up at her Rhode Island house to make it seem like it's there. And who knows? They might end up getting married in Paris.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: I mean, you're saying she decorate a blank space and make it for, come on, every. Like, I'm working here, Brian, you know.
TODD: Elliot, I'm so lost. I can't keep up with you.
HUNT: Brian isn't even getting it.
WILLIAMS: It's a shame, Brian, because really, you belong with me on these jokes.
HUNT: Oh, my God. OK.
TODD: This is all folklore.
HUNT: That is my cue for us to go to break.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Save us.
HUNT: Coming up here in The Arena, President Trump kicks off the official celebrations for the nation's 250th birthday. But it does look more like one of his campaign rallies, complete with partisan swipes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[12:34:49]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just like those Patriots of 1776. Over the past 17 months, we have taken power back from the far off political class. They're trying to gain it back, but it's not going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HUNT: All right, welcome back. Two hundred and thirty eight years ago this week, in 1788, the U.S. Constitution became the law of the land when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. That was, of course, after the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence that led to the founding of the United States. This week, a string of events started here in Washington, kicking off a slew of celebrations for the nation's 250th birthday. And just like literally almost everything in the modern era, politics has been injected into something that should be a nonpartisan time of unity.
[12:40:06]
Musicians booked to perform at the Great American State Fair backed out, some saying they were misled by Trump affiliated organizers. That led the President to find a quick replacement. A campaign style rally on the National Mall headlined by, you guessed it, himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Just like those Patriots of 1776. Over the past 17 months, we have taken power back from the far off political class. They're trying to gain it back, but it's not going to happen. We have reclaimed our sovereignty, regained our liberty, restored our prosperity and we have saved our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Won't be the last time we hear from President Trump on America's 250th. He will be speaking again on the National Mall on July 4th itself. Brian Todd, the -- this is, you know, I think for most Americans, OK, they're going to go out with their families, they're going to barbecue, they're going to celebrate the country, they're going to wave flags, they're going to watch fireworks, there'll be patriotic songs, all the rest of it. The President, though, in particular is taking something that is supposed to be about a system of government that we built that accommodates different points of view and turning it into something that is much more political than what we typically see. What does it say?
TODD: Well, first off, this is a thing that's been coming both directions. You know, this, you can look, all these estates are supposed to have exhibits on the National Mall. And a lot of blue states chose to not send an exhibit. For all the tourists and visitors and regular citizens who are coming to Washington, their capital, to celebrate with their President for the national birthday and blue states didn't want to participate.
HUNT: Well, listen, so Pennsylvania is an example here, OK? And I know you've worked a lot with the senator from Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania is now purple state. OK. It's not --
TODD: It's got a blue governor.
HUNT: Right. But he says, Shapiro says his office canvassed opinion among many of Pennsylvania's businesses about Trump's gala. None were interested, Shapiro said. It reflects the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in, that the President has politicized this to a degree that businesses don't want to participate.
TODD: But that was Shapiro's job to lead. You know, you don't have to celebrate Donald Trump, but you should be able to celebrate with Donald Trump as the country celebrates.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: He took America 250 and made a different organization that was completely partisan that he controlled as opposed to the bipartisan group --
TODD: Which was a mess.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- that was preparing. Well, whether or not the point is that it became partisan because he took it over. And made --
TODD: For partisan just because he's running it. He's the President.
HINOJOSA: Hold on. Actually, I want to address that because you just talked about Shapiro being a leader. The President sets the tone for our country regardless of what it is. And for America's birthday, the President should set the tone because he is the President United States. And when the President United States is making something so partisan, yes, the rest of the country follows his lead.
TODD: You know what? I think he's made a mistake here and that he should have dared Democrats to join him as opposed to attack them for not joining him. This is distinction.
WILLIAMS: OK. But here's --
TODD: But he should have asked them to -- he should have implored them to join him for the birthday as opposed to raged about them not joining him. It would have been a big difference tonally, I agree with you.
WILLIAMS: Thought exercise for everybody here. Look at those -- look at the President's remarks here. I'm not even going to say Obama or because I think or Biden. Would George W. Bush have given remarks like that?
TODD: Well, Gerald Ford didn't in 1976. Gerald Ford celebrated the last big birthday.
WILLIAMS: Did -- would Gerald Ford have blasted his opponents, his political opponents, would George H.W. Bush, any Republican president have taken this kind of tone? And I just think it's because we hear this a lot, it's a distraction to say, well, Democrats or well, blue states did not send people. Look at the tone coming.
HUNT: I actually really want to pick up on what you just said about Gerald Ford because, you know, what is it that we most remember Gerald Ford for, right? We remember him for leading our country back to a place of unity after his predecessor Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. So if we really want to take this full circle and think about what we've also been talking about this week, listen to J.D. Vance talking about Richard Nixon, who again back around the time of the last time we had a big birthday was most definitely on the outs. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also just at a personal level, you know, OK, young senator, vice president, writes some best-selling books, is hated by the media, it kind of sounds like J.D. Vance. So I'm a little, you know, I've always liked Richard Nixon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I've always liked Richard Nixon, says J.D. Vance. He also, Lulu said that Watergate would be a 12-hour story if it were to happen today. What does this all say?
[12:44:57]
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It says that perhaps he feels like his administration is so scandal ridden that nothing could quite eclipse it in the way that Watergate does now. I mean, it's a ridiculous thing to say. Richard Nixon, the way that he lost power was because of a burglary at a slush fund. He involved the CIA to work against the FBI. I mean, there was a plethora of problems.
TODD: He also did wage and price controls and created the EPA and a bunch of other stuff that Republicans don't like.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, sure, but that's not what he's talking about. And he's talking about the deep stuff involved. I think he meant deep throat. But at the end of the day, it's shameful and it's shocking.
WILLIAMS: Yes. You know, we've all, the five of us have talked about these issues for literal years now. And many of us, we all believe, I think political differences are a good thing. They are healthy for the country, they are healthy for the government. Partisan differences are a good thing. But the President needs to act as a unifier with his speeches and his remarks and so on.
And you cannot, nobody can tell me that Donald Trump is attempting to unify the people who did not vote for him in a way that every past president would have.
TODD: I think that's a missed opportunity. It's been a missed opportunity, I think. And I think Democrats, by the way, were set up to fail on this because they are just not willing to acknowledge Donald Trump's the legitimate president. And if he'd conducted himself the right way here about the national birthday, he could have made him look really silly.
WILLIAMS: He's the one who's --
TODD: They believed that he's a legitimate president. That's not what it is.
WILLIAMS: Yes. Right.
TODD: But they have to celebrate with him. They have to acknowledge he's their president too.
WILLIAMS: Brian, he literally, and we've been talking about this in this program, says that the elections that got him there were rigged. If there's anybody who's calling into doubt his own legitimacy, it's him. And so this idea, I just don't want us to get distracted from the realities of the President's own rhetoric in terms of is he uniting the country or not at this time? And I just want to go back to the examples of every one of these Republican and Democratic presidents we've named here. They would have just done a better job than this president.
TODD: Gerald Ford's theme song in '76 was I'm feeling good about America and I'm feeling good about me. And that sort of optimistic tone. Optimism almost always helps win elections.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
TODD: And we're not getting enough of that I think right now in a Republican message. And the President is the one person who can change that.
HUNT: Yes, well, speaking of, I mean, speaking of optimistic tone, just listen to how, you know, Sean Duffy, who's Trump's transportation secretary, talked about this. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: To start this off, I think we have to give a big round of applause for our military band and singers way better than those libtards that canceled on us. So much better. Thank you, guys. President Trump will make you famous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's disgusting.
WILLIAMS: Don't take the bait, folks. You know, it just the question there is not -- forget the use of the term and the specifics term and so on. It's just is that unifying language at what ought to be a unifying event. And it is not. I will not listen to anybody who going to say that this is the kind of tone we need to have it.
HINOJOSA: Well, but it also goes to the cabinet and the fact that the cabinet does not feel like they are or they do not believe that they are serving the American people. Someone who is a cabinet secretary who serves in the administration, they believe that they serve Donald Trump. And there it is all about doing what Donald Trump would like. Talking, saying the same language that Donald Trump would say, the same tone, not necessarily serving the American people and celebrating the birthday.
HUNT: And I should get this in here, Sean Duffy's response when asked about that. He says this quote, I will not be lectured by the same people who want to abort babies with special needs rather than policing language. Many liberals should spend time with these beautiful children, acknowledge their humanity and while they're at it, try loving their country more than they hate President Trump. Not a statement that necessarily has a lot to do with the moment in question, but there you have it.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's depressing. It's depressing that this is where we find ourselves at 250.
TODD: He's saying that because he has a Down syndrome child. That's what he's saying.
HUNT: No, I mean of course.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And why is he using that language?
HUNT: Away from his children at all? But again, we're talking about just how much has become political here.
[12:49:03]
All right, coming up, something totally different, Bed, Bath & Beyond. Good news for you coupon hoarders out there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: All right, welcome back. If you were a big fan of Bed, Bath & Beyond and you've been holding on to one of those 20 percent off coupons, trust me, if you liked the place, you know what I'm talking about. Prepare to feel vindicated. Just three years after filing for bankruptcy and closing its physical locations, Bed Bath & Beyond is reopening its stores. And, and they are accepting old expired coupons. I'm sorry, what?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons never expire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have expiration dates on them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, to throw idiots off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Big news for Abby from broad city and most suburban moms. The chain opening 97 co-branded locations with the container store, moms and dads, converting more than 200 locations of Kirkland's home into Bed, Bath & Beyond stores. So now that pile of blue and white coupons that has been collecting dust in your kitchen's drunk drawer are of use again.
On top of accepting expired coupons at the new locations, Bed Bath & Beyond is holding a contest. They want to find the oldest coupon. If you have it, the grand Prize is a $100,000 home renovation. I don't know about you all, but like, I have a file cabinet --
[12:55:05]
HINOJOSA: I have it. HUNT: -- where I definitely have at least one of these coupons.
HINOJOSA: I have it also because if you remember, probably when we were both pregnant, Bye Baby was also a massive thing. And I registered there and I collected a bunch of coupons. And so yes, I think that I -- one of us may be the winner.
WILLIAMS: But let me say this. Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons are back. McDonald's fried apple pie is back. Richard Nixon is back. All we need is lawn darts and we've got a full 1970s revival.
HUNT: Hey. All right. On that note, thank you very much to my panel. Thanks to all of you for watching. You can see The Arena every weekday here on CNN. We're on at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. You can also catch up by listening to The Arenas podcast. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at TheArenaCNN. But for now, enjoy the rest of your weekend. The news continues next right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
