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Trump Speaks to Reports on Capitol Hill; Trump Attends House GOP Meeting; Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) is Interviewed about DOJ Charges. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 20, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00]

BETH FYNBO BENIKE, FOUNDER BUSY BABY: American small businesses, from paying these tariffs.

Meanwhile, Lenovo, a Chinese computer brand, sells $15 billion a year in the U.S., they don't have to pay a single tariff. None of this makes sense to me.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Still not making sense, even a month after we spoke, and it's still -- you're going to pay --

BENIKE: It's worse.

BOLDUAN: You're going to pay -- as you said, you are going to pay the price of this tariff or your customer. There's no other way to handle it.

Beth, thank you for coming on again. Please come back. I do -- you're -- it's really important to hear your voice in this. Thank you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, any minute now, President Trump will walk into a room on Capitol Hill and try to convince Republicans to support his multitrillion dollar tax and spending cut plan. Right now, honestly, it's unclear at best whether he has the votes. We're going to have our ear to the door and try to hear what's happening inside.

She was just charged with assault by federal prosecutors. Now, New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver will join us live to give her side of the story. This is her first interview.

And new testimony in the criminal trial of Sean Combs this morning. On the stand today, his former assistant and escort, and potentially Cassie Ventura's mother.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. BOLDUAN: All right, you're looking right now -- a live look on Capitol

Hill. The halls of the Capitol. And you're seeing right now the entourage in front of the president.

Let's just stay on this, guys, as we watch the president go by. He's going to be walking by cameras. And we will see if he speaks.

Let's listen in just as he passes by.

REPORTER: What's your message today?

REPORTER: What's your message to the holdouts?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it's not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party. I don't think we have ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don't like, or that they're not going to get, but I think we're going to have tremendous, not luck. We have tremendous talent.

This man has done an incredible job as speaker. You know, we had a majority of one. We were one heart attack away from losing the House, OK. Now we have seven. That's big because we won some elections, as you probably noticed. And we're going to win a lot of elections.

We have an economy that's roaring. We took out 5.1 billion. If you take a look, 5.1 trillion with a t, not a b, 5.1 trillion out of the Middle East. They're investing more than that. It's going to be ultimately more than that. But 180 wide body Boeing aircraft. They -- they -- they're spending money at levels that nobody's ever seen. Usually a president goes for a trip and he loses money. In other words, he gives money. We went for a trip that we took out $5.1 trillion. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. And that's just the beginning.

So, I think we're going to -- I think we're a very unified party. The Senate's doing great. John Thune is doing fantastically. He's a great guy. And we're going to have a bill. The one big, beautiful bill, I think it's going to be -- it's the biggest bill ever passed. And we've got to get it done.

Tremendous tax cuts for people. Tremendous incentives. Tremendous regulation cuts. All these regulations that are so horrible. And now you found out -- and find out what happened because Biden, look, it's a very sad thing what happened, but I really -- we're going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation, who signed legislation opening our border. I don't think he knew. I said, there's nobody that could want an open border. Nobody. And now I find out that it wasn't him. He auto-penned it. Who was operating the auto pen? This is a very serious thing. We had a president that didn't sign anything. He auto-penned almost everything.

He opened the borders of the United States of America. And I kept saying, who would do such a thing? Allowing criminals to pour in from all over the world, not just South America, all over the world. They came in from Africa. They came in from Asia. They came from the Congo. The -- the prisons in the Congo in Africa. These are rough, rough people.

The prisons from the Congo are empty. You know where they are? They're in this country. Who would sign this? Nobody would sign it. No sane person would sign it. You know who signed it? Radical left lunatics that were running our country and the auto-pen signed it.

And they didn't want him. And they were disappointed in getting him because they wanted Bernie Sanders. And then after about two weeks, they said, wait a minute, this is a gift. He'll do anything. We're going to use the auto-pen. And they used the auto-pen on everything. He didn't approve this stuff because when Joe Biden was with it, he would never have approved it. You take a look. He would have never approved open borders.

Go ahead. Another one.

REPORTER: Are -- are Republicans still grandstanding in your view?

TRUMP: Oh, yes, sure. You have a couple that will grandstand. But I think even the grandstanders should -- look, the alternative is a 68 percent tax increase.

[09:05:03]

And you can blame the Democrats for that and one or two grandstanders. We only have one or two. But we have -- we have tremendous support. But you'll have a 68 percent tax increase or you'll get a massive tax decrease. You'll get a tax cut the likes of which we've never had before. This is bigger than any Ronald Reagan tax cut. It's even bigger than the tax cut that I gave because, as you know, that's being extended and increased.

So, this is the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. Or you'll get a 68 percent tax increase. And if that happens, I mean, what Republican could vote for that to happen because they wouldn't be a Republican much longer. They would get -- they would be knocked out so fast.

But we're going up the details. This is a -- I'm a cheerleader for this party and I'm a cheerleader for the country. Much more importantly for the country. But I'm a cheerleader for the party. And we're going to go up and I think we're going to have a very good discussion. There are one or 2 points that some people feel strongly about, but maybe not so strong.

REPORTER: One of those points, do you consider some of the proposals on the table, like (INAUDIBLE) provider tax as a benefit cut? How are you viewing the (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: No, we're going to look. We are looking at one thing. We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful. The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. With Medicaid, waste, fraud and abuse. There's tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. There's incompetent things putting (ph). We have illegal aliens that are multiple killers with multiple murder records getting Medicaid. I don't think anybody minds if we cut that. The Democrats, on the other hand, are going to destroy it, because

they're going to leave these people on. We're cutting three things waste, fraud, and abuse. We're not changing Medicaid, and we're not changing Medicare, and we're not changing Social Security. And if I wanted to do those things, I would have done it during my four years that we were here (ph).

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: Mr. President, what's your message to -- Mr. President, what's your message to your fellow New Yorkers, a Republicans, who are hung up on the SALT issues? They (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Well, SALT is a very interesting thing because the governors of New York and Illinois, you know, the big JB, who's going nowhere, probably right now he could be the worst governor in the country. But Illinois. And Gavin Newsom, those are the people that want this. And they're Democrat states. They're all Democrat states.

You know, Ronald Reagan tried very hard to get this passed. Was unable to do it, the way we have it, where basically everybody is treated equally. He tried it so hard and he never got it done. He was always disappointed he never got it done. We got it done. Now people want to change it. So, we're going to be talking about that.

But the biggest beneficiary, if we do that, are governors from New York, Illinois and California. And those governors are the ones that blew it because they weren't able to get it. So, I think we're going to be explaining that these are all very blue states that I don't really believe that we had honest elections. I don't actually believe -- I think I would have won California. I would have won New York. I even think I would have won Illinois.

I think if they -- we have to, you know, we're going to start this -- after I was talking to Mike and, again, I'm his biggest fan. I love this guy. He's the only guy who could have walked in with a one -- think of it. You can't be a guy like me and have a one majority. You have to be a guy like him, a nice person. He's very religious. He prays. He's a man of God. And so am I, but he's really to a new level, I will tell you. He is a great guy. They love him in Louisiana, and they love him in -- he -- that's the only kind of guy.

Somebody said, oh, well, we want somebody to -- if you put a certain personality in there, you would have never -- look at the -- look at what he got past. What he's gotten past.

And just so you understand, he's gotten this passed, too. And I don't think there's anybody I could give you guys that are so tough. You guys would run if you ever looked at him. If you ever saw some of these guys, you would not ask them questions. You'd be afraid to.

This guy did something that I don't think there's anybody that's more well suited to be speaker of the House, especially in a case like this.

Remember, we had a majority of one for six months, and that was a very frightening thing because the Democrats have really hurt our country. And we are going to go into very much -- now, remember what I said, the auto-pen. This government was illegally run for four years.

Thank you very much, everybody.

(CROSS TALK)

BOLDUAN: All right. So, we've been listening to the president, his position, his messaging going in. Kind of an exercise in manifestation, trying to say that the party is not -- is very unified and maybe in distraction. And some of the places that he went there with bringing up Bernie Sanders and such.

Let's get to Manu Raju. He's standing by on The Hill. He's been listening to this. He's -- also -- also, Alayna Treene is at the White House as well.

Let's start with Manu, though.

Manu, you heard -- you were listening in.

[09:10:00]

You heard the president as he's walking in. What is he heading into? He says the party's very unified.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's actually not very unified. There's actually significant division, particularly between the more moderate members and the more conservative members over some of the issues that Donald Trump just laid out there.

One of which is the issue of Medicaid. He contended just moments ago that they're only targeting waste, fraud and abuse. But there is real concerns about the impacts on Medicaid benefits among some Republican members themselves. There is a debate and a push right now by some of those conservative hardliners to put new work requirements in that are already being proposed in this bill to be implemented in 2029. They want to make that even sooner. There's some concerns about the impact of that.

There's also some concerns about how this would put no new co-pays on Medicaid beneficiaries. One Republican senator told me just last week that he believes there's a, quote, hidden tax on the working poor. That has been echoed by some of the more moderate members in the House Republican conference. Some of those more moderate members, too, are calling for an increase in the state and local tax deduction cap. Right now that's being proposed at $30,000. That's -- they're pushing to go much higher.

But those same hardline members say doing so could explode the budget deficit. And there are significant deficit concerns, despite what the White House has been saying about this bill.

And I talked to Republicans last night and this morning about this bill. And it is very clear, this is a conference divided.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): They chose to wait till the last minute.

RAJU: And why is that? What -- what's the reason for that?

LAWLER: You'll have to -- you'll have ask them. It was a pretty stupid exercise, frankly.

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): Well, when you work hard to get an agreement and the committees pass stuff out, and then people come in and want to undo them, makes us mad.

You got an angry group of folks out there.

RAJU: Can you support it?

REP. KEITH SELF (R-TX): No. We've got lots of work to go. Lots of -- lots of miles to put in on this thing.

RAJU: Should they have this 1:00 a.m. meeting on Wednesday?

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): No. They're trying to run it in through the jet fumes, and I just don't agree with that. I mean I'll keep working in good faith to try to make the bill as good as it can be and then decide where things stand. I think it's not the way we should do business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last member is a key member, Republican Chip Roy of Texas, who sits on the very powerful House Rules Committee. That committee is slated to meet at 1:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, overnight essentially, to take the next procedural step to advance this bill to the House floor.

But he, right now, is opposed to this measure because he's demanding deeper spending cuts. Those same spending cuts that some of the more centrist part of the Republican conference are opposed to, including to more quickly phase out green energy tax credits that some of those Republican members in the middle of the conference are trying to protect because they say that its essential in their districts.

But that is among the many disputes that Donald Trump is walking into, has to try to iron out here, because those sticking points could prevent the speaker from trying to get this bill out of the house by Thursday.

Guys.

BOLDUAN: I think we've got another live camera right here, Manu. Let's listen in. Let's pick this up.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This man has done a fantastic job. And so have you, Lisa. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

TRUMP: But this man has done a fantastic job. He's a real unifier. I don't think anybody else could have done it. We had -- I just said to your cohorts downstairs, we had a majority of one for a period of five months, and he kept it together. And we actually passed things. And nobody else could have done that. He's done a fantastic job as speaker.

We have a very, very unified party. Remember, we had one and now we have seven. We won elections. We won elections. And we're going to win a lot of elections. The economy is good.

I just had my highest poll numbers ever. Ever. And we had a big trip to the Middle East. We took in $5.1 trillion. We brought it back to our country. One hundred and eighty Boeing aircraft were being built now because of that trip, and many other things. That's the least of it.

The economy is doing great. The stock market's higher now than when I came into office. And we've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff money and we've had no inflation. You know, they kept saying, inflation. There's no inflation. Groceries are down. Gasoline is way down. Way down. Everything is down. All energy costs are down. The economy -- I'll tell you, to me, maybe the most respected thing -- you saw the way they respected me between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

BOLDUAN: All right, the president speaking there, talking to -- at another location where cameras were picking up his entrance into this meeting, speaking to reporters there as well.

Remember, as he says, there's no inflation and no impact on his tariffs, we just had a small business owner on saying that it is killing her business. And she -- all of these costs of the tariffs and inflation are passed on to her, and she is begging for help. So, there is that perspective when you hear the messaging from the president as well.

On the messaging and what they actually expect to come from this meeting today, let's get to the White House. Alayna Treene standing by.

Alayna, you were listening in as well. The president is definitely trying to put on a very optimistic message heading into this meeting. Where are the expectations of what is going to come out of this?

[09:15:04]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. Look, I mean, he's now repeatedly saying that they have a very unified party. Something, and Manu pointed this out as well, that is just not true right now, at least when it comes to this bill. There are sharp divisions over a number of policy issues.

But I'm told, from my conversations with White House officials, that the key goal that the president is going to be communicating in this meeting that's about to kick off is essentially, we need to get this bill moving. He really wants to have this process begin in earnest. And he wants to see this bill really be accepted and embraced by House Republicans. He understands that once it gets to the Senate there will be changes. But his goal is to get it moving.

And what I've been told about this is, from the president's point of view, as his core priority is the things that he repeatedly talked about and vowed to do on the campaign trail are in this bill. You know, sweeping tax cuts, no tax on tips and overtime, all the things he talked about consistently. That are the key priorities that he wants. And now that those are in this bill, he views it as, OK, the rest is just negotiating it to the finish line.

And so that's really his goal today is to try to bring these different sides, these competing factions together to line up behind this and really line up behind him to push this forward.

Of course, that is going to be a monumental task. He keeps talking about how they have more of a majority now than they did before. That's true, but it's still very much a slim majority. So, this is going to be a real test, Kate, of his deal-making abilities.

BOLDUAN: Yes, especially when he's walking into the meeting, as he just said to reporters, we're not cutting anything meaningful from Medicaid. You know very clearly, there are many Republicans who disagree with that as they go into this meeting.

TREENE: Right.

BOLDUAN: Alayna, thank you so much.

John, over to you.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator Scott Jennings and Karen Finney.

The president just said Republicans are unified in the House. How unified? Well, a few minutes ago I asked Congressman Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, how he would vote on this bill if he had a chance today.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, if a vote on this bill were held today, and I know that's not what's happening, it's going to be held in a few days, how would you vote?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Yes, I couldn't vote for it right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: How unified is that, Scott Jennings?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there's obviously people that have questions about what's in the bill. You know, making legislation this large that covers so many complex topics is not easy. And I think Republicans are unified on, you know, 90 plus percent of what's going on here, which is the concept of making the tax cuts permanent, bringing relief to American workers, energy deregulation and so on and so forth. But there are some sticking points.

That's why Donald Trump's personally engaged in the lobbying activities today. And he, of course, carries more weight when he asks Republicans to do something than anyone else possibly could.

So, I'm glad he's up there. I hope they actually move this forward, because this is not the end of the line. You know, there's two parties in Washington, the House and the Senate. And once the House is finished, the Senate will have to get on it as well. So, we're still probably weeks or months away from a final product. But you can't get to the final product unless you get over this initial hurdle. So, I'm hopeful Republicans will support the president, keep the process moving and ironing out their differences behind closed doors today.

BERMAN: Karen, you know, the president was ready for questions on cuts to Medicaid that Democrats have been talking about. President Trump insists they're not cuts. He says it's addressing waste, fraud and abuse. You can tell the language he's going to use there. How effective do you think his argument will be?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, not very. I mean let's -- first of all, Trump is losing credibility with the American people, right? I mean people are anxious. We heard from the small business owner in -- in the last hour who is very anxious about her business. At the same time, Trump is telling her it's all going to be OK.

And if you think about, it's -- these potential cuts and the potential impact, I think it's important to remember, it's the layering in of all these pieces. It's the impact on the tariffs. It's the people who then are shopping at Walmart, experiencing higher prices, who may see health care cuts coming out of some of the things proposed in this bill. They may see some of the energy tax credits that they were getting from the Inflation Reduction Act cut. So, they're seeing their costs increase in other places, as well as impact of tariffs. And then they see the president whining about his wanting a $400 million jet. And we see these huge tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires. And I think increasingly working class folks are going to say, wait a second, what about us? And there's -- it remains to be seen if there will end up being enough in the final bill that actually makes, you know, middle class and working class people feel like the president has heard them and is taking -- is listening to their concerns about the economy.

BERMAN: You know, Scott, the president, as he was walking in there, he stopped twice to talk to reporters.

[09:20:01]

He said a lot of words out loud. I'm not sure how much of it meant that much, but there is something that would concern me if I were Congressman Mike Lawler from New York or some of the other blue state Republicans who've been pushing to raise the caps on state and local tax deductions. President Trump really just seemed to give that a little bit of a backhand. He said that's something that Democratic governors want. He sort of looped them in, these blue state Republicans, with the likes of Governor Pritzker, Governor Newsom from California. How concerned would you be if you're these blue state Republicans who have been pushing hard to raise that cap?

JENNINGS: Well, concerned, I guess. But, you know, they're not the only constituency in the room. And, you know, they happen to live in the most terribly run states in America. And I'm sorry about that. But we're talking about making policy for the whole country here. And I'm sure there's some offers that are being made by the leadership and, you know, trying to get them something.

But, you know, they're -- they're not the only jurisdiction in play. We're talking about the whole country. We're talking about, you know, if this doesn't pass, if the tax cuts aren't made permanent, you know, it's the largest tax increase in American history. And so I -- and that goes -- that goes on everybody who pays taxes.

So, I think the president and the speaker and the Republican leadership team have an incredibly difficult job balancing all these concerns. And in any kind of delicate negotiation, not everybody gets what they want. And we'll see how it shakes out. But obviously they have a position. Some of the fiscal hawks have a position. You know, there's -- there's a lot of juggling going on in that room. But, you know, if anybody is going to get them to do something, it will be Donald Trump. And that's why he's on The Hill today.

BERMAN: Well, as I said, if anyone can figure out what's going on behind those closed doors right now, it's the CNN team with Manu Raju, Lauren Fox and others listening as best we can. Have that cup right up on the door. We will let you all know when we hear something.

Scott Jennings, Karen Finney, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, a Democratic congresswoman is now facing a federal assault charge after a confrontation with ICE agents in New Jersey. She joins us live next to respond to the charges for the first time. We will have her on next.

Plus, more than a dozen states are trying to reverse cuts at America's public health agencies. We're talking with two attorneys general taking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:51]

BOLDUAN: A developing story. The Justice Department filed charges Monday against a Democratic member of Congress, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey. DOJ is accusing her now of assaulting and interfering with law enforcement during a confrontation with homeland security officers outside an ICE detention center in Newark earlier this month. You're seeing video that we've probably -- we've played before of the moments of the chaotic -- of the chaos that ensued. The situation first grabbed attention when the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested on grounds of federal trespassing. That charge has since been dropped. The mayor was on CNN with Abby Phillip last night and spoke about all of this.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAS BARAKA (D) NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: I didn't see any of the things that were stated. I didn't see any of those things happen. So, I think that the congresswoman will be vindicated. And the videos are clear. Everybody can see those videos. They'll see the whole thing, and it'll -- and it'll be clear to me and it'll be clear to her in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Speaking up in defense of the congresswoman.

Joining me right now is the congresswoman at the center of this, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver.

Thank you, Congresswoman, for being here.

The charge is specifically for assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement. What is your reaction to this charge?

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): First of all, thank you so much, Kate, for having me and for allowing me to come on for a few seconds today.

I think the charges are absurd. You know, I -- it's ridiculous. I was there to do my job, along with my other colleagues. We have done this before. This is our obligation to do. It's in our job description to have oversight over facility.

And the entire situation was escalated by ICE. They caused the confrontation. Homeland came and, you know, caused this chaos that we see. It was a very tense situation. But it could have been, you know, easily not -- it could have easily not happened. They had every opportunity to not allow this to happen. It was very unnecessary. And -- and it just, once again, we were there to do our jobs.

And, you know, if I'm going to be charged with a crime for doing my job, it just speaks to, you know, where we're headed in this country and what we're dealing with as leaders and as -- as Congress members, you know, here in this country.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, just specifically on the issue at hand with -- now that you're facing this charge, I mean, what is the plan today? I mean will you -- are you turning yourself in or showing up in court? I mean, what is your understanding of what happens now? MCIVER: So, we are still trying to get more information on what the

next steps are. My attorneys are in contact with the federal courts in New Jersey, and Newark, New Jersey. So, we're just waiting on direction for now.

It's business as usual. I'm going to do my job. This week we all know that Republicans are trying to take away Medicaid and important funding to services that impact those over 800,000 people that I represent in New Jersey and across this nation. And so, I'm going to do my job, Kate. That's what I -- why I was elected. Why the people from New Jersey sent me here. So, it's a full day of work for me here on the Capitol.

[09:30:03]

BOLDUAN: You know, we just --

MCIVER: On -- on Capitol Hill, excuse me.

BOLDUAN: No, of course. We were just covering as -- as the President Trump is heading into a big meeting with.