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House Panel Still Debating Trump Agenda Bill After All-Night Session; Witness Says, Mile-Long Tornado Tears Through Alabama Neighborhood; Source Says, U.S. Negotiating Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Via American in Doha. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 21, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Pulling an all-nighter. A key House committee convened at 1:00 A.M. and they're still meeting, Republicans trying to get that mega tax and spending bill over the finish line. One problem remains, Republicans don't know if they have enough Republicans on board to pass it.

And this morning, five fugitives are still on the run after one more escapee from that New Orleans jailbreak was captured overnight and now a worker at the jail is under arrest for allegedly helping them break out.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This week the FDA is cracking down on copycats of popular weight loss drugs. What this means for the people who've been buying the cheaper versions.

Sara is on assignment. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news overnight, the clash on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are still up and at it and working. After pulling an all- nighter with President Trump's second term agenda hanging in the ballots. A key house committee convened at 1:00 A.M. to debate what the president calls his big, beautiful bill, his massive tax and spending bill basically encompassing his domestic agenda.

This committee is key because no legislation goes to the floor unless it passes through this committee, called the Rules Committee. And we're still waiting to see a final version of what that will be coming out of this committee that continues to debate.

This is all after, you'll remember, President Trump's hard sell behind closed doors that happened yesterday during our show. And that the fact of the matter is that apparently failed to convince the Republican holdouts that remain. There are big concerns about the price tag, which we now have a new estimate coming out overnight from the nonpartisan congressional scorekeeper, saying that nearly $4 trillion it will cost over the next ten years or so, and only some of that will be offset. But spending cuts, including deep cuts to Medicaid definitely remain. That's despite the president telling Republicans not to, quote, F around with the program that more than 71 million Americans depend on.

There is a lot that is unknown, which includes what actually will this bill look like in the end. That's still not known today, but Lauren Fox is joining us with the very latest. And, Lauren, you just spoke to the House speaker as we were coming to air. What did he tell you?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The House speaker making clear that they may try to vote tonight and he said that that manager's amendment or the changes that are coming to this bill, those are forthcoming. Here he was just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): A few more conversations and we'll have it out for everybody. Rules Committee knows what to expect. So --

FOX: Can you walk us through where you think things are on SALT? Is this idea of $40,000 cap over ten years the deal at this point?

JOHNSON: That's the agreement we came to. And, you know, I think, the SALT caucus, as they call themselves, are -- it's not everything they wanted, but I think they know what a huge improvement that is for their constituents and it gives them a lot to go home and talk about. And, of course, in the full context of the whole bill, they're doing a lot for the residents of their state. So, they've got a lot to be pleased with and I think that's going to get the job done.

FOX: Have you been up all night having meetings?

JOHNSON: I slept for 45 minutes.

FOX: Are conservatives okay with that SALT change?

JOHNSON: No one is delighted by that, right? But they understand the necessity of our handling this issue and keeping the majority. And I think, you know, again, with all the great things in this bill, everyone's going to have a lot to go home and brag about. So, they're excited. Everybody's excited to get this thing to the finish line and there's a lot of energy and a lot of anticipation. So, it's a big day for us.

FOX: Come into the floor tomorrow?

JOHNSON: We plan to do it tonight if possible. That's my plan. So, stay tuned.

FOX: Thank you.

JOHNSON: Okay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX: You see there, bleary-eyed but very upbeat House speaker, as he says, that they might try to actually pass this tonight. That is obviously a little faster than the Thursday deadline that everyone was thinking and aiming for here in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, this House Rules Committee, it is still going.

[07:05:01]

They are still having conversations and we expect that this could go throughout today, into the early evening even, because Democrats want to keep holding Republicans' feet to the fire. They plan to bring up several, if not hundreds of amendments. At some point, Republicans could cut them off, but it's just not clear right now how long that meeting is going to take.

You can expect that this is convenient in some ways for the house leadership. Because as this Rules Committee is convening, as they are meeting, leadership can be meeting with people behind closed doors, skeptics trying to get the votes that they need so that they could potentially go to the floor, you heard from the speaker, as early as tonight. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. What those changes are still completely TBD, though you're getting some inklings, at least when it comes to the tax deductions for expensive co coastal states. Regardless, let's see what they will be doing with this self-imposed deadline of getting this over the finish line by Memorial Day.

Lauren, thank you so much. She's going to be watching this very closely this morning. John?

BERMAN: All I can say is 45 minutes sleep for the speaker. Welcome to the morning news schedule.

All right, breaking this morning, we are getting our first look at scenes from Northern Alabama after a devastating night of severe weather. Witnesses say a tornado tore a path at least a mile long through one neighborhood in Madison. Violent storms have killed at least 28 people in three states since Friday.

CNN's Allison Chinchar tracking all the weather for us. These storms have just been relentless.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It has been day after day after day. And the thing to remember too is that for some of these states and cities, they had multiple days that they were dealing with some of these issues.

So, yes, we're looking at some of these possibilities where you have some of these areas that have had a couple of different days of not just tornadoes, but maybe very large hail, damaging wind gusts. The video behind me, you can see this is a tornado from yesterday. This was in Alabama, just outside of Huntsville, Alabama. But it was one of 13 total tornado reports just in the last 24 hours.

Again, we've had a lot in the last few days, but this right here, this was just the last 24 hours. You can see we've had over 170 wind reports and roughly 60 large hail reports, some of those the larger than golf balls, although if you go back a few days, we even had baseball-size hail report over the weekend. Now, when we talk about tornadoes, we are really starting to see those tornado report numbers jump. Take a look at this. 883 is the current count. This is as of -- or this is as of the day before yesterday. It does not include the last 24 hours. But the average that we would have up to this point is only 653. So we are well above average for where we normally would be by this point in late May.

This is some of the video from the devastating tornado last Friday. This is the one that hit London, Kentucky. This was eventually rated an EF-4 tornado. It went on the ground for 55 miles and was nearly a mile wide at its widest point possible.

We talk about a lot of those numbers here and how far above average, but keep in mind too that May is statistically the peak of when we would have the most tornadoes, followed by June, and then we gradually start to see things taper back off as we head through the back end of summer and certainly into the fall.

Here's a look at where the storms are now. You can see we still have several strong thunderstorms across portions of the Carolinas and even down into portions of Georgia. This is where the biggest activity is going to be in terms of those strong thunderstorms for the remainder of the day today and into the evening.

BERMAN: All right. We will continue to watch it. Allison Chinchar, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: A male exotic dancer takes a stand in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean Diddy Combs. What he said happened at those so-called freak-offs and who could take the stand next.

Also, caught on dash cam, the driver of this dump truck, just look at this, loses control and crashes into a home basically at full speed.

And in a very different twist, Sara Sidner sitting down with America's and the world's favorite frog, the one and only Kermit, who's set to give a special commencement address at the University of Maryland.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, the U.S. has been talking with Hamas through an American intermediary in Doha this week. This is according to a source, the Trump administration trying to broker an Israel-Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Let's talk more about this new reporting. CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House with this new report. Alayna, tell us more about what you're learning here. You know, this is really interesting, Kate, because so far, really, the U.S. has been hesitant to have direct conversations with Hamas. So far, they've gone through intermediaries like Qatar and Egypt to have these. But that's no longer the case. What we're learning is, yes, they are having these direct talks now this week with an American intermediary in Doha. His name is Bishara Bahbah. He's an American-Palestinian, who led the Arab-Americans for Trump Group during the 2024 presidential campaign. And he's been in contact with Hamas in the past normally through these remote exchanging of messages, but this week, he is having these talks face-to-face.

And, again, the reason this is so important is because this is not how the Trump administration has been approaching, dealing with Hamas so far, particularly, of course, because a lot of the talks have been direct with Israel, not necessarily with Hamas.

And all of this comes Kate, as we're learning my colleague, Kylie Atwood, and I, that the president and his top officials around him are growing increasingly frustrated with how Israel and specifically Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is handling the conflict. One of the sources told me that essentially it boils down to one key issue, which is the president wants this war to end and he wants it to end soon.

Netanyahu, they fear, is not quite ready to deal. In the words of one of these people who are close to the president, they said the president obviously wants a deal. It's becoming more clear as talks continue that Bibi is not quite there.

Now, all of this, of course, as we've also learned in the last two weeks, there were three trips from major cabinet members. Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, both of them scrapping their plans to go to Israel. The president also did not choose to visit Israel when he went to the Middle East last week, something he did do when he did that same trip during his first term.

And, again, I think this is so important to note because there's been so much, of course -- you know, look at how the president has been really frustrated between the, you know, stalling of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. But we're learning now that it's the same with Israel. All to say, though, U.S. officials telling me that, essentially, you know, this isn't a sign in change of posture. The United States is still very full-throated in its support of Israel. But the problems they argue is that they don't believe that Israel's leader, Netanyahu, is quite on the same page about ending the war as quickly as possible. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Alayna, great reporting. Thanks so much for bringing it to us. I really appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, breaking overnight, the Justice Department has opened an investigation into former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after House Republicans accused him of lying about his response to the COVID pandemic.

Also new overnight, a fifth inmate now recaptured after ten of them escaped from that New Orleans jail on Friday. Now, a maintenance worker in the jail is under arrest and also facing charges for helping them escape. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: this morning, new testimony in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs. We could hear soon from Rapper Kid Cudi about his relationship with Cassie Ventura. A jury briefly heard from Cassie Ventura's mother, who testified that Combs beat her daughter when he learned her involvement with Kid Cudi. She took photos of her daughter's bruises and says she wired Combs $20,000 to leave Cassie alone. The jury also heard from a male exotic dancer who testified he was paid to have sexual encounters with Ventura in hotel rooms while Combs washed and told him what to do.

With us now, Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney. The testimony from Cassie Ventura's mother was interesting. A lot of people had sort of circled and said, what are we going to get out of this? We got some new information, according to her. She testified that Comb was basically asked for a $20,000 payoff, she testified, to leave her daughter alone. What would that mean legally and why are we only hearing about that now in the case?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: A number of things you won't hear about, John, good morning to you, until actually you get to testimony, right? Now, with respect to the mom, a couple of takeaways, number one, the bruising, right? Because of the fact it goes to the beating, it goes to the coercion, it goes then to sex trafficking because the issue was then consent. So, the mom indicates she took the pictures.

To your question with respect to the $20,000 payoff, that's something that Combs asked for. Why? Because he learned that she was having relations with someone else and said, hey, I'm paying all this money for you. I want $20,000. So, you can use that for your defense to indicate nothing other than jealousy. He's outraged and this is how he's responding as it relates to that.

To your question as to why it could be significant for prosecutors, when you talk about a criminal enterprise, you talk about RICO, what do you talk about? You talk about extortion, right? You talk about bad behavior. You talk about a person who is devoid of right sensibilities that a person who wasn't a criminal would otherwise do.

And so could it be powerful testimony? Potentially, but remember the defense didn't even cross-examine her. So, I think they'll make the arguments that I just made with respect to, okay, big deal.

BERMAN: Why not cross-examine her? Why? Is it a risk to leave that be?

JACKSON: So, a couple of things, John. Number one, you're talking about someone's mother. Not only someone's mother, it's Cassie Ventura, a very sympathetic figure here who has gone through a lot. Are you really going to risk if you're the defense brutalizing the mother? Isn't it fair to say, ma'am, that your daughter was -- you want to stay away from that.

The other thing and critical is that the mother doesn't hurt you. You explain the $20,000 payment. You chalk it up to jealousy. With regard to the beatings, everyone knows that they had a tumultuous relationship. What do you get from brow beating the mom? The answer is nothing, or the answer is a jury that's motivated to convict your client. Leave her alone.

BERMAN: How about Kid Cudi who will take the stand soon-ish? What do you think the jury will see there? Remember, I think it's an eight- man, four-woman jury.

JACKSON: Yes. So, listen, it goes to a relationship, and it depends how you slice this with respect to his testimony. Now, he is a person who apparently was with Cassie Ventura. How can you view that? You can view that again, if you're the defense, about everything that Combs did wasn't motivated to coerce you into sexual activity. It was done because you're seeing someone else and I love you. You're in my life. It should be you and me. I could see whoever I want. I'd apparently in his mind, but you, as a woman, you're going with someone else. Are you serious? And so I think you could explain it as a defense, as somebody who's just jealous and outraged.

It also goes to the issue of a person who is so brutalized, Cassie, so says to prosecution, while she certainly had time and the ability to see someone else. So, all evidence cuts both ways. You need to explain it to the jury in closing argument.

BERMAN: Excellent. Counselor, thank you very much.

JACKSON: Thank you.

BERMAN: We'll see you again soon on this, I am sure.

This morning billionaires on the brink of a major tax cut as a new report shows that over the past year, the ten richest Americans got $365 billion richer.

And this morning, Pope Leo gave his first weekly audience in St. Peter's Square, what he had to say about the war on Gaza.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:29:58]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, America's billionaires got a lot richer over the past year, must be nice.

This as Republicans on Capitol Hill are debating the president's tax and spending bill that could make the wealthiest Americans even more wealthy.