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Trump: China's President Xi "Extremely Hard To Make A Deal With"; Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) On Musk Blasting Trump's Agenda Bill As A "Disgusting Abomination"; Trump Administration Rescinds Guidance To Hospitals On Emergency Abortions. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 04, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And reaction there after these comments from President Trump.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Sara. It's almost as if China is blowing this off not giving these remarks that much attention or credibility.

Right away let me share with you some remarks that came late today here in Beijing from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs very much sticking to message saying that China's position and principles toward the United States remain consistent.

But here is what's so attention-getting to me. It was on Tuesday, yesterday, when we saw China's foreign minister Wang Yi and the new U.S. ambassador to Beijing David Perdue who just arrived here in China -- they had a face-to-face meeting. We see the two men in these photos shaking hands, sitting next to each other having what appears to be a very thoughtful discussion.

And then hours later -- Wednesday afternoon my time -- early Wednesday morning where you are, Sara, in New York -- we see this post by President Trump on Truth Social. In fact, if we look at the readout provided by the Chinese government the messaging seems to be very positive talking about the importance of dialogue and cooperation and the need to get relations -- this relation -- a complication relationship between the United States back on track.

So it's not clear if there is some kind of disconnect in between then and now. What is looming though is this potential for a phone call between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It's something that has been talked about on many times -- many different occasions -- and still has not come to fruition. But there have been messages from the White House that something was going to happen in the near future.

Let's point out that it's not China's method of operation to have a U.S. president just pick up the phone and talk to senior leadership such as Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping and the Chinese Party really prefer backchannel conversations. Really prefer the diplomatic process to take place. And once an agreement is reached then there would be a phone call to perhaps congratulate each other.

Sara, we'll say never say never to this potential of a phone call but if it does take place optics are going to be very important.

The last thing, as an observer has pointed out to me, China does not want to be caught off guard. It doesn't want to appear as if it's being scolded or told what to do by President Trump, Sara.

SIDNER: Well, it does look -- there is some scolding there. We will see what happens from all of this.

Marc Stewart, thank you so much. Good reporting out of Beijing for us -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So new this morning big and beautiful or a disgusting abomination? As of now it seems that Elon Musk might be sleeping because it's been at least 4 1/2 hours since he attacked the president's huge tax and spending plan.

He tweeted or retweeted at least 10 attacks, including the first. He wrote, "I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork- filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination." And he added, "Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You know it."

With us now CNN political commentator and Republican strategist David Urban, and former White House director of message planning Meghan Hays.

And David, my question to you is Elon Musk tweeting or retweeting 10 things, including "disgusting abomination," but in the last 24 hours President Trump has said zip about this on Truth Social or anywhere else. He famously likes to say he's a counterpuncher.

Why is he so timid here when it comes to Elon Musk?

DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: I don't know if he's timid. I'm just looking at that video wondering if you'd have -- if you would have given him the key if he'd had known that tweet was coming.

Look, I think Elon Musk -- he was there. DOGE was in place to help cut a trillion dollars of spending. That was Elon Musk's raison d'etre for the past 130 days. And so I think he really does believe in his heart that the bill spends too much. It doesn't -- it doesn't bend the spending curve; it puts our nation further into debt and the deficit grows.

And so I think he, like Rep. Massie and Rand Paul and others, really do believe that the deficit and our debt -- our national debt are existential threats to America and to the dollar as a reserve currency, and he's expressing that.

BERMAN: Yeah. And my question to you -- his raison d'etre was to cut waste. I mean, he -- basically, now he's saying zut alors to keep the French going here, David. URBAN: (Laughing).

BERMAN: But look, is Elon Musk's disapproval different than others? Because he also wrote overnight in November next year we're going to "fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."

Is this a case --

URBAN: Yeah, John.

BERMAN: -- where the president has an opponent -- has an opponent who, you know --

URBAN: I'd say the only -- the only person --

BERMAN: Go ahead.

[07:35:00]

URBAN: I was going to say the only person's megaphone is as large as Donald Trump's is Elon Musk's, right? So it does have -- it does have extra weight. I think Elon Musk's position on this -- he's got not only the megaphone, but he's got the money to back it up, as we saw in these past elections. If he wants to get involved and spend money and put political clout behind it, it could be significant.

So if he becomes now a deficit hawk -- someone who cares about the debt and deficit and goes after those folks who don't want -- who don't see things the same way he does, it's going to be consequential.

BERMAN: And Meghan Hays, Elon Musk, Democratic hero now? You guys have spent five months just eviscerating this guy, running against him directly, but already in the last 24 hours Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries couldn't love him more.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: I mean, I don't know if we'd go to hero, but everyone's got an angle, right? Like, he's made that the EV tax credits are put out there, so he wants those back in the bill.

I am here for anybody who wants to call B.S. on this bill that's cutting 14 million people off of health insurance and 18 million kids off of food assistance programs. So if he wants to do that and help Democrats out that's totally fine. But I think Elon Musk has more of an angle here than just being a deficit hawk.

BERMAN: So you think that Musk is doing this for himself.

URBAN: Yeah, but I don't -- but Meghan --

BERMAN: Go ahead, David.

URBAN: Yeah, I think that's -- I disagree. I'd push back on that. Look, John, how much money did Elon Musk lose, right? What was his stock -- how much stock did he -- devalued while he was at DOGE? I mean, so if that's the -- if Meghan and all of the detractors think oh, it's all about the EVs and that's why Elon is doing it, that's just -- that's just B.S. I mean, he lost more money by being a DOGE deficit -- you know, trying to cut spending in the government than he'd ever do during this EV tax credit, so B.S. to that.

BERMAN: Meghan?

HAYS: Except for he got all those contracts for other things at SpaceX and other of his different companies. So I think that he might be (INAUDIBLE) ahead here.

URBAN: Come on Meghan. Who is going to -- if Elon is not doing SpaceX, who is going to do SpaceX? You and me if it's not Elon? Come on. Give me a break. He's the only guy capable of doing it.

BERMAN: Is there, Meghan, as this goes forward though -- you know, if Elon Musk stays on this, and you never know if Elon Musk is going to stay on something or not, but if he stays on this subject is there a right way for Democrats to use it given that he has become a boogeyman for them?

HAYS: Yeah. I mean, I think that he is on their message, right? And I think that the Democrats want this bill to be significantly cut in the Senate and not be the House bill and go back to the House and have them reconcile the differences here.

Because I think that Medicaid, and Medicare, and Social Security cuts that are in the bill currently are not acceptable to Democrats. It hurts working families. And I think that if Elon Musk is going to help them do that, they are here for that.

BERMAN: And David, just one last question this. How much of a problem is this for the White House? Do you think that this could actually cost votes either in the Senate or more likely in the House when this bill gets back to the House?

URBAN: You know, John, my prediction is this bill is going to pass. I've not heard on senator say they are not voting for the bill, yet they -- look, they express concerns, they have concerns, right, but no one has said I'm not voting for this.

At the end of the day the most important provision of this bill is making these tax cuts permanent. The deficit and debt -- that's a problem. But these tax cuts -- if they're not made permanent it's going to have a huge increase on taxes on lots of folks all across America. People under $50,000, et cetera.

Donald Trump campaigned on making a lot of these tax cuts -- no tax on tips, overtime, Social Security. All those things are going to be in this bill.

I think it's going to pass. Whether it passes before the Fourth of July I'm a little bit suspicious about that -- a little sus on that. I think there will be an X date given sometime right before the August recess and I think it'll pass by then.

BERMAN: David Urban a little sus.

Meghan Hays, I do want to ask you about the news overnight. Reports that the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has issued these studies to possibly rename some U.S. naval vessels, including the Harvey Milk which was named after gay rights activist and Navy veteran Harvey Milk. Also, some other vessels that could be renamed or at least being studied -- Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Harriet Tubman, Delores Huerta, Lucy Stone, Cesar Chavez, Medgar Evers.

What do you think of this?

HAYS: I think that the defense secretary should spend his time doing things to keep Americans safe. I don't know why we would be spending money or time and his energy to rename battleships. It just doesn't seem right. I don't think that's what the American people want, and I don't think that's what the American people want taxpayer dollars spent on.

He needs to focus on what is important in keeping America safe and keeping our troops safe. But again, he is wholly unqualified for this job, so this just goes to the point that the is not -- his energy is not placed in the right direction.

BERMAN: Ten seconds or less, David?

URBAN: Yeah. So listen, Meghan's got it wrong. Battleships, Meghan, by the way, are named after states if you know anything about this stuff.

So look, the Navy and the military should be focused on warfighting and focused on lethality. And ships were never named after people like Ruth Bader Ginsberg. This is a construct of recent -- the recent left.

[07:40:00]

Listen, I'm all for heroes -- for people who are inspiring -- soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines. People who fought. That's who ships should be named after. There are lots and lots of heroic people if you want to look at African Americans or Hispanics or other folks who served in the Navy, served in the military. Let's do that. I think that we can -- we can examine this and have a discussion about it and come to a better place than some of these ships are currently named.

So I agree with Hegseth on this one.

BERMAN: I will say if you're talking about heroes some of these people on the list are heroes to a lot of people.

David Urban, Meghan Hays --

URBAN: No, John. I'm saying military heroes, John -- military heroes.

BERMAN: All right.

Thanks to both of you -- appreciate it -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump administration is rolling back more public health guidance right now. The Department of Health and Human Services announcing Tuesday that it is rescinding the current federal guidance to health care providers that specifies that women should be able to access abortion care if they are facing a medical emergency, even if state law restrict -- state laws restrict such procedures. Now, no more.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joining us now. What is the impact of this move?

MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, what we're hearing from folks like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is that it will bring back a lot of confusion over whether physicians, particularly in states with total abortion bans, can act if an abortion is necessary in an emergency situation to preserve the health or life of the pregnant woman.

Now, this concerns a law from 1986 -- a federal law called EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. And what that says is that hospitals that receive Medicare funds, which is the vast majority of hospitals in the United States and have emergency departments have to provide stabilizing care if patients show up in an emergency situation regardless of their ability to pay.

Now, after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the Biden administration put out guidance to hospitals and health care providers essentially saying the EMTALA applies even in states with strict abortion bans. So that physicians should feel that they can legally provide stabilizing abortion care if that's the necessary medical treatment in an emergency situation. Essentially saying federal law there preempts the state law.

Now, this was the subject of a Supreme Court case that was essentially sent back down to the lower courts and now the Trump administration has dropped that case. And yesterday, they rescinded that Biden administration-era guidance essentially taking back that letter.

They said, "It does not reflect the policy of this administration." They did, however, emphasize that they will continue to enforce EMTALA, including in situations that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.

But, of course, there are abortion bans -- total abortion bans in place in about a dozen states in the United States and folks who are watching this closely worry that could increase confusion over whether doctors in those states can provide this kind of care -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And you can be sure doctors in those states are going to be confused as well, especially with that very confusing caveat that they're also offering, which seems to undermine the reason they're rescinding this guidance in the first place.

Important reporting. Thank you so much, Meg -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight two Chinese researchers have been charged with smuggling a biological pathogen into the United States that they planned to study at the University of Michigan. According to the complaint filed yesterday, the two brought a fungus described as a "potential agroterrorism weapon" that can cause disease in plants like corn, rice, and barley.

According to the FBI, the pathogen is responsible for billions of dollars in economic damage worldwide every year. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the case is "A sobering reminder that the CCP," which is the Chinese Communist Party, "is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences."

The affidavit doesn't specify what their intentions were in studying the fungus. The University of Michigan said in a statement Tuesday they strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security, or undermine the university's critical public mission -- John.

BERMAN: All right, an official major development in the manhunt for the escapees from that New Orleans jail. Law enforcement has raided a home tied to a video that appears to show one of the escapees.

And millions of Americans under air quality alerts as this giant dust storm -- I mean, a storm as big as the lower 48 -- drifts closer.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:48:58]

SIDNER: House Speaker Mike Johnson once again doing damage control on President Donald Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill after Elon Musk called it an abomination. The speaker says he's reached out to Musk after Musk's comments. The president, so far, undeterred and wants the bill on his desk by Independence Day. But several Republicans are on board with Musk in bashing the bill.

Now Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State is joining us right now.

Look, it's not just some Republicans but Democratic leaders. Schumer and Jeffries, are out there and quickly saying they agree with Musk that the bill is, as Jeffries reiterated, disgusting.

Do you agree with Musk?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): No, absolutely. On this one thing, yes, there's plenty to disagree with Elon Musk on, but just because you disagree with somebody on one thing doesn't mean you have to disagree with them on everything. And without question, this is a terrible piece of legislation.

Look, it's a bizarre world. I've been in a ton of interviews talking about this bill with Republicans and Republicans are like the debt, the deficit, they're terrible. They're devastating for our country. And I don't necessarily disagree with that. And now they're voting for a bill that adds trillions of dollars to the debt.

[07:50:08] It makes no sense. It's -- they're trying to create this fictional world where the debt and the deficit matter and you can vote for a bill that adds trillions of dollars to it.

No, it's a terrible piece of legislation on a whole series of levels and I'm glad that Elon Musk has recognized that.

SIDNER: Look, Musk -- as you just said, he's saying there's too much pork and too much spending. But some of your colleagues are concerned, as well as a couple of Republicans, including Murkowski and Collins, about the cuts to things like Medicare.

So is it a mistake to sort of jump on Musk's side when the parties differ over why the bill is so problematic?

SMITH: Look, any political argument, whether you're talking about a piece of legislation or a candidate for that matter, people are going to have a lot of different reasons to support or oppose. You need to go after as many reasons as you can if you oppose the bill, and I do.

And yes, the cuts to Medicaid and a variety from -- cuts in there are also very, very problematic but the mission is clear if you oppose this legislation -- defeat it. And Elon Musk's comments, I think, help build opposition to the bill. So that's what we want to do is build comprehensive opposition to a bill that I and many others genuinely feel would be terrible for this country.

SIDNER: Is there anything in the bill that you do agree with?

SMITH: I am sure there is. I confess I haven't thought in that particular piece of it. I haven't looked through every last little aspect of it. I can't -- I can't think of anything off the top of my head, to tell you the truth, except for one broad thing. I think the notion that we need to find some way to control spending.

I mean, I think there are a lot of things we could do on health care that would make sense -- about delivering health care more efficiently and more effectively. Gosh, you know, the Medicare Advantage program is driving up the cost of Medicare and not providing good services to the American people.

There's a bunch of different ways to save money. I don't think this does that effectively.

And again, my big argument is on the tax cuts side. If you support something you ought to be willing to pay for it. And frankly, that's something that we as a country have struggled with, not just the Republican Party.

I mean, the Republican Party is now talking about spending more money on defense. I'm on the Armed Services Committee. We talk about that a lot and that may well be necessary. But how can you say that we're desperate to spend more money on defense and then cut taxes by five or six trillion dollars?

You know, we've got this something for nothing mentality and I think that's probably the biggest thing that Elon Musk is going after here is nobody embodies the something for nothing mentality better than Donald Trump and the Republican Party as it exists right now.

SIDNER: I am curious about this. Trump has now, today, doubled basically the tariff on steel and aluminum going into effect today. He is now saying that China is hard to work with.

Can you give me some sense of what this means to you because Boeing is in your state? It is based there. It has a huge footprint. What will this mean to some -- a place like Boeing and the workers there?

SMITH: Sure. My constituents, my state, but the country -- the approach that Donald Trump is taking to tariffs is going to have a very negative effect on the economy. And first of all, the chaos and the uncertainty of it. It's on, it's off, it's on, it's off. It's here, it's there. It's this country, it's that country.

You're trying to plan a business. A lot of people -- and it's starting to happen -- we're seeing it -- they're sitting on their money because they don't know what the future is going to be.

And it is absolutely going to drive up the cost of manufacturing. We manufacture a lot of things in this country with aluminum and steel. Well, those costs just went up. Certainly, airplanes are part of it but there's a whole lot of other things that we manufacture.

The Trump administration's entire strategy on tariffs is doing enormous harm to our economy without question. And yes, that affects my constituents, but I would argue it also affects the entire country and we're seeing the results in the economic data.

SIDNER: Let me ask you lastly about Ukraine. We have seen this -- these incredible pictures of Ukraine sending drones into -- deep into Russia hitting their air defense and also blowing up a bridge and then Russia responding. We have not heard anything from Donald Trump on any of this.

Where do you see peace talks at this point or ceasefire talks?

SMITH: Well, what Ukraine released yesterday -- their eight-point outline for what a fair peace deal would look like is the framework that we ought to be working towards.

And look, President Trump fundamentally misunderstood this conflict -- well, for a long time now but certainly since he got into the White House by focusing on Zelenskyy and Ukraine and giving Putin a pass.

Putin started this war. The only way it stops is if he chooses to stop it, and the only way to get him to choose that is to convince him that he can't win. That he has to accept a peace settlement. And what Ukraine did really drove home that point to Putin.

[07:55:08]

It would be great if President Trump or Marco Rubio, or somebody spoke out publicly about that and said, "Mr. Putin, this is why you have to end this war. This is bad for you as well as bad for Ukraine and bad for the country."

But look, for whatever reason -- and it would take way too long at this point in the interview to explain why it is that Trump and the Republicans are so sympathetic to Putin -- you know, they view this as more a matter of putting pressure on Zelenskyy and Ukraine and just gave Putin a pass. And he took that pass to try to pursue his maximalist objectives.

It is time for Donald Trump to change that and say, "Mr. Putin, stop this war. And if you don't stop this war there will be consequences." Sanctions would be a great way to do it. Continuing to support Ukraine would be a good way to do it. We send that message, I think that forces Putin to the table because it tells him that he cannot win to the degree that he wants to.

SIDNER: All right, Congressman Adam Smith. It is a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on this morning -- John.

SMITH: Great.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning a manhunt remains underway for two inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail more than two weeks ago.

There was a potential break in the case when what appeared to be one of the escapees, Antoine Massey, posted a video to social media from inside what looked like a kitchen there. Multiple law enforcement agencies have now raided and searched the home where they believe this video was filmed.

Massey was one of 10 inmates who initially escaped. Eight have since been recaptured.

This morning a dog has returned home after being lost for more than a month and traveling about 100 miles on her own both on land and at sea. Amber is a 5-year-old rescue dog. She escaped from her foster family's yard back in April. She was ultimately discovered by a boat about a mile from shore swimming in the rough seas. She has been returned to her foster family who says she lost some weight but is otherwise healthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD, ACTOR, "BACK TO THE FUTURE": There's something very important that all of us are involved with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need your help.

BOB GALE, CO-CREATOR, "BACK TO THE FUTURE": We are on the lookout for a missing guitar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to find the guitar that I played in "Back to the Future."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So what they're talking about is the Gibson guitar that Marty McFly played during the "Back to the Future" high school dance scene right there -- Johnny B. Goode. He's pretty good at it. Filmmakers say that guitar has not been seen for four decades. They lost it.

That is why Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Harry Waters Jr. are teaming up with Gibson to issue a plea to the public. Gibson and Universal are even making a new documentary about the search dubbed "Lost to the Future."

Kate.

BOLDUAN: I like that. It's good. Go for it. Let's find it all together.

Right now there's also this to contend with apparently. It's almost end of days scenarios at this point, guys. A wall of dust from the Sahara Desert is making its way across the Atlantic and is headed toward the Gulf Coast set to reach Florida today.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking this one. That is a whole lot of dust, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Isn't this just so 2025, Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

VAN DAM: I mean, listen, we've got dust, we've got wildfire smoke. We've got both to contend with.

If you'll excuse me, I want to nerd out for a moment because you don't really see this that often, especially this time of year. We've got the satellite loop up and you've got dust, which has made the trek of 4,000 miles from West Africa to reach our shoreline, and smoke that's traveled over 2,000 miles from the wildfires to our north.

Now really, the only implications for you and I at home are more beautiful or pretty sunrises and sunsets because a lot of this smoke and the dust is really at high levels of the atmosphere. So not a major concern although prolonged exposure to dust or smoke can have problems with respiratory illnesses, especially if you're sensitive to that, like an asthmatic.

But here is the Saharan dust layer, right? West Africa -- it gets kicked up by the trade winds that take our tropical systems from the east to the west, and there it is making its way into places like Puerto Rico. You saw some of the live visuals there a moment ago. And it is reaching the shores here on mainland United States.

It's being driven by this area of high pressure. This is a subpermanent -- a semipermanent area of high pressure. But again, it's fueling the trade winds that help push along the storm systems that we track this time of year as hurricane just began -- hurricane season just began June first.

Dry, dusty layer originating from West Africa, and once it reaches the southeastern United States it kind of just spins and it just gets stuck up into the upper levels of the atmosphere. This is a live look at Miami. If there were no clouds you'd look up

and you'd see a very hazy sky to the sky. What I do believe is going to happen -- it's raining now and once we finally dry things out later this weekend, I believe that we'll get that thin layer of dust that's mixing in with the precipitation. You'll probably have to wash your cars. So that's something that will be more of an implication for you.

But you can see just how wet it has been across South Florida. Lots of showers and thunderstorms across the region. By the way, we were monitoring the potential for some tropical development off the southeast coast, but it looks like that will be more of an island type thing.