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Personal Medicaid Information Given To ICE For Immigration Enforcement; Writers Union Suggests Colbert Cancellation A Bribe To Trump. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 18, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

OSCAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: The Trump administration is giving immigration and customs enforcement access to the personal data of the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The information includes addresses and ethnicities, allowing ICE agents to potentially track down migrants suspected of illegally living in the United States. The Associated Press obtained the agreement, but it hasn't yet been publicly announced.

I want to bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who's with us. So Priscilla, can you just tell us more about this apparent agreement? What are the implications here?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to obtain as much information they can as they try to locate undocumented immigrants in the United States. Now in this case, this is data for, as you just mentioned, 79 million Medicaid enrollees. So what does that include?

That includes names, addresses, ethnicities. It's also, according to this agreement, which is between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security, going to be limited. So they can have access to this information on a limited basis until early September. They can't download the data.

So there are some guardrails here, but all the same, this is raising alarm because it is so much information that will be at the disposal of federal enforcement.

Now we should note that immigrants are not allowed to enroll in Medicaid. There are undocumented immigrants out there, but there are some who are here legally who also have some limitations, but emergency Medicaid is required by federal law. So that is where immigrants who are documented or not may have access to it.

Now in a statement that was provided to the Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that they are exploring an initiative, quote, to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.

Health and Human Services officials have a similar message, which is that this is about waste, fraud, abuse, but this is information that would be used for deportations. And that is where you can see the chilling effect and the alarm among advocates.

JIMENEZ: And that emergency care, you sometimes choose that in an emergency. You might have to think through that a little bit more.

I want to ask you before you go about another bit of reporting that you have, that ICE is apparently reaching out to former officers to help with deportation quotas.

What do you know?

ALVAREZ: ICE has been underfunded and has had limited personnel for years. Well, now they're going to get a historic amount of cash. That means that they also get to get more agents. This is all after the president signed that legislation into law that included all of this money.

So now there is a call out to the field for people who have retired from immigration and customs enforcement to come back. And I spoke to the White House Border Czar Tom Homan earlier this week about this initiative.

[15:35:00]

And what he told me is that it is easier for them to hire those people because they've been vetted before, because they've had clearances before, to get them out on the ground faster. Now this call out includes financial incentives like bonuses and tries to bring people back in.

But what I'll also tell you, Omar, is that in my conversations with current and former ICE officials, there's also a lot of burnout and frustration at ICE. So it's going to be interesting to see how many decide to come back, particularly when the message that's being conveyed from inside is that it's just a very difficult time with morale, given the immense pressure that they're under.

JIMENEZ: Yes, Priscilla Alvarez, appreciate the reporting as always -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It has been two weeks since catastrophic floods ripped through Central Texas and the tragic story of what happened at Camp Mystic continues to haunt the region and the families who lost loved ones there.

CNN's Pamela Brown spoke with one mother whose eight-year-old daughter died in the flooding while attending camp. Blakely McCrory was one of 20 kids at Camp Mystic who was taken far too soon.

Her mother spoke to CNN earlier today, just hours before her daughter's funeral.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY MCLEOD MCCRORY, 8-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER BLAKELY DIED IN TEXAS FLOODS: I manually went through the voice-mails, though, since I did learn that Blakely's cabin mate was missing. And that's when the dreaded call came. They left me a voice-mail.

And so we were inside the boat. I just dropped the phone on the table, shaking, and I told my little sister she would have to call Camp Mystic. So we put the phone on speaker so I could listen in, but I just, I was frozen when I heard that voice-mail.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Of course. And then I know her body was found days later. And you know, you have just honored her so beautifully.

As we wrap this up, is there anything else you want the world to know about your sweet Blakely before you say your final goodbyes later today?

MCCRORY: She had the best time at camp. She went out on a happy note. She probably looked at that flooding, you know, going out in the night, you know, as an adventure, because you're not supposed to do that as a kid.

And the counselor said that Blakely was encouraging her cabin mates to not be afraid. She was always a leader, encouraging others. So I, in my heart, I know it happened fast and I'm just so grateful the life that she lived was so happy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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KEILAR: This just in. Amid the growing speculation about why CBS is pulling the plug on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Writers Guild of America, which represents writers on the show, says it's concerned the cancellation was a bribe to curry favor with the Trump administration. The Guild wants New York State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate.

Colbert announced that the cancellation will take effect next May. CBS says it's purely a financial decision, but the timing here is noteworthy because it came just days after the late night host criticized CBS's parent company, Paramount, on air for its $16 million settlement with President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS: I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's Big Fat Bribe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And joining us now is Eric Deggans. He's NPR's TV critic and media analyst. Eric, what questions do you have about this? The timing, the motivation, as CBS is saying, this was purely a business decision. ERIC DEGGANS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO TV CRITIC AND MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, as you noted, the timing of it is suspicious. Also, what we've seen in other late night shows is at least some attempt to figure out a cheaper way to do the show. No one is disputing that viewership is down for late night TV shows across the board, that they're making less money or losing money after years of declining ratings.

But to announce the cancellation of the top-rated late night show without a sense that they made any effort to try and streamline it, we've seen other shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers, for example, let go of their live band in an effort to reduce costs or streamline staff as an effort to reduce costs, or perhaps Colbert himself could have taken a pay cut.

But it doesn't seem that any of that was considered. And we're also, of course, in the backdrop hearing about this effort by Paramount to sell -- to be sold to Skydance Media. They need federal approval for that. And of course, there's always a concern that they're trying to curry favor with the Trump administration, which does not like the way Colbert has been a strident and consistent critic of Donald Trump and his administration in his first administration and now his second.

KEILAR: Skydance CEO, I should note, David Ellison, he was actually in Washington to meet with the FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, and other FCC officials on Tuesday. That's according to a Skydance filing with the government. So, you know, considering that, what questions does that kind of meeting raise for you?

And also, as you have the Writers Guild asking that this be investigated, what might we see come from that?

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DEGGANS: Well, it's it's hard to know what we might see come from that, you know, when the settlement that Paramount announced with Trump for $16 million was announced, there were some Democratic lawmakers who also said that there should be some sort of investigation to figure out whether or not this could be considered a bribe. I mean, we're in uncharted territory here where a sitting president who himself cannot be sued in office is filing lawsuits against media outlets and winning settlements in cases that legal experts say the media outlets have a good case, a good chance of winning.

But there is, of course, concern that if they press their case through these lawsuits and defend themselves, that perhaps the Trump administration might retaliate. And this is all -- this is all uncharted territory for us because we haven't seen an administration that has been so willing to use federal powers to punish media outlets that whose coverage it does not like. And so, of course, all these questions come up because Paramount has established a pattern here.

And so you wonder if there has been some attempt to sort of placate Trump by canceling Colbert. CBS has insisted that this was purely a financial decision. And as I said, you know, there are numbers there to indicate that they have a point. KEILAR: Eric Deggans, thank you so much. Obviously, a lot of questions around this story.

Coming up, some of music's biggest stars, how they are changing the live music industry to save the environment.

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KEILAR: Some of the biggest names in music are using their platforms to take on one of the planet's biggest challenges, climate change. From stadium tours to small changes backstage, artists like Billie Eilish are rethinking how live music can help fight the climate crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Billie Eilish immediately set out to bend the industry around her values. Haters and big oil companies be damned.

BILLIE EILISH, SINGER/SONGWRITER: Yes, it was funny that that video really went kind of viral in the kind of, oh, my God, she's satanic world, which is really funny to me because I was like, no, no, you guys, this is a metaphor for climate change. I'm a bird falling into a thing of oil, like that's kind of the whole point.

I have been trying to change the way that the industry has been running for a really long time. So for like food backstage, all of my catering is vegan. Yes, we have like refillable water stations. We don't sell like plastic water bottles. And I have like a no idling policy for all the trucks, you know, to save all those all those fossil fuels.

WEIR: Yes. And save your lungs and for all of your fans.

EILISH: Save your lungs and save all the things, yes, but yes, it's --

WEIR: It's leading by example, sort of.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: CNN's chief climate correspondent, not Billie, but Bill Weir joins us with more details. So, Bill, can you just talk to us about the impact at these shows? I mean, how is the industry reacting to this?

WEIR (on camera): It's really changing the industry, Omar, I got to say, I mean, this goes back to Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, this chain of artists feeling responsible for this. But Billie Eilish had the power, you know, came up at 14 to tell corporations what to do. Oscar de la Renta wanted her to wear their stuff at the Met Gala.

She said, OK, as long as you don't ever use fur again, they agreed. She put battery powered stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago. Chapel Rowan used it last year.

Coachella just added theirs. It's now a keeping up with the Joneses thing happening. And because these are like small, portable, temporary cities, the lessons being learned here can scale up to other cities and also become connectors for fans to get involved in earth repair at the local level.

Coldplay, making headlines for the wrong reasons this week, has the greenest tour ever. They worked with MIT to figure out how to cut, reduce waste, no plastic. They have kinetic dance floors that turn the crowd energy into electricity.

And they're just trying to lead by example without preaching to the folks who are just there to have a good time.

KEILAR: Yes, how are they receiving it -- the fans?

WEIR: The fan base is everywhere, you know, from Bonnie Raitt's tour, which is very mixed politically to the younger ones we've seen, the festivals. It's happening in country. It's happening -- the first electric stage is in hip hop. And so there's a real absence of leadership, especially in Washington these days.

Corporations have backslid on promises. And because pop stars have such trust and cachet, the influence that these artists can have could be momentous if they can really get sort of take it beyond registering these fans to vote but take it into connecting them at the local level. And we get into all of that in the special Sunday night.

JIMENEZ: Cannot wait to watch. And I got to figure out how to get to a music festival for for work. I feel like, Bill, you figured it out, man.

WEIR: Interviewing Billie Eilish.

JIMENEZ: Exactly.

KEILAR: Crying out loud.

WEIR: I will teach you.

JIMENEZ: Please, please. Bill, thank you so much.

Be sure to tune in for an all new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER." One whole hour, one whole story airing Sunday, 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

When we come back, why the number one movie in the world is sparking a surge in dog adoptions? It's not Superman himself. Stay with us.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(DOG BARKING)

SUPERMAN: Home. Take me home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: There he is, not the man of steel or that's Lex Luthor. But you saw earlier Crypto the dog.

And in real life, many pets at rescue shelters may also be getting a hand, paw, whatever you want to call it, thanks to the flying sidekick.

KEILAR: Yes, a dog training app called Woofs says that Google searches for adopted dog near me jump more than 500 percent after the film hit theaters last year. That's crazy, right?

JIMENEZ: I know, I know.

KEILAR: And Crypto was inspired by director James Gunn's rescue dog, Ozu, whose image was used to create Crypto for the movie. Also, because he's so dang cute. There you see it.

Warner Brothers Discovery, also CNN's parent company, partnered with Best Friends Animal Society for the film, covered adoption fees at some shelters ahead of the movie's premiere.

JIMENEZ: Hey, look, look at well, some dogs cuter than others.

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I don't want to discriminate, but that dog, at least Ozu, very, very cute.

KEILAR: Now, you've seen the movie.

JIMENEZ: Yes, I have seen the movie.

KEILAR: Don't spoil it.

JIMENEZ: I'm not going to spoil it, but Crypto, you should see it. Not just because James Gunn, DC, Warner Brothers, CNN, whatever the relationship is. But also, Crypto actually has a really big role in the movie.

So I can see why people are like, you know what, maybe I want something like that.

KEILAR: That that really inspires them.

JIMENEZ: I think so.

KEILAR: It's a dog forward flick, which I think we can all get behind.

JIMENEZ: I'm more of a cat guy, but that's a discussion for another time.

KEILAR: Me too. Omar, thanks for being with us.

JIMENEZ: Of course, good to see you.

KEILAR: "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.