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Laura Coates Live

Venezuela Jolted By Twin Earthquakes, Interim Leader Declares State of Emergency; Trump Refuses to Sign the Bipartisan Housing Bill After He Joined a Closed-Door Shouting Match with GOP Senators; Mamdani-backed Candidates Sweep New York Primaries. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired June 24, 2026 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:01:06]

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: And good evening, I'm Victor Blackwell in for Laura Coates.

We're starting with that breaking news out of Venezuela, where desperate rescue efforts are happening right now after two powerful earthquakes struck tonight. We've got live pictures for you now from the capital of Caracas. Crews are digging through the rubble, trying to find survivors.

A 7.5 and then a 7.2 magnitude quake hit back to back, caused widespread destruction. We're getting reports of entire buildings having collapsed there. Officials have confirmed deaths, they warn the numbers could rise dramatically, although they have not yet released initial numbers.

Right now a state of emergency has been declared, and we're told hundreds of emergency workers are trying to find the survivors and dig them out. One woman who survived this quake, she describes it as just a horror movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): I was here when I managed to get dressed. He helped me, and all the walls were cracked.

We managed to open the door however we could. There was a cloud of smoke that wouldn't let us see. And when we went downstairs, the scene was like a horror movie.

We had to climb over the rubble and everything. The building superintendent with the baby and all the neighbors coming down. But from that building, I only saw that one family got out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With me now is Niurka Melendez. She is the co-founder of the aid group Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid in New York City. Niurka, thank you for being with me. Have you been able to reach your family, friends, associates in Caracas?

NIURKA MELENDEZ, FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN CARACAS: Thank you for the invitation and for having me.

Yes, after almost two hours, we learned that part of my family are okay in Caracas, and we are still waiting for some news from family members that we haven't reached out yet. We couldn't reach out yet.

BLACKWELL: Well, first, the good news is that the people you've gotten in contact with, they are okay. What did they describe to you about these two earthquakes?

MELENDEZ: My sister told me that she was in a grocery in the moment that they felt that it was moving the earth. And then because of all the heavy movement, I don't know exactly how to describe it because I wasn't there, but she told me that everybody started to scream and run, and they didn't feel that any spot on the street when they were running were safe.

So what they decided to do was just standing in the middle of the street, to just wait, you know, buildings, because they were, he said that they were windows broken, and the glasses coming down to the ground. So they decided to wait in the middle of the avenue. It's like a four-lane avenue.

They considered that as good. They thought that because of the great movement, they were just waiting for the earth to open, and they went down because they said that it was really hard.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you this. We know that Venezuela has been going through this economic crisis for many years now. What's your concern, especially considering what you do, of the ability to respond to this emergency?

MELENDEZ: Based on our personal experience, even before fleeing my country, I know there is not enough supplies in the hospital, and that remains the same, even worse. I know, based on the fact of my personal experience with my family there, that you have to bring anything that you need in public hospital.

[23:05:01]

So I cannot imagine what is going to be after post-earthquake, with all this mess and terrible situation that is happening in Caracas and La Vargas states. I'm really afraid, I'm really nervous.

Because I know, again, based on -- before this natural disaster, I know that the situation in the public hospital in Venezuela is just bad. I'm really afraid of what's going to happen with the people. You can tell based on the images that even the rescue team, they are working with barely nothing to help take out of those horrible things that we are seeing now.

BLACKWELL: Niurka Melendez, thank you so much for speaking with me. I know you've got a lot of calls to make, so I'll let you get back to those. Again, live pictures here in Caracas.

As we're told, hundreds of emergency workers are digging through rubble, trying to find survivors, and dig them out after a 7.5 followed by a 7.2 magnitude, these earthquakes happening there in the capital of Caracas.

Let's bring in now CNN's Stefano Pozzebon, who is in Colombia, right next door. Stefano, what are you learning?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We're learning here that the Venezuelan authorities have called for a state of emergency, of course, given the magnitude of this natural disaster -- this double natural disaster.

Let's remember our viewers, we're talking here about two separate earthquakes, and after a pre-shock and then the major earthquake of 7.5 magnitude hitting the northern coast of Venezuela at about 6 p.m. local time, as I was saying, the Venezuelan authorities have called for a state of emergency.

BLACKWELL: Stefano, we're trying to fix your audio here, but again, we are looking at these pictures in Caracas. The reports we're getting from the acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, she declared a state of emergency in a national address.

She says that there have been fatalities, has not said how many people may have died, and has announced the high-level task force to oversee the search and rescue operations. We know that the international airport there in the capital has been closed because of what's described as severe damage to its infrastructure. I think we fixed the audio problem with Stefano.

Stefano, continue what you're learning about the state of emergency and the response to the earthquake.

POZZEBON: I was just saying that, yes, there is a state of emergency now across the country. The major airports in the northern coast of Venezuela, not just the airports in Caracas, but several other airports have been shut down as a precautionary measure.

Venezuela is really a country that is still reeling from more than a decade of a deep, dramatic economic crisis under the previous President, Nicolas Maduro. The current President, Delcy Rodriguez, gave an address to the nation a couple of hours ago, and you could see from the way she was speaking to the nation and the faces of the two officials by her side that they have been really shaken by the magnitude of this tragedy.

I think it's too early to talk about casualties. Of course, there are casualties, and Delcy Rodriguez herself announced that at least several people have been killed without giving a specific number. But it's unfortunately to be foreseen that this number will grow in the coming hours and in the upcoming days.

We're only receiving information, by the way, from the city of Caracas, from the capital, which is still 250 kilometers away from the epicenter. And that is because the Venezuelan infrastructure is so fragile, and getting hold of people in Venezuela with communication is so delicate and difficult on a regular basis.

You can only imagine how the network and the communications have been impacted by the double jab of two separate earthquakes hitting the country at about 6 p.m. local time, 5 p.m. here in Bogota, but 6 p.m. local time and 6 p.m. in New York. It's really -- if there was one nation that was not prepared to deal with the catastrophe of this magnitude, it was Venezuela in this region and the impact of this earthquake could be felt for generations.

BLACKWELL: We're just getting our first look at the impact of the earthquakes. We'll, of course, get back to you, Stefano, as you get more information, some updates on the consequences of what's happened there tonight. Thank you so much for that report.

Now to the big political story tonight here at home. The President is openly feuding with his own party.

Now, we've seen tussles before, not like this. Words like lunatic tossed around, shouting matches behind closed doors.

[23:10:04]

That happened during President Trump's visit to Capitol Hill for a Senate GOP lunch. He went there after he refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill.

This is the kind of bill that Republicans could point to when Americans are deeply concerned about rising costs. It's a political layup.

His own White House was calling it, quote here, "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history just last night." But now Trump is creating huge headaches for Republicans by using it as leverage for something very different.

He wants them first to pass his controversial voting legislation known as the Save America Act. The problem here is that Republicans do not have the votes to pass it. But the President says that he won't sign the housing bill until they do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The housing bill that you didn't sign today.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I said I'm not signing the housing bill. I want to see what happens. I made billions of dollars with housing.

I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rate so you can have all the housing you want.

You have to understand, I don't want to hurt people that own houses, too. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now there was another GOP flare-up today. The fight moved on to Iran once Trump got in the same room with Senate Republicans. The President was wondering why members of his own party voted to curb his war powers.

One of them answered, Senator Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary after Trump endorsed his opponent.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I stood and said, you have not told the American people what's going on. It was opposed to the last four weeks, it's lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.

He did not particularly care for my comments, raised his voice, I lost my temper. That's not appropriate. It's the Irish in me, but I again, match his tone and his volume.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, we're told at one point, Trump called Cassidy a lunatic. When the President walked out, he described something different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think we had a really great meeting, and we're very proud of the party. We like our leader, we like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's okay, I think you know who they are.

But for the most part, we have a really well-unified party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well-unified isn't exactly how some members of his party see it. Like Senator John Cornyn, who also lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, Ken Paxton. Cornyn described the meeting this way.

The President closed by preaching unity, but he spent the entire hour talking about things that were not exactly unified.

Two of the lawmakers who led the charge to pass that bipartisan housing bill join me now. Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood and Missouri Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me tonight.

Congressman Flood, let me talk with you first. The President called your bill something of, quote, "minor importance." He says his voter legislation is more important. He won't sign the housing bill until it passes.

What do you make of the characterization of the housing bill and the condition of passing the Save America Act first?

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): You know, affordable housing developers across the country say this is the biggest bill in 36 years. For the first time in our nation's history, we say to the manufactured housing community, you don't need to have a chassis.

Listen, that saves 30 percent on the cost of a new manufactured home. At least $25,000 in a lot of cases. That's real money to people that want to get into a home at the right price.

And if you look at housing prices since 2019, they've almost doubled. A house in my district that used to cost a quarter million is now like $415,000. So anything we can do to bring down the cost of housing I think is important to Americans.

BLACKWELL: The President was asked, Congressman Flood, if he would veto the bill. He did not answer that question. Do you think the President will veto it and you think there are enough votes to override it if he does?

FLOOD: What he said today was he wasn't going to sign it today. I can tell you his administration put out a statement in strong support of the bill that left the House that became the bill that we adopted yesterday on the floor.

I've been working with folks at the White House to make this happen. I think this is going to be monumental. It's going to bring down the cost of housing and it's going to move the ball forward.

Now you remember, home affordability is a top issue for Americans. It's the number one expense in their budget. So anything we can do to make homes more affordable is a worthy endeavor.

BLACKWELL: It only becomes monumental, in your characterization, if it becomes law. And, of course, that requires the President's signature. If he won't answer whether he'll sign it or not, where's your confidence that this will have any import to the American people?

FLOOD: Well, there's a couple ways it could become law.

The President could sign it. He could choose not to act on it. Within 10 days it becomes law, notwithstanding his signature. And, of course, there's other remedies the legislative branch has.

BLACKWELL: Well, why not sign it?

[23:15:07]

FLOOD: Well, listen, it just passed 24 hours ago. We've got some time here. This isn't how things work every single day. It could be done in three days, it could be done in two days, it could be done next week. Listen, the President has been adamant about making progress in housing. I know the SAVE Act is important.

I, personally, I voted for the SAVE Act three times. The House has passed it three times. This is a problem he has with the Senate, I understand that. But I also know that housing affordability is a top issue and one that I know the President cares about.

BLACKWELL: Congressman Cleaver, the bill is, as we've heard from Congressman Flood, meant to ease the affordability crisis for Americans. The President says that he has done very well on the concerns of affordability. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're doing well with housing.

But where we're really doing well is oil is plummeting and costs are coming down. Affordability. We're doing great.

The Democrats gave us a tremendous affordability problem and we're reducing prices a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, Congressman Cleaver, what does it tell you about the President's priorities as he says he won't sign this bipartisan housing affordability bill until he gets his SAVE America Act?

REP. EMANUEL CLEAVER (D-MO): Well, it is my belief, and maybe even my hope, that the President will sign the bill. As my colleague and friend just mentioned, there are a number of ways that this bill can become law.

One would be that the Speaker of the House could get Mr. Thune and, I think, Grassley, and they could sign this and send it to the White House. But, look, I'm not going to allow this moment to be disrupted. I'm going to have my joy because we think that we have, in working together, done something that has not been done in this Congress and in this country for decades.

And we are very proud and pleased that we've been able to put something out here that can change the landscape for a lot of people who would like to own homes.

BLACKWELL: Congressman Cleaver, the moment has been disrupted. There was a signing ceremony announced. The President's signing table was there, pens ready to be used, and he posted on social media he's not signing it.

So you may not want to disrupt the joy, but for the people you're hoping to help, the disruption has already happened.

CLEAVER: Yes, if I could substitute disruption for delay. I don't think any of us, or very few of us, I think, here in Congress, Republicans or Democrats, believe that this legislation is dead.

I wish the President had not delayed things because we're built up to a crescendo and are ready to have a party. I have some new moves I've been working on.

But look, we've been working on this bill so long and so hard that there are other folk coming in saying, what are you guys going to do next?

There are people who believe that this has been inspirational to the American public, that a Republican or a Democrat could work together. The President did what the President does, and I'm not in that. My job is to try to help get this bill across the line and help millions of Americans.

BLACKWELL: All right, we'll see what the President does next, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Congressman Mike Flood. Thank you so much.

FLOOD: Thanks for having us.

CLEAVER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Up next, the Republican and Democratic freakout over the rise of Democratic Socialists and the Mamdani-backed candidates who took down incumbents. Andrew Yang and former Congresswoman Cori Bush are with me on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: New Yorkers are hungry for a new kind of politics. They are hungry for a politics that understands working people should be at the heart of it. What their successes represent is a shift in the balance of power between working people and special interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is taking a victory lap after a clean sweep in the New York Democratic primaries. All three of the candidate-backed won their races. Two of them took down incumbents.

Well, now Democrats are trying to understand just how far Mamdani's brand of politics really goes, whether it's limited to New York or a sign of a broader support for Democratic Socialism in other parts of the country. Even some moderate Democrats are warning their party not to dismiss what just happened.

Take it from Congressman Tom Suozzi, who summed it up in two words, "Wake up." He told "Axios" people who do not support the Democratic Socialists of America wring their hands at cocktail parties while the DSA is organizing.

We bring in now Andrew Yang, founder of the Forward Party. He ran for President and New York City Mayor as a Democrat. Andrew, good to see you. Let's start here with a post that you offered up today. Open primaries would diminish the ability of extremists to win party primaries because everyone could vote in them.

Two questions here. Are you calling the Mamdani-backed candidates who won extremists?

ANDREW YANG, FOUNDER, FORWARD PARTY: I'm a math guy, Victor, and if you had more people voting in these primaries, I think it would be more representative of what the communities at-large want. And I think that the elected representatives who emerged from these primaries should welcome that.

[23:25:09]

Unfortunately, a lot of folks in the Mamdani camp oppose open primaries because they know that the more limited the voting universe, the better their chance of winning because their ideology doesn't actually extend to the majority of voters in just about any district.

BLACKWELL: That doesn't answer the extremist question, though.

YANG: I think that there are at least a couple of people that have evidenced some viewpoints that aren't in the mainstream of even the Democratic Party.

BLACKWELL: Okay, so let's talk about process. You say that if you had open primaries that maybe these candidates would not win, but these were deep blue districts, safe blue districts.

Two races were blowouts, incumbents lost. Is this really a process issue or did Democratic voters choose their Democratic nominees?

YANG: There is certainly something very real in the animosity that a lot of Democratic primary voters have towards anyone who feels like the establishment. And living here in the city, anytime someone got endorsed by Zohran, it got trumpeted in ads very, very clearly so that anyone in that district knows, hey, this is Zohran's candidate.

And Zohran's endorsement had a way of breaking through. These are primaries where people are trying to take cues as to who they should vote for, and if they like the mayor, then they say, okay, I should support this candidate. But we are talking about Democratic primary voters, and here in these deep blue areas you're describing, Victor, who wins the primary obviously wins the general.

And so there are a lot of folks who might have participated in a Democratic primary who consider themselves independents or even Republicans that really will be on the outside looking in, and that tends to skew the perception of what the viewpoint is in these districts towards folks who represent a particular point of view.

BLACKWELL: So what can we glean from the wins last night? Add in the DSA primary wins in D.C. and Pennsylvania, a city council member who made the mayoral runoff in L.A. Do you think there is a national shift in the Democratic Party?

YANG: I think people are frustrated, people are ticked off, and if you feel like you're reflecting the status quo, you are really on track to lose. And establishment support does not carry the same weight. Feeling like you have the endorsements of some of the current officeholders does not have the same weight.

If anything, it paints you as an agent of the present, and people want change. I think that's reflected in races around the country, really on either side of the aisle, because Americans are frustrated that they and their kids aren't on track to have a decent way of life.

BLACKWELL: In two of the races, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries backed the incumbents. Mamdani backed the challengers who beat them. Let's listen to what Leader Jeffries said today about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Listen, the mayor and I agreed to strongly disagree about some of his endorsements, and he's got work to do in terms of the conversations that he's going to have with members of Congress moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: How much does this complicate the landscape for Jeffries?

YANG: It might complicate it a great deal, depending upon what happens in November. If they win a narrow majority, and the folks who are considered in this progressive camp, the new squad, decide to play hardball, they might really have Hakeem Jeffries over a barrel in terms of passing certain legislation. So I think he's got his work in ships with a lot of these new members, the same way that Nancy Pelosi did with AOC back in the day.

BLACKWELL: You think there's some residual impact on maybe Democrats who are more centrist across the country as we go toward November having to answer questions in response to the Democratic socialists who are in this race in other districts?

YANG: You know, Victor, it really depends upon the district and whether it's within the primary. There are a lot of races around the country where Democrats are going to want to run a centrist because they're running in Texas or Missouri or you name it, and a progressive would probably lose by a wider margin.

And so it's very much reflecting what's happening in different parts of the country. A lot of quote-unquote "moderates or centrists" actually prevailed last night, too. They're just not going to get the same level of attention, in part because they weren't in New York City.

BLACKWELL: Andrew Yang, thanks for the conversation.

YANG: Thanks, Victor, for having me.

[23:30:03]

BLACKWELL: Joining me now is former Democratic congresswoman from Missouri, Cori Bush. She was a member of the progressive faction in the House known as the Squad, but she lost her primary to Congressman Wesley Bell in 2024. She's now running to reclaim that seat in Missouri's first that she once held.

Congresswoman, good to have you tonight. First, what's your reaction, your response to what you just heard there from Andrew Yang about the impact these candidates will have on the party at-large?

CORI BUSH (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO MISSOURI AND RUNNING FOR SAME SEAT: It's time. You know, it's time for us to have as diverse of a caucus as the people. And, you know, so many of us have been doing this work for a long time.

You know, it's great to have friends, it's great to have more colleagues, it's great to have people coming in so that we can build this group of us who truly believe that all people deserve to thrive, not just survive, and that we pave the way for that, that we create that right now.

And so it shouldn't be lost on people that people are running for these seats and that they are actually winning. And what is so wrong with having people who truly believe that that can happen because we have people in our districts who believe the same as we do?

BLACKWELL: Well, Congresswoman, you say that these candidates are coming in to build. There are some in the Democratic Party who say that they are not coming in to build. They're coming in to blow the party up.

Let me read to you this from former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison. He wrote this, "I say this with no ill will or animosity. If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don't run for our nomination.

Don't use our resources. Don't rely on our volunteers. Don't use our infrastructure. Don't ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support."

And so your reaction to that, and do you believe these candidates are at odds with the Democratic Party overall?

BUSH: So, first of all, I love and respect Jaime Harrison. We have a great relationship. I think the key word in that quote, in that tweet, was hate.

I think there's a difference. I personally don't think that anyone hates the Democratic Party and is running for a seat within the party that they absolutely hate. I feel like hate is a strong word.

Disenfranchised, disillusioned, upset, angry? I would say yes. And so those folks, you know, yes, they're upset. And yes, they feel like, you know, this is my team, and why do I feel like I'm on the outs of my team?

Why does it feel like that we're saying we're the party of human rights, we're the party of civil rights, but then we take money from the war profiteers, we take money from the chemical industry, we take money from APAC, we take money from those that we should be opposing. So if this is my team, where is the opposition?

So just calling that out, there's nothing wrong with calling that out and saying, let's be who we say we are, because the community that we live in are saying Democrats are hypocritical. They're saying, who are these folks? Why should we continue to be with them? And we're saying, we hear you, and we believe that. And so we need to move into those positions so that we can make the party who the party says that we are.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you this. We mentioned that you're challenging Congressman Wesley Bell to retake your seat, the seat you held there in Missouri's first. You blamed in 2024 your loss on APAC, spending $8.5 million, I think was the count, to back him.

Do you believe the recent backlash now against APAC puts you in a better position?

BUSH: I absolutely do. So many people in my community just weren't as familiar with APAC. And also, it goes beyond APAC.

It's APAC, it's cryptocurrency, it's big real estate. People just don't want their politicians, their elected officials, to be funded by these lobbyists, by these big corporations. They want them to be of the community, by the community, and for the community.

And so people are upset in my district saying, I didn't realize there was so much money put against you. Had there been a level playing field, that would have been a different result.

But it's okay, because I'm coming back. I'm better, I'm stronger, I'm leaner, I'm ready to build for my community, and I'm ready to make sure the people in our district are represented by somebody who actually is working to protect them, to build and transform our community.

BLACKWELL: All right, former Congresswoman Cori Bush, thanks so much.

Next, Trump stalls his own agenda by holding hostage a bill on affordability to force Republicans to pass his voting legislation. The question is, why? We'll talk about it in just a moment.

[23:35:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: So this civil war that burst in the open between President Trump and the GOP, maybe it's calming down. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said Vice President J.D. Vance briefed him on the Iran war tonight, and Cassidy thanked the White House for the, quote, "quick invitation." And soon after that, Cassidy flipped his vote on the War Powers Resolution during another vote that happened tonight.

That, along with a switch from Senator Rand Paul, was enough to sink the War Powers Resolution just hours after President Trump berated Cassidy and other senators for helping pass it yesterday.

[23:40:04]

All right, now let's bring in my political expert, Rick Tyler, former spokesperson for Senator Ted Cruz's Presidential campaign, and Joel Payne, Democratic strategist.

Gentlemen, welcome in. Rick, let me start with you. You think that's enough to appease the President to now reverse the vote on the War Powers Act?

RICK TYLER, FORMER NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, TED CRUZ'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Look, I think the President's made a really unforced error with the housing bill that he's holding hostage.

So the War Powers Act, it's a resolution. It's not binding. The President can't veto it.

It has symbolic meaning, but this housing bill really would have helped, well, not only people who need affordable housing, it would have really helped the Republicans who are going to be struggling in this election.

BLACKWELL: Let me come back to that, because the breaking news tonight is that you've got two senators who've now flipped after this berating from the President. The resolution is symbolic. The votes may be symbolic. What are they trying to tell the President?

TYLER: I don't know. I don't know what the deal was. Obviously, the White House put pressure on these two to switch their vote. They did switch their vote.

What they got in return for it, I don't know. But what this housing bill is, unbelievable, because this was a massive bipartisan vote. I think it was 352-58.

It actually has enough votes to override a veto. It could provide real relief for people who can't afford housing. He could have taken it as a win with his party to go into the election, but instead he's holding it hostage to the Save America Act, parts of which I support, but it has nothing to do with it.

BLACKWELL: And the question is, what leverage does the President have now? He wants the Save America Act first. Thune has told him, I don't know how many times, Mr. President, the votes just are not there. What can he do about it?

JOEL PAYNE (D), DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Victor, he doesn't know what the hell he wants. This is what he truly, I think, Donald Trump wants.

He wants power and leverage over the Republican conference in the House and in the Senate. And what he saw over the last few weeks was waning influence.

He saw that he was starting to lose key votes. He saw that the hold that he had over Republicans was starting to slip. And that is paramount to everything in Donald Trump's orbit. Being able to hold those Republican centers is significant to his entire political project right now.

So the fact that he started to lose that was what scared him into going up to the Hill today, yelling at Bill Cassidy, threatening John Thune, talking up the Save Act again, and, of course, shelving this housing bill, which I imagine part of this deal that we're seeing now is a road back to Trump backing off of this extremist position on the housing bill and eventually allowing Thune and Republicans to chalk up a win here. But he needed to show strength.

BLACKWELL: You suggested that the President's strength is waning. The reason that Cassidy feels liberated now to vote against the President is because we saw the President's strength in the primary.

The reason that Cornyn is now at least rhetorically stepping away from the President is because we saw the strength in the Paxton-Cornyn race. So it is the President who used his own strength within the party to undercut his own legislation in the long run.

PAYNE: Well, he's a sitting President. I mean, he should be able to get his candidate of choice in a primary.

He got his candidate in Louisiana. I'll remind everybody he didn't get his candidate in South Carolina just like he didn't get his candidate in a couple of other places.

BLACKWELL: Well, then he backed both.

PAYNE: Yes, he backed both. But, again, my entire point here is that Donald Trump is seeing his political power start to wane with Republicans, and he cannot allow for Republicans to abandon him because he knows once Republicans leave him, all of the other things that Trump wants to do and thinks he can do starts to go away as well. All that power that he holds over, it dies away.

BLACKWELL; Rick, let me ask you, this Housing Affordability Act, we heard from Cleaver and Flood earlier in the show that this would be great for Americans who are fighting the affordability crisis. It reminded me of what the President said a few weeks ago when he was asked about how he considers Americans' financial situation in the context of the Iran war. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EPORTER: To what extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal?

TRUMP: Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: He says he doesn't think about the Americans' financial situation, he loves the inflation, he cancels the signing of the Housing Affordability Act. How does he, how does the party then say, we are so deeply invested in making sure that life is more affordable for you? TYLER: Well, you know, I was surprised that Cassidy was the only

person to speak up. Look, the great divorce is coming. People will stand up to Trump because once they realize that he's going to be a problem in losing their seats, and currently the trajectory is that the Democrats are going to pick up the House, they could possibly pick up the Senate.

[23:45:09]

Ohio is now in play. And when the President goes out and says he doesn't care about people's financial situation and then pulls an overwhelming bipartisan Republican win because they are in charge, that sends a message to people who are voting.

You know, Joel and I may not agree on a lot of things, but I think we agree on one thing. People are pissed off. And they are reacting in all kinds of different ways and they are going to punish somebody.

When the American people have to pay attention because of their circumstances, people get fired. When times are fat and happy and everybody's wonderful, then people stay in power.

We're looking-- this could be a massive sea change in the next election. And the presidency will effectively be over. You won't have a House and what are you going to do without a House?

BLACKWELL: Rick Tyler, Joel Payne, thank you.

We're following the other breaking news. Rescuers scrambling to find survivors from the back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela. Live update in just a moment.

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[23:50:00]

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BLACKWELL: We're keeping a close eye on the breaking news out of Venezuela. Two powerful back-to-back earthquakes caused widespread destruction tonight. There are reports of entire buildings collapsing.

Live pictures on the screen right now from the capital of Caracas. There's a state of emergency that's been declared. We're told hundreds of emergency workers are involved in search-and-rescue efforts.

I want to bring in now search-and-rescue expert Jason Fair. He was involved in the search-and-rescue efforts during the 2021 condo collapse in Surfside, Florida. Jason, thanks for being with me.

And as you might expect, those live pictures will go in and out because of the situation there in Caracas. Your top concern right now, as you watch those pictures, no clear indication of how many people might be trapped or unaccounted for.

JASON FAIR, ASSISTANT CHIEF, SOUTH WALTON FLORIDA FIRE DISTRICT: Top concerns coming in is going to be, one, the ability to just really do that initial assessment, prioritization, identifying what that initial hazard assessment looks like.

One, for example, electric, security, and gas lines and everything, so it's safe for your rescuers to get close to that structure at all. You get into structure prioritization after that, so looking at the structure size and type, you know, when you have multiple buildings that are collapsed, it's coming into an area of trying to identify where's the greatest impact that you can make to save the greatest number of lives.

So, for example, building type might help dictate where your search- and-rescue will start to isolate their initial approach to make the greatest number of saves initially. Once you go from there, you're looking at building triage, if you will.

So what are the risks of those secondary building collapses that you want to be prepared for, identify where that potential is, look at structure stability itself, and what can we do to kind of mitigate those risks so those rescuers can get in there.

After that, you'll start to go into the actual rescue side of things, which is really the first initial surface rescue, grabbing those people that are easily accessible with little debris removement that you can get your hands on quick and move them out of that structure.

Right after that, you're going to get into that technical search, technical rescue, which would be later on in that search process. For example, the ones that we're seeing come out of there now, that would be those surface rescue victims that they're able to get those first initial easy access to.

And I say easy from the sense of the grand scheme, the grand scope of the whole thing. So those ones where they can move a little bit of debris and get them moved out.

From there, over a period of time, you're going to see them transition into more of a technical rescue. This is where they start to grid off the structure itself so they can start concentrating in specific areas. They'll start using acoustic devices to start listening to where they might be able to hear victims.

This is where you get the canines involved, too. They'll also start to use cameras where they'll start to work in with visual cameras, but also thermal cameras, too, to kind of find out where there may be heat signatures.

And then you start to narrow in on areas. And then they'll start to do the heavy extrication, too. And this is a systematic removal of the debris, if you will.

So this is a partnership between engineers and rescue specialists where they're working to either tunnel into an area to get access to the victims, where they're shoring as they go or helping to secure that structure as they go, or moving large debris pieces as well where they start taking them apart. BLACKWELL: Well, we are in the immediate sea just the first few hours

after these massive earthquakes. There's a lot of work to do, and we're still waiting to learn the full scope of what happened there in the capital of Caracas.

Jason Fair, thank you for helping us understand what those search and rescue workers are up against right now.

Still ahead, what Congress put in their time capsule for America 500 and what I might want to add in next.

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[23:55:00]

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BLACKWELL: It's almost midnight here on the East Coast, which means it's time to bring in Elex Michaelson. Elex, hello to you.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Victor.

BLACKWELL: So Congress today sealed a 900-pound time capsule that won't be open for 250 years. Presented to Congress on July 4th, 2276, they put in items from all 50 states meant to capture what America looked like in 2026 (inaudible) -- we're up to you. What would you want future Americans to find inside?

MICHAELSON: Well, I just decided what I think most represents this moment for Americans, okay? So I picked the iPhone, number one. It's the number one thing that people actually are doing every day.

Number two, a football, because it's America's number one way to spend time and watch, you know, number one show on T.V. And number three, I said GLP-1s because that seems to be where people's heads are at right now.

So I think that is where America is right now. That wasn't so much personal. I'd love to put a picture of my family or something more personal, but that's what I thought in terms of where America's priorities are right now.

What about you?

BLACKWELL: So I chose a transcript of Victor Glover's Easter message from Artemis II talking about how we're all on this spaceship of Earth together. I think that's a message that will last for 250.

A recording of music from Joy Rhodes, who is this inspirational singer. She has these great hits about loving oneself and religion. And then I found out she's A.I.

So I don't know how a singer loves herself if she's just been created through an algorithm.

[00:00:04] And then that painting by artist Tarek Oliver called Peace, with the distorted features about what it takes in this time and the feelings to keep one's peace and global peace, wearing on our face what we feel on the inside. So that's what I'd want people in 250 years to see.

MICHAELSON: What does it say about you and me that yours is so deep and profound and says so much about you in this way? And mine was just like, let's play football and text each other. But I don't know. I guess that's America, right?

BLACKWELL: We're all on this spaceship together.

MICHAELSON: Yes, exactly. And in 250 years, we may actually be on this spaceship together.

BLACKWELL: Have a great show.

Victor, great job tonight. Thank you very much. And we begin here on "The Story Is" with Breaking News.