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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Congressional GOP Celebrate as House Passes Bill; Combs Denied Bail - Sentencing Date set for October; Alternate Juror in Sean "Diddy" Combs Trial Speaks to CNN; Pres. Trump On Deportations: "We're Going After The Worst Of The Worst Always First"; President Trump's Adviser Stephen Miller Sets ICE Arrest Target At 3,000 People Per Day; Trump, Congressional GOP Celebrate As House Passes Bill. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired July 03, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... is in communication with North Korea, without elaborating. The fact is Pyongyang may no longer see Trump as essential with Kim needing Trump certainly a lot less than he did back in 2018 and 2019, analysts say.
Past Trump-Kim talks failed to lift sanctions or even achieve any major North Korean goals and North Korea may also be waiting the Russia-Ukraine war to stabilize before reengaging with Washington.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
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BRIANA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Thank you so much for joining us, AC360 starts now.
[20:00:35]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, the President takes a victory lap on his Big Bill, but will he still be celebrating when the political bill comes due and millions of Americans may be hurt by it?
Also tonight, only on CNN, a juror in the Sean Combs trial speaks out on the prosecution evidence that landed and more that didn't.
Plus, the White House wants at least 3,000 arrests a day and has promised mass deportation campaign but to reach that who are these masked agents grabbing off the streets and in Home Depot parking lots?
Good evening, thanks for joining us. Take a look, these are the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa -- in Des Moines where President Trump will be speaking shortly.
The official reason for his visit is to kick off a year-long countdown to the nation's 250th birthday celebrations next summer. But it's hard to imagine when he takes the podium about a half hour from now that he won't be celebrating his first big legislative victory of his second term, namely, final passage of his all in one tax spending and policy bill.
He was already talking about it in the signing ceremony tomorrow on his way to Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So we're signing at about five o'clock and at about five o'clock we're going to have B-2s and F-22s and F-35s flying right over the White House and the Speaker and I and John Thune we're all there together with most -- I think most Republican senators and congressmen and women and it's going to be a great day.
So, we will be signing with those beautiful planes flying right over our heads.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The measure narrowly cleared the House today after enough skeptical far right Republicans finally got on board and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries ended what became a record breaking effort, talking for more than eight-and-a-half hours to try and delay a vote.
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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I'm here today to make it clear that I'm going to take my time and ensure that the American people fully understand how damaging this bill will be to their quality of life.
Donald Trump's deadline may be Independence Day, that ain't my deadline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Deadline or not, though, he could not talk the bill to death, giving House Speaker Johnson the last word, effusively praising the bill shortly before voting began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): With one Big Beautiful Bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before. And every American is going to benefit from that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: In addition to adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt, that's according to the nonpartisan, Congressional Budget Office, the CBO says the bill would also eliminate Medicaid insurance coverage for nearly 12 million Americans, and the bill's upcoming Medicaid cuts are already being felt in red states.
Just yesterday, a clinic in Southwestern Nebraska announced it is shutting down after three decades of service to the community. Statement from the parent hospital CEO to local station KLKN says the anticipated cuts have, and I quote, "made it impossible for us to continue operating all our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years."
CNN's Jeff Zeleny is traveling with the President. He joins us now from Des Moines. How's the White House squaring the victory lap the President is taking with this uproar, mostly among Democrats, over what it adds to the debt and the cuts to Medicaid.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, there is no doubt that President Trump is taking this victory lap here in Iowa, but also with a bit of history steeped in as well, not only with America's 250th birthday celebration, but also saying that he will be signing the biggest bill in history that any President has ever signed.
Now, there's no doubt that it is sweeping, but it also comes after one of the strongest two weeks of, certainly, his presidency this time, and definitely his first term in office as well when you think back to the extraordinary series of events that have indeed happened from the Iranian strikes to the Supreme Court decision that essentially embodied the executive power, and then this bill getting through, there is a reason for the President to celebrate.
However, Democrats are also pointing out that they believe the opening bell of the midterm election campaigns have also begun. And they believe that the deep Medicaid cuts and the damage to rural hospitals is key.
Anderson, even talking to President Trump's supporters here, of course, they are all fully on board with him. But in several conversations, the question of what happened to the deficit, why didn't anyone address that? That does sort of come alive in these conversations, but there is no doubt President Trump is not only taking a victory lap here, he's going to use it to launch into the second half of his first year, exclaiming that he now believes he has more power than he ever has before.
COOPER: And is it clear to you how crucial the President himself was in getting the bill over the finish line?
[20:05:14]
ZELENY: Quite literally, it would not have happened without President Trump's arm twisting, telephone calls and relationships that he has developed with lawmakers. I've talked to several officials in Speaker Johnson's office, other Republican leadership offices, and they say that it was indeed President Trump's -- not only is individual strong arming and offering some deals through executive orders, but simply the fact that you cannot go against President Trump in this Republican Party.
So, even though we saw many fiscal hawks, fiscal conservatives raise questions about the price tag on this, even though we saw many rural state representatives sounding, some worry about the cuts to rural hospitals, there was no doubt that the vast majority voted for him.
But, Anderson, the no votes are instructive. Only two no votes in the House. One, of course, was Tom Massie, who believes that the debt and deficit is just too high. The other was Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania, who is one of three Republicans who are in districts that Kamala Harris won. So, he clearly believed it was bad politics to vote for this bill.
COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much.
For the political impact of the bill, I'm joined by Democratic strategist James Carville and Paul Begala. Paul, let me start with you. I mean, I maybe I'm old, too old, but I'm old enough to remember when Republicans seemed to really care about deficits and also executive orders. They didn't like when Obama had a lot of executive orders, it was ruled by fiat. Now, they don't seem to care. Is there any price you think Republicans will pay for this Big Bill?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, enormous. The debt and the deficit is an enormous, enormous problem, and it will hurt them politically. Look, I helped Bill Clinton balance the budget. I still have a copy of it somewhere in my bookshelf. And we set this country on a course to have zero national debt. We had zero deficit in 1997. We have zero debt way into the future, in the year 2009. Why did that go off course? Massive tax cuts for the rich and the forever wars that President Bush got us into.
But this is not going to be popular because not only the exploding the debt, they're cutting taxes for the rich and they're paying for it by hammering Medicaid.
Medicaid is beloved, by the way, Trump won people on Medicaid. He won their votes and, you know, a good politician rewards his voters. A great politician reaches out beyond to new voters. But a stupid politician punishes his voters and those House Republicans, Senate too, Congressional Republicans are going to pay an awful price.
Medicaid is beloved in this country. I looked it up, Kaiser Family Foundation has 83 percent approval of Medicaid, 83. It sounds like what in world does 83? No, it's not --my son Patrick came up with it. He said, Dad, try puppies, we found a poll, 86 percent of Americans love puppies. So imagine if they had a bill that killed 14 million puppies and they all voted for it. That's the political equivalent here.
It's a disaster, they're going to lose the entire Congress for this.
COOPER: I'm not eager to meet the 14 percent of people who don't like puppies or kittens.
James, let me let me ask you. I mean, if Republicans say and they've been on our air saying, look, we're not destroying Medicaid. We're not cutting people off Medicaid. We're cutting people who aren't, you know, who are gaming the system, who aren't working, that's what we're doing. JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, I agree with what Paul said. You know, the first sip of Kool-Aid always tastes good. It didn't work out well and gone sour, and they're drinking Kool-Aid right now and we all know that.
Look, the healthcare stuff -- the idea that the health burden is a 30- year-old unemployed guy getting Medicaid is nuts. First of all, the useless 30-year-old is not going to sign up for Medicaid -- doesn't think she or he is going to die anyway. I mean, the whole thing is ludicrous. They have tried every work requirement that blew up in their face in Arkansas and define work. You know, my sister took care of my mother. They count that as work. They count somebody raising a child and count that as work.
COOPER: I sure hope it is.
CARVILLE: I don't know, there's a lot we don't know yet, there is a lot we don't know yet. That's work, you know that, Anderson, for sure. So, let's say this is the most unpopular president at this point in time. And this is the most unpopular piece of legislation in history.
COOPER: Well, so, I mean, if that's the case, James, why do it? I mean, you know, Republicans aren't dumb -- is it -- why do it? They must see something different here.
CARVILLE: They're doing it, because it gives rich people a tax cut, which they try to do every time they get in office. They've done that. President Reagan did it. President -- younger Bush did it, Trump does it, that's all they care about.
And for somehow or another, they think this is the magic political stuff. And again, they're going to find out that this is some deadly Kool-Aid they're drinking in.
The guy, Harry Enten of CNN, he's very, very energetic, was doing the polling. He was having a nervous breakdown on television. He is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. He was like, gee whiz -- like just seen Hiroshima or something.
[20:10:13]
COOPER: He loves puppies though and kittens.
CARVILLE: Yes, okay.
COOPER: Hey, Paul, I mean, are Democrats -- I mean, look, they've seen a lot of energy with Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- are they positioned to make -- to do anything with this? I mean, do they really -- have they found a voice yet?
BEGALA: Yes, Hakeem Jeffries gave the Democrats that voice today. He set the new record for a speech in the House. They don't have filibusters in the House, but they have this rule that allows the Leader to speak pretty much unlimited. So, he went on for hours and he focused on Medicaid, focused on healthcare. I have criticized the Democrats for good reason, but I thought Hakeem today was terrific, they're right to focus on Medicaid, they're right to bring it back to this contrast. They're going to cut taxes for the rich and take away your Medicaid. And when they do that, this is what Hollywood calls a pre-aware title. You know, it's like why they make movies about Legos, because everybody knows what Legos are.
Everybody knows if you leave the Republicans in a room alone with the lights off, they're going to cut taxes for the rich and take away your healthcare. Okay, so this is something we have 60 to 70 years of experience and muscle memory.
The Republicans tried this the last time Trump was President. They cut taxes for the rich in 2017 and they tried. They didn't even succeed, but they tried to outlaw Obamacare. God bless John McCain. He saved Obamacare. But even for trying to take away healthcare while cutting taxes for the rich, they lost 41 House seats. I know its 487 days away. They're going to lose more than that in 487 days.
This is a political death warrant as much as it is a bill.
COOPER: James, you made headlines a couple of months ago saying the Democratic Party should kind of play possum for a while. Where's your head at now?
CARVILLE: We're going to play possum now. And I like with the unified party, every Democrat voted against this. Every Democrat, regardless of the ideology or a necessity on a regional -- we can all rally around this and we can run on this single issue all the way to 2026 and Paul is right, we're going to pick up more than 40 House seats, I can tell you. What the poll today, the Democrat in New Jersey is up 20 points. That's in a state that we won by two-and-a-half for two in 2021.
I mean, you know, political anthropologists are going to look back at this and it is going to be called a mass extinction event, because there are a lot of them are going to be extinct when people go to the polls voting for this, I promise you, I promise you, this thing is really -- it's like 25 to 26 points underwater already. And we haven't even started our education program.
COOPER: James Carville, Paul Begala, appreciate it. Have a good Fourth of July.
CARVILLE: Thanks.
BEGALA: Yes, James is coming over. James you're coming tomorrow, right?
CARVILLE: Tomorrow, yes, I'll see you in Huntsville. Text me the address again so I got it just right.
COOPER: It's okay, I've got plans. It's all right. I didn't get an invite to that.
Coming up next, the CNN exclusive, the juror who saw and heard all the evidence against Sean Combs but didn't get a vote with this alternate juror, told CNN's Laura Coates about the impact it had on him and the rest of the jury.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE, ALTERNATE JUROR AT SEAN COMBS TRIAL: We looked at just what we were supposed to be, what the judge had said we were supposed to look at. And then, based off of the evidence that was presented to us, they ruled in that in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Also tonight, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Are you kidding me old man? What you're doing is kidnapping. What you're doing is kidnapping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What the f**k is wrong with you people?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: People being grabbed, arrested off the streets as the administration tries to ramp up its mass deportation effort. What it now looks like and how it stands up to the President's claim they're targeting what he calls the worst of the worst.
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[20:18:35]
COOPER: When we left you last night, Sean Combs was behind bars, denied bail after jury acquitted him of most of the worst charges against him. Tonight, still in jail, where he'll stay until sentencing, which is likely in a few months and jury members have begun talking about why the government's evidence was not enough to convict him across the board.
CNN's chief legal analyst Laura Coates, talked to one alternate juror. She joins us now. Did this juror agree with the verdict?
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: He did, and I was so fascinated to speak to somebody who had heard all the evidence from the perspective of not having any media coverage, having been instructed as an alternate juror, not to look at anything else and only what was coming in. And he said that he agreed with the verdict to acquit for RICO, to acquit for sex trafficking as well.
And what's so fascinating was the why. He thought that there had always been doubt ever since the opening statements, and that the text messages, for example, when it came from Cassie Ventura and Jane, that there was some seed of reasonable doubt with respect to consent.
But more specifically, I asked him what would, if anything, help the prosecution if you had, say, the right hand woman of Sean "Diddy" Combs, known as Kristina Khorram, come to testify, who has said that she has done nothing wrong and has not been charged or D-Roc the security guard similarly, he said it wouldn't have mattered to him because he had heard enough and they hadn't met the burden of proof. Wasn't that fascinating?
COOPER: You also -- you asked him about the surveillance video showing combs assaulting Miss Ventura at a hotel in 2016. What did he say to that?
COATES: This video is so infamous because of just the savage nature of the assault, and these jurors saw this dozens -- actually, probably about a dozen or more times in the actual courtroom. And I asked him about that very aspect of it, whether that video played a part in how he evaluated all the other charges. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Can I ask you one more question? And it's about the video from the Intercontinental Hotel that you saw a lot.
GEORGE: Yes, it was --
COATES: Was it that -- did you see -
GEORGE: They did it, sometimes they did it like frame by frame by frame.
COATES; What did you think of that? Did you see it enough, too much, too little, what?
GEORGE: We -- it was. I mean, it was. It was a very bad video and I think they showed it enough. I mean, they tried to show it both sides and --
COATES: Did it make a difference to you in the actual charges that you would have had to deliberate over because he wasn't charged with --
GEORGE: He wasn't charged with domestic violence, no.
COATES: Did that surprise you?
GEORGE: No, because I don't think -- because I don't think domestic violence is a federal crime so --
COATES: Did it cloud the way you saw the rest of the charges by seeing that video?
GEORGE: No, I think -- we again, we looked at just what we were supposed to be -- what the judge had said we were supposed to look at. And then, based off of the evidence that was presented to us, they ruled in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Did you have anything to say about the testimony of Combs' other ex-girlfriend?
COATES: He did the pseudonym victim named Jane. He talked about that and about the chronology of events, particularly around the physical assault in her home that she testified to. The timing of it, he said, was off in terms of being able to assess her credibility. Something seems strange, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: How about with Jane? Obviously, she testified for several days, very emotional at times.
GEORGE: It was, yes.
COATES: What did you think of her credibility? Did you believe her?
GEORGE: I think we -- it was a very -- it was very again, riveting, you know, long testimony and we -- I think -- I mean, I did believe her at least on some parts. Some parts were a little bit -- didn't add up as much, seemed a little strange.
COATES: What part seemed strange to you?
GEORGE: The part -- well, one part for me that didn't -- that seemed a little strange was the night, I think, when Jane was in, you know, when they had the fight.
COATES: Yes.
GEORGE: It just -- the timing seemed a little like you going from, like, one closet to another closet to, you know, it just something didn't add up there.
COATES: How about the impact when you heard that her rent was being paid or her lawyers being paid by the defendant, did that surprise you?
GEORGE: That was surprising, yes, and it was still being paid.
COATES: What did you think when you heard that?
GEORGE: I was just like, wow, you know, wow. It was surprising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Laura Coates, thanks. You can watch more of Laura's interview on cnn.com. And on Saturday, a new episode of "The Whole Story: The Case Against Diddy," airs 8:00 P.M. Eastern time here on CNN. And check out Laura at 11:00 tonight.
Right now, more on where Sean Combs is and where he's been throughout the trial. One of his lawyers, Teny Geragos, talked about it after his bail hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TENY GERAGOS, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS: I want to thank the judge, and I want to thank, despite the terrible conditions at the MDC, I want to thank the good people who work there, who ensured that we had sufficient amount of time to prepare for trial. It is extremely difficult to prepare for a federal case in the conditions at the MDC, and they did everything they could to make that happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, MDC is Brooklyn's Federal Metropolitan Detention Center. It's been in the news before as the official name. Unofficially, it's been called other things, including hell on earth. More from CNN's Brynn Gingras.
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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC, a federal prison where the conditions inside are as notorious as some of the criminals it houses.
ARTHUR AIDALA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's a miserable existence.
GINGRAS: Alleged healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione is there now while waiting for his trial, Rapper Fetty Wap, R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and "Crypto King" Sam Bankman- Fried also spent time behind these walls.
AIDALA: The way they protect them is kind of keeping them away from other inmates who could be dangerous So, you're restricted on your movement. You have horrible food. You don't go outside. It's horrible.
[20:25:02]
GINGRAS (on camera): Combs' attorneys wanted him to be released from this prison and abide by tight travel restrictions since a jury acquitted him on the sex trafficking and racketeering charges, the most serious ones he faced. But a judge denied his bail.
ACTIVISTS: Are you good?
INMATES: No.
GINGRAS (voice over): In recent years, inmates, judges, attorneys and activists have sounded the alarm on major issues inside the prison.
REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): We are pushing for basic humanity.
GINGRAS (voice over): Reports of violence, overcrowding, staff shortages, even a power outage that lasted a week sparked protests by New York City leaders. Last year, a federal judge condemned the facility's conditions, prompting the Bureau of Prisons to appoint an urgent action team to, "Take a holistic look at the challenges at MDC Brooklyn."
AIDALA: The people in the MDC, for the most part, are people who have not been convicted of a crime. They are waiting to go to trial. They are presumed innocent and they should not be in these conditions that are just against humanity.
GINGRAS (voice over): Even with all those issues, just last month, the Trump administration ordered the Bureau of Prisons to assist Immigration officials in housing detainees, becoming the eighth prison in the country to do so.
For now, Combs continues daily life behind bars. A 6:00 A.M. wake up call for breakfast, according to a Bureau of Prisons handbook, cell upkeep and commissary shopping, at least until his sentencing date, which hasn't yet been set.
Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, coming up next, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator) Why are you hitting him?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: An undocumented migrant with no apparent criminal record in this country and the father of three U.S. Marines chased down and arrested by ICE. What DHS said led to this moment, which was widely seen.
Also, why people like him are being targeted in the first place.
And a new report about how President Trump's finances were on shaky ground until he started to capitalize on his run for the president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:39]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: New CNN reporting today on how two of President Trump's signature issues, immigration and the economy, are at times in conflict. Representatives of the farming, food processing and construction industries have raised alarm bells over the increasing arrests and roundups of undocumented migrants on streets and job sites throughout the country. These are industries, of course, critical to the U.S. economy that also employ many undocumented migrant workers.
President Trump was elected promising to carry out what he called mass deportations, and he portrayed it as law enforcement arresting the worst of the worst, killers and rapists roaming the streets. The president was asked about it this week on his way to tour the new migrant facility in the Florida Everglades, dubbed the Alligator Alcatraz.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you still prioritizing going after the worst of the worst, or are you now arresting anyone who is here illegally?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing the worst of the worst always first.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: And I think it's great government what we've done.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: But increasingly it seems that law enforcement is under pressure to get as many people as they can find. One of the president's top advisers, Stephen Miller, publicly set a target number for daily arrests by the Department of Homeland Security in late May.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: Under President Trump's leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day. We're seeing the results of that effort, it would seem, to get higher and higher numbers play out across the country. I want to play you a video of an arrest last week in Santa Ana, California.
It made a lot of headlines. I want to warn you, it is tough to watch. It shows mass federal agents repeatedly striking a man while he's pinned to the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Why are you hitting him?
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: The man is Narciso Barranco, the father of three sons, all U.S. Marines, two of whom are still on active duty serving this country. His son, Alejandro, told us his father came to the U.S. illegally in the 1990s but has no criminal record. He was gardening at an IHOP when his son says he was approached by mass federal agents who didn't identify themselves. His father ran.
When CNN inquired about the case with DHS, a spokeswoman told us the illegal alien ran, then turned and swung a weed whacker directly at an agent's face. She went on to say he then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent. The illegal alien refused to comply every step of the way, resisting commands, fighting handcuffs, and refusing to identify himself. His son disputes the account.
Is he really among the worst of the worst, a working man who's raised three sons who've served in the Marines? This woman we're about to show you was recorded being pried off a tree by federal agents near a Home Depot parking lot.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have an idea in the world, of course you can take her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, oh, oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Are you kidding me, old man?
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Her name is Selena Ramirez. She's a food vendor. The woman who shot this video said she saw Ramirez being chased by a man wearing street clothes, a tactical belt, and a neck gaiter covering his face. So she followed them and then began to record. I should note the witness asked that bystanders in the video be blurred for fear they could face retaliation.
When CNN contacted DHS about this video, and we asked if Ms. Ramirez has a criminal record in this country, they told us that Customs and Border Patrol encountered, quote, "an illegal alien from El Salvador for being unlawfully present in the United States." Once again, not targeted for being the worst of the worst, just ripped off a tree outside a Home Depot.
[20:35:08]
For some supporters of President Trump, raids and arrests like this are a step too far. Joe Rogan had this to say earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
JOE ROGAN, HOST, THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: It's insane. The targeting of migrant workers, not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just construction workers showing up in construction sites, raiding them, gardeners.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROGAN: Like, really?
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: For more on all this, I want to bring in Hamed Aleaziz, Immigration Reporter for The New York Times. Hamed, you recently did a ride-along with ICE agents, and it was fascinating. You spent the day with them. It was about a dozen agents.
Ultimately, three people were arrested. Multiple vehicles were involved. Were the arrests targeted toward undocumented migrants with criminal records specifically? I think the first one I know was -- what was your takeaway from your day with them?
HAMED ALEAZIZ, IMMIGRATION REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I mean, the takeaway for me was the amount of resources, like you mentioned, needed just to get a few people. And ultimately, ICE was out there for several hours. They got three people, this team of, you know, more than 10 officers and agents. I think it just speaks to the difficulty for ICE to ramp up the numbers to the levels that Stephen Miller wants.
COOPER: Was it only ICE? Because there -- I mean, we've also seen -- you know, I've read reports of IRS enforcement agents, FBI, and others.
ALEAZIZ: Yes, right now, you know, several government agencies are helping ICE with these enforcement actions. You can see agencies with the DOJ, the FBI is there, the ATF is there, the DEA. Everyone is really kind of helping ICE because ultimately, they just don't have enough bodies to go after the numbers needed to meet President Trump's promises of mass deportation.
COOPER: And to those who say, well, when the president says they're going after the worst of the worst, what have you seen?
ALEAZIZ: Yes, I mean, I think ultimately, right now, what ICE is doing, yes, they are targeting, oftentimes, people with criminal records. But then what they're doing under the Trump administration is if there are people around these targets who are just in the vicinity, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they're undocumented as well, those people are going to be arrested and brought along and detained and potentially deported.
So I think ultimately, for ICE, there's not as much of a delineation between the person who has a criminal record in the U.S. and the person who's here simply undocumented. They see that as the same bucket.
COOPER: Right. What they say in these statements that they give us and what they said to you, essentially, is that in their mind, anybody who crosses the border has committed a crime. If they have a bank account, they've done that illegally, that these are all crimes, and therefore they are criminals, and therefore they see that as the original sin, the original crime that justifies any arrest anywhere. Is that why there are now, we're seeing at job sites or, you know, the parking lots at Home Depots, areas where they're hoping to get just a group of people together that they can all nab at the same time and kind of sort it out later?
ALEAZIZ: Yes. When it comes to numbers-wise, work sites, going to farms or different facilities, ICE is able to pick up higher numbers of people because they can pick up workers, they can arrest workers, and currently right now with the pressure to meet these, you know, goals that Stephen Miller and ICE has set, you know, you can see the agency kind of targeting these different places so they can meet these numbers.
You know, you can look back to the first Trump administration. One of the biggest operations in a single day in ICE's history was at a series of, you know, factories in Mississippi where several hundred people were arrested in a single day. So I think that's something, you know, potentially this agency can look forward to moving forward.
COOPER: When you see people -- you know, we've seen videos of people, you know, who have been arrested saying, look, my child's in school. Who's going to tell my child, you know, my child's at home or I need to pick up my kid from school, what happens in those cases?
ALEAZIZ: Yes, you know, I remember covering the first Trump administration, again, a different worksite arrest operation in Nebraska, and at the time there were workers who were arrested at this tomato farm, and the parents were arrested and the children were left without their parents. So schoolteachers, principals, and others in this small Nebraska town basically stepped up and took care of the children while they sorted out where their parents were.
[20:40:03]
So oftentimes, there's a lot of chaos. There's a lot of, you know, uncertainty and fear in these communities during these, you know, enforcement actions.
COOPER: Yes.
Hamed Aleaziz, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
ALEAZIZ: Thank you.
COOPER: One other related note, U.S. Northern Command tonight says about 200 North Carolina-based Marines are being deployed to Florida to locations chosen by ICE-NORTHCOM. Describes this as, quote, "the first wave," unquote, of support to ICE, which will also include deployments to Louisiana and Texas. The Marines, according to the statement, will not take part in law enforcement duties.
For more on the president's immigration agenda, we're joined now by Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin. Jamie, first of all, what do you make of that, Marines being used to -- in support of ICE?
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D), RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: What we're seeing is the criminalization of immigration law and the militarization of immigration law. And that will only take us so far in terms of addressing the real problems or actually making some headway in terms of positive public policy for the country. And we've got to get back to the idea that people are coming to America because this is a land of opportunity, where the most ambitious and restless and optimistic people in the world come to try to build a future for their families.
But there's also not just that push to get here. There's a pull to get here, too, because we have huge shortages in our labor force, whether we're talking about agriculture or we're talking about construction or we're talking about gardening and landscaping or restaurants or what have you. So I think that there have been lots of periods where the two parties have gotten together to say, let's figure out legislatively what we can do to bring some coherence and rationality to this.
Instead, what we're getting from the administration is the attempt to criminalize people who are in the country and to militarize the whole situation. And that's not just dangerous for the people who are the targets of it. It's dangerous for all of society. COOPER: Congressman, you're a constitutional lawyer. You're also a dad. When you watch these videos of ICE arresting people and others arresting people, you know, good people look at those videos and see it different ways. Some people say, this seems heartless. This is awful. This person hasn't committed -- has no criminal record once they're in the country.
And others say, well, look, they violated the law by coming here. They are here illegally. Even if they don't have a criminal record, they broke the law when they came here. Others, you know, waited to follow the system, weren't able to come. What -- to you, when you see these videos, what stands out to you? What is wrong with this if they violated the law by coming here?
RASKIN: To me, Anderson, it seems like a completely tragic situation. I mean, if you're talking about a guy, and again, I'm just going on the reportage, but a guy who came to the country without papers, without documents, that's undisputed, but he has no criminal record, he's been productively employed, and he has three U.S. citizen sons who are members of the Marines.
And stories like that complicate the picture of trying to turn this into a military struggle between good and evil. It's just a far more complex human picture than, you know, politicians would have it be in just trying to polarize the country around it. And that's why I say we've got to try to think of it in terms of categories of people.
There are the dreamers. These are, you know, people who were brought here as little kids. They were one or two years old. Their whole life is America. They've gone to elementary, middle school, high school here. They have no criminal record.
They are productively employed, or they're in the military, or they're in college. OK, why don't we give the dreamers a chance? If they've not violated the law, they've got no criminal record, put them on a path to citizenship. Same thing with people here on temporary protective under the TPS.
If they're here under a temporary protective status, why don't we look at those people again if they're productively engaged in the community and they've been here for a certain period of time, they've committed no crimes, why don't we try to deal with it that way? Then you isolate the people who actually are gang members and are a threat to society.
I mean, Donald Trump is talking about how the undocumented people who are working in the farm sector are actually good people who've been here a long time and they're needed. And if you conduct ICE raids there, then other people are not going to go to work and we're going to destroy the farm sector.
He's heard that from his own agriculture secretary and other people who've lobbied him. OK, that's a very pragmatic, practical way of looking at it.
[20:45:04]
In 2021, we voted on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that my colleague Zoe Lofgren put in to try to deal with that situation.
COOPER: Yes.
RASKIN: Again you have people who are not involved in any kind of crime and they're here and they are exactly as the president describes them. Let's figure out either a pathway to citizenship for them or at least a legal status. Why can't we talk about that instead of just having all of these tragic scenes unfold all over the country?
COOPER: Yes. Congressman Raskin, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
Coming up, we have new details on President Trump's finances contrary to what he was saying publicly during the campaign. His records paint a different picture according to the investigation by the New York Times that we're going to talk about with the reporter next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:24]
COOPER: New reporting from the New York Times takes an extensive look at President Trump's fortunes. Now, here's the headline, "Trump's Finances Were Shaky, Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback." The Times reports, contrary to the president's assertions, records filed in a fraud case against him suggest that his riches were not the product of a steady and strong empire.
New York Times Investigative Reporter Russ Buettner joins us. He's also the co-author of "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success", a book I'm sure Mr. Trump is very thrilled about, the title of.
It's fascinating, your reporting, because not only do you do the deep dive on sort of the shaky state of his finances before the presidency, but where his wealth is now. And I want to read something you said, how his wealth now is really kind of monetizing the family name. You say, "Many of the deals open multiple channels for anyone to funnel cash to a sitting president, often in ways that are untraceable under current disclosure requirements. And because some of what is being sold is use of the president's name, there are no clear metrics to gauge whether he has received market rate, a premium because of his officer or, in effect, a hopeful bribe."
Can you just talk about where the president and his family, they're making their money now, and how they respond to this, because clearly they can't be happy about this?
RUSS BUETTNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: So where they're making their money now, filling in some holes that had appeared on their balance sheet from the businesses that weren't performing well, is largely through cryptocurrencies. It's a set of enterprises that they started very quickly last year, and part of this year, once Donald Trump decided he was solicited by some crypto industry people who said, we can produce votes and money for you, and he leapt into it, his sons leapt into it -- COOPER: Which is interesting because early on, I mean, years ago, he
was skeptical of it. He publicly sort of said he didn't, like, I can't -- I don't want to disclose it.
BUETTNER: It's like a scam.
COOPER: Right.
BUETTNER: Yes, yes. And so now they've sold tokens bearing their name. They've -- under two different businesses, they've created a data mining company that creates bitcoins, which is one form of cryptocurrency --
COOPER: But the first lady has also sold -- has her own meme coin out of it.
BUETTNER: She has, they've both done that. And those meme coins are really despised, even by people who are really strong crypto supporters. And by my colleague's calculations yesterday, we think he's gotten -- received at least $600 million shared between his family and some partners, just in those enterprises so far. And he may have value there of -- as much as $7 billion.
COOPER: It's also an ongoing concern. I mean, it's -- you know, we saw that dinner that he had, and he was talking up the meme coin, and the price was going up. I mean, this fluctuates. And he -- and his people around him who are involved in this, they're able to try to goose the price of it.
BUETTNER: Absolutely. I mean, that's one of the great scams in the history of crypto coins, is that you sort of pump something up, and then everybody that's on the inside knows it's been pumped up, and they pull out when the price is very high, and everybody else who's nodding on the joke sort of eats it.
COOPER: What has the White House or the Trump organization said about your reporting?
BUETTNER: The White House said that, as they've said for all questions about his businesses, that he has no conflict of interest because he only has the American people in his heart and mind. Eric Trump, who runs the family business now, said that he's very proud of where they are and that they're in the best position they've ever been in because they have iconic properties and the most iconic cryptocurrency ventures on Earth, was his words.
COOPER: No one really knows -- I mean, there's no way to track who exactly is giving. I mean, there's wallet numbers, but the identity of some people, if somebody wanted to get money to the president, this would be a way to do it.
BUETTNER: Absolutely. It's not hard to hide your identity, nor is it hard to let him know that you were the one who did that. And there were people in the purchase of the meme coin, there were some of these crypto wallets, just anonymous ID numbers, as you said, that bought the bulk of those, paid big money for them, and then sold when all the smaller people started buying, and they made all the money from that. And we still don't know who those people were.
COOPER: And in that case, I think, I don't remember the exact numbers, but it, you know, it was several dozen people profited handsomely, whereas hundreds of thousands of other wallets lost money.
BUETTNER: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And that's, you know, that's one of the big dangers of this whole business that's not --
COOPER: Yes.
BUETTNER: -- really played out yet.
COOPER: Russ Buettner, thank you so much. Fascinating reporting in The New York Times.
The president is speaking right now at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. We'll check in after a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:59:40]
COOPER: Well, the president's in Iowa tonight after passage of his signature bill. These are live pictures of the event, which was billed as the start of a year-long countdown to the country's 250th birthday. A few moments ago, he had this to say about his so-called Big, Beautiful Bill. The spending increases in it for ICE and the media coverage of today's victory in Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
TRUMP: Deport the illegals and slash hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud, and that's what we're doing. With this bill, every major promise I made to the people of Iowa in 2024 became a promise kept. You know, we actually -- they had a report today on some crazy fake station, but it wasn't fake in this regard.
They said, you know, this guy actually did more than he promised. I did.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: And that's it for us. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.
The news continues. The Source starts now.
