Trump's $1.7 Billion Slush Fund?

Today in a group chat, President Trump defends a$1.7 billion taxpayer-funded reparations fund for his allies. Does a divided America need this right now? He ran on draining the swamp and this is the swampiest thing I could possibly imagine. Fast-moving flames engulf parts of the Simi Valley. The race is on to get people out of harm's way. We will leave no stone unturned. So police think two attackers teamed up for a deadly hate attack on a mosque. I'm gonna talk about how rare that is.

Courage means stepping up when the mission matters most. When we need that tough And the defense secretary on the campaign trail deployed for a high-stakes primary is today's race in Kentucky, now a referendum on the war in Iran. And Elon Musk loses the open AI lawsuit to Sam Altman, why Musk says the fight isn't over yet.

It's being investigated as a as a hate crime at this point. There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved. So three people are dead after a shooting at San Diego's largest mosque. What were the warning signs that were missed? Good morning everybody. I'm Audie Cornish and we're gonna start with that investigation. In California, which is being called a hate crime, a security guard among those killed at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Now the suspect.

Two teenagers are also dead. Police say their bodies were found near the scene, killed from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. A motive is still under investigation, but officials tell CNN hate speech was scrawled on one of the weapons.

Now people who live there say tensions have been brewing in the city for a while now. They went in there looking for people gathering there for religious reasons and I I don't think that the mayor Todd Gloria is doing enough to condemn the hatred towards Muslims and there is a lot of hatred going Around I'm not happy with the political climate. I've been visiting my uh representatives, my House of Representatives that are in Congress, and I've been begging them to please condemn the genocide.

Please condemn the hatred against Muslims and they refuse every time. And San Diego's mayor is facing fierce pushback. Could the city have possibly done more to prevent this? Direct result of your leadership! Shit! Your leadership! Our Muslim brothers and sisters have been talking. You have to fing listen to them talk. Хейт газно і Сандієго. Islamophobia has no home in San Diego. An attack on any San Diegan is an attack on all San Diegans and we will not stand for it in America's finest city.

Okay, I'm bringing in now retired NYPD officer Jillian Snyder. First I wanna talk about what we know related to this investigation so far. Um basically that the one of the suspects was seventeen. Um that apparently one of the parents called police to tell them that guns were missing from the home. Um what else have you been hearing and that you're listening for out of law enforcement?

The other thing I've been hearing is that the mother did find a note and did have knowledge that her son may be suicidal. So besides taking the weapons from the home and taking the car from the home. And teaming up with what we believe to be his partner in crime. That's all we know for now. I know that there were writings on the website.

That's again not not confirmed, but we've heard that from multiple reporting sources. But I think what they're gonna do now is obviously with the age of these offenders going to be doing a deep dive into social media, Discord, text messages, their online platforms because Honestly, this age bracket typically is radicalized through online means. Um often when I'm a reporting a story like this, it's a lone wolf. Can you talk about how unusual it is for there to be a pair of shooters?

Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Um generally in shootings like this, especially with a target of a religious institution, we generally do see lone wolf actors. Um, but this is not uncommon, particularly again for this age bracket, very unique. to see a 17 and 18 year old um come together and attack a religious institution. It's quite uncommon. We've seen this in the past. Columbine is like a very honest and good example of two teenagers coming together and carrying out a crime like this.

But in that case the motives were different. Um obviously they were bullied in that case. So understanding why these two did come together, and that's gonna be a huge thing for law enforcement to try and figure out what drew these two individuals together to carry this out. Um it's not unusual for a religious institution and a neighborhood in America to come under gunfire in this way to be attacked.

What I found unusual is the outcry almost immediately. We saw it at the press conference of people saying that they had concerns that something like this would happen and they didn't feel heard um by leadership. Um I I want to give an example right now just of kind of what's at stake here. Here was one of the uh police talking about one of the security guards. Um, who basically uh a father whose child was in the mosque at the time. I know.

He was sacrificing his life for the kids because if he didn't take that bullet. They would easily walk down sters. And then there's just innocent eight and younger and women and You know, people that couldn't defend themselves. Are religious institutions on their own here with their own security to prevent this, or do local police have to take more or stronger action?

I could tell you, um, I retired a few years ago and over the course of my career with the NYPD, we were often placed at houses of worship, particularly um around synagogues during high holy days. So this is not uncommon to have law enforcement presence at places of worship but

I do see more and more frequently um private security being hired to keep that area safe because local law enforcement does not always have the bandwidth to provide services there for protection. But um something that I do want to just Make sure it's clear. Although we've seen increases in houses of worship being under attack, it is still quite uncommon statistically. But when something like this does happen, when lives are lost, when children are frightened, it is just an ultimate tragedy.

Okay, that's Gillian Snyder. Thank you so much. We're gonna be checking in later today with more reporting um about that shooting in California. coming up

Plus, we have new reporting on President Trump's plan to pause attacks in Iran. His warning, if it's a good idea, is the first time deal isn't reached. And Trump financially backing his allies, including those who may have been involved in January 6th, and you're paying the nearly one point eight billion dollar price tag.

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This is uh reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated. It's anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized. Uh, they've been in some cases imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees that they didn't have. They've gone bankrupt. Their lives have been destroyed. And they turn out to be right.

So President Trump told his supporters on the campaign trail that he would quote be their retribution. Now we are asking today if a new fund set up by the Justice Department is footing the bill. In exchange, the Department of Justice created a$1.776 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were unfairly treated by the Biden administration.

Now, there are hardly any constraints on who's eligible for the fund, including the nearly 1,600 people who were pardoned for their role in the January 6th Capitol attack. There are critics who are calling this a slush fund for the president's supporters. It's bad enough that he pardoned people involved in the first violent attempt to uh essentially overthrow a free and fair election, but now he wants to pay It's obscene.

Joining me now in the group chat, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political correspondent at Axios. Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist, and former senior advisor to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. And Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. Um Terry, we're gonna start with you, because according to my notes, you're into this. So I want you to to sort of make the case.

Um so one of the things that's interesting about this is the money will be doled out um by a commission that the president will pick. Um well Todd Blanche will pick them and he was the president's former attorney and the president will have the right to fire them. The thing I'm curious about is they didn't take it to a court to look at.

They just said, we've come up with a thing, we've settled it, bye and even the judge was like, What? Like, why wouldn't you bring this to me? Can you talk about the process? What do you think they're thinking is there? Well, I'm I'm I I'm not too sure about what the exact process is at this point. Uh it's relatively new, but I do think that the the framing of this is exactly backwards. Uh Trump is not paying his allies. His allies were targeted by the government because they were allies.

Through the IRS?'Cause like it's not people who have tax issues who can apply for this. Anyone can apply for this. And I think that's exactly right. So how is that not a slush fund? Because it was it's a redress of grievances. It is a redress and it's a fixing of injustices that were done by the weaponization of government. This is Reparations, if you will. Discuss the referendum.

That's fine. But if you look at the guys that were ruined during the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, right, the Mike Flynn had to literally sell his home and mortgage it to pay for his legal battles. Michael Caputo, a very good friend of mine, had to move from New York with his two daughters and wife down to Florida because of all of the targeting. Uh and and it turned out that that was an a complete hoax that there was not the scale.

of involvement from um but also I think this is a real theme of the Trump administration is they're fixing a lot of wrongs. There was just a We don't mind that, it's more like who pays for it. And I wanna know from your position covering the White House, is their sense that they call this an anti weapon weaponization fund.

Is there a reason why it's structured to not like go through Congress? For instance, there was a nine eleven commission. There are ways that the government creates funds for citizens to get redress and this is not typically how it's done. I mean Trump has clearly shown a preference for doing things unilaterally rather than go through Congress just look at what's happening in Iran the Strait of Hormuz. I would also say Laterally you're saying because the it's all structured under him.

Under him, exactly. Which is you know, the the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who you mentioned before, was It's not a coincidence the acting attorney general was Trump's personal defense attorney. And since Pam Bonnie left, Todd Blanche, this is part of a larger pattern of Todd Blanche doing what he believes the president wants to do.

Donald Trump sees the attorney general as essentially his own personal attorney, representing not just uh you know the United States government, but him personally.

of all that is wrong and if he can help all the other people who are wronged in the same way, that's how he's gonna do it. That's fair. I wanna play for you Republican senators, some of their reactions as they were asked about this yesterday. I think when the federal government abuses the citizens, they owe the citizens some compensation. So I'm supportive of

I'd I would really have to take a look at it because I do want to understand the financials behind this. Where is it coming from? Where's it going? We've got to start counting those dollars. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I like the concept, but uh Uh I like it less if we gotta go borrow the money. Look the power I'm a democrat that would say any time the US government goes after anybody unlawfully, there should be some type of retribution, Democrat, Republican, whoever.

The government is a powerful big force and American folks like me and you and everybody at this table is just paying taxes. The visual of this though as a democratic strategist is what I want to talk about because when you go to people and you say that there's a one point seven billion dollar

fund. I won't even call it a slush fund, but money that's my tax dollars that's gonna be doled out to folks that was on January 6th, that we're doing whatever whatever the government may or may not have done, and folks right now can literally not pay for gas and groceries, then I'm going to win that argument every stinking time.

Okay, to your point I just wanna play one more thing, the voices of the view. Displaying it'cause it's, you know, middle of the day and middle of America and here's how they viewed it. This is so extraordinary that he ran on draining the swamp, and this is the swampiest thing I could possibly imagine. Yeah. Is a slush fund for your allies. While Americans can't afford gas, health care, food, beef groceries and this

Black Americans who talk about reparations, but we're gonna do reparations, yeah. We're gonna do reparations for January fifth. Didn't expect to see that come up on the view. Um but uh the thing I wanted to ask you before we go is every time you spend money that isn't on people who are economically hurting in the moment, do you have to justify that? And does it become a harder message to sell going into midterm?

Look again, I think the whole point is being missed. There are people that were economic economically ravaged by the weaponization of government. Again, people had to sell their homes. They had to mortgage them just to pay the legal. Because this headline says farmers' fears rise as profit. So to a farmer, they're gonna be like, Ugh, I don't care about that.

And we should be more concerned, I think, about the nineteen billion that's alleged to have been mishandled in Minnesota and the fraud that's going on in California. There's a lot of fraud, waste, fraud, and abuse that's going on out there, and this 1.776 billion. going toward people that were weaponized had the government weaponized against them. I think that's the s the least of our concern.

Not that much money. Okay, group chat. Stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about. Uh on CNN we're gonna mention this uh fire emergency in California because there are many of you there who are being forced from your homes. The latest on the effort to contain the sandy fire. Plus, you've had this rare shutdown and now a deal to end the strike at the Long Island Railroad. Good morning at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We'll be right back.

It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart. Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise. Two days only. Tuesday, May 26th and Wednesday, May 27th. Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupons. It is now 23 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. This morning firefighters are racing to contain a fast moving bushfire in Simi Valley, California. More than 33,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes. Another 10,000 are under evacuation warning.

Strong winds are fueling this fire, and officials say that the Sandy fire has burned more than 1300 acres so far. were overturned, the disgraced attorney is now suing the former court clerk. Murdoch claims the clerk tampered with jurors and denied him a fair trial. He remains charged with the murders of his wife and son and does face a possible retrial.

The commute in New York expected to get better today. The Long Island Railroad will resume operations at noon. This after reaching a deal with the MTA, ending the three-day strike.

The details behind the agreement were not specified, but union workers wanted better salaries and better health care premiums. And Elon Musk comes out the loser in the Battle of the Tech Rose. It turns out Musk waited too long. to sue OpenAI and Sam Altman. That's what a jury decided after just 90 minutes of deliberations. The judge agreed. They say his lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations.

Musk helped co-found and fund OpenAI, giving$38 million. He sued CEO Sam Altman and other leaders within OpenAI, accusing them. Of taking a non profit mission and turning it into a cash machine for themselves. The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was was a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor, and the facts are that OpenAI is a not-for-profit, mission-driven organization. that has been and will continue to be faithful to that mission.

Now Musk's attorney say that they plan to appeal this decision.

Straight ahead on CNN this morning, it is primary day how Republican Representative Thomas Massey in Kentucky is fending off attacks from President Trump in the final hours of his campaign. Plus more severe weather in the Great Plains and a rare tornado touches down. In Nebraska. Comedian Craig Ferguson is going coast to coast to unpack what it really means to be an American today. What could possibly go wrong? wrong.

Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose. News series premieres May 30th and 9th on CNN and next day on the CNN app. All right, good morning everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It is now half past the hour, and here is what's happening right now.

There is another round of severe weather. Tornado once again touching down in Nebraska. So this is what's called a stovepipe twister caught on camera as storms ripped through the plains. This type of tornado is actually pretty rare and generally has the same width. at the ground and at the cloud base. Either way, some farms were damaged. Luckily no injuries were reported. And later this morning the NTSB is going to hold a hearing on last year's deadly UPS plane crash.

That killed three crew members and twelve people on the ground. In Louisville, Kentucky. Now the plane crashed moments after takeoff, and the NTSB later found that a mount responsible for keeping the engine intact had been cracked. Officials with UPS, the FAA, and Boeing are all expected to testify.

And President Trump is holding off on resuming attacks on Iran. New reporting from Axio saying that the President is expected to convene his top national security team in the situation room today to discuss military options. Media posts that the US military will be ready at a moment's notice for a quote full s large scale assault of Iran if a deal is not reached. And meanwhile, Iran's deputy foreign minister is saying that its latest proposal to end the war

Continues to insist on Tehran's right to enrich uranium. They're also asking for the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen water.

I want to turn back to politics here today because the president is pulling out all the stops to force out the congressman he has been calling disloyal Thomas Massey. Now, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stepped away from the Pentagon amid a war to campaign for Trump's pick at Gallerain. And the president called into a rally to ease voters' fears about high gas prices.

Gasoline's gonna come tumbling down as soon as the war's over. And they want it i Iran wants it to end soon. They've taken big punishment and it's very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon to blow up Kentucky and to blow up every place else. We're not gonna let that happen. So we're getting very close. And as soon as we get that one finished, you're gonna see the r the the gasoline and energy is gonna come tumbling down. But will voters go with Trump or flip on Massey?

Thomas Massey has burnt every bridge he could possibly have to be effective. He can no longer take care of his positions. He can't take care of the fourth district. I'm still gonna vote for Thomas. I think he's a great guy. He's Very careful about he wants how he wants our taxpayer money to be spent. So if Trump came in here and said don't vote for Massey, what would you say?

I'd say well, if I want to vote for him, I'll vote for him. If I don't want to vote for him, I won't vote for him. It's my it's my choice, not yours. Joining the group chat, Republican Congressman Mike Herodopoulos of Florida. Thank you for being here. So I loved hearing that mix of voters there, especially the person who said

you were no longer effective at a certain point. And I think Massey sort of represents what I would call whatever the um oppositional energy is left in the Republican Party, meaning people he c he feels like he can say no to things. and Trump has been found to be able to primary the people he does not like when you look at what happened with the Republicans in Indiana. Um do you think that people who stand up to Trump the way he does so specifically can survive primaries.

Well we'll find out today. And uh I I think that the what what most Republicans I talk to are frustrated by is when we had the big beautiful bill, for example, when we cut taxes on overtime tips, social security, the common sense measures we put into place to secure the border, Thomas Vassey voted no. It was the fundamental reason what what gave us the opportunity to win in 2024 and he has chosen to go to his own path and today is decision day.

Has he burned every bridge the way these somebody applies?

I think a lot of members see that he's looking out for Thomas Massey, as opposed to what the agenda is for the Republican Party. And today's decision day, we'll have to see what happens. We saw what happened last weekend in Louisiana. We'll have to see what happens tonight in Kentucky. Yeah, and also what happened in Indiana, as I mentioned, Jeff Zelony um was talking with Massey yesterday if he thought that uh he was in trouble here. Um and here's what he had to say.

I don't think so. They've they don't know what happened to Bill Cassidy or to those senators in Indiana. And both of those situations are unique from mine. Bill Cassidy voted to impeach the president. That's something I've never done and I would never do. And his constituents were mad about that, right? I'm still with my constituents, in spite of the billion billionaires spending millions of dollars to convince them I'm not. I think most of my constituents know that.

Derry, can he make those distinctions? Uh look, I think the biggest weakness that Massey has, along with everyone else that identifies this way in Congress, is that they're libertarians. Libertarians are inherently independent minded. They they support rugged individualism over the rest of the team. Um and it's not very practical. I think that the I I really do like though the the the lady that was working in the kitchen who's saying, you know, well I'm gonna vote however I want. That's

Well I asked because there are certain states, New Hampshire, et cetera, are places where people are like, We don't want to be bossed around. We thought that about Indiana and then five of the seven Indiana Republicans that said no to redistricting are out of job. Well and that's why Trump has already won. Even if Thomas Massey actually uh defeat uh you know wins and pulls us out tonight, uh the message has been sent. You cross the president, there is going to be a huge political cost.

And even if you do survive the primary, I mean Thomas Massey is now fighting for his political life just as a result of that. And the message has been sent and you're going to see Republicans stay in line, at least to the material. It's a very expensive message. This is the most expensive primary.

uh in history so far thirty five million dollars as of Monday. Um there are a lot of donors also um from APAC, from a Republican Jewish coalition, because of Massey's comments on the war in Iran. And I did wonder with Heg Seth there with the military base there. Is this a also a little bit of a proxy for that conversation? It absolutely is, and thirty five million is d not even getting to past the surface if you look at what happened in Louisiana.

with fifty million dollars. If you look in Texas with a hundred and fifty million dollars, this is what's great for a Democratic strategist is none of that money was spent beating up Democrats. That was money beating up Republicans, each other saying why they suck. They went about us and so we like to sit back and watch that just What?

Let me finish. I'll also say that Donald Trump is still very popular in one little piece of the American electorate and that is these Republican primaries. To your point, Alex, is like love him or hate him, I've always given Donald Trump credit for being a good tactician when it comes to politics.

But he is very popular in a Democratic primary. And again, boys and girls at home, in a Democratic primary, just a little bit of voters make a decision for the entire congressional district, because most of these guys, Democrat or Republican, are in very safe seats to where those primary voters determine who will be your congressman. Um, in the meantime, do you think that Pete Heggsath should be campaigning for anyone right now?

Well it's common things where a cabinet members campaign, there's no doubt about it. Defense Secretaries during a war. Well, yeah. Unless I miss Rumsfeld hanging out in the midterm. No, I mean that this is this is a reality of politics today. He's out there aggressively pushing for the president's person. Reality meaning no one is immune from the requirements of having to go onto the ground, no matter what your gig is.

Well I I think this is politics. Welcome to it. And and this is and talking about money. This is almost as much money as the Democrats burned in Virginia doing a bad idea on on reapportionment. But that said, I think that Thomas Massey will have his day in court today and we'll see the verdict and I I'm interested to see it just like everyone else.

Okay, so speaking of which,'cause you've got your own day in court coming up of of public opinion, we've got you facing a new challenger because there are new maps pushed by Florida. um pushed by Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis. Now this map I want to show folks could increase Republican advantage in Florida's House delegation to 24, uh to four up from the current split of twenty to eight.

And I want to first just talk about the fact that this map exists. Um, were you into this push? Were you happy or just going along with the team? Well as I said publicly and we'll say it again today. It's the state decision. And whatever the decision they made, I was comfortable with it. In Florida we have very specific rules. If you look at the maps, for example, what they tried to do in Virginia and they have already done in states like Illinois, it looks like a Rorschach test.

You look at the map in Florida, you actually keep counties and cities together. That's the way that I had to live under when I drew the lines back in twenty twelve when I was president of the Senate. Whatever the verdict is, I'm I'm ready to run for reelection. I'll run on my record and and keep it. And we should be clear, there's a bunch of lawsuits filed against DeSantis uh about these maps, um, especially because

It's supposed to be voter approved. There are supposed to be some gerrymandering standards there. And as we're learning, this is like uh in each state the rules are a little different. I wanna play for you guys some voters uh from Tallahassee. And what we are here to do is to make sure that our voices are heard, to make sure people understand that what is happening is actually illegal. It is a violation of the Constitution. What what's going on with the districting wars that keeps us going?

And we've already set off legal trench warfare. That's not it's gonna go well beyond these midterms, but also I actually think you're gonna see it ramp up. I normally don't like war analogies, but I feel like that's fitting.'Cause you're just in there hurting each other to what end.

And it's also you know, it's gonna be we're gonna pick up one seat uh you know, w one seat in Maryland, then we're gonna then Republicans are gonna pick up one seat in Indiana and it you're gonna go state by state by state. Um and it's gonna go through 27, 2027, 2028, and likely beyond. We have set, you know, I think what Donald Trump has done and the Democrats' backlash to it has set off sort of an unprecedented.

It didn't start with Donald Trump. It started in twenty twenty three in New York State. That is where this all began in twenty twenty three. I just want to clarify that. Yeah. Of course we had the reaction with Donald Trump, but this started in New York State in twenty I kinda feel like this started in the eighteen hundreds in Massachusetts, but I might be biased because I'm from Massachusetts. That is accurate.

The public they don't look at the start, they look at the outcome and whether or not they're on the losing side of that. Because over time you're you know, if we look at Trump's approval rating it's 59% disapprove, right? And it starts to look like is all of this happening just to somehow mitigate their voice if they decide to vote against him. Here's a look at your new district. Florida Eights is now gonna add a portion of eastern Orange County.

Incorporate University of Central Florida. Is this gonna make things easier or harder for you? I know you've got a challenger. I I as we expected, uh as we should, and we had one last time. Uh I think it's pretty much the same district. Uh the bulk of my district is Brevard County where I represent Kennedy Space Center where NASA is booming, SpaceX is booming, Blue Origin is booming. It's a it's an area that's really enjoyed an economic comeback.

And I can't wait to get on the campaign trail and talk about what we can do to make life better.

What are you gonna say to voters who come to you and say, I don't think all this is fair, I don't like this, I don't like the redistricting wars. I I think I it's the same I just said to you Audie that this is something that two things happen. One is

Uh that it's the state decision they chose to do this. Second, of course, the United States Supreme Court has ruled on the on the race issue uh that back in 18 years ago Barack Obama was elected president of the United States and we want to have colorblind elections.

As Martin Luther King talked about in nineteen sixty three, I think August of sixty-three, it's not the color of your skin, but the context of your character. And that's what people want to be a have elections on, not w worried about the race issue as much as is picking the person that's best for their district. Yeah, I've heard a lot of this message that evokes civil rights activists in the conversation about the legislation that they um

Uh helped bring to this country, right? The Voting Rights Act that somehow we've reached this race neutral point. I uh how do Democrats talk in response. We're gonna have a real time test in less than six months. Uh the American public sent a message to Washington when they elected Donald Trump in twenty four. And Democrats again I sat here and said you should heed this. American public is frustrated.

They're not liking what Democrats are selling. They think this guy, as crazy as I think he is, is something different. But they're also gonna send a message in these midterms. The Congress could be exactly right. I'm not gonna sit here and derive him and say he's ignorant or dumb. I'm just gonna say the American people are gonna tell us.

In six months, the way they feel about these maps and about the corruption. There's one thing that Donald Trump did that was very good. He let the American people go, the American government Corporate America, whoever, they're getting it over on you. And right now that anxiety is not being felt by anybody except you, and nobody's doing anything about it because the system is corrupt. And what these maps show, Democrat or Republican, is that the system is still corrupt.

Uh well I I will just put in one note for the voter which is one of the things I I feel is like oh wait a second no matter what I do or what my vote is, someone somewhere else can decide Well let's just wiggle this line this way and wiggle this line that way and that will somehow negate what this voter thinks. It almost feels like a slap in the face when Congress has passed so little legislation. Like the only thing they're excited about is this.

Well I'd say a couple things. One you went back to history gerrymander. Uh that's a reality I guess I I said bla I think when folks look at maps they look at Illinois. You talk about drawing some unique lines, go look at Illinois or what they tried to do.

in Virginia. In contrast, look with the Florida maps. They actually keep counties and cities together. And that said, again, the voters have the ultimate say. I would actually agree. I think the voters do have the ultimate say here. But in general what we passed the big bill, I used to say that we didn't pass a lot of legislation. No, I mean historically compared to other congresses, it's not a lot of legislation.

Again, when you look at the big bill we passed in July, that was like fifteen bills in one. It was a massive bill, no doubt, because we had to handle the problem of legal immigration. We wanted to help people at hardest hit by inflation. That's why we cut taxes on overtime tips and social security. And and now we're of course we're struggling with this final measure we'll hopefully pass this week to finally fully fund our national security app. So why or or his Stop handling. Approval so low.

I think it's as simple as gas prices right now. There's no doubt about it. And I think the president is correct. When this conflict ends, gas prices go down. lower than three bucks a gallon because we're finally producing more oil in America. We've gone from less than nine billion million million barrels a day to over 13 million and we're all still fracking. We're actually Now people can point to a specific policy shift in the attack on Iran as the cause.

But would we would also say that every Republican and every Democrat president since nineteen seventy-nine says Iran has been a problem. Now every neighbor of Iran can't stand them so much. They're siding with America and Israel. Let's hope this conflict ends soon because gas prices are bad. They're they're horrible right now, but we can turn this around once this war ends. And remember, Venezuelan oil is coming online soon, and that's two million to three million barrels.

Hear the message. The message is wait and see. I I hear you. Don't think I'm not hearing you, but the message is wait and see. Um I wanna turn to something else'cause it is related to funding, which is this uh nearly one point eight billion dollar fund to compensate

Uh people who have been wronged by the government. Uh the Trump administration is calling it an anti-weaponization fund, but it's an unprecedented move. So we're gonna talk more with the congressman about how uh he feels about this use of taxpayer. Plus later on CNN News Central, a global scramble to contain the Ebola outbreaks. We're gonna talk about how worried Americans should be.

So we've been talking this morning about this massive anti-weaponization fund set up by the Justice Department. But we're asking also, is this just more of the president using the government to reward his friends and punish his enemies? On Monday, the President ended his$10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. But here's the thing. In exchange, the Department of Justice created a$1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump's allies.

who they claim were unfairly treated by the Biden administration. The group chat is back along with Congressman Mike Haridopoulos, Republican from Florida. So I wanna play for you guys um somebody who did feel like they were harmed by the actions on January sixth, for example. Um this is a Metropolitan Police uh officer, uh Michael Fannon, here he is. It's rubbing salt in the wound to all of the officers that fought to defend the Capitol. It's

fought to protect the lives of members of Congress. Many of many members of Congress Who are so Celebrating this payout. As if it is somehow you know, it's a little bit more than a little act. to make these individuals whole. Uh and so I you know it's a little bit more than a little bit. Man way, what a one. Wow. wild world we're living in. Congressman?

Well I I I don't know as much about this guy, Mr. Facone. I I know there's some kind of thing where they showed a video of him being inspected after the attack and then something dramatically different his testimony. But that said, uh what what happened on January

Well I think first of all I I'd give them credit for protecting the Capitol, no doubt about it. And and I think the people who made the mistake of of entering the Capitol are are paying a high price for it. And and it was a wrong thing to do. I mean we we settle elections in in America at the ballot box.

not by violence and it was the wrong thing. Political violence is wrong, whether when they when they shot at Steve Scalise, let alone gone after the president three different times, killed Charlie Kirk, et cetera. But but this the January 6th thing, this I want to see justice being served. And this particular uh fund that's being created, they gotta make their case. If there is abuse, I guess they'll be compensated. If they can't justify it, they're not gonna be compensated.

So it's a five member commission. Members can be hired uh by Todd Blanche, fired by Trump at any time. Again, this is all through the executive branch. There aren't a lot of constraints on who can apply. So it's not as though you have to be harmed by the IRS to get this money that's from a settlement with the IRS. Trump is going to get a formal apology out of it. And the deadline is December 15th, 2028.

Um I was bringing up earlier that something like the 9-11 fund went through Congress, established there. Why create a fund that doesn't have transparency, that isn't approved by Congress? Well, I think this and and a lot of other measures are something we need to take a look at. This is a lot of money. And before we spend that money, I think that Congress is going to take a look at it. We after all, we do control the purse.

And I I think that the Attorney General, I believe, is actually on the hill this week. I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about it because I wanna understand this fund better. I I heard about it for the first time literally last night. Really? Okay, well a tr a treasury attorney has actually quit as the government um settled with this suit and a couple Republican congressmen uh senators, Joni Ernst et cetera, have said the same thing as you. How is this gonna work? We need to see it. Um

Reality check, would Congress even really do anything about it given that it's something that Trump wants? Like do you see a Republican-led Congress suddenly setting up an oversight commission to know the ins and outs of how this thing's going to be? They're gonna vote that guy out today, just FYI. They're gonna vote w him out tonight. Well first of all yeah, it's not expression. You said you wanna know. And I do want to... You force the issue.

No, I think look at like as we as I found out my first term here in Congress, to get anything done in the United States Senate, we need sixty votes. To spend some money. So I think this is going to be something that they put out there and and I think that Todd Blanche will will effectively defend the position and let's see if it carries the day.

Let me say this real quick is that you think about these primaries and you think about we I make light of it, but if Massey was to lose tonight, he's still in Congress to the end of the year. He's still gonna be there till the end of the year. Watch these folks who are all out of givea damns, who've already lost a race. They're gonna be a spur in the sight of all these folks in time.

There's a lot of people exiting Congress as well. You know, um, people were looking at how much money this is gonna cost. You say it's not that much money. It's just one point seven seven six billion dollars. Uh and there's a lot going on. But there is also a push to cut twenty three percent of the budget. For NASA. I want to play for you. This is Jared Isaacman, the new NASA administrator, and Senator Chris Van Halen in an exchange. This was in late April.

NASA has not always been the best steward of taxpayer dollars. Every canceled program, every cost overrun, every schedule delay comes at the expense of science and discovery. Everyone in this room knows that without space science, there's no space exploration. Without space science, there is no new planetary discovery. Without space science, there is no natural. Okay, my Space Coast Congressman. You looking forward to these cuts?

Well first of all they're not gonna happen. Uh that's the good news. If you look last Why aren't they gonna? Now let's look at the facts as opposed to the hyperbole here. Last year there were proposals to be cut about just forty percent out of NASA.

I wanna show the twenty twenty seven budget. I'm just gonna put it on screen so people know what you're talking about. These are the as you said, proposed cuts, uh going from twenty four billion to eighteen billion. You're saying I should get rid of this graphic. uh what you said is look at last year's proposal and what happened at the end of Congress. There was a proposal to cut NASA by a significant amount. We did not cut NASA. We fully funded it over twenty four billion and

We added almost$10 billion in the big bill beautiful bill in July. We have record funding going on right now at NASA. I work very closely with that House and Senate to fully fund NASA. I think you're going to see a fully funded NASA because we are going to win the space race. So why does the White House keep asking for less money?

Well what can the politics? It ha you know the the president's put together a a budget and what comes to Congress is something radically different. We all know that. And that's exactly what happened here. F uh not only does Florida, but the entire Congress, Republican and Democrats like support NASA. When I when I pushed with Dr. Babin, the chairman of the overall committee, I chaired the subcommittee on space. We have bipartisan support.

for NASA and you're gonna see that in my opinion a fully funded NASA once again because we're gonna win the space race and we also have these amazing new commercial jobs coming online which is the reason why my district is doing so well financially. County. Some of these cuts are specifically aimed at climate science and some of the climate science activity of NASA. Are you okay with that if these other things you're into, the space race, are protected?

It's the overall budget of NASA and all of us look at the overall budget of of NASA. And I'm confident that NASA's budget is going to be fully funded, just like we did last year, despite the president's push and uh and and as you know the president created the space force he strongly supports it and this is where again Congress will have their say

And I'm pretty confident we'll be fully funding NASA because we need to beat the Chinese to the moon because we want the ultimate high ground and of course the importance of satellites. And military technology hold. And the key to that, of course, is NASA. And by the way, Jared Isaac can do an amazing job. Look at how successful Artemis was.

We will get to talk about that in a minute. Um we are now at the time, gentlemen, of our group chats. We've talked a lot about Republicans today. So Chuck, what is in your group chat? My group chat, as y'all know, I'm the head of all Mexicans in the United States, and I'm in a group chat with all of them. That may not be true, but a lot of the politicals Exactly. And we're making fun of you, Audi. And we're making fun of your show. Because the tacos.

About the tacos from a bunch of folks from New York City. I'm Texas, I'm Mexican, and we have breakfast tacos all the time and I love I was like who's another group of people who complain? New Yorkers and Texas tacos is what I got Okay, question, where do you come down on Taco Gate? Where's the potato cheese thing a problem? No, it's not a good one. People in Texas are like this is a shit we

No who's happy about that? Tel Rico because now you guys are complaining about um And we're making nine dollars every year What is in your group chat file? By the I just gotta say I'm a huge fan of Teresa Cornuevos. Oh now we gotta clone waves. Uh look but look, uh I'm turning forty this year along with several of my other friends and we're all planning out our midlife crises. Uh one of my friends is gonna get the new Cybertruck, I already have one.

But I it hit me that I'm actually doing the same thing in my midlife crisis as I was in my senior high school, which is changing diapers and burping babies. Okay. Well then. Last one to you, uh Congressman. You're not getting away. Well uh look in my group chat of course we're all interested in the in the verdict tonight. It's gonna be a very interesting night. You're calling it the verdict. Do you mean the Kentucky primary? It might be a good thing.

I I think the point is well taken. A lot of these members who have lost uh are gonna be voting for the remainder of the year. I think we know how they'll be continuing to vote.

Uh and that's it. One of my group chat this week is actually about the excitement of of the 250. I mean the idea that it's the 250th anniversary and all the amazing events that are going on to celebrate America. As the United States history teacher, uh I I love the story of America and I'm glad that we're really looking back at Do you have any? Absolutely a bind to merge. You can count on it.

As your group chat is just like an America pen and a melting emoji, which well that's mine. Um well you guys thank you so much for being with us. Headlines are next. Amadi Cornish. I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm setting out to really experience France, to savor its world celebrated cuisine, and explore the country's rich history. Yeah. Eva Longoria, searching for France, now streaming on the CNN app. Influential journalist Kara Swisher is taking a hard look at the longevity industry.

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