Trump Hits Pause on Iran - CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish - Podcast on CNN Audio
CNN This Morning 48 mins
President Trump is giving diplomacy a shot, granting Iran a two-week window. Iran's top diplomat is heading to Europe for nuclear talks. Can negotiations succeed with missiles still flying? Meanwhile, the GOP rift on how to handle the Mideast crisis deepens. Will the president's decision on Iran fracture the party further?
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CNBC
32 minutes ago
- CNBC
Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' clears key Senate hurdle after high drama
The Senate on Saturday cleared a key procedural hurdle to advance President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," bringing the massive spending legislation one step closer to passage after weeks of painstaking negotiations. The Senate vote delivered a boost for Republican Majority Leader John Thune's bid to get the bill to Trump's desk by July 4. But it was not without drama. The vote on the motion to proceed was open for hours on Saturday night, and only passed after three Republican holdouts gave in and voted yes. The hours of uncertainty underscored the tricky path forward for the massive package. The procedural vote tees up a final vote on the megabill in the Senate likely sometime Sunday or Monday. Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are forcing the 940-page bill to be read out loud once it heads to full debate on the Senate floor Sunday. "We will be here all night if that's what it takes to read it," Schumer wrote Saturday on X. While the package cannot officially pass the upper chamber until the final vote, the procedural vote was considered a big test for Thune. The vote comes after weeks of turmoil and tension over the massive package that exposed bitter policy disputes and emboldened some firm Republican holdouts. The sweeping domestic policy package will also have to be passed again in the House, which just narrowly passed its own version of the bill last month. Some House Republicans have already expressed opposition to key elements of the Senate version of the bill — most notably deep cuts to Medicaid — likely foreshadowing a close vote in the lower chamber. Both Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson hold narrow majorities in their respective chambers, meaning they can only afford to lose the support of a small number of Republican lawmakers to pass the package in a party-line vote. Meanwhile, Trump continues to urge lawmakers to get the package passed before Republicans' self-imposed July 4 deadline. "President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal," the White House said in a statement of administration policy on Saturday. This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Multiple full-time jobs': Inside the life of young parents in Congress
WASHINGTON — Just one week after Texas Rep. Brandon Gill's wife had given birth to their second child, the first-term Republican boarded a plane to Washington, D.C., to vote on a crucial markup for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' It wasn't Gill's plan to return to the Capitol so soon. In fact, the 31-year-old father had left town on paternity leave and wasn't expected to return for a few weeks. But as opposition grew among Republican lawmakers, the framework was threatened with failure in the House Budget Committee markup — requiring all hands on deck to return and salvage the measure. 'We got to the point where … it's time for this bill to get voted out of committee, and they needed my vote,' Gill told the Deseret News in an interview. But even with Gill's return, the bill still failed to make it out of the committee, resulting in several negotiations over the weekend between GOP leadership and fiscal conservatives to get Trump's tax bill passed. The committee ultimately advanced the package during a rare Sunday night meeting that Gill once again had to leave his wife and children to attend. 'I flew back immediately after (the Friday meeting), and then came in for a Sunday night meeting, and did the same thing,' Gill recalled. 'And we were able to get it done.' The back-and-forth underscores the difficulty for parents in Congress who must balance the demands of raising a family with the chaotic nature of being a lawmaker in Washington, D.C. Take Utah Rep. Blake Moore, for example. Because of his duties on Capitol Hill, the father of four was forced to miss the birth of his youngest son as well as his first two birthdays. But even on average weeks, Moore's absence is felt by both him and his family. For instance, chauffeuring kids from school to sports practices and back home again can be challenging for his wife, who must juggle the competing schedules on her own. 'It's a huge sacrifice,' Moore said. 'It's really tough.' Moore says he likens the experience to a military deployment of sorts — reflecting on the sacrifice made by those in the armed services. 'To some degree, that makes it a little bit easier to go through this. But it's still hard,' Moore said. 'I've chosen this. My wife and I have decided we're in this together.' Moore, who was first elected in 2020, notes the difficulties of navigating a public profile don't end when your children become slightly more independent. As their kids become older and more politically aware, it opens the door for them to witness attacks against their parents — whether it's negative news coverage or protests outside campaign events. 'They can see what some of the commentary is. I don't read the comments anymore, but the commentary is mostly negative,' Moore said. 'That's something that I knew was a part of it, but my kids were so young when I first ran for Congress. Now they are a little bit more aware, and it's like, oh, they're gonna see people say some really, really rude (and) hateful things about me.' But despite the challenges, the job does allow lawmakers to carve out some time to spend with their families. Moore, for instance, spends Saturdays at home coaching his sons' little league teams. Gill similarly dedicates time to his family when he is home, telling the Deseret News: 'My top priority is my wife and kids.' 'Whenever I'm home, I try to be fully engaged with my family,' said Gill, who has two young children. 'So whenever I'm in D.C., we absolutely pack the schedule to be as productive as possible, to free up time whenever I'm at home. I would say that it's kind of like multiple full-time jobs.' And that effort doesn't stop when lawmakers board their planes to come to the office. As members spend time on the campaign trail or fulfill their duties in Washington, their family members are often right by their sides. 'It is definitely a lot to juggle, but we try to keep the family involved as much as possible,' Gill said. 'So whenever Danielle and the kids can come up here, they do. They travel with me. So it adds a little bit more chaos, but it's a good chaos.' Several members often bring their children to Capitol Hill, even occasionally bringing them along to vote on legislation. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who gave birth to her only child in August 2023, is often seen wheeling a stroller into the House chamber during votes throughout the week. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., regularly carries her 6-month-old son to votes and press conferences. Just one month after giving birth, Pettersen suprised her colleagues by returning to Washington to oppose a key vote on Republicans' budget plans. The proposal ultimately passed, albeit by the slimmest of margins, but Pettersen said the effort was worth it. 'We went back and forth on if I could leave Sam, what that would look like, but we didn't know how long I'd be stuck there. And you can't just leave your newborn baby for days,' Pettersen recalled. 'It was terrifying, it was overwhelming, but I knew that too many lives are on the line in my district, and I was not going to not be there.' Pettersen made headlines as she held Sam in her arms while she cast her vote against the proposal. As a result, her son has become somewhat of a micro-celebrity. 'He's been in so many pictures of people visiting my office, and you know, they'll shake my hand and say, 'Oh, hi, nice to meet you.' And then they'll see Sam, and it's 'I can't believe Sam's here,'' Pettersen said in an interview. 'So everyone's very excited when they get to see Sam in the office.' Since being born in January, Sam has traveled with Pettersen every time she has returned to Washington — a total of 18 flights so far, Pettersen told the Deseret News. 'I remind myself that while some of the pieces of my job are unique, it's being in Congress, obviously, but I'm doing what moms and parents across America do,' Pettersen said. 'You have to somehow make it work, and every day you have to figure out what that looks like.' Moore says his sons enjoy coming with him to vote on the House floor, especially when they get to mess around with their dad's colleagues. 'There's a video of my son, sort of kicking (New York Rep.) Andrew Garbarino in the shins. And he may have been directed to do that by me or not,' Moore said with a chuckle. 'They love (Iowa Rep.) Randy Feenstra because they've gone skiing with him before.' 'I think the biggest positive is being able to have my kids experience things that you wouldn't otherwise get to experience,' he added. Although the presence of children in the chamber has become more commonplace in recent years, it hasn't always been that way. Up until a few decades ago, Congress mostly consisted of older men who didn't have young children at home. That demographic has begun to shift in recent years, especially after Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., became the first female senator to give birth while in office in 2018. Since then, there's been somewhat of a baby boom on Capitol Hill — followed by increased efforts to make the country's deliberative body more accessible to young families. Those efforts reached a head earlier this year when Luna and Pettersen forged a rare bipartisan coalition, pressing GOP leaders to allow new mothers to vote remotely while taking maternity leave at home. The pair managed to freeze action on the floor and force a deal with leadership, who ultimately agreed to a watered-down rule change to cancel out absent votes. 'Thanks to POTUS and his support of new moms being able to vote when recovering from child (birth) as well as those who worked hard to get these changes done,' Luna said in a statement when the rule was finalized in April. 'If we truly want a pro-family Congress, these are the changes that need to happen.' But the system still contains flaws that make that system difficult in practice, Pettersen said. For example, shortly after the 'vote pairing' resolution was adopted, Pettersen told the Deseret News she reached out to her Republican colleagues to cancel out her vote so she could return home for her maternity leave. 'Of course, nobody would, because it was a Republican priority bill,' Pettersen said. 'It's just unworkable. And so there is so much more that we need to do.' While that may start with increased accommodations for young parents, Pettersen said, it should extend to making daily schedules more adaptable for lawmakers with children. 'We have schedules that are not made for for regular people, for young parents with young kids,' Pettersen said. 'It's a system that's created for retired, older, wealthier individuals, and so we need to modernize the way that our schedule looks.' Most lawmakers agree that Congress should be more convenient for those with children at home, arguing it would be beneficial for younger adults to influence policy. While it is difficult, 'it's doable,' they say. 'It's far more doable if you're a representative from Virginia or North Carolina or Pennsylvania than if you are from Utah or North Dakota,' Moore said. 'I think it's just an overall good trend that you're seeing more of it, and people are realizing it's possible. But the challenges are still very — they're insurmountable in some cases.' 'I do think it's a really good thing for us to be more accessible to parents, partly because that helps allow people who are a little bit younger to be here, which is a good thing,' Gill added. 'It adds a little bit of representation that maybe wasn't here before.'
The Hill
36 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump megabill narrowly advances in Senate despite GOP defections
Senate Republicans on Saturday narrowly voted to advance a sprawling 1,000-page bill to enact President Trump's agenda, despite the opposition of several GOP lawmakers. Two Republicans voted against advancing the package: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who says the legislation would cost his state $38.9 trillion in federal Medicaid funding. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) changed his 'no' vote to 'aye' and holdout Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) also voted yes to advance the bill. The bill had suffered several significant setbacks in the days and hours before coming to the floor, at times appearing to be on shaky ground. Perhaps the most notable was a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian earlier this week that a cap on health care provider taxes, which is projected to save billions of dollars in federal Medicaid spending, violated the Senate's Byrd Rule. GOP leaders were able to rewrite that provision for it to remain in the bill. And the legislation appeared in danger moments before vote when Sen. Tim Sheehy, a freshman Republican from Montana, threatened to vote against the motion to proceed if the bill included a provision championed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) directing the Interior Department to sell millions of acres of public lands. Sheehy agreed at the last minute to vote for the legislation after GOP leaders promised he would get a vote on an amendment to strip the language forcing the sale of public lands from the bill. That allowed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pulled off a major victory by moving the legislation a big step closer to final passage. Thune hailed the legislation Saturday as a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver legislation to create a safer, stronger and more prosperous America.' He cited $160 billion to secure the borders and beef up immigration enforcement and $150 billion to increase the Pentagon's budget, as well as an array of new tax cuts in addition to the extension of Trump's expiring 2017 tax cuts. He pointed to the bill's elimination of taxes on tips and taxes on overtime pay for hourly workers as well as language allowing people to deduct auto loan interest when they buy a new car made in the United States. President Trump has set a July 4 deadline for Congress to get the bill to his desk. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) blasted his Republican colleagues for unveiling the 940-page Senate substitute amendment late Friday night, giving senators only a few hours to review the legislation before the vote. 'Hard to believe, this bill is worse, even worse than any draft we've seen thus far. It's worse on health care. It's worse on [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.] It's worse on the deficit,' he said. Schumer slammed Republicans for advancing the bill before having an official budgetary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. 'They're afraid to show how badly this will increases the deficit,' he said. 'Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt.' A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office circulated by Senate Finance Committee Democrats Saturday estimates the bill will cut Medicaid by $930 billion, far more substantially than the legislation passed last month by the House. Tillis cited the impact on Medicaid as the reason he voted 'no' on the motion to proceed and plans to vote 'no' on final passage. 'I cannot support this bill in its current form. It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,' he said in a statement. 'This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population,' he warned. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a critical swing vote, said she voted to advance the legislation out of 'deference' to the GOP leader but warned that doesn't mean she will vote 'yes' on final passage. She said that Senate negotiators improved the legislation before releasing it Friday but added that she wants to make additional changes. 'Generally, I give deference to the majority leader's power to bring bills to the Senate floor. Does not in any way predict how I'm going to vote on final passage,' Collins told reporters. 'That's going to depend on whether the bill is substantially changed,' she said. 'There are some very good changes that have been made in the latest version but I want to see further changes and I will be filing a number of amendments.' Former senior White House advisor Elon Musk blasted the Senate bill on social media shortly before the vote, calling it full of 'handouts to industries of the past,' referring to the oil, gas and coal industries. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,' he wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. Schumer told Democratic senators before the vote that he would force the clerks to read the entire 1,000-page bill on the Senate floor, which is estimated to take up to 12 hours and delay the start of debate and the start of a marathon series of amendment votes, known as a vote-a-rama. It's unclear whether Republican senators will keep the Senate in session overnight Saturday into Sunday morning to have the bill read aloud on the floor, an exhausting process for the Senate floor staff. An overnight reading of the bill would leave the clerks and floor staff weary before senators are scheduled to hold 20 hours of debate on the legislation and then launch into a multi-hour vote-a-rama.
