Some Republican Senators Balk at Medicaid Cuts in Trump’s Budget Reconciliation Bill
On Capitol Hill, some Republican senators are continuing to hold up president Trump’s budget reconciliation bill over its proposed deep cuts to Medicaid. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would slash Medicaid spending by nearly $800 billion dollars over a decade, eliminating health insurance for some 10 million people. On Wednesday, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins rejected a proposal to create a $15 billion dollar relief fund for rural hospitals, saying it failed to make up for far greater cuts. GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski and Josh Hawley have also expressed skepticism. Senate Democrats continue to condemn the budget bill. This is Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.
Sen. Chris Murphy “What this bill represents is the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country. Who’s asking for that besides the billionaires and the corporations?”
“Forced to Choose Between Rent and Food”: Protesters Decry Cuts to Social Programs in GOP Bill
Grassroots groups representing poor and working families rallied on Capitol Hill Wednesday to demand no cuts to essential social programs like Medicaid and SNAP. This is Serita Russell of the North Carolina activist group Action NC, whose family recently saw monthly food assistance benefits slashed from $440 dollars to just $54 dollars per month.
Serita Russell: “Our churches, which already struggle to keep their food pantries stocked, will be overwhelmed as more families turn to them for help. Our schools will see more children coming to class hungry, unable to focus on learning. Our homeless population will grow more, as families are forced to choose between rent and food. That ain’t right.”
Trump Moves Housing Department Offices to Virginia, Displacing National Science Foundation
The Trump administration said Wednesday it would relocate the Department of Housing and Urban Development outside of Washington, D.C., and into the headquarters of the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. The move will force some 1,800 NSF workers to relocate to new offices. The American Federation of Government Employees condemned the move, writing, ”NSF employees are being displaced with no plan, no communication and no respect.”
CDC Workers Hold Protest in Atlanta as RFK Jr. Pulls Funding from Global Vaccine Group
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has withdrawn a U.S. pledge to fund the world’s preeminent international vaccine organization, as the Trump administration takes its campaign against vaccinations global. RFK Jr. claimed without evidence the organization — known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — has “ignored the science” of vaccinating children. Gavi says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in dozens of lower-income countries, preventing nearly 19 million future deaths.
On Wednesday, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rallied outside the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta to protest the Trump administration’s newly reconstituted vaccine advisory panel, which RFK Jr. stacked with unqualified appointees, many of them holding anti-vaccine views. This is Dr. Jodie Guest, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University.
Dr. Jodie Guest: “Science should serve the public, not politics. Public health is a right, not a luxury. And the people inside the agency must be allowed to do their work freely, transparently and without fear. The stakes have never been higher. We all know vaccines save lives. Science protects communities, and public health is worth fighting for.”
Later in the broadcast, we’ll speak with Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and author of numerous books, including Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All.
CNN: Trump Plans to Reject Hundreds of Thousands of Asylum Claims to Speed Deportations
In immigration news, the Trump administration is planning to reject refugee status for potentially hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in the United States — making them immediately deportable as part of Trump’s sweeping mass deportation efforts. That’s according to CNN, which reports Trump’s plan to fast-track deportations is aimed at immigrants who entered the U.S. outside an official port of entry and later applied for asylum.
“All About Political Intimidation”: Rep. LaMonica McIver Pleads Not Guilty to Assault at ICE Jail
New Jersey Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges she assaulted an immigration officer during an official visit to a Newark ICE jail last month. The charges stem from a May 9 incident in which McIver and two other Democratic congressmembers sought to tour Delaney Hall, a private prison run by GEO Corporation under contract to ICE. A criminal complaint brought by President Trump’s former personal attorney Alina Habba — who’s now serving as an interim federal attorney in New Jersey — accuses Congresswoman McIver of slamming a federal agent with her forearm, “forcibly” grabbing him and striking another agent. McIver insists she was the one roughed up by federal officers. She spoke to supporters following her arraignment Wednesday at a federal courthouse in Newark.
Rep. LaMonica McIver: “This is all about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his, you know, him and his colleagues or cronies, whatever you want to call them, have weaponized the federal government. … The facts are on our side. No matter what headline they tweet about, no matter what they do on their Twitter, we know that the facts are on my side.”
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark was also arrested on May 9, but the charges against him have since been dropped. The three congressmembers were trying to protect Baraka.
Whistleblower Alleges Trump Judicial Nominee Emil Bove Sought to Ignore Court Orders
A former Justice Department lawyer has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove conspired with other top officials on how to mislead courts about mass deportations and to potentially ignore judges’ rulings outright. The complaint was filed by lawyer Erez Reuveni, who was fired in April after he admitted to a judge that the Trump administration had mistakenly transferred Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s mega-prison due to an “administrative error.” Reuveni filed the complaint ahead of Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday for Bove to serve as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This is Bove under questioning from California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff.
Sen. Adam Schiff: “Did you suggest, as Mr. [Erez] Reuveni wrote, that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such court order?”
Emil Bove: “I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.”
Sen. Adam Schiff: “Well, did you suggest telling the courts 'fuck you' in any manner?”
Emil Bove: “I don’t recall.”
Sen. Adam Schiff: “You just don’t remember that.”
Protests Erupt as Billionaire Jeff Bezos Takes Over Venice for Lavish Wedding Celebration
One of the world’s richest men faces a wave of wedding crashers as activists in the canal city of Venice seek to disrupt Jeff Bezos’s nuptials this week to protest what they called Bezos’ “takeover” of the famed city. Guests at the multimillion-dollar wedding between Bezos and former TV news anchor Lauren Sánchez include the Clintons, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. On Monday, activists unfurled a giant banner on Venice’s San Marco Square reading, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” This is Simona Abbate, a campaigner with Greenpeace Italy.
Simona Abbate: “The problem is not the wedding. The problem is the system. We think that one big billionaire can’t rent a city for his pleasure. … We think that we need to tax the people that have a big, a huge number of money, and use this money to reduce the impact of climate change, to increase the healthcare system, to increase the welfare state.”