CNN’s Daniel Dale Calls BS on Trump Over Big Beautiful Bill: ‘Trump Supporters May Lose Coverage’

CNN correspondent Daniel Dale took on President Donald Trump over claims about his “Big Beautiful Bill,” which Dale saaid will hurt some Trump supporters.

The GOP-controlled House narrowly passed the Trump-backed spending bill nicknamed the “Big Beautiful Bill” this week, but it faces a rough road in the Senate.

Dale fact-checked Trump this week on an episode of CNN’s The Situation Room:

BLITZER: Good question.

CNN senior reporter Daniel Dale joining us now for a fact-check. That’s what he does.

Daniel, let’s start with Republicans right now. Here’s some of what President Trump has said in recent days. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No cuts to Medicaid. We’re not touching anything. All I want is one thing, three words. We don’t want any waste, fraud, or abuse. Very simple, waste, fraud, abuse. Other than that, we’re leaving it.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you guarantee that your voters who supported you in the election, particularly working-class voters, will not lose health insurance under this bill?

TRUMP: Oh, they won’t lose health insurance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what’s the reality here?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The reality, Wolf, is that this bill does cut Medicaid and would result in some Americans, undoubtedly including some Trump supporters, losing health insurance.

Now, precisely how many, we don’t know. We should be cautious. We’re dealing with estimates here. But we do have an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that this bill would result in 7.6 million additional uninsured people in 2034.

And I should note that estimate came out before Republicans made a last-minute change to accelerate the introduction of work requirements for Medicaid. That could result in additional uninsured people. So how big are the cuts we’re talking about?

Well, about $700 billion in Medicaid savings to the government, CBO estimates. Now, President Trump says waste, fraud, abuse, vague terms. But if the impression he’s trying to create is that you can get to $700 billion by cutting out some phony billing or something, you just can’t.

Expert after expert has told our excellent policy reporter Tami Luhby that these savings would primarily be achieved by having fewer people enrolled in the program. Now, why would some — so many additional — so many fewer people be enrolled? Well, this bill would introduce those work requirements, requiring people to have a job or be volunteering, be enrolled in job training or be in school.

It would cut funding to certain states. It would impose additional administrative paperwork burdens, requiring people to prove their eligibility more frequently. It would require some enrollees to pay for part of their coverage for the first time.

So, of course, I’m not taking a position this. You could argue these are good or bad, necessary or not necessarily — but yes, these are cuts. Yes, some people would lose their insurance.

Watch above via CNN’s The Situation Room.