"Anti-weaponization fund" faces backlash

CBS News Congressional Taurean Small joins us now from Capitol Hill. So that kind of is one of the questions that has come out in the latter part of the week. If, you know, the tit for tat, if this person can apply, so should this person. Why are we seeing backlash from both sides of the aisle to this? And what happens next since Congress is leaving for the holiday weekend? Yeah, just to go through the timeline, Lindsey, we saw what happened initially, this 11th hour request from the Trump administration to include this fund in their reconciliation bill really derailed the pathway to its passage. Republican Senators were kind on the same page, even though they had some reservations about including $1 billion in security protocol for the White House ballroom, they were still on board to get this across the finish line before this weekend. That introduction of that $1.8 billion for this anti-weaponization fund left a lot of Republicans with questions about whether or not January 6 rioters who attacked Capitol Police could also then file a complaint and then receive compensation for it. It's really antithetical to the pro-law enforcement message that Republicans have been about for generations now. What we saw happen on the Hill yesterday was Attorney General Todd Blanche meeting with Senate Republicans. We talked to a few Republicans who were in the room, and they said that they got no guarantees or assurances that there will be language that specifically prohibit any of those January 6 rioters who were violent from applying for this and being awarded that. And then also, I found most instructive was the readout from Senator Ted Cruz on his own podcast, The Verdict. He said this was the most fiery meeting he's been in with Republicans and the Trump administration. He said, in part, "There were fireworks at an epic level, and I got to say, it's one of the roughest meetings I have seen my entire life in the Senate." So it's clear, Republicans over here are not on the same page Republicans at the White House. So there has been a bill introduced to ban the use of federal money to pay out these claims. It's got bipartisan support. Where is this going to go? Yeah, two key players here, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a Republican in the First Congressional District, that's the swingiest district that we've seen in Bucks County. And then we also have Tom Suozzi, the Democrat from New York. They're coming together to essentially block that provision from not just being included in this reconciliation bill, but it's future from happening. They want to ensure that violent offenders aren't privy or get access to this fund. Fitzpatrick has had a very weird relationship with the president. The president attacked his or went after his fiancée, Jacqui Heinrich of FOX News, at the White House the other day. So we'll see how this plays out, but it's clear that there are across the chambers, Republicans who are just not on board with this.

Taurean Small, thanks.