Hegseth Impeachment Effort Blocked in Key House Vote

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0:33Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not face an impeachment vote tomorrow. Good evening. Thanks for joining us tonight. House Republicans, in the wake of one of their biggest midterm thumpings in several generations, came together and found the votes to pass a measure blocking consideration of eight proposed charges against him. In doing that, they chose to support a cabinet member and a president whose policies may have played a part in losing dozens of them their jobs just a week ago tonight. On this vote, the yeas are 2-11, the nays are 2-0-4. The motion is adopted.

1:12The motion to reconsider is laid on the table. And that is the sound of renegade Republican Thomas Massey's effort to impeach Secretary Hegseth failing. 211 Republicans tonight killed it. 11 Democrats, including House Speaker Emberta and Nancy Pelosi did not vote. Seven Republican members, you see them there, also did not vote. None of the 211 Republicans who did vote to block impeachment stood with Massey. The president went online a short time later to claim victory, quoting him now, the Democrats' attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably failed. Every single Republican except Thomas Massey, a major loser, voted in favor of Pete.

1:49Again, victories in Venezuela and Iran, the best recruitment numbers in the history of the military long waiting list to get in and spirit like rarely seen before led to the exoneration of great American patriot. The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped. The prospects of impeachment now appear dead until the next Congress, assuming that incoming Democrats would even care to revive it. New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tonight said she was open to the notion. Should you guys impeach headsets in the new Congress? There are so many criminals in this administration.

2:22It's hard to figure out who should be, you know, the order of operations. There are going to be many, many, many investigations. I imagine many subpoenas. And we have to follow wherever the evidence takes us. Striking end to a day that began with Secretary Hegseth holding his first press conference in six months, an event that seemed to be tailor made for an audience of one. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Both times he came back stronger. And the American people sent him back to the White House.

3:01Now they're trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet. They will fail again. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week. Secretary Higsetth also tried to suggest impeaching him would actually be impeaching the troops. Make no mistake about what is happening. This is not about me. Politicians in Washington have accused the sailors and the pilots who struck narco-terrorist boats of war crimes. for doing their job. Senators in cute videos have suggested the same. This resolution is the next step. Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow.

3:56If they want to come for the warriors, they're going to have to come through me. Well, keep it honest, whatever you might think of the proposed charges, they weren't about the troops. They clearly and specifically referred to the secretary and actions he's taken regarding Iran, Venezuela, the attacks on alleged drug votes, and attempts to strip Senator Markelly in rank for making a video, along with other Democratic lawmakers telling troops that they did not have to obey unlawful orders. In any case, whether or not it was something the secretary said today that persuaded House Republicans to stand behind him or something else, He appears to have won this round and defy the predictions of even some Republicans.

4:36Either Hegseth is going to step down, either he will resign voluntarily or Trump will fire him, or if that does not happen, I think it is extremely likely, if not certain, that the House will impeach him because on the face of it, the votes are there. And the votes were not there. Big night for the administration. CNN's Manurajah starts us off at the Capitol. So what are Democrats saying about why a bunch of their members did not show up for this vote? Well, we're still learning about that, Anderson. In fact, Democratic leaders, when they came off the floor, they were uncertain why some of their members didn't make it.

5:08Sometimes members are doing other things, and they just simply don't make it to the floor in time for a vote. And Republicans are still in control of the House chamber, and they can gavel close a vote really at any time when they have the requisite number of votes. And that seems to have been what happened here. But there was serious frustration within the ranks when I talked to a number of Democrats afterwards because they thought they had a chance of succeeding. And this could have kicked the effort over to the United States Senate if they were able to pass these articles of impeachment. The Senate would have to consider a trial.

5:40A trial seemed very possible to at least happen, meaning they could tie up the Senate floor. And even though there were not the votes to convict Pete Hexat, that could at least be a distraction of sorts from the remaining weeks of the Republican-controlled Congress. And I caught up with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on this issue, and she made very clear she thought some of those Democrats should have made it to the floor in time for the vote. I mean, the people send us here to do a job. I can't speak to, I don't know if anyone had any real health issues or anything significant to that respect.

6:19So I want to leave room for that. But that being said, at the end of the day, we're here to do a job. And the same way I had a clock in when I worked at a restaurant, we got a clock in and do our work here. But again, I don't know if anyone had any outstanding health issues, and I want to keep room for that as well. And you want this to be a top priority, the hex of impeachment in the new Congress? Well, hopefully we don't even have to wait for the new Congress. I think that should we have the appropriate numbers, Massey could bring it again or anyone else. So actually, Thomas Massey just told reporters Anderson as he walked off the floor that, in quote, this is done.

6:56His efforts to try to impeach Pete Hexitt are done for this Congress. But any member could resurrect this in any certain way because it's what's known as privilege in the United States House, meaning they can actually force this vote in the House, which means that if it doesn't come up this year, it could certainly come up again next year. And you heard from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she's not the only one. Other Democrats want to go after Pete Hexet. They want to go after other cabinet officials like RFK Jr., Cash Patel, some even pushing to impeach Donald Trump himself. And that's what Hakeem Jeffries, when he becomes Speaker, assuming he gets the votes to become Speaker, which everyone pretty much expects that he will, He'll have to prioritize who to go after, when, what investigations to launch, and make sure it does not distract from their key parts of their agenda, which is about affordability, the reason why Democrats say that they are now in power.

7:47Anderson. Manu Raju, thanks very much. My next guest is Democratic Congresswoman Chrissy Houlihan, an Air Force veteran who sits on the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. Last year, she came under fire from the president for participating in this video, informing service members it was their duty to refuse illegal orders. She had this to say about Secretary Hegseth earlier today. Since the day he was nominated, I have been clear. Secretary Hegseth is not qualified for this job. Unfortunately for our nation and for our people, he has literally signaled and doubled down on that incompetence ever since day one.

8:23He is not a serious man. He is not a capable man. And our nation deserves a real Secretary of Defense who will not be laughed out of every room in the Pentagon. And Congresswoman Houlihan joins me now. Thanks for being with us. Do you have any idea why these 11 Democrats didn't show up? I mean, the Republicans as well didn't show up. But isn't it somebody's job to count the votes ahead of time to know what's going to happen? Sure. And first of all, thank you for having me tonight. tonight it is as as alex ocasio course has said part of my job to be there and to show up for votes and certainly barring some sort of medical issue it is a failure of duty to not show up for the vote of especially something as important as this and so i think there are different reasons my understanding for why various democrats didn't show up but more importantly to me is the fact that my republican colleagues and i have very good relationships with many of them disappointed me, those who did show up as well, in the fact that they also did not support the impeachment of Secretary Hegseth.

9:33And many of them, I know, in their hearts knew that it was the right thing to do to vote to impeach or to vote to move this process forward. And they didn't do that. And that, I think, is every bit, if not more, of a disappointment to me that they failed in their duty as well. We should have Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury just put out a statement saying she and other lawmakers were unable to get to the vote because of a traffic incident. Obviously, the president's taking a victory lap. He's still facing big Democratic majorities come January. In the meantime, I mean, it's kind of a political gift to him.

10:06Does Pete Hegseth come out stronger now from this? I don't think so. I think that what we as Democrats heading into a majority are responsible for is, as Manu mentioned, two things. One is affordability and making sure that we address what people were asking for in the results of the election just a week ago. And the other is accountability. And we need to be able to do both of those things at the same time. And to me, with a heavier emphasis on the affordability aspect and a very strategic and tactical plan on the accountability. And so how do we execute that? And Alex Ocasio-Cortez mentioned this a little bit.

10:46It needs to be with a plan. It needs to be disciplined. And I'm almost hopeful that this is almost a gift to us as well, the fact that this failed this time around. Because remember, this impeachment is just literally like the grand jury getting together and saying there's enough there that we need a trial. And so we move forward, or if we move forward with this particular impeachment process, then we can organize what would be the trial that would be holding this particular part of the administration accountable. It's unclear how we will proceed in this. What is it about Pete Hegstead that you think makes him inappropriate for this job?

11:26Well, I can start with the fact that he's wholly unqualified, but that's, of course, not my call to make because I'm part of the House and not the Senate in terms of my ability to to hire him so to speak he also I believe is harming the the the warrior ethos to be honest and the fact that he is acting against the will of the people he is these wars on the articles of impeachment that's Mr. Massey put together four or five of them had to do with the fact that he was contravening or going against the will of the people in the Congress he also is taking on what could be extrajudiciary killings in the places like the Caribbean and those kinds of places.

12:09And so the list is long. I mean, it's seven or eight versions of things that he could be impeached for. And Mr. Massey just put those together in a series. And it was our job to move that forward if we thought there was a there there, as I mentioned. And it would be the Senate's job to see that in a hearing or a trial of sorts. Yeah. Congressman Chrissy Huland, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Coming up next, the political fallout from the failure to impede Hegseth just has strengthened his position in the administration. Later, new reporting that despite his denial just a day ago, the president was told for a second time while he was en route to China in May that Nvidia's Jensen Huang was involved with a suspected Chinese spy and the president brought him to China anyhow.

12:58Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. eye. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal and I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

13:43We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's gambling studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet, and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

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15:05Tonight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is off the impeachment hook. The president doing victory lapsed and political pundits, some of them at least, are scratching their heads after Republican Congressman Thomas Massey's effort to impeach the secretary collapsed. Former Trump campaign advisor David Urban joins us. Former Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh joins us. David, I mean, does Pete Hegseth emerge from this stronger? It seems like a huge political gift for the president and his allies. Yeah. Anderson, to quote Frederick Nietzsche, what does not kill me makes me stronger. Tonight, Pete Hegseth is stronger than he was this afternoon and this morning, largely because of Democrat incompetence.

15:42You heard Congresswoman Houlihan, Congresswoman Cortesio asking, like, where were my colleagues? Where are the 11 colleagues that showed up, could have tipped the scales here? It doesn't bode well for Democrats in the next Congress if they can't get their act together and show up to vote on something that they say is so incredibly important. So big W for Hegseth and the president tonight as this vote failed. Sabrina, I mean, how does this happen? Because, I mean, you know, Nancy Pelosi was always famous for, like, you know, knowing where the votes were and knowing she had the votes going into something.

16:17She didn't show up for this. But what do you think happened? Yeah, it's a bit of a head scratcher, I'll be honest. I'm a little confused on exactly what happened with the 11 members that didn't show up. I did hear Congresswoman Houlihan mentioned that there was some traffic that was preventing some members to get in. And then, of course, you know, Republicans are still in control of the House, so they can condense the window of voting pretty quick. But I think David is right and he makes the right point. You know, Democrats kind of have to coalesce and get our act together right now. But what I would take issue with, you know, while this is a small win and victory for the president and for Pete Hegseth, this is ultimately not the Congress that he will be facing in the next year.

16:57And I think with Democrats in control and better counting next year, I think, you know, there could be a real impeachment vote that happens. in the House that holds Hegseth accountable. But again, it would be in the new Congress and not this one. Right. But I guess, yeah, I mean, I don't want to belabor this, but like if you can't count votes ahead of time and know that people are there, whether it's this Congress or another one, it just seems kind of crazy to me. Yeah. I mean, this is a great learning lesson, I think, for Democrats right now to make sure that you have the votes and you're able to count them.

17:29Yeah. David, I'm not sure people just voted for people who need to learn lessons. Like, People seem to vote for competence. And anyway. Well, I mean, you know, Sabrina's point that there was traffic. It's like the dog ate my homework. I mean, it's kind of lame, right? You get elected to Congress. But that being said, you know, look, Pete Hexas now is going to be able to make a point. If Democrats would have shown up and impeached him in a Republican Congress, wow, that's a message, right? A really big message. Now Pete Hexas is going to go back and say, listen, of course the Democratic Congress is going to impeach me.

18:03Of course it's performative. It's a political stunt. And to a large extent, he's exactly right. Impeachment is a political action. It's not some legal maneuver. It is a political endeavor. And he can point now, like, look, the Republican Congress didn't impeach me. A bunch of Democrats did once they got control. So it is political. So it really does strengthen his hand. Democrats missed a big opportunity here. They got no one to blame but themselves. And maybe, as Sabrina says, traffic. Who knows? I mean, that's not Sabrina's argument. That was a congresswoman who said that. No, no, no. I'm not.

18:36I'm not. I know. Exactly. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not Sabrina. I know. I know. I just want to make it clear to our audience. You know, Sabrina, Hegseth, you know, obviously is draping himself in saying, you know, protecting himself by saying what they're really after is the troops. This is really an assault on service members, which it does not. It is not. But do you think that's a winning argument? I really don't. I mean, when you draft and have articles of impeachment, it is against the leadership and against one person who is leading that department. It has no reflection of our service members who are doing valiant and heroic work, whether it is maintaining the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere else in the world.

19:22And so I really you know, I think he's trying to tie them together. But there really are divorce. This is about one person and his actions. And I think, you know, part of why these articles were introduced is just not only his mismanagement of the war, but the extrajudicial killings that are happening off the coast of Venezuela. And I think, you know, one of the strikes that we've talked about, Anderson, before is that double tap strike where you had two survivors hanging onto a boat that was in the middle of the water that was hit again with a U.S. missile. So I think Democrats and even some Republicans are very uneasy about some of the actions that Pete Hegseth and this administration have taken.

20:01But it's not a reflection on the troops so much as it is on the commander who is leading those troops. And right now, that person, that civilian leader is Pete Hegseth. David, you're a West Point graduate, proud graduate, you're a recipient of the Bronze Star. Do you think service members see this as an assault on them? No, listen, I think it's an effective rhetorical tool by Pete Hegseth, but it's not apt, right? This is not an assault on the fighting men and women and servicemen and women in our armed forces. I don't think they see that as such. I think it was something that Hegseth tried to use and did so effectively.

20:37I think Democrats may have done so similarly when Mayorkas was impeached about CBP. So it's a tool, but I don't think it's an apt analogy. I think, as Sabrina correctly points out, there are real questions. The articles of impeachment address specific actions that are undertaken and in no way reflects an attack by the Congress or anybody on the fine men and women who, you know, who serve in our armed forces and who we celebrate tomorrow on Veterans Day. Sabrina, do you think Democrats are going to try this again or, you know, some rogue Republican? I'm not exactly sure that Democrats would try it in this Congress.

21:11I mean, there could be a question about another Republican. I mean, taking out Thomas Massey, I mean, you have had other Republicans like James Comer and even French Hill recently express some concerns about Hegseth and his management of the department. You've even seen that, of course, with Tom Tillis and Joni Ernst in the Senate. Again, these are, you know, I don't think in this Congress right now Democrats have the votes to frankly. I mean, we saw it tonight, clearly. And if, you know, there's more traffic jams, we definitely don't have it. But, you know, I think I think it's not going to necessarily happen in this Congress.

21:42So I think for the administration, David's right. Like this is a small victory for Pete Hegseth today. But I do think Hakeem Jeffries is right also of saying, you know, this is not over and it will start back up in January. All right. Well, David Urban, Sabrina Singh, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Love it. Next, tracing alleged Chinese spy Alice Wong's relationship with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong, as well as the national security implications of it. John Miller calls them enormous implications. He joins us tonight. And later, New reporting that$50 million employment contract, one of the president's former personal attorneys got a deal the president called not acceptable.

22:18New reporting tonight that she's now lost that big contract. The reporter who broke the story coming in.

22:29Well, the revelations continue over the NVIDIA scandal. We now know that President Trump was reportedly warned twice over the last year that the company's CEO, Jensen Huang, a key ally of his, was in a close relationship with a woman that the president's own intelligence community believed to be a spy for the Chinese government. Quoting from a New York Times story late last month, roughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings and chose not to do anything with the information. Mr. Trump has been wary of disrupting NVIDIA's chip sales, which are helping to drive the economy and the stock market.

23:00Months after that, the president insisted on bringing Huang with him on an official visit to China and had him aboard Air Force One at a refueling stop in Alaska. He had him board there. He was asked about that last night. When you went to China earlier this year in May, did you know about these alleged ties with the Chinese by then? No, I didn't hear about it then. But a lot of people have heard about it, and Jensen totally denies that. I asked him today, because I did speak to him today, just to see if he's feeling all right, how you doing. And I asked him about that. And he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy.

23:43While Hong might not have known she was a suspected spy, the president apparently did. Then we learned today that on the way to pick up Mr. Hong in Alaska, Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally gave Trump a briefing that he was in a relationship with a potential Chinese spy, according to a source. Now, it's unclear what, if anything, the president did about that. You heard him say he hadn't heard that. But it did not stop Huang from boarding Air Force One and joining the delegation to China. He also attended a state dinner at the White House this past September, where President Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

24:18CNN's Hadas Gold has more on what we know about Huang's relationship with this alleged Chinese spy. Her legal name is Wang Le. She's 43 years old and a Chinese citizen, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol travel records obtained by CNN. According to investment databases and social media, Wang is from Hunan province in southern China and studied in Hong Kong, before working for state-run TV and later in investment banking at HSBC and CITIC Securities. She went on to high-level positions at Shanghai Hoshi Investment Firm starting in 2015, according to the company's website. By 2023, Alice Wang was a director at the Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, which would quickly become one of the largest buyers of NVIDIA chips in Asia.

25:03It's unclear exactly where and when the two Huangs met, but by 2024, she was posting photos of Jensen Huang to her social media and appearing together in public, like at a party in 2024 at a technology trade show in Taipei and at NVIDIA's annual conference in California last year, this photo taken at the company's headquarters. This video from a Taipei restaurant in 2025 shows Alice in the pink dress giving Jensen Huang a peck on the cheek before they leave in the same car. It's not clear when they may have become closer than acquaintances. But by 2024, according to The New York Times, the U.S.

25:39government was investigating whether Megaspeed and Alice Wong were helping companies in China get around American export restrictions on NVIDIA chips. Megaspeed has claimed it follows all export control regulations. For its part, NVIDIA has said it has no evidence its chips are being smuggled into China. Jensen Wong has long spoken out against export controls, telling a podcast earlier this year. Why is it that we don't come up with a regulation that's more balanced so that NVIDIA can win around the world instead of giving up the world? Why would you want United States to give up the world? As for Alice Wong, her current whereabouts are unclear.

26:17Jensen Wong telling Bloomberg after the initial reports that she is a suspected spy that she's no longer at mega speed. Her WeChat feed? Private. She has not responded to CNN's requests for comment. Hades Gold, CNN, New York. Joining us now is CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. What more do you know about the current state of this investigation? Well, the investigation is at a critical turning point because the cat's out of the bag. Jensen Wang now has been told that his girlfriend was a spy. He's now admitted to having an extramarital affair.

26:53So any reasons that existed a week ago not to approach him, have him interviewed by the FBI, try to figure out what did she ask, what did he say, what kind of information was shared, what kind of insights from his conversation with the president were passed on. All of that is fair game now. But there's two critical things to consider here. Number one, this is an incredible coup by Chinese intelligence to either create an access agent by building the structure around her to make her a multibillion-dollar customer of chips, or by recruiting somebody who was on the way up in the tech world who could get next to the guy who was the president of the United States' AI whisperer to say, what are his thoughts?

27:40What do you tell him? What does he respond? I mean, that's intelligence gold. The second thing is, if this started in 2024 with investigations, 2025, we're in 2026. Why wasn't this somehow interrupted along the way? Now, if the president was briefed on it a year ago or whenever, it's kind of unless it's mind boggling. There's two logical possibilities. One I don't like, which is the FBI's counterintelligence program was badly damaged at the beginning of the Trump administration. So many people were pulled out, fired, transferred. And at least two of the assistant directors in charge of the Washington field office were sent packing, fired, for investigating people who were close to Donald Trump.

28:28So there's a possibility that with Jensen Wang becoming better and better known as someone who is in the president's inner circle, there may not have been as aggressive an investigation, if any, that there should have been. The other is also logical and preferable, which is they decided we're going to use this as a collection platform. We'll get FISA taps on her phones, communications all the way around. We'll figure out what we can do with him because he's an American citizen and there's limits there. And we'll use that to collect how are the Chinese, how are they doing this? How are they using this information?

29:04How much are they getting? You would hope that's the option as opposed to the other. You would hope. But the FBI that is operating now is not the FBI I left and not the FBI that Mr. McCabe left. Yeah, I mean, Andrew, when the president says, as he did yesterday, that Justin Hong told him he didn't know the woman was having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, the president acts like that's some revealing piece of information that somehow makes this less of a big deal. Clearly, it seems from the reporting, the president was briefed by Marco Rubio, among others. Of the two options, is there another option?

29:37John has presented two options of how this was allowed to go on for so long.

29:44it is inconceivable to me that the president of the united states was briefed on this matter not once but twice and took no action in fact the second time continued to bring mr wong with him on his second time the guy was on his plane is there another yeah yeah i mean i cannot even There are no words to describe how big a coup this is for the Chinese government. To have an asset, a developed, recruited asset, to fall into an intimate relationship with the most significant tech leader in the world, the CEO of the company that produces the chips that are forbidden fruit to the government of China and Chinese technology industries.

30:36And then to have that person, that CEO, have a persistent, direct relationship with the president of the United States, during which time we know that he advocated strenuously for the reduction or removal of trade restrictions between the United States and China over NVIDIA chips. I mean, this is a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. This is an unbelievable victory for China. Huang has been pushing for access to China's markets for lessening the restrictions by the Trump administration on NVIDIA selling chips to China. And he got them. He got them in return for the ability to sell NVIDIA chips to China in return for giving the United States government 25 percent of that sale.

31:28That alone is off the charts. I've never in my entire career and experience seen the United States government profiting from the sale of a formerly restricted item to our existential adversary in the world. But nevertheless, you asked, is there another option about what's happening in the FBI? I think there is. It's somewhat of a middle ground to those options that John described. It's not a very satisfying one, but it is possible that the FBI was reluctant to pursue notifying and investigating Mr. Wong as aggressively as they might have, knowing how close he was to the president of the United States.

32:16This is why it's so damaging for a president to get into these relationships with CEOs, because when the time comes, they need to be investigated. Your investigators might not feel comfortable doing that in light of all their friends getting fired. Yeah, it's it's an incredible story. John Miller, Andrew McCabe. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next, more on all of this, what Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is saying about it now. Now also Democratic Senator Cory Booker joins us. And later, the New York Times now reporting when President Trump's former personal attorneys was fired and lost a$50 million employment contract just days after he said that the deal was not acceptable.

32:53I'll talk with a reporter who broke the story ahead.

33:01We're now on the Jensen Huang affair. Earlier today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer spoke from the floor, calling for answers from the Trump administration about what the president knew about him and the suspected spy Alice Wong and when. One of our most important companies that's involved in national security, and the CEO might be having an affair with a Chinese spy, and Trump did nothing about it? What a dereliction of duty. He's supposed to protect America, not China, not his friends. Trump has been busy trying to defend Jensen Wang when he ought to be defending our national security.

33:41It's that simple. Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey sits on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. I spoke to him shortly before airtime. Senator Booker, why do you think President Trump claimed he only recently learned about Huang's affair with this suspected Chinese spy if he was, according to CNN's reporting, briefed on it by Secretary of State Marco Rubio back in May? Well, it seems like a lie, and we need to get to the bottom of this. Remember, this is a company that has been mingling at Mar-a-Lago, has been donating to Trump's ballroom, courting him in order for him to lift export controls to NVIDIA to sell their chips.

34:20And not only is it a national security issue then, it's also a corruption issue. NVIDIA's bottom line should not come before a national security and Trump's enrichment of himself in this close relationship with Nvidia and trading on their stocks should not come before what's in the best interest of the United States of America. President Trump said that Jensen Huang told him yesterday that he didn't know the woman was a spy, which obviously, you know, I don't think there's any claim that he knew she was a spy and was intentionally doing that. That's not really the question at the heart of this.

34:59Does it alarm you that all of these companies, these massive AI companies, are run by people who are not government employees? Obviously, the government, they do a lot of work for the government, but they are all vulnerable to operations like this. Yeah, clearly we have a real global AI crisis. I'm not saying there's not tremendous upside here, but this is a technology that even the developers of the technology are saying could have a cataclysmic impact on humanity, on national security, on our grids, from cyber issues all the way to biohazards. And we are seeing some of the central actors in these industries, like the case before us, acting in ways that are reckless and putting our country in crisis.

35:53So this is something that you cannot trust Trump's DOJ or his FBI. They're clearly showing their loyalty is more to protecting Trump and any exposure that he has from the Epstein files to this episode. This is exactly why the American people have said the enabling Republicans shouldn't control Congress. We need people that can do objective oversight, that can get to the truth, that can stand up against corruption and for national security. There's a lot of work we have to do in the coming Congress to unravel the layers of corruption and the endangerment of our national security. I do want to ask you about Democratic leadership in the new Congress.

36:32As you know, Senator Sanders today announced he won't support Senator Schumer's bid to be the next majority leader. Are you supporting Senator Schumer? I am going to focus on the family conversation that we need to have as this new Senate of 56 new senators. I know there's a lot of focus on Chuck Schumer. I'm focused really on the fact that this is the most incredible team I have ever served on, with the exception of maybe my high school football state championship team. But absent that, we have stars from Ossoff and Tolerico to Elizabeth Warren, Annie Andrews. I can go through the incredible people I get to serve with.

37:10The right leadership will actually allow the leaders on this team, the stars on this team, to lead and help us. Because we're going to need all hands on deck, from committee chair people to other ranking members. We have a lot of work to do. This should be a time that we begin to see what I've been calling for for a long time, new leadership in our country emerging. I am confident of this. This is the last baby boomer president we will ever have. And this is the last baby boomer head of the Senate we will ever have. There's a new generation rising, ex-geners, millennials, even Gen Z that are stars and ready to go.

37:46Just finally, Democrats have said in recent days that they know how to walk and chew gum, meaning they can focus on the economy and oversight of the Trump administration. Do you think Senator Schumer or whoever the next majority leader is will ultimately have to prioritize one over the other? No, I think they're both really part of the same story. We just gave an example where Trump's corruption is tied to economic issues. And so if we are really about lowering costs, we need to do things like stop the vicious Medicaid cuts, end a war. But we also need to do things like holding the DOJ accountable because people, we've seen these massive corporate mergers going on that are raising people's prices.

38:26They're being rubber stamped by the DOJ as Trump entertains them and receives gifts from them, whether in the ballroom or his presidential library. And they just seem to be ushered through the process of merger approvals. There's a lot of corruption in this administration that people are seeing in plain sight that are connected to the fact that their prices are going up. And so we have a lot of work to do. These are things that are hat in hand. And we are paying more costs in America because of corruption, as well as other things from his chaotic tariffs to this unjust, unconstitutional war in Iran.

39:03Senator Cory Booker, thanks for your time. Thank you. Well, coming up, according to a new report, one of President Trump's former lawyers has lost a$50 million employment contract just days after President Trump called the deal totally obnoxious and outrageous. I'll speak with the New York Times reporter who broke the story next.

39:26Alina Habamildun, one of President Trump's former personal lawyers, no longer has that $50 million employment contract that enraged the president. That's according to the New York Times. The Times reported last month that she signed the deal last fall to work as a general counsel for a new company set up by the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire who was seeking a pardon. Then, according to the reporting, she began formally working with the company at the start of this year. And just weeks later, Herrera was pardoned by the president. Now, both Haben Mildun and the White House denied she had anything to do with the pardon.

39:59Then just days ago, the president unloaded on his former personal attorney, telling reporters this about her reported$50 million employment deal. I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it's not acceptable. Not acceptable at all. Well, now, just days after the president said that, The Times is now reporting that Habba Mildoon's contract was terminated last week, citing a, quote, failure to perform duties. Joining us now, Tyler Pager, the White House correspondent from The New York Times, who is on the byline. So, Tyler, what happened? Why did this family sour on Alina Habba? Yeah, it's not exactly clear.

40:44We know that Alina Haber received a letter from the company that was employing her last week, terminating her contract. They cited failure to perform the duties. But Anderson, as we've talked about before, it's not exactly clear what she was hired to do. The company that hired her, Concord Partners, has no public profile, was incorporated just before she finalized the deal to join them. So there's still a lot of questions about exactly what happened here. What we do know is that her employment has been terminated. And is it, I mean, is it clear at all how much the president's anger at her deal, which again was worth more than$50 million, had to do with the family firing?

41:27Do we know? I mean, we know that the president was outraged about the deal. It's unclear exactly if he spoke directly to the family or that message was delivered to intermediaries. But it's clear the president was upset. and days after the president had that public outburst at Mar-a-Lago, the contract was terminated. It's so, I mean, what's so fascinating, and again, this is all you're reporting, what's so fascinating about this is, like, at what level is it okay to profit from access to the president? Like, in the president's mind, at what, like, what is the dollar amount? You know, it sounds like he was outraged at$50 million, but, you know, would$8 million have been okay?

42:09Would$10 million have been okay? What is she walking away with? She's not empty-handed. How much has she been getting? Do you know? Yeah, not at all. She is going to be able to keep, according to people familiar with the arrangement,$6.5 million of the base salary that she was paid, plus an$8 million signing bonus. So she's still walking away with quite a bit of money. But again, to put this in the full context, she was guaranteed more than$50 million, dollars. And that was just sort of the baseline. There were other incentive bonuses over the course of this four year contract that could have far exceeded that number.

42:45Is Alina Haber persona non grata in the president's orbit right now? And I mean, we all know these things can change and people who are out suddenly can become in after a certain amount of time. Do you know where she stands right now? And what about her new husband? Yeah, this is not the only issue that she's dealing with that sort of roiling the president's circle of AIDS and allies. Her claims that we've also reported about, about her new husband, Terhan Mildoon, and Rick Grinnell, the former head of the Kennedy Center, a longtime Trump ally. Alina Haba, after we initially approached her about a story about her husband, she walked into the White House, met with President Trump, and detailed these accusations that her husband was trying to make a donation to the Kennedy Center, and Rick Grinnell did not put that money to the Kennedy Center.

43:39This caused the president to direct his aides to launch a White House investigation. And very quickly, White House officials discovered that the core of Alina's claim that her husband paid money to Rick Grinnell was not true. It was not money from her husband himself. It was money from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where her husband has business interests and has been an advisor to the president. So there's a lot of drama that has been caused by this contract, this$50 million contract, but also by these claims. There's an ongoing White House investigation. We're trying to figure out exactly where that's going to land.

44:17But it's safe to say Alina Habba is not anywhere near as close to the president as she once was, as you're showing videos of her. She was one of the president's top lawyers in the interregnum between his first term and his second term and developed quite a close relationship with him. She's not in the administration and she's clearly has has caused some some drama that's led to these investigations. I mean, it is a tangled, tangled web that has been woven here that you are unraveling. Tyler Pager, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Anderson. Well, you can stream the show live or watch any CNN program on demand anytime, any screen or mobile device.

44:57All you need is an all access subscription. Scan the QR code on your screen or go to CNN.com slash watch to learn more. That's it for us. I hope you have a great night. The news continues. The Source with Caitlin Collins starts now. I'm Audie Cornish. I'm Ari Shapiro. And it's Engagement Party. It is Engagement Party. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend. Her name is Amy O'Dell. She is a fashion writer, blogger. But the thing is, she's a journalist who's written about the sacred cows of fashion. And yes, I mean, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anna Wintour.

45:28She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who at this point kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now? Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches and then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas and then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast.

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