Bondi Transcript: Blanche “In Charge” of Entire Release of Epstein Files

24:13A woman can be heard wailing from inside. My child, my child, she cries. I remember my child.

24:25So he's explaining to me that the two bodies that we just saw being brought in. One of them was an 11-year-old child, and the other one was an eight-month-old baby. And you can hear, we've been hearing the wails of the family. It's just, it's unimaginable.

24:56The bodies keep coming, six in total this day, each one a family destroyed.

25:07The mayor of Mongboalu is overwhelmed. His town has never seen anything like this. Can we talk about when this all started? When did you first understand that there was something terribly wrong going on here? There was the date of February 2nd, when a corps had arrived in the Serkay. In the Serkay, February 22nd, the 22nd of February. That's more than 11 weeks before the outbreak was declared. Two weeks, three weeks later, people started to die here. There were deaths in two weeks. There were 48 deaths here in Monguala. 48? Yes. The virus continued to spread, silently, invisibly, through this town and beyond.

26:09health care workers are now playing catch up to contain the outbreak and the people of mongbalu are still paying the price now jake in terms of how the virus was able to continue to spread for so many weeks before the outbreak was actually declared the mayor told us that there's a lot of tuberculosis and malaria in that region some of the symptoms of those conditions are similar to those of Ebola. But crucially, he said that when they did Ebola tests, those tests were old tests for the Zaire strain. And of course, this is a different strain, which meant those tests came back negative. Truly, Jake, it was a perfect storm.

26:55Clarissa Ward in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thank you so much. Joining us to discuss this Ebola outbreak is the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, Robert Redfield. Doctors, leaders in the Congo believe this outbreak may have begun months before the World Health Organization was alerted. What does that suggest to you about the scale of the outbreak and how bad it might get? Yeah, Jake, I'm concerned about this outbreak because already within, you know, less than several weeks of its first recognition by WHO, we had numbers that would put it as the third largest Ebola outbreak in the history of the world.

27:40This was largely driven by a technical challenge, as was pointed out in your read up to this, is that the tests that we developed for Ebola pick up the Zairian strain and the Sudan strain, but they didn't pick up the Bundabugio strain, which is the strain that unfortunately is causing this current outbreak. And that strain has been relatively unusual in the African outbreaks. We've had 17 Ebola outbreaks in the DRC since 1976, and only two of them had the Bungu-Bohyuv strain, which was in 2007 and 2012. So when the doctors saw these cases, they would test them and they would come back negative to the Izerian strain, and therefore they didn't feel they had Ebola.

28:29Although, when you see this degree of mortality, you really need to think Ebola. Now, this region, the Anturi region, where this Ebola outbreak's occurring, really hadn't had an Ebola outbreak before. So the people were not that experienced as to say other parts of the DRC, where they mentioned this is the 17th outbreak. So a few weeks ago, I spoke with a former USAID worker who worked on the ground in the Congo. And this person told me that these cuts to USAID by President Trump and Elon Musk, without question, had an impact on the ability to detect this outbreak. This official said specifically about the testing that they would have, the USAID would have been pushing for more testing beyond just testing for the Zaire strain, as you noted, and also just how quickly the test materials were able to get to the various labs, that USAID would have been moving money, more personnel to reach these remote areas, and that they would have acted quicker.

29:35Now, the State Department rejects this. The current acting CDC director rejects this. What do you think? Do you agree with the USAID official that we spoke with that gutting USAID had absolutely an impact on the effect of the response to this outbreak? You know, Jake, I don't think so. And from where I'm coming from, I think really it was more that I pointed out the technical issue. When I was the CDC director, I had three Ebola outbreaks in the DRC during my a little over three year time as CDC director, including what was the the second largest in the history of the world. And the key to this was developing and deploying these diagnostic tests, which we were able to do pretty quickly for the Zyrian strain.

30:25The problem is, and we developed a new center of excellence in the DRC for Ebola in Kinshasa, which is pretty functional. I maintained a team of over 25 people in the DRC from CDC to help with Ebola continuing, and were there during the time that this outbreak occurred. I really do think it was a technical problem. The other challenge that you probably know from your people on the ground is that this is an area that's been in conflict for now well over 30 years. When I was there, it was 25 years. And it's not just a conflict between two groups. It's a conflict between like 25 different groups.

31:06So the amount of human population displacement on rest is enormous. So I really think it's a technical issue. I don't think it was the resourcing issue, but I know other people may have a different opinion. CNN, on a separate matter, CNN is learning that HHS Secretary RFK Jr. is seeking access to the medical records of most Americans. He wants to use the records to research a possible link between vaccines and autism, something, of course, that the medical community has studied for decades and found no evidence of at all. What's your take on this effort? And is that even legal? You know, Jake, I'm not familiar with it.

31:50That I, you know, I'm just not familiar with it. I would find, you know, trying to look at how we can use access to electronic medical records to evaluate different health outcomes, I think, is obviously a reasonable thing to consider. But as you know and I know, that has to be done with the proper protocols, the proper human use, the proper consent. So I would find it unlikely that someone was going to be able to bypass all that. Former CDC Director Robert Redfield, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate your time and expertise, as always. The chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, is coming up next.

32:28We're going to ask him about the state of network television, efforts to limit screen time for your kids, and much more.

32:43Oh, just my type. Hey. Oh, me in the house. Welcome to the highest competition of the summer. Hey, hey, hey, take me to the beach! Three amateur renovation teams paired with a top HGTV mentor will transform three beach houses into a life-changing opportunity. To win$50 ,000 cash. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say$50 ,000? Can we join? All new Battle on the Beach, Monday night at 9 on HGTV. You ever have somebody offer to come home with you from the hardware store? I am giving away a room makeover. Where's the catch? Three days to complete this renovation. You have no say in design, and we start today.

33:27Oh, wow. You're not just going to steal everything. Surprise! Ready to get your house pressed? For real? A little dated. It's time to turn this over to us. You guys got to get out of here. Got to get out of here. Crashers series premiere Monday, June 8th at 10 on HGTV. Some breaking news in the Law and Justice League about a story we've told you about before. In a stunning move, a judge in Arkansas just dropped the charges against that candidate running for sheriff who killed a man who was accused of sexually assaulting his young daughter. Aaron Spencer's trial was set for this month, but in dismissing the case, a judge cited missing evidence and misconduct by law enforcement calling it egregious.

34:09Spencer, as you may remember, admitted to gunning down a man. found with his 13-year-old daughter. Spencer won his Republican primary back in February. He said he wants to fix the system that failed to protect his daughter. In our tech lead, the Federal Communications Commission is working to combat excessive screen time use in children, launching a review of its E-Rate program, which spends close to$2.5 billion a year on discounts for Internet equipment and services to eligible schools nationwide here to discuss all this and a little bit more. This is FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Thanks so much for being here, Chairman Carr.

34:43The program you're reviewing, it's intended to be used by rural and urban schools, districts, libraries. How do you intend to make sure the review process doesn't cut funding from areas where school-age children are less likely to have Internet access at home? What we've seen over the last couple of years is a real surge in screen time for kids. A lot of parents saw that in particular during COVID. Now, the research is starting to come in to show that that may be correlating with poor educational outcomes. We've got literacy rates dropping. We've got math scores going down. And so we want to take a refreshed look at this program at the FCC.

35:19We subsidize almost$3 billion every year to Internet connectivity. What we're focused on is to make sure that parents feel like they're empowered, that there's the right type of Internet filters and safety protocols. So we're doing a top-to-bottom review of that program in light of all this evidence that's coming in. All right. Other topics. Let's talk about Disney and ABC, which filed its renewal applications for eight broadcast stations last week early because the FCC review wanted to go over the company's diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI policies. Now, Disney claims that this review is a First Amendment issue and they say it's an effort by you and the FCC to suppress content that the Trump administration doesn't like, such as Jimmy Come Alive and The View.

36:02I guess philosophically, here's my question. What is the difference between a viewpoint and bias? Because the FCC is supposed to encourage viewpoints, all sorts of viewpoints. How do you distinguish between somebody's viewpoint and somebody's bias? It seems like it could be the same thing. Well, with respect to Disney and ABC in particular, we started an investigation all the way to the beginning of last year into concerns that had been raised about DEI discrimination within Disney. And there's evidence that was being raised that fell into a couple of different buckets. One, allegations about Disney hiring, promoting, and compensating people and using workplace opportunities based on race, gender, and other protected characteristics.

36:46Now, Disney, through this process, has its own position and will have every opportunity to put its evidence in. But what the FCA has been investigating on is those concerns about discrimination. So we've called Disney's licenses in for early renewal. They can continue to make their case and people have the opportunity to challenge their licenses at the FCC through this process. But what does this have to do with your purview? I mean, this is, it seems to me from how you describe it, this is an EEOC issue, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It doesn't really have to do with what you do.

37:15Well, the very first section of the Communications Act talks specifically about empowering the FCC to ensure there isn't discrimination along race, gender, and other protected characteristics. And at the FCC, we have our own EEO regulations that apply to broadcasters and to some extent cable as well. We've gone through multiple rounds of discovery with Disney. And towards the end there, there was a production that Disney made that our staff believed was disingenuous, that was incomplete. And so we have sent them a notice of deficiency. And so one other steps we can take in our enforcement matter is to call the license in early.

37:48So that's what we did. And it was based on our DEI investigation. Look, a lot of companies, particularly during COVID, went all in on this form of DEI discrimination. And we'll see, based on the facts and law, whether Disney was one of them or not. But if they were, in fact, discriminated based on race and gender, that could be a real problem when it comes to holding an FCC broadcast license. So Disney also says that the FCC directly pressured other ABC stations, ones not owned or operated by Disney, located in Texas. They say that the FCC did this to try to get them to file notices of equal time requests.

38:21Is that true? So this relates to a separate issue, which is the view had on a legally qualified candidate for office. And the FCC has rules on the books called equal time. So if you're a broadcaster, it doesn't apply to cable, but if you're a broadcaster and put one legally qualified candidate for office on, you have to offer an opportunity to all others. Now, what Disney is claiming is that the view qualifies for what's called a bonafide news interview program, which would exclude them from the equal time rule. And we have asked Disney, as well as other TV stations in Texas, whether they believe that The View is bonafide news.

38:57And a lot of stations filed and apparently didn't agree with Disney that The View is bonafide news. Let's turn to CBS, because CBS News obviously fired longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley earlier this week after a clash with management in a staff meeting. Pelley said in his statement, quote, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I've been told to include assertions that are unverified. Cecilia Vega, another 60 Minutes correspondent who was also let go, said a similar thing. Now, a CBS spokesperson denies that that's true, denies that there's any political interference at the company from ownership or editor in chief Barry Weiss.

39:36They say it's just the normal back and forth. But But I have to ask, when the FCC approved the Paramount Skydance merger last year, it was on the condition of appointing an ombudsman to evaluate bias and other complaints. Is the ombudsman at CBS taking a look at what Pelley and Vega have alleged? Is the FCC going to investigate it? Well, I don't know about that. We've not been in touch with the CBS bias ombudsman. I think this is one, though, where, thankfully, people can judge it with their own eyes. There was transcripts of these communications between the employees and CBS. I think a lot of people, including across the political spectrum, think that the reporting on how Scott Pelley behaved was just simply unprofessional.

40:19It's not the type of stuff you'd get away with as an employee at Taco Bell, let alone at an institution like CBS. I don't think there's a lot of people that have concerns that this was about bias. I think it was about unprofessional behavior. But isn't what he is alleging and what Cecilia Vega is alleging, isn't that exactly what this ombudsman and exactly what the FCC should be investigating? I don't think so. I think the concerns that were raised by him were, again, based on a transcript of a meeting that he was in in the company. And a lot of people, again, nonpartisan across the political spectrum, didn't think it was professional conduct.

40:51So speaking of transcripts, there was this investigation into 60 Minutes about the transcript of the Kamala Harris interview in 2024 and whether it was edited in a way that was unfair. When all that came out, even the Wall Street Journal said that there didn't seem to be anything untoward in that. Norah O'Donnell did an interview for 60 Minutes with President Trump. I think it was like a 40-minute interview that they edited down to 13 minutes. Is the FCC going to investigate that? Well, one of the things that happened with the original Kamala Harris one is there was no disclosure of the transcript itself.

41:26And it's very different than now. I think 60 Minutes Now has a policy, including with that interview, of making the entire transcript readily available. But if you step back as a general matter, what we're doing at the FCC is we're looking in, the American people have fundamentally lost trust in the legacy media, including broadcasters. And broadcasters are different than cable, different than podcasts because they have a license. They're supposed to operate in the public interest. So the through line, when you look at all of these actions that the FCC is taking, is we are holding broadcasters, perhaps newly so, but accountable to that public interest standard.

41:58All right, that's all the time we have, unfortunately, but please come back, okay? FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, appreciate it. The big story tonight, a brand new transcript out revealing exactly what former Attorney General Pam Bondi told Congress about the release of the Epstein files. A lawmaker who heard that testimony firsthand is going to join us next with his reaction. Stay with us.

42:21Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, we are now learning exactly what former Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers behind closed doors about the Epstein investigation. Bondi seems to be seeking to distance herself from how the files were released, saying it was her number two. The current acting Attorney General, Todd Blanch, who was responsible for the process and the mishandling of it. We're digging into what else Bondi said and the impact this could have on Blanche's confirmation process to become the full-time attorney general. Plus the frantic search underway tonight for an American college student who went missing on a family trip to Japan.

42:56Family members say 20-year-old Weston Higginbottom got into an argument with his mother over her excessive use of AI and told his family he needed some space. That was six days ago. He has not been seen since. Sinan's team is on the ground where locals are joining police and searching for this young man. And new video obtained exclusively by CNN shows the damage on the USS Gerald Ford after a fire broke out while the ship took part in the war against Iran. The video is raising some serious questions about whether the U.S. Navy was fully transparent about what exactly unfolded on board.

43:33The lead tonight, the political fallout over the Epstein files continues and is now tied directly to the man President Trump has picked to lead the Justice Department full-time, According to a newly released transcript with the House Oversight Committee, former Attorney General Pam Bondi said this about Todd Blanche, who was her former deputy who's now been tapped to replace her. Quote, he was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files. Unquote. Bondi also deferred questions about whether the FBI had turned over all relevant Epstein documents to FBI Director Kash Patel.

44:05CNN's Caitlin Collins is here with me in studio. Kalen, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters today before this transcript was released, if he was asked whether or not Blanche would have a tough time being confirmed. And he said, hard to say, which is not what somebody says usually about a president's nominees. Yeah, I do say, I mean, Todd Blanche got confirmed by the Senate before to become the deputy attorney general. So it's not clear that there would be someone who voted yes for him for that and would vote no on this. Maybe since obviously all of this has happened since the Epstein-Piles investigation, potentially.

44:37Given how much of a story it has become, I will say that reading the transcript of Pam Bondi's interview with the House Oversight Committee, I certainly can see how Democrats are saying she's throwing Todd Blanche under the bus. She's saying that this was all him and his doing. It's also true. I mean, this was something that Todd Blanche's office was handling as the deputy attorney general. I was told this months ago by someone who was describing to me what was happening with the investigation when it was really at the pinnacle of its blowback, that it was Blanche's office and his team that was handling the bulk of the work when it came to the Epstein investigation and that Pam Bondi largely was dealing with more of the top line issues and was not involved in the day-to-day on the redactions and complying with that law that was passed because of Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna.

45:21And so I think reading that, it is true. What stood out to me, though, was that Pam Bondi said she did not know about Ghislaine Maxwell's prison transfer until she read about it in public reports and said that she was uninvolved in that, which is pretty remarkable given how high profile of a transfer it was. It was done by the Bureau of Prisons, which obviously is under the purview of the attorney general. And it came, of course, just a few days after Todd Blanche had conducted that interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. Yeah, from a serious security prison to a minimum security prison. Todd Blanche has also been a lightning rod in the Senate over this so-called weaponization fund, almost $1.8 billion that could go theoretically to January 6th protesters who beat up cops and pleaded guilty.

46:03Today, Republicans rejected multiple efforts to kill the fund, though. Yeah. I mean, I was talking to Manu about this last night, and he was saying basically it came down to how the rule keeper in the Senate ruled on this. Did it need 60 votes, or was it going to be able to pass with a simple majority? Because had it been able to pass with a simple majority, it would probably be part of this bill right now that they're going to be voting on. But because it needed that 60-vote threshold, it needed way more Republicans then we're willing to cross the aisle and vote for this. A lot of them who are facing tough reelections this year.

46:32But with Todd Blanche himself, when he does, you know, eventually have to face his questions in terms of becoming the attorney general, now the president says he's going to nominate him. Obviously, this has been something where he has been out front defending the bill. He was on Capitol Hill right after the fund, right after they announced it. He was defending it, saying it was similar to other provisions that other presidents had done, even though the comparison was pretty off. and also just basically arguing that it was worth moving forward with. And then, of course, this week when he came out and said they're not moving forward with the fund, which is not what the president said yesterday when we were asking him about this in the Oval Office, their answers did not match up.

47:10He just instead deferred to the attorneys, which seemed to be creating some space for the president in the distancing from shelving this fund that his supporters very much want to see go into effect. I never thought that it was shelved. I mean, it seemed pretty clear if Todd Blanche's answer is we are not moving forward in Washington, D.C. You learn to, as you know, you learn to hear, oh, we are not moving forward. Doesn't mean we are never going to move forward. It just means at this exact moment we're not moving forward. And that was the point we were making to the president yesterday when he was deferring to attorneys and to the courts that have gotten involved here is this idea.

47:43And that's why Republican senators are clearly they don't think that language has gone far enough because they're introducing amendments or they're being asked to vote for them because Democrats are introducing them saying to officially bar the president from using this money to going to any of these people. And obviously, I mean, it's been a huge point of blowback in the White House that I do not think was expected when they first introduced this bill as part of this settlement with the president and his IRS lawsuit. I don't think they thought they were going to get this much blowback from Republicans.

48:11But as they are on the verge of passing this immigration bill, and yes, so far they have not been able to get any of those provisions passed that bar this funding from happening. The fact that they are just now able to vote on this speaks to just what a huge blow up this has been inside the Republican Party. They were supposed to vote on this weeks ago and now they're just now getting around to the immigration funding because this has been a huge fight between Republicans. All right, Caitlin, so great to have you in studio. Thanks for being here. And of course, don't miss Caitlin on her show, The Source with Caitlin Collins.

48:38Her guests tonight include Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, only on CNN. Let's turn now to our world lead because President Trump said today that he would be open to meeting with Iran's new supreme leader if it could help secure a deal to end the war. But Washington and Tehran have issued contradictory messages about the status of any negotiation. CNN's Fred Pleikin is in Tehran, the capital of Iran. We should note, CNN operates in Iran, as do any other reporters who are in Iran, only with the permission of the government. But CNN also maintains full editorial control of its reports.

49:13And here is Fred's report.

49:19We're at an event here in Tehran to mark the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. And as you can see, a lot of people have turned out here to pay their respects. Now, in this year, as Iran is in this conflict with the United States, of course, this event also has a special meaning for the people who have come here. There's a lot of people that we are seeing who are waving red flags that say revenge on them. Because, of course, there are still a lot of people here who want revenge for the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And that's also something that was voiced here by the crowd.

49:56We don't trust America. Never. Ever. There is no reason for the Islamic Republic of Iran to grant concessions. We have no reason to back down from our position. We were not defeated in war, nor have we been defeated in diplomacy. We demonstrated that we are capable of resisting and that we are highly resilient.

50:45Persian Gulf remains extremely volatile, with the U.S. hitting some targets on some Persian Gulf islands. The Iranians, for their part, saying that they were hitting targets affiliated with the United States in places like Kuwait and in places like Bahrain as well. So the security situation is very volatile. The ceasefire very fragile. At the same time, both sides say that they are trying to find a way out of the impasse. And you know, Jake, I was at another event here in Tehran later tonight, an evening event where we also spoke to a lot of people and many of them, quite frankly, also saying that they are quite skeptical as to whether or not this whole process has been going on for so many weeks already is in the end going to lead to a success, to an agreement between the United States and Iran.

51:31Nevertheless, one thing that we have been hearing from Iranian officials is that they do believe that in the end, as far as this waiting game is concerned, they are in a very strong position with that chokehold that they have on the Strait of Hormuz, also with the pressure that they're able to put, especially on this whole region with the missiles and drones that they have, despite the fact that there is no doubt that certainly the economic troubles that Iran faces right now are pretty severe, Jake. All right, Fred Pleiken, live in Tehran, where it's almost 1.30 in the morning. Thank you so much.

52:02Appreciate it. Stay safe. Joining us now, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who's on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is an Iraq war veteran. Senator, you've been a leading voice in the Senate trying to end the war in Iran. Yesterday, four Republicans in the House voted with Democrats for that war resolution, which would either require President Trump to end the war or seek congressional approval. Now, Trump called the vote meaningless, and he wrote on social media, quote, who would do such an unpatriotic thing? They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats, I think he said Democrats, are fueled by Trump derangement syndrome.

52:37They would rather have our country fail than give me another of many victories. The four Republicans, that's a whole other story. They're grandstanders. They should be ashamed of themselves, unquote. This does come as Iran's foreign minister says, quote, no tangible progress has been made in the negotiations. What's your reaction? Well, my reaction is I'm doing the most patriotic thing I could do right now, which is carry out my duties under the Constitution of the United States. And frankly, the president of the United States is supposed to come consult with Congress. Only Congress has the ability to declare war and frankly he's made America less safe than ever before.

53:09Americans are suffering. We have a death service members and we've lost you know literally billions of dollars in resources upwards of 39 billion dollars he spent in the first 14 weeks of this war and what have we got nothing better than where we had before. The Straits of Hormuz is now mined. It was opened before. Gas prices are going through the roof and our service members are in harm's way when they should be protecting America. And in fact, you know, they're out there carrying Trump's war of choice. So the person that's unpatriotic at this point is Donald Trump. Take a listen to your colleague, Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, explaining why he is going to vote against the War Powers Act when it comes before the Senate.

53:49This is what he said last night. My vote, no, is not a pro-war vote, you know, but it's absolutely a pro-no. nuclear Iran. And now here we are. And now I think the decision is produce the nuclear dust or this is going to continue. And then we're going to hold them accountable. What's your reaction to Senator Fetterman? Well, the problem is he's not President Trump's war in Iran has not stopped their march towards nuclear weapons. Right. Remember that President Trump declared that we had supreme victory, that we destroyed Iran's nuclear program when he struck them months ago and yet now he's claiming that they have access to the uranium and all of those stockpiles.

54:36Frankly, what we have done is given Iran an access to a source of revenue, teaching them that they can turn the Strait of Hormuz into a toll road and charge ships a million dollars a ship and that they can control the global economy. We're nowhere near anywhere better off now than we were before Trump launched his war. We have a worse ayatollah than was in Iran. We have higher gas prices. The Thrasse of Hormuz is now mine. They have a new source of revenue where they can actually charge ships to transition. And now they understand on a very granular level how important their control of the Thrasse of Hormuz is.

55:12In fact, Donald Trump has made things worse for Americans and actually for the world. I just came from the Shangri-La security dialogues and every single one of the people I talked to there in bilateral discussions is what is happening. You've made situations. America, Trump has made the situation worse on a global scale. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, thank you so much for your time. And as always, thank you for your service. Tonight, we are learning what former Attorney General Pam Bondi told Congress behind closed doors about the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. A lawmaker who was in the room for that interview joins us live next.

55:51In our Law and Justice League, new details on the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files release as the House Oversight Committee today just released the transcript from their interview with former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Joining us now to discuss Democratic Congressman James Walkinshaw, Virginia, who was on the House Oversight Committee and was in the room during Pam Bondi's closed-door meeting with the committee. Congressman, after that meeting, you read this exchange from the proceeding, quote, what is your understanding of the extent to which President Trump was aware of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes prior to the crimes becoming public?

56:26And Pam Bondi replied, quote, I'm not certain of the extent of his knowledge. And afterwards, Bondi posted, quote, misrepresentation by Walkinshaw. What is your response now that the transcript is public? You know, all I did after the interview was, quote, verbatim what she said. And as the transcript shows. It wasn't a misrepresentation. It was a verbatim quote. It was shocking to me. Honestly, it was the only thing that shocked me in the interview was to hear her respond that way. I expected her to say that absolutely under no circumstances could Donald Trump have known about Epstein's crimes.

57:07I know the kind of man Donald Trump is. If he knew, he would have done something. She had the opportunity to do that. She didn't do that. That's very interesting. I know Democrats want to subpoena the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, not to mention FBI Director Cash Patel, to discuss this all. Are any Republicans on the Oversight Committee interested in speaking with Blanche or Patel? Not yet. I hope that they will come along. And, you know, had they participated in the interview with Pam Bondi, they would have heard her say time after time after time that Todd Blanche would know the answer to that question because he was responsible for those details.

57:47Now that they had the opportunity to read the transcript, I hope they'll see that and join us in calling for Todd Blanche and Cash Patel to come in and answer some of the questions that Pam Bondi said they are best equipped to answer. So the chairman of your committee, Republican James Comer, is urging the Justice Department to investigate two men with ties to Epstein. After testimony from a former assistant to Epstein implicated these individuals, they deny the allegations. Do you think the Justice Department might take those requests seriously, given the fact that they're coming from Comer? Look, to date, both Pam Bondi and now Todd Blanche have refused to even entertain reopening any investigations related to Epstein.

58:33I hope they'll reconsider that. I agree with Chairman Comer on that point. But there's a lot more that needs to be done. I question Pam Bondi about why she or Todd Blanche never directed the FBI to interview people very close to Epstein. They never interviewed Epstein's accountant. They never interviewed Epstein's lawyer. They never interviewed Les Wexner, the financier of the sex trafficking. That's kind of outrageous from my perspective. So if they're going to reopen it, they need to do some of those interviews of folks who are close to Epstein might have more information for us. You've had the opportunity to review the Epstein files at the Justice Department.

59:09Have you taken advantage of that? Yeah, I've been there several times, spent hours there. Obviously, there are three million files there, hundreds of thousands of redactions. So, you know, I've seen some of the needles in the haystack, but not all of the needles in the haystack. But have you seen enough? Because obviously these files include FBI interviews with, you know, a lot of these survivors in which they actually name names and say so-and-so did this, so-and-so raped me, so-and-so knew about that. I mean, is there enough to justify investigations into many, many more alleged perpetrators?

59:52There is enough information in the files, including some that are redacted, information from our investigation, including what you just referred to, the new allegations that have come to light as a result of our investigation, that I believe that it should be reopened. And I don't know if there are many, many, many, but certainly many interviews, in my view, the FBI should conduct related to this. Congressman James Walkinshaw, Democrat of Virginia. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. New details of the urgent search underway for an American college student who went missing in Japan. CNN on the ground as the frantic search is now in its sixth day.

1:00:31That's next.

1:00:40In our world lead, the search continues for an Auburn University student missing in Japan. According to his family, 20-year-old Weston Higginbottom stepped away during their family vacation on Friday to explore Kyoto alone and never returned. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is in Kyoto, Japan. What is the latest on this frantic search? I'm just outside the station where Weston Higginbottom was last found on May 29th. This is Yamashina Station in Kyoto Prefecture. And I want to show you something that's been happening for the past couple hours or so. There's this Japanese woman here, an ordinary citizen, who's been handing out missing persons flyers to people who are walking by the station.

1:01:22Now, this woman has no relation to the Hickenbothams whatsoever. She's an ordinary citizen, but she felt so compelled to help the family in some way, shape, or form. Her and her friend, they've been handing out these flyers, translating them in several languages, and again trying to give them to as many people as possible, trying to spread the word to as many people as possible. And of course, as mothers themselves, they feel very, very compassionate and they feel very horribly for the parents of the Higginbothams. Now, we spoke to the parents just moments ago, earlier on Thursday, and of course, naturally, they were extremely distressed about the situation.

1:02:02This is what Nancy Weston's mother told us earlier today. Every single second you think about your kid and then you have the flashbacks of when he was two, when I was breastfeeding him, the birthday parties we've thrown for him. I want that back. I need him back because a family of three is not the Higgetbothams. We're a family of four. And she mentioned being a family of four. And the reason why they're actually in Japan is because they're celebrating Weston's younger brother's high school graduation. And Nancy told me that she's trying to stay strong for her younger son, who's only 18 years old.

1:02:42But naturally, as a human, she's having a really, really hard time and sometimes just isn't able to keep that strong face. Now, the police have told us that they've deployed dozens of officers and dogs to the surrounding forest in this area in Kyoto. And that's because Weston is an avid hiker. He's an environmentalist. And according to the mother, they had a small spat just hours before Weston disappeared. And when he has small spats with his family, he likes to take a beat. He likes to go into nature and calm down. So the police are hoping to find Weston in these woods. But there was a typhoon that hit Kyoto and other parts of Japan for the past couple of days or so, which have hampered efforts somewhat.

1:03:29But again, that search is continuing. And the Higginbothams have told us that they're not leaving Japan until they found their son. All right, Hanukkah Montgomery in Kyoto, Japan for us. Thank you so much. Up next, something we don't see enough these days, and that's bipartisanship. two mayors, one Republican, one Democrat, how they're working together to find solutions for challenges impacting cities across the country.

1:04:00In our politics lead, what is a city to do about homelessness and crime or about using drones for emergency response or city operations? And what about the changing nature of entertainment in cities? These are just a few of the topics up for discussion. at the 94th Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, which is underway right now in Long Beach, California. We are joined right now by the president and the vice president of the Mayors Conference, Oklahoma City Republican Mayor David Holt, and San Diego Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria. There are multiple sessions on dealing with crime and homelessness, gentlemen, which affect every city, as I don't need to tell you, with reverberations lasting for years.

1:04:37Are you hearing anything new, anything innovation, any new innovative ways to address these problems at all? Mayor Holt, you first. Well, certainly. I mean, there are always new wrinkles on these vexing challenges, I would say, in the area of crime. I think we've seen crime dramatically decline in most large American cities in recent years, largely because we've learned from each other's best practices and really focused on intervention and prevention. I mean, law enforcement presence is critical, but so too is getting ahead of some of the things that contribute to crime months and years in advance.

1:05:15And then on homelessness, I think obviously we're in California. We recognize a lot of different things are being tried here. Probably Mayor Gloria can speak to it with even more expertise, but there's no question. We always learn from each other and that's what we try to do at these meetings. They're amazing opportunities for the sharing of best practices among mayors, regardless of our political affiliations. And on the matter of crime, Major Gloria, you just dealt with that horrific, deadly attack on the Islamic Center in San Diego. The mother of one of the now deceased suspects warned police a couple of hours before the attack that her son and a companion had taken some of the family's guns and she was afraid about what they were going to do.

1:05:55Are there any lessons that could be learned from this? Well, sadly, being an American mayor means that all of us have dealt with this in some form or fashion. And I think what I know from my predecessors who've experienced what my city went through just two weeks ago is that there's always lessons learned. In this particular case, you know, that incident played out over about two hours where the initial call from the mother and then the second call definitely helped us to connect the dots. We were able to respond and be on scene within four minutes. But obviously, that's not enough. And there is still lives lost.

1:06:29I think the most immediate learning lesson from that experience is the importance of ongoing communication and relationships with folks like the mosque there in San Diego. But it's also the need to be able to invest in prevention. And I think one of the things, Jake, that's a newer topic at mayor's meetings is really this crisis around mental health in our country that is certainly driving our homelessness crisis, but is also resulting in tragedies like the one that happened in my city. We, as mayors, often don't work directly on mental health issues. That's often an issue for the state and county governments.

1:07:04But we certainly are held accountable. And that's why convenings like this one help us to learn how we can better address these kinds of challenges. There's a session tomorrow on using drones for emergencies or for city services. Another session is about using AI to improve city services. Are the cities of the future here or right now? Mayor Hull, let me start with you. Well, sure. I mean, there's always something new. And we like to think of ourselves as being innovative and on the cutting edge of technology. So certainly, you know, we just heard today from Waymo, who, of course, does, you know, taxi cabs without drivers, right?

1:07:44And of course, drones and AI are all great examples of that. I guess when I hear you say city of the future, I always think, Well, I mean, there'll always be something beyond this. We will never reach the end of history. So I think that absolutely cities are at the cutting edge of a lot of different concepts and technologies. And we don't want to be bureaucratic and let history get in the way. I mean, we try to be, I think, pretty innovative. My city has a chief innovation officer. A lot of cities have that. And I would certainly recommend that at every level of government. And those kinds of positions and offices look at things just like what you talked about.

1:08:23And it's also why we come to meetings like this so we can be on that cutting edge. Mayor Gloria, both of you have major league sports teams in your city that taxpayers footed at least part of the bill for the arenas. Is it worth it? Well, if you're referring to Petco Park in my city, yeah, it absolutely is. What you see on the screen there for all your viewers is a taxpayer-owned asset of the people of San Diego. and in partnership with the Padres, we have been named the best ballpark in America by USA Today for many years in a row. And that has allowed us to see full stands for weekday games in San Diego.

1:08:59And Jake, I'm telling you, folks come downtown and they see the housing that we're building. They're seeing the investments that we're making. I actually worked in that neighborhood as a social worker before the Petco Park was built. I can tell you it looked nothing like that. And so this cooperative agreement has not just the investment around the stadium, but it's all of the housing, the hotels, the jobs that are built around it. You know, not every deal in this space is a good one, but I think Petco Park is a positive deal, and it's one that we should continue to work to innovate on, particularly in an urban redevelopment situation where we have to build more housing that people can afford.

1:09:30Mayor David Holt, Mayor Todd Gloria, thanks for your time. Tonight, the New York Times is reporting new allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Plattner, a Democrat from a handful of women who previously dated him. Those accusations and how the campaign is responding next.

1:09:55We have breaking news in our politics lead. New allegations against Maine Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Plattner, this time from a handful of women who previously dated him. The New York Times interviewed six of these women, three of whom described their relationships with Plattner as volatile and toxic. The Times adds that these women accused Plattner of heavy drinking and infidelity, demeaning behavior toward women, and in one account, physical intimidation. In a statement to CNN, Plattner says, quote, throughout this campaign, I've been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.

1:10:33I take responsibility for all of that and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe politically motivated. I'm not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I've done since and the movement we are building in Maine, unquote. The panel joins me now and Robert Bluey. We should note that Lindsey Fifield, who is one of the three named, for want of a better word, accusers of Graham Plattner and in fact suggests that he, in addition to being emotionally abusive, was sometimes physically tough. I don't want to know what word to use, but grabs her by the shoulders, leaves marks, et cetera.

1:11:09You know her. You've worked with her. She is a Republican activist. Do you find her to be a credible person? I do. I think it took a tremendous amount of courage for Lindsay to come forward and tell this story, along with the other women who are now speaking out. I was Lindsay's boss for many years at the Heritage Foundation prior to my role at the Daily Signal today. And Lindsay and I think many of the other women are doing something that they feel is important now, Jake, because frankly, the voters of Maine need to make a decision. And that decision is going to have big implications about whether Graham Plattner is going to move forward.

1:11:45And I think these past allegations need to be thoroughly vetted. Yeah. And just to note, Tuesday is the Democratic primary in Maine and the former governor, I'm sorry, current governor, former candidate Janet Mills is still on the ballot. So Mo, in terms of Lindsey Fifield, she denies any political motivation. She says she would be doing this even if he were a Republican as opposed to Democrat. at the Times says she dated him from about 2013 to 2015. The Times writes, quote, Mr. Plattner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid.

1:12:19She was quick to note that he never hit me, he never punched me, but during one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling her to remain there until she was calm. Mr. Plattner strongly disputes any claims of physical intimidation or altercation his campaign said. Do you think this is going to have any impact? I don't know. I mean, if the past decade has taught us anything, you don't know what voters are willing to forgive and not forgive in politics anymore. I think as a former campaign strategist, the drip, drip, drip is exhausting and it can really hurt a campaign, which is why I think some of his, some of the senators he met with this week in Washington asked him, is there anything else coming out?

1:13:10Before this came out. Before this came out. He's also denied to like Manu Raju and plenty of other reporters that that was it. There was nothing else coming out and more came out. Right. Look, I am, the story talked to a lot of women. Many said good things about him. Some said bad things about him. I don't deny any woman's lived experience. You know, if this is their experience, we should take that seriously. I also am sympathetic to someone who has dealt with mental health issues and has been working through it. This is the argument now. This is the decision Maine voters are going to have to make.

1:13:49Do they trust that however dark that period may have been in his life, that he has turned a corner and he can be an effective advocate for them? We'll know next week. So, Lindsey Fifield also spoke with the Times about Plattner's now covered up tattoo of the skull and crossbones from the SS. It's called a Totenkopf. And Plattner has said recently that he didn't know what it was until recently. He thought it was just a skull and crossbones. He got well in the service. But Lindsey Fifield says, well, let me just read the Times. Mr. Plattner's insistence that he did not know this tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became a campaign issue last fall was simply not true.

1:14:28Ms. Feifield said. After all, she said he had taught her the word for it years earlier, referring to it as my Totenkopf. His campaign strongly denied that he knew what the tattoo stood for. So this goes to not just who he was back in his 20s or 30s, but whether or not he's being honest with voters today. No, it certainly does. And in the wake of the recent allegations that have come out around sexting with women, even after he was married, I don't necessarily know how he recovers politically from this, yet poll after poll shows that he's consistently led. Now, we should point out that six years ago, Sarah Gideon was also leading Susan Collins consistently in all the polls leading up to election day.

1:15:10So I think it's going to be interesting to see how Susan Collins decides to play this and whether she ignores it or whether or not this becomes an issue that she starts to emphasize in the closing days here. Obviously, she would go up against a weakened individual in Plattner should he emerge victorious in Tuesday's primary. And Mo, right now, Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, is urging voters, Democrats in Maine, to support Janet Mills, the current governor who was running in the primary. And then because of the meteoric rise of Plattner, who, to give him his due, clearly has caught on with a lot of voters and is charismatic and can command a room and is, you know, fiery, fiery progressive.

1:15:55And Mills was not able to raise money. So she put her campaign on hold. But she's been reminding people recently, hey, I'm still on the ballot. And Fetterman saying, Democrats in Maine, you should vote for Janet Mills. What do you think? We'll find out on Tuesday what they're going to do. But what do you what would you if I were if I were a main Democrat? If I were a main voter, I would probably vote for Janet Mills. But I'm not the target audience. Right. I'm a D.C. establishment Democrat. And that's part of the challenge for people like Janet Mill. Right, Plattner's running against you. Plattner's running against me.

1:16:29He's running against the establishment Democrats as much as he's running against Donald Trump. And that's got some appeal. And it explains why, to your point, that this is all very recent, some of these issues. Same can be said about Ken Paxton in Texas. and yet voters in Maine, Democratic voters in Maine, Republican voters in Texas, seem to be willing to forgive or at the very least overlook these flawed candidates because they are so fed up with the establishment, they're so hungry for someone who they think is going to fight for them, that they're willing to overlook these issues. Look at Los Angeles as well.

1:17:09I mean, Spencer Pratt, wasn't it just last week we were talking about some past comments that he made And would that have an impact necessarily on what Los Angeles voters decided to do? And I think that they were for us. Enough voters in Los Angeles appear to be frustrated with the establishment politician, Karen Bass, that they were willing to give a reality TV star an opportunity to maybe make the runoff. Are you surprised at Planner's staying power? I mean, I think it's fair to say, and you could say this about Donald Trump and his many controversies, too, that in a different era with a different candidate, just the totem cuff would have ended his campaign.

1:17:41Yeah, I'm not surprised by anything after the last decade. I mean, that's the honest truth, is that people right now, as I said, are willing to forgive or overlook a lot because they're that angry. And if you can channel that anger, then you got a shot. Interesting. Thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it. Coming up next, exclusive video showing the damage on board the United States' largest and newest Navy aircraft carrier after a fire broke out while the ship was deployed. Stick with us.

1:18:13In our national lead, take a look at this new video exclusively obtained by CNN. It shows just how badly a fire in March damaged America's largest and newest Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. The fire which broke out on the carrier's main laundry area was so destructive, as Saylor tells CNN, that he thought that they were going to lose the ship. But as CNN's Brian Todd reports for us now, that is not how officials described the damage at the time. A warning for our viewers, some of the images are kind of gross.

1:19:09on war. Fire and flooding are the two greatest dangers aboard any ship. This damage was more severe than what the Navy initially suggested at the time, when it said the fire had been, quote, contained and that two sailors received non-life-threatening injuries. One sailor on board the ship who helped put the fire out told CNN, quote, I seriously thought we were going to lose the ship. Their mindset while battling the blaze, quote, it's either fight or die. That sailor and a senior U.S. official familiar with the incident tell CNN the Ford's fire suppression system failed to activate, leaving the sailors scrambling.

1:19:42If you have a failure of the fire suppression system, that is going to make putting the fire out, it's going to make it harder. And ultimately, that brings it back to ultimately, it's about the people. It is about our sailors. It is about their preparation. It took the Ford's crew about 30 hours to put out the fire, and roughly 600 sailors lost their bunks because of it. Asked about the extent of the blaze and about the fire control system's failure to function. A Navy spokesperson told CNN, the investigation of the fire is ongoing. We spoke to the chief of naval operations about it when the Ford returned to port in May.

1:20:15Big fires are always a challenge, and this was significant, laundry and dryer-based fire. The crew handled that so well, and they fought it brilliantly and courageously, and basically was back in the fight within a matter of days. The fire wasn't the only problem on board the$13 billion carrier. The ship's toilets were repeatedly clogged. the sailor told CNN. Other video obtained by CNN shows human waste filled to the brim of toilet after toilet. The sailor said, quote, if you were in the forward section of the ship, you'd have to walk all the way to the aft section just to find a toilet that worked.

1:20:47The sanitation systems on board any ship, submarine, destroyer, cruiser, carrier, all have challenges. It's not whether or not if that happens, it's when it does, how do we attack it, fix it, get it back online. And the team on Ford, you know, is very good at that. Now, another huge hurdle for the Ford's crew, the sheer length of this deployment, 11 months at sea, the longest deployment of any U.S. carrier group since the Vietnam War. Admiral Darrell Cottle, the chief of naval operations, told us he does not want this to be a precedent. He says these deployments are supposed to last about seven months tops.

1:21:23Jake, this deployment was extended two different times. These families just had a really tough slot. Tough stuff. All right, Brian Todd, thanks so much. And our pop culture lead, Craig Ferguson, is out with a yet another episode of American on Purpose this week on CNN. He's exploring American capitalism by attempting to launch his very own unique business idea. In this episode on capitalism, you also, I'm like, I have to build up the fortitude to say haggis tacos. Oh, no, you're wrong about that. If you're going to be, If you're going to be dismissive of haggis tacos, you're wrong. I'm not dismissing it.

1:22:00I'm just, I'm sturdying myself to think about it. Haggis tacos. You want a haggis taco? These are great. Brian, you're our first customer.

1:22:13Oh, wow. Good, right? You were right. You thought it was a joke. It's not a joke, is it, Brian? It's not a joke. It's not a joke. It's a$5 piece of luxury in your mouth. Haggis tacos. Haggis tacos. You're taking a meat product, the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep cooked in a sheep's stomach lining with spices. You're selling it now. This is the pitch. Hold on, I'm not finished. But then we take that and we get Marcus Samuelson, who is like a proper chef. And he's very, I mean, because he's Swedish and Ethiopian. He's used to kind of putting things together that you wouldn't necessarily think would work.

1:22:54And haggis tacos actually are delicious. I think they are going to be a thing after this show. Latest episode of the CNN original series, Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose, premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern and the next day on the CNN app. Aaron Burnett out of front starts now.

1:23:18From the descendants of history makers involved in the Louisiana Purchase

1:23:32Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. As Ken Burns said on an earlier podcast, the half-life of grief is endless. Mariska Hargitay knows that very well. Jane Mansfield was killed in a car crash in 1967. 1967. Mariska was in the car with her. After decades spent coming to terms with her past and wanting to learn more about the mother she doesn't remember, Mariska has made a remarkable documentary called My Mom Jane. Our vulnerability is our greatest strength and our greatest connector. And so in telling the story, I don't feel vulnerable.

1:24:12I feel free. We all have a story and you never know what somebody else carries. 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.