Democrats Bring Epstein Survivors To State Of The Union Address

21:44Jake Tapper:All right, Ed Lemondera, thank you so much. Somebody out there knows what happens to Nancy Guthrie and not just the perpetrator. It could be a tip that finally breaks this case. And if you think you know something, please call the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also reach the Bureau online at tips.fbi.gov, tips.fbi.gov. Coming up next, we're going to break down the most important issue to voters, the U.S. economy, in the eyes of President Trump versus the eyes of the public for which he serves.

22:37A makeover. Your favorite former contestants move back into the mansion to spill their secrets, refresh rooms, and win the hearts of the judges. Bachelor Mansion... Bachelor Mansion Takeover, special series, March 2nd at 8 on HGTV. In 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years. Mortgage rates are the lowest in four years and falling fast. We gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. The Dow Jones broke 50 ,000 four years ahead of schedule. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them.

23:24We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward.

23:29Jake Tapper:In our Moneyly today, President Trump's boast about his economy in last night's State of the Union address. We're not all totally off the mark. Inflation is down. The stock market is near a record high. But the president did little to speak to the reality of many American households, as those claims about price drops and some of his own policies ringing downright false at times. Joining us now, former Trump economic advisor Stephen Moore and Rohit Chopra, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Steve, Trump overall made a good impression on speech viewers, polled by CNN last night.

24:01Jake Tapper:Only 29 % said they had some confidence in him to lower the cost of living. 40 % said they have none at all. Do you fear at all that the president's falling into the same trap that President Biden did, bragging about a strong economy based on the numbers, even though a lot of Americans are not feeling what he's talking about? but jake objectively most of the things that trump said were absolutely true it is true that real incomes for median income families are up by about twenty five hundred dollars over the last 14 months which is a nice increase and that's after inflation and then you take into account the tax cut that that's about another thousand dollars so people do have more affordability they're really but they're focused on things that are going up in price obviously like health care and housing and certain groceries and other things are falling in price.

24:54And then look, the inflation rate, as Trump said, over the last three months has fallen to below 2%, which is where the threat target is. So that's a good news story. The problem, Jake, frankly, is that people are feeling the love. In other words, all the statistics that he recited were true. We have low gas prices today. We have incomes rising faster than inflation. We've got record high stock market on all these things. And yet people still are feeling frustrated about the prices of the things they buy every day.

25:25Jake Tapper:Rohit, we saw a bit of Trump's message to counter the Democrats' affordability push, saying that Democratic policies are the ones that created the inflation and the high prices and Republican policies are ending these high prices. What do you see as the reality for consumers? Well, the prices are still going up. And I think many people who watched the speech think the president is living in a gold-plated bubble. The centerpiece of his economic plan, the tariffs, have really not served the purpose he said. It is costing families about$1 ,700 last year. Manufacturing jobs are still going down. The trade deficit is still huge.

26:08And at the end of the day, people are wondering, if these tariffs were illegal, my pocket was picked and I want to know when am I going to get my refund? And he did not say really anything about that. We need to figure out a new path. And I think you're right. He is trying to gaslight people into thinking things are OK. But for the vast majority of people, they're feeling more stress and many are getting deeper and deeper into debt.

26:39Jake Tapper:Steve, President Trump brought up the signature tariff policy, which was obviously struck down by the Supreme Court in the capacity he'd been implementing it. He said last night he hopes tariffs will one day replace income tax. How would that work? Well, it's an amazing idea. It's something I've been thinking about. Steve, if you could answer. For me? Yeah, for Steve. Oh, I was going to say, I really like that idea. Can you imagine how fast the U.S. economy would grow? we'd be like a rocket ship if we didn't have an income tax. And so Trump is interested in this idea of sort of a consumption tax slash tariff tax as a way to replace our personal income tax, capital gains tax, dividend tax, estate tax, corporate tax.

27:24I mean, that would be, in my opinion, one of the strongest things we could possibly do. There's no country that could possibly compete with the United States if we didn't have an income tax.

27:34Jake Tapper:Rohit, probably, as expected, the president did not address the billions of dollars collected from his first year of tariffs and what's going to happen to that money, whether it's going to be refunded to American businesses or what. What do you think is going to happen and how would it work? Well, I think under the law, because the tariffs were declared illegal, that means the assessment on companies was illegal and they are currently scheming about how to get all of that back. And I'm worried they're going to pocket those refunds as profits rather than actually giving it back to the consumers who paid for it.

28:11We heard in the speech that the president said foreign countries were paying for it. They didn't pay for it. You and I paid for it in the grocery store and online and at every checkout counter. We should publish the list of all of those companies that will be getting refunds or are requesting refunds, and they should be committing now to refund it to the consumers and small businesses that they ended up paying much more for.

28:40Jake Tapper:Steve, what do you think is going to happen with the tariff money? Well, it's a really prickly issue because, as you were just saying, you know, there's a difference in economics between what we call the incidence of a tax and the collection of a tax. So there's no question that the importers and the retailers paid the tax to the federal government. They wrote the checks, Jake. But as you guys were just saying, guess what? Consumers did pick up a lot of that tax was passed on to consumers. Some of it was paid by foreign companies that had to lower their prices to be able to be competitive. And so you're trying to sort out who paid what.

29:20What was the innocent? But clearly, consumers did pay some of that tax, Jake. And you guys are right. At some point, consumers are going to say, wait a minute. These companies got money back, but I didn't.

29:33Jake Tapper:All right. Steve Moore, Rohit Chopra, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it. Coming up, the Texas Republican bucking calls from within his own party. Congressman Tony Gonzalez refusing to resign, continuing to run for reelection. Coming up next, I'm going to talk to the reporter who broke the story about his alleged affair with a staffer of his who died by suicide.

29:59Jake Tapper:In our politics lead Republican, Congressman Tony Gonzalez is ignoring the calls of many of his fellow House Republicans. Calls for him to resign from Congress after new allegations have been lodged against him in terms of an alleged affair that he had with a subordinate staffer. The staffer later died by suicide. I'm not going to resign. I work every day for the people of Texas. Did you carry it? And there will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you've seen is not all the facts. Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, and they are doing everything they can to not take a hard stand against him.

30:40Jake Tapper:There are serious accusations, and it must be taken seriously. You have to allow the investigations to play out. Look, when it comes to members resigning to something, members got to decide with the people that they serve. Should he resign? I leave that up to the voters in San Antonio and South Texas in Mr. Gonzalez's district. Gonzalez is in a tight Republican primary battle that will be settled soon. With me now, Nancy Pryor Johnson of the San Antonio Express News. She first broke the story of this alleged affair. Nancy, thanks so much for joining us. So this week you unearthed text messages that reportedly reveal that the congressman pressed the staffer, a woman named Regina Santos Aviles, to send him sexually explicit images of herself.

31:23Jake Tapper:Now, the congressman is refusing to answer questions about these texts. Tell us why so many House Republicans are voicing such disgust with these text messages. You know, it actually started last week. We started interviewing. A staffer told us about the relationship and shared that first text message, which was key. In that text message, Regina actually said that she was having or she had had an affair with the boss, right? And then so from there, we've been able to uncover other details. We got access to other text messages, which we verified. And they're quite disturbing. Some of them, it just shows a pattern of Tony Gonzalez asking her for a sexy pic, for example, and then her really trying to tell him, you know, she didn't, it was very obvious she didn't want to, right?

32:23And so at one point she just said, well, I don't, I don't like taking photos like that. And, and then later she said, you know, you're going too far, boss. And when she said that, you know, too far, Tony, you're going too far, boss. It was after he was asked for her to share her favorite sexual positions.

32:41Jake Tapper:So Gonzalez represents the 23rd congressional district, which runs along the border with Mexico. Voters have reelected him twice. You're also in his district. What is the feeling on the ground there? Is the sentiment that he needs to resign? Should he stay and fight? What do you think? I mean, I hear different things, right? Some people are questioning, you know, are the texts validated? And they absolutely are. We wouldn't have published them had they not been validated. And so, you know, there's no question there. Some are saying, well, this is a relationship between two consenting adults. The problem there, of course, is that she is a subordinate, and there is a very specific house ethic rule against that, against having a sexual relationship with a subordinate.

33:27Jake Tapper:You also, so. Keep going, sorry. So mainly they're just talking, you know, they say they are calling for him to resign and they are trying, actually starting to side with his opponent. You also learned some new details about Ms. Santo Aviles and her final moments before she died by suicide. What can you tell us? Yeah, it was quite the sad, you know, it's very graphic and disturbing, that police report that we were able to get on Monday. In that police report, she is crying and she's screaming and she's saying, please send help. It hurts so bad. And then at that time, she says, oh my God, I don't want to die.

34:07Every bit of her body, except for the soles of her feet, were burned. So it was a horrific death she had. Something to note is that in the police report, some police officers did say that she told them the reason why she set herself on fire is because her husband was having an affair. Now, her husband, Adrian Aviles, has told me during several interviews that that is not true. He was not having an affair, but they had been separated for quite some time because he had discovered this affair with Tony.

34:47Jake Tapper:What a sad, horrible story. Nancy Pryor Johnson, excellent reporting. Thank you so much for joining us today. Representative Gonzalez's primary is just one of the consequential and frankly, high, highly dramatic, high stakes stories that we're following in the run up to next Tuesday's primaries in the Lone Star state of Texas. So CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Dallas, keeping tabs on all the primaries there. There's so many, Jeff, so many fascinating competitions. Let's start with the Democrats for Senate. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, she's waging a rather unorthodox campaign against state legislator James Tallarico.

35:20Jake Tapper:Tell us more about that, Rose. Well, Jake, Texas is the first big primary on this year's midterm election map. Early voting is already well underway here. Now, on the Democratic side of this Senate race, a very interesting race indeed, as you were saying. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who represents Dallas right here, jumped into the race fairly late. So she's not been running a big, robust campaign. However, she is very well known here because of her social media presence, how she is really gone after the Trump administration, the president directly, the governor of Texas as well. So she clearly is taking the fighting approach, trying to show voters that she would be a fighter against the president and his administration.

36:01She told our Arlette Saenz this is her strategy. There's a lot of people that say, I don't do politics, but I always tell them that politics will do you. So with that in mind, we are talking to everyone. There are those that think you only talk to the double D's and the triple D's. But as we've seen this explosion of participation, it means that we've got to talk to more than just the normal people that we talk to. So she basically is trying to fire up the Democratic base, including those voters who may not ordinarily turn out during a Democratic primary at the beginning of March. But her opponent, James Tallarico, a 36-year-old state representative from here, is doing something a bit different.

36:43He's talking about love through healing. He's taking a bit of a softer approach, trying to expand the tent of the Democratic Party. Of course, he was not alive the last time a Democratic senator was elected here in Lloyd Benson back in 1988. But he's been taking the state by storm here doing rallies across Texas. We caught up with him yesterday. This was his message, how he's trying to reach out to voters beyond just Democrats. We're not just trying to win an election. We're trying to fundamentally change how we do politics in this state and in this country. It's been more than 10 years of this kind of politics.

37:25Politics as bloodsport. Politics as total war. It tears families apart. It ends friendships. It leaves us all, no matter what side you're on, feeling terrible all the time. So James Tallarico is trying to again expand his tent to some moderates, even some disaffected Republicans. And we did run into many Republicans along the way who were coming out to see him. But, Jake, the question, of course, in a Democratic primary, is that going to be enough? So that race is going to be next Tuesday here in this primary. Early voting has been underway. Like I said, many people are turning out. It's a bit of an enthusiasm contest.

38:04There's no doubt. But that's not the only race here on Tuesday.

38:08Jake Tapper:That's right, because Republicans, there's an incumbent senator. That's the seat that Crockett and Tallarico are running to pursue. and the incumbent Senator John Cornyn, a longtime incumbent, he's facing two Republican challengers, Ken Paxton, the current attorney general, and a congressman, Wesley Hunt. What should viewers be looking for in that race? Jake, it is extraordinary for Senator John Cornyn, who's running for a fifth term in the Senate. He was elected back in 2002. He was the attorney general here in Texas. He served on the Texas Supreme Court. He simply represents, in many people's view, the older Republican establishment.

38:47Now, he has tried mightily to appeal to the MAGA base, if you will. One thing he's not been able to do is get the endorsement of the president. Neither have any of his rivals. President Trump, for now at least, has stayed out of this race. He says he has friends in this race, including Ken Paxton, the firebrand attorney general of Texas. So the president, though, is coming here to Texas on Friday to tout his economic message and try and also remind voters to turn out in the primaries next week. Many other House races are also on the ballot. He hasn't issued endorsements in many of those congressional races, but not in the Senate race.

39:24So it's unclear if he will come in here Friday with a surprise endorsement. John Cornyn sure hopes so, but that is unlikely at this point. Wesley Hunt, a member of Congress, also is running. So in this three-way primary, one of the candidates would have to get over 50 percent to avoid a runoff. That also unlikely. But John Cornyn, without a doubt, is in a fight for his political life here in the coming days.

39:47Jake Tapper:All right, Jeff Zeleny in Dallas. Thanks so much. Underscoring the state of politics in Texas right now. Later this week, President Trump is going to head to Texas. The targeted message he said to deliver just days ahead of next week's primaries. That's next.

40:07Jake Tapper:Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the midterm campaign season is kicking up a notch. After previewing his election messaging last night, President Trump has now taken his show on the road. He's heading to Texas while the vice president heads to a different battleground state. How can they convince voters that the economy is strong when so many are still struggling with high costs? Plus a controversial ally of Robert K. Jr. testifying on Capitol Hill today as she vies to become the United States top doctor. Senators of both parties, however, had some tough questions for Dr. Casey Means about vaccines, abortion medication, pesticides, and on her personal use of psychedelic mushrooms.

40:46Jake Tapper:Is her nomination in jeopardy? And renewed pressure on FBI Director Kash Patel today after videos surfaced showing him chugging beer in the men's hockey locker room at the Olympics. And now a Republican senator is going after Kash Patel. Is the president listening? Does he care?

41:07Jake Tapper:Our lead tonight, President Trump taking his State of the Union message out for a spin. His goal to convince voters ahead of the midterm elections that his policies are working. The White House says Trump is going to visit Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday to deliver a speech focused on the economy and energy. His visit comes just a few days before the Texas primaries on March 3rd. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance is going to be visiting a machining facility in Plover, Wisconsin tomorrow. Now, Plover is part of Portage County, and that's an area that Trump lost to former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election by about 516 votes.

41:45Jake Tapper:CNN's Caitlin Collins is at the White House. Caitlin, what is the message the Trump administration is going to take on the road? Well, a lot of what you heard last night, Jake, from the president, where he came out and claimed this U.S. economic turnaround, talking about what they've done so far in a little over a year now that he's been in office. And so you'll see a message like that, not just repeated by the president and the vice president when they're on the road in Wisconsin and Texas, respectively, this week, but also from cabinet secretaries and other top surrogates for this administration who are going to be out on the road over the next several months.

42:16Because one thing that was clear last night is you listen to the president's message, which was heavy on the economy and a focus there on domestic issues, as of course in between those moments that he had with Democrats and at the end some brief touches on foreign policy, was that the numbers are sinking in when it comes to how voters and how the American people are viewing the president's handling of the economy. And while the president has several numbers that he points to, Jake, about inflation and job growth to say that shows things are moving in the wrong in the right direction the American people aren't feeling that and you can see that echoed in consumer confidence and the numbers that we are seeing there and so making that argument to the Americans that the economy is better than they think it is is going to be what they are trying to sell to voters ahead of the midterm elections and these stakes are obviously incredibly high here for the White House ahead of the midterms because you saw the president going back and forth with Democrats there last night, including Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

43:10What the White House is really worried about is Democratic takeover in the House. And then there are going to be subpoenas and hearings and investigations that are going to change the way life functions here at the White House. It would ultimately reshape the presidency. It's something they've been through before in President Trump's first term. And so that is what they are trying to avoid. And that is why they were going to see them out on the road, Jake, trying to sell this message, trying to tell the American voters that things are better and that things will get better. The question is whether or not the American people are going to buy it.

43:40Jake Tapper:Caitlin Collins at the White House. Thanks so much. And don't miss Caitlin on her show, The Source with Caitlin Collins. Her guests tonight include Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of the great state of Oklahoma. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, only on CNN. Let's bring in Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. So a new poll out from Marquette University in your home state shows that the most important issue among registered voters in Wisconsin is inflation and the cost of living. That's 34 percent. The second most important being health insurance at 14 percent.

44:12Jake Tapper:When asked if there has been a change in grocery prices in the last six months, 43 percent of Republicans say prices have gone up, 76 percent of independents. So Vice President J.D. Vance is visiting Wisconsin tomorrow. What policy details are you looking for the vice president to discuss when it comes to lowering costs? Well, I think the three most significant things this administration have done to, and successfully lower the inflation rate, let's be honest. First of all, they focused on energy prices. People don't necessarily understand that, but the cost of energy impacts almost the price of every good.

44:47You have to transport things. When you manufacture things, there's energy that is part of the input there. So again, the focus on bringing energy prices down, again, I was pretty astounded. We haven't seen the prices below$2 a gallon in Wisconsin, but other places around the country. But we've certainly seen gasoline prices down. Again, that impacts the price of every good. The deregulatory efforts, that also is anti-inflationary. That allows businesses to concentrate on producing good products at the best possible price. And then, of course, the tax cuts. I texted one gentleman that works hard.

45:20He drives Uber, drives his truck in Wisconsin, just completed his taxes last year. He paid over$1 ,500 in taxes, had to pay in. This year he's getting a$440 rebate. I'm hearing from a lot of Republican colleagues the same type of experience. So they haven't realized those lower taxes yet. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on seniors in terms of their higher standard deduction, that type of thing. So again, I think those things combined will kick in and people start noticing it more than they have to date. So you're not looking for new policies?

45:58Keep going as we are. Obviously, we need to continue to focus on, from my standpoint, bringing down the cost of government. I think President Trump is trying to restrain it. The employment increases have been in the private sector, not in government. We've actually reduced the government workforce, which I think is a good thing. that reduced the cost of government as well. So, you know, if you want to really focus on something that is dear to my heart is let's return to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending, much easier said than done.

46:30Jake Tapper:Earlier today, President Trump attacked Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan for heckling him during last night's State of the Union address. Part of his Truth Social post reads, quote, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, lunatics, mentally deranged and sick, who frankly look like they should be institutionalized. We should send them back where they came as fast as possible, unquote. Rashida Tlaib is an American citizen born in this country. And of course, Ilhan Omar was a refugee and is an American citizen as well. Obviously, a lot of people have issues with anyone heckling any president.

47:10Jake Tapper:But don't you think this goes a little far? I mean, definitionally telling people of color they should go back where they came from when they're American citizens, doesn't that strike you as a bit racist? Well, being in the chamber, it was rude to hear people disrupting the president. I think what really amazed me is when the president asked Democrats just to reaffirm a basic principle that the American government's primary duty, first duty ought to be to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, I was shocked that the vast majority, if not all Democrats, just sat on their hands like a bunch of sourpusses, quite honestly.

47:50You know, that is a basic principle that every elected official ought to embrace, and Democrats refuse to do it. So that was pretty shocking. Plus, it was pretty shocking that when you're trying to celebrate the fact that a young girl who was grievously injured by an 18-wheeler driven by an illegal immigrant was healing, was recovering, was in the gallery. They wouldn't stand for that. They wouldn't stand as we were expressing sympathy and support for the mother of the Ukrainian young woman who was brutally murdered on a train by an illegal immigrant. So again, I thought it was a pretty stark difference.

48:27You had to be in the chamber to really experience that. I don't think television really did justice in terms of Just just what sourpusses Democrats were at the State of the Union last night.

48:37Jake Tapper:I don't think that the woman killed in North Carolina was killed by an immigrant. It's a horrible story, but I don't think that's an example of the illegal immigration criminal issue. Well, you know, Jake, Jake, there are so many others, Lake and Riley, Rachel Morin, so many, many, many others that were that the news media never focused on. They just focus on the two martyrs that were encouraged to put themselves into harm's way, knowing that they were probably going to get hurt. They got hurt. Now they're exploiting those martyrs. So the news media covers those. They don't cover all the victims of illegal immigrants.

49:12Jake Tapper:Well, we certainly have covered Lake and Riley and others. I mean, I don't think that either Renee Good or Alex Preddy thought that they were taking their, you know, risking their lives when they were doing what they were doing. Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, we always thank you for your time, sir. Have a good evening. A$200 million fight is playing out at the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth puts pressure on an AI company to lift the serious safety restrictions that they have on their product. Those details next.

49:53Jake Tapper:We have some breaking news for you in our Worldly Today. Cuban forces today shot and killed four people in a Florida-registered speedboat that entered Cuban waters just off the island's coast. Six other people aboard the vessel were injured. Cuba says their forces were shot at by someone from the boat after border guard troops approached the vessel to identify it after it entered Cuba's territorial waters. Cuban officials say that border guards then returned fire after the commander of the Cuban boat was injured by the gunfire. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is in the Caribbean today, just commented on the incident moments ago.

50:31Jake Tapper:But we're going to find out exactly what happened here, and then we'll respond accordingly. Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It's not something that happens every day. It's something, frankly, that hasn't happened with Cuba in a very long time. And but but we're going to find out. We're not going to base our conclusions on what they've told us. As of right now, the nationalities of those who are aboard the Florida registered speedboat are not known. Also in our world lead defense, Secretary Pete Hegseth is giving the A.I. company Anthropic a Friday deadline to peel back safeguards on its A.I.

51:10Jake Tapper:model, which is called Claude, or risk losing its$200 million Pentagon contract. But the company, CNN reports, has concerns over lifting two specific restrictions. Quote, according to one source familiar, Anthropic believes AI is not reliable enough to operate weapons, and there are no laws or regulations yet that cover how AI could be used in mass surveillance, unquote. Let's bring on Leon Panetta, former Defense Secretary and CIA Director under President Obama. So, Secretary Panetta, today Anthropica is also loosening its own safety framework, although a source says it's unrelated to this demand from Secretary Hegseth.

51:49Jake Tapper:Hegseth reportedly is prepared to invoke the Defense Production Act and label Anthropica supply chain risk if the company does not comply and loosen restrictions when it comes to AI operating weapons and AI conducting or aiding with mass surveillance. What's your take on this? I recommend that the secretary be careful about using those kinds of guns to go after an AI company that's trying to provide something that could be useful, frankly, in terms of the Pentagon. Anthropic AI has a pretty good model and they've done some good things. They do have restrictions against mass domestic surveillance, using AI for that purpose, and also for using them for autonomous weapons.

52:46I'm not sure what the Secretary is trying to get them to do, but he's pushing them for more flexibility. But then He's put a gun to their head and said that he would put out that there is supply risk, supply chain risk, which would be a very hit, hard hit. And also he would push the Defense Production Act to force them to do what's right. I frankly think that's a little heavy handed. He ought to be trying to work with a company that's trying to help our national security.

53:21Jake Tapper:Secretary of State Rubio just responded, as you heard, to reports that Cuban forces shot four people dead in a Florida registered speedboat that reportedly entered Cuban waters. Rubio said he was not going to speculate at this time, but he was also certainly not going to take the Cuban government's word for it. What's your reaction? Well, I think the secretary is right in the sense that we've got to fully investigate what took place here. Uh, there's a lot of reports about, uh, what happened here that people on the boat shot first, uh, and then, uh, the Cubans responded. We just don't know. I think it needs to be fully investigated, uh, and, uh, get all the facts before deciding whether or not it, uh, demands some kind of response.

54:07Jake Tapper:Let's turn to Iran. The president spoke vaguely, uh, about his plans for Iran during last night's State of the Union address. He said he wants to pursue diplomacy, but he needs more explicit assurances that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon. Even though just yesterday the Iranian foreign minister posted on X, quote, Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon, unquote. Do you take the Iranians at their word? How are you interpreting what President Trump said in his speech yesterday? Well, look, I think without question, the regime in Iran is a source of great instability in that region, and they certainly should not have a nuclear weapon.

54:56But having said that, I think it's really important for the United States to have a clear strategy here in dealing with Iran. And right now, I'm not sure what that strategy is. The president's talked about their nuclear enrichment capabilities. He's also talked about their missiles. He's also talked about other issues related to the protesters. I'm just not quite sure what is the focus and what is the strategy. Because if we engage in a military attack, it could very well backlash against the protesters that are there. And it could very well backlash against the United States, not to mention the fact that a response from the Iranians could cost lives.

55:48Jake Tapper:Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, thanks so much, sir. Always appreciate it. My next guest is a former ICE lawyer turned whistleblower who says new recruits to the agency are not getting proper training before they are sent out onto American streets. He breaks down what he saw behind the scenes in just moments.

56:12Jake Tapper:In our national lead, a former ICE attorney is today sounding the alarm on new ICE training practices or the lack thereof. Ryan Schwenk was responsible for training new ICE recruits. He warned Monday that the agency's training program is deficient, defective, and broken. ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution. On my first day, I received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution. That should scare everyone. Schwenk says that this is an attempt to quickly scale up the number of ICE agents carrying out President Trump's mass deportation agenda. His warning comes at a time of intense scrutiny of deportation officers using excessive force when making arrests or attacking bystanders who are legally recording their conduct.

57:03Jake Tapper:And joining us now is the ICE whistleblower, Ryan Schwenk, and his attorney, David Kligerman. So, Ryan, thanks so much for being here. You've said that ICE made the training program shorter, from like six months to 42 days. Is it something like that? Thank you for having me here. So they reduced the training from 72 days of training to 42 days of training. So they cut 30 days of training out of the program. And you say that they removed essential parts of the training. What parts? So they cut classes on use of force. They cut classes on the Constitution, on explaining to officers what their duties are to the public in the form of their constitutional obligations.

57:40They cut out classes on firearms. and I think on top of the classes they cut out, what's also important to mention is they took out the functional testing where we would actually see if cadets were able to apply what lessons were left in the field in a way where we could measure their performance and if they weren't able to perform, able to do something about it where we could bring them back, make them retake the materials or even fail them out of the academy. We effectively took all of that out of the program.

58:09Jake Tapper:So when you say ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution? Specifically, what do you mean? How are they being taught to violate the Constitution? So when I started at the academy, I was shown a memo that instructs ICE officers to enter into people's homes without a judicial warrant. It was presented to me, and I was instructed that I had to teach it, and it was implied to me through my supervisor who showed me the memo, that if I didn't go forward with teaching it, I could lose my job. I could lose my position at the academy. And what that memo, sorry, is essentially that an ICE officer, unlike an officer conducting an arrest on a criminal case or any standard administrative proceedings, can go to someone's house and based off the fact that they know that this person is in administrative proceedings or maybe has an order of removal, can go into that person's home and use force to remove them from the house.

59:02And that's something that has never been allowed under American constitutional law. Not all the way back to our founding have we ever allowed someone to do this, to just essentially write themselves a permission slip to go into someone's home.

59:15Jake Tapper:Polls indicate that so many Americans revolved when they saw the images from Minneapolis. Even before the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, there was that woman dragged from her car. She said she had disabilities and on and on. Can you draw a direct line from what you are talking about to what Americans are seeing on the streets that so many find un-American? Yes, I can. But I think the line that needs to be drawn here is not to say that the Alex Preddy shooting or the René Goods shooting are the results of what the Academy is doing. What's happening at the Academy should terrify everyone because the officers involved in those events were trained before the Academy reduced its standards.

59:56Those officers have the full training that they're not giving anymore. So what my big concern is, and what I think everyone should be concerned about, is that the new officers who are graduating will be less likely to behave correctly, less likely to know how to apply force, less likely to know the Constitution than the officers you've seen in these videos. These videos are existing, experienced officers. It's the new officers who are coming out who are adrift and cut off from that history, that vital training that we're supposed to give them, who are now going out into the field unprepared and unready to do the tasks that are being assigned.

1:00:34Jake Tapper:So, David, the Department of Homeland Security denied this, denied that they're cutting corners, saying that new officers do get trained on firearms. They do get trained on use of force policies. They do get trained on how to safely arrest people. What's your reaction? Their statement, their response is full of lies, unfortunately. For example, they mentioned that the training is 56 days. And we did the math. Ryan and I have done the math. We've looked at it. It's simply not true. And the department has said in Jeffrey Lyon's testimony before Congress, said it was 42 days. In documents that were revealed to Congress, it says 42 days.

1:01:11In January, the department said 42 days. So things keep shifting and moving. And the reality is, as you can see in the documents that have been disclosed to Congress in Lyon's testimony, that they've cut significant areas of not just training but competencies. So there's two aspects to it. The course load and the courses have been slashed in some of these fundamental areas, including use of force, constitutional arrest, etc. And the way that they're tested in these courses has been slashed. So it used to be practicums. It used to be that you'd have to prove before an instructor who could pass you or fail you, you could do these things and lawfully arrest or detain.

1:01:45Now they have to watch and there's no ability to hold cadets back who fail these courses.

1:01:50Jake Tapper:That's right. David Kligerman and Ryan Schwenk, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Really appreciate it. She was an early supporter of the Maha movement. That's Make America Healthy Again. Now, Dr. Casey Means is up for confirmation to become the nation's top doctor, the Surgeon General. But she faced some tough questions from both Republicans and Democrats today. That's next.

1:02:20Jake Tapper:In our health lead, President Trump Surgeon General nominee, Dr. Casey Means, on Capitol Hill today, facing questions about vaccines and birth control and her qualifications. During her confirmation hearings, Means, who has previously raised concerns about childhood vaccines, repeatedly said she was supportive of vaccinations. However, she declined to rule out vaccines as a contributor to autism, despite decades of evidence debunking the claim. If confirmed, Dr. Means would carry the information, the informal title of the nation's doctor, but would be considered somewhat unconventional. She does not hold an active medical license.

1:02:57Jake Tapper:She has not completed her medical residency. And she has been a very vocal critic of the current medical establishment. Joining us now to discuss is former CDC chief medical officer Dr. Deborah Howery, who resigned last August in protest against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s policies. Dr. Howery, in the past, Means has expressed skepticism regarding the safety and necessity of some vaccines and birth control, previously saying birth control has horrifying health risks for women. Today, she said she supports vaccinations and that birth control pills should be accessible to all women.

1:03:29Jake Tapper:What were your takeaways from this hearing? You know, I left very concerned about her as the nominee and the potential surgeon general. She seems to use the data and science for where she wants to use it and not look at it broadly. Her concerns about birth control aren't warranted. When you actually look at the likelihood of a woman dying in pregnancy, that's higher than any complications from birth control. And so if she's going to say things like that, she needs to give Americans all the data. And I thought she really hedged on vaccines. You know, she said that it should be between an individual and their doctor.

1:04:06But as America's doctor, she needs to be prepared to give recommendations to the public. That's what public health is.

1:04:13Jake Tapper:Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, asked her if she believes that the flu vaccine prevents serious diseases, hospitalizations, deaths in children. Here's part of her answer. Do you believe that there's no evidence that the flu vaccine has efficacy in reducing serious injury or hospitalization? I.

1:04:37This is an easy one, doctor. This is an easy one. I support the CDC's guidance on the flu vaccine, and I will always be working with the CDC, ACIP, and the agency.

1:04:50Jake Tapper:If confirmed, do you expect her to actually work with the CDC and to actually provide evidence-based information to the public? Well, I would hope as Surgeon General that she would work with the CDC. I think my concern is what she would say and if she would develop her own guidance. And for her to have that love of a pause and being able to answer about the flu vaccine when we know that 60 children have died from flu this year and almost all were under or unvaccinated, that's something a Surgeon General nominee should be forceful about and really talk about the life-saving vaccines that are out there.

1:05:26I'd actually be curious to know if she is a mom, because you should be able to personalize this as America's doctor, if her child has been vaccinated against many of these vaccine preventable diseases.

1:05:37Jake Tapper:Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine pressed Means on her past use of the hallucinogen psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms. Means said she had been grieving her mother's desk and looking for healing when she took it. She said as Surgeon General she would not advise Americans to take it. But she also said, quote, I do believe that Americans are ready to hear about spirituality when it pertains to medicine. What are your thoughts on that? So I think spirituality, you know, can be an important part of health and healing. We know that it can really protect against things like suicide. But I also think you need to ensure that you're following evidence based recommendations and science when it comes to medicine.

1:06:18And someone that hasn't been actively seeing patients and didn't complete a residency training. I have concerns about her views on clinical medicine and what is medicine.

1:06:27Jake Tapper:The Trump administration has already made changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. Today means refuse to say if she would advise parents to vaccinate their kids against measles, despite the fact that South Carolina is currently experiencing the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. in more than 30 years. If she is confirmed, what are your biggest fears about how this will impact the public health system as a whole? Yeah, so I'm very concerned that she has no public health experience, no response experience. Should these measles outbreaks continue to happen, we need a Surgeon General that will go to communities and talk about how to prevent measles, what to do in those cases.

1:07:06What happens when there's that next train derailment of a toxic spill? What will she do? How will she oversee the Commission core when she doesn't have an active license? These are things that I think we should be worried about for the health in our communities. Dr.

1:07:22Jake Tapper:Deborah Howard, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. New Republican criticism of FBI Director Cash Patel today raising questions about whether Patel's job could be in jeopardy. Are panels going to weigh in?

1:07:40Jake Tapper:In our politics lead, Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez refusing to quit despite new allegations of an affair with a staffer lodged against him. The staffer later died by suicide. I'm not going to resign. I work every day for the people of Texas. Did you carry it? and there will be an opportunity for all the details and facts to come out. What you've seen is not all the facts. Some House Republicans are calling on Gonzalez to end his reelection bid, even resigned from Congress. GOP Congressman Troy Nail said out loud what everyone else won't. He's got a problem here. Don't get me wrong. The optics are horrible.

1:08:19But I would in no way ever resign right now. If he does that, then you've got to give the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries. I'm sure the Democrats would love that. I would love that, but no, I wouldn't do that for any reason. But aren't some things bigger than politics? What the heck? No. No. Not up here. Not the way we do what we do in the House.

1:08:39Jake Tapper:Nothing like a firm moral stand. My panel joins me now. Doug, what do you make of that? That's about as true a comment as you can make about life in Washington, D.C. right now and life within the Republican conference. I'd add one other thing to that. If we go back and we look at the George Santos situation, yes, he was that one important vote, one more that they needed. Also, every day, every week that he stayed in office, he was getting paid. If you resign, that payment goes away immediately. So regardless of whatever happens in the primary, if Gonzalez doesn't resign, I hope he does, he continues to get paid through January 3rd of next year.

1:09:15That's not insignificant for his calculus.

1:09:17Jake Tapper:I don't know that it's true, by the way. There's a two-vote majority. If you took one of those votes away, they still have a one vote majority. And I mean, the reason Republicans say that is because it's because Congressman Tom Massey is has been undependable, although I don't think he'd ever vote for Hakeem Jeffries. And another Republican is ill. But still, the most the craziest thing about this is not just the horrificness of the story, but folks are voting in this congressional seat right now. Yeah, they're early voting in San Antonio. I have a long history in this district. It runs from San Antonio all the way to El Paso.

1:09:51It's the longest congressional district in the country, and it's about 60 % Latino. In the last redistricting, they made it a little more Republican by taking in some of the suburbs of San Antonio. But he could get beat in his own primary right now because they're voting right now.

1:10:07Jake Tapper:Something very interesting and rare happened. FBI Director Cash Patel, he's been facing criticism this week after a video showed him partying with the U.S. Olympic hockey team after their gold medal win. I mean, he's the FBI director. He's not the cheerleader in chief. Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was asked about the optics of this all today. Take a listen. Given the fact that Congress polls right up there in the minds of the American people with hemorrhoids, perceptions are important. Ms. Rice and the director this week seem to be in a competitive match to shoot their own toes off.

1:10:52Jake Tapper:What do you hear from Republicans behind the scenes? Are people upset at Kash Patel's display? A little bit, but not as much as you might otherwise expect. One, this is so baked in in the Trump administration. They're not backing down, so they're not pushing on this. No scalps, he said, reportedly. No, and if we go back to the first Trump administration, here's the difference. Former HHS Secretary Tom Price was caught up in some private travel, and he had to resign essentially because of it. This seems much more egregious, and the push just is not there. What do you think? Let me say that I love the hockey game.

1:11:26I love everything that went on with the hockey game. If you want Chuck Roach, your blood, skates, everything about hockey, I love it. But, you know, on Saturday morning, I was busy. It's a busy time for me, and I didn't get to see all of it that I want to because I'm busy working. The American people are the same as Chuck Rocha. They have a job even though they love the hockey team and they love their country. But when they see Cash Patel, he's got time to be in Italy and be at the hockey game. We wish we could be, but they're so like, it seems like the FBI has been busy raiding the homes of Washington Post reporters or raiding this person's home or whatever.

1:11:54It's like, shouldn't he be doing that job? Sure, we'd love to be there, but it seems like that should be his job.

1:11:58Jake Tapper:I want to turn to the State of the Union in this moment from last night.

1:12:05That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.

1:12:34Jake Tapper:Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota and Michigan, respectively. What do you think of that behavior from these members of your own party? Look, I don't think that it affects much. I don't think folks are watching the state of the union saying, oh, yeah, they should be hollering or not hollering, all based on if you're Team Red or you're Team Blue. There is no doubt that there's no love lost between President Trump and those two congresspeople. And I think we see it play out every day in the press. But I don't think regular people really care about those two people hating each other.

1:13:01Jake Tapper:And Doug, President Trump now escalating that. He posted on Truth Social today that those two, quote, screamed uncontrollably and, quote, had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, lunatics, mentally deranged and sick who frankly look like they should be institutionalized. He said also that they should go back where they came from, even though I should point out Congresswoman Tlaib is from the United States, even if she has Palestinian heritage. Congresswoman Omar is a U.S. citizen who was a refugee, definitionally telling people of color to go back where they came from when they came from here or their U.S.

1:13:39Jake Tapper:citizens is, I think, racist. What do you think? Yes. And look, this is part and parcel with what he's done consistently. It shouldn't be a surprise that he said this just as shocking as the Obama images were. This is a guy who just a few weeks earlier, we thought he learned his lesson with the Rob Reiner tweet. So this will happen again. Why did you think he learned his lesson? We thought, well, this is it. If somebody who you knew was murdered by their children, clearly that's the line. There is no line. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. No. And what you're seeing now is that we keep talking about it. Me and Doug talk about the primaries coming up, and we both agree that in a midterm, it's about who's motivating who to actually go vote.

1:14:18Are you really mad enough to actually show up and stand in line and vote? There's about 35 percent of the electorate who don't show up in an off year. And we're seeing in the Texas results now lots of folks showing up. And I give the Republicans some credit. Their turnout is higher than it's been. It's just the Democrats is even more higher because I think they're tired of seeing this.

1:14:33Jake Tapper:Well, let me ask you also just a general question. Are we ever coming back from this? I mean, is American politics ever returning to the place where a Democrat and a Republican, Tip O 'Neill and Ronald Reagan, can go out and have a beer together after disagreeing all day? Or are we now just yelling at each other? That still happens. There are still so many Supreme Court cases that are ruled 9-0, 8-1, so many bipartisan bills. But what gets rewarded in our political and media world is exactly what we saw. There's a reason that Lauren Boebert and MTG did the same thing to Joe Biden, Joe Wilson to Obama.

1:15:06This is the reward system that we have.

1:15:08Jake Tapper:Just for the record, we regularly book the bipartisan teams of member of Congress. They come here, senators, House members, and we love it, and we hope that they come back more. More of that, please. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Up next, the new book that celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States by looking at the untold stories of our founding mothers.

1:15:36Jake Tapper:In our politics lead, we, the women, celebrating the United States' 250th birthday with a look at the women who have played key roles in shaping these United States. It's a new book profiling many of their stories by CBS News senior correspondent Nora O'Donnell. As I bring her in, some history for our viewers, full disclosure. Nora and I both started at roll call in the 1990s, and we both reported simultaneously from the Obama White House for rival networks. Nora has not changed at all. I have a lot, as you can see. Those are some great pictures. Wow. How on earth you look the exact same. And I, well, anyway, not quite 250 years, but it's been a while.

1:16:18Jake Tapper:Nora's book is entitled We the Women, The Hidden Hero, She Shaped America. Nora, congratulations on your brand new book. You describe it as a fresh look at American history through the eyes of women who are so often forgotten in the retelling other than Betsy Ross. Tell us what you learned while researching and writing the book. Well, you know, I started off writing this book to celebrate America's 250th birthday this year, right? And to share the stories of women, because I think the stories we tell shape our culture. And we know that from the National Women's History Museum that 15 percent of what we're taught in school focuses on the achievements of women.

1:16:52So I wanted to go back and focus on some of these hidden heroes in American history. And I must say, personally, I'm a bit embarrassed about how little I knew about the great women throughout history, through the Revolutionary period, great patriots who were founding mothers, up until the most recent history. And the truth is, is that women have been the great architects of society, as Harriet Beecher Stowe told us. And through every way, whether as intellectuals, doctors, scientists, builders, inventors, great abolitionists, great suffragists, all of that, women have been trying to get America to live up to the very ideals that were laid out in the Declaration of Independence.

1:17:31Jake Tapper:On the subject of suffragists, as you know, my beloved daughter, Alice Paul, is named after one of them. You devote several chapters to the women who fought for the right to vote, which they finally got nationwide in 1920. But again, a fight still overlooked in history textbooks. Why? I don't know, Jake. I really don't. Because, you know, it first started in 1848 with Seneca Falls and the Declaration of Sentiments. I mean, how brilliant. These women decided over a small table to have this women's convention. They took the Declaration of Independence and essentially cribbed some of the words to make the Declaration of Sentiments to say all men and women are created equal.

1:18:12But then it would take another 70 years until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, which was the largest enfranchisement of voters in American history. You mentioned Alice Paul, one suffragist who was jailed and beaten and force-fed in order to get women the right to vote. There were many other women like that, too. And I do think it's important to remember just how hard women fought for the right to vote, how women fought for civil rights throughout American history, how women fought to make sure indigenous and Native American peoples also were included in the equality and rights that are outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

1:18:49And it's I think it's just an important story to remind her because to remember, because once you look back through history, you'd never forget to vote again because you realize how many people fought really hard to get that right.

1:19:02Jake Tapper:And you read about your grandmother, who sounds amazing and resilient and a role model. In 1930, she crossed the Atlantic alone from Belfast with 20 bucks in her purse and an eighth grade education. When you look at her and then at your accomplishments or that of your sister, who's an impressive surgeon at a top hospital, that's an important theme in the book, too. I am a granddaughter of an immigrant. My grandmother was a Catholic in Belfast, Northern Ireland, controlled by Protestants. The oldest of girl of nine kids, as you pointed out. I never made it past eighth grade because she had to work to support her family.

1:19:35And then I can only imagine just how brave and courageous she was getting on a boat all by herself to come to America and worked essentially as an orderly in a hospital. And I think I wish she were alive today because I think she would be very proud of how far women have come. Her namesake, as you mentioned, my sister, is now a chief surgeon. You know, the majority of women now in medical school are women, as are the majority of graduates from law school as well. And so women have crashed through the educational glass ceiling. But I think, Jake, as you know, women still don't have political power, financial power, business power in the numbers that they should.

1:20:14And I hope that that soon changes. I mean, I talk about Belva Lockwood in the book, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court, also the first woman to run for president who was actually on the ticket in 1884 and 1888. And yet still we've not had a woman as president. So hopefully in our daughter's lifetime and in our lifetimes, that will be a thing of the past, that there'll be many female presidents ahead of us.

1:20:38Jake Tapper:Well, Nora, you have my vote. And We the Women is the book. And it's an amazing, amazing book, especially to read this year in our 250th year. Congratulations so much. And I'll see you soon. Thank you so much, Jake. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram threads, Blue Sky X, and on the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X on Instagram at The Lead. CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. Have you downloaded the CNN app? You need to download the CNN app. Aaron Burnett Upfront starts now. I'll see you tomorrow.