First Anti-Weaponization Fund Applicant Speaks to CNN

24:42And it's been a franchise for them. And they're walking away from that. At a time when networks are considered, you know, a backward moving thing. And if they want to be a network of significance, you would think they want to keep at least the franchise going, even if they think Colbert is too expensive. Couldn't they find a less expensive alternative? No, they're backing away from it. And to me, I just think they've diminished themselves and they've assented to that diminishment by just saying, we're not going to do it anymore. We're walking away from this. And you have to say, at least a part of this is because the atmosphere is very tough.

25:13They're facing a president who is examining everything in late night with his eye of, if you make fun of me, I'm going to come after you. And he's the first president to do that, Jake. I mean, every president, you know this, every president has taken bars from late night hosts. That's what they're hired to do, really, to go on and comment on the news. So it just looks to me like CBS decided we're going to get out of this game, run away, hide or whatever. And it's a big loss for them, in my opinion. One of the things that's odd about the financial excuse is that there are ways to cut costs. I mean, Seth Meyers had to get rid of his band.

25:52The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, I think, does reruns now on Fridays instead of new shows. Colbert had a big band. I mean, there obviously were ways to cut costs. And the other thing is, and Kimmel has made this point, having a show like that, you can't judge it just by the revenue versus cost. It's prestige, so local affiliates want the show. Colbert was doing well in the ratings, so that also helped local affiliates. I mean, it's a much more complicated thing. Absolutely. And they didn't come to Stephen and say, you're in trouble, we have to find a way to economize. They didn't do that. They didn't make that move.

26:28So he didn't get that opportunity. And what Kimmel is pointing to, really, the idea that their affiliates are getting prestige, but also getting, they're paying for that show. So they have to pay the network for fees for the programming. So they're not going to be doing that anymore. So they're losing that. They also drive viewers to the local news because if you watch Colbert, you probably watch the CBS local news. There are a million other factors. And if you want to just say, let's just look at the narrow thing about advertising revenue being down, it just looks like Hollywood accounting, which has always been questionable.

27:02What is next for Colbert, do you think? I know he's working on a Lord of the Rings script, but what else? Well, that's a real open question. And, you know, he is really not pointed to anything. I mean, you know, well, he mentioned a sort of Netflix and passing at one point. I'm not sure what he's going to do. I think he's going to take time. I'm pretty sure he's going to take time. What I know is that he is a different talent. This is a guy who was a sketch comedian. He did a spectacular show before where he was a character for nine years. And that is a great strength of his. So I could see him doing a lot of things.

27:34I've just wildly speculated that he could easily do a one man show on Broadway, for example. I think he'd be great at that. So that's just one idea. I think that doesn't mean he has that idea, but it's just a thought I've had. Bill Carter, always great to have you on. He literally wrote the book on the late shift. Bill Carter, thanks so much. Great to have you. Anytime. Coming up next, some of the strong pushback from Senate Republicans to that$1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund. Plus, why President Trump said today that he might not attend his oldest son's wedding this weekend. Stay with us.

28:23News series premieres May 30th at 9 on CNN and next day on the CNN app.

28:31These people don't deserve restitution. Many of them deserve to be in prison. I mean, this is just stupid on stilts. You heard that right, stupid on stilts. Maybe that's a North Carolina expression. I'm not familiar with it. I like it, though. Just a portion of the backlash from Senate Republicans today. Over the Justice Department's$1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund created, Critics say to compensate targets targeted Trump allies, some people call it a slush fund for Trump's friends. The DOJ's push for this fund has now derailed GOP plans to pass a major immigration enforcement package. Senators are now heading home for Memorial Day recess because they say the fund blindsided them and they're at odds at how to rein it in.

29:10Let's discuss this and more with the panel. Thank you so much, John and Alyssa, for being here. So reporters asked President Trump today about all the pushback to this fund, not just from Democrats, but from lawmakers who are on the Republican side of the aisle as well. Here's what he had to say. Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republicans? I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you I only do what's right. Alyssa, is he? Is he looting? I mean, they they went home instead of trying to take up an immigration bill because this this was such a pain. This was such a distraction.

29:43He certainly at least temporarily just derailed this reconciliation package. But this is a number of things happening at once. Most Senate Republicans are furious that the president did not back John Cornyn. This is a beloved, someone who's been in the Senate for nearly 20 years, somebody who raises a ton of money for Senate Republicans. And they're seeing the Senate majority actually on the line, something that, you know, weeks ago many of us didn't think was possible. And here in supporting Ken Paxton, you're going to have to divert resources to that race that Texas shouldn't even be a race that Republicans are having to play in.

30:14So then add this slush fund that they have to go explain to their constituents why there's a billion plus dollar fund for people who were weaponized at a time when gas prices are five to six dollars a gallon. You've got, you know, inflation rising. You've got a lot of folks out of work. It's kind of a disaster scenario at this moment ahead of the midterms for Senate Republicans. And not to mention that, there's also the issue of this billion dollars for the ballroom and other security measures. The president was asked about the congressional funding needed for that, which remains in jeopardy. Take a listen.

30:44If they want to spend money on securing the White House, I think it would be very, very much a good expenditure. But the ballroom is being built. But what if Congress doesn't sign off on the security money, sir? Then the White House won't be a very secure place. So, I mean, what's your take on this? If the president and future presidents are going to have this ballroom, and it should be secure, obviously, do you think Congress should just get on board? Absolutely not. It's another billion dollar slush fund. He said it was going to be paid for by private donors. That's corrupt enough. But the genesis of this is corrupt from the beginning, tearing down the East Wing built by Teddy Roosevelt without any consultation with Congress, the American people.

31:25It's not his house. It's our house. Anyone run for president said, we should tear it down if it's built. Keep all the security underground, but rebuild the East Wing as it was. It's corrupt from the beginning, and it shouldn't be funded by the taxpayers. So this isn't the only project going on in Washington. I bring you news from Washington, D.C. What I see as I drive around, a lot of construction going on. Today, the Commission of Fine Arts did approve plans for Trump's proposed Triumphal Arch, although they knocked off eight feet and four lions from the structure. No animals were heard in the process, I have to assure you.

31:57It would still be about 250 feet high. The president was pressed on whether he'll need congressional approval for that. Take a listen. No, no, we're doing it. The land is owned by Secretary, by the Interior Department. We don't need anything from Congress. So the administration is citing a report from 1924 for this. It called for two shorter columns not far away. They were never constructed, though, those shorter columns. So the administration's already arguing this has already been improved because of the approval for those shorter columns. Alyssa? I mean, this is just a tough sell. First, historically, monuments are built in honor of presidents when they leave office by others.

32:35Well, he says this is going to be called the Trump Arch. I mean, he says. The Arch to Trump. But also, this goes through a congressional appropriation process. That's how you build things in Washington, D.C. That's how you build monuments. Both this and the slush fund, I actually think, are going to face some significant pushback. I think that Congress is going to in some way try to reclaim the power of the purse. I mean, that billion plus dollars was under, to my understanding, was allocated for the IRS for certain purposes, but not for this purpose. And here, I mean, I'm sure there's a way you could try to redirect those interior budgets for this.

33:06But that certainly wasn't what it was congressionally approved to do. And there's always the backstop of the courts to intervene as well. And John, was it Everett Dirksen who said you have a billion dollars here and a billion dollars there? Pretty soon you're talking about real money. Pretty soon you're talking real money. Everett Dirksen, I dig the reference. Like, honey over gravel is how his voice was described. Yeah, look, but here, too, past presidents had common sense and common decency enough not to destroy monuments or build things out of the way on the people's plaza, on the people's grounds.

33:33This can't be allowed to occur. In the future, we're going to need to rebuild the guardrails and make sure that rules are enforced. But some kind of trumped-up crony commission is not the same as Congress. So speaking of interesting timing, the president was asked today if he plans to attend his son, Donald Trump Jr.'s upcoming wedding to Florida Socialite and model Bettina Anderson, I think. Am I pronouncing that Bettina Anderson? Here's his response. Your son's wedding this weekend, by the way? He'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair and I'm going to try and make it.

34:10I'm in the midst. I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. That's one I can't win on. Alyssa, is he really going to skip Don Jr.'s wedding? You got to go, Mr. President. Please go to your son's wedding. I'm certain he will go. I think the optics of missing it would be terrible. And I actually think that clip goes on to him saying, I've known him for a very long time. That is your child, of course. That's true. Fact check, true. He has known. Donald Trump has known Donald Trump Jr. for a very long time. But I wish the happy couple their best, but yes, the president.

34:43We all do. And we wish that the father of the crew was there. That'd be nice. Of course. Thanks to both of you. If Iran quick, is Iran quickly rebuilding its military arsenal? What new U.S. intelligence is revealing? That's next.

35:03Our world lead now. Now, multiple sources familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments tell CNN that Iran has restarted some of its drone production during this six-week ceasefire that President Trump declared in early April. CNN's also told U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran's military is reconstituting much faster than initially estimated. Still, President Trump insists the U.S. is in control of the situation. We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade's been 100 % effective. Nobody's been able to get through. It's like a steel wall. It's our Navy.

35:40We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. We wiped out their Navy. We wiped out their air. I think they're down to about, I would say we knocked out 85 % of their missile capacity. It's very hard for them now to build missiles, to build drones. We're joined now by CNN's Natasha Bertrand. Tell us more about what you're hearing. Iran is up to according to intelligence assessments? Yeah, Jake, so recent U.S. intel assessments actually assess that Iran is rebuilding its military industrial capacity at a much faster rate than previously anticipated. One U.S. official actually told us that, quote, the Iranians have exceeded all timelines the intel community had for reconstitution of their military capabilities.

36:26And one big example of that is how fast they have been able to rebuild their drone program. They have restarted that program, we're told. They have already been able to produce a lot of new drones, and their drone program could actually be fully reconstituted, we are told, within six months. And that's worth noting as well, because of course those drones pose a huge threat to Iran's regional adversaries, many of which are U.S. allies. They have proven to be extremely lethal these drones. One of these drone attacks actually hit a U.S. military facility early in the conflict and killed U.S. service members.

37:05So the drones do pose a huge threat. And even prior to them reconstituting their drone program, they still had thousands of one-way attack drones still in their inventory. So this is just adding to that. In addition to this, they are also able to, we are told, rebuild. And they have been reconstituting their bombed-out missile sites that the U.S. did attack, of course, throughout the course of the war, as well as with their missile launchers, many of which were buried underground, that they have now been able to dig out and produce more of. And the reason for this is multifaceted. Part of it is that Russia and China, we're told, have continued to provide assistance to the Iranians.

37:46The Chinese have continued, for example, to provide missile components to the Iranians throughout the course of the war, something that Beijing denies but that U.S. intelligence has seen very clearly. And the Russians, of course, have continued to provide dual-use technology, drone technology, drone tactic advice as well to the Iranians that has allowed them to continue to produce and manufacture a lot of this equipment. So bottom line here is that while U.S. Central Command Chief Brad Cooper testified to lawmakers earlier this week that Iran's military industrial capacity will take them years to rebuild.

38:25In fact, it's only been set back by a matter of months, according to U.S. Intel Assessments, Jake. The Pentagon responded. I'm sorry, you broke up there for a sec. How has the Pentagon responded to this reporting and to this information? Yeah, so U.S. Central Command actually declined to comment, saying they don't comment on intelligence matters. But we did get a statement back from Sean Parnell, who is the chief Pentagon spokesperson. He said, quote, America's military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president's choosing. Didn't exactly address the reporting there that Iran has rebuilt its military capacity in a significant way.

39:03You're completely nonresponsive to the point. All right. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. Appreciate it. First today on CNN, the DNC's autopsy of the 2024 presidential election. It had been kept secret for a long time, but CNN was first to get her hands on it. So what did go so wrong for the Democratic Party and for Vice President Kamala Harris? Why did it take so long for us as the American people to get our eyes on this report? And what does this say about Democrats in the elections going forward?

39:39Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant testified on Capitol Hill today as part of Congress's investigation into the dead pedophile and his sex trafficking network. Sarah Kellen was once labeled a potential Epstein co-conspirator. She said today that she was actually one of his victims. We're going to go live to Capitol Hill for more details of her closed-door interview. Plus, it's the report that the Democratic National Committee fought for you to not see. CNN has obtained the party's autopsy of its 2024 presidential election loss, and it paints a pretty dismal picture for Democrats.

40:13We're going to dig through the key findings with a top official from the Harris campaign. And a veteran struggling with homelessness surrendered his dog to a local fire department, begging for the fire department to adopt his beloved pet so the veteran could get the help he needs. Now Jake the dog is settling in at the firehouse and finding a new audience on social media. We're going to talk to Jake and his new family ahead to share their story of tough choices, second chances, and a community looking out for each other.

40:47The lead tonight, the race to find a winning message ahead of November's midterm elections. President Trump focusing on his vengeance campaign as Republicans try to keep control over Congress. Meanwhile, Democrats trying to plot their path forward while dealing with a severe reckoning of their own making. CNN has now obtained the party's autopsy of its 2024 presidential election loss. Yes, this is the same report that the Democratic National Committee did not want to release. The DNC chair claims it's because the report wasn't close to being ready for public consumption and had errors and not enough sourcing.

41:20That all seems to be true, but it also reveals never before reported details over all the huge missteps that continue to hang over the Democratic Party. Some Senate Democrats expressing their disdain over the DNC's 2024 postmortem to CNN's Manu Raju. It's not exactly explosive. I think the explosive part was the implication that they were hiding something. It's not an amazing report. It doesn't give me many insights into the path forward. I don't really care. I mean, I'm not sure those are the right people to diagnose what went wrong with the election.

42:20Thank you. text that is being shown on screen right now, there are red lines at the top of each page there. That's what you'll see on our website if you look at it. That is part of how the DNC's lawyers are disavowing this document in what they are releasing. So that's number one. Now, as you say, though, there are a lot of things in there that get into some of the details of what went wrong for the party. One of them, just to read through for you, the Harris campaign appears to have relied on Trump being unacceptable rather than building an affirmative case for Harris. Another one, Harris lagged in rural areas nationally, which proved to be insurmountable in swing states.

43:03Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban and suburban margins would compensate. And then another, at times, it seems Democrats are trying to win arguments while Republicans are focused on winning elections. Democrats operate an ecosystem defined by reason, even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage. So, look, that's all in there, but that is done as one man's opinion, basically. There was a part-time friend of the DNC chair, Ken Martin, who was tapped by Martin to do this report, even though Martin had said it was a priority. And there were a lot of problems along the way. The reporting that I have up on our site is about how many issues there were with the people who were interviewed, a lot of people who weren't interviewed, like almost all the senior leadership of the Biden and Harris campaigns.

43:49Even the former DNC chair, Jamie Harrison, who you can see in the video up there on the side, was only interviewed when he reached out asking to be interviewed. And many other things there. There was a lot of people who thought that this would cover at least some of what happened with how the issue of Gaza and the politics there affected voters. There was not even outreach to the leaders of the Uncommitted Movement, Protest Movement, the pro-Palestinian movement, or groups like Democratic majority for Israel. There's a very incomplete report here and also speaks to a lot of people that I spoke that I have talked to for this reporting and since published this morning about how Ken Martin has managed this whole thing and what it says about the leadership that he would have to have going into the midterms in the fall and then the presidential primary process and the 2020 election.

44:35And correct me if I'm wrong, Isaac, but it doesn't even go into any of the issues having to do with why Joe Biden had to drop out. Not that, not the process of Kamala Harris becoming the nominee without any kind of official nominating process. There is a lot that's left out here. Now, part of that is because the intention was to get into a systematic review of what had happened for the Democrats, and that was not so attached to the specifics of what happened in the 2024 election. For example, Look, as you know well, it is unlikely that there is going to be another situation soon where an 82-year-old incumbent is running for reelection and has to drop out in the middle of the race.

45:15So spending a lot of time on that was maybe not ever going to be a real interest for the autopsy, but getting into these deeper details was, and even so, it became a real train wreck over the course of the year with the people who were supposed to be doing it and with Ken Martin is he really just let it go by and missed deadline after deadline, was promising people would come, and then got to the end of the year when it was supposed to come out. He finally said, I'm going to release it, and then abruptly said, no, I'm not going to release it. And he said he wasn't releasing it then because they had already learned the lessons and they didn't want to look backwards anymore.

45:52Now he says they didn't release it because he can't stand by and verify what was said. He had a statement to me now for the reporting this morning. When I received the report late last year, it wasn't ready for primetime, not even close. And because no source material was provided, it would have meant starting over. I could not in good faith put the DNC stamp of approval on the report that was produced. But he also added to me by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. For that, I sincerely apologize. Again, Jake, that is not what he was saying in December when he announced that he would not put the report out.

46:24Yeah. Adjik Devere, great reporting. Thanks so much. Let's talk now to former Kamala Harris for president, to deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty. Rob, so you had insight into the autopsy before everyone else. You've also written your own assessment of what went wrong. Now that you've read the DNC autopsy, do you think it accurately explains why the Democrats lost? Well, you know, it was interesting, Jake. Thanks for having me on. I thought that some of the things that were in there were takes that I agree with, things that I shared in my assessment with him, The other things that I didn't share that I agreed with as well.

46:56But like Isaac just said, you know, it reads as one man's opinion and not really a full conversation with, you know, the numbers of folks who are working on the campaign and on the independent expenditure side who might have had different takes. And that to me felt like the missed opportunity. So just to be frank here, I can't understand writing an autopsy like this without talking about the Biden age issues and Biden having to drop out of the race after the debate, his decision to run again to begin with, Kamala Harris taking over without some sort of nominating process, and perhaps the biggest issue that might have cost her Michigan, Israel and Gaza.

47:35Why would that be left out, any of that? Yeah, Jake, you know, I don't know. I do think both of those were factors. You know, I said in my piece that, you know, I love President Biden. He's a good man. and also that his decision to run, I think, put us in a hole that was hard for anyone from the administration to dig out of. And then obviously on, maybe it didn't show up in the numbers, but sort of in just talking to people, it's pretty clear that the issues around Gaza did cause some enthusiasm to dissipate for Democrats. So I think those are both critical issues that warrant discussion. And people might have different opinions about their impacts, but that should be heard out.

48:18So Senator Brian Schatz, the Democrat of Hawaii, he told CNN's Manuraju that one of the things that he had a real issue with with the autopsy is that there's no path forward. It didn't suggest a path forward. And, you know, he sits on the Senate Democratic Caucus's leadership team. So let me just ask you, because we have you here, what lessons are there for Democrats going forward? What needs to change? Yeah, I think there's a there's a lot of different lessons. And these are just, again, one man's opinion. But, you know, from my lens, I think, first of all, people are feeling real economic pain right now.

48:51We were on the wrong side of that in the last election. Now Donald Trump is. He's hitting the prices go higher button every day. I think that that's a real opportunity for people to speak to voters who feel disaffected from the status quo and feel like the system isn't working for them. You know, there's the and then there's these sort of big questions about why are you in the race in the first place? It's often a question that we overlook. People vote for people, not for parties now. And having that answer, I think, is really important. And then there's tactical discussions about where Democrats and how Democrats spend their time, how they reach people.

49:22I mean, this is one thing that I thought the report that the DNC put out was right about was the disproportionate amount of money that is spent on traditional television. Very important. Thrilled to be here. But, you know, the different ways that people get their information now and needing to adapt to that. So I think there's a number of things that can be learned and that discussion should happen out loud. Democrats do have a chance to take back control of Congress this November, especially the House. But as you know, that takes money. And the DNC is currently in debt and the RNC is flush with cash.

49:49Do you have confidence in DNC Chair Ken Martin to lead the party? Well, you know, I will say this. I am nervous about it. I will say that, you know, the Democratic National Committee is an incredibly important institution to me. I used to work there. I think it is important both for how you win a midterm, but also for how it sets up a presidential campaign in 2028. I think one of the real problems with, you know, this process has been that it does hurt people's trust. You know, when you're trying to set up a presidential campaign and go into a general election, the DNC is critically important for, you know, making sure the campaign has the resources when they get there.

50:23The primary is well structured. And that's hard to do when you have 17 ,000 people running for president. And so, you know, I do think it raises questions about, you know, what is happening with leadership over there. This is leadership failing the great staff at the DNC. So should Ken Martin step down? I think that it is hard to see Ken Martin staying in this job. And I feel bad. He seems like a great guy and he's connected to a lot of great state party folks and has come up through the right side of this. But this is pretty clearly one guy's mistake on a big thing. And what the autopsy is is really just a small corner of what the role of the DNC is.

51:03And I think you have to think about the big picture of how you set up a primary and how you set it up for succeed. Putting this aside, if you can't raise the money to do that, that does raise real concerns beyond Democrats' ability to win a midterm in November. Rob Flaherty, thank you so much. Good to have you on. Breaking news just into our sports league. Legendary NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has died at the age of 41. His family just posted this morning that Busch had been hospitalized with a severe illness. We're going to gather more information. We're going to bring you updates as we learn them.

51:32Plus, federal charges were filed today against 15 people accused of stealing more than$90 million in taxpayer money. The cases include allegations of defrauding Medicare and programs that help child care centers. The administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was at today's news conference announcing the charges, and he'll join us live ahead.

52:01Just in, some sad news and our sports lead, NASCAR champion Kyle Busch has died. In a statement just moments ago, NASCAR said, quote, quote, we are saddened and heartbroken to share the news of the passing of Kyle Bush, a two-time cup champion and one of our sport's greatest and fiercest drivers. He was 41 years old. We extend our deepest condolences to the Bush family, Richard Childress Racing, and the entire motorsports community, unquote. His family said in a statement earlier today that he had been hospitalized with a severe illness and would not be able to compete this weekend. Let's bring in CNN's Koi Weyer.

52:37Koi, what are we learning about all this? It's so sad. Yeah, it's all so sudden and unfathomably sad. Kyle Busch wasn't just one of the greatest drivers NASCAR ever saw. He was one of the fiercest competitors motorsports has ever produced. He made Sundays emotional. If he was in the race, you were going to feel something. And statistically, he's on NASCAR's Mount Rushmore. Emotionally, he was a lightning rod for an entire generation of fans. He didn't just win races. He overwhelmed them. He was a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champ, widely regarded as the winningest overall driver in NASCAR National Series history, nicknamed Rowdy.

53:14That was a reflection of both his aggressive style and this larger-than-life persona. What made Kyle unique was his versatility, his trucks, Xfinity, Cup. If it had four wheels and a steering wheel, he believed he could beat anybody racing. He carried this old school racer sort of energy into the modern era, racing constantly, racing anywhere and anyone. And in that NASCAR statement, they said in part that throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in National Series wins, won championships at NASCAR's highest level, and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series.

53:52His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal rowdy nation. Jake, the thing about Kyle Busch, even his critics respected his talent. Deep down, everybody in the garage knew they were watching one of the all-time greats. Yeah, Koi Wire, thank you so much. May his memory be a blessing. This morning, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee said today's interview would be the toughest one yet in the groups, in the committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. So what did the committee learn from Epstein's longtime assistant, Sarah Kellen?

54:29That's story next.

54:36In our national lead, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 30 ,000 veterans experience homelessness on any given night. And with no support, many of these veterans are forced to make difficult choices just to survive. Just one recent example in Fort Worth, Texas, a veteran named Tom surrendered his companion, his dog Jake, to a local fire department, begging the fire department to take care of his best friend. And what started as a short term necessity has turned into a permanent bond among Jake and the members of his new family and a new hope for Tom in his search for stability.

55:13Joining me now are the members of the Fort Worth Fire Department and Jake the dog. Thank you so much for joining me, gentlemen. And Captain Bryant, let me start with you. Can you walk me through the day that you all first found Jake? Sure. So on the morning of the 16th, right before shift change, we usually shift change between seven and eight o 'clock. And a few of us get up pretty early and have coffee and just talk about the shift before. And Asa here on my right, where he sleeps, he came out and thought he heard dog whining. So a few of us went out to see what was going on and found Jake here chained to the flagpole out by our front entrance.

55:55And there was a water bottle, like a sports water bottle that had a three page letter rolled up inside of it. And it was just Tom explaining his situation and that he couldn't better his life while he had Jake because he had nobody that could keep Jake. So that's kind of that's how we came about finding Jake. And I guess later that day, I had my wife have a co-worker post on Facebook that we were just trying to find him a home. That's how that was the original plan. It looks like a few like he found a home. Yeah. I mean, this this is all you need to know about Jake. He's actually snoring. Yeah, I got a dog like that, too.

56:45And you've all been in contact with Tom since he surrendered. Lieutenant Ludwig, how's Tom doing? Well, we haven't been in contact with him, actually, but we understand that he's getting the help that he needs through some local organizations. And then our HOPE outreach program here in the city of Fort Worth has also been in contact with him. And that's pretty much all that I know. Chase Pennington, what made you all decide to keep Jake, at least for now? Well, I think, you know, he definitely adds a calming kind of aspect to the station. And, you know, we just kind of enjoyed his demeanor. He fit in pretty quickly, and we all love dogs here.

57:37So it just kind of fell together the right way, I guess you could say. Aza Keith, do you think there will be a time where Tom and Jake can reunite if Tom's situation improves? I don't know. He might. We don't know. We're going to take it one day at a time and enjoy Jake while he's here. And if he does go back to Tom, then hopefully he can take care of him, too. Lieutenant Ludwig, how important do you think it is for communities to take an active role in helping those in need, such as homeless veterans? It's such a remarkable thing that you're doing to help him out and to help Jake out. Oh, yeah, it's I mean, it's absolutely important.

58:18We see it every day. Our fire station is in the hospital district and we we make calls on on the homeless people quite a bit. And I think it's it was a good, probably really hard choice for for Tom to make. but in the end, I think that he made the right choice and it's going to work out for him. Captain Bryant, what do you want people to take away from this story? I think it's important for people to help out. Like Lieutenant Ludwig said, we have a pretty big homeless problem around the nation, but all we can focus on is here in Fort Worth. But I think if you see somebody in need, just reach out to them.

59:12You never know that you can change somebody's life like Tom's has been changed. And quite frankly, all of us here at the station, our lives have changed because of Jake. It's so remarkable what you're doing for Tom, not to mention, of course, what you do every day as firefighters and the example you're setting. Thank you so much for telling us your story today. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A growing number of Republicans are pushing back against President Trump's plans for a nearly$1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, is here in moments to explain how he plans to fight to try to stop this fund from existing.

1:00:02In our national league today, a Minnesota judge sentenced Amy Bach. That's the leader of a Minnesota nonprofit who has been convicted of a whopping$250 million COVID-19 related fraud. She was sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison today. At the same time, Trump administration officials announced sweeping charges against 15 other people accused of defrauding social service programs in the same state of Minnesota. Here now is Dr. Mehmet Oz. He's the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Oz. So today's cases involve the theft of more than 90 million dollars in taxpayer money.

1:00:39Here's the assistant attorney general at today's press conference. The common theme throughout these cases is fraudsters exploiting vulnerable programs and vulnerable people to enrich themselves, no matter the consequences to the programs or to the people. And our viewers can see that you were right next to him during that press conference. What are some of the programs that were being exploited? Let me point out that Colin McDonald did a beautiful job choreographing this all of government approach. It's reflective of what the Vice President's Anti-Fraud Task Force seeks to do. These indictments and arrests were made in record time, in part because everyone was working together, which is, I think, what the American people would like to see if we've decided something is wrong.

1:01:25So what is wrong? You had a beautiful story on just before me about Tom, a vet who had to give his dog up because he's homeless. There's a program available to help people who are homeless. It's called Housing Stabilization. When done correctly, it saves people who have substance use disorders and a slew of other problems that just need a place to stay. There's a guy named Mohammed Omar, who we went after. He was so desperate to escape, he jumped out of the fourth floor building that he lives in. Plush, beautiful neighborhood, by the way. He hobbled away and subsequently FBI was able to arrest him.

1:01:55I went to see the site. It's shocking he would try this. But this man brazenly took three and a half million dollars out of one of these housing stabilization programs. When we were first notified by Minnesota almost a year ago that they had a problem, it was manageable, they were going to take care of it, it was this program. They eventually shuttered it. They shut that program down after it ran up more than$100 million of expenses in that year, last year. And people like Tom, the vet, that you had his dog Jake on the show, there's just no way you can help these people without these programs.

1:02:26So when fraudsters take this money in a way that can no longer be managed, they end up destroying the programs they're stealing from. We had today the largest autism bust ever. A mother and her adult daughter took$40 million out of autism. The autism program in Minnesota was supposed to be a few million dollars. It's$400 million. They're going off now. They got arrested. But there's many others like that we have to get ahead of. And to do it the right way, we're going to have to take bold action like today to send a very clear message. If you're a fraudster, and I'm speaking to you if you're thinking about getting into this business, you're already in it.

1:03:00Do not walk away from us. Run, because we're going to come after you. So how do we as a society make sure that there isn't this kind of fraud and that when there is, the cases are prosecuted, while also not holding accountable or punishing, rather, the people who need these funds? Do you know what I mean? Like this fund you just talked about was shuttered for people who need it because of all the fraud. It's so important, though, that the people that are held responsible are not the people who need the programs, right? Jake, I took this job the president offered to me because he knows I love Medicaid.

1:03:37It is the ultimate payer of last resort. It helps people who have nothing else that can help them. Medicare takes care of our senior citizens in an elegant, beautiful way. It's a crown jewel of our system. We can save these programs. There's about$100 billion of money stolen from them. A lot of this by foreign governments, potentially, definitely foreign international crime syndicates. So we can get our arms around this. We took our eye off the ball. COVID convinced a lot of people they could defraud the federal government, especially in health care, which is probably 50 % of the fraud, and get away with it.

1:04:08If we send a clear message, we're not tolerating it anymore, they go away. Look what happened to hospice care in California. And, you know, this is a program where one-third of all of the hospice in the country is in L.A. One-third. So we have already gone after 850 of these hospices, stopped paying them. Some have come back, a few, to say we were wrong. The vast majority just ran away. So we can win this battle, but we got to do it together. Part of the reason I came to Minnesota is to send the message to the people here. We care about you. We'll do this together. But it has to be done together in unison.

1:04:39So you noted at today's press conference that$350 million in Medicaid funds for Minnesota, it's on hold right now. Now, the state has agreed to a Medicaid corrective action plan. What else does the state of Minnesota need to do to unfreeze this money who, you know, so many people desperately need it? So just to be clear for everybody who might be worried about the folks in Minnesota, we know that there's a$3 billion rainy day fund. So they have money to manage the system. The purpose of deferring the money is not the corrective action plan. We actually audited, looked at the books of the last two quarters and found that there are too many discrepancies.

1:05:16Jake, I mean, we have programs that all of a sudden jumped up twofold in cost, unexplained expenses, people we don't know who they were providing services. So we asked the state to validate this. My job as the person assigned by the president to watch over the money in Medicare and Medicaid is to make sure that I'm doing just that, making sure people give me the receipts. I'll pay them the bills as appropriate, as we always have done. So we're not taking the money away from Minnesota. We're deferring its payment. They're hopefully going to get back to us within the next month or two. But there's another example just to show you that we're trying our hardest.

1:05:46We asked the state of Minnesota, in fact, we asked every state to revalidate their providers. That means that we want you to go look at all these people who are doing services that are putting people potentially at risk, like that mother-daughter duo who defrauded all these folks who had autism in their family and couldn't keep up because they weren't being helped. Go out to them, tell me if they're legit or not. They haven't been able to do that. In fact, only about 40 % of people completely seem reasonable. Majority of the people we're concerned about. And if they don't get those numbers fixed by next week and can't validate these providers, there's a lot of folks who are not going to be allowed to take care of people.

1:06:22The good news is our biggest allies are the folks who are doing it right. They are the people who are doing hospice right, home health care right, who are doing all the things that we need for autism in this country. Those people come to us actually frustrated and angry that we're allowing, tolerating fraudsters who not only hurt people they care about, but are stealing their business inappropriately. All right, Dr. Mamadaz, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today. Y 'all bless. Also in the politics lead, Speaker Mike Johnson's meeting with President Trump was scrapped today after the U.S.

1:06:53Senate left town without acting on Trump's immigration package. This is amid Republican fury over the nearly$1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund that Trump set up. These people don't deserve restitution. Many of them deserve to be in prison. I mean, this is just stupid on stilts. I do not support the weaponization fund as it has been described. One Republican congressman says he wants to kill this fund altogether. Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick, joins me now. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. What have you learned about the source of the fund and the fund in the last 24 hours and if there is a way to stop it?

1:07:39Yeah, Jake, no response from the administration. So we're moving forward. Myself and Tom Swasey, my co-chair of the Problem Solvers, introduced legislation today. We are operating under the presumption that the genesis of this funding came from last year's DOJ appropriations bill. So we took that title. We issued a very, very brief piece of legislation that says that that money cannot be used in any way, shape, or form for this fund that was created on May 18th that nobody knows anything about, nobody ever authorized. So we have a multi-pronged approach here that we're going to use to make sure that these taxpayer dollars are not wasted in this matter.

1:08:22The Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche testified that anyone can apply and the money would be given out confidentially. There would be a five-person board that would decide who gets the money. I mean, obviously there are a lot of Senate Republicans, in addition to you, who have concerns not only about the existence of this program, but about the lack of guardrails on the program. The question I have is, are there other House Republicans who share your concerns? Yeah, we'll find out, Jake. You know, we introduced the bill. You know, a lot of people privately are telling me on the floor, great idea.

1:08:57We're with you. Well, let's see if they put pen to paper, right? It's very easy to say something. It's another thing to put your name on the line, which we have done and we will continue to do. So we're going to keep recruiting them. But I'm very confident, Jake, that we're going to kill this. If the Justice Department or Congress does manage to put limits on who can apply, rather than eliminate the program altogether, for example, saying you can't, you're not eligible if you were convicted of beating up a cop, as one example, would you still be in favor of the existence of some sort of pot of money for taxpayer taxpayer money for anti-weaponization payouts no i would not yeah the normal course the way you go about things around here jake according to the constitution and according to our article one authority if you have a proposal you submit it in writing uh it gets marked up in committee it gets put on the floor it's open to amendments and you have an up or down vote where every single member of the house who represents 750 ,000 people gets to reflect the will of their constituents back home.

1:10:00None of that has happened. None of that. So I'm not in favor of anything that they're proceeding on this front. The president's immigration enforcement package is now stalled. The Senate has just disbanded for the time being as lawmakers try to deal with the ramifications of this fund. Do you think that political pressure like that will work. And President Trump will ultimately say this is not worth everything I'm putting Congress through. And also, I would think this is not what House Republicans want to be defending as they go back home for the summer, just a few more months before the midterms.

1:10:39Well, Jake, here's the thing. You know, the way this was supposed to go was we were supposed to bring the DHS funding bill that had already passed the House with bipartisan support, by the way, before the tragedies in Minneapolis. Tom Swazi and I introduced a number of reforms, including removal of masks, requiring warrants, so on and so forth, the entire laundry list of reforms. But I always believe in funding the government. What I do not support is one single dime of taxpayer money going to a ballroom or a dime of taxpayer money going to this so-called anti-weaponization fund. That was never part of the agreement, and it's also not what my constituents want.

1:11:17And I would submit to you that I can't imagine the majority of constituents in anyone's district, all 435, that any of them support this. So we are not just fighting back and word. We introduced legislation today, and I am on a mission to make sure that we do not waste taxpayer money in this regard. All right. I guess we'll see how many of your fellow House Republicans join you. Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thank you, sir. Always good to have you on. President Trump today was asked if he's worried about being impeached if Republicans lose control of Congress in November's midterms.

1:11:52Hear his answer when our political panel joins us next.

1:12:02More now in our politics lead, how Democrats lost the White House after facing intense pressure. Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin finally released the party's autopsy report on their 2024 election loss. The diagnosis, a 192-page unfinished report obtained by CNN before Martin was forced to release it. It reveals the Democrats failed to reach rural America, lack negative power, firepower, didn't focus enough on Trump's liabilities, including his felony convictions, and on and on. Let's discuss with the panel. Thanks so much for being here, folks. Along with those missteps, the report casts the Biden administration as having spent four years basically neglecting their vice president.

1:12:42Quote, at the moment of the candidate switch, the polling team discovered there was no self-research on the vice president to guide the development of the research instruments ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The White House had asked the DNC how to poll how First Lady Biden, Jill Biden, Dr. Biden to you, could help her husband politically. But it did no research on their own vice president. your reaction than USA? I mean, look, this is a chaotic, messy, unfinished autopsy. Oh, it's awful. It's awful, and good for CNN forgetting this clip on it. But that is one of the revelations that's just this sort of glaring malpractice that led to the disaster of the fall, why you would not do more to build up your vice president.

1:13:29And, you know, they spent a lot of time talking about ticket splitters, you know, what Josh Stein did right in North Carolina. There's some nuggets in there, the Democratic Party can learn from, focusing on affordability, not identity politics. But this is a mess of an unfinished document. What do you think, Essie? I think in 2016, Donald Trump so scrambled the Democratic Party's brain that it got paralyzed for 10 years. It stopped doing basic things, like polling their own candidates and preparing and looking under the hood. I don't know why there wasn't a 2016 autopsy. We did one in 2012. I worked on it.

1:14:05It was granular. I mean, I was charged with coming up with new ideas to reach millennials, minorities, women and LGBTQ. And I had to go through like tax code. What in the tax code can we look at that would appeal to young entrepreneurs, for example? It was real. This is a mess. The rollout was a mess. It seems like a huge dereliction of duty for Ken Martin overseeing all of this and then rolling it out. But there's some glaring misses here, too. They mention Joe Biden's age not once, not at all, not in the entire document, being a problem. They kind of gloss over the fact that they looked at voters in the face and told them to their faces, the economy's great, what are you talking about?

1:14:51Crime is down, you're safe in your cities, relax, please. And the migrant crisis, what crisis? Talking over voters, they make mention of sort of like finding a way to reconnect with American voters that they used to have, but they don't acknowledge the things that we could all see with our own eyes. So I'm not sure what the utility of this is, other than Ken Martin being able to say, well, I did release it finally. He did it under duress. Yes, he did. If he thought it wasn't... He did it because Isaac got it. Exactly right. And if he got it and he said this is incomplete, well, then finish it.

1:15:24Right. Do the work. So this is a desire to avoid the difficult conversation the Democrats need to have. Speaking of difficult conversations, The autopsy doesn't mention Israel or Gaza. Yeah, well, one of many, many omissions. I mean, that was kind of pretty significant. That was a very difficult thing for any for for Biden and then for Harris to negotiate. And she couldn't. Absolutely. And look, I mean, this there's there are numbers in here that aren't verified. The whole thing's an embarrassment. But Democrats need to deal with the fact that their party's approval rating is lower than Donald Trump's at a time when he's cratering with the vast majority of the American people and independents.

1:15:58And so you need to do this work. So putting this sort of half-baked autopsy out there, it only just compounds the chaos that clearly exists underneath the DNC. Essie, you brought up President Biden's age, and I know my progressive friends love it when I bring up this topic. But I have to say, just as a fact, having nothing to do with the media, having nothing to do with Republicans even, Joe Biden's performance at the debate was so bad that Democrats forced him out of the race. That is what happened. Democratic officials forced him out of the race. Correct. How could that not be in this autopsy?

1:16:32I don't know. It's insane. The whole point of it is so you can go to voters and elected Democrats and arm them with some tools and say, here's what we learned. Here's the mistakes we will not make again. And here's our promise to you. And by the way, what an opportunity to say, and here's our agenda. Not just you got to vote against Donald Trump, but here's what we want you to vote for. I still don't hear them saying that to you about the midterms. No, they're not. They have not figured out their agenda yet. And it has to be. It can't just be affordability. Of course, that's everyone's agenda.

1:17:08That should be everyone's agenda. Except Donald Trump's. But yes. Well, no, but it is. I mean, it is. But at least Trump did the Trump Rx this week. No, no, he did Trump Rx this week. Which is something. Look, the danger for Democrats is that they're going to see that the pendulum swing is heading towards the midterms. They're going to use Trump's unpopularity and incompetence as an excuse to declare victory. And ignore the very real brand damage they need to fix to win back the middle, to win back the middle class, to win back rural voters and to be relevant in red states, to build the Big Ten again.

1:17:38That work needs to be done. This autopsy doesn't deal with it, but it needs to be done. And it's basic psychology. We're all married here. When we fight with our spouse and our spouse says to us, I'm sorry you feel that way. The spouse is sleeping on the couch, okay? Because you have to acknowledge what you did. Here's what I did wrong. Here's how I hurt you. And the Democratic Party let Democratic voters down in 2024. We're where we are today. Not just Democratic voters. Voters like you. Me. You're swing voters. I gave Democrats my vote. And with, you know, some explicit promises that were made and not kept, by the way.

1:18:11So we're owed this. Will you guys come down to D.C. more so I can have you on my bed? Anytime. You're so good. John and Essie, thanks so much. Appreciate it. The longtime assistant of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein told Congress today she's no co-conspirator in his crimes. She says she, too, is a victim. What else we learned about her closed-door testimony? That's next.

1:18:37In our Law and Justice lead, the House Oversight Committee questioned a longtime assistant of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer predicted today's closed-door interview of Sarah Kellan would be the toughest yet interview of former Epstein associates. In 2007, federal prosecutors labeled Kellen a potential co-conspirator. She told the committee that in reality she's an Epstein survivor. CNN's Annie Greyer is on Capitol Hill. Annie, what else did Kellen have to say? Well, Jake, this was a big interview for the committee. In fact, the Republican chairman, James Comer, said it was the most substantial interview his committee has conducted to date.

1:19:12And that is because Sarah Kellen gave the committee new names of alleged abusers to look into. Take a listen to how the chairman told us about that earlier today. She gave us three names of people that were involved in abuse. These were new names for us. As far as the men that were abusers, alleged abusers, then the whole world will see that and we'll be able to move forward. Now, beyond detailing her own abuse, Kellen was also asked for her thoughts about Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator. And Kellen reportedly said that she did not want Maxwell to be moved into a lower security prison, did not believe that Maxwell deserved a presidential pardon.

1:19:58And she gave lawmakers a lot of new leads to look at before their next big interview, Jake, which is going to happen next week with former Attorney General Pam Bondi. So a lot of new leads to pursue out of this very big interview today. How quickly might we get to see a transcript or video of Kellen's testimony? Well, Comer said he's trying to do that as quickly as possible because he did not reveal the names specifically today. And just to know, Jake, this is not we're not going to see a video here. We're only going to see a transcript because Comer said that since Kellen appeared voluntarily, he did not make her have to appear under videotape.

1:20:35It's a concession he's been making to some of this investigation. And that is why we'll only see a transcript and hopefully going to be out soon. All right. Annie Greyer on Capitol Hill for us. Thanks so much. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram threads, X and Blue Sky, as well as the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at The Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. Our good friend Erin Burnett and her amazing show Erin Burnett Out Front. That starts right now. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.

1:21:06What is it about Australia that just hits different? Australia is where we shared our first kiss. Where we fell in love, that was 18 years ago now. And this is what, your fourth trip back? Australia has this incredible way of drawing you back. The ocean, the people. The oysters. So good. So briny and delicious. And the possibility of exploring something new. Learn more about Zach and Laura's journey at Australia.com and start planning the vacation of a lifetime. Influential journalist Cara Swisher is taking a hard look at the longevity industry. There's so much bad information that the really good information gets drowned.

1:21:45The new CNN original series, Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever. Now streaming on the CNN app.