House Cmte. Gets “Birthday Book,” Other Docs From Epstein Estate

24:31I disagree with the court's decision. I am the grandchild of immigrants. I have been here long enough that I don't speak with an accent. I don't look like I might be from another country that is in the crosshairs of this administration and so I may not be targeted. But because my grandparent was born here, I shouldn't be treated any differently than my colleague whose parent grandparents might have been from Latin America or from Africa or anywhere else around this country. We've got to work to bring people together rather than dividing them. We've got to work to make sure that our immigration laws bring in the people who are going to make our country stronger, those who are willing to work, those who are willing to bring their creative resources and talents to create the next new company or provide services to the family down the street.

25:14We are a country of immigrants. We should be proud of that tradition, proud of our history, and we shouldn't be trying to divide people as this president and his administration are trying to do. Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois, thanks so much for your time, sir. Appreciate it. Coming up next, what a witness told CNN about a heated exchange, curse words and all, between Trump's Treasury Secretary and the federal housing official who gave President Trump those mortgage fraud claims about a Federal Reserve Board member and others. Stay with us.

25:46In our Money Lead, new details about some sort of shouting match between two top Trump administration officials that got so heated, they almost came to blows. This one was last week at a private dinner with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and federal housing official Bill Pulte. He's the top housing regulator. The story was first broke by Rachel Bate at Politico. It's sources telling CNN that Besant threatened to punch Pulte in the face. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House. And Kristen, you spoke with somebody who witnessed the whole thing. Give us the play-by-play. Yeah, Jake, they told me it was one of the most insane things that they've ever seen.

26:24So the way that they describe it is essentially this dinner was at the executive branch, which is a members only MAGA club. It is a very expensive club, social club in Georgetown. They were having one of their first dinners. And during the cocktail hour before dinner even began, this shouting match erupted between Besant and Pulte. Now, Besant was angry at Pulte. He accused him of bad mouthing him to President Trump, something that we are told by sources he was in fact doing, was talking negatively about him to President Trump. He said that he was going to punch him in the face. At one point, he said that if he didn't get out of here, if he didn't leave, he was going to...

27:04If Pulte didn't leave, he was going to leave. And it grew incredibly heated. The founder, one of the co-founders of the executive branch, actually had to step in. At that point, Besant told Pulte they should take it outside. I am told that Pulte seemed surprised and actually pretty flabbergasted. when Besson approached him and during this fight. One of the things that we are told is that afterwards Besson disappeared briefly, but then later both of the men were at the dinner. They sat down, but they didn't sit anywhere near each other. Now, one of the things to keep in mind here is that Besson is somebody who President Trump has repeatedly praised even as recently as Friday night.

27:44And Pulte is somebody who has been really having a stock trading high within MAGA world and with President Trump because he has helped lead this effort against the Federal Reserve. And he's the one, of course, who brought the allegations against one of those Federal Reserve governors. So is it possible we'll see them in that UFC cage match at the White House? Never mind. That's just a not I'm just floating it. See what they think about it behind you. I should note this isn't the first time the Treasury Secretary has had some sort of physical confrontation with somebody inside the president's circle, at least according to Steve Bannon.

28:22Yeah, and according to sources that I talked to about that event as well, that was with Elon Musk at that time, was working daily with President Trump. And we know that there was an altercation in the White House, in the halls of the White House, over who was going to lead the IRS. Now, again, we are told that that altercation got incredibly heated. There were sources who said it got physical, others who said it was just a screaming match between these two men. again, all over who was going to lead the IRS. What's interesting about this, of course, is that if you ever listen to Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, he is one of the most soft-spoken members of the administration of the cabinet.

28:59So clearly, as my source told me, it seems as though he has a short fuse. All right. Kristen Holmes at the White House, thanks so much. Here now is our panel. And sure, Michael, Kristen mentioned that clash between Bessent and Elon Musk. Here's what the Treasury Secretary told Bloomberg last month, Quote, Bessett won't say whether the matter came to blows, but notes with a touch of deadpan humor, I can 100 percent say I did not give him the black eye. Remember, Elon Musk had a black eye at one point. And now the Treasury secretary almost, you know, cold cocked Bill Pulte. What do you make of it?

29:29I mean, look, I like Bessett a whole lot more because if you're working with a colleague and the colleague's going to the boss and bad mouthing you and talking crap about you, then you need to go and check that guy and say, what in the F are you doing? Like, we're both trying to do our jobs and execute very well to bring to fruition the president's agenda and the American people who voted for him. And yet you're trying to jockey for power by by talking trash about me. So like most guys, I think most guys would go to another guy and say, cut this B.S. out or we're going to have a problem. And Bessett handled it like a man.

29:59And I personally respect him for it. So we should also note, this gives us an opportunity to bring up Bill Pulte. He's the federal housing official who sent criminal referrals against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, saying that she illegally listed two different homes in two different states, both of them as principal residences on mortgage applications. Reuters is now reporting that Bill Pulte's dad and stepmom filed similar housing claims. quote, since 2020, they have claimed so-called homestead exemptions for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the public records.

30:34Now, Reuters didn't reach Pulte's relatives for comment, and obviously they don't work for the government. What do you think about that? I think that he's out there stirring up a lot of stuff, and when he did it on Besson, he had had enough of it. What you've seen in the reporting out there is that there's people now looking at everybody's housing records going back to, I saw something on the National Secretary of Public Defense and some other folks that were out there, Tulsi Gabbard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Director of National Intelligence. Right. Tulsi Gabbard was out there. And I think that what I would ask a friend of mine today about this housing thing.

31:04I've only got one house, Chalker, here. I didn't realize that you could have two and claim multiple houses, but that it was very common and that the banks tell you to do this. But what this guy's trying to do is get in good with the boss and say, hey, let me tell you about some Democrats and what they're doing with their housing. But when he did on Besson, I think that was the final a straw with those. Yeah. So Tulsi, we should just know for the record. So D &I Gabbard declared her residency in Texas, but voted in Hawaii. That's what I was thinking. That's it's a little different. ProPublica reported that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Durammer, quote, in her financial disclosure form, listed two mortgages on personal residences, both obtained in 2021.

31:37One was at home in Oregon, the other in Arizona. A spokesperson for the Labor Secretary dismissed the report. But I want to change the subject if I can. So President Trump, President Trump, Do you want to say something about it? No, no, no. President Trump took some credit for bringing down crime in D.C. I want to play something else he said earlier today at the Museum of the Bible. Take a listen. They said crime's down 87%. I said, no, no, no. It's more than 87%. Virtually nothing. And much lesser things. Things that take place in the home they call crime. You know, they'll do anything they can to find something.

32:13If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see? So now I can't claim 100%. But we are a safe city. Yikes. Yeah, you're going to see that. You're going to see that on TV. I mean, I definitely don't think the president is literally saying if a man has beaten his wife that that's okay. That's what he said. No, no, I think, let me just sort of interpret what I think he's trying to say. I think what he's trying to say, if you have a verbal argument with your wife, a woman could call the police and oftentimes a man could get arrested for that if the wife says, hey, I felt threatened or he was too aggressive.

32:49So I'm going to bet that that's what the president was intending with those comments. Chuck? With the lipstick all over that pig, it is still a pig. I'm going to tell you right now that you're going to see that again, because when you talk about trying to figure out motivating factors to show up for a midterm electorate that you have to motivate, because it's the midterms, it's not a presidential election, there's no Biden, there's no Trump, just a bunch of Congressmen and Senators, Democrats will run that ad. Come on, Chuck. How many people out there really believe that Republicans believe in beating their...

33:17I mean, come on. Because they said it. That is not what he meant by that. Come on. That's all right. So one other thing. So over the weekend, the White House marked the fast and furious nature that President Trump has been signing executive orders during the second term, noting that, quote, no president has signed 200 executive orders this quickly since President Franklin D. Roosevelt. And there you see a picture of him with 200 behind him. This is not, generally speaking, what conservatives have said is a good way to be president of the United States. And in fact, here's President Trump in 2015, 10 years ago.

33:50I don't like executive orders. That's not what the country was based on. You go, you can't make a deal with anybody. So you sign an executive order. You really need leadership. You have to get people into a room and get something that's good for everybody. And that It hasn't happened under President Obama. So now he goes around signing executive orders all over the place, which at some point they're going to be rescinded or they're going to be rescinded by the courts. So I just will just say he does, President Trump, have a very compliant House and Senate led by Republicans. Yeah, I mean, does he though, Jake?

34:22I mean, Republicans can't agree on much of anything. I was surprised we got the big, beautiful bill passed. I think the president's realized in the realities of politics, even when you have a majority, some may call it a supermajority, you're going to have factions within your own party that make it very, very difficult to get things done. And so President Trump is doing what every other predecessor has done before him. And then I just say, you know what, if Congress can't do it, we have to go around them to get something done. That's fine if everything is going good. But when prices start going up and things ain't going good and you have Latino nannies getting arrested and things ain't happening the way it's supposed to, folks can point this to oligarchy and kings and all the other things that you see folks out there building movements around.

34:59I go back to the midterms because you're motivating people to show up to vote. Yeah, but you guys aren't making that argument. So you know what? Hold the phone. Stay there. We're going to bring you back. Great panel. Stick around. The president said his federal operation in D.C. is also trying to get homeless individuals off the streets. We're going to show you a little bit of what that looks like in reality, at least for one specific man who told CNN that he's taking some extreme measures as a result of this operation.

35:27Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. It was a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it. Tonight, we feast. An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. My guest is Dr. Dhruv Kular. He has seen firsthand the effects GLP-1s can have on addictive behaviors. Today, we're going to talk about how GLP-1s are changing us, changing us as humans. And when the cravings go away, sort of trying to figure out, is there something else that we're losing as well?

36:24People who had cravings for opioids said that those were being diminished. And so, you know, we thought about these as kind of digestive medications, maybe diabetes medications, but they're actually psychoactive medications, or so it seemed. What was so interesting about that is if you're playing with the reward system, that can have real implications for people's maladaptive behaviors, all sorts of addictions, but also a potential downside. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts. In our National League, we return to our Homeless in America series, where President Trump's order to make Washington, D.C.

36:59beautiful means more than just cleaning up trash on the streets. As shelters fill up and resources run dry, advocates say the federal government has abandoned some of its most vulnerable citizens. CNN's Brian Todd met one man who decided to go across state lines just to get a night of sleep.

37:19Jeff Padgett is on the move. All right, girls, here we go. The 60-year-old, who says he's been homeless on the streets of D.C. for about eight years, steps at a fast pace with his two chihuahuas, Puppet and Luna, along for the ride. Padgett made his daily stop at a drop-in center for the homeless in Washington to pick up a meal and is hightailing it across the Potomac River into Virginia to find a safe place to sleep and hide from law enforcement. Because I don't want to be harassed or locked up or given. Then I'll automate them. I'm either going to leave town, go to jail, or going to a psych ward.

37:56I'm not committing any crimes. I'm not cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Padgett has kept moving since President Trump's law enforcement surge began last month, and authorities have swept homeless encampments. You don't know what they've been through, where they came from. Nothing. And then you're throwing what little they do have, what little respect they have, in the trash can. Padgett is not alone. Other homeless people tell CNN. As Trump pledges to, as he calls it, make the nation's capital beautiful again, the police sweeps have them staying out of sight. Sleeping in wooded areas, underneath bridges and woods.

38:34Some homeless people, a stigmatized population, didn't want their names or faces revealed. Basically, I've been sleeping on the bus and, you know, even sleeping on the bus isn't easy because there is transit police everywhere. And then I'll sleep in like playgrounds and certain areas where there's not really much police activity. Homeless advocates like Claire Wilson of D.C.'s Georgetown Ministry Center reluctantly offer this advice. Either leave this community or make yourself invisible. It's a terrible message to deliver to an individual. all. Stick together in pairs, advocates tell them. Don't engage with police and don't linger in public places like the doorways of shops, restaurants and apartments.

39:17Andy Wasseneck from the homeless services provider Miriam's Kitchen says his group is struggling to maintain contact with clients. So we give people flip phones so they can stay in touch with us. We've lost, you know, touch with about 25 people, but could be more. Shortly before he announced a federal takeover of the D.C. Police Department, President Trump posted, quote, the homeless have to move out immediately. We will give you places to stay, but far from the Capitol. His press secretary followed up. Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental health services.

39:53And if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time. But about a month into the law enforcement surge, homeless advocates say this. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no new mental health services put online and certainly none offered to our guests. And advocates say the Trump administration has not provided places to stay as promised. The D.C. government has scrambled to provide some additional shelter beds, but that's a short-term solution some unhoused residents don't consider safe. Jeff Padgett reached his destination, a thatch of woods on the Virginia side of the river.

40:28Out of necessity, he's disappearing from view, but the issue of homelessness isn't going away. What Jeff hopes will disappear is the way the public views those who are unhoused. Don't judge anyone by where they're at until you know where they came from, their circumstances, or why they're where they're at. A critical challenge for the homeless people we spoke to is how long they can ride this out, how long they'll have to hide. Jeff Padgett says he's on a wait list for subsidized housing, but he says that could take months. So Jeff and others like him might have to keep using those tactics of evasion until this law enforcement surge ends.

41:06Jake? Thanks to Brian Todd for that. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the infamous Epstein birthday book is now in the hands of Congress, and the page allegedly from President Donald Trump is now public. The White House is already claiming that the signature is fake, of course. We'll let you take a look for yourself and decide in just minutes. Plus, a high-profile meeting in Washington, D.C. today, as President Trump says. He's ready to slap new sanctions on Russia, but time after time, we've heard Trump give Moscow a deadline that's come and gone with little to no consequences.

41:40So what's different now, if anything? Also, just yesterday, the Florida Surgeon General admitted to me that he and his department and his state did not do any research as to the possible impact before deciding to end vaccine mandates for everyone, including school kids. So just how severe could the consequences be? An Alaska scientist who won a Nobel Prize for helping to develop the COVID vaccines. That's ahead.

42:09The lead tonight, 24 days since the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Still no ceasefire. And in fact, Russia's attacks on its neighbor have only escalated over the weekend. Putin's army launched the biggest aerial assault of the war yet, targeting a Ukrainian government building for the first time. Remember, right before the Alaska summit, President Trump warned Putin there would be, quote, severe consequence if Putin wasn't serious about a ceasefire immediately. But a week after that summit, Trump gave Putin, quote, a couple of weeks. And last week, Trump promised, quote, you'll see things happen, unquote, if Putin makes a decision Trump doesn't like.

42:46On Sunday, Trump told reporters he'd speak with Putin, quote, very soon. He threatened to phase two of sanctions. Phase one was the secondary sanctions against India, which put a steep tariff on India's purchases of Russian oil and gas. CNN's Caitlin Collins is here. And Caitlin, just using the words for like on their face, that doesn't seem like severe consequences yet. No, I mean, and he's threatened sanctions multiple times, not followed through on them yet. And given multiple deadlines and obviously a lot of those have come and gone, all of them have come and gone. But the president has been watching these attacks.

43:20He says he's not happy. Something that he's been saying privately for months now, but really publicly has started saying more clearly recently. And he was talking to reporters yesterday about this most recent attack. And this is what he had to say.

43:35But I am not happy with them. I'm not happy with anything having to do with that war. It's just such a waste of great humanity. You know, Europe, certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday or Tuesday. and individually. And I think we're going to get that settled. Now, the top sanctions official is here in Washington. Whether or not they do decide to move forward with sanctions remains to be seen. I thought what Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, had to say about this most recent strike on the cabinet of ministers in Ukraine was telling because he had just visited there, visited the prime minister recently.

44:13And he said the danger in any war is escalation and that Russia appears to be escalating with this largest attack of the war hitting the offices of the Ukrainian cabinet in Kyiv. It's that last sentence though, Jake. He says the attack was not a signal that Russia wants to diplomatically end this war. Now, people inside the West Wing, that is not a surprising viewpoint from Keith Kellogg. He has very much been someone who has been advocating for action against Russia. Whether or not, though, the president adopts that stance remains to be seen. And Caitlin, we should note that Ukraine's first lady, Mrs.

44:48Zelensky, said she's going to meet with first lady Melania Trump later this month. This is one of the rare issues where Melania Trump has said something publicly about the war, expressing outrage about all the Ukrainian kids that Russia has kidnapped. Yeah. Remember when we were in Anchorage, President Trump gave President Putin a letter from Melania Trump basically saying, end this war for the sake of the children who are caught up in the middle of this. Obviously, days later, Russia responded by attacking Ukraine and striking them again, which was not killing some Ukrainian kids, killing Ukrainian children, hitting hitting a school at one point.

45:20That was not taken well inside the White House. Obviously, it seemed like a rejection of of what Melania, her personal request to President Putin, which obviously the White House places high value on. So this meeting will be really interesting because it's the first time they've met, I believe. She was invited to a summit in Europe and instead the two of them are meeting in New York. her words weigh heavily on President Trump and her viewpoint. And you've heard President Trump talk about that, saying, you know, after he's had a call with Putin that he's described as great, and then there's a Russian strike on Ukraine, Melania Trump will say to him, didn't you just talk to him and have a great phone call?

45:56Like, obviously, he's not listening to you. So her viewpoint has a lot to do. If this meeting with that changes anything, it could be significant. All right, Kaitlin Collins, thanks so much. And don't miss Kaitlin on her show, The Source with Kaitlin Collins. Tonight, she's speaking to House Oversight Committee member Jasmine Crockett, Congresswoman Democrat from Texas. That's tonight at 9 o 'clock Eastern, only here on CNN. Joining us now, Republican Senator from North Carolina, Tom Tillis. And Senator, good to have you here. You posted on Twitter or X after Russia's most recent massive attack.

46:25Quote, it's time to stop this liar and murderer, referring to Vladimir Putin, of course. How would you stop Putin if you were calling the shots? Well, I'd be redoubling my efforts to support Ukraine in every way that I can in terms of weapons, in terms of resources, in terms of intelligence, the things that we know that could absolutely defeat Russia. The only reason Russia wins in this war is that the West and the United States back away. There's no way Putin can be successful otherwise. We've got to put the pedal to the metal. I think that we should pass the sanctions bill out of the Senate, let it lie in the House until the president wants it.

47:01but upped the pressure on this guy who met with our president about three and a half weeks ago in Alaska and then gets a red carpet greeting here. Then he gets a red carpet greeting meeting with the world's worst totalitarians. And then he goes back to Russia and orders the largest air assault since the beginning of this war. He is a liar. He is a murderer. He's responsible for the abduction and relocation of thousands of children, rape, murder and torture of Ukrainian women and men. It is time to stop and America needs to lead on this issue. Take a listen to Ukrainian President Zelensky this weekend talking about the summit in Alaska.

47:44I think that President Trump gave Putin what he wanted. He wanted, you know, he wanted very much to meet with President Trump, with the President of the United States. And I think that, and I think that Putin got it and it's a pity. Do you agree with Zelensky that Trump gave Putin what he wanted and it's a pity? No, I think we got to get a little bit of a context here with respect to the President of Ukraine. President Trump hates war. And the thing he hates most about war is sacrificing American men and women. And I understand that. But I really believe if you don't have a counterweight to a growing threat of totalitarianism, and the litmus test is in Ukraine, we fell in Ukraine.

48:32We're going to put far more American lives at risk having to regain the foothold that we have for democracy in Europe. So now is the time the president has done a number of things to demonstrate that he was being patient. But now is the time to actually put Putin in a position where he's going to fail. I don't believe that that man deserves a seat at the table. And I believe that the Ukrainians deserve our fulsome support and the support of the Western world. Do you think Trump's sanctions on India for buying Russian oil were enough of a response to Putin not agreeing to the ceasefire back in Alaska?

49:08You know, why make a country that we have great economic ties and growing evidence that they were looking to the West for arms shipments? They saw what a piece of junk Russia's technology is on the battlefield. I mean, my goodness, they couldn't. They thought they were going to occupy Europe or, I'm sorry, occupy Ukraine in a couple of weeks. Now we're talking years. So, India was moving in our direction. and then we add another level of tariffs that make them talk to totalitarians to have an option. I think that we've got to be very careful with that. Hold India accountable to a trade deficit, but not let that get swept into an alliance of Western-looking countries.

49:50India's got a lot of work to do. But then, I mean, the Wikipedia picture of totalitarians in Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin. Yeah. Let's turn to something, a tragedy in your home state, North Carolina, recently surfaced. A gruesome video shows this poor woman, this 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, getting stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train last month, August 22nd. The video has sparked a debate about crime in U.S. cities. You say the problem is, quote, weak on crime judges and prosecutors. What do you think should be done to prevent this sort of thing? Obviously, this assailant.

50:28I think it's more complicated than that. There's only so much you can communicate. I mean, it's soft on strategies for behavioral health. This man should have never been in the general public, but between prosecutors not going after them or having access to behavioral health, there's a lot of ways that you could rationalize or look at what a tragic event that was and the victims. But I also have to say that Mecklenburg County is a sanctuary county. There are some local law enforcement agencies that work with federal agents, but hey, we've got to get into this. You've got to set the tone by cooperating with every law enforcement agency at every level and probably need to get rid of the free turnstiles, the honor system that they have for our metro system there.

51:14This created a dangerous environment where police officers and public safety officers were not present. So there are a lot of... I'm not going to blame any one group, but I do believe that The mayor, the city council, the Mecklenburg County leaders need to get focused on reducing crime. North Carolina and Charlotte still is a relatively safe city. There are many cities, many red cities, that actually have to work on their crime problems, too, at the local level with us providing support. Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, thank you, sir. Always good to see you. Thank you, Jake. Jeffrey Epstein's estate has just turned over the birthday book to Congress, and the White House is claiming this signature in the book is not President Trump's signature, but with an actual picture of the letter, Trump's defamation suit might have gotten a bit more complicated.

52:01We're going to have a legal breakdown next.

52:07In our Law and Justice lead tonight, the White House is claiming that a signature in Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book from 2003 is not President Trump's signature. This afternoon, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released this picture from the birthday book with the text, quote, We got Trump's birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the president said doesn't exist, unquote. But White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Taylor Budowich, quickly tweeted, Time for News Corp to open that checkbook. It's not his signature defamation. As you may recall, Trump sued News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, for$20 billion after the journal initially published the report about the Epstein birthday book and Trump's contribution.

52:44Let's bring in CNN senior legal analyst, Ellie Honig. Ellie, I don't know, the signature looks pretty close to Donald Trump's signature, if not exactly like Donald Trump's signature, and maybe not the ones in the pictures that Taylor Budovich tweeted out. But here's one from an executive order that President Trump did in a letter, rather, in 2015. I mean, it's pretty identical. Is this going to make Trump's defamation case against News Corp more difficult? It's going to be way more difficult, Jake, now, because if you look at Donald Trump's actual complaint here, his lawsuit, he alleges first that the letter is, and I quote, non-existent.

53:21Well, now we know that that's off the table. The letter certainly does exist. And now Trump's going to have to make a fallback argument that we're hearing that, well, maybe this is not his signature. But again, if you look back at the Wall Street Journal, they hedged on that. The original article by the Wall Street Journal does not say definitively this is his signature. In fact, the article actually says the circumstances around the creation of the letter are unclear. So Trump has to prove, A, that the reporting was false, B, that it was knowingly or recklessly false. And I think this was a long shot to begin with.

53:51And I think the appearance of this letter has made it even longer of a shot. But what do you think is going to happen next? Will News Corp try to get the case thrown out since the public has now seen this image that Trump allegedly signed from the Epstein estate, from the actual birthday book? I mean, I don't know what the journal reported that isn't proven today. Absolutely. So the next move you will see will be from the Wall Street Journal, the defendants. They will make a motion to dismiss. This new development will certainly feature in that. They will argue, A, nothing was false, and B, nothing was knowingly or recklessly false.

54:25And that's a really important moment in the case, Jake, because if this case gets dismissed, then of course it's over. But if not, that may not be great news for Trump either, because that means we move into discovery and that will include under oath depositions of Wall Street Journal personnel, potentially up to and including Robert Murdoch, but definitely of the plaintiff, Donald Trump. So if this does not get dismissed, we're going to see Donald Trump questioned under oath about this letter, about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I'm not entirely sure Trump has thought this one all the way through.

54:54Another big legal headline today, the US Supreme Court siding with President Trump over the controversial ice patrols in Southern California at issue. A series of incidents were masked and armed immigration agents pulled over people who identified as Latino to ask them about their immigration status. What exactly did the justices rule here? Because there are a lot of Democrats saying that basically they said, the justices said racial profiling is okay. Yeah, so the district court said that this practice was unconstitutional, that it was racially discriminatory, that it violated the Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure.

55:27The Supreme Court today temporarily disagreed. They said ICE may continue to make stops based on the language that a person is speaking, Spanish as opposed to English, based on their apparent ethnicity, meaning based on their appearance, their skin color, and based on where they are, Home Depot or a car wash or something like that. We don't know the exact reasoning because the Supreme Court didn't really go into detail. Justice Kavanaugh simply said, well, agents of immigration are allowed to look at all of the circumstances in deciding whether there's reasonable suspicion. The three liberals dissented ferociously.

55:59A lot of court cases. We should also note an appeals court upheld the$83.3 million jury award against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll. But I want to ask you about Trump today saying that his administration will soon issue guidance protecting the right to pray in public schools. Where does the law stand on this? So there was a Supreme Court decision three years ago where the court said it is okay for a public high school football coach after a game to have a prayer at midfield where he took a knee and other people could join him. But the thing is, that is different. That is not nearly as invasive and coercive as having required prayer in the classes.

56:37So the Supreme Court has definitely shown willingness to expand the ability of people to engage in religious activity in school, but I don't think they're going to go that far. Ellie Honig, thanks so much. And Ellie's new book is coming out. It's called When You Come at the King, Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump. It comes out next week. We'll talk to him all about the book next week, but it's available for pre-order now. Coming up, Fuhrer from a top U.S. ally today after more than 300 South Korean workers were swept up in an ice raid down in Georgia. We're breaking down exactly what happened in the fallout next.

57:12And back with our world lead, the longstanding critical relationship between the United States and South Korea appears to be in something of a hot water situation. South Korea's top diplomat is making his way to the U.S. right now after one of the biggest ice raids in years swept up more than 300 South Korean nationals, workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia last week. CNN's Kylie Atwood's here now. Kylie, there's at least enough goodwill that South Korea's government negotiated with the U.S. to get the workers back to Korea on a charter flight. That's right. We don't know when that charter flight's actually going to leave the United States and go back to South Korea, we don't know what the immigration status of the workers on that flight is going to be, if they're going to be able to come back to the United States or not.

57:52So there are still some open-ended questions. The foreign minister coming here to Washington this week will watch and see what comes out of those meetings. But I did talk to some U.S. diplomats who are familiar with this topic, and they did say that it has been in the backdrop for a while. There are some South Korean companies and subcontractors who have been skirting the visa rules, sending workers here on a visa for work that's not allowed on the visa that they're here for. So it has been an issue that's in a backdrop, clearly now on the front page. What is the immigration status of these workers?

58:24Were they here illegally? Well, there were about 300 of them, and we don't know the immigration status of all 300. I spoke with a lawyer representing some of them who said, listen, the people that I'm working with were here legally. They were here on a visa waiver program. They were doing work that was allowed as part of that visa waiver program, installing engineering issues at this plant that was just trying to get up and running in the coming months. But we don't know the immigration status of all of these South Koreans. And that is a key question that we're going to watch diplomats and, of course, ICE enforcement folks key into.

58:58The backdrop here, Jake, is also that Trump is headed to South Korea next month. So the U.S. and South Korea really do want to make sure that their relations are on a good page leading up to that critical visit. All right. Interesting. Kelly Atwood, thanks so much. Appreciate it. What are the potential consequences of Florida's push to end all vaccine mandates in the state, including those for public school children? I'm going to ask a doctor who won a Nobel Prize in medicine for his contributions to the COVID vaccine. That's next.

59:27In our health lead, the state of Florida announced that it will become the very first state in the United States to end vaccine mandates for everyone, which immediately impacts mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B and chickenpox and HIV influenza and diseases including meningitis. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers will now look at passing a law to end the remaining mandates that need to be passed using legislation, including vaccines for polio and mumps and measles and tetanus. Yesterday, I spoke with the man behind this major decision, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Latipo.

1:00:05Did you do any data projection of how many new cases of these diseases there will be in Florida once you remove vaccine mandates?

1:00:19Absolutely. So absolutely not. What I'm saying is that it's an issue of right and wrong in terms of whether parents should be able to control, have ultimate authority over what happens to their kids' bodies. And in terms of outbreaks, we do have outbreaks in Florida, just like every state. And we manage those, so there are no new special procedures that need to be made. Let's discuss with Dr. Drew Weissman, director for the Institute for RNA Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He is a 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient for his discoveries that enable the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that save millions of lives in the United States.

1:00:59So, Dr. Weissman, what was your reaction to both the fact that the Department of Health in Florida did not engage in any sort of data projection as to how many new cases of these diseases there will be once they lift the mandate, and also just his reasoning that this is just a matter of liberty and parents' rights? So I guess I have to take exception to everything. Not having data on major medical decisions is crazy. It's anti-science. And giving people ultimate rights, that's wonderful. But if you drive a car, do you have a driver's license? Do you have auto insurance? Those things are mandated by the government because they protect lives.

1:01:50Vaccines protect more lives than anything else we've ever done in medicine. So by taking those mandates away, and we can already see this from the measles epidemics, whooping cough, tetanus, other preventable childhood diseases that are running rampant across our country and killing kids. So to me, it's really an unbelievable event. I was also surprised because I asked him that if, you know, obviously making such a projection, first of all, would allow you to make a cost benefit analysis. Okay, if we do this, these, you know, these millions have full and complete liberty, but we're going to lose these number of kids or there are going to be these number of people who get hospitalized.

1:02:39Obviously, Florida has a lot of seniors, too. But then I also wondered, what about just positioning, pre-positioning treatments in the most vulnerable counties where they think this is going to hit the most? And he said, no, no, no, we don't need to do that. We're all ready for outbreaks just the way we deal with outbreaks all the time. Yeah, it's completely different. The way you treat an influenza outbreak is very different from a measles or a polio virus or another preventable disease. I mean, polio has an enormous mortality rate. We've had cases of polio in the past decade. In an unvaccinated population, polio will kill hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people.

1:03:29For Florida parents who might want to vaccinate their kids, will the lack of vaccine mandates make it more difficult for them to figure out what shots they need and how to get them? Could that also lead to lower vaccination rates as opposed to, you know, a list that you get from the school and it says, here are the 10 vaccinations that your kid needs to be able to enter kindergarten? So I would hope not. I think the pediatricians know that vaccines are necessary and they're going to remain in contact with the parents. The problem is going to be increasing numbers of parents who in the past looked for other exemptions to avoid vaccines will now just say no.

1:04:13And that number is going to increase because people don't want to have to lie about religion or other reasons to avoid vaccines. So the number's going up. Yeah, we just lost Dr. Weissman. Thank you so much, Dr. Drew Weissman. Appreciate it. Is there a chance that President Trump's meddling in the New York mayoral race is actually helping the candidate that he wants to lose? Our political panel will weigh in next.

1:04:43We do not need the National Guard here in New York City. This has nothing to do with questions of crime and safety. It is an attempt to insert Donald Trump, his agenda, his vision into the hearts of municipalities that showcase an alternative style of politics that is actually for people. That's Zohran Mamdani. He's the Democratic nominee in the upcoming New York City mayoral race, speaking earlier today. My panel is back with me. And Chuck, you're the Democrat on the panel here. Some politicians in New York think that President Trump is actually helping Mamdani rather than hurting him. Whether it's Trump talking about former Governor Andrew Cuomo beating Mamdani if it was a one on one race.

1:05:26Trump aides talking about a potential ambassadorship for Mayor Eric Adams, who's an independent candidate, trying to get him to leave the race. Take a listen to what former Governor Cuomo said earlier today on CNN. And I believe the Republicans could take Mom Donnie and make him the poster child for what has happened to the Democratic Party. They've been taken over by socialists. I believe it would be very damning to the Democrats in midterms. What's your reaction? Where do you come down on this? Because obviously, I mean, Schumer, senator from New York, has not endorsed Mom Donnie. Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader in the House, minority leader, has not endorsed Mamdani.

1:06:08I don't think Gillibrand has either. I mean, so obviously he's something of a conundrum for your party. Right. And it cuts both ways. And the Democratic Party is big, and I get that. And New York City is not East Texas. I get that, too. And it cuts both ways of where when he wins, and he's going to win, Republicans will run TV ads saying we're all Democratic socialists in East Texas, where I'm from. But he also has brought like 50 ,000 people have signed up and a lot of excitement because he's run a campaign about affordability that even somebody in East Texas could do. But the Republicans who are very good at this will run branding saying that everybody's Mondani and everybody's a socialist.

1:06:42So Cuomo has also said he has not sought President Trump's support. He would not accept it. He went on to say how he's the only one that can stand up to Trump. How do you see this? Look, I want to touch on something Chuck just mentioned about the affordability issue. I agree there is certainly a message to be articulated to the voters about affordability and the answers that both sides would approach to addressing those concerns and needs. But I think from the conservative perspective, the question is, in addressing affordability, should you have significant federal encroachment from the government or should you see increased private sector participation with some limited government support to address those concerns and issues?

1:07:23And I think most people would probably say, yes, we've tried some of these things. Abby Phillips just interviewed this guy, and she asked him about the grocery store issue. And she said, Mr. Mamdani, we've tried this before. It was not very successful. You don't have to look at the United States. Government setting up grocery stores. In a pilot program. Correct. But my point is, when you challenge demerits of the veracity of his claims of what he would like to do to make life better for New Yorkers, one doesn't need to look very far, Jake, to see the results are disastrous. The Washington Post is reporting that the West Point alumni group is canceling a ceremony honoring actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks.

1:08:04They say they're doing this so they can focus on preparing cadets for the future. But President Trump is celebrating the move. He posted on Truth Social earlier today. Our great West Point, getting greater all the time, has smartly canceled the award ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move. We don't need destructive, woke recipients getting our cherished American awards. Speaking of government overreach, as we bring it up here, here's a great example. Go ahead, Chuck. How the Republicans are doing this, right? This is exactly what America can get this piece of it. I mean, sometimes Democrats can be too lofty in our messaging.

1:08:36We can talk over people. And I own all of that because I agree that my party can do that. But this is just blatant, like payback politics. And I think regular folks out there are uneasy with this kind of stuff. And they all love Tom Hanks. And we should just note, I mean, he has done a lot of work for, I think, the World War II Veterans Memorial. And disabled veterans. And disabled veterans. He is very altruistic. He's done some incredibly important Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers he produced. I mean, you know. Good movie. Look, we're living in very disparate times. I would venture to say if Democrats were to invite someone who was a known star who happened to be a supporter of President Trump, many supporters of that organization would not be very happy, even if that person was very benevolent in their private lives.

1:09:21And I think you're seeing the same thing here. We're living in a very closed society now in terms of politics where people are in their silos. And this doesn't surprise me, the result that they rescinded that invitation. Do you guys remember Cleta Mitchell? She was a legal advisor back in 2020, tried to help Trump overturn the election results. She's now suggesting that Trump might declare a national emergency to take control of national elections. This is what she had to say on the show Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. Take a listen. The chief executive is limited in his role with regard to elections, except that where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States, as I think that we can establish with the poorest system that we have, then I think maybe the president is thinking that he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward.

1:10:18Now, to be to be clear, there's no evidence that President Trump or the RNC are on board with that. But but what do you make of the reason she's an ex-advisor? I don't think the president's thinking about this. And the president has made numerous statements about what he plans to do beyond 2028, hopefully continuing to help the Republican Party raise money. Hopefully we win the White House in 2028. I think we have a good candidate being the vice president of the United States compared to what my friends on the other side are looking at. And so I think that's a ludicrous, preposterous thing to even throw out there.

1:10:48I would not give that any oxygen whatsoever, Jake. I think the president is focusing on governing and what his life will look like after the White House. Our forefathers saw all of this coming. Like, let's go to the Mexican Redneck, give you all a history lesson, is that this is why we run elections at the state and local level, because our forefathers knew that some president, if they wanted to, I'm not saying Donald Trump wants to take over the election, But that's why we have elections in Pennsylvania different than we do in Texas. But when she said that he could, like I used to say Donald Trump couldn't get elected.

1:11:18Then I used to say he'd never do this. I don't never say he'll never do anything anymore because anything is possible. And when she puts it out there, she's just salt in the clouds to see who will pick it up. Who is this woman? Who's listening to her? Who is she advising in the White House? The same name as my great grandmother. When did that change for you? Was it January 6th? Was that when you decided, like, I can't say he'll never? It was three weeks after January 6th when they all caved. Because on January 6th, I was like, okay, this is it. Folks are going to stand up. But it was when everybody calmed down and then the Speaker went to Bar-Lago when I was like, we're never going to see a change.

1:11:49Again, I don't think that's going to happen. I think the President has been very clear about what he plans to do during this term and beyond when he's out of office. And by the way, I know a lot of Democrats give Republicans a lot of hell about, quote, unquote, not standing up to the President. But I think you'd have ire in the House and the Senate where Republicans wanting to respect the Democratic norms, if that was even a possibility. But again, it is not a possibility. This is a fringe ex-advisor that means nothing to me or the White House, in my opinion. Chuck and Shermichael, thanks for both of you for being here.

1:12:20Great panel. Really appreciate it. Turning to our sports lead, President Trump's U.S. Open attendance yesterday, causing a security nightmare for thousands of fans. Many of them had to wait nearly two hours to get in due to extra security measures. Pretty typical for any time any president goes anywhere. The president was met with boos and also cheers from the crowd. Those watching the match on TV, however, only saw Trump a few times. Joining us now to discuss is former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe. He did the play-by-play for the women's final and was an analyst for the men's final.

1:12:49Patrick, good to see you as always. It was reported that the U.S. Open asked broadcasters, ESPN and ABC, to avoid showing any disruptions or reactions to the president's attendance. I don't think that they abided by that request. But what was it like inside the stadium? Did his presence cause a distraction? I think it caused a lot of excitement, Jake, to be honest. And when I had heard a few days before some rumblings that the president may be coming, the first thing I thought to myself was, you know, this is a big difference from what happened potentially could happen 10 years ago, 11 years ago before he became president.

1:13:232015 was the last time Trump came. He used to come all the time. You know, there's celebrities all over the place at the U.S. Open. And it's like the A-lister event for the Manhattan elites, which, of course, Trump was one of them. And when I heard, I thought, well, Trump must think that things have changed because the last time he came to the U.S. Open, he was booed out of the stadium. And we certainly know that the New York City crowd, maybe not as pro-Trump as some other places that he's been for sporting events, college football games, UFC, et cetera, et cetera. But as you said, yes, there were some boos when he was shown on the big screen.

1:13:57There were also a lot of cheers. You know, so I heard from my liberal friends and I heard from my conservative friends, you know, both doing what we all seem to be doing in this country now, which is sort of taking sides. The reality is it was great for tennis. I think that the president, the sitting president of the United States came to the U.S. Open final. There's a lot of buzz, a lot of excitement around that. As you mentioned, the security issue turned out to be a nightmare. I mean, I called the match, as you said, Jake, the match started, first of all, 45 to 50 minutes later than it was supposed to.

1:14:28Not because of Trump, but because of those people that you're showing up right there that were waiting. That, by the way, paid a fortune for those tickets to get into that stadium. And then when the match started, it was 4-3 in the first set. They'd been on the court for a half an hour. So now this is about an hour and a half after the scheduled 2 p.m. start time. there were still thousands of people waiting outside to get into the stadium. If I were one of those fans, I would have been pretty ticked off, Jake. Yeah, that's the U.S. Secret Service. They don't take any risks there. As for the men's final, let's talk about that.

1:14:59Carlos Alcaraz won his second U.S. Open title, defeating Yannick Sinner in four sets. This means Alcaraz reclaims the new number one player in the world, replacing Sinner. Given how many finals matchups we've already seen between the two, Do you anticipate Alcarez to hold on to the number one spot for long? You know, it's interesting because these two guys, you know, we just finished the era of the big three in men's tennis. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic is still hanging around, but he can't keep up with these two young guys. So now you've got Sinner and Alcarez that have won the last eight majors combined, Jake, four and four each of them.

1:15:35That's the last two years. There's nobody else out there, at least at the moment, that looks like they're going to be able to challenge these two. So for the near future, these two are far and away the two best players in men's tennis, and it seems like that's going to continue for the next few years. It's been quite something to see these two take the game to a whole other level. Meanwhile, Arena Sabalenka defeated American Amanda Anisimova in straight sets to win the U.S. Open for a second straight year. Talk about how important it was for Sabalenka to win this Grand Slam, given the number of missed opportunities this season.

1:16:07Yeah, she lost in the finals of two of the other three majors. She lost to Anasimov in the semis of Wimbledon. She was close. She's been the best player, the most consistent player all year. But if you don't win a major, someone of her stature, it's a bit disappointing. So there's a lot of pressure on her. She put on herself. She won it. She's back-to-back now at the U.S. Open. The last female player to do that in New York, the one and only Serena Williams. So it was an awesome performance by her. And by the way, how about my Jets blowing it yesterday? And I know your Eagles, your Eagles getting it done.

1:16:38but they go to Kansas City, and believe it or not, Jake, your Eagles on the road, one-and-a-half-point favorites. So I have to tell you, some of my best friends are Jets fans, and, man, I really wish you had shown Aaron Rodgers the door. I mean, I'm sorry, but, like, that would have... I was rooting for the Jets. Patrick McEnroe, one of the best in the biz. Thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have you. Good to see you, Jake. Thanks. It's the animated movie that has taken over as Netflix's most-watched film ever. Ever! Coming up next, we're speaking to the directors of K-pop Demon Hunters to find out why it's appealing to viewers all around the world.

1:17:13Hey, this is the men's bathhouse. Get out of here!

1:17:20They're stealing the souls of the...

1:17:30It is annoyingly catchy, though. It's infectious. Infectious indeed. In our pop culture lead, this is now Netflix's most viewed movie of all time. It's become a total social media sensation. But even if you are perhaps of a certain age and have not seen this movie, you've probably heard songs like Soda Pop or Golden from the huge hit, the animated Netflix movie film K-pop Demon Hunters. Multiple songs from the film are still, still in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. more than two months after the film premiered to talk about what could come next. Movie directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans join me now.

1:18:12Wow, congratulations. So Maggie, Golden's still number one on the Billboard chart. It was even nominated for a VMA. Last night, the song's artists talked about what they would love to explore next. So what is the future of this film? Will there be a sequel? Is this now a franchise?

1:18:31It's the question of the moment. I think we're just very excited about the response. And, you know, we're excited for what's next and more to come. Chris, it took almost seven years to release this film. What are your thoughts on a possible timeline if there is a second one? Presumably the success would not mean another seven years. Yeah, no, I think, I mean, animation is a painstaking medium, no matter how you do it. But obviously we learned a lot making the first one. And there's an incredible team of people that were brought together to do that. A lot of institutional knowledge. So it always takes time, but probably not seven years.

1:19:20So Maggie, you've been outspoken about how important it is to bring Korean culture to light, to see heroines being silly and real. What has your reaction been to girls and adults around the world, not just Koreans, dressing up as these characters and giving them life outside the screen?

1:19:42I mean, it's been incredible. We were fortunate enough to attend a sing-along screening in New York a couple of weekends ago, And just to see young girls just dressed up as our characters and knowing every line of the movie, let alone the songs, was just incredible. And it just for me, being a woman and a mom myself to a young girl, it's really incredible to see these weird, silly, you know, sometimes stupid girls be embraced by the younger generation. So it's really incredible, yeah. Have you called, Maggie, have you called any of the people who told you no seven years ago and said, see, see, I told you.

1:20:30Have you done that? I'm working on it. I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to rub it in their faces. No, just kidding. No, it's, you know, seven years ago we didn't know, you know, with any of these movies it's a risk. and we didn't really know where K-Content and K-Pop would be. And, you know, still, it's great to see that it's going strong and getting the kind of love from those fans, but also seeing, you know, people who didn't know anything about K-Pop finding this movie and getting educated in it and becoming fans of K-Pop. It's really fun to see. It's great. Congratulations, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans.

1:21:13Thank you so much. and before we go we have some breaking baby news cnn senior producer will and his wife page welcomed hollis michael caddigan to the world yesterday on their wedding anniversary hollis weighs eight pounds 11 ounces that's a big boy 21 and a half inches long congratulations to will and page and big sister theo on this very exciting news we can't wait to meet him aaron burnett out Front starts now.