House Oversight Committee To Interview Alex Acosta

26:38CNN's Priscilla Alvarez was in Baltimore this morning and is here with us now to unpack it all. Priscilla, so what are the next steps in this legal battle? Well, there are multiple steps that are going to unfold from today, but a federal judge did order that for now the United States needs to keep Gabriel Garcia on the continental United States for now and not be moved to another detention facility. I'll get to that in a moment. But what we heard over the course of these initial court proceedings was concern from the federal judge about the way the administration wants to handle his deportation.

27:08As you mentioned there, they are floating Uganda, a far-flung country that he has no ties to as one that he could be deported to. And that stems, Jake, from a plea deal that the Trump administration had offered, essentially telling him that once he was released from criminal custody on Friday, that he would either take a plea deal and then have his criminal sentence here in the United States and then be deported to Costa Rica, or if he didn't do that, which he didn't, be deported to Uganda. So the attorneys for Ebreo Garcia have been saying that this is punishment, that this is retaliation. It makes no sense for them to send him there, and that is what the federal judge is concerned about.

27:45So she is setting up a scheduling order, essentially telling both parties, the Justice Department and Ebro Garcia's team, get together, tell me how you want the schedule to look like moving forward, and we will sort of go from there. But what I can tell you, Jake, right now is in terms of timeline, there is an order already blocking his deportation until Wednesday. Based off what she was saying over these court proceedings, it's unlikely he'd be deported before the end of the week, but this is still very much in motion. And in the interim, she told them not to remove, or rather, not to switch locations again, because while he was in Baltimore this morning, he's now in a detention facility in Virginia.

28:21It's common for ICE to move people around, but she is saying keep him there now because these proceedings are very active. And they want him to plead guilty for a charge of human trafficking, and this has to do with that stop in Tennessee years ago that no charges were ever filed until this became a case this year? Yeah, and you can understand the whiplash for viewers on this. Attorneys have refuted that he is involved in human smuggling. Federal judges have said the evidence is flimsy on this, but the administration has been sort of painting him as a bad actor, someone who has criminal charges, even though he has not been convicted of these charges.

28:59And it is the reason, Jake, that they brought him back from El Salvador for him to face these charges in the United States. But even with that being the case and with a trial set for January, they're trying to deport him in the intervening period. So you can see why this gets so confusing, why federal judges just don't understand the administration's strategy here. And in the interim, all of this is playing into where he goes. This is very bizarre. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. What could be a new hidden cost of Trump's tariffs? Reducing the deficit by$4 trillion. But who's paying for it?

29:32Is it the American consumer? Stay with us.

29:41and we're back with our money lead president trump is touting what could be a financial windfall for the united states but at whose expense is it american consumers it's based on trump's new tariff rates for various countries the congressional budget office updated its projections and now estimates that trump's tariffs could reduce the u.s deficit by a whopping $4 trillion over the next 10 years. Let's bring in Justin Wolfers. He's a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. So first of all, what do you think are the chances that the tariffs will actually last through 2035, which the CBO is basing its estimates on?

30:19Close to no chance. And that's one of the biggest problems, which is the whole idea of tariffs is you provide incentive for people to set up shop, but the tariffs are going to change before the shop gets set up. And as a result, I'm not sure we're going to get much action out of this. So then the big question about this$4 trillion is where is this$4 trillion coming from? Is it coming from foreign governments? Is it coming from foreign companies? For months here on The Lead, we've been talking to small business leaders about how the tariffs are affecting them. Most of them say that they are currently eating the tariffs, but eventually are going to have to pass on the cost to their consumers.

30:52So I wonder, in this projection, who pays this$4 trillion? Is it mostly American consumers? Yeah, Jack, I want to come back to something you said in the lead. You said this windfall for the American budget. It's not a windfall. It's a tax. And when you charge people a tax, the government gets revenue. It's as simple as that. In this case, here's how it works. If Best Buy brings in a washing machine, say from Korea, that washing machine gets shipped to America and it sits in the port in customs and it can't get out of customs until Best Buy writes a check for the tariff. So at the first level, Best Buy, an American company, is paying the tariff.

31:32But we economists like to look at it a little harder. Everything's connected to everything else. So there are some other things that could happen. Well, Samsung could decide what they want to do is keep their market share, which means they'd have to cut the price they're selling that washing machine at. But there's a price index called the Import Price Index, and it measures the price of our imports, not surprising. That has not fallen a penny. What that means is that Trump's promise that foreign companies would pay this tax turned out to be false. At the moment, Best Buy is paying the tax, but probably what's starting to happen, what has started to happen a few places and will happen more over the next few months is Best Buy will discover that its costs have gone up and then it's going to jack up the price.

32:17Either way, the cost is being borne by Americans. Right now, by Best Buy and therefore by my 401k, which is invested in that, later on, They'll jack up the price and it'll be American consumers. Simple point here. It's a tax on Americans being paid by Americans. Yeah. Just to be clear, when I said windfall, I was saying that's what President Trump, how President Trump is describing this. So what to do with the four trillion dollars coming from the tariffs? Trump once said he was considering a kind of tariff rebate check for American consumers. Here's what the Treasury secretary said about that, said about that last week.

32:48Take a listen. I think at a point we're going to be able to do it, but President Trump and I are laser focused on paying down the debt. What do you think? I think he's exactly right, that it would be crazy for there to be a rebate check. By the way, Jake, do you remember just a few months ago, we were being told that there would be so many trillions of dollars saved by Doge, we'd all be getting rebate checks. And I went all over TV having arguments with people saying, how big would the rebate check be? And it turns out Doge never saved anything. In this case, the Republicans just passed a budget.

33:24Their budget took an already existing budget deficit and made it worse. Let's not talk in trillions. What this is, is basically 400 billion per year over 10 years. That's the easy way to think about it. And basically they've already spent that. They've spent that giving tax cuts to rich people. So what does this mean? It means overall, what we've done is we've swapped one set of taxes for another. It used to be we had high income taxes on rich people. We've gotten rid of that. And to fill the budget hole, we're now putting tariffs on. Now, tariffs are paid by everyone. They're a sales tax, effectively.

33:56And so that means we've shifted taxes from the rich to the working and middle class because all of us buy imported stuff and therefore all of us are paying these tariffs. Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan. Thank you so much. Good to see you, sir. Pleasure, mate. Just two weeks after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Now, South Korea's leader wants President Trump to set up a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, even as the dictator makes a show of testing new missiles. That story's next.

34:35Topping our Worldly today, President Trump hosted South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung at a critical time for the historically ironclad alliance, rattled over Trump's unpredictability with trade and security as North Korea and China continue to threaten the region. Before the meeting, North Korea fired a new round of test missiles, accusing South Korea of stirring up tensions at the border. In the Oval Office, President Lee praised President Trump as the, quote, only person who can improve relations with North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un. Take a listen to President Trump earlier today. We'll arrange a meeting between you and Kim Jong-un.

35:10Would you like that? That's a very tough question. Look, I get along great with Kim Jong-un and whatever I can do. Joining us now, Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat from the Garden State of New Jersey. He is the very first Korean American to serve in the United States Senate. And you just got back from Korea and Japan. Let's play a little more from President Trump talking about the Korean Peninsula earlier today. If Hillary Clinton, crooked Hillary won that election, I think you would have had a nuclear war. It would have taken place and it would have been horrendous for everybody, including them. I'm not sure if you have a reaction to that, but if you do, I'd love to hear it.

35:50And do you think it's a good idea for President Trump to create a meeting between Kim Jong-un and President Lee? Well, I think that what's important right now to recognize, and I hope President Trump sees this very clearly, which is that North Korea is in a fundamentally different place now than they were during Trump's first term. We're talking about now, you know, Vladimir Putin is sending billions of dollars to North Korea. We literally have North Korean troops in Ukraine fighting alongside the Russian military. You know, North Korea feels strong. They feel like they have a strong partner in Russia.

36:24They're actually less dependent on China now. They are less desperate for food and resources. So, you know, we need to go in with our eyes wide open in terms of the geopolitical situation. And if President Trump is serious about exploring, talking with North Korea or taking these types of steps, one thing that absolutely needs to happen is we have to reassure our allies, South Korea, Japan, others in the Indo-Pacific, that right now, when I just visited South Korea and Japan and talked with leaders around, they call us unpredictable. They call us right now unreliable. You know, we need to be very careful when we're seeing, you know, talks and summits with Vladimir Putin.

37:06Right now, our allies and our partners are worried and we need to make sure we're stepping up for them. President Trump tried very hard in his first term for some sort of denuclearization in North Korea. Obviously, that didn't happen. Obviously, I don't begrudge him for trying and trying a new approach, but it didn't work. What do you think came of all that? Was it only just a boost for President Kim Jong-un? Well, look, it certainly lifted Kim Jong-un to the global stage in that way. But again, I'm a diplomat by trade, work at the State Department. I'm not opposed to talks. But one thing that always needs to happen is that we need to make sure that any engagements, we have to make sure that our allies are feeling like they are part of this.

37:51You know, we see the same challenges when it comes to the talks between Trump and Putin. You know, our European allies, especially our Ukrainian partners, you know, they are sometimes feeling uncertain or shaky about our posture vis-a-vis them. When it comes to a place like North Korea, I mean, this is at a time when China feels like they're on the ascent. You know, when I was going around Asia or I talked with leaders in the Indo-Pacific, they are talking about how China is on a charm offensive right now. They are out there engaging and they are saying that America is on the decline, that we are not going to be there for them.

38:27You just got back from a trip to South Korea and Japan with Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois. You were discussing economic and security partnerships, one of which was an emphasis on shipbuilding. Today, President Trump said the U.S. is going to buy ships from South Korea, but also have South Korea make ships here in the United States. Tell us more about this partnership when it comes to this. Yeah, I don't think the American people might know as much, but, you know, South Korea is a shipbuilding juggernaut. And right now, the United States needs ships, both military as well as commercial auxiliary.

38:59This is something that Senator Tammy Duckworth has been leading up, as well as a lot of my colleagues. This can be a win-win. You know, so yes, there are areas where I disagree with President Trump about foreign policy in the Middle East or to Korea or elsewhere, to Asia or Middle East or elsewhere. But when it comes to shipbuilding, when it comes to boosting our innovation, investing in advanced technologies, artificial intelligence, semiconductor chips, memory chips, these are areas of commonality. So I've certainly been trying to urge the Trump administration, my Republican colleagues in the Senate, let's focus in on the places where we know there's bipartisan support.

39:38We know there's a national security need. I live about 15 minutes away from the Philadelphia shipyard, the Philly shipyard, which was bought by a Korean company, Hanwha. And that, again, is a great partnership that can happen where we can make sure we're building up our capacity, building jobs here in the United States, building up our shipbuilding capacity while engaging with a strategic ally. That's a win-win. We don't need to constantly see things right now through a zero-sum lens when it comes to our foreign policy. So often, Trump's America first policy sometimes comes across as if it's America only.

40:16And I think we need to show that there are still places where our allies have a lot to offer the United States. All right, Senator Andy Kim, Democrat from New Jersey. Good to see you, sir. Thanks so much for coming here. Some rather nasty digs today between President Trump and the Illinois governor. Trump called Governor Pritzker a slob. The governor suggested that Trump's mental faculties are slipping. How far is this going to go? We're going to talk about this and play some of the back and forth next.

40:45Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Best thing that's ever happened to you financially.

41:17Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer. Really? I hit 200 on a scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly. Inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, unconstitutional and un-American. That is how Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is pushing back this afternoon, calling President Trump's suggestion of sending National Guard troops to Chicago a, quote, political stunt.

42:02We're going to go live to Chicago in moments. Plus, we're going to break down whether Trump's actions would even be legal. Also, just days after Hurricane Aaron skirted the eastern United United States. More than 180 current and former FEMA employees are warning about Trump's sweeping cuts to the disaster response agency. The changes, they say, are needed immediately to avoid another Hurricane Katrina-like catastrophe. And Israel is now admitting a, quote, tragic mishap, unquote, after five journalists and multiple health care workers were killed by Israeli strikes on a Gaza a hospital we're going to lay out the new investigation into what went so horribly wrong.

42:49We start today on our national lead on the escalating feud between Democratic governors and mayors and President Trump. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker this afternoon pushing back on President Trump's efforts to expand his federal policing efforts by sending National Guard beyond the nation's capital into other Democrat-led cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and New York City. Governor Pritzker of Illinois, not alone, the Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, also firing back posting on X or Twitter, quote, deploying the National Guard for municipal policing purposes is not sustainable, scalable, constitutional, or respectful, unquote.

43:27But not everyone in Chicago is against President Trump's plan, as CNN's Whitney Wild now reports. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American. Illinois top leaders firing back at President Donald Trump's plan to send the National Guard to Chicago. Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson. We are being targeted because of what and who we represent. Are people scared? They're concerned, right? I don't know traumatized is probably the best way I can describe it. Andre Vasquez serves on Chicago City Council and heads the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights. He calls the president's plan pure bluster.

44:10Is the National Guard coming to Chicago a realistic crime reduction measure? I don't even think they believe that. I think that they just want to make it look as if they're doing something. How do you think the city is going to react if they see National Guard troops rolling down Michigan Avenue? Well, I think there's different reactions, right? I think folks are prepared because there have been neighbor-led rapid response teams if ICE is showing up. Vasquez points out there are residents who may welcome the National Guard. City data shows double-digit drops in several major crime categories, including carjackings and robberies.

44:39But the city still struggles with violence. So far this year, 262 people have been murdered and more than 1 ,200 have been shot. Amina Haq, a lifelong Chicagoan, told us she supports the president's strategy because too often here, she says, crime is normalized. The residents deserve more. They deserve to feel safe. The crime should not take over the city. The crime should not make residents feel like they can't live everyday life.

45:09Jake, what the Illinois leaders here have said multiple times is that they have heard nothing from the federal government. And they say that lack of coordination is proof that this is not a sincere effort. And I asked J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois Democratic governor, if his office has reached out to the White House. Have they made any overture to the White House? And he said they have no reason to do so. What is very clear, Jake, is that no one in Illinois, no one at the federal government, there's no line of communication at this point between those two parties, Jake. All right, Whitney Wild in Chicago.

45:40Thanks so much. Here now is Tom Dupreez, a former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. Tom, you just heard Governor Pritzker slammed the president, the mayor of Chicago also pushing back on President Trump's plan, posting it would, quote, be the most flagrant violation of our Constitution in the 21st century. What legal authority does President Trump have here, especially if the state's governor and the mayor are against the deployment of the National Guard in their state? Sure. President Trump has the authority to deploy the National Guard for certain reasons.

46:14He can deploy the National Guard to protect federal officials, to protect federal property. He also can deploy the National Guard in the case of an insurrection under the Insurrection Act if he invokes his authority there. Beyond that, though, Jake, it's a bit ambiguous how far the power extends. It's fair to say that the federal government traditionally has not deployed the National Guard for just ordinary local or municipal policing purposes. I think in this case, if Trump does deploy the National Guard and ask them to take on what appears to be a fairly robust effort of policing, I strongly suspect we are going to see Pritzker or the mayor of Chicago file a lawsuit to try to stop it.

46:50But it's also an open question whether or not a federal judge would step in to enjoin the administration from implementing a policy that at least in the view of some Chicagoans is going to help public safety. In June, the Trump administration sent nearly 5 ,000 federal troops to Los Angeles. There was unrest there because of ICE raids and protests against the ICE raids. Some of the protester turning violent. He did that against the objections of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. There's a legal challenge currently in federal court over that deployment. Will that court challenge be important in establishing a precedent here?

47:29I think it is. That, as you know, is another example where the National Guard was sent in over the objections, at least some of the local political leaders. And so however that case comes out, I think would be a good guidepost to how far Trump can go in deploying the National Guard. That said, I think there are some differences. In other words, in Los Angeles, Trump was responding to an act of protests, arguably, at least in the view of the White House, there was an emergency situation in Los Angeles that required immediate attention. You don't quite have the same situation in Chicago. You obviously do have terrible crime numbers.

48:02You have a clear need for additional law enforcement there, but it's not quite the same emergency situation that you saw in Los Angeles. So while I think that case is certainly relevant, you know, there are some differences in Chicago. President Trump also wants to end cashless bail. Take a listen. Any street all over the country, cashless bail, we're ending it. But we're starting by ending it in D.C. and that we have the right to do through federalization. Now, the executive order the president signed directs the Trump administration to withhold federal funds to any cities that don't end cashless bail policies.

48:42Is there evidence? There are obviously anecdotal evidence. But is there is there broader evidence that cashless bail policies foster increased crime rates? Well, I think there is a connection. Look, I mean, I don't want to overstate it. if you're talking about justice reform, I don't know if people would necessarily put cashless bail at the very top of the list, but I do think it's an important issue. What we're seeing here is we're seeing an effort by the administration to leverage the power of federal funding. They're doing this in all sorts of different contexts where they're basically finding local policies that they don't like and they want to change, and they're using federal grant money or federal funding as a lever to affect those state policy changes.

49:25We'll see how it plays out in the cashless bail context. But I think as a practical matter, a lot of jurisdictions have already been scaling back the use of cashless bail. And certainly in cases of violent crime, it would be very rare to allow cashless bail. Don't want to say it never happens, but it's rare. Tom Dupree, thanks so much. Let's talk about this now with the Democratic Attorney General for the state of Illinois, Kwame Raul. Attorney General Raul, thanks for being here. Governor Pritzker and President Trump are trading insults. Moments ago, Governor Pritzker said the president was, quote, continuing to slip in his mental faculties.

49:58He called him a, quote, arrogant little man. And take a listen to what President Trump said about your governor in the Oval Office earlier today. I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there. I made the statement that next should be Chicago because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now. And they don't acknowledge it. What's your reaction to all this? Well, I don't, I'm not going to engage in the name-calling back and forth. What I will say is that the president has frequently exceeded his authority. He hasn't even acknowledged when he was asked on national TV whether he has to follow the Constitution of the United States of America.

50:40So he doesn't have a high regard for our Constitution and our federal law. And the notion of him sending the National Guard into the streets against American citizens is another example of such. You just heard, if you were listening to the show a few minutes ago, a lifelong Chicago resident telling our CNN's, telling CNN's Whitney Wilde that she supports what the president is talking about doing because crime has become, quote, normalized in Chicago. I also want to play something that Vice President Vance said earlier today. Take a listen. Why are Democrat governors angrier about federal law enforcement helping clean up their streets than they are about the fact that those streets need to be cleaned up to begin with?

51:23Why are Democratic governors doing everything in their power to make crime easier to do in their cities? What's your response to that, sir? Well, what's being suggested is not federal law enforcement. It's the federal military. We, ever since I became attorney general, which was during President Trump's first administration, we have collaborated with federal law enforcement, the FBI, the DEA, ATF, Secret Service, HSI, and other agencies. And we've had great collaborations on gun trafficking, internet crimes against children, organized retail crime and other violent crime. A state police director who I talked to moments ago talked about a recent case of collaboration with the FBI.

52:03But the military is not trained to do local law enforcement. And so if the president wants to enhance the help from the federal law enforcement agencies that are trained in law enforcement, we'd welcome it. If President Trump orders National Guard troops to Chicago to police the streets, as he's doing here in Washington, D.C., is there anything you can do as Illinois attorney general to stop that? Yes, certainly. There's federal law that dictates when the president should federalize the National Guard. We don't have a foreign invasion. We don't have an insurrection. And he's not alleging to do so to advance a federal law.

52:47And so the Posse Comitatus Act sort of sets the framework for federalizing the National Guard. And we have no emergency that dictates that it would be appropriate to send the National Guard into our streets as law enforcement officers. Well, President Trump might say you have a crime emergency, even if some crime rates, some statistics are dropping. There's too much violent crime in Chicago. What would you say to that? I would say stop redirecting FBI agents to review Epstein files or to do immigration enforcement. allow ATF and DEA agents and FBI agents to continue collaborating with our great law enforcement leaders.

53:33We've got a great superintendent in the city of Chicago. We've got a great director of state police who have collaborated with federal law enforcement. Enhance that collaboration with those who are trained to deal with crime. I don't mind that. I don't mind more resources to deal with crime. He has cut community violence interruption resources. Just last week, we sued the Department of Justice because they want to condition funding to help victims of crime. That's inconsistent with an administration that really cares about crime and victims of crime. The Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raul, thank you, sir.

54:13Appreciate your time. Thank you. The federal government promised tens of millions of dollars to help Baltimore after the catastrophic bridge collapse last year. So why is President Trump now threatening to withhold that money? Our panel weighs in next. Plus, he's accused of working with El Chapo to smuggle drugs into the United States, and now he's changing his plea to guilty. Those details are ahead.

54:41In our politics lead, President Trump is now threatening to reconsider funding to fix the collapsed Baltimore Bridge over a feud with Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore. Governor Moore called for Trump to visit Baltimore after Trump criticized its rising crime. Trump responded on social media saying Moore should, quote, clean up the crime disaster, unquote, before he takes a walk, and that he gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge and will now rethink that decision. The money, of course, was appropriated by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. But that being said, let's bring in my panel, Alyssa Farrah Griffin and David Urban.

55:18And Alyssa, the few doesn't stop there because Trump also made a comment in the Oval Office today about meeting with Governor Moore. Take a listen. I met him at the Army-Navy game. They said, oh, there's Governor Moore, he'd love to see you. He came over to me, hugged me, shook my hand, you were there. He said, sir, you're the greatest president of my lifetime. I said, it's really nice that you say that. I'd love you to say it publicly, but I don't think you can do that, so it's okay.

55:46Alyssa, your response? Well, we should ask Urban because he may have been with President Trump there. Listen, well, I think that's unlikely. I've interviewed Governor Westmore. I think this is 2028 playing out a little bit early, frankly. Westmore is somebody who's seen as a frontrunner to run for president. President Trump is also kind of in a spat with J.B. Pritzker right now. He's going after liberal cities. It's a win for him with his base. there is a perception and a belief, whether it's Chicago, whether it's Baltimore, even Washington, D.C., many feel like crime is really bad. Even if the macro stats don't necessarily bear that out, there's plenty of footage that you can find that validates people's concerns and feelings that crime is out of control there.

56:27But he also knows it's good politics to be starting fights with prominent Democrats, whether it's for his own benefit or whoever may run next. Newsom, Pritzker, Wes Moore, these are people he's choosing for a reason to be engaging with. David, you are a graduate of West Point. I don't know if, I assume you were at the Army-Navy game. Did you witness this event? I did not. Listen, I may think that Donald Trump is the greatest president in my lifetime, but I am fairly certain that Wes Moore does not hold those same beliefs, whether Donald Trump says so or not. Listen, I agree with Alyssa. I think that Donald Trump is in there mixing it up early on.

57:08This is ahead of the midterms, right? We're going to be over shortly. School's going to start. And you know what starts right after school? The 26 midterms. And so Donald Trump's picking one of those 80-20 issues on crime, whether the statistics bared out or not, it's a feeling. When you go downtown to D.C. to buy, you know, buy some RightGuard or toothpaste, you feel like you're trying to buy a Rolex, but you have to have people, you know, open their showcase to give you the toothpaste and deodorant. And so I think people sense that just like, you know, people say, well, crime's not that bad.

57:39Just like Joe Biden was cognizant. Right. And everything else the American people know are true. They see their own eyes. And so Democrats, governors, mayors, et cetera, could say, oh, our cities are safe. People don't feel that way. Trump's tapping into that nerve early on. And it's going to it's going to continue on from 26 through 28. Trump has been busy on Truth Social. He posted several times last night about NBC and ABC. in this particular post claiming that NBC News and ABC News give him 97 % bad stories, which is, I can't believe that statistic at all, and should, quote, have their licenses revoked by the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.

58:17So obviously, David, President Trump's anger with the mainstream media is not a new grudge. But does this feel different at all, this kind of threat, given the fact that he has Brendan Carr at the FCC, you know, doing a lot of things that Trump is happy about, not to mention getting settlements from the parent companies of CBS News and ABC News in recent months, tens of millions of dollars from Paramount and Disney. Yeah, listen, Jake, I think this is, you know, you pointed out this is more of the same. Donald Trump feels that the mainstream media does not characterize or cover him fairly, that it's, you know, since the 16 campaign, that it's kind of been downhill since then.

58:59And, you know, Same with the Republican Party writ large. And so, again, he's going to continue to bang on this theme through 26 through 28. So when when bad stories do show up, he's going to blame it on on the media. He's going to blame it on these liberal news outlets. Right. You've seen, you know, MSNBC is no longer MSNBC. It is now MSNOW. You know, people are losing faith in those institutions. And I think Donald Trump just call that the question even more. But I think, Alyssa, the question here, the thematic question is, President Trump, it's not just expressing a grievance. It's an explicit threat to use the power of the purse, the power of the presidency to go after anybody who dares criticize him.

59:44We just heard him do that with Wes Moore. We just heard him do it with NBC and CBS. Yes, President Trump, or I'm sorry, NBC and ABC, President Trump also threatened to reopen investigations into former ally, now critic, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie over the Bridgegate scandal from when he was governor. He was watching Chris Christie being interviewed on ABC's This Week yesterday. Here's a little taste. Donald Trump sees himself as the person who gets to decide everything. And he doesn't care about any separation. In fact, he absolutely rejects the idea that there should be separation between criminal investigations and the politically elected leader of the United States.

1:00:25And, Alyssa, quite tellingly, this was what Christie was talking about, the search of John Bolton's property, another Trump friend turned Trump critic. And I wonder how concerned you are that there might actually be somebody in the Justice Department right now trying to drum out some criminal charges or an FBI raid on Chris Christie's house. Listen, I think with the public, some of this criticism is baked in. You expect Queens guy Donald Trump to go after New Jersey guy Chris Christie and them to fire back and forth insults. It's something we've seen for many years. I would note Chris Christie worked for Donald Trump on the transition after Bridgegate.

1:01:03They had a good relationship for many years after that. So that was an odd thing to bring up. I don't know that that's something I see as very concerning or outside of the norm with Donald Trump. I think the John Bolton episode is very different. I think it's incredibly chilling. I personally worked with him when he was national security adviser. He was someone who is the height of professionalism. I would be stunned if he in any way mishandled classified information. That's something I think the investigation will bear out. But I think The Wall Street Journal had it right to say that that feels like a bridge much, much further when you're engaging in actual investigation rather than Trump just kind of spouting off on social media.

1:01:39And what I'd remind you is that's not the way people elected him. People don't want the retribution. They don't want his personal grievances. They want him to deal with the cost of living, to Urban's point, deal with crime, deal with immigration. That's where Donald Trump always wins. All right, Alyssa Farah Griffin and David Urban, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. The new warning today for more than 180 current and former FEMA employees as hurricane season begins to ramp up and wildfires scorched part of the Western United States. That's next.

1:02:10In the U.S., there's a break-in every 26 seconds. But when intruders step near, SimpliSafe Home Security steps up. Stop. This is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way. Using AI alerts, U.S.-based live agents help deter break-ins. SimpliSafe, no long-term contracts. Save 50 % on your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash Spotify or with promo code Spotify. Outdoor deterrence requires a SimpliSafe Active Guard outdoor protection plan starting at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. Tennessee 2012. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

1:02:42Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. In our national lead, you are looking at bright orange flames fill the horizon in central Oregon as the flat fire threatens nearly 4 ,000 homes with only 15 % containment, according to local firefighters.

1:03:26Local officials warn 90-degree weather and thunderstorms could complicate firefighting efforts. Extreme heat is also fueling dangerous fires further south. In northern California, Napa County officials issued evacuation orders and declared a local emergency as crews raced to contain what's called the Pickett Fire, threatening hundreds of wineries. Cal Fire says it's charred through 10 square miles as of now. Also internationally, this week will mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall and, along with the failure of the New Orleans levees, devastated the southern coast of the United States, killing nearly 1 ,400 people.

1:04:05A natural disaster made significantly worse by the federal government's self-admitted failures to respond. Today, more than 180 FEMA employees, former and present, sent a letter called the Katrina Declaration to Congress, an open letter warning that cuts in policies by the Trump administration could result, in their view, in another potentially even worse disaster. Former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell joins me now. Thanks for joining us. So the letter reads in part, quote, our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters.

1:04:41Compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration, unquote. Do you agree with that? Is that alarmism? What's going on here? I think the biggest thing out of that letter, Jake, is it really demonstrates the passion and the commitment that the FEMA workforce has to truly help people before, during, and after disasters. When I was there, so many people had been there for 10, 15, 20, even 30 years. And I would ask them, why do you stay? And they would all tell me the same thing because of the mission. We believe in the mission.

1:05:20There's not a lot of federal agencies that truly help people. And I do have concerns and I share their concerns in that letter about forgetting the lessons that we learned from Katrina and negating all of the progress that has been made over the last 20 years. But what specifically has President Trump or his administration done that you worry as of now, as of this hurricane season that is kicking off right now, could have an impact, a deleterious impact in a FEMA response? I think there's a couple of things. The first one is the fact that you don't have an emergency manager. You don't have the FEMA administrator with emergency management experience.

1:06:02That was one of the key lessons out of Katrina is having somebody that had executive experience in emergency management so they know how to anticipate and they can build relationships with our state and local partners. I think the second piece that's really glaring to me is the additional administrative burdens that have been put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. Again, one of the things that we learned during Katrina was you need a federal government that can be agile and respond quickly and not wait for requests, but also not have to wait for bureaucratic processes to approve different deployments of personnel or resources or commodities.

1:06:42And so those two things we've already seen show how they impact a response. I'm concerned that the staff know what they need to do, but they're not going to be given the flexibility and the autonomy to do what they know has to happen to start supporting these communities even before a hurricane makes landfall. I want you to listen to what President Trump himself has said his plan for FEMA is. Take a listen. We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level. A little bit like education, we're moving it back to the states so the governors can handle it. That's why they're governors now.

1:07:19If they can't handle it, they shouldn't be governor. Is that feasible, do you think? Well, I don't think it's accurate. Jake, state and local emergency managers have always had the responsibility to manage their disasters. I was a local emergency manager. It was my job to manage that. But when it exceeded my capability, then I would reach out to the federal government for assistance. The federal government isn't there to supplant what the states and the locals are doing. It's there to support them. And it's always been locally led, state managed and federally supported. And so every state has different capabilities.

1:07:58Not every state is going to have the same capacity. When you take away that piece of support that they have come to depend upon to help protect their communities, then you're really putting these communities in a much more vulnerable situation. We're in the in the middle of hurricane season or at the beginning, really, as things currently stand. Do you think FEMA is ready and able to help in the case of a natural disaster right now? I think that the men and women of FEMA are going to do everything they can, but they're limited. They have less staff, less institutional knowledge, and more requirements that slow down their response.

1:08:33And so I think it's going to be harder for them to do the job that they know that they need to do. It is hard just empirically to imagine that there isn't a federal government agency that doesn't have some bloat. Not to pick on FEMA, but just of all agencies, just the way that these things happen. Are there things that realistically FEMA could do without while still maintaining a robust system of preparedness and response? FEMA, Jake, is actually a pretty small agency, 22 ,000 employees ish, you know, give or take a day. And the majority of them are the intermittent employees, the reservists who only come to help support a disaster or help support communities when a disaster happens.

1:09:16You know, about a third of those employees are the full-time employees and another third are the full-time disaster employees. And then you have the reservists. Sure, there's areas where you can reduce some of the workload or some of the programs that are out there. But it has to still be done in a thoughtful manner with the stakeholders at the table with you so you can understand what they need, what they don't need, and where their frustration lies. When you're making decisions without that level of input, then you're going to create change just for change sake and it's not going to be informed.

1:09:50Former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, thanks so much. The investigation launched today after Israeli leaders admitted to a, quote, tragic mishap that killed 20 people, including five journalists at a Gaza hospital. The details next.

1:10:06And we're back with our business leaders series. That's where we hear from small business owners from coast to coast about President Trump's tariffs. Some people like them. Some people do not. Fontana Forney USA is a business that imports high end outdoor pizza ovens directly from the family owned manufacturer in Italy. It's been in operation since 1978. The U.S. distributor works in close collaboration with the Fontana family to bring their designs exclusively to North America. And CEO Jeremy Landy joins me now. Jeremy, thanks for joining us. So your business relies on an imported product that you can only get from Italy.

1:10:45How have the tariffs changed things for you? Yeah. Hi, Jake. Thanks. Thanks for having me on. The tariffs have impacted us in a couple of different ways. The first one is just being able to figure out how to navigate them. What most people don't understand is there's actually two tariffs on our products. The first one is just the standard 15 percent EU tariff. But then we have a second tariff, which is the steel tariff, which is 50 % of the cost of the steel. So to give some perspective, in June, I had two ocean containers come in and they were taxed at over 80%. And so we paid our 80 % tariff on these ocean containers that came in and later found out that that isn't exactly what the situation is.

1:11:34Working with our customs brokers, they're not even exactly sure what the procedures are. So not only does it tie up cash, it's just it's hard to plan. And it constantly has us rethinking inventory levels. 80 % tax or tariff is a lot. How are you weathering the costs? Do you have to raise prices? So it looks as if because the landscape is only always changing that we're not going to have an 80 % tariff at this point in time. but honestly, we're not exactly sure where it's going to land. But yeah, we've had to raise prices. August 1st was our first price increase in years. And it's something that we absolutely don't take lightly.

1:12:17We absorbed the cost for as long as we could. And we've even absorbed some of the cost to not pass it all on to the customer. But August 1st, we did have a 10 % increase in prices. And hopefully, we don't have to have another one. There's this brand new analysis that President Trump is touting. It's from the Congressional Budget Office, and it projects that Trump's tariffs over the course of 10 years are going to reduce the federal deficit by more than$4 trillion over the next decade, or about$400 billion a year. I assume that your perspective is that the people paying for that are you and your customers.

1:13:01Yeah, it's going to be the tariff burden comes on to us, and it's a matter of how much of that we want to pass on to our customers. We're a relatively small business, and we already have the absolute best of terms with Fontana Forney. And there's really not much to be done on their end either. So we're forced to raise prices in order to keep the quality and keep the highest level product we can out there. If President Trump were watching right now, what would you want to say to him about the tariffs? Yeah, it's just that, sure, we understand the tariffs, but really there needs to be transparency.

1:13:45There needs to be predictability. The sudden changes really disrupt our business. And if there was just clear guidance, it would it would really, really help us out. And you can shop for Fontana. Every day. Go ahead. Finish your thought. I would say every day we're listening to you. We're checking the news. We're trying to figure out, you know, how the tariffs are changing and how they're going to impact us. And it's it's a lot to navigate. It's a lot to navigate indeed. And you at home, if you want one of these beautiful pizza ovens, you can shop for Fontana Forney. That's F-O-R-N-I USA. Fontana Forney USA Pizza Oven.

1:14:22You can find them online. Jeremy Landy, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me. Have a good one. What President Trump said today about ending Israel's war against Hamas after yet another bloody strike by the IDF in Gaza. Stay with us.

1:14:43In our world lead this afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel, quote, deeply regrets the tragic mishap, unquote, that killed five journalists in southern Gaza today, including a cameraman for Al Jazeera and contractors for Reuters and the Associated Press. At least 20 people total were killed in the strike, along with several aid workers, according to the hospital that was struck. Here's President Trump when asked about the strike earlier today. I don't want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that all nightmare. CNN's Paula Hancock's reports now on the deadly attack for us.

1:15:19One the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists says could be classified ultimately as a war crime. A rush towards Gaza's NASA hospital after an Israeli strike Monday morning. Emergency response crews, health workers and journalists can be seen on live television on a damaged staircase. A television camera is held up. Reuters says a photojournalist working for them is killed. A white body back is carried away. And then a second Israeli strike.

1:15:53Smoke hides the staircase from view. When the dust settles, five journalists and four health workers are among more than 20 killed. Palestinian journalists who form the backbone of international coverage of this war, working with AP, Reuters and Al Jazeera, among others. Israel does not allow international media to enter Gaza beyond restrictive embedding with its military. A double strike just minutes apart. The second impact killing workers rushing to help casualties from the first. Just to be clear, if it is a double tap, that is considered to be a war crime. Israel's military says it, quote, carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital, but does not target journalists or civilians.

1:16:38The chief of staff has ordered an inquiry into the attacks. The IDF adding it, quote, acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals while maintaining the safety of IDF troops. An Israeli security official with knowledge of an initial inquiry says forces identified a camera on the roof of the hospital they claim Hamas was using to monitor Israeli forces. Authorised to strike the camera with a drone, the IDF instead fired two tank shells, the source says, The first at the camera, the second at rescue forces.

1:17:15Mariam Abidaga, 33 years old, worked for AP and other outlets throughout the war, most recently highlighting the impact of famine in Gaza.

1:17:27In this recent video, she says, I can't describe how tired people are, how sad or how hungry they are. It's been two years of this war on Gaza they can't handle anymore. She spoke to CNN last year about her concerns for her safety, saying when a journalist is targeted, all other media question when it will be their turn. At her funeral Monday, her family mourns a death they had feared for the 22 months of this war. Marion has a son, her cousin says. He went abroad with his father at the start of the war. She was waiting for the war to end so she could see him again. A 22-month war which has been the deadliest ever for journalists.

1:18:12Paula Hancox, CNN, Abu Dhabi. And our thanks to Paula Hancox for that report. Let's bring in CNN political and global affairs analyst Barack Ravid, who also reports for Axios. Barack, despite international alarm, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet are vowing to press ahead. in Gaza City. Palestinians want to see this war end. So many Israelis want to see the hostages come home and also want to see this war end. How much support does Netanyahu have within Israel and in the international community to continue this war? Well, Jake, I think this is definitely a controversial issue in Israel right now, in Israeli society, also within the Israeli government, and definitely between the political echelon in Israel and the military high command.

1:19:07This is not the operation that Netanyahu wants to push for right now, this new offensive to occupy Gaza City. It is not an issue that is within a consensus, not in the country and not in the defense establishment. And I think this is what is so different than any other phase in this almost two-year war, that for a long time, the continuation of the war was in consensus within Israel. It is not the case anymore. And tell us where the military leadership is on this versus Netanyahu and his more right-wing members of his cabinet, like Smotrich and the other one. I think that, you know, if you look at the IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, he told Netanyahu and the cabinet in every way possible that he does not believe that an operation to take over, to occupy Gaza City is a good idea.

1:20:16And I'm saying it very mildly. I think the IDF, high command wants or thinks that the way to go right now is to go for a hostage deal even if it is not a full deal that all the hostages come back but some kind of a deal that brings some of the hostages back in return for a ceasefire and then maybe move on to further deals for the rest of the hostages and a permanent end to the war I think the IDF high command thinks that the continuation of the war is not in Israel's interest at the moment. And you also have this new reporting in Axios on President Trump's efforts to push diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel, Syria, Lebanon.

1:21:05With Lebanon, he wants the government to disarm the terrorist group Hezbollah and normalize relations with Israel. That could be rather sizable if that actually is successful. Yeah, Jake, I think that this is, and it's very interesting to look at it and see how, on the one hand, when it comes to Lebanon and Syria, Trump is making slow, steady progress towards real diplomatic breakthroughs that have the potential to be historic. I mean, Trump got the Lebanese government to vote for a plan, for drafting a plan to disarm Hezbollah. This is an unprecedented thing. Trump managed to get Israeli and Syrian officials twice to sit down in Paris and talk about a security agreement, a new security agreement on the border, which has the potential of going forward to be a normalization agreement.

1:22:06Those are big things. They sort of happen under the radar. They don't get a lot of coverage here in America, unfortunately. But those are really big things. And when you look at what he's doing in Lebanon and Syria, and then you're looking at Gaza, you just don't understand how, on the one hand, he's making those real advances there. But on Gaza, Trump is getting stuck in this war. He's getting dragged into a war that can last for another year and hijacked his entire regional agenda. Barack Ravid, thank you so much for your reporting. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Our last leads now.

1:22:43We're going to start in our politics lead. President Trump signed a proclamation today marking the fourth anniversary of the 2021 tragic attack at Abbey Gate, the suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, where more than 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans were killed by a terrorist group. The president was joined by family members of those killed in the attack. The anniversary is tomorrow. A massive explosion flattened homes in a St. Louis suburban neighborhood today. Police say three people were transported from the scene with injuries and there is, quote, widespread damage to nearby homes.

1:23:15A bomb squad and arson team were called to the scene to investigate the cause of the blast. In our law and justice lead, former Mexican cartel drug lord Ismael El Mayo Zambada pleaded guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges today. Prosecutors say under Zambada's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel became one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in the entire world. He will be sentenced to life in prison next year. Aaron Burnett out front starts now. I'll see you tomorrow morning.

1:23:49A burst pipe. A dead water heater. The AC calling it quits. Who do you call? HomeServe is an easy way to handle unexpected home repairs. With plans covering stuff, basic homeowners insurance usually won't. Instead of scrambling for a contractor, you make one call to get the repair process started. Join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe right now. Go to homeserve.com slash podcast for 50 % less your first year. That's homeserve.com slash podcast. Savings compared to renewal price void in Florida. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Well, now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back.

1:24:27So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.