ICE-Involved Shooting in Maine Leaves One Man Dead

25:51It is standard operating procedure for federal and local officials to work together. It's how it worked in Minnesota after the Annunciation Catholic school shooting. It's how it worked after the assassination of former Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the other two individuals. Why did the Trump administration not cooperate originally? Well, I should say that it was also the way it was working the day that Renee Good was shot and killed. The local law enforcement partners were on the phones. We had agreed we'd do a joint investigation, and then that got cut short. I should also say that the agreement to exchange evidence was between local law enforcement here, the FBI, our BCA, which is the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the U.S.

26:43Attorney's Office, and our office. We've been having conversations, actually, since Renee Goode was killed. Those conversations started up again several weeks ago, and we were able to exchange evidence late last week. Right, but why didn't they cooperate? Why initially did the Trump administration refuse to allow the BCA, to allow Minneapolis police, et cetera, to do the investigation with them? So I can only speak to what they said publicly. They clearly stated, they called both Alex Preddy and Renee Good domestic terrorists and essentially said there didn't need to be any investigation, which is puzzling because I think any time a government entity takes the life of a community member, it doesn't matter what you think about it.

27:33You have to do a full and thorough investigation. You have to make a decision about whether charges are warranted and you have to be transparent about it. So that never made any sense regardless of what the Trump administration thought from looking at the video. How much evidence is there? How long do you expect the review process to take? How confident are you that it hasn't been tampered with? So there's a great deal of evidence, terabytes of hard drives. We are getting that information. Our team started working on it late last week. They worked over the weekend. So we're taking a look at everything.

28:09There are body cameras from the federal agents who were interacting with Alex Preddy. There's also some physical evidence. The BCA does have Renee Good's car. We got that more than a week ago. That has been processed. And so we feel really good about the fact that we appear to have most, if not all, of the evidence. That will help us tremendously make a decision in this case. As you know, we filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., asking a judge to order the federal government to give us this information. now due to the local law enforcement agencies cooperating and evidence sharing and trying to get back to normal, we now appear to have most of that evidence.

28:52The families of Renee Good and Alex Preddy that have been waiting six months in Renee Good's case and almost six months in Alex Preddy's case, they've been waiting for answers. What's your message to them today? Well, my message to them has been the same from the beginning of this, that we are not going to stop until we get the evidence in this case and we are able to make a decision and we're able to be transparent with them and our community about exactly what happened here. They deserve no less than that. I know that they also heard about this in unfortunate circumstances. One of them heard from a reporter.

29:31So there was never any proper communication to them, never any empathy. You know, having the federal government call their loved ones domestic terrorists was ridiculous. And so they have gone through a lot of trauma here. And in fact, Rebecca Good's widow was being investigated, as far as we know, by the federal government. And so none of what happened to them should have happened. But what I can tell them now and what we have been communicating to them is we continue to work on this. And now this is a big moment in this investigation. We will be able to invest or thoroughly look at what we have and make a charging decision at some point here.

30:10Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it. These mounting calls for transparency in shootings involving immigration officials. Minnesota finally getting access to information. The exact opposite situation is playing out right now in Houston. And that story's next.

30:31And our politics lead as Minnesota officials finally, six months later, get their hands on the evidence in connection to the fatal ICE shootings of Alex Preddy and Renee Good in January of this year, we are not seeing cooperation play out in Texas. Just last week, a Mexican homebuilder in Houston was killed at the hands of ICE agents. Today, the district attorney of Harris County said the Trump administration is not cooperating or collaborating with local officials to find out what exactly happened. As a result, the local DA says he is pursuing his own independent investigation. We are running this investigation so that we can be transparent, so that the community as a whole, all of Harris County, all of Texas, and quite frankly, all of the United States, can know what happened out there on that Tuesday morning.

31:19And if someone needs to be held accountable, they will be. The district attorney warned that this process could take many, many months, if not years. Let's bring in my panel. Sure, Michael, let me start with you. I mean, there is a pattern of this now, of ICE agents killing people or shooting people. And sometimes, you know, it's a quote unquote good shoot. Sometimes it's not. And we are seeing the Trump administration refuse to cooperate with local authorities. It happened in Minnesota. That's now being rectified. Happened in Houston, we see. And we have no idea what's going to happen in Maine.

31:54Yeah, look, I don't want to minimize the death of the gentleman in Texas. Being in law enforcement is a very difficult job. I mean, I own two firearms companies. I spend a lot of time with Leo's and that split second decision making that they have to make. Sometimes after the fact, when you reassess, you realize maybe the harm that I presumed in that moment wasn't there, which is why there's been this big debate about qualified immunity, et cetera. That said, you know, my advice and counsel on these issues is that we want to make sure we strengthen relationships between federal officials and local officials.

32:28If the objective is to remove people out of the country who are here illegally and unlawfully, then you want those local officials to be able to direct you towards those who are committing the most heinous acts in local communities. And I think this makes that job a little bit tedious. Remember, that's why the president brought in Tom Holman in Minnesota to do that cleanup. And I think here in Texas, it's an example that suggests, at least to me, that we're not quite there. I think one of the issues here, at least as it's been explained to me by law enforcement officials, is when you have what looks like a cover-up by the Trump administration, a refusal to cooperate with local authorities, which is how it's traditionally done, then you end up putting even good law enforcement officers under suspicion.

33:08Because, look, obviously most law enforcement are good people trying to do the right thing. But ICE agents, HSI agents, Border Patrol agents, CBP agents, if there's a bad shooting or one that people are questioning, The idea of not cooperating makes every shooting look bad. Yeah, and at this point, ICE could put out, you know, they don't have to write a new statement after each of these shootings. They could just copy paste the same details of each case after every single shooting. I mean, just like in Houston, we have officers claiming that he tried to turn his car to ram against officers. Now we see on video that that does not look like the case.

33:47We have them trying to cover up evidence that would be released to the public. We have them trying to silence or deport witnesses who could attest to what happened in this case. I mean, you know, that that relationship between law enforcement and the community has already been frayed because you have thousands of these officers being deployed out into the country and casting this wide net, catch net to just, you know, interact with anybody who might not be fully a U.S. citizen and drag them into this process and put them in harm's way and put other members of the community in harm's way by having them all be armed and shooting at moving vehicles.

34:20This is not the actions of a law enforcement agency that deserves to be trusted. And we should note our Priscilla Alvarez is reporting that these ice crackdowns have been steadily increasing under Mark Wayne Mullen, the new DHS secretary, even if we're not seeing them. That's interesting. I don't know if they're doing something different. Well, look, I just want to say to the point that was just made on trust. I mean, these guys interact with thousands of people, I would imagine, every single day. In most of those instances, people are handled with care inappropriately, I would suggest, based on the public numbers that we have.

34:54Now, is it material that these shootings occur to trust? I would certainly agree with you there. But I think it's also material to acknowledge that the vast majority of law enforcement are doing their job with care and respect to the individuals that they encounter. And I think that's important to recognize. I think even classifying these ICE officers as law enforcement is a disservice to officers who have spent years in training, spent years walking blocks and interacting with the community. These were folks who were not put into under strenuous training exercises. We already have reporting on that.

35:26The more recent ones. The more recent ones. The surge of officers who were hired as part of that$70 billion slush fund that Congress appropriated for ICE expansion. And as a result, we've seen in both the Houston case, you know, and today in Maine, that those individuals were not the targets of the enforcement actions, but were just caught in that dragnet. And, you know, blatantly, you have officers apparently lying to the public in each instance immediately afterwards saying that that vehicle was turned against them as a weapon when we have video that disputes that. Let's turn to Iran because President Trump says the U.S.

35:58is going to take control of the Strait of Hormuz and reinstate the naval blockade on Iranian vessels. This all follows Iran strikes on a container ship over the weekend. Trump posted on Truth Social, the Hormuz Strait is open and will remain open with or without Iran. And Sharmekal, he's also expected to give a primetime address on Iran this Thursday. What do you expect from that? I want to know a timeline. I mean, I know the president is stating 20 % will go to the United States for protecting the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage. And that makes perfect sense for a temporary case here. But in the long run, we can't stay there forever.

36:30I think the question for the American people, cost and time. And if we remove ourselves, our troops from the blockade, and Iran decides in six months or a year they want to shut it down all over again, despite whatever agreement we come to, that's unstable. And so I have already stated at the onset of this, if we're going to go, you've got to go all the way. And by all the way, that does mean regime change. Now, I also recognize that the American people don't want that, and I get it. The toll, it's taxing, the cost on American lives, I completely get it. But now we're in a perpetual back and forth where there doesn't appear to be any end to this.

37:05And I think the president's going to have to figure out a way to answer that question to the American people. And by the way, there are a lot of Republicans I know who are running. We don't want to talk about this. We want to talk about cost of living and affordability. This disables that talking point, including the most recent housing bill that just was passed. Not to mention on the subject of affordability, gas prices are going back up. Yeah, they're already ticking up as a result of this kind of flare up in, you know, actions in the Strait of Hormuz. And, you know, it was less than a month ago that we were celebrating this MOU, this peace deal that Trump was saying would end their nuclear program.

37:38And, you know, we would reestablish control over the Strait of Hormuz and there would be no tolls and no fees. And now we're back into a hot war. He's already declared back to Congress that we were back into a military conflict with Iran. And it's about the Strait of Hormuz. It's about reopening a waterway that was open before he started. And it's just kind of a telling encapsulation of the Trump presidency that he would get us into this mix and not have a way to get us out. And ultimately, we end up fighting for a position that was, you know, the status quo pre-war. And I would just say quickly here, I think the biggest concern for the administration and administrations to come is whether or not Iran is in a stronger position.

38:13And I will say they are. They are effectively a quasi-superpower. They lack nuclear warheads, but they now have the ability to exert real control and damage over the global economy anytime they want. That's a problem. Which is more powerful than a nuclear weapon. Yeah, I would agree. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Coming up, why it's been so hard to find out why the Trump administration is not delivering on President Trump's promise to build thousands of housing units for homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area. It's a story we've been following for years here on The Lead. We have an update for you.

38:43Thanks.

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39:26This is why God kept you here. Well, we're doing a lot. We have a country that I use the expression make America great again. And we've done far more than anyone thought possible, including maybe even me. We've done things that are unreal. $19.2 trillion. The money being invested in our country is more than any country has ever had by many times. We have trillions of dollars coming in because of the tariffs and the proper use of tariffs, because all of the things, I think because of the election. November 5th was a very important day. When you look at the military, we have the strongest military in the world.

40:02We rebuilt it largely during my first term. We have recruitment now. We're setting records in recruitment. We had, if you go back to the campaign when I used to talk about it, the last administration, they couldn't recruit soldiers. We needed soldiers in every single branch of our military. And that included police and firemen. Nobody wanted to do anything having to do with the uniform in this country because they weren't proud of the country. And now the people are very, very proud to be an American. Our country is doing phenomenally well. We're respected all over the world. If I go, no matter where I go, we just got back from NATO.

40:37And I think you saw the response. It was like a very beautiful thing, actually. It was a total, total response, totally positive response. No matter where we go, we're respected again, maybe respected more than ever before. So I appreciate the question. But that's pretty, pretty much it. Mr. President, thank you. Cameron Arkin with Town Hall. I was curious about their reports about Iranian drones in Cuba. There are concerns about that. Where does the relationship with the U.S. stand there? Is military intervention still on the table? Well, if they do have that, and they might very well have that, we'll take care of it.

41:12Marco's just in the other room. And if they do have that, we'll take care of it in short order. We're not going to have a problem. We're not going to allow that to happen. So it could be that they're storing some. We're looking into it now. It could be so, and it maybe isn't. But we'll figure it out first. What are you expected to speak about on Thursday, do you think? I'm going to speak on Thursday. We were thinking one of the nice, but this has been such a busy news day today with all that's happening. A lot of very positive things have happened, including the Indy. We're going to have an Indy race, as you know, in 41 days.

41:46And that's going to be incredible around the capital, around down Pennsylvania Avenue. It's going to be something to have 250 ,000 tickets or it'll be like UFC, which set every record in the book for for that business, which is the business of fighting. So we have the Indy cars coming, and it's going to be great. And I just, while we're talking, I have to pay on behalf of Mike and myself, and I think everybody's standing behind me very strongly. I want to pay my respects to Lindsey, who was our friend. He was a friend of all of us. He was a great guy. He was a great politician, actually. And it's hard to believe he's gone.

42:21He spoke to me just before he passed away, just to say hello. He got back. He felt fine. He was a little tired. And then this whole thing happened. And it's boy, it's tough. So the flags are at half mask until Saturday evening, which is an extended period of time, you know, generally speaking. But I think he deserves it. And he is he's a fantastic person. It was just he was a fantastic man. He was actually a great politician. He got along with almost everybody. And when he didn't get along, they knew it. But he was he was tough, but he was he was a good man. He was very much in favor of the Save America Act.

43:02He told me about that. We were talking about that and some other things. But he he just felt tired and but he felt fine. And then this horrible thing happened just a short time afterwards. So it's terrible. I just want to pay our respects. Mr. President, Iran has agreed to a deal and then walked away from it. Have you reached the conclusion that a negotiated settlement won't be able to happen? No, I never reached that conclusion. But we're hitting them very heavy tonight, as you know. We're hitting them. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition. We have numbers that we haven't had in years. And we're hitting them very hard.

43:40And it'll continue. We'll see what happens. But we're knocking out all of their offensive capability. And we're controlling the straits. We're putting the blockade back. And it's a blockade not for anybody but Iran. In other words, anybody doing business with Iran can't go through, everyone else will be able to go through. So it's a blockade. It's a very strong blockade. The blockade was probably more effective even than hitting them. But I think the combination is the thing that really does. But do you think a deal is still possible? Do you think they'll return to that? Yeah, I think a deal is possible.

44:10Sure, I do. But, Mr. President, you noted the United States is bombing Iran again. I mean, you've been bombing Iran for months now. Is this just the new normal for the American people? Well, you know, we're in Vietnam for 19 years. We're here for four months. So I think we've done a lot. We've knocked out their Navy in a period of one month. We knocked out their Air Force. Their Air Force is nonexistent. We knocked out most of their missiles, most of their drones. We knocked out their drone manufacturing capability, about 92 percent. Their missile capability for manufacturing, we knocked out 89 percent.

44:44And they have a little capability, but they don't have any capability for us. this is almost a military skirmish. Now, with all of that being said, you have to get people that want to make something. We had a deal with them two days ago. And then they said, oh, we can't make that deal. We have to negotiate it further. And this is what they've done for 47 years. The difference is nobody negotiated like I do. And this should have been done by Bush and and Obama, and Biden, and people before them. Frankly, it's 47 years they've been ripping off everybody and really hurting and killing thousands of people.

45:21So they killed 52 ,000 protesters, but they killed many, many people with Soleimani, who I killed in the first term. Soleimani killed many people, many, many people, and not only killed, when you see a young former soldier walking around with no legs, no arms, a face that's been horribly, horribly hurt. That was done by Iran. That was done by Soleimani, who was a person that was very evil. He was an evil genius. He was looking to take out a lot of our military installations in Iraq and Iran. And I got him before he got us. So we have to do what we're doing. And the strait is open. It will be open.

46:04We've cut down their capability very substantially, but they, you know, they're going to fight for a while. Our military has done a fantastic job. And, you know, the bottom line, though, and I say it to everybody, and I say it as much as you want to listen, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. If we didn't bomb them with the B-2 bombers, that plane right there, if we didn't bomb them, they would have had a nuclear weapon long ago. One month, within one month from the day we bombed them, they would have had, if we didn't do it, they would have had a nuclear weapon. If they had a nuclear weapon, Israel would no longer be with us.

46:39And the Middle East probably would no longer be with us. We just saw they sent missiles to five different countries that never even knew they were involved because they're stone cold crazy. They are crazy. And we're not going to put it up. Yeah, I want to be reimbursed because we're protecting a very rich portion of the world. We're spending money. And so what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection. We're protecting by the countries that we're helping. For instance, you look at the five countries. You have Saudi Arabia, you have UAE, you have Qatar, or Qatar, as I always say, you have Qatar, Bahrain.

47:17And by the way, you have others. You have Kuwait, and you have others. And they will do very well. But we think it's appropriate that we don't need them. You know, we have more oil than any other country in the world. When you add Venezuela, Venezuela, which has been amazing, which has tremendous amounts of oil that we control. When you add Venezuela and everything else, we have more than 50 percent of the world's supply. We don't need it, but we need it from the standpoint of protecting allies, et cetera, et cetera, including Israel, including Saudi Arabia, including Qatar, including UAE. We're protecting all of them, and we've done a very effective job.

47:54So four months ago, these people had military that was very strong, by far the strongest, probably in the Middle East. They were called the bully of the Middle East. Now they don't have a Navy. They have 159 ships underwater. They had a total of 159 ships. Now every one of them is underwater. They had 230 airplanes, attack planes. They're all gone. They're all gone. They had tremendous radar. It's all gone. They had tremendous anti-aircraft. It's all gone. Sadly, their leadership is all gone. They had their first tier leaders are all dead. Their second tier leaders are all dead. Their third tier tier leaders who we're dealing with, more or less, some of them are already gone.

48:39And then you read fake news like your network, CNN, which is fake news. You read them. You have them say, well, actually, aren't they doing quite well? Let me just say they have now inflation of over 300 percent. Four months ago, that inflation of 5%. Now they're at over 300, could be 350%. They made a deal. They broke it probably 10 times. And they killed a lot of people. They killed our people. But the protesters, what they've done to the protesters, 52 ,000. Have you ever seen any of the burial lots where they're doing, where they're burying the protesters? They killed 52 ,000 protesters. and on my watch they can't do any of that so we have them in a position that they don't have any military there's not a thing they can do about it all they have is fake news because they have the fake news would rather see us lose the war than win the war which is really treasonous which is really treasonous in a certain way uh so we're doing another very major attack tonight uh they want to make a deal they came back we made a deal two days ago and they want to make a deal.

49:48They've been negotiating for 47 years, but nobody's ever hit them militarily. We're hitting them very hard. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, press. Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We've been listening to President Trump in the Oval Office, confirming that the U.S. military launched yet another round of strikes against Iran. Trump said the U.S. is hitting Iran very hard. He said Iran broke off a planned deal.

50:24Earlier, the president also warned the U.S. would strike again tomorrow. This all comes as we're learning Trump has formally notified Congress. The U.S. military action has resumed in Iran, all of this following a weekend full of intense strikes, and the U.S. military preparing to reinstate its blockade on Iranian ports tomorrow in the Strait of Hormuz on the president's orders. also countries near Iran have found themselves caught in the middle again this morning. Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, all reporting that they responded to aerial threats. CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. And Kristen, before I come to you, I just want to say everything the president just said about CNN is completely false.

51:01Nobody at CNN is saying that Iran is doing well. And nobody at CNN is rooting for Iran to win this war. I don't know why the president continues to say these things. I don't know if he believes them, but they're all lies. Anyway, Kristen, your reaction? Well, Jake, it was clear during that that he's frustrated and that he was trying to filibuster to not take any more questions about Iran. He said most of what we've heard him say before, that they have, they being the United States, have decimated Iran's military, that Iran wants to make a deal, that they have tried to come to the table, but that President Trump is going to continue to hit them, saying no one's ever hit them as hard as the United States is currently hitting them.

51:40I do think, of course, as we've learned in the last couple of hours, it is notable that President Trump said that there is a new wave of attacks in Iran, and we are told by U.S. officials this is likely to go on for several days. And it goes really to what we heard last week, that a lot of this is a form of punishment. It's not just defensive strikes. It is their reaction to Iran breaking the ceasefire on multiple occasions by firing at commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Now, notably, he talked about this form of reimbursement, and saying that these countries around Iran that use the Strait of Hormuz should be reimbursing the United States to the form of 20%.

52:18It should be noted that U.S. officials, including Marco Rubio, have said that any sort of toll would be very hard to impose. And at one point, U.S. officials said they wouldn't impose any kind of fee or toll on this global waterway because it is an international waterway. So how this would actually work, that, of course, is a question itself. And one of the things that you noted, all of the countries that you mentioned that found themselves in the middle of this war between Iran and the United States, those are also apparently the countries that President Trump says that he wants to pay a charge to get their ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

52:53At the White House, thanks so much for joining us now to discuss Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who's a U.S. Army veteran, is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator, good to see you, sir. What's your reaction to the U.S. military reinstating its blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, another round of U.S. strikes against Iran, the president formally declaring that military operations are back on. Well, this is one of multiple times which the president has said we have settled the fighting and to announce a few days later that we're fighting again.

53:29This whole situation is beyond, I think, his control at the moment in terms of some either diplomatic or military solution. We can strike, and we are striking effectively Iranian targets, but they still have the capability of striking targets, particularly the targets in the Persian Gulf that will be very critical to oil production and oil exportation. So this is something that we're in a constant sort of downward spiral, despite the president claiming periodically that it's all he's got the deal done, etc. And this is causing tremendous havoc in the world economy, particularly oil markets. So, you know, again, how many times we've heard him say, I've settled this, no one else could settle it like I did, etc.

54:24etc. He has no concept, I think, of how you effectively end the fighting and also maintain the Strait of Hormuz as an international waterway. This whole claim that he's going to charge a fee is detrimental to the whole concept of the international right of passage through waterways without local countries charging fees. And in fact, as has been pointed out, Marco Rubio essentially said, you know, we can't do that. In fact, one of the reasons we're fighting is to prevent the Iranians from doing that. When CNN's Pamela Brown was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea last week, she spoke with Captain Daniel Keeler about the role that the ship played in the initial blockade and the challenges it faced.

55:13Take a listen. The challenges with it is it's a lot of space and we, to execute a blockade properly, you need a lot of ships. And we had quite a few destroyers. What the air wing can do to help is to find the ships. And so we did support all of the surface ships with reconnaissance flights. And then when necessary, could execute some procedures to try and get the ships to turn around. And if you or disable the ship, if it doesn't. And yeah, we know that's happened. A few rare circumstances when vessels would not comply with the direction to turn around. You're the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

55:57How concerned are you about this blockade in terms of the strain it's putting on U.S. military resources, U.S. military personnel and our our budget in the United States? No, this is a tremendous impact on our readiness across the globe, on our posture across the globe. We have taken equipment, particularly precision weapons, out of the Pacific, which is something that Chinese seem to like. And we've also done that from South Korea. We're in a very precarious position in terms of rebuilding our stocks. and it looks now as if there'll be a continued drawdown on critical weapon systems. This is a very expensive operation and it's detracting from other positions we have in the world.

56:50Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, thank you and thank you for your service as always. We're going to continue to follow the latest from the White House tonight. The U.S. launching more strikes against Iran. Plus, just hours ago, late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, Darlene, was tapped to temporarily fill his Senate seat. The unfinished work she's going to take over, that's next.

57:14In our politics lead, the newest senator from South Carolina will be the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Her name is Darlene Graham Nordone. Here she is this afternoon. It is such a privilege to get to finish some of his important work, And I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother. Now to Lindsay, I miss you more than I can even put into words. But I'm going to do this. I got it. Nordona will serve in the interim role until the end of the year. Her brother's sudden passing at the age of 71 this weekend kicks off a sprint primary election to replace him on the November ballot.

58:01And joining us now, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor of South Carolina. Attorney General Wilson, good to see you. You say the choice to appoint Nordeaux was a deeply meaningful one by Governor McMaster. Who do you hope represents South Carolina in the Senate next year? Well, that is a decision for the people of South Carolina to make over the next four weeks as we get ready to enter a special election season. That will obviously conclude on either August the 11th or August 25th. right now I'm going to focus on the legacy and the life of Lindsey Graham, who was a giant, a towering political figure here in South Carolina.

58:39And the further we are removed from his passing, the more impactful people are going to realize he was for the state of South Carolina. I'm also grateful that Governor McMaster chose Darlene, his sister, who I think is very poignant, rather, that he raised her when she was a young child and was there for her when she needed him. And now she's going to be here to wrap up in his legacy and support him in his legacy as she takes the seat in the Senate that he once held. Yeah. For people who don't know the story, Lindsey Graham was, I think, roughly 20 or so when his parents died within 15, 16 months of each other.

59:13And Darlene was about 13 or 14. And he took care of her. He raised her. He adopted her even became her legal guardian. I want to talk about Senator Graham in a second, but I do want to note, you know another person whose name was floated as a potential interim replacement. Your father is South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, who posted on Twitter that he spoke with President Trump, but quote, I assured him my goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people. He did not rule out running for the seat in November. Is your father considering running? Absolutely not.

59:45I talked to dad. I saw that rumor on social media and I called him. He was traveling back from overseas and I called him on a layover. and he is so thrilled to have received nearly 75 percent of the vote in his last primary election. And I think he's very excited about serving the people of the second congressional district. He loves his job, has zero intention on running for the U.S. Senate. The Senate Budget Committee, which Senator Graham was the chairman of, was in the early phases of attempting to push through part of Trump's voter ID bill or the SAVE Act. As your state's attorney general, you're responsible for enforcing laws that protect voters.

1:00:17You say that mail-in ballots lead to, quote, fraud and overturned election. What evidence can you provide that supports that claim? Well, first off, I'm proud to have supported South Carolina's first voter ID law and supported every voter ID measure you could take over the last 15 years. I've always believed that integrity of our elections is of paramount importance to the people of those respective states. I mean, if you can't guarantee that the elections are safe and secure, then people lose trust in them and they become disengaged, disaffected, and they don't participate. And so I don't see the harm in ensuring that people who are here legally or that people who are voting in elections are actually here legally.

1:00:58Obviously, you know, we have seen over the course of elections around the country that it is possible for illegal citizens or illegal aliens to get access to the ballot box. And whether or not you can prove that it's happening in every single election, the fact that people believe that it could happen is a disincentive to people participating in the election process. The biggest, most high-profile case of absentee ballot fraud that I can recall in the last decade or so is in the 2018 election in North Carolina. That was done by a Republican operative. A group of assistants were charged with illegally ballot harvesting for then-Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris.

1:01:33But beyond that, in terms of the non-citizens voting, the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, they have a database of confirmed fraud cases, and it's fewer than 100 examples of non-citizens improperly casting ballots between 2000 and 2025. Why is this such a priority for Republicans instead of trying to make sure that as many people who are American citizens have access and can vote easily? Well, why are so many people opposed to it? Why is there so much skepticism and cynicism about having a law that prohibits illegal aliens from voting, even if one election is voted? There is a law. Big deal.

1:02:08But this guarantees at the federal level and continues to underscore the importance of election integrity. I don't see a problem with it. I don't see a problem with people wanting to ensure that there are safer elections. South Carolina Attorney General Allen Wilson, thank you so much, sir. I appreciate your time. Thank you. The claws are out. The owner of a cat-themed Instagram account that regularly trolls Vice President J.D. Vance just sued the vice president and the U.S. Secret Service after she was barred from one of the VP's events. Stay with us.

1:02:47In our Law and Justice sleeve, the Instagram creator behind the satirical account Cats on a Couch is suing Vice President J.D. Vance and the U.S. Secret Service. Amanda McGonigal is alleging she was banned from attending Vance's visit to Bangor, Maine back in May, CNN has reached out to the vice president's office. For those who have never seen cats on the couch videos before, here you go. You're welcome. J.D. Vance just admitted in his own book that the comments that he made about childless cat ladies was one of the dumbest things he's ever said, which if you're new here, welcome. The entire point of our Instagram account is to have more followers than J.D.

1:03:24Vance by the time he leaves office to troll the out of this man every single day. Amanda, let me just say, I have a cat, so I don't want you to be mad at me. Her name is Wilhelmina, and you can see her on my Instagram feed on occasion if you don't already. So according to the complaint, you're waiting in line to get into Vance's event in Bangor, Maine. Secret Service calls your name. They exclude you from the event, and they say, we know where you stand. What happened next? Yeah, that is correct. I got in line just like anyone else, and from about 10 paces away, five agents, including armed agents, called me out by name, said that I couldn't come in, told me that it was a private event.

1:04:08They knew where I stood. And at that point, I wasn't really going to argue with armed agents. And so I did get out of line and went across the street and protested with the rest of the protesters that were out there so that my voice still could be heard, even if it wasn't in the room, it was outside. And then ultimately, my next action was to call the ACLU. Were you planning on disrupting the event? What chicanery was afoot if you had gotten in, if any? I mean, not necessarily. I was planning on being a dissenting voice, Right. So in public forums like this, even limited public forums, there is supposed to be the ability to have equal and opposite viewpoints.

1:05:01And I saw plenty of people going in that would have been supporters. I wanted to be a voice of dissent. So where other people are cheering, I'm booing or whatever it may be. I was sporting a shirt that said J.D. Vance cured my imposter syndrome. So like that would have been on display. But I mean, it wasn't like a civil disobedience. anything like that. It was, I wanted to be a dissenting voice in the room, as is my right. And you say, the complaint says, this is not the first time you've been prevented from attending a Vice President Vance event. That is correct. Yeah. So a few weeks prior, he had another event in Iowa and it was publicized much like this one was.

1:05:47They had made a form for registration available to the public. Anyone could sign up to attend. So I did put in all my information, waited to hear back. And as it started getting closer to the event day, I still hadn't heard anything. And so I went on to the internet to yap as I do. And I said, you know, I still haven't gotten my confirmation that I would be allowed to attend. And that's when I started getting messages from other people in my community who had said, oh, I got mine. I got my guest guidance. I got mine. And I was kind of like, oh, is this how I find out I'm not invited? So that was sort of the first instance.

1:06:27And then, so I was honestly really surprised to get my guest guidance for Maine. But yeah, that was the second occurrence. I just have to say, whether it's Mayor Mamdani or Congressman Brian Flood, we have repeatedly noted when politicians are willing to take hostile questions or have people who are Americans but don't necessarily agree with them at their forums. I can't believe Vice President Vance would be so frail, so brittle that he couldn't take cats on a couch. But Andrew McGonigal, thank you so much. I'm going to check out your Instagram feed right after this. Thank you. Amanda, sorry. Amanda McGonigal.

1:07:13And please look at my cat, Wilhelmina, when you get a sec, and just tell me what you think of her. I absolutely will. Okay. As long as you follow the account and help me meet my actual goal. I will follow the account, not for political reasons, for news reasons, but I will do that. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. It's good. So we should note we did reach out to the vice president's office. We've not heard back. And of course, he is more than welcome to come on and talk about all the important issues, non-cat related ones. A new video tonight from Epstein survivors trying to get the attention of every U.S.

1:07:46senator. They're warning just days before the confirmation hearing for the currently acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as he tries to get the permanent job.

1:07:57Our law and justice lead now. New Mexico's attorney general is accusing the United States Justice Department of withholding access to unredacted files related to dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to acting attorney general Todd Blanchard, Raul Torres argues that the lack of cooperation is making it impossible for the state of New Mexico, home to one of Epstein's properties, the so-called Zorro Ranch, to bring justice to the survivors. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres joins us now. General Torres, thanks for joining us. So in your letter, you outlined six attempts from your office to reach a federal agency, but to no avail.

1:08:32What more can you tell us? Well, Jake, it's been 150 days since we first sent our requests to then Deputy Attorney General and now Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. We still don't have access to the unredacted and complete Epstein files. Those files are critical to the ongoing and recently reopened criminal investigation that we have underway here in New Mexico. Have they given you any explanation? Have they responded at all? Well, it's been a journey. We started with Maine Justice. They sent us and directed us to interact with the local U.S. attorney's office. We followed that procedure and submitted what's called a TUI letter.

1:09:15And unfortunately, all we got in response from the local U.S. attorney was 31 pages of publicly released and already available material, nothing that is relevant or substantively helpful in terms of advancing our investigation. And so what we are looking for is access from Maine Justice to the entire universe of the Epstein files and the unredacted files. By their own account, some 200 ,000 files were redacted. We need to know what has been withheld from the public so that we can start to identify not only witnesses, but additional survivors and victims who are critical to advancing this investigation.

1:10:01And you argue that the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, is withholding critical information. What exactly are you seeking that he is, in your words, not willing to turn over? What specifically are you looking for? Well, there are thousands of references in the open source Epstein files that were disclosed pursuant to an act of Congress last year. And yet a number of those files have redactions in whole or in part that may identify not only potential suspects, but also corroborating information or potential witnesses or new leads. All of that is relevant and necessary for our investigators to build a complete picture and an accurate investigation.

1:10:44CNN reached out to the Justice Department about this and a spokesman responded that the DOJ reiterates that it welcomes New Mexico undertaking additional investigation of the Zorro Ranch and stands ready to provide necessary assistance with New Mexico's investigation, unquote. What's your response to that? Well, unfortunately, the rhetoric is not matched by their actions. And the disclosure of 31 pages when they are sitting on some 6 million documents related to Jeffrey Epstein's conduct, either in the District of New Mexico, but more importantly, the Southern District of New York, which asked my predecessor to stand down his prior investigation seven years ago, those are the kinds of files that we need access to.

1:11:32We've been hearing these public assurances that we're going to have full cooperation and full access. That isn't happening. And I think there needs to be a lot more urgency given to this matter. State and federal law enforcement cooperation is something that we routinely rely on and we engage with that agency on a regular basis. This is a part of the normal course of a criminal investigation. And we hope and expect full cooperation from our federal law enforcement partners. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres, thank you so much for joining us. Relatedly in our law and justice lead with just days to go until acting Attorney General Blanche's confirmation hearing in the U.S.

1:12:10Senate, he's been nominated to be full-time U.S. Attorney, I mean U.S. Attorney General, he is getting some renewed attention, not the kind he necessarily wants and not just from Attorney General Torres. These billboards are now up across the states of Texas and North Carolina and Louisiana, where there are Senate races, one might observe. They're all calling on lawmakers to vote no because of Blanche's handling or mishandling of the Epstein files. The organization behind these billboards is a group called World Without Exploitation. It's a nonprofit that's also behind this PSA. My name was released.

1:12:46My phone number was released. Where I went to school. Where I live. My students can now search me and read about my abuse. I am an Epstein survivor. I am an Epstein survivor. I am an Epstein survivor. Todd Blanche failed us. He failed victims everywhere. We deserve better. Our country deserves better. Vote no on Todd Blanche for attorney general. Vote no. No. No. No. Vote no on Todd Blanche for attorney general. Well, viewers of The Lead probably recognize a bunch of the faces as former guests on The Lead. Rachel Foster is with us. She's the co-founder of World Without Exploitation. She joins us now.

1:13:26Thanks so much for being here. It's not the first time you've put up billboards or run PSAs to call attention to Epstein survivors. This is the first time you've done it saying that Todd Blanche shouldn't be confirmed as attorney general. How effective have these PSA campaigns been in the past? They've been quite effective at allowing survivors to reach the public. It's often hard in certain jurisdictions to get their voices heard. They've been on your show and they've really had help amplifying their message, which is that this is not political. These are sex crimes. There's been a travesty in justice and how files were released and how their identifying information was released that caused them grave harm.

1:14:08But they're not reaching all parts of this country. And we've put these billboards in Louisiana, in North Carolina, and in Texas to reach those constituents so they could reach out to their senators and express what they believe would be a travesty of justice if Todd Blanche were to become the attorney general. So make your case as quickly as you can. Why shouldn't he be attorney general? I mean, his supporters might say, look, he's doing everything he can. He's released more than three million documents. Yes, there were mistakes. This is me playing devil's advocate. Yes, there were mistakes in the redactions, but they were, you know, because there were so many documents and the other documents that haven't been released are duplicative.

1:14:51That's what they say. Right. Well, we know that the lawyers and the survivors gave over the names of Jane Doe's of victims whose names needed to be redacted to protect their privacy. I was with a Jane Doe today who never would have come forward had her identifying information not been released. Todd Blanche was in charge of overseeing the release. There's six million files. So there are three million files not to be released. He's also said there are no investigative leads, which we factually know is untrue. We need to be able to have in our justice system, victims of crimes able to come forward and feel like their information will be protected.

1:15:33It creates a chilling effect. He's been at the helm of this. This is not merely a botched release. there's been the names of perpetrators protected and the victims have been absolutely harmed. There were new photos released, that's unconscionable. There were names of actual victims under one release that said victims of Jeffrey Epstein where there was one redaction so we know 33 names were released and the document was touched. There was ample opportunity to get this right and this is a watershed moment. If he's an attorney general, it sends a message that our Justice Department, first of all, is politicized and that what we don't care about is victim safety and their ability to get accountability for crimes that happen to them.

1:16:23And they are as a whole completely not political. So I'm just a humble caveman, but it seems to me like you need 50 votes to get confirmed, right? Plus one if there's a tie in the vice president. Although right now they're missing McConnell because he's in the hospital and Lindsey Graham died. But in any case, North Carolina, retiring Senator Tom Tillis, Louisiana, retiring Senator Bill Cassidy, who was defeated, not willingly retired, and John Cornyn, who was defeated. So are you going for those three? And we have John Kennedy also. John Kennedy also, right. Yes. And that is who we're Those are the four you're targeting.

1:17:04Those are the ones we're targeting, and that's why we picked those jurisdictions. What about Susan Collins and me? Well, I think what our understanding is that the ones we've just named are the ones that we really need to focus on and who their constituents need to focus on. We have a petition on our website, worldwithoutexploitation.org, that's a petition to the Senate Judiciary Committee. We have thousands of signatures. It's important that they hear from their constituents. Yeah, okay. Rachel Foster, thank you so much. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Trump's disdain for the freedom of the press just reached new heights.

1:17:41His latest legal crusade that should concern any democracy-loving American. Stick around.

1:17:53In our politics lead, President Trump has made some big claims about rights given us in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The freedom of speech and yes, the freedom of the press. We want total freedom of the press. It's very important to me. It's more important to me than anybody would believe. If we don't have free speech, then we just don't have a free country. It's as simple as that. Well, Mr. First Amendment has turned out to be anything but. We have seen the president target free speech. Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert come to mind. but his disdain for freedom of the press is even more direct.

1:18:30It doesn't go through oligarchs. Friday, the Trump Justice Department took the outrageous step of subpoenaing four New York Times journalists after their report on safety concerns over the president's Qatari-gifted Air Force One plane. Then today, President Trump's defense secretary announced a joint task force with the Justice Department to, quote, identify and prosecute leakers. To leak sensitive national defense information and secrets betrays the men and women who wear our nation's uniform. Leaked information risks lives. That's a good point. I know of one leak that put our brave pilots at risk, Secretary Hag Seth.

1:19:11You might want to read this Pentagon Inspector General report from 2025. Quote, evaluation of the Secretary of Defense's reported use of a commercially available messaging application, quote, Secretary Hegseth's actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots, unquote. So, Mr. Trump, if you're concerned about leaks within your government, have at it. I got it. There's a guy right there named Hegseth. But going after reporters, it's just downright un-American. And it's just the latest in a string of deeply concerning escalations.

1:19:47The White House barred Associated Press reporters from Air Force One and Oval Office meetings because the AP did not change their style to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Remember, the AP is read all over the world, and we're the only ones that call it the Gulf of America. The Pentagon tried to impose broad restrictions on reporters, barring them from the building if they didn't agree to them. Both restrictions have been challenged in court. President Trump personally has filed civil lawsuits against many media organizations for reporting he says is false, including against ABC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC.

1:20:21He cut funding for public radio stations, NPR, and for public television, PBS, for being, quote, radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country, unquote. This January, the FBI executed a search warrant of a Washington Post reporter's home over a leak investigation, and in May, the president called reporters treasonous for doing our jobs. We've had a total victory, except by people like you that don't write the truth. You should write. I actually think it's sort of some treasonous what you write. But you and The New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst. He said that just a few minutes ago, by the way, in the Oval Office.

1:21:01Soon senators are going to be voting on the attorney general nomination of Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche, the acting head of the Justice Department, clearly part of this assault on the press. This administration believes in pardoning January 6th extremists who beat up police officers while they subpoena journalists for doing our jobs. Is the Senate about to sanction this crackdown? We're watching. So is history. My panel joins me now. Lulu Garcia Navarro, you are with The New York Times, as well as we're lucky enough to have you here at CNN. How chilling was it for you to hear about your colleagues being subpoenaed?

1:21:36It's extremely chilling. I mean, the executive editor, Joe Kahn of The New York Times, said it was a naked attempt to intimidate the press. Let's remember what it is that we are talking about here. The public's right to know. What do we do as journalists? We report on issues that we feel the public needs to understand so they can be well informed. And we weigh that, of course, against national security concerns and other concerns. But at the end of the day, this is an unprecedented assault on that very important constitutionally protected role that The New York Times has, that we as journalists have.

1:22:15And let's be very clear. This is about bullying us so that we don't report things that they don't want us to report. No one wants to get anybody killed. But this is about reporting things that the public has a right to know. Yeah, absolutely. It's about intimidation. It's about trying to make reporters nervous or scared about what they report. If you're planning to write a tough story about the administration, the emails from attorneys start coming into your inbox. They already start the process to try to intimidate you to soften the story. It is something that happens on a daily basis. It's something that has happened to me.

1:22:57And it's an intimidation tactic for sure. There's another hearing that's coming up this week of Jay Clayton to be head of the director of national intelligence. He is the one who signed those subpoenas for those four New York Times reporters. And so the Senate will have an opportunity to question him in that hearing this week. We'll see if they do. I'm sure Democrats will bring it up, but it's going to be up to Republicans on if he is confirmed or not. And we should note the remembered President Trump's$10 billion lawsuit against the NIRS, which ended up in this settlement. Today, a federal judge said President Trump acted in bad faith and sought to, quote, manipulate the judicial process because he was both suing the IRS and also runs the IRS.

1:23:43And now the judge is ordering sanctions for the attorneys involved in the lawsuit and is ordering that her opinion be submitted to attorney disciplinary boards in New York and D.C. What's your reaction? I mean, essentially what this judge is saying is that the DOJ was colluding with the White House in this sort of agreement and said what I think we all kind of understood and knew, which is that this 1.776, that number, that's a billion dollar fund, that slush fund was basically a public relations sort of gambit and not a real settlement. And so she completely excoriated it. And it comes on the back of what has been repeated sort of setbacks for the DOJ, for the Trump administration.

1:24:29When they come against judges and they try to push these things forward, they have been roundly rejected in many of their attempts. And we should note, Leanne, that the judge's order could now undermine Trump's attempt to use the settlement as a possible defense in court, which means it's possible that a future administration could bring claims against Trump or his family or his businesses because there had been this concept of a perpetual pardon for anything they do that might violate tax laws. Yeah, what the president has tried to do is to protect himself and protect his family. He's already pardoning and protecting people who work for him, who are around him, has been a huge priority for this administration on all different fronts.

1:25:12And this just falls into that. And we'll see where this case goes. Getting back to the confirmation process, Todd Blanche, of course, is the interim attorney general right now. He has a confirmation hearing this week. Tom Tillis, a Republican senator, says that making sure that the anti-weaponization fund is completely obsolete is a huge priority of his. We'll see what Todd Blanche says about all of this before the Senate on Wednesday. One of the things I always find so troubling about all of this is that it's almost as if Republicans don't understand that there will be a Democratic president again and a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate.

1:25:52Who knows when? Two years, 10 years, 20 years, whatever. It will happen. And standards eroded don't come back. You know, new powers grabbed. The next president uses them even more. I mean, what's to stop a President Graham Plattner from a bad example, but whatever. Bad example. But what's a stop of President Graham Plattner? Who knows what's going to happen from, you know, doing all of this stuff against Fox or against The Wall Street Journal? I mean, this is the thing, right? It's what goes around comes around. And there seems to be some amnesia about that, just some sense that they can do whatever they want.

1:26:26But they're being led in this by the president of the United States. We know very clearly the president Trump is the one who called in the FBI to talk, you know, to the head of the FBI to launch these subpoenas against The New York Times journalists. We know that this is a lot of this is being directed by President Trump, and he seems to feel that he has complete impunity. And so the Republicans follow him at their peril. All right. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. In the health lead, Michigan health officials say the sort of the parasite causing thousands of people to get a nasty stomach bug.

1:26:58That's our euphemism. Maybe lettuce or salad greens. They're still working to nail that down so far. It's been only Michigan and Ohio reporting cases, but they are tracking more than 3 ,000 of them. 46 people had to go to the hospital. Health officials say the search has been complicated because the parasite can take weeks to trace. And foodborne illness tracking has faced recent cuts at the CDC. Nice work. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, ThreadsX, and on the TikTok at Tiktap. You can follow the show on X. On Instagram, if you haven't missed an episode of the lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app.

1:27:30Aaron Burnett out front. Starts now. Take it away, Aaron. Thanks, guys.

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