Iran & Israel Halt Attacks as Strikes Test Peace Talks

24:37And they cite the fact that some of these VIP packages are anywhere from a million to$1.5 million just to attend the fight. And what the judge is saying now is that they have to respond. The Trump administration at least has to respond by tomorrow night to this lawsuit. They can't just let it sit out there. Specifically, there's a time constraint. This is supposed to happen on Sunday. Yeah, it's a great point. but it's shocking that something called the claw hadn't gone through environmental review. I do want to ask you about another matter. Former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried serving a 25-year prison sentence for orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds effort.

25:12I was so struck today when I saw the headline that SBF, as he's known, is asking President Trump for a pardon. I was struck by it because it was like a very overt thing that seemed almost, I was like nostalgic for the old way that it used to work. It usually works in like a much quieter fashion these days. Are you hearing anything about the plausibility of him receiving one at this point? I mean, it seems incredibly unlikely. President Trump has been asked about this before, before he actually filed for this pardon. President Trump was asked about it. He said he didn't know the guy. And then when it was explained to him in this New York Times interview, he said, no, I don't have any plans to do that.

25:46Now, it might seem out of the realm of possibility, but it's not quite out of the realm of possibility, because President Trump has actually pardoned another person who is in charge of a crypto exchange, the head of Binance. So it wouldn't be that odd. Although, Bankman-Fried, he was a big Democratic donor. He spoke out against President Trump. Now, of course, changing his tune now for this potential pardon. But it does seem unlikely right now that the White House or the President Trump would grant that pardon. I think we both know a lot of lobbyists who would be happy to take the retainer to make the push as we see how this moves forward.

26:19Kristen Holmes, as always, my friend, thank you very much. Thank you. Well, we're now just days away from the kickoff of the World Cup, the headlines to watch for even if you're not into soccer or as people outside of the U.S. call it, football. And later, tonight's main event, into the NBA Finals, CNN went one-on-one with the one and only Spike Lee, what he says about President Trump showing up tonight, and his own plans for a fashionable entrance.

26:47You ever have somebody offer to come home with you from the hardware store? I am giving away a room makeover. Where's the catch? Three days to complete this renovation. You have no say in design and we start today. Oh, wow. You're not just going to steal everything. Surprise! Ready to get your house cracked? For real. A little dated. It's time to turn this over to us. You guys got to get out of here. Got to get out of here. Crashers, all new Monday at 1030 on HGTV. In our sports lead in just three days on Thursday, all eyes will be on North America when the first match for the World Cup kicks off in Mexico City.

27:27Let's bring in the one and only Roger Bennett, co-host for the Men in Blazers Media Network. He is also the author of We Are the World Cup, a personal history of the world's greatest sporting event. He's also my personal guide. Like when my kid comes home, he's like, why is everybody wearing soccer jerseys? I'm saying, let's just go to Roger Bennett's social media feed where he inevitably has a great interview with soccer and explains all of this stuff to my children and me as the dumb American who every once in a while engages in the soccer space. Roger, I want to start big picture and then I have a lot of U.S.

28:00questions. Why does this matter? What does this mean to the world? The Super Bowl is the greatest showcase of American sports. 200 million people watch that. 5 billion people around the globe watch the World Cup. It's like a global eclipse that sweeps the entire planet for 39 straight days. And it's going to emanate out of Mexico and Canada, but from 11 cities across the United States. And I hope, Phil, it's going to bring the world a sense of unity for the entirety of the tournament that we all really need right now. You know, to that point, the geopolitics are in the background of events like this.

28:41But in the midst of the ongoing war or conflict in Iran, how do geopolitics play historically into this tournament? The joy of the World Cup is that it contains multitudes, as Emerson would say. When two teams take the field in World Cup play, their nation's histories, their nation's politics, their nation's cultures take the field alongside them. That's what gives it just a multi-layered narrative. That's what makes it a modern Greek epic poem that's played out live with the world watching. So Iran are in this tournament. They're going to play in Los Angeles before the biggest diaspora of Iranian Americans, which is going to be fascinating.

29:22Even more complex. If they come second in their group, Phil, and the United States come second in their group, the two are slated to play each other in the first knockout round. And so the levels of meaning, the levels of politics, all of it played out by 22 men chasing a soccer ball wearing polyester. It's crazy. It really is. OK, on the U.S. side, like one of my favorite moments of sportsdom was Landon Donovan, Algeria in extra time back in 2010. Like I'm not a massive soccer fan, but World Cup, like the jersey is on. I'm ready to rock and roll. I saw you talking to Clint Dempsey. There seemed to be a little bit of optimism about a team that's had kind of a rough go of it after a lot of optimism coming out of 2022.

30:11What should people be thinking about the U.S. squad this year? Well, for your audience, don't let my accent fool you. I adore this nation. Root for it like Kenny Powers loves America. We've watched this team from 1994 onwards. You know, dream, big dreams. Our women win things. our men have won one knockout game in the entirety of our nation's history, which is hard to fathom for a nation that's put a man on the moon and given the world a cronut. So we qualified by virtue of being hosts. We've just played a steady diet of friendlies to try and work out where we are with this very talented young team full of possibility is as easy as saying this NFL team is going to win the Super Bowl after just watching preseason and exhibition games.

30:58They dream big dreams, but so do the other 47 teams who are landing in North America. Everybody's dreaming the American dream right now. I tell you what, having watched the entire German-US friendly, there was a strike that I thought would have been in any highlight reel of any season from the US side where I thought, oh, wow, I'm bought in. I'm all in. It's a great documentary on HBO Max, US against the world. Highly suggest people watch it. The ability to mentioned Kenny Powers and Cronuts in the same, like you are a man, you talk about layers and multitudes, my friend. Roger Bennett, I appreciate you, my friend.

31:36Thank you very much. You're a beautiful human being. Go, go USA. Courage. Agreed. Thanks so much. Well, gas prices are going down, but for how long one of the nation's top industry watchers is here to share what gives him new concerns? Stay with us.

31:56And our money lead a steady drop on gas prices. AAA says the national average is now$4.16 a gallon. That's down nearly 40 cents since last month, but still$1.18 higher than before the war with Iran started back in February. Some experts warning the downward trend may be short-lived. I want to bring in Mike Summers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. Mike, really appreciate you coming in. To start, and as you know well, there's way more that I want to get into with you than we have time for. But do you want to start with gas prices? Because that's what the audience is probably looking around wondering, is this downward trend going to stick?

32:31The president was asked about this in his NBC interview. He said this. Take a listen. Are gas prices going higher or have they peaked? They're going to come low, very low. They're going to go lower than they were before. Have they peaked? As soon? Well, it depends. I mean, it depends where the war goes. A reasonable answer in terms of what may happen in the future for the right now, as long as this conflict remains at the stage that it's in. What should people be thinking right now? Well, first of all, we're in month three of a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. That means about 20 % of the world's flow of oil has been essentially shut down for over three months.

33:05The reason we haven't seen a significant increase in gasoline prices is because of American production here in the United States. It is because that we produce more than 13 million barrels of oil every single day that the United States has been relatively insulated from the shock that we've seen elsewhere throughout the world. You make a really great point. I think it's important for people to understand the production, the refinery capability, what the U.S. has done is serving as almost the linchpin of a triage effort around the world over the course of the last 100 plus days. There's been nothing short of extraordinary.

33:37However, there's not a ton of new production coming online. Inventory draws are significant, both on the commercial side and on the strategic petroleum reserve side. How durable is this over time? Inventory draws are significant. We're seeing significant inventory draws, particularly in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but you're also seeing draws in commercial inventories as well throughout the world. This should be very concerning to every American consumer because as those inventories go down and production isn't increased, you're going to start seeing a significant impact at the pump. That's going to happen over time.

34:13But again, it's because of American production that we haven't seen those same price surges that you've seen in other parts of the world. We talked about the SPR. Again, the drawdowns have been significant, particularly over the course of the last couple of weeks. You can check API's weekly statistical report, which is usually a good, helpful leading indicator of things. What level does that get to where you start saying, OK, we have a real problem here with the strategic petroleum reserve, not just reserves in general? Well, we're raising alarm bells right now. We're at about 350 million barrels left in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

34:45You have to have about 20 % of that left for it to be operational for our system to operate. So we're getting to levels where we're starting to be concerned. I will say, though, you're starting to see production increase, not just in the United States, but in other places as well. We're seeing some green shoots in the oil patch. Rig counts have been going up consistently week on week. You're seeing more production, potential production in Alaska, in the Permian Basin, and in other parts of the United States, as well as a consequence of higher prices. But consumers should be very concerned that as inventories continue to draw down, I'll give you a great example of this.

35:21We've already seen a draw of gasoline inventories of 38 million barrels. That is almost the entire amount of the inventory that we use in the summer driving season. So we're starting to get very concerned. The only thing that we can do in the short term to fix this problem is to get the straight open as quickly as possible. Short of that, I think one of the biggest questions anybody who's followed this has had is, all right, why aren't oil futures soaring right now? Why are they kind of lingering around$100 below for the last couple of weeks as well? What is your sense of that? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, given the fact we're in the midst of the biggest oil shock in recorded history.

35:57We are still very concerned about what those inventories are, but there are a couple of key reasons why you haven't seen the shock that I think anybody would have anticipated if you'd shut down the Strait of Hormuz for three months. There are a couple of things going on here. First of all, China has cut their oil imports by 50 % since the beginning of this crisis. They have tremendous strategic petroleum reserves themselves. No one actually knows what that number is, but they think it's over a billion barrels of strategic petroleum reserve in China. So China has essentially left significant amounts of oil on the market that they previously had been importing.

36:31That's one key reason. So you don't truly know how much oil is out there right now. So you've also seen a significant demand repression going on in Southeast Asia in particular. So they're putting in rationing in place. They're telling people not to go to work. So their energy use is going down also. So it's really an issue of we didn't know how much inventory was out there. China not importing as much as they previously had and rationing going on throughout the rest of the world. You're not seeing it here in the United States. Again, that's a reflection of increased American production. Yeah, there's no question about that.

37:05The China piece of this is fascinating and about as opaque as it gets, but a huge part of it nonetheless. Mike Summers, really appreciate you coming in. Great to be with you, Phil. Let's turn to our business leaders series. We talked to small business owners about how Trump's tariffs are impacting them. In November, we introduce you to Sarah Wells Bags, a line of postpartum bags and apparel for working mothers. After the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Trump's tariffs, Sarah is now struggling to cash in on her promised tariff refund. Sarah is here with me now. I really appreciate you coming on.

37:37And I think I should probably kind of flip the terminology. Cash in, like this was your money. You are now entitled to that money. the process to get that money. Walk people through kind of on the top line what that's been like. Absolutely. So the Supreme Court back in February now said these tariffs were illegal. You get your money back with interest, I might add. And this was a first time experience, I think, for the government to issue this level of refunds. So we expected a little bit of work to get there. But we are now how many months later in June? And I don't have my full refund back. It took creating a government account, which has been cumbersome.

38:15And many small businesses like mine have never had an account like this before. So vocabulary and acronyms we're not used to to navigate it. And then once we got that up and running and put our application in, even if it says approved, there's been no real time frame, no real indication of when you might get that money. So we're still living in this world of unpredictability and uncertainty. And it's been really hard. How much money do you estimate your business has paid for tariffs up to this point, how much do you expect to get back? Yes. So we have about$20 ,000 we expect in refund for my small business.

38:47I've received half of it back. I got that really quickly. That actually felt like an early promising sign. Maybe it was all going to happen. And now I'm months after that first tariff refund and nothing and no indication of when the rest will come. And, you know, I've been saying to folks, half of my refund doesn't make my business whole. I need everything back. You know, really, we're already going to be so far behind because we were out of this all of last year and lost a lot of sales, not having the inventory we needed. But we at least need to get the rest of this refund back. And I would honestly tell you I'm kind of one of the lucky ones to get anything at this point.

39:19A lot of my colleagues have received no refunds yet or are even kind of locked out of the system and haven't even been able to get their applications put in. Which I should just say as an outsider, it's like a very strange frame of mind. Like, you aren't lucky that you got the thing that you're entitled to based on the Supreme Court. You're sitting next to one of your bags. The ability to plan, to be able to produce amazing materials like that. What has this done for how you think through your business in the months, quarters, years ahead? Yeah, so last year, really, I ran out of my best-selling inventory like this bag.

39:50I just couldn't afford the tariff. I wasn't going to take a mortgage out on my home to pay the tariff. I wasn't willing to take that level of risk. So we really stopped ordering because we just couldn't get the cash together to pull our goods out of port. And in that period of time, I probably lost about a half a million dollars in sales not having the products that the new moms wanted and needed. And we're still catching up from that. So we're trying to bring new inventory in. But right now, we're still stuck without our refund. And we keep hearing every day that new tariffs might be coming in July.

40:18So there's no planning for this. What will my products cost in the months to come is still a huge question mark as much as it really was last year. And you're right that the Supreme Court said at least you're going to get that money back while the rest of all these tariffs are challenged in court. And that still hasn't happened. It feels like the hole is getting dug deeper and deeper. Yeah. Progressively as the months kind of compound. Real quick, where can people find that bag? SarahWellsBags.com. Really appreciate you coming in and sharing your story. It's really important. Well, live pictures from inside Madison Square Garden.

40:49You see the pregame activity on the court coming up. the extra security ahead of President Trump's rival, plus CNN's conversation with the world's biggest Knicks fan, not Timothee Chalamet, it's Spike Lee. Stay with us.

41:07Welcome to the lead. I'm Phil Mattingly. Jake Tapper is on assignment this hour. President Trump is getting ready to head to New York City for game three of the NBA Finals, where there is a very visible enhanced security presence outside of Madison Square Garden. We're going inside the world's most famous arena in just moments. Plus, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime personal assistant, Leslie Groff, is set to testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation into the dead pedophile. A member of that committee will join me live ahead to share what she's hoping to learn from this closed-door interview.

41:41Also, the founder and chief inventor of Ring Doorbells is here as the company faces a lawsuit alleging its products are violating privacy laws by keeping and storing data for everyone who walks by. What is his response to the allegations, and how is the company looking to keep using AI in the future?

42:04The lead tonight, New York's Garden Party. President Trump attending tonight's NBA Finals game. It's game three between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. 2-0 Knicks for those who are keeping track. And the security? It's tight. Anti-scale fences, heavy police presence, watch parties outside Madison Square Garden canceled. Officials telling fans with tickets to show up at least two hours before tip-off. Those still thinking about getting in? Resale tickets for a single seat are ranging from about$4 ,000 to$52 ,000. But for most Knicks fans, the cost is worth it. After all, it's the first time the NBA Finals are back at the Garden since 1999.

42:42And the Knicks, who, as I noted, are up two games, well, they haven't won a championship since 1973. We start off with our resident New Yorker, Shimon Prokopez, who made it through security and is inside MSG courtside. Shimon, let's start with the security precautions up to this point. What have you seen? I mean, it was pretty hectic even for us to get inside. But fans right now are lining up outside, waiting to get inside. about 30 minutes from now at 6 30 the doors will open and fans will start streaming in here and as you said fans have been told to get here start getting here around now to try and help alleviate some of the lines but there were massive lines even for the media even for the employees who work here to get inside but I think it's all well worth it given the history here given how long it has been since there's been a finals game here in New York City you can certainly expect this crowd to just explode the minute they can get inside here and start watching their next tip-off is going to be I'm sure a very intense moment a very loud moment we're getting a look Phil here at some of the gifts I guess that fans are gonna be getting when they walk in here this will be at their seats there's also stuff that they could wear on their wrists and then there are these towels that I'm sure many of the fans will be waving here very proudly but it's going to be a packed house, a very exciting time here and I just can't believe that I'm here.

44:19So I'm very excited about all this. I'm sure a lot of the fans will be very excited but like you said one of the things that fans are having to deal with right now is those security lines but most of the people I spoke to today said look it is what it is. We just can't wait to get inside. We know what it's going to be like. And the other thing is, many of the fans can't even be outside Madison Square Garden. If you don't have a ticket, you can't get anywhere near Madison Square Garden. So that's certainly going to affect some of the celebration we will see here later tonight. I mean, Shimon, I also want to know why you're there and how you get that assignment.

44:56And I'm very jealous. But I will say, unlike our colleagues who tried to ambush you in an interview being non-Knicks fans earlier last week, cough, cough, Boris Sanchez, Breonna Keillor. I will not do that. I support you, Shimon, and I want you to have an amazing time tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I'm very lucky. And thank you. Shimon Prokopez live at MSG with clearly the best assignment CNN has doled out this year so far. I now want to turn over to CNN's Julia Benbrook. She's in New Jersey. Also a great assignment where the president is before he heads off to New York.

45:29Julia, why is it a big deal for the president to attend tonight's game? Well, this will be the first time that a sitting president has attended an NBA finals game. President Donald Trump, he's been here in New Jersey for the weekend. He will soon travel to a place he knows very well, New York City, to watch the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs face off in game three. Now, he announced that he was going to be attending when speaking with reporters. He said that the Knicks owner, James Dolan, had invited him and that he planned to go. That, of course, led to a lot of enhanced security. You see that anti-scale fencing around Madison Square Garden.

46:09There's vehicle barriers, a lot of other protections in place. As you all mentioned, people are expected to get their early hours early to this game. And then perhaps the most impactful is that those watch parties that take place around the arena, those have been canceled or moved, really having a big impact. because with ticket prices so high, that's often the most accessible way for fans to really be close to the game. So his decision to attend, it's been met with mixed reactions and some sharp criticism from those on the other side of the aisle. Another native New Yorker, Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, he did one of his press conferences in his mixed hat and he had some strong words for the president attending.

46:54He essentially said that he was injecting himself into this game. Take a listen. Does this guy even know the difference between Karl Rove and Karl Anthony Towns? I don't think so. He always has to bring the MAGA circus into town.

47:18Now, Trump has attended more sporting events than any other president. That includes Game 5 of the 2019 World Series, the Daytona 500. He was the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl when he went in New Orleans. He's been to the U.S. Open, Men's Final, and the Ryder Cup. And then coming up in Washington, D.C., he is planning to host the UFC Fight Night there on the White House grounds. That's a part of the 250th anniversary celebrations. It also happens to be Trump's 80th birthday. Just by pure happenstance. Guy like sports, Julia Benbrook, appreciate your time. Great reporting as always, my friend.

47:56Thanks so much. Well, you cannot talk about the Knicks without mentioning one of the most diehard fans out there, filmmaker and actor Spike Lee. CNN's Omar Jimenez got to speak with Spike Lee ahead of tonight's big game at the Doe Garden, as Lee calls it. Omar, who also apparently is getting great assignments like Shimon Prokkerbis. How does Spike Lee feel about Trump being there? Look, he felt a lot of things. And before I go to that interview, we were talking a lot about what it looked like outside. You can hear this siren behind me. But these are the fans all lining up, waiting to get into Madison Square Garden.

48:29You can see on the left side that is exactly where they are standing as well. And then if you come on over to the other direction, you see the barricades, what they're standing outside of, and folks on the rooftop or the second level of that rooftop bar as well. So fans going through a lot of things, trying to adjust to the novelty of President Trump being at this game. Here's how Spike Lee felt about it. Game three, President Trump will be there. Some people are upset, some people are a fan of it. I just wonder, you are the Knicks fan ambassador, I think is fair to say. I can't speak for all disciples.

49:07But I just find it strange that this had to happen now.

49:18Gotta get there two hours early. I mean, it's just like just taking the focus off we haven't won since 1973.

49:35It should be about the game tonight.

49:43And obviously all of these adjustments are for the president coming here, Phil. Omar, I have to ask because I was watching the last dance over the weekend for the 800th time and saw Spike Lee with his famous face off with Scottie Pippen, sit your down. He's been there forever. He was just 16 years old when the Knicks last won it all. Why is he so convinced this is their year? You know, I asked him why this finals run felt so different from the last finals runs in the 90s, which, by the way, he was there for that, too, on top of when he was first at the game in 1970 as a 13-year-old to see that next championship.

50:24I just want you to hear a little bit of what we talked about in terms of basketball.

50:35I gave him one signed by me And I gave another For him to sign It came back two months later But it was signed And that's I've only worn it once That's a special one I'm wearing it tonight Game three and game four, then I'm going to frame it. Okay. So tonight is the night that the Pope Leo signed jerseys coming out for the first time. Second. Second time. Was the first time earlier in the playoffs? Yes. Against the Hawks? I was at that game, and I saw you in your Pope Leo jersey, and I was like, I haven't seen that before. Signed by the Pope. Wow. The Knicks are the one team here in this city, like everybody, on the blue skies.

51:28and it unites the city that's not I mean it is amazing it's a love fest here everybody's wearing a Nick t-shirt a hat you might be someone you know I'm walking you know down the block and you know you see somebody you don't stop we give a fist on the go like the look you don't know we're not gonna have no conversations, but what if they're like? It's a connection. The word is connection. And it's a beautiful thing. What would a championship mean to you personally? I can't even describe that.

52:10You know? I've been thinking about this. Am I going to cry? I mean, tears of joy, but I don't... All I can say is I'm going to be bugging out. I'm going to be bugging.

52:2653 years since New York Knicks have won NBA championship. How long? Too long. How long? Too long.

52:42I think there's going to be a lot of Knicks fans who, one, feel the same way, but also be bugging out right there with him. I should mention, though, look, I know Knicks fans are excited. But it is a 2-0 lead. Teams have come back from this before in the NBA playoffs. And so there's a lot on the line for this game. Present here or not, there's a lot of basketball to be played by the Knicks. And these fans here, at least on the Knicks side, hoping to see their team get a little closer to that pinnacle. It's such a good point. And it's no surprise, as your college basketball star, who, by the way, if you go on his TikTok, he can still dunk.

53:15He puts it up there like, oh, it's like it's hard for me to dunk now. And I'm looking at that like, I could never dunk. I hate Omar a lot. Omar Jimenez, my good friend, doing amazing work outside Madison Square Garden, as always. Thanks so much. Good to see you, man. Well, President Trump once again pushing unfounded claims of voter fraud in California. But is that a winning message as his party tries to hold on to power in the midterms? I'll ask a Republican lawmaker about his party's priorities next. Plus, Texas Democrat James Tallarico picking up a surprising endorsement from someone who used to work closely with his opponent.

53:49How much will that matter to voters? Our panel weighs in ahead.

54:02There's more evidence than ever presented. Let's talk about elections in this country. We're like a third world country. Your elections are crooked and you're crooked and the press is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN. your one-sided crooked network. Sorry, let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time. In the politics lead, President Trump walked off an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, taped on Friday in Wisconsin for Meet the Press. The conversation becoming heated over the future of his proposed anti-weaponization fund and when he was pressed over claims of election fraud in 2020 and right now in California.

54:42I want to bring in Republican Congressman Mike Flood from Nebraska. Congressman, really appreciate your time. the issue of election fraud. I think one of the questions that I've had is why it's still such a hot topic for the president, particularly when you look at polling showing 81 percent of Americans didn't believe there was solid evidence of voter fraud in the most recent election in 2024, which he won. Do you or leaders in general have any reason to believe that something has changed between now and between then and now? Well, first of all, let me just state this. Like, I've never objected to the election results.

55:14I knew that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump clearly won the 2024 election. But a lot of Republicans have real concerns. Cities like Detroit, Chicago, even in California, it's absurd to us that they're still counting votes. How can a state like Texas deliver results the night of the election where California, it goes on for weeks. And now we see in the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal that we've got people registering and their pets to vote and are facing criminal charges. Like it just doesn't look right. People have concerns. We want election integrity. It's a central tenet of the Republican platform.

55:50And I can tell you when people trust their elections, they trust their government. It's important to inspire that trust. Do you not feel like that some of the mistrust, if not a lot of it, comes from the idea of that doesn't look like it doesn't feel right, but we can't provide evidence as to why it's not right. And when you do provide evidence, there are prosecutions like that seems to be a pretty big part of why there's distrust in elections right now is people saying that that looks bad, but not being able to prove it's bad in California is probably a pretty great example of that. Well, I mean, when you can register your pet to vote, that breaks the trust.

56:26We just had the Republican RNC co-chair at the Nebraska State Republican Convention on Saturday. They talked about what they did in 2024, literally sent hundreds of volunteer lawyers to polling places around certain states like Michigan, where they noted some irregularities and were running to the courts to try and get them fixed on Election Day. Listen, whether Democrats like it or not, there are enough people in this country that have serious concerns just about making sure that our elections are fair. That's why I support voter ID. It's not too much to show your ID at the polls. We now have that in Nebraska.

57:00I'm confident the Nebraska elections are totally on the up and up, but there are some states we do worry about. Again, I think the question is, one, having Republican lawyers at polling places, both sides do that in just about every election. I think there's certainly more of an effort from the Republican side. And when you find irregularities, you bring them to judges and you're able to get actions taken. My question is, where is there evidence of like significant fraud that has changed the outcomes of elections up to this point? Well, like I said, I'm not an election denier from 2020. I never have been.

57:35I've always said that Joe Biden was the president. But if we're so concerned, if Democrats are so certain that our system is right, then let's pass the SAVE Act. Let's ensure that it's right. Let's require an ID. Let's put it if it's up to me, we put an end to a lot of this mail in voting. I think that's dangerous. I think it's dangerous. to allow people to do that. You should have to show up to the polls unless you get an absentee ballot for a valid reason. But like, say you're in the military serving overseas, that's what absentee ballots were used for when you and I grew up. Now we've got elections where the date passes and it could be a month before we find out who actually won the election.

58:12That, I think, breeds questions about whether the election has integrity or not. And what's going on in California, like the speaker said today, it just looks fishy. You've been outspoken about the president's proposed anti-weaponization fund that anyone convicted of attacking a police officer on January 6th should not receive money if the fund does come back into existence. The president was asked about that possibility. Here's what he said. I wouldn't be inclined to say so, but I have to see it. I can tell you this, 97 % of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was, because you had a lot of crooked cops, You're dirty cops.

58:47But 172 people did plead guilty to assaulting police officers. You know why they pled guilty? Should they be exempt from receiving funds? Because they told they were going to jail for 15 years if they didn't. Should they? They pled guilty because they were frightened. What do you make of that answer? Well, obviously, I'm on the record being very clear that if you assault a police officer, you are not a victim. You're not entitled to any money. But let's talk about the reason the fund was proposed in the first place. Under the last administration, we had pro-life Americans who were being targeted by the DOJ.

59:21We had people that were going to school board meetings advocating for their children's future that were targeted by the DOJ. We had Turning Point USA clubs that were being targeted. That's the lawfare that the president's talking about. And it was real and it was a problem and it was an election issue in 2024. And so I think we have to look at why the fund was proposed. Ultimately, the courts have put a hold on that and the White House has said they're going to abide by that. So this is a this was a two week ago issue. We're looking forward today. We've got a big week. We've got to extend FISA so that we have our Section 702 surveillance program.

59:59And we have to fund ICE and CBP through Reconciliation 2.0. That's what we should be talking about right now as Americans. Yeah, you are right. It is a huge week on Capitol Hill and a lot of work for House Republicans and Senate Republicans to try and thread the needle on some very complex issues, which I know we want to talk to you about as the week continues to progress. Republican Congressman Mike Flood from Nebraska, always appreciate your time, sir. Big week ahead. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you very much for having me. Well, the founder of Ring Doorbells joins me live in studio next.

1:00:32Hear how they're using artificial intelligence and his response to privacy concerns.

1:00:47Now to our series, AI, friend or foe. One Virginia man may argue it's foe. A new lawsuit against Amazon accuses the company's Ring doorbell cameras of collecting and storing facial recognition data without consent. The plaintiff, Charles Sigwalt, is suing over Ring's optional familiar faces feature, which uses artificial intelligence to identify and remember people seen on doorbell cameras, notifying users when the camera spots a familiar face. Joining us to discuss is the founder and chief inventor of Ring, Jamie Siminoff. He's also the author of the book, Ding Dong, How Ring Went from Shark Tank Reject to Everyone's Front Door.

1:01:22We just had a lengthy discussion about the origin story of Ring with the team here on set. I want to start with the lawsuit because it says, in part, the plaintiff and class members had their privacy rights violated when they, along with millions of other Americans, passed by a Ring security camera and unknowingly had their facial recognition information collected. Are people who are simply passing by being added to a database that stores their information? I mean, they're not. I can't comment on the lawsuit directly, but we don't believe that it has merit. We comply with all the privacy laws where they exist, with what we're doing, and familiar faces is one of those products that, I mean, there's facial recognition out there.

1:02:02I opened my phone right before I came out here. I opened my phone with my face. It is out there. People find it to give them efficiency in what they're doing. And especially with ring alerts, you can get less alerts now. So when my son comes home, I see, you know, Oliver's in the driveway. And so I can get more information from it quicker. It's certainly a customer first feature, and we're really proud of it. So just to walk through the feature itself, put the lawsuit aside because I understand if you can't talk about it. How does the system determine which faces to retain and which belong to someone who's just walking by?

1:02:33Yeah, so you determine it. It just, it basically tells you like, you know, do you want to name this person? You have up to 50 names you can put in. If you don't name them, it just throws out that information after 30 days. So it's really like, it's a totally privacy first thing. It's meant for familiar faces, meant for like your family members and people that are coming in and out. So you know where they are and you can set your alerts and have less alerts bothering you or set them, you know, like my son, I want to get more alerts. I want to see when he's actually there. And the data itself, where is that stored?

1:03:02It's stored in the cloud. What is your access or the company's access or third-party access to that data? I mean, it's secure to each individual. We call our customers neighbors. It's secure to our neighbors, just like all of your videos, you know, it's in your control. Stepping back a little bit, just in terms of how AI has changed, or your ability to use AI or utilize AI has changed Ring and what it brings to the table. How are you thinking through that? What has it given you that maybe you didn't think was even possible when you started this? I think that's the idea, right. It's giving us stuff that I dreamed about.

1:03:36My dream was to make neighborhoods safer. That's been our mission. And I think we got to sort of the max of that, and then AI came, and we can do so much more. I mean, AI really does allow every single family to basically have a security guard on their home that knows them, that can understand what they're doing, that can be customized to who they are. And so I do believe with AI, we're going to get much farther in helping people to secure their home, be more aware of what's happening around their home, and just live in a better way. So I am really excited what we're able to do with AI, but also doing that while keeping them private, keeping their privacy, keeping their data secure.

1:04:14What is the level of difficulty in terms of maintaining that balance? Or do you have concerns that Amazon could be using the data for something else? How are you thinking through this? Certainly not. You just architect it. We architect from a privacy-first perspective. So each home, each resident, each customer keeps their data to themselves. They get to use it how they want. And then we've built things that when something happens in a neighborhood, like if a dog is missing, you get to choose. Do you want to enter into this and help find a dog? Do you want to help with a fire? Do you want to help with something's happening?

1:04:46And so I do think we can have both. We can live in two worlds at the same time, where you can have your privacy. You can have your security of your data. If you want to keep that, you don't have to worry about it. But then when something happens in your neighborhood, you can join with your neighbors and help them. Which is, by the way, that's how neighborhoods have been for hundreds of years. When something happens, people come together. You are an innovator. You are an inventor. You are somebody who is constantly kind of thinking of the next thing or thinking through the next iteration of what Ring could possibly do.

1:05:14have there been times where you've gone kind of to a point where you think, maybe we've got to reel that one back a little bit from a privacy perspective or privacy concern perspective? I mean, certainly we always listen to scrutiny. I think whenever you're doing this kind of stuff we're doing, we should listen to people that are out there. We should take the scrutiny from that and we should adjust if we have to. And so I think we're always, but we're, we're very cautious. We're always privacy first in what we do. I believe that when people, when we've had stuff where people have talked about it, it's usually just a misunderstanding of how something works and we were able to explain it, like the dog search party where, yeah, you don't have to, if you don't do anything, you're anonymous, you're private, but if you wanna say, yes, I wanna contact my neighbor, I think that dog is theirs, then you can enter into that neighborhood and start to make it better.

1:05:58So it gives you that choice. Just real quick, because we're out of time. Can you kind of calculate what AI will do for you guys going forward? Like how fast is this changing how you guys are doing your business? I mean, it's definitely changing the speed of how we're doing our business. It's changing the speed of what we, the features we're able to put out. And it's changing, I believe, the impact of what Ring can have for each of our customers that are utilizing it. And we're hoping to just keep going on that mission of making neighborhoods safer. Jamie Siminoff, we will continue to have a debate about how the Shark Tank guys did not say yes to the original time.

1:06:29But it's a great origin story. That is definitely the case. Really appreciate you. Thanks for having me. Well, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime executive assistant set to testify behind closed doors on Capitol Hill tomorrow. What are the biggest missing pieces in the investigation? that she can help answer. That's next.

1:06:50In our Law and Justice lead, the House Oversight Committee is set to hear tomorrow from Leslie Groff, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime executive assistant. The interview follows the release of the transcript of the closed-door interview with former Epstein aide Sarah Kellen, which included allegations involving several prominent men in Epstein's inner circle, as well as broader claims about Epstein's operation. And just last week, lawmakers also released the transcript of former Attorney General Pam Bondi's closed-door interview as they continue examining how key Epstein-related materials were handled and disclosed.

1:07:23Joining us now is Congresswoman Yasemin Ansari of Arizona. She's a member of the Oversight Panel. Congresswoman, really appreciate your time. Just to start with Leslie Groff, one of Jeffrey Epstein's closest longtime aides, managed many aspects of his daily operations. What are you expecting to learn from her testimony tomorrow? Thank you so much for having me. Leslie managed every aspect of Jeffrey Epstein's life for about 18 years. She was really at the forefront of scheduling all of his appointments. This is somebody who was mentioned in the Epstein files that have been released so far more than pretty much anybody else.

1:08:00and she was actually the one setting up appointments with all of these girls to provide massages to Jeffrey Epstein. I think this is the first time she's ever speaking to a congressional committee like this. She will be in a transcribed interview. I want to know everything that she has to share. We know that, unfortunately, up until this point, other than Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, well, nobody has been investigated or prosecuted, other people who've enacted crimes, perpetrated crimes or enabled the crimes. And so I really hope that she comes forward with as much information as possible.

1:08:41She has long stated that she was unaware of the abuse that took place. I'll be honest with you, I'm extremely skeptical of that. It's very hard to believe that somebody who was so intimately involved in his life for 18 years had no knowledge, especially when she was setting up the appointments with the girls. Nevertheless, this is her opportunity to be forthcoming, to be honest, and to help us get closer to real justice for the over 1 ,000 victims who we know existed. Given her role and kind of how you lay things out, Do you see her testimony as a potential turning point in terms of the ability to understand the full scope of the operation?

1:09:22And if immunity could lead to more details from witnesses like Sarah Kellen or Groff, is that an option that you or the committee might be in favor of at some point? I think the most important thing is for her to be honest and forthcoming. We have seen a number of these interviews where I don't believe that the witnesses have been credible or that they've been honest. We've interviewed other people who are very close in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit, like Darren Indyke, Richard Kahn, Les Wexner. All of these men dismissed themselves of all accountability and pretended to have zero knowledge of any wrongdoing whatsoever.

1:09:59What Sarah Kellen brought forward is that she was a victim herself. And she talked about the abuse that she endured as somebody who was also named as a co-conspirator in the 2008 Sweetheart plea deal. Leslie Groff also was named in that. I think anything that we can do to make sure that she is honest is important. At the end of the day, with or without her knowledge, she did enable these horrific and heinous crimes. And I think that at the bare minimum, she needs to be showing remorse and accountability. and I hope to see that from her tomorrow. Congresswoman, a new Reuters investigation found that some Epstein survivors whose identities were exposed through government document releases have faced harassment, threats, doxing.

1:10:43Should Congress pursue new safeguards or legislation to ensure survivors are protected here? There were protections and safeguards in the legislation that was passed. The Epstein Files Transparency Act made very clear that nothing about victims or personally identifiable information should be released. I want to point you to the Department of Justice under the Trump administration that is at fault here. Pam Bondi's interview last week made very clear during the dozens of times that she blamed Todd Blanche and said that he is the one who managed the release of the files. I am disgusted by the way that Todd Blanche handled this because of the botched release of these files, to your point, dozens of victims have now had their personal information released.

1:11:34They're facing doxing. They're facing threats. They've had their lives turned upside down. To me, it is hard to believe that this was not on purpose. We know the Trump administration has never wanted these files released. They've rejected transparency and obstructed justice at every point. I think Todd Blanche, not only should he not be confirmed as the attorney general. He needs to come before the oversight committee and testify under oath. And he needs to be investigated for his role in this botched release and the ongoing White House cover-up. It's devastating what's happened to these women.

1:12:08Congresswoman Yasmina Ansari, thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it. Well, dramatic video shows the moment schoolchildren ran for safety in the Philippines today as an earthquake sent structures crumbling and triggered tsunami warnings. An update on the recovery efforts ahead.

1:12:29In our politics lead today, President Trump suggested without evidence that the only way a Republican could lose the L.A. mayor's race is by fraud, posting, quote, not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. Third World Nation, rigged elections, exclamation point. Now they'll be working on great guy Steve Hilton. Won't have results for possibly two weeks, according to officials. That comes as the former reality TV star Spencer Pratt fell into third place behind incumbent Democrat Karen Bass and city councilwoman Nithya Rahman. Let's jump into this with the panel.

1:13:09Scott Jennings, Spencer Pratt also casting some doubt on the voting total, suggesting that without evidence the fraudulent votes from homeless people might be the reason for his shift. in a third place, posting, quote, a net swing of more than 43 ,000 votes since Tuesday. 43 ,000, huh, where have I seen that number before? Probably nothing. The post linking to an article from Homeless Services' website, which claims that on any given night, over 43 ,000 people experience homelessness in L.A. He later posted that, like, hey, give it time. This is going to take some time to play out. I don't really know what to do with that part.

1:13:41The fraud part. Well, look, I don't know if there was any fraud. I do know this. I think most reasonable people would say taking weeks and weeks and weeks to count the votes of an election, it hurts confidence in the process. I mean, it just does. That's number one. Number two, whether or not it's legal or not, and I guess it is in California, this ballot harvesting business and the way it goes on out there, I mean, it would make third world country dictators blush. And so, look, I'm guessing whatever they did was likely within the confines of the law. That doesn't make the laws good. And it doesn't make it right that it takes in this one specific place in America, weeks upon weeks upon weeks to count the ballots.

1:14:24And it hurts confidence in the system. OK. It shouldn't take this long to count ballots. Agreed. But it often does. And so let's fix the issue, but let's not castigate an unrealistic problem. We don't actually know what is going to happen, right? There might be more ballots and Hilton might pull out. I mean, Nithya has pulled ahead and looks like she's the projected winner. But I think this is kind of going to what Spencer Pratt does and is what Donald Trump does. And I don't think this is the last that we've seen of Spencer Pratt. I'm sure he will. He's run as a Democrat. and I'm sure he will jump on the Republican bandwagon and cause election fraud.

1:15:02What does more harm than anything with instilling doubt in the system is when you have our leaders undermining the election and saying our democracy is not stable and loyal and saying the election is rigged. That causes more harm than in actually taking longer to count the ballots. And so we should just be really careful. Spencer, you lost. Trump, you lost in 2020. Just accept it. Don't be a sore loser. Biden, Kamala won. Hillary lost. Like people can accept things, but when we always got to call something rigged because it doesn't go our way. Now, I never really had any expectation that Pratt was going to win.

1:15:37I mean, he got a lot of online buzz, but look, he's like a Republican running in Los Angeles. I mean, this was this was never like a fraud. And so, you know, I think he ran an interesting campaign. Some of the ads were really amazing, but the guy is running in a jurisdiction that's not built for him. Although I got to say the issues he raised, real issues. I mean, the city did burn. They cannot rebuild the houses. He was affected in that. I thought he ran a salient campaign and the other two people would be disastrous. But that's what the people of L.A. wanted. But I also think it is disrespectful for him to assign this fraud.

1:16:07They're saying a rigness to homeless people as well. Homeless people are allowed to vote in this country, whether or not they have a house or not. So I think that, oh, just 43000 ballots were found and all just 43000. It's also just a diminishing of people who might have found themselves on hard time and part of what he did in this campaign. I mean, I'm going to give Scott credit here. The ability to identify that there's a lot of Democrats in L.A., you know, which is like that's why it's not rigged. It's not third world. It's not any of those type of stuff. You're right. A lot of people say I'm the best in the business and being able to pick out these subtleties of the election.

1:16:42A lot of people. I would say that's a rigged statement. People are saying. That polling is rigged. Easy. I want to turn to Texas because there's obviously a high profile Senate race, which is going to give us a lot of content to chew over, I think, over the course of the next couple of months. Today, Texas Democrat James Tallarico picked up an endorsement from a prominent attorney who represented Republican candidate Ken Paxton during the state attorney general's 2023 impeachment trial and his securities fraud cases. He explained why he's breaking with Paxton on his podcast. Take a listen. I defended Ken Paxton for years.

1:17:20I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas. And unlike Ken, I believe to my core, James, that you believe in unity over division and that you know how to assemble not only Democrats but independents and Republicans. And we need that right now. We need it more than in my lifetime. And I'm old as dirt. Scott, my big question is Republicans need to coalesce down in Texas. and there's a lot of people who like John Cornyn who really don't personally like Paxton who are going to have to make the decision of, okay, we just don't want Tallarico. Is this a leading indicator of a split that may be more problematic than we thought?

1:18:04I don't know. I was talking to some people in Texas about it. I don't know this attorney. They say he's a lifelong Democrat. They hired him to defend Paxton because he's apparently a good attorney, but he is effectively a lifelong Democrats, some of the plugged in Texas insiders are saying if you're if you're really plugged into Texas law and politics, this is not really that big of a deal. But obviously, you know, something that you would weaponize for narrative purposes if you were the Tallarico campaign. But I get the feeling it's being overblown. That's what the people in Texas think. Yeah, I think that this race will play out with turnout, turnout, turnout for Tallarico and depressed turnout from Republicans because they just don't like paxton i still think this is a very hard race to win i actually don't really think endorsements do that much for candidates um even president uh president trump's endorsement i don't think that much i think this will be who runs the better campaign and is that are the wins right this time to make texas turn blue it will be hard but not impossible for texas blue a lot cycle after cycle After cycle.

1:19:07Different backdrop this time. Absolutely. I'm not going to act like the stars aligning. Democrats send all their limited resources to Texas. No, they won't. But let's have the Republicans drop like what? Yeah. That's the other thing. We got money. I know. They got a problem. OK, so one last one before I let you guys go. President Biden's former chief staff, Ron Klain, weighing in on his pick, top pick for 2028. Politico reports Klain has, quote, been using his personal time to advise Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, as he prepares for his possible 2028 presidential bid. Three people familiar told Playbook.

1:19:39Klain declined to comment, but Ro Khanna showed up at South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn's fish fry last month. He also has been making the case for Graham Plattner in Maine, despite the recent controversies and Plattner's alleged past treatment of women. Khanna was also a key player in helping get the Epstein files released. Ashley, what does that tell you about where, I don't know if Ron Klain is endorsing Ro Khanna. Advising is, I think, a different thing than endorsing. But Klain's talking to Khanna about 28. I mean, I haven't talked to Ron Klain since the transition of 2020. But I will say, I wouldn't be surprised if he was advising a couple of people.

1:20:15He's a trusted person in the Democratic Party. What I would tell, my advice is less to Ron Klain and more to people who are we're going to run for in 2028. Talk to multiple sources. This is a new electorate. This is not 2020. This is not 2024. We have a different backdrop. Get as much advice as possible so that you can run the best race possible to improve the lives of Americans. Yeah, I mean, he's a smart guy, smart operative. He's seen a lot. I agree with Ashley. I think 28 is going to be a different kind of a year. But if I were advising Ro Khanna, I'd say, what happened to you? He used to be a reasonable person.

1:20:46Now you've kind of gotten strange with Plattner and Epstein and all this, but I guess that's what it takes to run in 20. You know, I was going to say to end this, like, yeah, amongst the people you should call would be Ashley and Scott. Don't call Scott. That's not good advice. Did you not hear my analysis of the LA electorate? That's true. Your ability. I'm literally giving it away for free. You're John King-esque, the way you broke down the electorate without even having a map. I am a huge fan of you both. Thank you guys for doing this. I appreciate it. We'll be right back.

1:21:21Our last lead start in our world lead. A deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Philippines around 7 this morning local time. Footage seen here from the island shows multiple buildings collapsing from the shock. The Associated Press reports at least 35 people were killed and over 200 others were injured. As many as 138 aftershocks occurred after the initial earthquake according to the Philippines Seismology Agency. And a new study finds egg allergies have fallen more than 17 % in children. Experts credit this to a drastic change in guidance to introduce potentially allergenic foods to babies by the time they turn six months old.

1:21:59This new study parallels recent research examining how the same shift in peanut allergy guidance has led to a reduction of the prevalence of peanut allergy among children. Well, if you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. Erin Burnett out front starts now.

1:22:19This is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam thrilled to introduce the new CNN weather app. Be prepared for anything with comprehensive coverage from real experts like me. Download the CNN weather app on iOS today. From the descendants of history makers involved in the Louisiana Purchase to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, discover the untold stories of American expansion in the CNN original series, This Land. Now streaming on the CNN app.