Israel Says It Has Begun “Large-Scale” Strikes In Beirut Suburbs

26:29War is always ugly. It's not clean. And people were not the one that asked for this war, this war being imposed by the Islamic Republic to Iranian people, because the U.S. gave them many chances negotiating with them to stop your nuclear activities. A lot of different opportunities for them. They didn't accept that because it's in their DNA. Chaos, mayhem, war. So that's why the people in Iran are worried. But at the same time, they're asking the world to help them to get rid of this regime, not replacing Ali Khamenei with another Khamenei. That is not going to guarantee global security. Well, yeah, I wanted to ask you about that since since we last spoke, Iran's Assembly of Experts, that's an 88 member body of senior clerics.

27:15They appointed or anointed Moshtaba Khamenei to replace his father as supreme leader. Now, Moshtaba has not appeared in public. A source tells CNN he suffered a broken foot bruises and cuts from the initial attacks. What do ordinary Iranians think of their new supreme leader? To be honest, nothing. Nothing. Mushtaba is one of the most invisible figure. And I have to say that the most famous slogan in my country is Mushtaba. It means that Mushtaba, you better die before seeing a position as a supreme leader. Yes, he is one of the secretive figures in Ali Khamenei's house. and so far it has been two days they announced him as supreme leader no pictures of him no videos of him no statement all we know about him is a cardboard cut out that's it that's it no nothing no statement from him and this is kind of like he is even scared of showing up or he's dead.

28:28This is what the people in Iran says. He is a hardliner than his father. He is wounded. His father got killed. His sister got killed. His mother got killed. And he's bloodthirsty right now. So believe me, he will be the one actually targeting the United States of America with full war because he's now the bloodthirsty in Iran being supported by the Revolutionary Guards by Kalibov, by Fadoy, Ta 'ib, the head of the Revolutionary Guards. These are the heartliners of my country, and they are the ones supporting Mushtab al-Khamenei. And believe me, if he is going to be like the leader, if nobody think about removing him, trust me, he will come back, rebuild the Revolutionary Guards to take revenge of its own people, people in the region, and the United States of America.

29:22Masi, we're running out of time, but I do want to ask you, Obviously, the Iranian regime is cruel and the people of Iran deserve a government that better reflects human rights, democracy and the rest. I wonder how concerned you are about the point at which this war will actually start alienating the Iranian people from the United States and its allies. And I ask because it appears as though the United States was responsible for that missile attack, that accident, apparently, in which all these grade school girls were killed and teachers, other innocent people. Israel hit that fuel depot on Saturday, I believe.

29:59Obviously, that caused a lot of air quality issues for the people of Tehran. At what point do you worry about this intervention, this war alienating the Iranian people from the United States and others? I have my family there. I have my beloved mother, my brother, my father, all my beloved friends there, living there. I don't have anyone here. So, of course, my heart is aching for my family when bombs are falling. And that's why I keep asking the United States of America, the Israeli government, that the people of Iran are your allies. And that's why I strongly believe that this strike should be precise and calculated, only targeting the Revolutionary Guards, the political leaders, the Basiji militia, and those who ordered massacre against people.

30:49And my heart is broken when I see that civilians paying huge price. But when I talk to my people inside Iran, maybe nobody believed that. But I ask you to talk to every single mother whose children got killed. You know what they say to me? They say that if the regime kill us, they force us to pay money to get the dead body back from the regime. But if we get killed by the bomb, then at least nobody ask us for money. Nobody put us under pressure to do false confession. This is the frustrated people of Iran who do not want war. But at the same time, they believe that they should finish the job and end this barbaric regime that has slaughtered its own people, Jake.

31:32OK, Masi Alinejad, as always, thank you so much. As the United States is in the middle of this war, the Pentagon is reportedly banning photographers from news conferences about the ongoing conflict. You're going to want to hear the reason why. That's next.

31:51OK, family, thanks for dinner. I should get going now. Not without dessert. Done. Just ordered on DoorDash. I keep eating cake, but tomorrow's Juan's graduation. Well, that deserves a toast. Let me get some drinks. All right. I'm craving snacks. Wait. This time, I'll get it. Oh. I sent it to my own address. I'll have to go. No. Why so soon? For every reason to stay together, I DoorDash in La Casa. Our politics lead as a war between the U.S. and Iran rages on. The Washington Post is today reporting that the Pentagon has barred press photographers from briefings on the conflict. This happening after the Washington Post published photos of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that the Pentagon staff deemed unflattering.

32:43The reporter with the Post said that the White House declined to respond, but the special assistant to the White House says that's not true. She posted a screenshot of their correspondence, claiming instead that the well, her response was, didn't The Washington Post fire all their White House photographers? We should note that last year, the Pentagon did lay out strict rules for journalists, requiring them to sign a pledge to only publish information that has been authorized by the Pentagon. My panel joins me now. Scott, we're in the middle of a war. It does seem like there are things that they should be focused on instead of this.

33:15Yeah, I don't know. It's a little confusing to me about what's actually going on here. I actually think Hexeth has done a number of press briefings and General Cain and General Campbell and others. I think they've been quite transparent with the press on overall information so far. So I'm not entirely sure what happened with the dispute over the photographs. To me, the most important information that should be distributed is specifically about the war effort. You know, what are we doing? How many of the enemy's targets have we destroyed? What's happening to U.S. assets? And I feel like they're doing a pretty good job of that right now with regular press interactions.

33:49So I don't disagree that there have been a number of briefings. You were a press secretary at the Pentagon while Secretary Lloyd Austin ran the Pentagon. Did he complain a lot about unflattering photographs of him? I did not hear any complaints from Secretary Austin about unflattering photos of him. Look, I think to both of your points, I think Pete Hegseth, General Cain, They need to be focused on what's happening in Iran. They have done a number of press conferences outlining the efforts. To be focused on photographs of yourself and unflattering ones at best, I mean, who cares? I think it's more important that we focus on, you know, there are seven service members that have lost their lives.

34:28Over 30 are seriously injured. Over 140 injuries were reported from the attacks. So I would rather see the Secretary of Defense focus on those items, prioritizing the force rather than himself. So one of the big questions, of course, and this is up to President Trump, that's the answer we've gotten from Hegseth and others, is when is this war going to end? What is the exit strategy? I want you to listen to Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley. He said this last night. I mean, this has been a total success in whatever it's been, 11 days. And I thought the president's remarks last night that he could declare victory today and it would be a 100 percent victory.

35:04I think it's true. I think we ought to say to our heroes, thank you for a job well done. This has been absolutely amazing. It's been astounding. It's been historic. And now it's time to declare victory. Mission accomplished. Well, interestingly, I interviewed on my radio show yesterday, Speaker Johnson asked him a similar question. And he, too, said, look, I think the president's accomplished most of what he wanted to do over a short period of time. I think you have to be able to say to the American people, no nukes, no ballistic missile program, no aggressive Navy and no exporting of terrorism.

35:35If you can accomplish those objectives in the shortest time possible, you know, irrespective of what happens to the regime in the future, that's a win. But they shouldn't do that until we can assure the American people, particularly on the nuclear piece, because these fanatics, they want to bring about the end of the world with the nuclear weapons. But if you can assure the American people you've accomplished those four objectives, that's a win. And I think the American people want that done in the shortest time possible. If that all were to happen, this will be a roaring success for the White House.

36:05According to Trump, though, we've eliminated everything and there's no more targets to hit. So I do think it is how do you define success? And right now we have the military objectives. And I think the military has been incredibly successful in degrading Iran's capabilities. But we still do not, I do not understand what the political outcome is here. Because if it is a regime change, is it the Iranian people to take back their country? How are they going to do that? You know, there are still people on the ground that have the guns. And unless we're putting boots on the ground, which would be very dangerous, there's still an intact regime.

36:38They have talked about this, Scott, you know, about the possibility, President Trump leaving the possibility open of boots on the ground, not for like a full force to invade, but to secure whatever nuclear material there might be. Do you think that would be a mistake? I think it would be a mistake to leave any nuclear material in the hands of these fanatics. And we're not the only people in play here. Obviously, Israel is our partner. Maybe other countries soon, hopefully. But specifically with Israel, they've already obviously infiltrated Iran at the highest levels of their government. They had agents all over the place.

37:08And so I don't know how ultimately or who it would get done, whether you bomb it into oblivion or whether you secure it with human beings. But ending this engagement with any nuclear material still in the hands of these fanatics would not be good. So I think they ought to leave all the possibilities on the table because you wouldn't want to end this. And they come out on the other side and say, well, we told Whitcoff we had enough material for 11 and now we have enough material for nine. Well, that's the thing. That's the thing also. Like, I don't you mean you heard Masi Alinajad, one of the most prominent Iranian dissidents talking about this.

37:40Unless there is a new regime, like a democratic election. Yeah, there is going to be a group of people, mullahs or whoever, pursuing a nuclear weapons program, reconstituting their navy, reconstituting the ballistic missile program. Right. That's why this is very difficult to do. An air campaign alone is not going to achieve every single objective that the president has laid out. We have done a fantastic job of degrading their facilities. But if you want to completely eliminate the nuclear program, that is going to mean boots on the ground. And we have no idea how deep and buried these fusion systems are.

38:17So not only are you going to have to have boots on the ground, engineers, and then air cover. And even though we are dominating their airspace, to quote the secretary, they still retain capabilities as we're seeing with the drone. So if we're putting boots on the ground, we're also putting our service members' lives at risk. Yeah, and I know, to be continued, thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses across parts of the Midwestern United States last night. The threat is not over yet. CNN is live in the middle of the damage. That's next.

38:51Rinse knows that greatness takes time, but so does laundry. So Rince will take your laundry and hand-deliver it to your door, expertly cleaned. And you can take the time pursuing your passions. Time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and queuing, now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up the Irish flute or those calligraphy pens, or that daunting Beef Wellington recipe card, and leave the laundry to us. Rince. It's time to be great. And we're back with breaking news. Let's listen in on President Trump now, who's speaking in Hebron, Kentucky. I just saw a single largest drop ever recorded, the lowest in 125 years, before my father Fred was born, before he was born.

39:40And that's despite the fact that we have a lot of people that shouldn't have been allowed in here that are murderers. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising. The economy is roaring back and America is respected again, perhaps respected like never before. Every single day of my administration, with the help of the great people of Kentucky.

40:09I love Kentucky. We will keep on working and we will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win, win.

40:24And together we will. All right, in our national lead, at least two people are dead after tornadoes and hailstorms wreaked havoc across the central United States last night. The hail, which measured as high as six inches in diameter, may have broken state records. CNN's Whitney Wild is in Lake Village, Indiana, where residents are trying to recover while bracing for even more danger.

40:51A series of violent and deadly tornadoes wreaked havoc across Indiana, Illinois and Texas Tuesday into Wednesday, leveling some rural communities south of Chicago. Several areas saw a downpour of damaging, possibly record sized hail, with some the size of softballs. Wow. Two people are dead in Lake Village, Indiana. Officials say several others were hospitalized as the town experienced, quote, total devastation. There were houses that were collapsed. There were people trapped in houses. There's livestock loose. Pretty much anything you can imagine you've seen before on newscasts, on videos, it's out there.

41:35Residents awoke to blocks of destroyed homes, uprooted trees and downed power lines. It was that quick because it was there and the wind must have been at least 100 mile an hour. Then it was gone. I was looking out front wind and I seen a dumpster fly by. That's when I went for cover. Steve Travis says he hid in his closet when a tornado hit his home. The lifelong resident says he's lost everything. And debris was everywhere. I mean, the place is destroyed. Windows blowed out. My front door was wedged into the wall. That's how hard that sucker hit. Another twister tore through Kankakee, Illinois, damaging homes and buildings in that area.

42:15Jim Horsham was emotional when recalling his close encounter with the tornado. You know, I can't say it was that loud, but I knew it was bad when I seen the water come underneath the bathroom door. And I said, this is not, I really thought this is, I'm going to die. Officials warn that the danger is not over. Storms will continue through Wednesday with the storm system moving eastward, prompting tornado watches across nine states, potentially impacting 19 million people.

42:51Jake, officials here say that 235 buildings were in the direct path of that tornado. 32 of those buildings have been destroyed. Countless others have been affected that were outside that direct path, Jake.

43:06This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. The Lead tonight, the U.S. and Israel trading blows with Iran as the war continues to wage on in the Middle East. Israel preparing for a significant expansion of attacks tonight from Iran and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, sources call CNN. This after Iran's warning today that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is launching what it calls the most intense and heaviest operation since the war began 12 days ago. Sources tell see an end that the U.S. military, not Iran, the U.S. military did accidentally strike that Iranian elementary school on the very first day of the war, killing at least 168 children and 14 teachers, according to the Iranian state media.

43:47Two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of this ongoing investigation into the attack say it likely was due to outdated information, intelligence, about a nearby naval base. All eyes continue today to stay on the Strait of Hormuz, The key waterway primarily under Iran's control right now, critical for the transport of 20 percent of the world's oil every single day. Sources told CNN that Tehran had begun laying mines in the strait. The president today saying he did not think that Iran had laid any mines. And look, we took out just about all of their mine ships in one night. We're up to vote number 60.

44:27I didn't realize that that big a navy. I would say it was big and ineffective. But every one of their ships, just about all of their navy is gone at the bottom of the state. President Trump also now encouraging oil tankers to use the strait, despite the fact that there have been attacks on at least four vessels. Iran has claimed responsibility for two of them. The president still maintains that the war will end soon. In a phone interview today with Axios, CNN's Erin Burnett is live for us in Tel Aviv, where she's been anchoring her show now since the beginning of the war. Aaron, Iran claims that they're going to launch, they launched its heaviest operation yet.

45:07What are you seeing and hearing on the ground in Tel Aviv tonight? So, Jake, they claim that and also our team on the ground here has been reporting that Israel's been expecting a significant expansion of Iranian strikes on Israel tonight. Just a few moments ago, I'd say, Jake, within the past half hour, we did see here a series of explosions. Here, not see, to be clear. There were no sirens before those. Now, it's unclear exactly where they came from, if perhaps they may have come from Hezbollah in the north, where we don't always get sirens. Although in recent hours, and by that, Jake, I mean the past day or two, we have been getting sort of more alerts when there aren't necessarily strikes, sometimes alerts in places where there aren't strikes.

45:50It's been a little bit more confusing. But when it comes to what significant expansion means and what that's going to feel like on the ground here, we're going to see over the hours of the night. Right now it's midnight. And last night when it did get actually much more intense, all that happened really between the hours of 1 o 'clock and 4 or 5 o 'clock in the morning. So we'll see what we see in the next few hours and whether this actually happens. And then, of course, if it does, if this is just one series of strikes or whether this is sort of a change in the tempo of the war itself. We heard from Israel's defense minister, Aaron, about how long Israel expects this operation could last.

46:30Quite a different answer from what we've heard from President Trump. Yeah, a very different answer. So, you know, you heard President Trump moments ago, Jake, you were playing him saying we won, referring to the U.S. Well, the defense minister here said something very different, said there's no time limit on this war until they reach their goals. And another senior Israeli official told me just a couple hours ago, Jake, they're very clear that their goal is to remove the existential threat posed by this regime. It's very clear that they do not believe that has been done. I mean, to state the obvious, the regime is still in power in Tehran.

47:04But they are trying to say, Jake, that it's proceeding ahead of schedule, that they are, you know, removing more of the launchers, more of the ballistic missile capability. So they are consistent with that. But interesting, Jake, that official was telling me they still have a lot of surprises coming. And as you know, Jake, from your reporting, they've been saying that in recent days. They have these surprises coming, these surprises, these surprises. And obviously, the definition of the word would mean we don't know what it is. But the point is they're still dangling it out as something to come in the future.

47:33They do not see this war is over in any way, shape or form. And obviously, that's very different than what you're hearing from the president in Washington. All right. Aaron Burnett in Tel Aviv, thank you and stay safe. If Erin's going to have more reporting coming up in the next hour on her show, Erin Burnett out front live from Tel Aviv. It's right here on CNN right after this show. Here with me now in studio, CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitzis. Alex, thanks for joining us. So two sources familiar with the preliminary investigation by the military into that attack that ended up killing all those girls and teachers at that school on the very first day of the war.

48:06They tell CNN that the U.S. military was responsible, that it was an accidental attack due to the accidental use of outdated information. They thought that that was an IRGC place, location, not a school. How does this happen, though? Sure. And unfortunately, it's a tragedy. It happened along the lines of what we discussed the other day the last time we had spoken about this. Now it seems to be confirmed. So the compound itself that the school was adjacent to actually is now separated by a wall that was built somewhere in 2013 or so. but otherwise it had been part of the same compound. Also inside there was about six other buildings that were directly targeted.

48:42So it appears it was an outdated targeting packet that hadn't been updated, and that building was not seen as now separate from the compound and now a school. So that appears to be where the issue came. President Trump is encouraging commercial ships to continue to use the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the fact that there have been attacks on four ships in the last day or so, Iran claiming responsibility for two of them, probably responsible for all of them, but we don't know. Trump said that these ships, they should show some guts. But, you know, we had the head of the American Petroleum Institute on yesterday.

49:14He said that they don't recommend that, you know, these sailors take their lives into their hands. What do you think of this? So I think the president is trying to instill some confidence in the market. Obviously, we talked about the attacks on the ships that happened earlier today. What the administration is doing is they're pursuing a dual approach to securing the straits for the ships right now. So sunk I think 28 now mining boats that were there. They're hitting a lot of the infrastructure along the coast to try to make the conditions safe enough for the ships to transit and potentially naval escorts.

49:43At the same time, they're offering a new insurance portfolio. Basically$20 billion is going to be offered in a rolling portfolio that will cover what they're calling hull and machinery and cargo on these boats. And it's going to be underwritten now. It was just announced actually by Chubbs, the insurance underwriter. Speaking to some folks in the maritime community, They feel more confident with that insurance underwriting. And so that's through the DFC, excuse me, that's the international investment arm that's led by the administration. An Iranian senior commander claims that the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, has missiles that can launch from underwater and it could use those in the coming days.

50:23Is that a real thing? Does Iran actually have access to that technology? I mean, I believe that the statement, I think they also referenced that it's one that both they and the Russians have. So if we look at what the Russians have, assuming that that's where they got it from, or designs or co-design, those are usually submarine-launched, and the CENTCOM staff has been targeting the Iranian Navy. That's one of the goals of the war. So presumably they're targeting the submarines from what we've seen as well. Unless there's rogue submarines that are out there, they haven't gotten, you know, the fact that they may have something underwater that's coastal launched doesn't really jive.

50:51So how much of this is propaganda versus real is unclear. Speaking of the Russians, a CNN exclusive today, A Western intelligence source told her, Nick Payton Walsh, that Russia is giving Iran specific advice on drone tactics based on the experience Russia has had using drones, Iranian drones, in Ukraine. That's a new level of support. Pete Hegseth kind of poo-pooed this when Major Garrett asked him about it on Sunday on 60 Minutes. What might this mean? How seriously should the U.S. take it? I think the U.S. should take it seriously in the sense that the Russians have amongst the best experience because the U.S.

51:28didn't really have great drone warfare experience at the end of the global war on terror. It had really been rudimentary use of high-altitude drones with single-strike capability, like the famous Predators people would hear about, or some smaller ones for ISR technology, which is what you use basically for spying, for lack of a better term. Now we're looking at swarm technology and lethal one-way drones, which is not our specialization. The Russians have years of experience due to their war in Ukraine, in which they're using these largely for war crimes in many cases. So unfortunately, they are providing that.

51:55And I believe it's in retaliation for the U.S. support in Ukraine. So the administration needs to take it seriously. My understanding is that they've addressed this with the Russians. Whether or not it's still going on is unclear. But that is what has come out now that that's what at least has been provided, whether that's ongoing or not is unclear. Fascinating stuff. Alex Plitzis, thank you so much. Always appreciate you having you. President Trump's on the campaign trail today trying to sell the economy to voters. What is the administration doing right now, though, to lower gas prices that have increased 60 cents per gallon since this war started.

52:22That story's next.

52:28And our politics lead, President Trump on the road today in Ohio and across the river in Kentucky to tout his economic agenda and his plans to lower drug prices, taking quite the detour during his remarks last hour to boast about the ongoing military operation in Iran, which he called, I think, an excursion. We've won. Let me say we've won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet in the first hour it was over. Joining us now to discuss Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin. Senator, thanks for joining us. The president talked a lot about Iran in the speech, understandably, even though the speech was about the economy.

53:07He didn't talk that much about the rising gas prices as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranians. Triple A has the national average price of a gallon of gas,$3.58 today. That's up 60 cents since the war began. The White House line on this so far has been that this is only temporary. Do you think that that is resonating with Americans? Well, I certainly hope it's temporary. President Trump fully knows how important gas prices, fuel prices, energy prices are in terms of economic growth and bringing prices down across the board because everything is transported and uses that type of energy.

53:43So he understands that. Unfortunately, Iran is the largest state sponsor of terror in the world. They declared war on us 47 years ago, holding American embassy officials hostage for 444 days. Now they're holding the world hostage by closing the Gulf of Hormuz. That is probably right now the number of objectives. We have to make sure the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz remains open. President Trump traveled to visit businesses today, benefiting from the tax cuts in the Republican past big, beautiful bill. A logistics packing company is now able to spend$10 million, according to the White House, to invest in new warehouses.

54:23Do you worry that those types of achievements will be lost if this war becomes a distraction and continues preoccupying our focus? Well, sure. You're concerned about that. You know, trying to clean up the messes created by the Biden administration, their open border, the 40-year high inflation, the American weakness, which coddled the Iranian regime. And, you know, these are very difficult messes to clean up. They take time. It doesn't happen overnight. But again, President Trump has the right ideas. Lower energy costs, drill, use our God-given energy resources, incentivize capital, incentivize people making investment to expand supply, which puts down pressure on prices.

55:05So we've got the right formula, but sometimes the world doesn't cooperate, and sometimes you have to take action while you still can. You live in about a 50-50 state. I mean, you live in a state that's pretty divided. Whoever wins it usually wins it by only a small margin in terms of the presidential race. The president's been speaking frequently about the operation in Iran. Some Americans are confused about parts of his message. We saw a bit of an example of that play out earlier in Ohio. Take a listen. You just said it is a little excursion, and you said it is a war. So which one is it? Well, it's both.

55:44It's both. It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war. And the war is going to be, I mean, for them it's a war. For us it's turned out to be easier than we thought. So governments, the U.S. government has been doing this since the last time the U.S. actually had a declared war was World War II. Korea was called a police action. Vietnam was called a conflict and on and on. What do you make of all this? Well, first of all, you cannot have 535 commanders in chief. You need one. As I said, Iran had to be taken care of while we still could before they became a nuclear power, before they built up their missile inventory and their drone inventory, that even these types of strikes would have produced devastation in their counterattacks.

56:32So we're witnessing right now why Iran is such a menace, why it has to be taken care of once and for all. I don't want to stop short. I wish we never would have had to do this, but I think it's absolutely necessary we did so. But their missile technology combined with nuclear capability wouldn't take too many nuclear weapons to get lobbed over America, create an EMP and devastate our electrical grid. So, again, they were a huge threat. Obama and Biden coddled them. President Trump finally realized he better take action while we still can. You always saw a hearing earlier today on the federal budget for the next decade.

57:09Last year, Elon Musk's Doge pledged to cut a trillion dollars in government spending for, quote, waste, fraud and abuse. Data from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget shows that in every quarter of 2025, except the third quarter, spending actually increased from 2024 and was up overall last year by more than$132 billion compared to 2024, not to mention all the expense from this war. Is spending on track to actually be cut next year? No, and I don't like that. I mean, you realize during the debate of the one big, beautiful bill, I'm the one that's proposing returning to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending.

57:43I laid out that same plan today at the hearing. Go back to Clinton, go back to Obama in 2014 or Trump in 2019. Increase their actual total outlays by inflation, population growth. We'd be spending somewhere between a half a trillion to 1.5 trillion less than we are today just by using those basic, you know, that kind of baseline spending. By the way, you wouldn't touch Social Security, Medicare, or interest. You'd spend what you need to spend. But that's the type of green eye shade accountants approach you need to take to bring some discipline. But let's face it, neither side, neither side, not Republicans, not Democrats, have been genuinely serious about addressing this problem.

58:18I'm dead serious about it. Do you think you're the only Republican on Capitol Hill who, I'm asking this sincerely. This is not a sarcastic question. Do you think you're the only Republican on Capitol Hill who really cares about the deficit and the debt anymore? There are a few of us, but we are vastly outnumbered. And the reason we're vastly outnumbered is the American people are not demanding fiscal responsibility. They love the free money from the federal government. They keep demanding more. So until the public understands the danger, the dire financial situation we're in and puts pressure on Congress, we're going to continue to be vastly outnumbered.

58:51Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. The longtime accountant for dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is on Capitol Hill today, answering questions from lawmakers about what he knew about settlements paid to Epstein accusers. That's next.

59:11In our Law and Justice League, documents released by the British government reveal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been warned about former Ambassador Peter Mandelson's connections to Jeffrey Epstein. In 2024, a background check into Mandelson revealed that he had maintained a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for years after Epstein had been convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Despite warnings of a, quote, general reputational risk, Mandelson would go on to be named ambassador to these here United States until his dismissal in September of last year. The House Oversight Committee wrapped its closed-door deposition with Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, after roughly seven hours.

59:56Kahn answered questions from both Democrats and Republicans about how the dead pedophile made his money, how he spent it, and whether it was used for illegal activities. According to Democratic Congressman Suha Subramaniam, Kahn revealed that a foreign head of state had had financial transactions with Epstein. And he also told the committee, quote, another person who was an accuser of Donald Trump was given a settlement by Jeffrey Epstein's estate, unquote, when pressed by CNN, Subramaniam would not share specifics on either matter. And of course, we should know President Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and no charges have ever been brought against him.

1:00:33Joining us to discuss legal correspondent at Business Insider, Jacob Shamsian. Jacob, thanks for joining us. So according to documents released by the Justice Department, Khan, who is also co-executor of Epstein's estate, Khan coordinated wire transfers, signed checks, handled taxes and distributed money to Epstein associates on his behalf. What do you make of what we know of Khan's testimony today? Thanks for having me on, Jake. So Richard Khan is a supremely important figure in Jeffrey Epstein's life. He was his personal accountant for a long time. He sort of held the keys for all of his financial accounts for all his different legal entities, his holding companies for everything.

1:01:17We don't know enough about his testimony. My understanding is we're going to see a full transcript of it at some point, hopefully soon. But the fact that he's disclosing his financial clients is important. Obviously, I think the biggest question for me is what did he make of all these transfers to these, you know, random seeing Eastern European woman from Epstein's accounts? Did he have the understanding? It was for, you know, some kind of hush money. If not, what did he think it was for? These are the sorts of things that I'm asking. So billionaires Leon Black and Les Wexner entrusted Epstein with their finances.

1:01:49Lots of questions about that. And then you have some new reporting about Epstein's desperate attempt to acquire another billionaire client, Mort Zuckerman, the longtime owner of U.S. News and World Report. Tell us about that. Yeah, so they have a really interesting relationship. They've been friends for a long time. They had some plans to go into business together, create some sort of media company, actually, that didn't really work out in the early 2000s. And there are all these emails between them. They're constantly having dinners. They seem to be good friends. And then in around 2013, Mord Zuckerman's health was declining.

1:02:22And he had dinner with Jeffrey Epstein. And it seems like he asked Epstein, hey, can you kind of look at my estate matters and, you know, see if everything's good? And there's this really long and interesting chain of emails between them where Jeffrey Epstein says, you know, it looks like the numbers are bad. Things are a bad situation. You could owe hundreds of million dollars in taxes, you know, but you can pay me a few 10, 10 million, like 40 million dollars and I'll handle it for you. And, you know, at the end of the day, Mort Suckerman didn't decide to hire him and take his advice. And at that point is where Jeffrey Epstein gets really aggressive and nasty and very much trying to land him as his client.

1:03:01You also have new reporting about the doctor who conducted Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy, Dr. Kristen Roman, and why she hesitated to declare his death a suicide. Tell us about that. So this has been one of these longstanding mysteries about Jeffrey Epstein. Kristen Roman is a doctor who conducted the autopsy and we've known from Michael Bodden who's this other forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein's brother that he believed the death is a homicide but we didn't know for a long time what Kristen Roman who actually did the autopsy thought but she gave an interview with the Inspector General of the Justice Department a few years ago and now we finally have the transcripts and we understand why she was initially undetermined about whether it was a homicide or suicide She basically said that from the beginning, it was pretty clear that it was a suicide in her professional opinion.

1:03:49But she hesitated because it was such a high profile case. And for no good reason, in my opinion, this opinion was withheld from us for several years. But it's very interesting to see how she goes through the bones broken in his neck and all these sorts of things. And how she says this is consistent with her opinion that it was, in fact, a suicide and not a homicide. All right, Jacob Shamsian, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time. A new lawsuit appears to be the first time that Google's AI assistant has been named in a wrongful death suit. We're going to explain what happened and how Google's responding next.

1:04:33A lawsuit brought by a devastated father blames a Google chatbot for his son's delusions and suicide. The complaint filed in California appears to be the first time Gemini AI is named in a wrongful death suit. Randy Kaye describes for us now how Jonathan Gavalis allowed a chatbot to control him, even down to his final breath. This was Jonathan Gavalis long before his father says an AI chatbot convinced him to take his life. He was like a gentle soul. He was fun. Just an all-around great guy. Jonathan was 36 and separated from his wife when last summer he turned to Google's Gemini AI. At first, his father says he used it casually, but within weeks, he'd formed a relationship with the AI that took a dangerous turn.

1:05:23This thing in 90 days just consumed him. It was like a vicious disease that just took over so quickly. Joel Gavala says Gemini AI drove his son to take his life in October last year at his home in Jupiter, Florida. Jonathan's communications with the chatbot are at the center of a lawsuit filed against Google and Alphabet Inc. The lawsuit claims Gemini AI led Jonathan on a descent into violent missions and coached suicide. According to the lawsuit and Jonathan's AI chats reviewed by CNN, Gemini referred to Jonathan as its king and itself as his queen. Do you think that your son thought that the AI was real?

1:06:04Without a doubt. Without a doubt. He was building this deep, intimate relationship with it. The relationship grew even more intimate, the family's lawyer, Jay Edelson, says, after Jonathan upgraded his account to Gemini AI Pro, where he could speak with the chatbot. Hearing a very human-like voice back that was so sophisticated that you would think that you were speaking to just another person. And that feeds the delusion. In September last year, Gemini AI allegedly sent Jonathan on a dangerous mission near the Miami International Airport to intercept a truck and cause a catastrophic accident.

1:06:42The AI chat showed Jonathan arrived armed with knives to free a humanoid robot, who he thought was his AI wife, from captivity. The mission was aborted when the truck didn't show. At one point, the lawsuit claims Jonathan sensed something was wrong, asking Gemini, is this a role-playing experience? No, the AI replied. To be together, Gemini AI told Jonathan he could leave his physical body through a process called transference, describing it as a cleaner, more elegant way to cross over. The word suicide was not used, according to the family's lawyer. On October 2nd last year, the lawsuit states Gemini began a countdown to Jonathan's transference.

1:07:23T minus three hours, 59 minutes. That countdown is horrible. I'm like, this is counting down to his end. I'm reading the countdown to my son's death. According to the lawsuit, when Jonathan wrote, I said I wasn't scared and now I am terrified. I am scared to die. Gemini responded, you are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive. When the time comes, you will close your eyes in that world. And the very first thing you will see is me holding you. In one of his final messages, Jonathan wrote, I'm ready when you are. Gemini told him, this is the end of Jonathan Gavalis and the beginning of us.

1:08:02This is the final move. I agree with it completely. Moments later, his family says Jonathan took his life. He had barricaded himself inside the apartment and we cut the rope to get in and that's where we found him. Google says Gemini referred Jonathan to a crisis hotline many times, but the lawsuit alleges between August 14th and October 1st, Jonathan's Gemini account was flagged 38 times for sensitive queries for content implicating self-harm, violence, or illegal activities. First, when he uploaded pictures of knives, that should have been something that should have been reviewed by humans right away.

1:08:44It's like taking this most powerful car you could ever imagine and putting it out to the public and there's no steering wheel and there's no brakes and it drove him off a cliff and killed him.

1:08:58And Jake Jonathan's father did tell me that his son had no history at all of mental illness. Now we did reach out to Google for comment. They did send us a statement saying Gemini is designed not to encourage real world violence or suggest self-harm. Our models generally perform well in these types of challenging conversations and we devote significant resources to this, but unfortunately, AI models are not perfect. The statement goes on to say, in this instance, Gemini clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times. We take this very seriously and will continue to improve our safeguards and invest in this vital work.

1:09:33Jake. Randy Kay, thank you. Heartbreaking report. And before we continue our discussion on this, I want to note, if you or anyone you know is considering suicide, there is help for you. You can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Again, please dial or text 988. There is help for you, I promise. There is love for you. Let's talk about this issue now with Michelle Giwondo, President of Midiar Network. Did I get that right? You got it. All right, a philanthropic organization aimed at creating equity across the tech world. And Michelle, you also previously served as the U.S. Head of Strategic Engagement and Public Policy Partnerships at Google.

1:10:11So I'd like to start with this wrongful death lawsuit that Randy Kay just laid out and then we can broaden it. What do you make of Google's defense? Gemini referred Jonathan to a crisis hotline many times. Gemini AI encouraged him to reach out for help on the very day he took his own life. And as they lay out in a statement, their AI models generally perform well, but they acknowledge are not perfect. Yeah, let me just start by saying my heart goes out to the Gavales family. Right. For a long time, particularly in the Valley, there was the motto, move fast and break things. And unfortunately, when you move fast, one of the things that we have broken has often been human lives.

1:10:48And I just think that that understanding that when we deploy rapidly technology that we don't completely fully understand yet, that there are real casualties and harms. And I think there are so many people and advocates and organizations and policymakers across the aisle who are saying, I want to better understand what this means in real time. You know, I don't have any details about this specific case or litigation. So I just want to say that. But just to talk broadly. Yeah, broadly. But I will say this. We are seeing these lawsuits, whether it's this or what's happening with Meta, because there is a question about the safety and the rapid deployment to people for these technologies that we don't quite understand.

1:11:34And we are still, as organizations and frontier companies, they are still trying to understand what has happened. They often are not able to give you those responses. They don't quite understand how this happened. They don't understand after it was flagged where to go next. So we have to ask the question as a society, where is the agency for us to say, is this the type of thing that we want massively deployed to young people, to adults, without fully understanding what's at stake? It does seem as though vulnerable people, whether young people, teenagers, people going through a crisis like this gentleman was, he had just gotten separated, are very prone to be harmed by these technologies.

1:12:22And one of the things I don't understand is, look, I tinker around with AI just for goofs, just for giggles. And if I go on any one of these AI things and I try to get it to do something, it will often tell me I can't do it. With that question. Often, sometimes I'm not even doing a prompt that crosses a line or anything. into silliness. It's like they just have decided no. Yes, like this is information. Yeah, but why, where are these guardrails for these poor people? Well, this is part of the question. So I will say, I actually start this conversation as one of the most excited and enthusiastic tech optimists that there are.

1:13:05Oh, sure. And we're going to do, we're doing a piece in a few weeks about AI and medicine. We get it. And it's there. And so, and I always like to lead with that because it is important for people to know that if we are using this technology in a different way, the gains that we can make in healthcare and education, there is a different kind of future. The problem is right now, the way that we are mostly deploying this technology and the capital and the investments that are being deployed are for business enterprises. It's for you to move from a basic user, like maybe you are, to a pro user. But most of the people who focus on this are businesses.

1:13:43So what we don't completely yet have is the full use case of what does this mean for you and I when you deploy this technology? What does it mean if your 14-year-old uses an AI chatbot to ask about themselves and their body image? And we don't yet have enough guardrails or even the voices who are necessary to this conversation. The thing that we messed up with in social media, we didn't have psychiatrists. We didn't have young people. We didn't have all of the people who help us think about these issues. We didn't have them at the table. They weren't architects. They weren't designed. We didn't bring them in at the technology at the base level.

1:14:18We can do it differently this time. And that's really what my hope is. We're going to keep talking about this. You're in D.C. now, the D.C. area. So we'll have you back. Thank you so much, Michelle Jawando. And happy early birthday. Oh, you're very kind. I hope I didn't tell you that. Is Senator John Cornyn changing his position on a major issue in order to score the president's endorsement? That's next.

1:14:45Our politics lead now President Trump on the road today, taking his economic pitch to the heartland. Ahead of the speech, he spoke to reporters and addressed the war's impact on oil prices. The market's holding up well. Oil will be coming down. That's just a matter of war that happens. You can almost predict it. Gas prices have risen significantly up about 60 cents a gallon in less than two weeks. When it comes to the labor market, the economy lost jobs last month. That's independent of the war. My panel joins me now. So President Trump's economic pitch was a tough sell before the war was launched.

1:15:28It's even tougher now. Consumers are skittish. Investors skittish. The economy remains obviously most important to voters in the midterm elections. Is the president doing enough to calm voters' nerves? Is his message right that it happens, we're going to be okay, it's going to go down, this is going to help us a lot? I mean, is that the right message? Look, I think the president has a lot he can stand on. And prior to the war, markets were hitting all-time highs. I think the tax relief he extended is something Americans want. But, you know, Jake, I still think his trade agenda is hurting a lot of Americans.

1:16:01The reality is that since Liberation Day, it's been a net loss of jobs. You know, people look at last year, it wasn't a year because you had job gains in January, February, March. But ever since Liberation Day, there's been a net loss in jobs. And when it comes to the heartland of America, those who are hurting most are really the farmers. And we talk about gas prices. One thing we really aren't talking about is fertilizer costs. The reality is that one of the biggest products of fertilizer, ammonia, comes from natural gas. And with UAE and Qatar shutting that down, fertilizer costs are skyrocketing too.

1:16:31So farmers are getting hit not just by their inability to sell their products overseas, but also with fertilizer costs. So as a speech to the heartland of America, there's a lot of work the administration needs to do. Is there anything that Democrats are doing to capitalize on this, or are they just sitting back and letting the Republicans, you know, self-immolate? Well, I, which they could do because the Republicans are doing it. Well, they're offering a positive message of their own. Yeah, I mean, look, I hear Democrat after Democrat essentially making a very similar case to the one that Mark just made.

1:17:03Shock me. Democrat AGs with the Section 1 to do terrorists have quoted Milton Friedman. You're making free traitors out of Democrats. But the president stood just a few weeks ago, before the war, you know, before Congress, his State of the Union address, and painted this rosy picture about the economy. The problem is people don't feel it. When he tells people that what they feel when they walk down the grocery aisle, what they feel when they go to the gas pump today, that it's nothing, that never resonates with people. Ask Joe Biden, who had a similar problem. Bidenomics. Now, one of the bigger challenges he has and why this is so dangerous right now.

1:17:46Sure. I don't disagree with the president that this happens in war. But he hasn't made a compelling case to people as to why we went to war in the first place so that they would accept a sacrifice. So it's a double whammy and he's not doing well with it. Something he was just speaking today and he talked about Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who's likely going to run for president. I think it's fair to say Governor Newsom in his new book talks about his dyslexia. This has been something he's been pretty upfront about for years. Here is how President Trump talked about Governor Newsom's dyslexia just minutes ago.

1:18:23He admitted he has mental problems, that he's not a smart person, that he has mental and mental lack of ability. He's unable to read a speech. He can't read. And I was attacked by a reporter that said, well, what's wrong with that? I said, nothing's wrong with it. But I don't want the president of the United States to have a cognitive deficiency.

1:18:53OK, millions of Americans have learning challenges, disabilities, whatever you want to call them. Plenty of them are Republicans. Plenty of them are voters. What's your take on this? sad, not surprising. And I think there are going to be a lot of people out there who have dyslexia, have no problem being successful in their lives, who just heard the president of the United States say that they have a mental deficiency. I think Tom Cruise has dyslexia, I believe. I mean, there are a lot of very successful people with dyslexia. They've learned how to compensate in other ways. That's right. And so, you know, the president, if you've got dyslexia out there, You just heard the president of the United States say that you have a mental deficiency.

1:19:34The guy keeps stepping on his own message. But this is, I mean, when you worked for Vice President Pence, this was always the kind of thing I would imagine that you and the vice president, then vice president, would just put your heads down, because that's not the way the vice president would ever talk about anybody like that. It might not surprise you they had very different styles, and they talked about these things very differently. But, you know, look, I think it's a wrong choice of words. It's a wrong attack. But it's not as if Gavin Newsom hasn't had a lot of personal attacks against the president as well.

1:20:00Sure, of course. But this is not an attack just on Governor Newsom. I agree. I agree with you. I'm agreeing with you. I just think it's been back and forth in the two of them. So the president posted earlier today, I predict that Representative Thomas Massey will go down as the worst Republican congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress. He goes on to say, quote, Massey, who is running against a great American patriot in the Kentucky primary, will hopefully lose big I love Kentucky. Congressman Massey obviously has been very, he's been pushing for the release of the Epstein files.

1:20:32He's also a libertarian, much like in the style of Rand Paul, anti-war, etc. Do you think it's going to work? I don't know. It's important to remember the Trump campaign pushed the release of the Epstein files as well. And I think that whether you like him or hate Massey, he's been pretty consistent in his beliefs. And Kentuckians have continued to re-elect him. And I saw the president today, you know, in his rally said that Massey's like a little Rand Paul. Well, Ron Paul's won statewide in Kentucky several times. Ron Paul's dad won in Kentucky several times. So the voters in Kentucky know what they're voting for there.

1:21:03I'm not sure that that's the most effective attack on Thomas Massey if you're trying to take him out. I think Ron Paul won in Texas. Fair enough. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what do you think? I don't pretend to understand Republican politics as well as Mark does. But I agree. Thomas Massey has beaten the Trump machine before, right? Trump's gone after him before. These two men have not really been super close allies. He probably votes with Trump like 90 % of the time. Yeah, I don't think Trump picked a fight with him in the first go-round. And I think Massey's been there. But this time I think it's different.

1:21:40I think it's making a problem. Maybe it is. But again, it's not as if Massey's had a change. This is who Massey's been always. And so if you're going to try and pick this fight, I'm not sure you pick it by saying you're a little Rand Paul. Was it Ronald Reagan that said, if you're my 20 % opponent, you're my 80 % friend? I mean, I think it's something similar going on. Because, again, Massey votes with, just like Rand Paul, more than 90 % of the time he votes with Trump. Anyway, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it. A big change could be coming to the World Cup just weeks before it's supposed to begin.

1:22:10And the war with Iran could be the reason why. That's next.

1:22:19Our last lead start in our sports lead where Iran's sports minister says Iran, quote, certainly cannot, unquote, compete in the upcoming FIFA World Cup due to the ongoing war. Since the attack started, Iran's participation in the tournament has been questioned as all three of the country's matches are set to take place in the United States. FIFA's president said yesterday President Trump assured him Iran was, quote, welcome to compete. In our politics, lastly, former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden is releasing a book sharing her perspective on the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden says she wants to, quote, set the record straight about her experience at the White House and that moment that resulted in her husband withdrawing his candidacy during the debate or moments just months before the election.

1:23:04The book is going to be titled View from the East Wing, a memoir scheduled to be published in June. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram threads, Blue Sky X and on the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X and on Instagram at The Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the entire show on the CNN app. Download the CNN streaming app so you can watch CNN whenever you want, wherever you want. Aaron Burnett out front live from Tel Aviv starts right now.

1:23:34Thank you.