New Imagery Suggests U.S. Responsible For Iran School Strike

21:23Joining us now is retired U.S. Army Colonel Joseph Suyet. He served as Chief of Staff to the 103rd Sustainment Command with many of those six service members. Colonel Suyet, I'm so sorry for the loss of these soldiers. Your time with some of them dates back years. Let's just start with how are you doing? This is a horrible loss.

21:47Well, it is horrible. And we've served with these soldiers since 2019, or at least four of the six. So it was very devastating to hear about the loss of their lives. What do you want the world to know about your fallen brothers and sister?

22:07Well, I think one thing that's important is that four of these six soldiers that I personally knew deployed with us in 2019 and 2020. And that would be Sergeant Teesans, Sergeant Amour, Chief Marzan, and then Captain O 'Brien. And it's not often that you see this many soldiers that served in a combat area, or in this case, Kuwait, but that would actually go on a deployment, which is obviously difficult on the soldiers and their families, and then decide to actually come back to another deployment five or six years later. And they did. And in my 33 years, I've never seen this many soldiers do that.

22:50So it really goes to speak to the camaraderie of the unit. We had a very tight knit unit at that time. And it's really sad because I knew fairly well for these six soldiers. And these are these are Iowa National Guard's troops, meaning that they are not full-time professional soldiers, right?

23:13Well, they're not full-time soldiers, but they're Army Reserve, not National Guard. Okay, sorry. There is a slight difference, but yes, that's okay. You've got the point correct. You're right, which makes that point all the more important. Yeah, I mean, it means that they give up weekends, they give up weeks to train and to do these missions, but they have lives back in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, et cetera. Yeah, that's very true. And in preparation for these deployments, it's very often that soldiers and units have to prepare for months on end and get called not only for the one year that they're on active duty, but for three to six months in preparation for that and then several months typically afterwards.

24:00So, you know, you've got these soldiers that have civilian lives and it's not that easy to separate from, certainly from your family, but from your civilian life as well. Colonel Joe Suya, thank you so much. May the memory of these fallen service members be a blessing. Thank you for spending time with us to talk about them. Thank you for having me, Jake. Coming up, the documents that mentioned President Trump once missing from the Epstein files now back.

24:36In our Law and Justice League, the U.S. Justice Department has released documents involving President Trump that had been missing, suspiciously rather, from the Epstein files. They include FBI memos from three interviews with a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by then-citizen Trump when she was a teenager. The president has consistently denied any wrongdoing. We should note that the inclusion of interviews in the Epstein files is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. It is an interview. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt slammed the release of the documents, saying in part, quote, the total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden's Department of Justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong, unquote.

25:24As the Trump White House continues to shrug off the scandal, Congress is pushing ahead, voting to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi. The subpoena to testify stems from the House Oversight Committee's investigation into the Epstein files and the federal government's handling of the case against Epstein and his sex trafficking accomplices. My next guest is a survivor of Epstein. Annie Farmer joins us now. Annie, let me start off by saying I know asking you about the worst experience of your life is not fun for you, not really for me either. How are you? Oh, I appreciate that, Jake. I'm doing all right.

26:03I'm glad to be with you. What questions might you have for Attorney General Pam Bondi?

26:11Oh, I have a lot. You know, I was actually really happy to see that Pam Bondi has, you know, there was people on both sides of the aisle came together to say that she needs to testify between the House Oversight Committee because I think, you know, when she was in front of the Judiciary Committee, she refused to even acknowledge survivors. The questions that were asked, there was a lot of, you know, deflection and avoidance. And so really, you know, we still don't understand how this release of information was so terribly botched when again and again we see powerful people being protected and information about survivors not being properly redacted.

26:56So I think we have a lot of questions for her. I'll remind our viewers that when Attorney General Bondi was asked about a matter relating to the Epstein files, she started talking about how the Dow had reached 50 ,000, and that's what members of Congress should have been focused on. Over the last few weeks, we have seen across the pond in foreign countries investigations start, foreign leaders get in trouble, even a former member of the Royals. There has been some accountability for actions related to the case. What does it tell you that the U.S. government is not, at least as far as we know, doing so in terms of investigations and accountability?

27:36I think a lot of people are looking at this and wondering why. What is it that's different that's happening here? I mean, we know this was a global conspiracy. So, I mean, a global, there were people all over the world involved in this operation. And so I'm glad to see that people are doing things overseas. It makes me hopeful that real investigations could happen. But I do feel frustrated that that's not happening here. I think we need more of that. You were invited to the State of the Union address last week. Tell us about that experience. Yeah, I was able to go with Congressman Robert Garcia, and he's been a real champion for this investigation in the House Oversight Committee, so I was glad to be there with him.

28:21It was actually pretty challenging, though, to sit through Trump's speech when it seemed like he just had a different vision of the country that he was presenting, a different vision of events. You know, he, of course, did not acknowledge any of the survivors that were present, and we weren't really expecting him to. But we were there to remind him that we're not going away, that, you know, the United States, I think, is very much still interested in getting to the bottom of this and wants answers. Annie Farmer, thank you so much, and best to your sister as well. We appreciate your coming here today, and no, it's not easy.

29:01Oh, thank you so much for having me. Still had the stunner many of you are noticing at the gas pump. Gas prices are the highest they've been in nearly a year. We're going to talk to the folks at GasBuddy about what they're seeing next.

29:17Hey, I'm Jesse Palmer, host of The Bachelor with some exciting news. After more than 20 years of drama, The Bachelor Mansion is getting... Is getting... My bad. A makeover. Your favorite former contestants move back into the mansion to spill their secrets, refresh rooms, and win the hearts of the judges. Bachelor Mansion Takeover. Bachelor Mansion Takeover. All new. Monday at 8 on HGTV. A busy day for our money lead as markets closed last hour. The Dow posted its worst week in nearly a year. The S &P also had its worst week since October, and the Nasdaq sank about 1.5%. This comes after a new jobs report out today showed that the U.S.

30:04economy actually lost jobs, 92 ,000 jobs last month. And unemployment rose to 4.4 percent. Those losses swept across most industries with deep declines in health care, leisure and hospitality, and construction. In addition, the war in Iran is causing gas prices here in the U.S. to spike to the highest level in nearly a year, according to AAA. way. Gas is up 7 cents a gallon just today. The average price is$3.32 a gallon, a 34 cent per gallon increase since one week ago. Let's bring in the head of Petroleum Analysis for Gas Buddy, Patrick DeHaan. Patrick, this is the highest we've seen gas prices in 11 months.

30:44Before the war, the Trump administration bragged about, understandably, how gas prices were much, much lower than they had been. But do you think we're going to see the prices get even higher in the coming days? What are you keeping an eye out for?

30:59Jake Tapper:Yeah, Jake, that's extremely likely. In fact, looking at live gas buddy data now, we're ticked up to 338, excuse me, to 339 now in the last just moments. So we continue to go up and this is a pretty expeditious pace. In fact, looking at the top 10 single day increases, we're now seeing two days in the last three days that are on the top 10 single day largest increases that we've ever witnessed. So, you know, you harken back to 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And the pace of increases is certainly very brisk with Americans in many states seeing gas prices up 40, 50, even some metro areas up 60 and 70 cents a gallon.

31:39Jake Tapper:How high do you think they're gonna go? Well, I think based on where we are now, the national average could rise another 15 to 25 cents. I would hope that it would stop short of$4 a gallon. But the real question is, when will vessels start transiting the Strait of Hormuz? That's really what oil prices and markets are looking most closely at, is when will the resumption of 20 million barrels of oil per day continue through this trade? Until then, gas prices likely continue advancing. Oil prices will likely keep climbing until that oil can move again. This is the highest gas prices have been through both Trump administrations.

32:15Here is how the president typically talks about gas prices. Take a listen.

32:21Jake Tapper:Today, right here in Corpus Christi, the price of gasoline is down to just less than actually now$2.30. I was in a beautiful place called Iowa two weeks ago,$1.85 a gallon for gasoline. Gasoline is less than$2 in many places a gallon, which nobody expected to see, but I did. Obviously, that was before the war. This week, the president told Reuters, quote, I don't have any concern about it, meaning the gas prices. They'll drop very rapidly when this is over. And if they rise, they rise. But this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit, unquote. What do you make of President Trump's assessment of the prices in the pump and kind of the dismissal of the importance of it?

33:06Jake Tapper:Well, Jake, I think there's nothing more visible than gas prices, whether you need it or not. We see it on every street corner on our way to school and work. And it's a little frustrating for the president to maybe illustrate that gas prices aren't going up when many of us have seen gas prices going up every single day or even every single time we drive by the gas station. We've seen gas stations going up three, four, five times in a single day. So, I mean, it's a very rapid pace here, as I described. And, you know, to your point now, we continue to see gas prices going back further and further.

33:38Jake Tapper:That is, gas prices now at their highest since August of 2024. and I expect that it might get worse over the weekend before it gets any better. Patrick DeHaan, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. She was a world-famous top executive at Facebook, and years later, Sheryl Sandberg is using her platform to get the word out about an issue she feels the whole world needs to be aware of, and she's going to be joined by a first lady affected by it. That's next.

34:08The relationship between the FBI director and the president has always been complicated. Unravel the complex dynamic in the CNN original series, Standoff, the FBI, Power and Paranoia, premieres Sunday, March 22nd on CNN and next day on the CNN app. In our world, lead a new report from Columbia University estimates that some 12 million, 12 million girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriage every year. The report is titled Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage. It highlights the root causes of child marriage and potential strategies to end it. This is not just a far away overseas issue entirely.

34:45Here in the United States, at least 34 states allow individuals under the age of 18 to marry with parental consent. I want to bring in two notable members of Columbia's Child Marriage Advisory Council. First Lady Fatima Maad-Biu of Sierra Leone. And, of course, Sheryl Sandberg, who commissioned the report. First Lady Mada Bio, this is something personal to you because you were married at 12. So tell us, what kind of impact can child marriage have on the life of a young girl? Well, the important thing for people to understand is that this is not child marriage at all. This is a form of legalizing rape.

35:23You know, when we are talking about an issue as important as this, and we're talking about a young girl's life, a life that she had no consent, she cannot make any decision on how her future is supposed to be like. I think it's not just a human right abuse, but it is also using the system to legalize rape for young girls. And it is a situation where your dream, you killed your dream. You don't plan for tomorrow. You only plan for the day today. I was lucky. I was lucky not to be part of it 100 % because we had war in Sierra Leone. So that was the only reason why, I mean, I keep saying to God, you don't want war, but the war is what saved me.

36:16Because if not, I would have been part of that circle. I knew I had been married off completely. It's just the day they were going to take me to my husband. And from the day I knew about it, I could not plan my life anymore. There was no need to think about school. There was no need to be excited about school. There was no need for me to think about, you know, how my tomorrow is going to be like. All I was thinking about is how am I going to survive this? What I need to do to get out of this? I mean, if I get out of it, how many people is it going to affect? And I was also worried about my mother's safety because when I make a decision not to be part of the marriage, how is that going to affect my mother in her home?

36:59Because she found herself in a situation where my father was in total control of the decision that she makes. And I have younger brothers and younger sisters that I needed to protect because if I'm not there, my mother is not there. What happened to them? So it's just one situation where no child should be allowed to go through those things and then have all of that body to make a decision on issues like this. I think it is wrong. It is a legalized form of rape. And it is also a legalized form of slavery. Because it's not only about going there and have sex with somebody you don't want to have sex with.

37:35But you're going to be a slave in serving that person, serving their wives, because most of them don't have one wife or two. They have three, four wives. And then imagine a child coming into a situation like that. You now have to look after the co-wives, look after their own children. And you are also a child. What kind of life is that? Cheryl, this is top of mind in Iran, where girls as young as nine can be married off with their father's consent, judicial approval. What are the strategies that could help end this practice?

38:06Jake Tapper:Yeah, I mean, let's talk about how horrific that is. Nine years old. Nine years old. Three things. girls' education. Girls need to get all the way through secondary school. When girls are educated, they have economic opportunities outside the home. The second thing is health care, health care access for girls. And the third thing are laws, laws against marriage under 18 and the enforcement of those laws. The first lady has an incredible example of the laws in Sierra Leone that made it not just illegal to get married or to marry your child, but illegal to attend a wedding? Yeah. Well, because, you know, the president we have, who is my husband, the current president, Julius Madubio, he believes that these are crime against humanity.

38:57And most cases, when we come up with a solution, he implements those solutions. And when we took the bill to parliament, we did not just take a bill for the perpetrators and the parents that are involved. It's a community thing. They said it takes a community to look after a child. So it takes a community also to destroy a child. So everyone who is involved, if you attend the wedding, if you are the DJ at the wedding, if you are the decorator at the wedding, if you are the officiator at the wedding, you are the parent, as long as you are involved in that wedding and you did not ask. You did not ask the age of that child.

39:38And if we find out that that child is on the age and the child happened to go to the police station, all of you are going to be arrested. And the burden of proof is on you, not on us. Because before you attend those weddings, you should have asked questions. And Cheryl, your report points out that nearly 315 ,000 minors in the United States were married between 2000 and 2021. How do you end the practice here in the U.S.

40:05Jake Tapper:Laws. Every state needs a law that's over 18. Everyone in the world needs that law. And the other thing our report does in addition to that is it talks about the economic consequence of this. We estimate with the Center on Global Development that this costs the world$175 billion a year in lost GDP. That's because girls' lives are cut short, higher maternal mortality, higher child mortality, lower workforce participation. And remember, when you marry a 13-year-old, that child often has children of her own. And her body is not ready for that. When you think about the health consequences, the moral consequences, this is not an acceptable practice.

40:50Jake Tapper:And in this day of so much polarization, of nothing we agree on globally, we all think this is one thing we can all come together on. Cheryl Sandberg. Child marriage needs sand. Sheryl Sandberg and First Lady Fatima Amada, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today. Thank you, Jake. Thank you for having us, Jake. Thank you for having us. I had some tense moments when rockets near the Israeli border with Lebanon flew over the heads of a CNN crew. Jeremy Diamond has his reporting next. This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper, and we are following breaking news tonight.

41:26A fresh wave of attacks lit up the evening sky over Tehran today as President Trump said there will be no deal with Iran until, quote, unconditional surrender. What exactly does that mean? Well, the president just told Barack Ravid of Axios, who's also a CNN contributor, that, quote, unconditional surrender could mean the complete destruction of the regime's military capabilities, not necessarily a formal unconditional surrender. Despite the Pentagon continuing to say that the goal is not regime change, President Trump insists he must be involved in the selection of Iran's next leader. Trump telling CNN's Dana Bash earlier today that Iran's leadership has been neutered, and he's looking for new leadership that will treat the U.S., Israel, and Middle East allies well.

42:14When pressed on whether he wants Iran to become a democratic state, Trump said he's not concerned whether Iran becomes democratic or not, telling Dana, no, I'm saying there has to be a leader that's going to be fair and just. Do a great job. But the longer this war on Iran drags on, and it has only been a week, the more political pressure the president will face at home, if passed as precedent. The Strait of Hormuz, a key oil passage, is basically at a standstill amid the war. U.S. oil prices are skyrocketing, topping$91 a barrel for the first time since October 2023. President Trump earlier dismissed those concerns, saying, quote, it'll be a short-term time.

42:53It'll go away, way down very quickly. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv, Israel for us. Jeremy, you just returned from the site of a skirmish at the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah in Lebanon attacked Israel. Israel is retaliating. Tell us more. Yeah, Jake, this really is the second front in Israel's war with Iran, especially as Israeli military officials say that Hezbollah faced significant pressure from Iran to join in this war, to retaliate against Israel for the killing of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and of course the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that we saw this past Saturday. But I can tell you that that front is certainly intensifying right now.

43:36Earlier today, when my team and I were right along the border, we could see projectiles coming from Hezbollah towards Israeli territory very near to our position as well as Israeli strikes and artillery fire going into Lebanon. Here's just a little bit of what we saw.

43:56Oh, OK, so we're going to put our vests on now because we just saw not one but two projectiles coming in. It's still not clear exactly what that was, but we're now starting to hear the outgoing Israeli fire responding to it.

44:15And now, okay.

44:20He's just, he's so used to it. And that was hitting the same spot. Yeah, getting very active here now. And Jake, that cross-border fire continued for several hours today, and it resulted actually in seriously injuring at least five Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military. In Lebanon, we know that the Israeli military carried out at least 115 strikes, according to the IDF. That included strikes that were not only in southern Lebanon, some of those we could see and hear with our own eyes and ears, but also in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, after the Israeli military yesterday ordered hundreds of thousands of people living in the Dahye, those southern suburbs that are known to be a Hezbollah stronghold to evacuate from their homes.

45:12Many of those people now living out on the streets or trying to flee to the countryside as the Israeli military subsequently intensified its strikes in Beirut, taking down multiple high-rise buildings as well in Lebanon. The question now is whether or not Israel is going to go further in terms of a potential larger-scale ground operation. My team and I certainly saw tanks and artillery position near the border. We know Israel already occupies several positions in southern Lebanon. But now the question is whether or not they will go deeper than that. Jake. I also want to bring in CNN's Clarissa Ward, who is in Erbil, Iraq.

45:48Clarissa, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad just issued a warning about a new threat. Tell us about that. That's right, Jake. This was just a few hours ago. They issued a warning saying that hotels in Iraqi Kurdistan, where we are, where foreigners are staying, they believed may be under threat from strikes from Iran-backed militias inside Iraq. And literally, Jake, not even two hours after they issued that warning, four drones were intercepted over Erbil. One of them actually made some impact, or the debris made impact with a hotel right in the center of town. Fortunately, nobody was injured. But this certainly a new twist or turn, I should say, here in hundreds of contractors who had been working on bases across the region, who were pulled for security reasons when this war began, some of them even before this war began, but who are now effectively stranded here in a sense and are staying in these hotels and now find themselves a target.

46:55And we did see a statement coming from one of those militias that's part of this sort of axis of resistance, if you will, that effectively said, and I'll just read from the statement, your evacuation of your bases and your flight to hotels does not make you safe. We are pursuing you, and we know in which hotels you reside. So all of this, Jake, really contributing to fears that civilian infrastructure could now be targeted more and more here in Erbil, which we had not seen before. And again, the question of what to do with not just all those contractors, but business people and other Americans who have been told that they should leave, but don't necessarily have an easy option at this stage, Jake, to get out.

47:39Clarissa Ward in Erbil, Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let's discuss this all with CNN Global Affairs analyst Kareem Sojapur. He's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His latest piece for The Atlantic is titled, quote, Trump has lost the plot in Iran. Thanks so much for being here, Kareem. How has Trump lost the plot in Iran? Well, I think we need to rewind to January of this year when we look at the reasons that we've gotten into this situation. President Trump on nine occasions warned the Iranian regime that if they kill protesters, American help was on the way.

48:17Obviously, Iran ran a giant truck through Trump's red line that killed tens of thousands of protesters. And I feel we've kind of lost sight of that original rationale. This war, in some ways, has been a tale of two wars. The military aspect of it has been remarkably well planned. But the political strategic messaging seems from the president to be improvised on a daily basis. Yeah, it's unclear. Although regime change is not one of the goals, it would be a nice fringe benefit is how the Trump administration is casting it. Let me recap what President Trump told my colleague, Dana Bash, earlier today about picking a new leader in Iran.

48:59He said it's going to work very easily, like in Venezuela, where the vice president became the president. He said he was open to having a religious leader. When pressed on, he's insisting there needs to be a democratic state, small d democratic. He said no. He also said he needs to be involved in picking the new leader. What do you make of that? Is any of that realistic? I think it's mistaken messaging, Jake, to look at a country like Iran, 2 ,500-year history, very proud people, and for centuries there's been great power competition inside Iran, something the population resents. So in this situation, I think the president's message should be very simple.

49:39We want the people of Iran to choose their next leaders, and we, the United States and global community, want to empower them to do so. In your Atlantic article, you write that Tehran has recognized for decades that American public opinion is one of its most potent allies in restraining the regional ambitions of U.S. presidents. It seems clear that the administration is very wary of so-called boots on the ground, even though a major military campaign is underway and we've already lost at least six service members. How do you think American public opinion is playing a role here? Well, that is absolutely Iran's strategy, to try to negatively impact American public opinion to restrain Trump's ambitions.

50:23And there's several ways in which they can do that. Most importantly, they want to try to spike the price of oil so Americans feel it in their pocketbooks. That's why they've shut down the Straits of Hormuz. Shutting down the Straits of Hormuz, attacking oil refineries in Saudi Arabia, They have killed service members. They want Americans to be asking why our sons and daughters being killed in the Middle East and just general chaos, explosions. They want the president to, public opinion to restrain the president as it did in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Your piece also notes that the CNN report that the CIA is arming Kurdish groups inside Iran.

51:03How unusual is that? How unusual is it that we would know about that? And what does it say to you about the strategy and the long-term planning here? Well, regimes like Iran, they rule by divide and rule. And I think what's dangerous about this strategy is that Iranian Kurds have long been suffering and been repressed by this regime. They constitute about 10 % of Iran's population. So they're never going to pose an existential threat to the regime. the most effective kind of opposition in Iran will be a united opposition. And there's a danger here when the United States is trying to play sides and arm different factions that it actually accentuates opposition divides rather than helps unite it.

51:46Is there a Jean Moulin, the leader of the French resistance, is there a person who can unify all the disparate groups and bring everybody together, at least in the short term, before there are some sort of democratic elections? This is jumping ahead 15 steps. But is there anyone like that? Is the son of the Shah possibly going to fill that role successfully? It's too soon to say. I think Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah, is in pole position in that they say all revolutions require two kinds of leadership, inspirational leadership and organizational leadership. And for many Iranians, he has emerged as that source of inspiration.

52:26But he's been outside the country for 47 years. doesn't have that organizational leadership on the ground. And for that reason, that's why it's going to require, if this regime is going to be overthrown by an opposition, it's going to require much more united opposition. Kareem, Sajjapur, thank you so much. Great to have you. We'll have you back soon. Is Russia helping Iran keep tabs on the movements of U.S. troops? A retired general will weigh in on the potential consequences of a CNN report from intelligence sources that Russia is doing exactly that.

53:03Back in our worldly new satellite images from several key military bases in the Arabian Peninsula suggests that Iran may be trying to weaken regional air defenses by destroying U.S.-made radars used to detect incoming missiles and drones. Satellite images show damage to radar bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Let's bring in retired Army four-star officer and former command, four-star general and former commander of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel. General, thanks so much for joining us. As you know, these bases have THAAD batteries, a U.S.-made missile interceptor system used to destroy incoming ballistic missiles.

53:41If Iran is deliberately targeting U.S.-made radars that detect these incoming missiles, what does that suggest to you about their strategy right now?

53:53Jake Tapper:Thanks, Jake. It's good to be with you.

54:20Jake Tapper:who inflict damage or in worst cases, casualties on us, they know that that could potentially work against us. Speaking of casualties and damage, sources with U.S. intelligence tell CNN that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence about the locations and movements of American troops, ships, aircraft. I want you to listen to what White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said about this story on Fox. Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not really matter because President Trump and the United States military are absolutely decimating the rogue Iranian terrorist regime. Obviously, the U.S.

55:05military has been remarkably successful in the last week, but do you think it does not matter?

55:12Jake Tapper:I think any commander would be concerned about anybody who was providing information on their troops or their locations or key pieces of equipment so yeah I think this is something we should be paying attention to and I would hope that in kind of in the back channels here we are communicating to Russia our displeasure with these reports and trying to track them down so yeah we want to do everything we can to protect our forces and our soldiers against threats that may come from anywhere to include the sharing of intelligence with our adversaries. After meeting with top defense contractors at the White House earlier today, President Trump said that they agreed to quadruple production.

55:49In a Truth Social post, the president added, quote, we have a virtually unlimited supply of medium and upper medium grade munitions, which we are using as an example in Iran and recently used in Venezuela. Regardless, however, we have also increased orders at these levels, unquote. So we're in day six of this war in Iran. There's been no clear indication about when it's going to end. At what point would somebody in the military become concerned about how this will definitively impact the U.S. weapons and munitions stockpiles?

56:22Jake Tapper:Well, you know, for all the great stuff we're seeing being executed by airplanes and by our maritime forces, I think we have to appreciate behind all that force is an armada of great logisticians who have been worrying about this problem long before conflict began here. So this is the key area that every commander is going to pay attention to. We're always going to be concerned about supply rates, particularly munitions, supply rates if we continue to do the things that we are being asked to do. In my view, I think we probably have moved sufficient munitions into the theater to support Admiral Cooper's operations here.

57:04Jake Tapper:You know, we haven't really seen any degrading of that to date. You know, certainly with continued time, we could see some particular issues with that, but we're not right now. And I think we're going to continue to rely on our industrial base to make sure that we are provided the equipment that we need. All right. Former CENTCOM Commander General Joseph Otel, thank you so much for your time and expertise, sir. Good to be with you. Confusion and many questions after ICE reportedly detained a journalist in Tennessee. That reporter's attorney is going to join us in studio next to explain what happened.

57:46International lead ICE detained a reporter for a Spanish language news channel Wednesday in Nashville without a warrant, according to her attorney, who is now filing a petition for her release. Estefany Rodriguez and her husband were in the car outside the gym when they saw ICE vehicles pull up behind and in front of them. The husband tells CNN, my wife was really shocked. She's like really confused and can't understand. You know, we really couldn't understand why we're being surrounded, unquote. That's because, according to her attorney and her family, Estefany immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia legally in 2021, seeking asylum due to the threat she was getting because of her journalism about crime and corruption.

58:28Now her husband is a U.S. citizen. He was born in Texas and is sponsoring her application for a green card as it works. Her attorney, Joel Coxander, is here with me now. So, Joel, thanks for being here. You shared with us that Estefany started receiving notices from ICE in January of this year saying that she should come in for meetings. What happened that led up to this arrest? so she had last week on the 25th an appointment that she was supposed to go to with ice and the monday before my co-counsel caleb monday had gone with her husband to ice to be like hey is you know what's going on here like is there a way that she doesn't have to go to this appointment and the officer said hey there's no appointment for her on wednesday in the system and that that then gave her a new sheet saying, hey, we'll show up on March 17th instead.

59:24So she didn't have to go on Wednesday. That was the message. And instead, you know, there's now saying that that was actually a sign that she's a flight risk, that she, you know, or at least that's part of their argument, that she intentionally didn't show up. So we reached out to ICE and DHS about Stephanie's arrest. In part, the ICE spokesperson's statement reads, quote, that she was arrested during a targeted enforcement operation. Rodriguez Flores entered the United States with a tourist visa March 10th, 2021, which was valid until March 23rd, 2021. She failed to depart the country and is in violation of the conditions of her visa and currently has no lawful immigration status.

1:00:05She will remain in ICE custody pending her immigration proceedings. Claims that ICE did not have a warrant are false. ICE officers had an administrative warrant at the time of the arrest, and the officers issuing administrative warrants have found probable cause to issue the warrant, unquote. And the statement goes on to say all individuals who violate U.S. immigration law are subject to arrest regardless of their criminal history. Her husband says she has no criminal history. What's your response to this? They did submit a crumpled up piece of paper that is a warrant for arrest. and we've already responded to that because it doesn't have a lot of information on it.

1:00:43It doesn't have her A number, which is her alien number. And our position is that also this was still a warrantless arrest because they didn't serve this honor. At the very bottom of this document, they say this is the arrest warrant. There's no signature from an officer, an interpreter for her saying that this was actually given to her and that's one of the requirements. So she came into this country on a tourist visa, right? You're not disputing that. She applied for asylum. She said, I can't go back to Colombia. I'll be killed because of my journalism. Right? Is that correct? She got married, fell in love, got married.

1:01:17He's a U.S. citizen. I don't understand why ICE is pursuing her. She has a job. She's married to a U.S. citizen. She applied for asylum. She's been in communication with ICE. She's not hiding. Do you have any idea why they would target her? As a TV reporter, has she been critical of ICE? So she has covered ICE. She's gone to arrests by ICE. In fact, just the week that she was arrested, she had gone to cover some arrests, right, I think just the day before. And, you know, we don't have any knowledge that they targeted her because she was a reporter. But they did know she was a reporter, as we put in our response.

1:02:03Your response says she frequently reports on stories critical of ICE, including covering ICE arrests yesterday on March 3rd, 2026, which you don't state it directly, but you seem to be suggesting, and I'm not saying you're wrong, that this might be retaliatory in nature. Yes. And we just filed a response this afternoon where we actually requested the court allow us to amend the habeas petition to specifically address that this is a First Amendment violation and retaliation. Have you talked to her since she was detained? Where is she? I talked to her for a while while she was still in Nashville, but I've not been able to speak with her since she was moved.

1:02:42Do you know where she is? Best as we know, she's still in Alabama. What are the next steps if this emergency petition for habeas doesn't work? So she is eligible for bond because she entered lawfully. So we've already filed the bond motion earlier today. and I think that she has a good chance for that, but it's complicated these days with immigration courts. I just don't even understand it. I thought that if you marry a U.S. citizen and the country knows that you're here and the citizen, that your husband or wife who's a citizen sponsors you, I thought the country, the nation, the government kind of just like, unless you're a criminal, just leaves you alone.

1:03:26You know, historically, that is how things worked. And from my experience, you know, that's not how things are working in a lot of cases now, that as long as somebody is an overstay on their visa, even if they've been, you know, with a pending asylum application or a pending green card the whole time and never, like, really been without something that's pending, you know, that they, that that doesn't seem to matter anymore. This whole thing stinks. Joel Coxander, thank you so much. Appreciate it. If she gets out, please bring her by. We'd love to talk to her. Absolutely. She's wonderful. As the White House prepares for Kristi Noem's departure from DHS, I'm going to be joined live by a member of Congress who had a viral confrontation with her over mass deportation.

1:04:14Stick with us.

1:04:20In our politics lead, the White House is working quickly to get confirmation plans in place for the man they want to be the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. And as the senator from Oklahoma hopes to step into the president's cabinet, Kristi Noem is on her way out, leading a trail of controversies in her wake. One Trump advisor told Axios, quote, Minneapolis was just a disaster. We were supposed to be stopping fraud from Somalian illegals, but we wind up shooting two people in the middle of the street, unquote. Another said, quote, she had no goodwill on Capitol Hill.

1:04:53She mismanaged FEMA. She didn't show up to hearings. She was disrespectful. No one liked her, unquote. Congressman Seth Magaziner joins us now. He's a Democrat from Rhode Island and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, do you believe that the ousting of Secretary Noem is enough? And if not, what action do you want to see happen to hold her accountable for her time as secretary? Well, Kristi Noem is out and good riddance. Nobody from either side is going to miss her. As far as I can tell, I certainly won't. But it's going to take a lot more than firing Kristi Noem to reform the Department of Homeland Security, rein in ICE, and regain the trust of the American people.

1:05:34Look, Kristi Noem's tenure was based on a fundamental lie that she told to Americans. She said that under her tenure, the Department of Homeland Security was going to go after the worst of the worst, her phrase. But they didn't go after the worst of the worst. They went after grandmas and gardeners and kids with cancer and U.S. citizens, even deporting veterans. And by their own data, the majority of the people who they detained and deported under her watch were people who had no criminal record at all. So the first thing that's going to have to happen in order for Mark Wayne Mullen or whoever the next secretary is to regain the trust of the American people is actually focus on the bad guys and demonstrate that you can tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, which Kristi Noam couldn't.

1:06:24The second thing that they need to do to regain people's trust is show that there will be accountability when ICE agents or anyone else abuse their power. In any other law enforcement agency in the country, if someone engages in excessive use of force, if you have incidents of people being just killed in the street, as Renee Good and Alex Pretty were, there's an investigation and there can be discipline for misconduct. To my knowledge, they haven't disciplined anybody in over a year, even though there have clearly been abuses of power by ICE in this administration. So the other thing that I want to see is accountability.

1:07:08Accountability not just for people at the top, but accountability for people in the rank and file if they have abused their power. When people abuse their power, not only does it hurt the victims, hurt the innocent people who are hurt, But it also hurts the people in the agencies who are trying to do their job the right way by putting a bad reputation on the entire agency. So Noem's team is firing back at the White House on background. They argued that she was thrown under the bus by the president. At the center of this all, what appeared to be the last straw for President Trump is this controversial$220 million ad campaign that prominently featured Noem.

1:07:47She testified on the Capitol Hill this week that Trump knew about it. Trump said to Reuters he knew nothing about it. So the question is, who's telling the truth, Kristi Noem or Donald Trump? Kristi Noem, if you believe the president, committed perjury. But what do you think? Well, you know, I think it says a lot about Donald Trump that the thing that got Kristi Noem fired was not American citizens being murdered in broad daylight by ICE or children being deported or kids with cancer being deported. The thing that got her fired ultimately was the fact that she didn't handle a question well about whether she was having an affair and that she didn't handle a question well about this ad campaign.

1:08:32The president apparently doesn't care about the cruelty that we've seen by ICE and by DHS in American neighborhoods. He cares more about about Kristi Noem making him look bad. But again, this is an opportunity for a reset. I am concerned that, again, the problems that we are seeing go beyond Kristi Noem. It ultimately stems from Stephen Miller and his artificial quota of wanting to deport 3 ,000 people a day. And if you look at the data, if you look at the facts, you cannot deport that many people. if you're only going after people with criminal records, right? You are necessarily going to be deporting children and other people who we shouldn't be.

1:09:19And so, look, I think the administration did this because they know they have a political problem. They know that they are unpopular right now, including on this issue. So they have an opportunity to reset. But again, getting rid of your original question, getting rid of Kristi Noem is not enough. they need to have a real reset in how they approach immigration enforcement. Will that happen? I don't know. It depends whether cooler heads prevail over Stephen Miller's brand of extremism. Congressman Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, thanks so much, sir. Appreciate it. President Obama delivering a tribute to the late Reverend Justin Jackson today.

1:09:56Calling out those in high office, he didn't mention Donald Trump by name. Hear his remarks next. It's good to be home.

1:10:10In our politics lead after pressure from House Republican leaders in battle, Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez has finally pulled the plug on his re-election bid, posting, quote, after deep reflection, and with the support of my loving family, I've decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress, unquote. Gonzalez still faces a House ethics investigation after admitting to a sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzalez had been in a runoff with conservative social media personality and gun rights activist Brandon Herrera, who presumably now will be the Republican nominee.

1:10:43By the way, here's Herrera talking about owning a vintage copy of Mein Kampf on a podcast in 2024. That's my copy at my house next to a bunch of the German stick grenades. I got the 1939 edition printed in English just because I thought it was wild. that you couldn't buy it on Amazon, but you can buy the Communist Manifesto and desktop it all. Here now is our panel. We should know Herrera also posted this review of a Nazi-made gun on his YouTube channel back in 2022.

1:11:17This, if you can't tell, is the MP40, the original ghetto blaster. If the MG42 was Hitler's buzzsaw, the MP40 was Hitler's street sweeper. I guess ghetto blaster is supposed to be laughing about killing Jews in a ghetto. Later in the song, Herrera plays a German marching song that was published during the Nazi regime. Kevin Madden, you're the Republican at the table. Surely the Republican Party can do better than this. Well, you know, the voters down in that primary had their say in this. This was the these are the candidates that they had to choose from. not exactly the best crop. But look, I think the candidate here in this case is going to have to address this.

1:12:00He's going to have to address it directly. To my knowledge, he has. And I'm sure that the Democrats are going to bring it up. But that's going to just really open up a lot of different, very hard, tough fought fights between congressional Republicans in the state as well as congressional Democrats, which we've already seen throughout this entire campaign cycle already. So, Chuck, the Democratic nominee, Katie Padilla-Stout, is an attorney, former public school teacher. She posted this after Congressman Gonzalez dropped out, quote, While the Republican side is full of dysfunction, chaos, and extremism, I'm ready to fight for the real issues that matter to the hardworking people of Texas 23.

1:12:38Tuesday night I received more votes than any other candidate running Democrat or Republican. We should note, this is a congressional district Trump won by 15 points. Is it actually in play just because, I shouldn't say just, The Republicans have nominated somebody who owns a copy of Mein Kampf and thinks it's funny to joke about the Holocaust. Is it actually in play or no? It is because look at the trends. One election doesn't mean anything. Several elections in a row does. When Trump went in and they redistricted this, Jake, they took it from an R plus 5 to an R plus 7, and then Trump gets 15.

1:13:11But if you look at the numbers here, if it's an R plus 7 district in the primary, 53 ,000 Democrats voted and 51 ,000 Republicans voted. The Democrats spent nothing, and the Republicans spent millions of dollars. Congressman Gonzalez even had a super PAC backing him up against the AK guy. That's what he calls himself online. And it gives an opening to a woman like this. And I would draw your attention to a new poll that dropped in Texas today, a Televisa Univision poll that talks a lot about what the issues Ms. Padilla was talking about, not what Mr. Herrera was talking about. I want to play something former President Obama said today at Jesse Jackson's funeral service.

1:13:46Take a listen. each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions

1:14:00another setback to the idea of the rule of law each day we're told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other and that some americans count more than others and that some don't even count it up. Kevin, you have an interesting perspective here on hearing this because you used to work for Mitt Romney, who at the time Democrats demonized as a cruel robber baron. And then, you know, now he's the statesman of the year. What do you make of the criticism from President Obama? Well, it's always convenient for Obama to come out and criticize the state of American politics when he was always somebody who, when he was trying to draw what we would describe in political parlance as a contrast message, was very good at it.

1:14:55So, you know, sometimes we, his biggest, I think his fiercest critics are always find, will always point out that while he says, you know, when they go low, we go high, when we should be uniting the country instead of dividing it, there's always a very long laundry list of instances where, you know, Obama's instinct is to oftentimes be just as sharply with his political rhetoric as anybody. I think if you look at what's happening today, a lot has changed in politics since 08. You know, I have spent the primary with James Tallarico down in Texas, and he spent a lot of time talking to voters about, let's look for things that make us have more things in common, and not the things that pull us apart and the things that we see on this every day that are paid to pull us apart.

1:15:39I think that's starting to resonate with people, and I think you saw that in those results. Let's talk about that because I don't think I've had you on the show since Tallarico won, and you were a consultant for Tallarico. I've seen your advisor. So Tallarico won. I was a little surprised by it, to be honest. How did he win? And Republicans are already going after him as too extreme, too on the left. They have this quote of him saying that God is not binary or something. How is he going to handle those attacks? A, you can tell that they're scared about him because they're going to fight each other now for 60 more days in their runoff.

1:16:09He went and talked to people. And a big part of his victory, if you look at the election results, were Latino voters and white voters. But a tremendous amount of Latino voters in Texas was just a few years ago. And I was a Democrat that gave the Republicans credit. They were swinging right, but they swung back left hard because he went in and he was the only one advertising over a long period of time in Spanish, Spanish mail, Spanish TV, and showing up in community talking about what we just talked about. And when folks said Democrats can't talk about religion and hope, he showed up and talked about religion and hope, and Democrats flocked to him.

1:16:39I'm guessing that you're polling for John Cornyn over the attorney general, Paxton? Yeah, look, I think Cornyn's been a very good senator. So why is he in so much trouble? Well, I think right now it's a very tough political environment. There's no doubt about that. But he's been elected a number of times. He's a good campaigner. And I think that he has the right, I think he's more aligned with those voters right now in Texas than the Democrats, who have, you know, they have a longer history of being out of the mainstream with a lot of the Democrats. And the independent, conservative-minded independents in that state, they're going to make or break who wins this election.

1:17:19But he, Cornyn votes with the president maybe like 99 % of the time, maybe even like 100%. You say it's a tough environment. Well, you know why? Why is it tough? Because I think it's very clear there's like an attitudinal shift inside the party, an attitudinal split, and he doesn't necessarily reflect that as well as some of the others. Remember the hate here? That's why. This is why. All right, Kevin, Chuck, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it. President Trump made a pretty big promise to veterans, but there are some signs that he might not be on track to keep that promise. We'll tell you what we're talking about next.

1:17:52In our politics lead, as President Trump wages a new war in the Middle East, he appears to be breaking a promise here at home to those who have fought in previous wars. Last May, President Trump signed an executive order called Keeping Promises to Veterans and Establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence. The center would finally settle a years-long legal battle and establish homes for veterans in California, something that has been repeatedly promised to these men and women. And it's a story we've been closely following here on The Lead for years. It sounds like a good idea, right?

1:18:24Well, CNN's Nick Watt looked into how developments are coming along.

1:18:29Jake Tapper:The Center for Warrior Independence will be here on a vast VA campus given to veterans in the 1880s for a home, but used over the years for a VA hospital as well as parking lots, dog parks, oil wells, UCLA's baseball field, and the exclusive Brentwood School's sports facilities. The administration did just terminate that school's long-term lease on the property, but the key Trump promise in that order is to, quote, restore the capacity to house up to 6 ,000 homeless veterans by January 1, 2028. There are, after previous legal battles, some units for homeless vets already here and more under construction.

1:19:14Jake Tapper:The Trump administration just announced in court after the VA lost a suit filed by needy veterans that they're working to fulfill the president's promise and laid out a vague plan to build around another 2 ,500 units. But I've done some math. That will only bring the total capacity here to maybe 5 ,000 and not until the fourth quarter of 2030. Could be later. So about a thousand units short of the president's promise to veterans and around three years late. Remember the executive order's title, keeping promises to veterans. I want to see President Trump's executive order be successful. My big concern at the moment is that a lot of the VA executive leadership, they've all signed non-disclosure agreements.

1:19:59Jake Tapper:and they're not communicating with any of us. There are more than 30 ,000 homeless veterans nationwide by the most recent count, around 3 ,000 here in Los Angeles alone. With the history of this property, there's always been a lack of transparency. And that's how a lot of the problems have gone on here for decades. You know, promises made have not been kept. For example, Air Force vet George Fleischman was told he'd be in one of these 8x8 sheds just for a few months before moving into a permanent home. This land is supposed to be for people exactly like you. Yeah, I'm familiar with Sedin. It's not for us.

1:20:36They're on housing us and we're dying over here.

1:20:39Jake Tapper:Fleischman, who says he was exposed to Agent Orange while stationed in Okinawa, has now been in this shed without running water for more than three years. And if I wasn't a Christian, I'd kill myself. It's not worth living like this. I reached out to the White House. They punted to the VA. The VA declined an interview, eventually gave me a statement that reads in part, what VA outlined in court relates only to issues in the case, which is narrower than President Trump's EO. So what they're trying to say is they laid out a plan in court, but there's another plan that fulfills the executive order.

1:21:17Jake Tapper:I asked to see it. They never replied. Jake. Thanks to Nick Watt for that report. Coming up on Sunday on State of the Union, we're going to have Republican Senator Tom Tillis and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and the Secretary of the Department of Energy, Chris Wright. That's Sunday at 9 a.m. and noon Eastern only on CNN. Aaron Burnett out front. Live in Tel Aviv starts now.