President Trump Fires Pam Bondi as Attorney General

24:56Masi, always great to have you. You posted on social media, quote, heartbreaking. This morning, right after President Trump's speech, the Iranian regime moved fast and hanged an 18-year-old protester. Yes, Mr. President, there are no less radical leaders in Iran. Tell us more. How do you see the situation? Has there been regime change? JANETA HAN - Jake, you've seen me going everywhere and saying that I sacrificed my life to be the voice of Iranians. So now, 90 million of Iranians, they are in dark. We barely hear from Iranians in sight. Those have a star length? Barely. But those people who have welcomed targeted military strike against their killers are now worried when they keep hearing about regime change.

25:48Yes, I have to say that directly to President Trump, that the reasonable leaders that you think they remain right now and you think the United States can negotiate with them, are these people who are now ready to turn the mass arrests to mass executions. Because it is the right of the United States to say that we want to have diplomacy, but they cannot find less radical leaders in Iran. Basically these are the people like Ghalibaf, Zarif, every single member of the Revolutionary Guards, Mushtaba Khamenei, every single leader, from reformist to conservative. They are, you know, their mindset are exactly like the Stone Age mindset.

26:42So if President Trump's saying that he wants to take Iran to Stone Age, I'm here to tell you that you don't need to do that because the Islamic Republic already did that. Well, let me ask you, Masi, because... So now I have to talk about the executions. This person, this person who was hanged, he was only 18 years old. Jake, Amir Hussain was 18 years old when he took to the streets, and it was not—he was not a criminal. He took to the streets, and he was hopeful because he heard President Trump saying that take to the streets, help is on its way. So he was only one year old when President Obama was in power.

27:252009 Green Movement happened, and I remember President Obama did a mistake instead of supporting the people of Iran who were naming him that time. He decided to negotiate with the Islamic Republic and it took him a decade to say it was a mistake. I hope President Trump does not do the same mistake negotiating with Stone Age mindset government. You see that I lost my words because I couldn't sleep. I have been trying to save the lives of these people who are on their death row. So, Masi, let me ask you, when President Trump says he threatens to bomb the country back to the Stone Age, how do you take that?

28:04Because he's talking about bombing Iran into the Stone Age. Obviously, the enemy is the regime, not the Iranian people. But what was your response? MARGARET WARNERIUZ, President, United States of America, I don't worship politicians. I make them accountable. And when he did the right thing, finishing appeasement, targeting calculated strategic military strike against Ali Khamenei, I welcome that, alongside millions of Iranians. And now, when he says that he wants to take Iran back to Stone Age, it's very clear, because Islamic Republic is not Iran. And I'm actually—I want to say to President Trump, when you say there are less radical leaders you want to negotiate with them, they are exactly—their mindset is from Stone Age.

28:58Like Khalifa, he was in charge of bittening up a student. He was the architect of, you know, the ordering mass killing of students. The uprising happened in the streets with Emtihan, Galibov and Mushtaba and other high-ranking members of revolution. Mohsenia Jai is in power. He is the one ordering massacre. Why don't President Trump target Mohsenia Jai? Why don't he target Salavati, who ordered mass executions? Why Iranians' infrastructure? Because the people of Iran are saying that clearly, that if you don't change this regime, they will use diplomacy, they will buy time, and they will take revenge not only to their own people, but also to the people in the Persian Gulf countries, Arab countries.

29:46Also, they will rebuild their machinery, weapons, and terror to take revenge of Americans everywhere. So that's why I am very clear. The Islamic Republic is not Iran. If it was Iranians, believe me, the vast majority of Iranians will negotiate with the United States because we don't want military weapons, nuclear weapons. We don't want to have ballistic missiles. We don't want to threat the neighbors. We don't want to have proxies like Hamas, Houthi, Hezbollah. These are the people of Iran. That's the Islamic Republic who do not want to negotiate with the United States of America. And we need to finish the job by ending Islamic Republic, not Iran.

30:31Masi Alinajad, thank you so much. Appreciate it. So who is allowed to get a mail-in ballot to vote? My next guest says President Trump's latest executive order. Cracking down on that list of voter rolls is an attempt to take power from Congress and state election offices. And he's threatening legal action to challenge it. Stay with us.

30:53Paradise can be challenging. But on the bright side. We're tackling new locations. This is why people live in Hawaii. And a whole new list of problems. You bought this lot, sight unseen, on another island. I don't think this is safe to go inside. Through it all, we're creating amazing homes. That is a million dollar view. I don't think there's a lot of people that would take this on. Because they're not crazy like we are. Renovation Aloha, all new Tuesday night at 8 on HGTV. The 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.

31:35Now streaming on the CNN app.

31:40And we're back with the law and justice lead in the breaking news. President Trump firing Attorney General Pam Bondi today. Let's bring in Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes. Secretary Fontes, what's your reaction to the firing? Did you have any interactions with Bondi? Yeah, she sued me because I wouldn't follow her instructions to break the law. She wanted me to turn over confidential voter information, which is a violation of state statute and the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. That lawsuit is still pending. But as far as Ms. Bondi is concerned, good riddance. What are your feelings about the acting attorney general, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche?

32:26President Trump wants him to run the Justice Department in the interim. Well, I don't know, Mr. Blanche. I really haven't paid a lot of attention to the shenanigans of this administration outside of the areas that we've had to deal with. But, you know, like they say out here, God willing in the creek don't rise. This one will be better than the last one. Two days ago, the president signed an executive order targeting mail in voting, among other actions, directs the Department of Homeland Security to use various federal databases, including Social Security, to assemble a list of adult citizens that states can compare to their voter rolls.

33:04The president is also instructing the U.S. Postal Service to determine who should and should not receive a mail-in ballot. You have promised Arizona will challenge this in court. It looks like you're going to have plenty of company, Democratic congressional leaders, as well as two separate coalitions of voter advocacy groups filed lawsuits today. What are your objections to this order? Well, this order essentially means that the president wants to pick his own voters. And that's not how this is supposed to work. The Constitution is very clear in Article 1, Section 4, that the legislatures of the various states are responsible for establishing the time, place and manner of elections.

33:45And if not them, then the Congress can make rules as well. Nowhere does the Constitution indicate that the chief executive has any power to do this. And the courts have already ruled on this based on previous executive orders that he's issued. But the larger question here I think all Americans should be concerned with is the accumulation of data as attached to voter data, which in most states means they know what your voter registration is. And given that we're talking about Social Security Administration, we're talking about Homeland Security, my worry is that this big, giant federal database is going to be able to cut off your banking, cut off your insurance, make it incapable for you to do all of the things that you need to do just because Donald Trump might not agree with your politics.

34:32And that's the real potential danger here, aside from the other basic privacy violations. You told The New York Times that Arizona's elections, which do heavily rely on mail-in ballots, are in good shape in your view. And you think the greatest threat to American elections is Donald Trump lying about elections. Are you worried at all about this year's midterm elections? The primaries in Arizona, we should note for our viewers, are in late July. Yeah, I'm worried that these lies are going to continue to be promoted by the sycophants of Donald Trump. because leadership matters in this country. And I think that's one of the things that some of these folks, they're kind of gaming through this.

35:11And I see a lot of politicians in this country sort of making the mouth noise that Donald Trump is asking them to make, but kind of not really taking it seriously on the backside. That's not courage. That's cowardice. And everybody needs to step up. There's another really important piece of this, too. It's not politicians that run our elections. It's people. It's American people who do the polling places, They run the warehouses. They're the folks that help Americans cast their ballots. They're the ones that are doing the tabulation. And when Donald Trump lies about American elections, he's lying about the American people.

35:45And I resent that more than anything else. So states, according to the Constitution, have the wherewithal and the power to decide how you do elections. I just have to say, as somebody who covers elections, your state takes a long time to count all your ballots. You have a lot of mail-in ballots. Is there any way that the process could be improved and sped up? Well, respectfully, Jake, that's a perpetuation of the mythology that election night has results. Election night only has network predictions. Actual results come at the end of all official tabulation of ballots. It takes Florida longer than Arizona.

36:26It takes Utah longer than Arizona. In fact, Arizona comes in pretty close to the middle as far as the speed with which we finally get to our tabulations. And until folks start talking about election night network predictions for what they are and stop confusing them with actual results, then we can get to the truth of the conversation the way it should be. And that's the real thing that we need to be concerned with. And most Arizonans recent studies agree. They'd rather have it accurate than fast. And I think most Americans would agree with that as well. You don't think there's anything your state could do to improve it or speed it up?

37:04Yeah, there's plenty of things we can do to improve it and speed it up. And that's going to cost a hell of a lot of money that Arizona taxpayers might want to spend. But the legislature certainly doesn't want to help us administer our elections better. But the reality is the question of speed is a question of storytelling. And, Jake, you know as well as anybody else, until we clarify the notion that election night does not give you results, it only gives you network predictions, the results come later. Until we're clear on that, this discussion is going to keep being bogged down in the mire of inaccurate storytelling.

37:39I'm not disputing what you're saying. I'm just saying it does take a long time for the results to come in from California and Arizona. And anyway, I hear what you're saying, but you. It takes a you know, Jake, do we want to get it? Do we want to get it right or do we want to get it fast? You want to get it right in a world now that's instant gratification. We want to get it right. So let the officials at the counties who are doing their job do their job. They do a damn good job and they will continue to do a good job. And it's unfair to them, particularly when they are so underfunded and understaffed, to levy unrealistic expectations onto them.

38:19They've been doing great work for a long time. I have an enormous amount of confidence in the elections officials in Arizona and other states. And I'm not so quick to throw them under the bus just because some folks are impatient about when the results come in. They'll come in when they come in. We will have a peaceful transfer of power in this country. But we can't just go on these extra quick cycles just because some folks want to tell their stories quicker. We have to let the folks that are doing the job well do the job well. Saying it any other way really helps to undermine the confidence that we should have in those regular everyday Americans who are actually tabulating these ballots.

38:59I agree with what you're saying about the excellent work of the elections workers. And it sounds like I should be asking these questions of the legislature for underfunding what needs to be done. I appreciate it. Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, thank you so much. Ahead, the new dash cam video that shows the very moments that led to the DUI arrest of golf legend Tiger Woods.

39:30Our sports lead now, CNN's Isabel Rosales has the new body cam footage showing last week's arrest of golf legend Tiger Woods. Mr. Woods. Mr. Woods. I just keep you down here with us, please. Yeah, I was just talking to the president. Golf legend Tiger Woods tells a deputy he's just ended a phone call with President Trump. shortly before what would be his DUI arrest, a scene for the first time in new body camera video released by a Florida sheriff's office. I'm down on my phone and all of a sudden, boom. I'm going to just take a look. Is this comfortable for you? Yeah, yeah. He has since pleaded not guilty and has demanded a jury trial.

40:13How much have you had to drink today? None. None? Do you take any medication? I take a few, yes. What's a few? Video shows deputies questioning Woods in an arrest report noting several signs of impairment, like extremely dilated pupils, bloodshot eyes and lethargic movements. Motrin, ibuprofen and what do you call it? Did you take all of them today? Yes. Part of the golf star's response redacted by the sheriff's office. Deputies allow Woods to perform the field sobriety test sitting down on the bumper of a cruiser because of his physical limitations. Noticing his limping and stumbling, the 82-time PGA Tour winner tells deputies he had seven back surgeries and more than 20 operations on his leg, according to the arrest report.

41:06Don't move your head. Do you understand? You got it. During this hand coordination test near the Golf Legends Florida house, he's told to shut his eyes, stack his fists, clap and count. But the arrest report shows he failed to follow instructions. Place them behind your back. There you go. So at this time, I do believe your normal faculties are impaired. OK, and you're under that unknown substance. So at this time, you are at the risk for DUI. Yes, sir. During a pat down, deputies find two pills inside his pant pocket. later determined by law enforcement to be the prescription painkiller, hydrocodone.

41:41That's a narco. It's a narco? Yeah. Okay. A deputy puts the pills away into a plastic evidence bag. After his arrest, video from the back of the sheriff's cruiser shows him cuffed and leaning back, eyes closed. And on Thursday, Florida judge granted a request from his attorney to lead Woods travel out of the United States in order to attend comprehensive inpatient treatment. In a statement, the 15-time major winner said he is stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment, saying, quote, This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery. Our thanks to Isabel Rosales for that story.

42:22You heard Woods there say he had been on the phone with President Trump. CNN reached out to the White House about that. We have not yet heard back. Live images from space ahead. the major hurdle just cleared for the Artemis 2 crew and its lunar mission.

43:11Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, Pam Bondi is out, fired from her job as U.S. Attorney General. Sources say President Trump was upset over her handling of the Epstein files and for failing to successfully prosecute sufficient political opponents of the president's. And the man now in the role of acting attorney general, Trump's former personal lawyer, who defended him in that New York hush money case. So what should we expect from the Justice Department now? Plus, we're nearing a crucial step for the four astronauts on the Artemis II mission. Tonight, they're going to attempt to leave Earth's orbit and start their journey around the moon.

43:47We're going to talk to a former astronaut about what we can expect to see over the next few hours. Also, oil prices surging again today after President Trump pledged to hit Iran, quote, but very hard. The average price of gas is now$4.08 per gallon, a regular unleaded, with some analysts predicting we could hit the$5 mark. Is there a solution in the works? Does the president realize how this is affecting Americans?

44:14The lead tonight, President Trump has fired his attorney general, Pam Bondi, following conversations in recent days with his allies and conversations with Bondi herself, sources tell CNN. The president confirming the news himself on Truth Social, calling Bondi a great American patriot and loyal friend, saying that she will transition to a much needed and important job in the private sector, a job he did not specify what it is, however much you want to believe that job currently exists. Well, that's up to you. Sources say Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi's handling of the Epstein files and her failure to successfully prosecute sufficient political enemies of his.

44:51Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president's former personal attorney, will now step into the role for the time being. Let's get right to CNN's Caitlin Collins. She's at the White House. Caitlin, what do you know about how the conversation with Attorney General Bondi unfolded? Well, I mean, Jake, the line of independence between the White House and the Justice Department had been so eroded that the president had been openly telling Pam Bondi who to prosecute. And while she attempted to follow through on many of those orders from the president and even hung up that banner of his face at the Justice Department right over the entrance where you go in.

45:24Even all of that was not enough to save her when the president eventually soured on her and her running of the Justice Department, but also mainly for what you see that she was speaking right about right here in this moment on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago, which was the Epstein files and that investigation and the fallout that not only earned the president criticism from Democrats, but from many Republicans and members of his own base who did not like how they had handled that from when Pam Bondi brought in a bunch of right-wing influencers here to the White House, distributed binders that they said contained inside information on Jeffrey Epstein, but certainly did not.

45:58And then now to this moment, obviously, the president had soured on her. And, Jake, that conversation you referenced is one that we are told that Pam Bondi and the president had yesterday, where he made clear that her days essentially in that job were going to be numbered and that she wasn't long for this world running the Justice Department. It wasn't quite clear to Pam Bondi and her inner circle how quickly that could happen, Jake. It had been something that had been kind of culminating and percolating ever since January. And at times, the president's anger with her and frustration would subside, and it would seem that her job was safe.

46:29But it really hit a breaking point this week over that frustration when it comes to not going after enough of his political opponents. But also, Jake, a deadline that is two weeks away, which is a scheduled deposition for Pam Bondi on Capitol Hill for Congress's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, something that even Republicans voted to subpoena her for in an appearance at the White House did not want to have to deal with the fallout of again. Kaylin, where does the president stand on a potential replacement for Bondi? That's a great question, and we don't know. Lee Zeldin, who is the EPA administrator, is one name that has been mentioned, but it is quite telling that the president did not mention Lee Zeldin in his post today confirming that Pam Bondi had been fired as the attorney general.

47:08You'll remember he did similar when Kristi Noem was ousted as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary. He quickly announced that it was going to be Senator Mark Wayne Mullen taking over. We didn't see that here. It doesn't mean that it won't be Zeldin. It still remains to be seen what that looks like. But Jake, one thing, and you'll obviously recall this from covering Trump in round one, he obviously was more inclined to fire people then. He has been way less inclined to do so in this term. He has been more risk averse with those firings. But now, after the Christie Gnome firing and seeing that it didn't generate a lot of backlash for him, the president was much quicker to fire Pam Bondi this time around.

47:44And so that has raised a lot of questions and suspicions inside the West Wing that the president's concern about firing people and the chaos that it creates doesn't seem to be something that is hindering him or holding him back any longer. All right, Caitlin Collins at the White House. Thanks so much. And of course, don't miss Caitlin on her show later tonight. The Source with Caitlin Collins. Her guests tonight include Senators Tom Tillis of North Carolina and Gene Shaheen of New Hampshire. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, only on CNN. Joining us now to talk about all of this is Jim Trusty. He's a former attorney for President Trump.

48:18Jim, you represented the president. You know him personally. Take us inside his head right now in light of him firing Attorney General Bondi. Oh, yeah. I don't know that I have that kind of magical skill, but I'd focus on a couple of things. I mean, number one, in President Trump's first term in office, he literally had to rely on insiders for advice on who to put in place. I mean, there's just too many appointments to pretend that President Trump's going to personally know and vet everyone he put in office. I think this round, this administration, he made a very solid decision inside that he really wanted to have people that were going to be loyal to him.

48:54That was a very important component because he had, you know, folks running around doing kiss and tell books and stuff at his expense after they were let go. So I think, you know, that's a driving factor. I think it's interesting that from all public appearances, at least, there's still affection there. He still seems that, you know, he's not trashing her on the way out the door. And Bondi is not saying anything to suggest that she's angry at the president. So I think you have to go back by maybe by deduction and say that this is a lot about Epstein. You know, that the Epstein file was absolutely mishandled.

49:26The announcements that everything's on my desk, you know, that was unfortunate. Now, maybe she's got a little bit of a defense, which is maybe a whole bunch of these three million documents were sitting in New York without her knowing it. And if that's the case, heads should have rolled. But the bottom line is that wasn't handled on kind of the level of smoothness and professionalism that any president's going to want from his AG. Our White House reporters are also reporting that President Trump is frustrated that Bondi hasn't been more successful in prosecuting the president's perceived enemies.

49:56For example, the Justice Department did indict former FBI Director Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. But both cases were eventually tossed out. Do you think that the problem here was Bondi or maybe the problem was just the weakness of the cases? Yeah, I mean, look, you know, first of all, the attorney general doesn't try the cases themselves, right? So it's not like she's going in court and, you know, fumbling in front of a jury. I think each of those cases had similar issues. I do think Comey is a thoroughly unsympathetic character in terms of the stuff he did. And James, basically, they were duplicating kind of a chicken scratch, I'll be nice for family television type of fraud case like the one she brought against him.

50:42I get that. And so I'm sure the president's frustrated because he saw a very weaponized DOJ and feels like, hey, these people were villains that deserve their comeuppance. And maybe they don't get it by criminal cases out of the Eastern District of Virginia, out of D.C. John Bolton, on the other hand, by all accounts, you read the search warrant affidavit, read the indictment. That looks like a righteous case against a very verbal enemy of President Trump. So criminal justice, you can't just create evidence. You can't create the statutes. You've got to have people that dig hard, come up with good evidence, and either the cases come together or they don't.

51:15Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, another former personal attorney of the presidency, stepping in to be acting attorney general. Sources say the president's also floating the idea of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as a potential replacement. He's a former New York congressman. Who do you think should be the next U.S. Attorney General? Yeah, good question, and I don't have any inside track on it. Look, I'll give you one explanation of why I think Todd Blanche is probably a pretty solid pick. I'm old. I was a prosecutor for 27 years. So I tend to be biased towards experience. I like the thought of somebody guiding that big aircraft carrier full of thousands of lawyers that's kind of been in the trenches, that's tried cases, that knows the federal practice, knows really how you put together cases, and including not just criminal cases, but civil and espionage type matters.

52:04So I like the idea of some experience, and Todd certainly has that. He's had a year on the job as the deputy attorney general. But at the same time, you know, the president has the right to pick whoever they want. It is a political appointment. You've had folks like Eric Holder say, I'm the wingman to the president. You had one president pick his brother to be attorney general. So if there's a comfort level in terms of judgment and loyalty with someone like Zeldin, then that's going to be the pick. Again, I don't know that we're even on the right universe. Could be somebody totally out of left field compared to those two names.

52:35But I think there's probably benefits for each one of them. Jim Trustee, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Much more on reaction to Pam Bondi's firing in moments, including whether she will still have to testify for the House Oversight Committee, despite being ousted from the role. Democrats and at least one Republican are insisting that subpoena still stands. But does it?

52:59We're back with the breaking news and the politics lead. Pam Bondi out as President Trump's Attorney General following months of building frustration over her handling of the Epstein files and her failure to successfully prosecute more of his political enemies. Let's bring in CNN's Senior Justice Department correspondent Evan Perez and Lainey Davis, the author of the forthcoming book, Finding the Third Way, Lessons in the Politics of Civility, From My Journey Through History. What is this civility you speak of? It's an ancient. It's a word I've heard before. Evan. It doesn't live here anymore.

53:33Evan, what are you learning about the reaction to this news, the firing of Bondi, inside the DOJ? I think inside the department, one of the things you hear from people is finally. I mean, they've been expecting this, and we thought she might not survive, you know, last summer, when there was a crescendo of criticism from people like Laura Loomer and so on, over the handling of the Epstein files. So there has been some expectation that the attorney general was not going to be long for that job. But, you know, I think there is still a little bit of the idea that the president finally pulled the plug.

54:08And the fact that he didn't have anyone already named, you know, the way he did it, which is essentially firing her and not having anybody waiting in the wings, not doing it in a more sort of polite way, I guess. Interesting. And Lanny Bondi's meant to have a deposition still. on April 14th for the House Oversight Committee and their investigation into the Epstein files. The ranking Democrat on that committee, Robert Garcia of California, spoke to CNN about that. Take a listen. Well, she has to comply with the subpoena. And after that appearance from a couple of weeks ago, Chairman Comer reaffirmed the subpoena was still in place.

54:46It's legal. It was voted in a bipartisan way. All Democrats, a handful of Republicans. And that subpoena, by the way, is very clear that Pam Bondi is to appear in front of our committee in just under two weeks, whether she is attorney general or not. The subpoena is for her. Do you think that's going to stick? Is there any way that because she's fired that that won't happen? Yeah, I think it will stick. Look, when she did appear before the committee, there was a firing offense. I never thought I'd say this, certainly not on CNN, that I agree with President Trump. Those words sound unusual coming from me.

55:24That she deserved to be fired, but not for the reason of not prosecuting his enemies. But she had victims of Jeffrey Epstein standing behind her. And she wouldn't even turn around and nod her head. So it was about Epstein. But Donald Trump should have fired her for that, not for wrongfully prosecuting or failing to prosecute his enemies. And Lanny, part of Trump's frustration was reportedly because of her failure to fully execute his wishes to vanquish so many of these political enemies with the legal system. That's been a frustration of his for quite some time. Remember that tweet or truth social post that he did that it's been reported that he thought he was sending her a private message and instead it was public.

56:13Do you think that the next attorney general will take up this mission and try to be more successful? I mean, that's not what you want, but do you think they will? Well, I think Todd Blanche is a experienced prosecutor. He's very smart, and I have some respect for him. I disagreed with what he did with Ghislaine Maxwell. I think he did that under the orders of the president, But I do have some respect for him as an attorney and as an experienced prosecutor. He knows that he can't bring indictments where the facts don't justify it. You can't indict a ham sandwich. I think that's been seen by the failure of Mr.

56:50Trump to get indictments against political enemies. So I think Mr. Blanche, as an experienced prosecutor, might just say to President Trump, we can't bring an indictment when we don't have the facts. So that just may be my best hope for him. In addition to Blanche as a possible replacement, there's a floating of the name of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Republican member of Congress. How are people inside DOJ reacting to that? I mean, he's certainly not a known character inside the department. But the thing is, Jake, I think everyone is looking at this and thinking, you know, the fact that Bondi was so willing to do everything the president wanted.

57:26I mean, obviously, there are certain things that she cannot be blamed for. For example, the inability to get a jury to convict her on certain things. And so the idea that even she ended up this way, right, with an ignominious exit, really doesn't bode well for whoever next has this job. And so Lee Zeldin is one of the names. Janine Pirro is another name that has been floated. Again, some of this has been floating around since January when we thought Trump might do this. And so, you know, Trey Gowdy is another name that has been floated. We don't know which of these people the president really will settle on.

58:04But the thing is, the facts won't change. Some of these cases are just not very good cases. And so I'm not sure that he's going to get a better result. When the president showed Christine Ome the door, he had a replacement waiting in the wings. Mark Wayne Mullen, the senator, now secretary. And he had a job, whatever the position is, I'm still not even quite certain, lined up for her to stay in the administration. None of that for Bondi. No replacement that he's ready to nominate and announce at the same time. No gig for her. He said she's going to go in the private sector, an important job to be named later, which suggests to a lot of people that she does not have a job.

58:44What do you make of that? Pretty ignominious way out the door. My guess is that the adverse telephone calls he's getting from friends and associates about Bondi is not about the failure to get prosecutions when the facts aren't there. My guess is that moment, and I go back to that moment, where the victims of Jeffrey Epstein in MAGA and Trump land, as well as in my world, and she wouldn't even turn around and nod her head at them. He must have gotten a load of criticism from MAGA world, who thought the Epstein case was very important to expose, as well as from social friends. Her behavior was so low not to do that that I think that is the ultimate reason, not that it offended Mr.

59:29Trump because he should have fired her right then, but I think the feedback he got for that moment in time, even from members of the committee, were too much for him to accept. All right, Lanny Davis, Evan Perez, thank you so much. Appreciate it. As President Trump demands allies do more to help free the Strait of Hormuz from the clutch of Iran. I'm going to be joined next by a lawmaker from the state that has the highest gas prices in the country. He's going to tell us his thoughts on how long these high prices could last.

1:00:21Roll pitch. Roger. Roll pitch. Those are the sights and sounds, of course, from NASA's historic launch of Artemis 2 yesterday. There's still so much more to come on this high-stakes space mission. The four astronauts on board the Orion capsule are expected to head toward the moon this evening. One of their major goals, travel 4 ,600 miles beyond the far side of the moon. That would be the furthest that any human has ventured in space before. And while that in itself is mind-boggling, we're also curious about what life looks inside the Orion capsule. CNN's Tom Foreman shows us now everything that is packed inside the crew's new home in space.

1:01:04What is life like for the Orion crew right now? Well, I can tell you it is busy and it's really interesting. Let's get rid of the service module for a moment here, although it will stay with the crew capsule for almost the entire mission. I just want to talk about the crew capsule now, though, and give you a sense of what they're dealing with. First of all, this is a big capsule, 23 ,000 pounds at liftoff, more than 11 feet tall, 16 feet wide. So that's big, and the interior is bigger than anything NASA has put up into space since the space shuttle. But this is all a relative thing. If you were to come inside here, you would say, well, they have a lot to get in here too.

1:01:42All four people have to live here. They have to have places to be strapped in or sit. They have communications equipment. They have control equipment. They have emergency supplies, medical supplies, food, water, waste facilities, exercise equipment, even some things for entertainment. So, yeah, it's a lot to get into this space as spacious as it is. If you look at this NASA video, you can get a sense of what it would really be like inside, inside, although I should point out you're not stuck to one space. Remember, in microgravity, they can use all of this space to do what they want to do. Still, it's four people in this space for 10 days.

1:02:18That's not a whole lot of room, and they have to all work in concert to make it work properly. And interestingly enough, that includes sleeping at the same time. Yeah, that's right. At the same time, they will all strap in for the night, close Close their eyes and they will sleep and dream as they drift through the cosmos from the Earth all the way up to this historic return to the moon. All right. Our thanks to Tom Forma for that piece. Let's bring in former NASA astronaut and International Space Station Commander Leroy Chow, who's also the author of a new book coming out in June. It's called Dinner with an Astronaut.

1:02:57Leroy, the next big milestone we're expecting in about an hour is the translunar injection burn, or TLI, which will propel the astronauts toward the moon. Tell us why this step is so crucial. Sure. So they've been orbiting the Earth in a high elliptical orbit since launch last night and checking out the spacecraft, flight controllers, engineers checking out the spacecraft, the upper stage, everything, making sure it's all good. And if everything stays good, then around 1 a.m. or so tonight, they will do the TLI burn, the transliter injection. The upper stage will light its engine and it will propel the spacecraft out of Earth orbit towards the moon.

1:03:38And the trajectory they've designed for this is called a free return trajectory. So it's going to go towards the moon, loop around and then use the moon's own gravity to swing it back around towards the Earth. So they're not going to actually orbit the moon, but they're going to make a pass around and then come back to Earth. So you've been on four space missions. What are your thoughts about the food that the Artemis 2 crew gets to have on their 10-day journey? There's more than 10 drinks they can choose from, including a mango peach smoothie, apple cider, lemonade. To eat, there's vegetable quiche, tortillas, couscous with nuts, barbecue beef brisket, five different hot sauces.

1:04:15Did you have anything like this? What did space food taste like when you were there? Oh, sure. You know, space food is okay. It's pretty good. I have to give kudos to the folks in the food lab on both sides of the Atlantic, both in Houston and out in Moscow and Star City. They've done a really good job of making things that, you know, basically don't need refrigeration and taste pretty good. We do have a lot of freeze-dried items. We have some canned items. And we use a lot of items on the U.S. side from the military, the Meals Ready to Eat or the MREs. They come off the same assembly line. They come off in that same olive drab, you know, green color packaging that the military gets.

1:04:56And they're OK. It's not bad. You can live on it for a while, but nothing like the food here on Earth. What you're looking at on the screen out there, talking to my viewers now, is live images. And it's the Orion moving ever so slightly on NASA's feed. The astronauts are working out right now, we're told. They're expected to do that for at least 30 minutes a day. why is it important for astronauts to exercise like that every day and how are they physically able to do it? Sure, on a short 10-day flight like these folks are on, it is still important to exercise. It's not as critical as if you're on a six and a half month flight or something like that.

1:05:35During space station stays, crews are scheduled for two hours a day of exercise. It's critically important for your bones, your muscles, your cardiovascular system, everything. So we split our time doing aerobic exercises, as you would expect, like running on a treadmill with a harness holding you down on the track or on the exercise bike. And then we have resistance exercise devices that mimic weightlifting so that we can keep our bones and muscles in shape. It's actually very effective. And so it's difficult in a limited space like these folks have, four of them in a relatively small spacecraft.

1:06:09But, you know, NASA has been pretty good about making compact exercise devices. They're probably using some evolved devices from our space shuttle days, and I'm sure they'll stay in good shape for their 10-day flight. If the astronauts get to fly by the far side of the moon, which is anticipated it's going to happen on the sixth day of the mission next week, the information, they gather, we're told, could help determine future landing sites for the next Artemis mission on the surface of the moon. But how do you even begin to identify what's a good place to land on the moon and what's not? well i imagine they'll probably be taking some photographs they're gonna have cameras that are be automatic probably as well and just looking for good landing sites on the moon you want area that doesn't have a lot of boulders in it you'll remember neil armstrong famously had to take manual control on the first landing because they were heading straight for a big boulder and he steered the lander away from it and didn't did a manual landing so uh you know it is not without its risks or without its requirements for skill.

1:07:12But every bit of data that we can get is a little bit more risk we can buy down. All right, Leroy Chow, thanks so much. Appreciate it as always. President Trump is laying out yet another timeline for a possible end to the war with Iran. That's next.

1:07:32Our world lead now, President Trump, says the U.S. could end its military campaign against Iran In the next two to three weeks, for those keeping score, we're already nearing the sixth week of his initial four to six week timeline. So keep that extended timeline in mind while also noting that thousands of U.S. troops and service members have been sent to the region in potential preparation for a possible ground incursion. Joining us now to discuss Democratic Congressman Adam Smith from Washington State, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, did you hear anything in the president's address last night that makes you think that this conflict will actually end in the next two to three weeks?

1:08:11Well, not really. I mean, what all I heard that was confirmed is that it's going to continue for another two or three weeks. The president didn't say what the conditions were that would lead him to end it at that point. And I think that's the biggest gap right now for all of the tactical successes that we've had in terms of destroying missiles, destroying launchers. industrial capacity on the major strategic objectives of ending their nuclear program, ending their ballistic missile program, fundamentally getting Iran to change their behavior. Really, no progress has been made on that. And it's hard to see how another two or three weeks of bombing would increase that, would make Iran more likely to fundamentally change on those issues.

1:08:55So it's hard to see what the plan is to force them to make those changes. Would the military achievements that the US military has made so far, will, if President Trump in two or three weeks says, I think we're done with what we said we're going to set out to do, which specifically are destroy the Iranian Air Force, destroy the Iranian Navy, destroy their missiles and destroy their ability to build more missiles, is it possible that those four tasks, goals could be accomplished in the next two to three weeks? Not the last one, not their ability to basically build anything more, build more drones, build more missiles.

1:09:36And I don't think it's really possible from the briefs that I've received to completely eliminate Iran's military capacity or certainly their capacity to support terrorist organizations in the region. So it was always sort of the underlying premise that we would hit Iran so hard that they would cave, that we would break them, and they would acquiesce and they would agree to some deal to completely suspend their nuclear program and all those other things on the list. And if anything, since the war started, the Iranian regime seems to have hardened their position in the first place. Then the two other big factors about this is the cost of this war.

1:10:14certainly there's the 13 service members who we've already lost the hundreds who have been injured a couple thousand civilians killed but the impact on the economy i mean and it's not just us certainly we've seen a dollar a gallon increase in the price of gas and a severe impact on our stock market and our economy but globally you've seen the stories there's people in pakistan and bangladesh getting killed over the gas shortages we have devastated the global economy so there's the cost factor of it. And there's also the fact that now Iran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz, which they hadn't done before the start of this war.

1:10:51It's like we've made them aware of a central choke point that they have on us. And the president has no plan to fix that problem. So, yeah, I mean, we could have achieved most of those objectives, but not the ones that would have even begun to have made those costs worth it. Democratic Congressman Adam Smith from Washington State. Thank you, sir. Good to see you. Appreciate it. It's been one year since President Trump declared Liberation Day and instituted his sweeping tariffs. Are the American people feeling the liberation? Our panel weighs in next.

1:11:26Our politics lead now today marks one year since President Trump unleashed those reciprocal tariffs across the globe, or as he called it, the Liberation Day. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled in a six to three decision that Trump's signature tariffs were illegal, unconstitutional. Democrats mark this day by sharing this highlight reel of promises made by the Trump administration. These tariffs are going to give us growth like you haven't seen before, and it'll be something very special to watch. So you're actually going to see prices go down. It's going to be a golden age. The president is focused every single day on lowering the cost of living in this country while simultaneously implementing these very effective tariffs.

1:12:07The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. Boom. My panel joins me now. Brad, the economy booming. Well, the stock market's up 32 percent. The Nasdaq is since that day, since before he imposed the tariffs. The trade deficit with China is down about 25 percent. So both those things are, as President Trump said, you know, I was on TV here that day wearing a bull tie, saying today is a day to buy stocks. And in fact, it was a good day to buy stocks. This is a new adjustment. We didn't get into this situation overnight, and it's going to take a little while to get it right.

1:12:43So, of course, the stock market, which you're happy about, I'm happy about, and you're probably happy about, is not the same thing as the daily economy, as I don't need to tell you. No, you're absolutely right. And that is really the concern, is what are the American people experiencing? And I will say this. Democrats haven't been winning, flipping 28 seats, winning state houses from New Jersey to Virginia. on this issue of affordability if it were not for Donald Trump's disastrous tariff policies. That's actually what I would sort of consider an economic self-sabotage, I think is going to cost the Republican the midterm elections.

1:13:18He promised he was going to lower prices. Prices are spiking. He promised that, you know, on day one, we're going to, you know, lower grocery prices. That still hasn't yet happened. Now we have gas prices going up. So this is really an economic failure on the part of the president. And that is his greatest vulnerability going to this next election. Are you not concerned at all? Of course I am. But the thing I'm most happy about is that finally Democrats have acknowledged that when you raise taxes on corporations, they're passing down to their customers. You know, when we had the tax cut in 2017, Democrats acted like cutting taxes for corporations was a terrible idea.

1:13:51But now we know higher taxes on companies, increased prices on consumers. Great. Let's all cut taxes together. You're saying that a tariff is a tax. Well, it is a tax on a foreign corporation. It's a tax on someone. So let me ask you, because House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called Liberation Day, quote, a complete and total failure, when we have seen a lot of bad numbers for President Trump and those election wins that you just mentioned. But the numbers aren't great for Democrats either, as you know. CNN pounded a poll. Only 25 percent of voters feel congressional Democrats have the right priorities.

1:14:26That's slightly lower than President Trump's, 32 percent. The numbers can't really get much lower for Democrats at this point. Why do you think Democrats are not capitalizing, at least in the poll numbers in those 28 elections? I take your point. At least in the poll numbers in terms of confidence for Democrats. Well, I think they have to offer an affirmative agenda. They have to offer a vision for the nation that contrasts with where Donald Trump is. If we go back to the tariffs, we've lost 150 ,000 manufacturing jobs. We're bailing out farmers to the tune of$12 billion. Again, our second time doing this.

1:15:00The American people are really feeling the pain right now, and there's no sign we're going to get out of it anytime soon. And I think it is a failure on the part of the Democratic Party that they've not yet rolled out a proactive agenda. When I was running the opposition for Speaker Pelosi, by this point, we had launched a proactive agenda, jobs, health care and corruption. That transformed the polling numbers. Soon after we launched that proactive agenda, started running over it going into the summer, we were up by double digits against Republicans. So I think that is where the gap is right now is Democrats have not laid out for the American people who we are, what we're for and why it matters in their lives.

1:15:40Can I give you a theory? I talked to a Democratic lawmaker the other day who said voters are angry. They hate everybody. And so if you're an incumbent Democrat governor, it's not great for you. And if you're incumbent Republican member of Congress, not great for you. Democrats could do well, but only because they're not running anything right now. What do you think of that theory? I think that the voters don't like chaos and they see Democrats as providing cultural chaos. They think Democrats are way too far out of the mainstream on culture issues. They also sometimes think Donald Trump causes chaos.

1:16:13And I think it's a lesson. The devil you say. Sometimes. Sometimes. I think it's a lesson for the administration that if they just lock in on a few things and do the same things every day that are popular, a lot of what Donald Trump's policies are, have are popular. The shift will focus will shift back to Democrats who have not moderated one bit since the 2024 election. So last night, Trump tried to boost support for the war. But before his address to the nation, he said this during an Easter event at the White House. Take a listen. I said to Russell, don't send any money for daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare.

1:16:51That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they can do it on a state. It's like Hakeem Jeffries was providing the teleprompter there. Like, honestly, I saw the Democrats immediately, Brad, immediately take that clip. You know, we're a big country. We have 50 states. We're fighting wars. It's not possible. That's that's not talking about the message you want the president to be delivering.

1:17:24That's not it. That's not in the three things I say to talk about every day. We're fighting wars. We can't pay for daycare, Medicaid or Medicare. Yeah, well, we have to fight the war to keep America safe. That's the job of the federal government. I'm just talking about the message. But it's we'll see that again for sure. in advertisements from Democrats this year. Lucky for Republicans, we don't have to be perfect. We just have to be better than Democrats, and that's a pretty low bar right now. But, Jake, here's the real reality. There's now a debate on Capitol Hill among Republicans about cutting health care for the American people to pay for this war, this$200 billion price tag on this self-imposed war that we're in right now.

1:18:00So this is only going to get worse. They have no ideas about how to transform the economy. They have no ideas how to lower costs. You know, again, you've got gas prices skyrocketing. So this is really a downward trend for the Republican Party, and I don't see any way they can get out of it. They're only making matters worse. And the benefit for the Democratic Party is our best organizer, best fundraiser is Donald Trump. Donald Trump. You're about to say Barack Obama. Yes, I was. Yes. So I'll just say this. President Trump had a very strong message. We have to stop spending money on foreign wars so we can invest in home.

1:18:33And he just delivered the exact opposite message. I don't think you'll disagree, Brad Todd. Not Adrian. You're about to say Barack Obama. Ashley Etienne. You're confusing me with your Barack Obama stuff. You're bringing me back to 2009. Having flashbacks. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. After a heart attack, survivors are often told they need to take beta blockers for life. But now doctors are reevaluating if that's really necessary. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here next to explain why.

1:19:01In our health lead for decades, surviving a heart attack meant a lifelong prescription of beta blockers. Lifelong. It's a medication that lowers blood pressure and slows heart rates, reducing the risk of another heart attack. But a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine is forcing doctors to take a closer look at whether long-term use of this medication is really necessary. Let's bring in Dr. Sanjay Gupta, paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So Sanjay, how big a deal is this new study? Well, Jake, I got to tell you, in the world of medicine and particularly cardiology, this is a pretty big deal.

1:19:34This is a very large drug class. Most people have heard of beta blockers. About 10 % of the adults in the United States take beta blockers, one in 10 people. So a lot of people paying attention to this. First of all, just the background here. Someone has had a heart attack. They have this stress on their heart as a result of that certain heart tissue has died. They use beta blockers to try and alleviate that stress, lower the blood pressure, slow down the heart rate. That's been the thinking as to why beta blockers are beneficial after heart attacks. Lower the stress on the heart, maybe prevent a second heart attack.

1:20:10That's been the thinking for decades, but that's what's changing here. Part of the reason it's changing, Jake, is because there's been all these advances in medicine since that time. You can do an angioplasty and restore blood flow to the heart. You can use blood thinners, medications like statins. All these things have made it more likely that even in someone who's had a heart attack, they don't have that much damage to their heart. Their heart function is relatively stable. So here's the study. Let me just show you the study results that people are talking about. People on beta blockers, people not on beta blockers three years later, and they found there wasn't a big difference in terms of the need for hospitalization.

1:20:50So the idea that a significant percentage of people may not need beta blockers as a result of this study, that's what people are really talking about here. How many people? Well, out of everyone who potentially would go on a beta blocker after a heart attack, what they're really trying to figure out is what is their heart function right after their heart attack? How much of a hit did their heart actually take? What they're finding, about half of people in today's day and age after a heart attack still have pretty good heart function. meaning most of the blood is actually being pumped out from their heart.

1:21:23Their heart is strong enough to pump that blood out in a way that is pretty normal. Again, pretty big deal. Jake, one of the largest drug classes in the country. And keep in mind as well, there are side effects to these medications. Beta blockers slow down your heart. They lower your blood pressure. As a result, there's not as much blood flow to your hands and your feet. You can get cold hands and feet. People get sometimes very tired using these beta blockers. Weight gain, dizziness, feel lightheaded taking beta blockers because it may drop your blood pressure. And also, there's a cost associated with this.

1:21:59It's not an expensive drug, Jake, about 20 bucks a month on average. But for many people up until now, they were taking these medications and then staying on them for their whole life. And obviously, that can add up. Jake? All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. and Sanjay is going to take your questions on this topic. Scan the QR code on your screen right now. See it? Right there. See it? Scan it. Put up your phone, scan it, and you can submit a question if you scan. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be back tomorrow to answer some of your viewer questions. The good ones, not the bad ones. Aaron Burnett, Outfront starts now.

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