Tillis “Leaning Yes,” Cornyn Remains “Undecided” on Blanche

24:20Gotta get out of here. Crashers all new Monday at 10 on HGTV. In our Law and Justice League, today behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, former Obama White House attorney Kathy Rumler told lawmakers that she regrets interacting with dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, calling it a, quote, mistake to deal with him, unquote. CNN's K-File reported on Rumler's close ties to Epstein, which included helping Epstein manage his public reputation. This is years after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Let's bring in the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, Republican of Kentucky.

24:54Good to see you, sir. So in her prepared remarks, which CNN obtained, Rumler wrote, quote, if I had seen or heard any evidence suggesting that he was abusing women or girls, I would have immediately reported him to law enforcement, unquote. Do you believe her? Well, the problem with that, Jake, is she's the one person that we've brought in that clearly had interactions with Epstein all the way until his imprisonment the second time. She worked actively to rehabilitate Jeffrey Epstein's image. And this is a decade after he was already convicted in Palm Beach of solicitation of a minor. So she said she didn't believe that.

25:34She said she believed him, that he didn't know the girl was a minor and all that. We ask questions that any American would ask that has any curiosity about Epstein. It was hard to believe a lot of what she said, but that's a consistent pattern with everybody we're bringing in with the Epstein investigation. She's the 18th witness that we've interviewed and or deposed. And, you know, whether they're male or female, they all have a hard time recalling certain things. They all say that Jeffrey Epstein was a was a crook and none of them had any idea. he was a pedophile or a sex offender. But the problem with Rumler is she had communication with him in the emails where she's trying to rehabilitate his image after he was convicted of being a child sex offender.

26:23Did Rumler give you any information that might be helpful in the investigation? A little bit. Nothing earth shattering. She was a very polished witness. She's very intelligent. She knew exactly which questions we were going to ask because she's thoroughly reviewed the emails and text messages that were sent back and forth over a decade with Epstein. So I'll say this. She was highly intelligent. And one thing to remember, she was deputy attorney general and on the short list to be attorney general during the Obama administration. So she's a very high-ranking, powerful person, and this is consistent with all the people that Epstein surrounded himself with.

27:03There were Republicans. There were Democrats. There were people at the highest levels of government, the highest levels of Wall Street firms. And it's just amazing to me that we bring these people in, Jake, and none of them had any idea Epstein was a bad person. They had no idea he was abusing girls, and they were just shocked to read it in the paper. It's just hard to believe. I think you meant to say she was Deputy White House Counsel, not Deputy Attorney General. But yeah, I take your point. CNN has exclusive reporting that the House Oversight Committee is discussing with Epstein survivors the possibility of the women providing affidavits about longtime Epstein assistant Leslie Groff.

27:41Multiple survivors told CNN that Groff lied to your committee last month. What more can you tell us about that? And how might you hold Groff accountable if she is found to have lied to Congress? Well, we're working very closely with the Epstein survivors. We have been for many months. My staff attorneys are working with their staff attorneys. I've met personally with the survivors, as have many members of the oversight committee on both parties. So we're trying to provide justice for them. I think you've heard me say many times publicly, the government failed the victims, and this spans several presidential administrations.

28:15Epstein never should have been allowed to walk the streets. and then been given that sweetheart flea deal back in 2008 in Palm Beach. So having said that, we're bringing in all these people that clearly had close ties to Epstein. And once we question them, we're giving the victims the transcripts and letting them thoroughly go over that and say, do you see anything that you think is not true? And if they say that, then we're going back and we're doing research to see if they lied to coverage. Because if they lied to Congress, that's a felony. And that's a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.

28:54And again, that's all a part of accountability. And that's about the only way Congress can hold anyone accountable. If you lie to Congress, you've committed a felony, you've perjured yourself. So we're doing that. And we're trying to work with the victims. And the victims are going to have to give affidavits. Just if they tell me something or if they tell Annie Greer with CNN something isn't true, That's really not enough to get an indictment from the Department of Justice. We need affidavits, sworn affidavits, and we're trying to do this just like any court in America would do. And I do believe that we've built a level, I hope we've built a level of trust with these Epstein survivors, and they see that me as chairman and this committee, we're serious about holding these people accountable.

29:37We don't care who they are, how much money they have, what political party they are. If they've abused young girls or if they knew about young girls being abused and turned the blind eye, then we want to hold them accountable. And hopefully what you broke today in CNN, hopefully that will lead to some accountability. Republican Congressman James Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jake. Breaking news on our worldly news. U.S. strikes on Iran. Is the strategy, if you can call it that, working? I'm going to ask a combat veteran now serving as a Republican senator next.

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30:48In our world lead, a new wave of U.S. strikes on Iran started a couple hours ago, marking the fifth straight day of active warfare. While in the water, U.S. ships are patrolling near Iranian ports, redirecting at least two ships, and disabling an empty oil tanker sailing toward Iran's oil port of Karg Island as President Trump tries to strong arm Iran back to the negotiating table. Joining us now, Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa. She's a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and served in the Army National Guard. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Iran's foreign ministry says there are no plans to negotiate.

31:23And now CNN's learning that President Trump is actively weighing options for expanding military operations. This is the most intense violence and sustained period of direct U.S. military conflict with Iran in decades. Do you think there is a clear way out of this? Do you think the Trump administration was fully prepared for all these contingencies? Well, the clear way out, Jake, would be if the Iranians actually come back to the table and they agree to negotiations. Of course, we want to make sure that they're never, ever again nuclear capable in striking their neighbors nor the United States of America.

32:01We want to make sure that their ballistic missile capability is taken off the table. And we certainly want to make sure that they're not funding terrorist proxies around the globe anymore. So the direction is clear. Unfortunately, we're still in this position where Iran does not want to concede. Yeah, but they're not coming back to the negotiating table. I mean, they're refusing to. And I mean, I'm not disagreeing with President Trump's assessment of how the Iranian mullahs view the world, but they are where they are. Right. Exactly, Jake. And I get it. And I get what the president is doing. You know, we have the various options.

32:40There's always soft power. We were trying that soft power through negotiations, through sanctions. Unfortunately, that did not work. And so here we are. We're back at kinetic action where we are bombing Iran. That was the choice that was made to exercise strength through this hard power. But again, the Iranians do have the option to come back to the table. If they do that, we will enter into another ceasefire. We'll continue negotiating. I would love to see an end to this. We want to see peace and stability in the Middle East, but we have to have willing players with the Iranians. Take a listen to President Trump when asked about that U.S.

33:21strike on the school in Iran that occurred the first day of the war where more than 160 kids were killed. Take a listen. Will you commit to releasing the findings of this investigation? I don't think anybody's going to ever be able to say what happened there, because if they don't know by now, and as of a couple of weeks ago, they didn't know. And while things like that happen in war, there are missiles flying all over the place. And I don't know how anybody could say that we shot it. I mean, you know this, Senator, but it was a Tomahawk missile. And we're the ones that have Tomahawk missiles, not the Iranians.

33:59Intelligence agencies released preliminary findings in March. internally that said the U.S. was at fault, according to our reporting. It kind of looks like the president wants to cover this up. Well, I don't know that he wants to cover it up. I do think this is something that the Armed Services Committee will be digging into. We have asked questions of the Pentagon when it comes to the loss of civilian life at that school. Any time we see the loss of civilian life, it's devastating to many of us, especially those of us that are mothers and grandmothers. I have a warrior's heart, but you know what?

34:35It's inexcusable if there was fault on the part of the United States. That's what we have to understand. And I do hope that the Pentagon will be sitting down with us in a classified setting and reviewing their findings with us. I think it's really important to have that transparency. Earlier today, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified on Capitol, and he said he could not meet with Epstein survivors if they have lawyers with them. Take a listen. Will you meet with these 10 survivors? I'm asking you on the record. If they have lawyers, as you know, I'm prohibited from meeting directly with them.

35:13I have met with counsel for survivors, as has many people in the Department of Justice. So he won't meet with the survivors if they have lawyers. But Blanche met with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. He went to prison, her prison in Florida for hours over the span of two days. Senator, you've spoken bravely and candidly about being a survivor of sexual violence. What's your take about how the Trump administration has treated the survivors of Epstein's sick, pedophile sex trafficking room? Yeah, absolutely. And I don't know what the prohibitions are in that certain situation. But I would say that so many of us that really do care whether it is sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, I think many of us are always, always willing to sit down and hear from those survivors.

36:09And they are survivors. They are very brave individuals that will come forward and speak out against those that have that wealth and power and have abused that position with women that really were very, very vulnerable. So it is important. It's an absolutely disgusting situation. And again, it's one of those issues that I hope we do see greater clarity in the future, again, because they are brave survivors. And I know that there are many of us that are willing to hear their stories and help them along the way when it comes to recovery and making sure that they do see justice as well. You gave a touching tribute to your friend, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the Senate floor.

36:53You noted his military service, his vision for America's role in the world. Did you two ever disagree on foreign policy? Tell us a little bit about your feelings about him. You know, I and I hope I don't get emotional, too emotional, but I absolutely loved Lindsey Graham and he was one of my dearest friends in the United States Senate. We spent a lot of time together, both on the Senate floor and off of the Senate floor, whether we were traveling on congressional delegations, whether we were going to dinner with our group, our friend group of senators. There are very few things that I disagreed with Senator Lindsey Graham on.

37:34And if we did disagree, we were happy to have those discussions. And that's what made Lindsey such an incredible character in the Senate, is that he could argue his position all day long and then at nighttime sit down and have dinner with the folks that he was just arguing with. So he is a true American patriot. There is no one that will fill the shoes of Lindsey Graham. God made him one of a kind. He will be greatly missed. Republican Senator Joni Ernst, thank you so much. And as always, thank you for your service. An overnight swap at a historical site in Philly has the city's mayor fired up.

38:11The Trump administration replaced some exhibit panels about George Washington's slaves slaves with a much more, shall we say, sterile story. And the mayor of the great city of Philadelphia is going to be here next on The Leader.

38:32Allegations today that the Trump administration is whitewashing American history. This tops our national lead. Overnight exhibits were removed from the president's house site in the great Philadelphia. These exhibits told the story of the nine enslaved people, the slaves who lived there during the presidency of George Washington. These exhibits were replaced by new displays that frankly sanitized Washington's ownership of slaves, portraying him as a kindly owner of human beings. This is a story we covered here on the lead back in February when we visited the site after some of the original panels were removed and then temporarily restored following a court order.

39:10But earlier this month, an appeals court cleared the way for the Trump administration to install their replacement panels featuring their version of history. This ended a lengthy legal battle between the administration and the great city of Philadelphia. And joining me now to discuss is Philadelphia Mayor Sherelle Parker. Mayor Parker, you released a statement calling the remaking of the exhibit shameful, but you say the fight's not over. What more can Philly do to restore this site? Well, first, Jake, I want to affirm for the record that we as a city and I as mayor remain committed to ensuring that there is an honest and an accurate portrayal of history at the president's house.

39:52There was a broad coalition, and this is important to affirm for the record, of people who work together to identify, create, design, fund, and implement the president's house exhibit. And so we will do everything that we possibly can to ensure that the story of those nine enslaved Africans, and I want to state their names for the record so that the world can remember who they are. They were Mole, Christopher Shields, Richmond, Giles, Austin, Paris, Joe, Hercules, and Ona Judge. So while we have a legal battle that we are working with our legal counsel to figure out how we exhaust every legal recourse that is available to the city.

40:40But as mayor of the city, I want to be absolutely clear. You cannot erase American history. And as mayor of this city, I will make sure that those stories are told and we will also continue to fight in court. Gone is a panel that had been titled The Dirty Business of Slavery. One of the replacements reads, quote, celebrating independence throughout the years. Another panel installed overnight says, quote, President Washington knew and trusted his enslaved house staff enough to buy them tickets for the circus and theater and to let them venture out into the city's markets on their own, unquote.

41:14What's your reaction to these changes? My reaction is, is that you cannot whitewash our history. We're just celebrating our semi-quicentennial, 250 years of democracy born right here in our great city of Philadelphia. And I'm a firm believer that we have to tell the truth about our history, all of our history, Jake, no matter how painful it may be. And so we just celebrated the fact that 250 years ago, imperfect humans, right, they came together to recognize this universal search for freedom and for dignity. And while at the same time, Jake, these very same leaders who came up with this grand experiment that we fight every day to make a more perfect union, they perpetuated the heinous institution of slavery.

42:16And guess what? Telling the truth doesn't take away any of our appreciation for America and our democracy. But it's important that we tell the truth so that we will never repeat it again. And I am committed to ensuring that we do that here in Philadelphia as mayor. And you know our city well. You are one of our sons and we are going to continue fighting. So to the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, led by Philadelphia's own Michael Kors, and all of the architects, engineers, historians, listen, Jake, who fought and disagreed when this exhibit was being developed, but they figured out a way to get to yes.

43:02And so now we will continue fighting in the courts. We, of course, did not agree with the court's ruling and we will use every bit of legal recourse. Our counsel tells us is available. But we are also working with private partners to do everything that we can to ensure that that history is told. So we will keep you posted, Jake. But you know me and you know Philly and you know we will never stop fighting. Oh, I'm aware. I'm aware you won't stop. Quickly, how do you respond to the argument from the Trump administration that the exhibit focused too much on slavery as opposed to more positive things about George Washington?

43:40Let me say this to you. When you tell the truth about American history, and this is a shared truth that I hold self-evident, you can't erase American history. And when you tell the truth, you have to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's the only way that we will move our great nation forward and we will make sure that we do everything in our power to ensure. And I want to repeat those names. Moe, Christopher Shields, Richmond, Giles, Austin, Parrish, Joe, Hercules, Ona Judge. Because when we tell the truth, we honor their humanity. We honor their dignity. So I don't care what your race, your class, socioeconomic status, zip code, religion, sexual orientation or identity is.

44:30And this American democracy, it is a big tent. There is room for everyone. And our job, my job as an American and my job as mayor is to make sure that we are telling the truth, especially here in our city, the birthplace of American democracy. Philadelphia Mayor Sherelle Parker, thank you. Go Phillies, go Birds.

44:53Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, an Epstein survivor is going to be here on The Lead. Her reaction after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted to mistakes by the Justice Department when releasing the Epstein files. how those mistakes impacted lives. That's ahead. Plus, former President Joe Biden emerging today to announce the name of his new book and the pub date explaining decisions he made and why, given the state of politics, does this help Democrats? Does it hurt Democrats? Does it matter? Also, inside Iran right now, what's really going on? New reports detail a rise in political executions.

45:25Hear from a woman who told CNN her two brothers face sentences of death. And here in the U.S., violent weather across parts of Texas. We're talking tornadoes and a half year's worth of rain just this week. And in the Northeast, the U.S. cities will likely see an orange haze because of the wildfires in neighboring Canada.

45:50The lead tonight, Todd Blanche's promotion to attorney general, hangs in the balance after a high stakes hearing on Capitol Hill if he wants to get confirmed to the top job at the Justice Department. The president's former personal attorney turned deputy attorney general, turned acting attorney general. Blanche can only afford to lose one Republican senator on the Judiciary Committee following the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham this past weekend. Graham was on the committee. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle didn't go easy on Blanche today on topics such as his mishandling of the Epstein files and his loyalty to his former client, President Trump.

46:24There were mistakes that were made. And so approximately 1 % of the redactions had to be fixed after we released the Epstein files. Are you and President Trump friends? I'm his lawyer, was his lawyer, and now I'm the deputy attorney general. Is President Trump, just as a simple matter of constitutional law, eligible to run for another term as president in 2028? I don't believe he is, no. CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig with me right now. Now, that's quite a quite a moment there where he said, I am his lawyer. I was his lawyer. Freudian. What did you make of Blanche's performance today? I think we saw on display the difference between words and actions.

47:04So to hear Todd Blanche testify today, it was all of the good old DOJ principles. It was prosecution without fear or favor. It was do the job in the right way for the right reasons. It is at times when he said it correctly. I represent the American public, not any one person or politician. But contrast that with the record that we have. Blanche has now been essentially either deputy AG or acting AG for a year and a half. How do you reconcile those things he said with the way he mishandled the Epstein files, with this ridiculous slush fund and immunity agreement that he came up with that was so offensive, Republicans rebelled and he had to walk away with it.

47:38How do you reconcile that with the almost overtly political prosecutions and investigations of Letitia James, Jim Comey, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slokin, Jerome Powell on down the line? So what he says is nice, but to me, actions are much more important. The committee covered the president's pardon power and the anti-weaponization fund, that slush fund for January Sixers and others, the Trump family's IRS settlement, immigration, the Epstein files, a whole host of other topics. What didn't they cover that you wish they had asked? I would have liked to see a bit more follow up and specificity. So, for example, he was asked at one point a good question.

48:14Is DOJ independent from the president or not? And Blanche gave a sort of mealy mouth both ways ish answer. But a good direct follow-up would have been, will you take orders from the president to prosecute people he doesn't like? When he posts on True Social, I want this person prosecuted, will you follow that? I'll give you another example. With the slush fund, there were all sorts of intricate questions about the wording of the agreement and all that. Somebody should have asked him, look, these people, these January 6th rioters, they can still put in for claims. With or without a slush fund, will you commit that no money will go out the door to violent January 6th rioters?

48:49So that type of specificity, I think, could have pinned him down a bit more. He was asked about meeting with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse to address the concerns they have about redactions in the files or failures to redact information. He had a kind of confusing answer. Take a listen. Will you meet with these 10 survivors? I'm asking you on the record. If they have lawyers, as you know, I'm prohibited from meeting directly with them. I have met with counsel for survivors, as has many people in the Department of Justice. So will you get it done within the next 30 days that each of these survivors...

49:23I will get it done today, if that's necessary. My point is, there's somebody here who can meet with them today, get their information, arrange to meet with them. I think you ought to be in the room. Pardon me? I think you ought to be in the room, because you ought to hear this. What does he mean he can't meet with the Epstein survivors if they have lawyers? Please let me correct this, because that is absolutely false. And it's devious because if you're not a lawyer, you might hear that and go, OK, I guess he's playing by the rules. He's wrong and he knows it. He was prosecuted for a long time.

49:50The rule that you can't meet with someone unless they have a witness present, a lawyer present, is if they're a defendant, a person you have charged with a crime or are about to charge with a crime. If you're talking about a witness, there is no such rule. And even if you wanted to be extra careful, you call up the witness and say, hey, do you have a lawyer? You can bring your lawyer or you can choose to come without a lawyer. You don't have to. So he's completely manipulating that rule, I think, to excuse his inaction with respect to survivors. Do you think that Blanche was able to assuage the committee's concerns when it comes to the Justice Department not complying with the letter of the law when it comes to the Epstein files?

50:29He needs to there's still like two or three million files they haven't released. Well, so what he said with respect to the inadvertent release of victim information, which is unforgivable, he did own that. He did say that was a mistake. He tried to minimize it. He said, well, it's a small portion. but a really damaging portion. But the thing that he's not yet answered is there are over-redactions as well. The law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, specifically says information is not to be redacted because of personal embarrassment or political damage that might be done to an individual. There are still many documents, emails in that file, where the name of the person emailing with Jeffrey Epstein is still redacted, and I won't get into the details, but they're emailing explicitly about girls and young girls and send me this kind of girls and what did you think of that?

51:10We don't know who those people are, and the law says that has to be unredacted. I don't think he addressed that. All right, Eli Honig, thanks so much. Let's go now to CNN's chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, who's on Capitol Hill. Manu, Blanche doesn't have much room, much margin for error today. Is he going to get the votes needed to get through committee? Well, he can only afford to lose one Republican vote on what's expected to be a party line vote. And there are two Republicans who are still undecided. And those two Republicans really have nothing to lose. Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who is retiring at the end of the year.

51:41Senator John Cornett of Texas, who lost his primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, of course, to Ken Paxson, the Texas Attorney General. Now, after the hearing, both of them indicated how they viewed this nomination, saying that they have not made a decision yet, in large part because of how they have Blanche answered questions about that$1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. This is what Cornett told me in the immediate aftermath of his questioning with Blanche earlier today. Did Todd Blanche satisfy your concerns about the weaponization fund? Well, basically he confirmed that it's not dead.

52:18It can't be changed without written consent of the parties according to the settlement agreement. There is no written consent of the parties. And he agreed that it could be enforced as a matter of contract. Does that concern you? Yeah. You're truly undecided right now. Yeah. Now, as Corden says he's truly undecided, Jake, Till has told me that he is, quote, leaning yes, but he's not a yes yet because he says he wants more to be done to codify that this weaponization fund is dead altogether, meaning he wants legislation to actually pass the United States Senate with the support of President Trump.

52:55That, he says, will be enough for him to get to yes, but will that actually happen by the time of this committee vote before the end of the month? That's going to be one of the big questions to watch as Todd Blanch has virtually no margin for error in this very partisan committee. All right, Manu Raju on Capitol Hill for us. Thank you so much. Ten survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's twisted abuse were in the room during Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch's hearing today. He said he had a message for them. We will never, never not talk to victims. We will never not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women.

53:34So that narrative is false. We have spoken with over 30 representatives of dozens and dozens of victims since this process started. Any victim, if they're here today, I would encourage them or their lawyers to meet with the FBI. We will 100 % investigate. There are no closed investigations. Liz Stein is here with me now. She was one of the 10 women who was there in the room. Liz, I have so many questions for you. But first of all, as always, how you doing? I know this stuff sucks. Long day. Yes. Yeah. Yes. You doing OK? Yep. OK. Todd Blanche said, we will never, never not talk to the victims. We will never not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed crimes against any of these women.

54:18That narrative is false. Is that narrative false? Very ironic. We have been asking, almost begging, to meet with the DOJ for months now. We have made ourselves available. And I think that what we saw today from Todd Blanche was a lot of deflection. There's always deflection, right? Survivors have been speaking to the FBI for almost 30 years, since 1996. We have given information and he just keeps putting the impetus back onto us instead of the DOJ to do their job. So Blanche says that the Justice Department has met with more than 30 representatives of Epstein survivors. That's not survivors themselves.

55:06He also then said he personally cannot meet with you without your attorney. Ellie Honing says that that's bullshit. What was your response to that? Well, we felt the same way. And I just want to make clear that when they listed those 30 attorneys, some of them had been in contact with the DOJ just for things like to give names that needed to be redacted. So they haven't been in contact with those 30 attorneys to get us in front of the DOJ. And also, there was at least one attorney on that list who says that they've never met with the DOJ. So interestingly, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, he had a heated exchange with Todd Blanche, pointing out that Blanche says he can't meet with survivors.

55:51But he met with Ghislaine Maxwell personally for two days down in Florida at the prison where she where she used to be. And then moved her to a lower security facility. Yeah. If you had a chance to meet with Todd Blanche, if he's watching CNN right now, what would you say to him? Well, I said this the other day. You know, something that I talk about a lot is the fact that there's been so much political emotion infused into what boils down to a crime. We're crime victims. And I would just ask him, if I was his daughter, Sydney, would it be acceptable for him, for the Department of Justice to be treating us this way?

56:36And I would hope that his answer would be no. Because at the end of the day, like I said, we're crime victims, but we're also someone's daughter. We're someone's sister, someone's aunt, someone's mother. And we need to see justice for the crimes that were committed against us. It was beyond insulting that they kept talking over and over again today about the strides that they've made in combating human trafficking. Imagine what strides could be made if this case was investigated. So he also said that if any victim was there here today, I would encourage them or their lawyers to meet with the FBI.

57:14There are no closed investigations. What's your response to that? We've tried to do that over and over and over again. And we've been met with the resistance. So I, you know, again, he's putting he's deflecting onto us when it's the job of the DOJ. There are two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who seem to be wavering, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina. What's your message to them on how they should vote and why they should vote that way? Again, this is not a partisan issue. We're victims of a crime. And we have been courageous over and over and over and over again.

57:54And I would just ask Senators Cornyn and Tillis to maybe vote their conscience and stand behind us as survivors. Why should they not vote for him? Why do you think Blanche should not be attorney general? I think that we've seen the way that he has mishandled the release of these files. Just one simple example is the way that the redactions were handled. We saw over and over perpetrators' names were redacted, and our personal information was unredacted. We were exposed as survivors. There were survivors who had never been public, never even considered becoming public, and now they've been thrust into the public spotlight.

58:39Yeah, and Attorney General Bondi said Todd Blanche was in charge of all of it. Liz Stein, thank you so much. Thanks for your courage, as always, making the world a better place for future victims. or hopefully future women who won't be victimized because of you. In the wake of two men killed by ICE in Houston, Texas, and in Maine, what sources tell CNN made President Trump furious? He personally called for a reversal on an immigration policy switch that had put a pause on traffic stops. And later, the plans for Trump's signature and face on U.S. money, on currency, and some of the pushback, notably from a Republican.

59:12Stay with us.

59:25Just 24 hours after Trump administrations put the brakes on most vehicle stops by immigration and customs enforcement agents and others enforcing the president's plans here, President Trump hit the gas on it. He said he was bringing it back. Sources say he was furious about the pause. He ordered traffic stops to resume. He called them effective for enforcement. The pause was announced just yesterday after agents killed two people in less than a week, one in Houston, the other in Maine, under highly questionable circumstances. The partner of the Colombian man killed in Maine posted a heart-baking tribute saying, My soul aches.

1:00:01I have so many questions. I wish it were all a lie. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. It was just yesterday we reported that DHS, Tom Homan, had reported a halt on most traffic stops. and then President Trump just took to Truth Social and just brought him back? Yeah, sources tell us he was furious. Look, what happened yesterday was that ICE put out guidance to its agents, essentially telling them there was going to be a temporary pause on initiating vehicle stops after the two fatal shootings that involved these vehicle stops. And White House boarders are Tom Homan went out and spoke to reporters and stressed this was temporary.

1:00:38They just wanted to assess what had happened here. But President Trump, when he was watching the coverage this morning and getting immense blowback from portions of the MAGA base that saw this as a weakening of immigration enforcement grew more furious. And that is what fueled his Truth Social post where he called traffic stops, quote, the most important and effective tool. Now, we're also told by our sources that Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen did not alert Trump to this pause prior to imposing it. Now, I did just receive a statement from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

1:01:14And in it, he says, quote, President Trump and I are on the same page. We want our ICE officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible. Now, that part is key, Jake, because the reality is that without the vehicle stops, they weren't going to hit those 2 ,000 arrests a day that they want to to continue this aggressive immigration crackdown. So the president coming out and making it very clear today that he is the one that calls the shots when it comes to his mass deportation pledge and that this vehicle stop pause was not going to continue.

1:01:49My sources on Capitol Hill tell me that Homan had told people on Capitol Hill before Trump reversed it that he needed to be more confident in the training for these traffic stops. But I guess the president didn't talk to him before reversing it. What more can you tell us about the social media post? Well, we are hearing from the partner of the man who was fatally shot in this ice-involved shooting in Maine. Her name is Carolina Rojas. She posted on TikTok, and I just want to, I mean, you had read part of it, but she also said, I have no words for this pain. My life, you are my everything. Never, ever leave me alone.

1:02:20That was part of her TikTok post. She posts photos, you see them there, of her and him, as well as their three-year-old daughter. So many questions still about what unfolded in Maine. There are investigations that are ongoing, and a community that, along with Carolina Rojas, has been grieving what happened. Is there any indication that federal authorities are allowing an investigation into whether this was a quote-unquote good shooting? Well, that is part of what is happening not only in Maine but also in Houston, where they're trying to collect this information from federal authorities. I think the question is, will they give them everything that they are looking for?

1:02:54Because as you know, Jake, in Minneapolis, that was not the case up until recently. It was certainly not. They blocked it and covered it up, in the case of Rene Goode, at least. And we'll see about Alex Preddy. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. Some breaking good news in the sports league. Just incredible excitement after Argentina's big win last hour. Priscilla's dancing in here, beating England, advancing to the World Cup final. This scene here, this is Miami. Big day. Sunday's final will now be Argentina and Spain. We're here for it. The lead's back in a moment.

1:03:32Our politics lead now tomorrow night. Eight Democrats hoping to replace Graham Plattner as the Democratic nominee for Maine's U.S. Senate seat will face off in a televised debate, all of them vying for votes from 601 delegates in Maine who, at a Democratic convention on July 25th in Maine, will pick the nominee, who will ultimately face Republican Senator Susan Collins this fall. Here now is Democratic Congressman and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jake Achencloss of Massachusetts. Congressman, thanks so much for being here. You were one of the first Democrats to break with the support for Graham Plattner, despite all of these red flags, starting with the Totenkopf Nazi tattoo, but then there was the extramarital sexting and the Reddit posts that were vile.

1:04:18And then in early January, a New York Times story where there was allegations of domestic violence. What does this, the fact that you were so alone, I mean, your fellow, your fellow Massachusetts congressional representative Elizabeth Warren was, she said that Graham Plattner was her kind of man. Why did you take that? I mean, obviously, you were proven correct. But what led you to take that bold position? You got a lot of heat for it at the time. Character matters. Ten years ago, Republicans decided that character doesn't matter in politics. We've seen the cult of personality that party has become.

1:04:56And Plattner, to me, demonstrates the hazards to Democrats of agreeing with Republicans because character should matter in politics. What did you say to your fellow Democrats when they gave you heat? I mean, some of them are like, oh, so you want Susan Collins to be reelected? And there was all sorts of stuff involving AIPAC and the fact that you're Jewish and all this. I mean, there's a lot of garbage. A lot of garbage. From the left, to be clear. There's two themes at work here. One is there is an element of the left and of the right for whom Israel is an all-consuming obsession. And, you know, Plattner has to take accountability for his own decisions.

1:05:36The foreign government didn't make him get a dumb tattoo, didn't make him post perverted things on Reddit, didn't dictate his treatment of women. He's got to own his own decisions. And while we can have a healthy debate about Israel as a party, and indeed today we just did actually on the House floor, that cannot become the issue that consumes all the oxygen going into 26 and 28, where we have to be talking about America and Americans. The other element here, Jake, is Democrats are so hungry for disruption, and we should be. We cannot be the party of defending the status quo, but we can have disruptive candidates about whom we are proud.

1:06:14Sam Forstag in Montana is a fire Jumper, first time in politics. Jamie Eager, a North Carolina farmer, first time in politics. Nancy LaCour in South Carolina, a vice admiral, first time in politics. These are outsiders coming to shake things up. And they're people that I want my kids to grow up to emulate. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, told Politico that he's staying out of Maine. He's staying out of the race. His original choice to support for the Senate race was the governor of Maine, Janet Mills, who is a little long in the tooth, but had never been accused of rape. Do you agree that Schumer should stay on the sidelines?

1:06:49What does that say about his leadership? I think Mainers have probably had enough of outsiders coming into the state, whether they're consultants or senators, and putting their thumbs on the scales for preferred candidates. There's 601 Mainers at a convention. Let's let them decide. Maine used to be a congressional district of Massachusetts. I learned that from you a few minutes ago. Are you going to endorse anybody? Whoever the nominee is, I'm excited to help them beat Susan Collins. One other thing I want to ask you about is this question of ICE and the role of ICE. We saw this horrific shooting in Maine.

1:07:24We saw the horrific shooting in Texas. We saw what happened in Minnesota six months ago. One of the candidates, Shanna Bellows, she's the secretary of state in Maine, an appointed position, we should know. She's calling for ICE to, quote, get off our streets. Others are calling for ICE to be abolished altogether. What do you think and do you worry at all that going that far might alienate some of the moderate voters that Democrats need to win that Senate seat? ICE has morphed into a paramilitary. It's sowing fear amongst immigrant communities, and it needs to be reformed, retrained from the root.

1:07:58Right now, it consumes more federal resources than every single other law enforcement agency combined. That's more than crime, guns, drugs, counterterrorism, corruption. That is not where Americans' priorities are at. Americans want a secure border. Americans want individuals without documentation who are convicted of crimes to be deported after they serve their sentence. Americans do not want their neighbors who are contributing to the economy and to their society to be harassed by these thugs. All right, Representative Jake Auchincloss, Democrat in Massachusetts. Thank you and thank you for your service as always, sir.

1:08:31Appreciate it. Good evening. We have breaking news in the world. Lead U.S. CENTCOM releasing this video showing strikes taking out an empty oil tanker sailing towards Karg Island, the island and economic lifeline for Iran. Also in Iran tonight, we have some brand new reporting about what's happening on the ground there, and it's not pretty. Political executions. What one woman in agony told CNN about the death sentence her two brothers faced. That story's next.

1:09:04In our world lead as President Trump unleashes a brand new wave of punishing strikes on Iran tonight, Iran continues to execute its own citizens. At least 47 political prisoners have been put to death this year according to an Oslo based human rights group, IHR. It's a huge increase from just 16 last year. Today, IHR confirmed another man was hanged, killed by the Iranian regime for taking part in January's protests. CNN's Isabel Young spoke with an Iranian woman living in Europe constantly worried about her brothers who are on death row in Iran.

1:09:40Nikki Nikbakt recently learned that her two brothers, Hadi and Fazlullah, have been given the death sentence by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Every day from her home in Germany, she checks in with her family back home. Nikki's brothers are just two of dozens of political prisoners facing execution in Iran right now. They stand accused of encouraging dissent against the regime and were convicted of broad charges of corruption. The Islamic Republic in the past has said that they only issued the death penalty after due process and that it's only given for very serious crimes for people who have committed horrendous things.

1:10:22Is that not what your brothers have done? They always try to portray politically active people as a threat to society to justify their death sentence. It's creating fear in society. Earlier this year, after widespread protests where the authorities cracked down with lethal force, President Trump claimed he'd stepped in to stop Iran from executing hundreds of people. But since the US-led war, Iran has intensified repression and sped up the pace of executions. At least 44 political prisoners, including protesters, have been killed since the conflict broke out, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO.

1:11:02So this is Hadi and his wife and his two sons. And how are they handling it? I don't think that their mother has mentioned the death sentence to them. With each execution, the regime sends a chilling message. We're still in charge and dissent will not be tolerated. It must be impossible to put out of your mind. I mean, how are you feeling on a daily basis about what could be to come? The only thing I can do now is be their voice. There's nothing else I can do. There are no words. It's unimaginable. But we must stay strong. Human rights groups decry what they say are forced confessions used to justify these executions.

1:11:48Earlier this year, 26-year-old Nasser Bakhadezer and 28-year-old Mehrab Abdullazada confessed to serious crimes. Nasser's filmed confession about espionage was used as propaganda and publicised on Iranian state media.

1:12:08But in recorded calls from prison during their final days, both Nasser and Mehrab said they'd been tortured into making these confessions.

1:12:27Both Nasser and Mehrab were hanged on the 2nd of May.

1:12:34Hamid Chapati shared a cell with both men in Urrumia Central Prison. Chapati is a Kurdish-Iranian activist who was imprisoned there for three months. For Nasser and Mehrab and every prisoner sentenced to execution, every day can be the last day and every moment can be the last moment. At night, they cannot sleep. Do you remember the day when you found out that Nasser was executed?

1:13:03Nasser sent word through a mutual friend that he wanted to talk to him one last time. And unfortunately, I could not talk to him.

1:13:15But when I heard the news of his execution, I feel like I was executed with him too.

1:13:25As the war in Iran heats up again, human rights feel far from the priority, and the regime is once again ruling through fear. Isabel Young, CNN, London. Our thanks to Isabel Young for that report. Breaking news in our National League. An FBI search warrant claims that there was reason to believe there were illegal drugs in the van driven by the man who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston last week. in the warrant affidavit the FBI agent described arriving after the shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Arrujo and claimed to observe small plastic bags with a white crystal-like substance in the van.

1:14:00The Department of Homeland Security has not indicated that the ICE agents who stopped Salgado Arrujo knew of drugs that were possibly in the van at the time of the shooting. Former President Biden dropped a new video today revealing details about his upcoming memoir. Will this give folks much to talk about? I'll ask two political insiders coming up. Plus, The new coin featuring the current president and the reaction it's already getting. Stay with us.

1:14:32In our politics lead today, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant unveiled a new one dollar coin to help celebrate the United States 250th birthday purportedly. It's a coin that has, well, Donald Trump's face on it. Here is Secretary Besson talking about putting Trump's face on American currency. The currency has to say in God we trust somewhere on it. And there cannot be an image of a living person. But we have the president's signature. We can put living people's images on a coin. The president's also going to have a coin coming out with his image on it. With me in studio is our panel. So Republican Congressman Tom Massey, not a fan of either President Trump or the Trump coin.

1:15:19He posted this, quote, congratulations. We've entered the end stages. Eliminate the penny, plug the nickel and make some commemorative gold coins nobody can afford. I feel sorry for the folks who will be sold worthless knockoffs by this by the usual grifters. Kristen, a lot of families out there struggling to pay the bills. and I don't know how much this celebrates the country at its 250th birthday. It certainly celebrates the president. What do you think? I think this is just but one small piece of a much larger puzzle that is a huge additional political liability for the president's party going into this midterm.

1:15:58Do I think that any one thing, any one coin makes the difference? No. But I think it's when you add together, he's putting his face on a gold coin, he's building this ballroom, is he making America's 250th birthday about himself at a moment when Americans are not interested in leaders who are making things about themselves, they wanna be able to make ends meet. Right now, the two biggest issues that I see voters care about, it's cost of living, but it's also this corruption and this feeling that there are elites who are focused on themselves. Donald Trump rose to political power making the case that elites were too focused on themselves.

1:16:32This is one more thing that runs completely counter to that message that he has used in the past to very effectively build a political coalition. I have to say I'm older than you guys, and I'm old enough to remember the 200th birthday of this country. I was seven, and it was great, and it was nonpartisan, and the country had just been through hell with Watergate and Vietnam, and everybody came together. I'm sorry your kids didn't get to experience that. Maybe the 300th. In addition to Trump's face on this coin, his signature is going to be on the$100 bill. Thoughts? Yeah, I mean, first, can we just sort of acknowledge that there has been no American more obsessed with gold since Liberace than Donald Trump?

1:17:10I mean, the Oval Office, the coin, and now the signature on the$100 bill. I think it's an interesting contrast to all of the populist promises that Donald Trump has made and never followed through on. What happened to the 10 % cap on credit card interest rate? What happened to the check from the tariffs that was going to go to people that he's still emailing about today? I think voters going into November are going to have a very clear understanding of all the promises that they were sold in a Donald Trump administration. And now him parading around, worrying about an arch face on a coin. This is almost cartoonish and it is impossible for Republicans to defend.

1:17:47Today, former President Joe Biden announced his upcoming memoir and the pub date in a social media post. Here's a little bit of that. I've written a book about my time as president. is called Promise Me America. It's about the challenges we face as a nation about the decisions I made and why I made them. It's about why I chose to run for re-election and why I chose to step aside. What do you think? Is this something Democrats want? I think that Joe Biden made the right decision not to run for re-election. I think he made the right decision to delay the publication of this book until after the midterms because I think the focus between now and Election Day is on who is president now and the fact that he's enriched himself by billions of dollars with crypto, the fact that the affordability crisis is still not solved, and the fact that he's gotten us into what is essentially a Groundhog Day war where we've bombed around to get rid of the nuclear weapons, only have to bomb around to get rid of the nuclear weapons.

1:18:43We've taken out al-Qaumani to be replaced with al-Qaumani. This is a time where I think that Republicans are going to have to answer for Trump's administration. I think that it was the right decision to delay the publication. What do you make of the time? He had said it was going to be before the midterms in the book came out. But now Little Brown and company are announcing it's after the midterm. If I'm a Democrat, I'm breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief. Because if Donald Trump does himself no political favors, it is a reminder he's back in the White House. Because Americans knowing full well what Donald Trump as president was like, having seen January 6th, having seen all the indictments and all of that, still nevertheless said, I would rather have that guy as president than, in that case, Kamala Harris, in a situation set up by a Joe Biden and a, you've reported on this extensively.

1:19:31I have. A decision, a series of decisions that were incomprehensible. I wonder to what extent you get any kind of, what your reaction is to him saying, like, and my decision to step aside as if, like, it was a considered thing and not a something that was kind of forced. Yeah, we'll see. I can't wait to read it. Can't wait to read it. Let's turn to The Hill, Todd Blanche's high-stake job interview. Look at this question from Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Are you and President Trump friends? I'm his lawyer, was his lawyer, and now I'm the deputy attorney general. So I met him as his criminal defense attorney.

1:20:07I'm not sure there's very many people who have ever had a criminal defense attorney who calls that person their friend. I'm his lawyer, was his lawyer. What do you think? I think Donald Trump thinks of Todd Blanch as his lawyer still today. And I think he was chosen to be a attorney general because he will follow Trump's political direction to prosecute who he wants. I think this money, even though he says the slush fund is dead, these January 6 rioters are still going to apply. And I think there is still a very good chance they get paid money. And what I think is interesting is every one of Trump's judicial nominees, as you have covered, refused to say that he lost the 2020 election, refused to say that January 6th was an attack on the Capitol.

1:20:46When you have this sort of loyalty both in the judicial branch and in the nation's top law enforcement officer, we're reaching sort of banana republic territory. He's the attorney general nominee because he is Trump's lawyer. And John Cornyn, among others, has expressed concern about this fund, this slush fund, and he told Manu Raju today that he, basically that Blanche's answer confirmed that it isn't dead. Yeah, right now there's a weird political problem that Trump has kind of created for himself by picking fights openly with folks like John Cornyn endorsing against him in a primary. And John Cornyn still holds the keys to whether or not some of these picks are going to get confirmed.

1:21:25Now, the best news for Todd Blanche is that someone like Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, who has no political need to bend the knee to the president whatsoever, was also of the mind at the end of the hearing. OK, this actually sounds like it's met my standards. And so it's probably, I think, a good hearing today for Todd Blanche. It's just that there's this broader political problem of John Cornyn is unleashed. He can do whatever he wants and he does not have to make Donald Trump happy. All right. Thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it. Coming up next, some of the extreme weather in the last 24 hours.

1:21:58Tornadoes, a half year's worth of rain, and the orange haze over parts of Canada and the northeastern U.S. We'll be right back.

1:22:13Oh, no. Oh, no is right. That's an apparent tornado spotted near San Antonio, Texas. This dangerous weather is a national lead this hour. There were devastating scenes from Texas today after life-threatening floods and tornadoes wreaked havoc across the state. Meanwhile, massive clouds of smoke from ongoing Canadian wildfires blanket the Great Lakes and Northeast region of the United States, bringing dangerous air quality to more than 100 million people. CNN's Derek Van Dam takes a look now at the damage done so far and what remains to come. Jake, this is what it looks like when you receive over a half a year's worth of rain in a short period of time.

1:22:51roads turned into rivers in Bernie, Texas, where the National Weather Service hoisted a flash flood emergency. That's the highest alert level during a flash flood event. And to make matters worse, a tornado tore through the suburbs of San Antonio earlier this morning. Look at this dramatic video of high water rescues. There were multiple vehicles submerged in floodwaters across Uvalde and into Medina counties. This is the area that has picked up over a foot and a half of rain with more precipitation expected. We have a level 404, that's a high risk of excessive rain that will lead to flash flooding.

1:23:28And the wording here from the National Weather Service is life-threatening, locally catastrophic flash flooding as repeated rounds of rain produce another 10 to upwards of 15 inches of rain in some of the hardest hit areas. The other big story that we're monitoring are the wildfires across southern Canada. Look at this dramatic video coming out of Armstrong. This is a passenger train that was engulfed in flames. This train was trying to actually evacuate people from an encroaching wildfire. Fortunately, they were successful in getting everybody to safety, but really amazing, astounding, and quite horrific video to watch.

1:24:04These are the wildfires that have erupted across the border of Canada and the U.S., and it's sending a plume of smoke along the East Coast. If you're anywhere along the I-95 corridor, the Great Lakes, northern New England, you've probably seen that thick, hazy hue to the clouds, almost a permanent sepia tone, right? Well, we have some of the worst quality of air right near the surface from Toronto all the way to New York City. Look at this. This is Toronto earlier today, and New York City shrouded in smoke once again, almost a repeat of June of 2023. Jake? All right, Derek Rondam, thanks so much.

1:24:39You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, ThreadsX, Blue Sky, and on the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at The Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. The whole two hours, all there. Aaron Burnett out front starts right now.

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1:25:47Her name is Nicole Avant. She's a producer, a former diplomat, and an author. In 2021, Nicole's mom, Jacqueline, was shot to death by an intruder in her home. She was 81 years old and had been married to Nicole's dad, Clarence, for 54 years. How is grief different for you now than it was maybe at first? A lot of really positive memories have now taken over versus the shock and the trauma. The grief is still there, but it shows up kind of with a smile instead. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.