Trump Signs Order Renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America”

23:13And you see it simply exploding out into these communities along the river, which is of course where we build communities throughout antiquity. We've done that. Let's go down to Rotmante, another town down there. You see the river here, same thing. We bring it back forth and look, look at how wide this thing spread out into that community, just smashing everything around it. And the same with the town of Davigot. If you go there, you see the river here nice and clean. And there are all the houses and all these places. And yet, look at how the river just burst out there with this tremendous blast of damage out there.

23:46And of course, if you were to fly over it, you'd see more of what we were seeing there on the ground as well. Well, one assessment from the New York Times had it that this was like a thousand Empire State Buildings being dropped into this river valley when this collapse happened and this landslide happened up above, forcing all this water and mud and ice to just go blasting through everything, Phil. Just remarkable contrast, the before and the after. Can I just ask, why is this, the area that was impacted the worst here, why does it seemingly draw a lot of tourists? Well, if you're going to Nepal, this is where you're going to go.

24:19You're going to go to Kathmandu, which is generally, I want to point out, the area we're talking about is kind of around here. Okay, Mount Everest, which you hear a lot about, is over here. But this is where you're going to the capital here. This is about 120 miles north to south in here. And this is really where a lot of people go for trekking or if they want to go to visit many of the religious sites that are important there. There are supposed to be really a lot of visitors from India, Hindu and Buddhists, coming to see these sacred sites, many of whom will go right up through this border crossing to see some of the sites that are actually up in Tibet.

24:57So these are the towns we just showed you there, Radmatat, Devigat, and Tupche, all in this whole area there, right near Kathmandu, right down here. So that's why they're all drawn to this area. And of course, if you're a trekker and you want to go through this region, this is the very same area that you're going to go to. And this is the area that was hit the very hardest. I will say one of the nicest things about it, or not nice thing, I guess, one of the better things about it, this is not the highest tourist season. It is popular, but that's a little bit later on in the fall and then also in the spring.

25:28So it could have been worse with more people. But I'm sure for people there, it can't possibly be worse in their own minds because this is truly just wiped out communities in ways that, you know, honestly, Phil, it looks like something from some kind of disaster movie. I've seen a lot of disasters. This kind of explosive power like this, I've just never seen anything quite like that before. Maybe the tsunami, maybe some years ago, but really almost nothing like this. Yeah, it's truly extraordinary. Extremely helpful. Thank you, Tom Foreman, for that great work. Well, 68 days out from the midterm elections.

26:04I'll speak with a leading attorney trying to stop the Trump administration's changes to mail-in ballots. That's next.

26:17Back in our law and justice lead and the legal fight over the mail-in voting with just 68 days until the midterm elections. Today, the U.S. Postal Service said its new mail ballot rules ordered by President Trump are in effect. Those rules would require the Postal Service to use specific envelope designs and unique barcodes for every ballot envelope, for state and local election officials to upload the names and addresses of all mail ballot recipients to a government portal before they go out, and forbid the Postal Service from sending mail ballots from any state that does not comply with Trump's order.

26:49But several legal challenges against these rules could force a judge at any point to block them from being further implemented. An attorney leading one of the legal battles joins us now. Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. Norm, can you just kind of cut through for a minute? If I have difficulty understanding where exactly this rule is at this moment in time, I imagine our audience does as well. Lay it out, what is in place right now? And what is kind of your view of the legal fights ahead?

27:21Phil, no mail-in voting is currently being affected by this rule. It's grossly unconstitutional. And we and others have gone to court to stop it. We will stop it. And voters should know that this idea that the Postal Service is going to screen every mail-in voter and mail-in ballot in the country is not going to happen. Phil, they can't even deliver my utility bill on time. They cannot turn into a kind of super registrar for every voter in the land. And most importantly, it's profoundly against the Constitution. The courts are going to stop it. What is your message to voters right now? There's a lot of concern after the stays were lifted.

28:12A lot of lack of clarity, I guess, would be some hyperbolic language as well from Democrats on Capitol Hill. What should voters know? Voters should know that under the United States Constitution, the existing voting systems, including mail-in voting and absentee ballots, are entrusted to the states with oversight by Congress. The Constitution, Article 1, Section 4, doesn't even mention the president when it sets up who's in charge of our elections. This rule is a fantasy. The Supreme Court did not rule on it. They simply said, we need a final rule in order to reach the issues. They expressly said the other day that they're neither approving nor disapproving what the president has done.

29:09My organization, Democracy Defenders Fund, went to court. And with our wonderful partners like Campaign Legal Center, headed by the former Republican Federal Election Commissioner Trevor Potter, we went to court with our partners. We stopped the president's last EO when he tried to assert control. Unconstitutional. We're going to stop this. Every voter should know they can vote. Voting is safe, free and fair. And the reason Donald Trump keeps trying to mess with it is he's afraid of what the voters are going to do. They should not be concerned. Continue on. Keep calm and carry on. Yeah. Noted absentee by mail voter Donald Trump, I should say.

29:57I also want to ask you, you are also we were talking you're in a lot of different spaces right now. You're also part of a lawsuit challenging Trump's effort to get his name back on the Kennedy Center. There's an emergency hearing today. I just want to point out there's still a tarp in front of the Kennedy Center after a judge ordered at the end of May to have Trump's name removed. The Kennedy Center official said Trump's name was removed in June. Do you believe Trump's name is actually still there? Why is it covered? Yes, we have evidentiary proof. We have photographs. We were there when it was taken off.

30:32Phil, he's covering it up because it's a tantrum. He doesn't want people to see that his name was removed from the front of the Kennedy Center. But you know what? Putting that tarp there just means we continue to talk about it. Now, he says, unless we put his name back on the building twice, that's what today's hearing was about, And then a third time for the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center, he might tear the whole thing down. It's illegal to put his name there. It's illegal to tear the whole thing down. We had a hearing today. We put our best foot forward with Judge Cooper. I think he gets it.

31:15And like with the mail-in voting, this is another action by Trump that is not going to take place. Don't worry, folks, the Kennedy Center is not going to be torn down. And Donald Trump's name is not going back up there. Were you surprised that there hasn't been a ruling yet? I know this is an emergency hearing. I'm not totally sure what the time I was expected to be. When do you expect a ruling? Well, we need to give the judge an opportunity to digest the briefs. Very substantial arguments today. Our wonderful client, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, myself, my colleagues at Democracy Defenders, the Washington Litigation Group, Nathaniel Zielinski, have given the judge a lot to think about.

32:00The briefs have just been filed in recent days. He's been very fast before, Phil. So I think in the next day or two or a little bit after that, we'll soon know his view. But in the meantime, Donald Trump's name has not gone back up there. Obviously, they're not tearing down the building. Indeed, they're under a court order requiring them to keep it open. You can't do that if you tear it down. So we're confident and the congresswoman is confident that we're going to succeed here once again. The judge already ruled you can't put your name on the building and you have to keep it open. So how can you put your name back on the building and tear it down, which is the opposite of keeping it open?

32:46Norm Eisen, there are no shortage of things keeping you busy. I appreciate your time, my friend. Thank you. Thanks, Phil. Well, President Trump is just moments away from landing in Houston. He's raising money tonight for Republicans, notably Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's running for the U.S. Senate. Earlier this afternoon, he took a swipe at the Democrat in the race. James Tallarico, hear it for yourself up next.

33:14In the politics lead, any moment now, President Trump will touch down in Houston, Texas, where he'll headline an RNC fundraiser for the U.S. Senate candidate he's endorsed, Ken Paxton. as Paxton's campaign accounts lag behind his Democratic rival James Tallarico, or as President Trump referred to him this afternoon. Telfarico, they call him, because he is a little freaky, and that's not a man that represents the value of Texas. My panel is here. Jason, I don't really need to hear like an 80-year-old president talking about anybody being a little freaky. I'm just going to put that out there. The money issue for Paxton.

33:53Trump is going to raise a ton of money. You go down to any part of Texas as a Republican, odds are you're going to raise a ton of money, which in part kind of draws attention to the fact that Paxton's struggling right now, not just in the polling, not just in terms of coalescing Republicans down there, but like on the financial side too. How do you think he changes that? Well, he changes it by bringing attention to a campaign that hasn't been getting a whole lot of attention. I know, you know, the general thinking is you wait until after Labor Day. that's when our side tends to pay a lot more attention.

34:21That's Democrats as well. I don't know if that's necessarily true. I think part of this is, look, Ken Paxton is a weaker candidate in the grand scheme of things. We knew that going in, but it doesn't mean that he's the weaker candidate. And all this does is bring more attention to some of the crazier positions from a Texas perspective that James Tallarico holds. And they've got a lot of video of him on the record saying these things. And the more money that goes into exposing that, the better it is for Paxton. And that's been the thinking this entire time. Wait till the money comes in, really expose Tallarico, and then we see how things shake.

34:52That is undeniable. Like Republicans I'm talking to say the same exact thing. They are concerned at a level that they weren't in the Beto year. They weren't in every time you guys try and turn Texas blue. You have a personal stake in this campaign down in Texas. Obviously, your sister is the Democratic nominee for governor. What are you hearing right now in terms of how this is going to develop in the coming weeks? Well, Democrats feel really good. they're cautiously optimistic. As you know, we have been saying for quite some time that we've been trying to turn Texas blue. But whenever you are down in Texas, I was just there in August for a few weeks, it does feel different.

35:27And the reason why it feels different is because it's issue of data centers, for example. People, Republicans, people in rural areas are really upset about the data centers being built, taking over their land, taking over their water. And they have sort of had enough with Republicans in the state when it comes to that issue. The other issue I think that is big in the state is health care. It has the highest uninsured for children right now. And so all of these issues are issues that Republicans are not worried about. What Donald Trump calling James Tallarico, Tallarico, is just what Paxton and other Republicans have been doing.

36:05And you'll notice that over the last few months, they have been trying to hit Tallarico on previous statements, calling him Tallarico, calling him all sorts of different names, and it hasn't been sticking. And so now it seems like Republicans are changing gears, trying to talk more about issues. I think that Paxton was talking a little bit about China this week and his previous impacts and Tallarico's previous votes. And so you're seeing it play out to where Republicans are nervous. The culture wars are not working and so they're trying to talk about the issues but paxton's very vulnerable so i think the culture wars are working i mean there there's a reason why james tallarico spent a good part of the summer making sure he's eating a whole lot of barbecue there's a reason because it was in fact sticking and he knows that the money hasn't been spent to really target him and it's going to be we know that the money is coming in and we know exactly what it is they're going to do the president going there is going to excite the base that was the worry and it is a worry no doubt because of weakness of paxton whether or not the base is really going to step up and i think all of this that we're seeing is specific to that but i will just say on the base i am if they're just focusing on the base they're going to lose this election the reality is that independents are overwhelmingly supporting james talarico and the polling that i have seen donald trump's approval rating is actually tanking in texas obama is more popular in texas than donald trump right now and so the fact that Donald Trump is going to spend a lot of time there, honestly, is not a bad thing.

37:34It's probably better for him in terms of money because Paxton needs the money and there is money in Texas. And I don't know if MAGA Inc. is actually going to come through with pro Paxton instead of pro Trump ads in the state. So that'll be interesting. Can I ask you something like on the, in terms of the president being there physically raising money, big deal, but he's also having the midterm convention there. And our colleagues here had some great reporting about this midterm convention in a few weeks, September 10th, the reporting saying there's an overarching fear that an event once dubbed Trumpapalooza will indeed end up being far more about promoting the president than the candidates who are actually on the ballot.

38:11I kind of always assumed that would be what it was, but the idea of trying to drive energy, Texas and nationally writ large, do you feel like this works in Republicans' favor having this midterm convention? I mean, yes and no. It depends ultimately on how this is going to work. I mean, ultimately, Trump gets butts in seats and gets eyeballs on TV. That has always been the case. And sometimes that goes against him. And usually for the base, it helps. Right now, his key concern, and I think there's validity to this, is that he's not getting any favorable coverage at all from the media landscape outside of conservative media.

38:44And he does have a story to tell. He has a story to tell at the border. He has a story to tell about bringing down the prices of drugs, which we've been talking about for a very long time. And he's actually been able to do it, but he's not getting the coverage for it. And so this forces the coverage. And we'll see ultimately how the media treats this and what happens on stage. If they lean into some of the more wacky messaging, then it's not going to work. But if he is able to tell a story, and he's very good at storytelling, he's very good at branding, then I do think ultimately this can be the start of the midterm for him and for the party.

39:15You make an important point, though, because Republicans believe they have a story to tell. They believe his administration has a story they could tell. The problem tends to be the president. When you do things like, I don't know, you speak of wacky messaging, we're going to rename one of the Great Lakes today. You're not the audience, though. The audience for that specifically is in fact— I'm an Ohioan. I am a damn audience member. But it is for the base. There is concern that the base is not as energized right now. And generally, going into a midterm when you have total control, they're not ultimately on your party.

39:43They're not all that energized. This is for them specifically. The other thing that it also does is it triggers Democrats. Like, Democrats lock in on this. Of all the other things they could be focused on, and they're, like, freaking out about the renaming of a lake, which literally has no impact whatsoever on anything besides Google Maps. How do you stay away from that? Because there's going to be like a million of these things in the next few weeks. You're right. And if Democrats are smart, the way that they talk about it is that doesn't lower mortgage costs. That doesn't lower costs at the grocery store.

40:12When he should be focused on costs and when he should be focused on making your lives easier, instead he is focused on picking a fight with Canada. And so I think if Democrats were smart, they would focus on that. I mean, I think a little bit about the president. And when you are a very unpopular president in a mid-Trump election, you normally give your party the space to bash you, to disagree with you. And you kind of tell them, I am going to stay away. I will go wherever is helpful. Trump is not doing that. And it is putting Republicans in a really difficult position. Because if they bash him, then they lose the base.

40:46But if they embrace him, they lose independence. So it's going to be tough for the Republican Party. The war chest that he has. You talk about a potential differential. Considerable. No one is going to get cross-eyes with him. People who have learned their lesson, none of them are even in Congress anymore. You've got$400 million plus at this point. Spent about a million with Darlene Graham. Other than that, hasn't spent anything at all. How much does that move the needle? It's going to be significant. It's not just MAGA Inc. dollars. It's the RNC. And you put that up against the DNC, which is in debt.

41:15It's a good money picture for the Republicans. And again, if they're able to control the narrative, they're going to be able to get some leverage here. Thank you, guys. Both. We'll talk about data centers. I think this is the most fascinating. I'll come back and talk about it. Yes, thank you both. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. A question before the court today. Should Trump's name appear again on the Kennedy Center or not? The noticeable frustration from the federal judge overseeing the case and hear why the Trump administration says the president's name needs to go up right now. Stay with us.

41:51Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. For this hour, will President Trump's name go back up on the Kennedy Center? That question was at the center of a hearing this afternoon in Washington, D.C. The attorney who argued against the Trump administration in court joins me live in moments. Plus, another naming battle, this time with a top U.S. ally. President Trump signing an executive order today to change Lake Ontario to Lake America, his latest escalation in the trade war with Canada. How will our neighbors to the north respond? Also, more than 1 ,300 people, including 90 Americans, are still missing tonight after the catastrophic flash floods in Nepal.

42:28Now, there's a high risk of more flooding in the coming days. The latest on the search and rescue efforts, that's ahead. And two air traffic controllers left work early the night a passenger plane collided with a fire truck at New York's LeGuardia Airport. That's according to a source familiar with the investigation who adds two controllers are both on leave and could face disciplinary action. We've got all the new details tonight.

42:57The lead tonight, an escalating fight over the Kennedy Center. Today, a federal judge sharply questioned the Trump administration's latest bid to add Trump's name to the cultural institution as soon as September 8th. The latest case was brought by Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a member of the Kennedy Center board, who called the renaming effort, quote, delusional. In June, Beatty successfully sued for the removal of Trump's name from the facade. Now, Trump's team is proposing the phrase restored and renovated by in front of his name, in addition to a line endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center fund and renaming the plaza after Trump.

43:31So if we're keeping track, visitors would see Trump's name three times. Trump's team has also threatened to demolish the center if they're not allowed to shut it and renovate. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke before the hearing started, insisting the only way to move forward is to, quote, entice Trump to fund the renovation by honoring him. When you have the greatest philanthropist, the guy who's going to raise you$500 million, you just need him to agree. And whatever the terms are, since you know he is the most credible person in the world, when he says I'm going to raise the money, you know he's going to raise the money, you need to induce him, entice him, get him to agree to wear it and do it.

44:16We start things off with CNN, someone Serfati, who's outside the Kennedy Center. Someone, no ruling yet. What do we know about where this goes next? That's right, Phil. No final decision from the judge today and really didn't show his cards. one way or the other, which way he would go, which means that the biggest point of contention, if President Donald Trump's name could be etched into the side, and as you noted two other places, noting that he is restoring and renovating this building, that decision still hangs in the balance this evening. It was notable that in that nearly two-hour hearing today that the judge did press the Department of Justice lawyers repeatedly saying, why now?

44:56Why this focus on this September 8th deadline when the administration head says they want to put his name back on the building as soon as September 8th. Now, the DOJ lawyers argued today saying that they essentially want to acknowledge that this is President Trump's fundraising efforts. It's President Trump's strength. And they want to recognize President Trump with putting his name back up on this building, essentially giving him credit, they say, for fundraising the millions of dollars that's needed to restore this building. Now, on the other side, we heard the plaintiffs today lay out very clearly that they believe that this move should be blocked.

45:33They say Congress intended this building to be a memorial to President Kennedy and President Kennedy alone. And they say this act would be in defiance of that order. Now, we heard from right after the hearing ex officio member and Democratic Congressman Joyce Beatty, who brought this emergency motion, who's calling for the judge to intervene. She said there still is so much left unfinished after today's hearing. This is another one of his vanity projects, but it was also very clear that I don't trust him. This is the same president that told us we were going to get a remodeled, renovated ballroom, and he demolished the entire East Wing, the Rose Garden, over budgeted and unfinished.

46:21Sounds like a spoiled kid not getting his way.

46:28Now, it should be noted, Phil, that that courtroom today was just packed to the gills. It actually had an overflow room, lots of enhanced security. You saw a commerce secretary sitting there in the front row for the entirety of the hearing. He spoke to reporters, as you noted, ahead of time. This certainly is one more chapter in this long, long drama over the Kennedy Center that has largely played out over the course of the summer and really speaks to the importance that President Trump puts on this building and certainly his legacy. Yeah, I have a lot of questions about the sound we heard from Howard Lutnick.

47:01But I think the one I would ask you, Sondland, is like, to be clear, Trump's team first argued it was the donors who needed enticing. But now it's Trump, I guess. Yeah, that certainly was an interesting moment and certainly piqued my interest as well. This was an argument that the administration, the Kennedy Senate board has long been making that they needed to have the donors enticed. The donors specifically enticed by President Trump's name on the side of building. That was part of their core argument that they have said many times again. But he did let that slip today. He said, look, we now need to entice President Trump back to the table.

47:38Trump needs to be enticed back to pull the full weight of his fundraising efforts. So certainly gives a little bit a way of the thinking of the administration and those closest around him to how he views this building and how this drama has really devolved and evolved over the course of the summer. Bill. Salman Serfati, never a dull moment. Thank you, my friend. Great reporting. Well, joining us now, Attorney Nathaniel Zielinski, who represents Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. Nathaniel, how are you feeling? Just to start with, how are you feeling after the arguments today? Good. I mean, it's always a good day when you're in court.

48:08We made our position very clear. We think what they're doing is unlawful. It also violates the court's order. The court was very clear. They can't do this. So we had to go back. I wish we didn't have to, but it was a good day. I spoke to Norm Eisen last hour, said this judge works fast, maybe in a day or two for some type of resolution here. What do you expect? So Judge Cooper was clear that he might issue a TRO, a temporary restraining order, to buy himself a little more time. What's shocking here is that the Department of Justice has said that they're going to stick by this artificial September 8th deadline to put the name back on the Kennedy Center.

48:42There's no reason to. September 8th is a made-up date. They've said, we got to do it by then. Cooper said, please, can you wait a little bit? And they said no. So he might issue an emergency order, give himself a little more time. What's your response to what I just asked something about, the idea of Howard Letnick saying the president needs to be enticed here? That's not what the law is. The law is very clear. This is a memorial to John F. Kennedy. You can't sell a piece off. It can't be the Tesla Plaza. It can't be the Koch Memorial. It's the Kennedy Center. And so it doesn't matter if that's what the president wants to do.

49:13That's not the law. And by the way, that's not what a prudent trustee does. He's a trustee of the center because he appointed himself there. A prudent trustee doesn't say, you know what? I'm only going to fundraise for this institution if they honor me. How does this end? And I said, and I don't mean it in kind of a flippant manner, but this has been going on for a long time. We are now back doing it again. Do you feel like this is going to be something that's just going to continue until either Trump wins or he's no longer in office? No, I think the rule of law is going to prevail. I mean, yes, it's deja vu all over again.

49:43We shouldn't be having to do this. But they're violating the law, and the law is going to hold them to account. I mean, I think what's particularly concerning are their threats, right? They said if we don't get our way, we might have to demolish the Kennedy Center. This is a bit like someone saying, my, what a wonderful Kennedy Center you have there. Shame if something should happen to it. That, to me, is deeply concerning. It's lawless. but I think we're going to hold them to account. Congressman Joyce Beatty is going to hold them to account. My colleagues and I at the Washington Litigation Group and also our co-colleagues at Democracy Defenders are going to hold them to account.

50:12I wanted to ask you about that because one, yes, everything you said in terms of what it felt like when I heard it, but also listen to what Howard Lutnick was saying related to that earlier today. People say, oh, don't overstate that it's dangerous. Look, there are chunks of concrete falling off the ceiling in the garage. When it fell off last time at four o 'clock in the morning, okay, you clean it up in the morning. But if it fell on somebody, that would be an unmitigated disaster. And if it falls on cars when you're in there, that will close the institution. It seemed to be like a backdoor way of trying to explain what sounded like a threat.

50:54Is there validity to what he was just describing? So to be very clear, their own executive director stated under oath to Judd Cooper in sworn testimony that they could do what's called a phased renovation. That means that you maintain some operations and you shut down. That is what the way that every single performing arts center does renovations. And that's what the county center was planning to do. What they're doing is they're shutting it down. And you have to ask why. And one reason, it's not unreasonable to think, is because they drove the center fiscally into the ground after the president's takeover, after the unlawful renaming.

51:27Artists fled, donors fled, the patrons fled as well. And so what they're trying to do is cover that up through a sham renovation and shutdown. You know that career lawyers from DOJ were there today? What does that tell you about this? No, career lawyers were not there. The only lawyers who were there were political lawyers. They were political appointees. Explain to people why you would recognize that and the significance of that. So in my line of work, when the career employees refused to sign a brief, that means that they had ethical problems signing it. It's a signal to the world something is bad here.

51:59They've signed every other filing except for one or two that were pretty bad. They didn't sign this filing. They were signed by the politicals. That means this smells. It's ethically wrong. And they knew it. They wouldn't. It's a smoke signal, a warning flare. And it means that these guys are engaged in threats. I think it was Zelensky. As I told someone, never a dull moment. I really appreciate you coming in. Thanks very much. Well, more than 1 ,300 people are still missing tonight as fears grow of more flooding in Nepal. The latest on those rescue efforts and what we're learning about how a landslide could cause such a catastrophe.

52:30Stay with us.

52:46In our world lead, nearly 400 people are now confirmed dead and more than a thousand are missing after catastrophic flash flooding hit Nepal and China on Wednesday. At least 700 of Those missing are foreigners from two dozen countries, including the U.S. As search and rescue efforts continue, a new flood threat could complicate the response. New drone footage shows a lake developing behind a dam created by the landslide in Nepal. Chinese authorities say three days of rain are expected across the region, and the dam could collapse at any moment, causing more flooding near the Nepal-China border.

53:20CNN's Allison Chinchar is in the CNN Weather Center. Allison, this rain could further devastate the region. Yeah, Bill, one of the biggest issues we're going to face over the next few days is the rain chances, which are really going to inhibit a lot of the rescue and recovery efforts in this general area. Now, we haven't had too much over the last 24 hours, but it's what is anticipated over the next few days. Now, when we take a look at the before and after pictures of this general area, you can see here this from a couple days ago. Notice all of the green color right through there. This is the before, but that green color is what essentially disappears after the landslide.

53:57when all of that debris in the mud flowed through this area and down in through the river valley region. The other thing to note too is you can actually see the area where the landslide occurred right here. You can see kind of that side of the mountain just kind of sheared off. This is the before image. You can clearly see the mountain and the glacier right through there. And then again, this whole section of it just falls off and flows down, as we mentioned, through the river valley. You also have the concern like this, where you have what used to be a river flowing through that has now been dammed up into a lake because of all of the debris that essentially fell down.

54:36You've got rocks, boulders, even trees. You can see the trees here that once used to be up on the side of the mountain that were brought down, and that's blocking this area, turning it into a lake. The problem is, as more water flows into it, you also have rain coming down. At some point, it's going to be too much water, and this will in turn break. and all of that water will come rushing through. We just don't know when that is expected to occur. It could be days, it could be weeks. The thing that is most concerning though is going to be the rain. And we've got rain in the forecast over the next few days.

55:09The one thing to note too is that some of this could be very heavy rain at times. Most areas expected to pick up maybe up to about 50 to 100 millimeters, but there could be a few spots that pick up even more than that over the next few days. We are right in the middle of monsoon season for these general areas, August being the second rainiest month out of the year. So that is a concern. Now, for a lot of these areas, all of that debris that has come down has now hardened. It's that very hard mud, clay, rock mixture. But that actually makes it even more difficult for rescue and recovery efforts because it almost turns into concrete.

55:45It's also not very stable, which makes it more dangerous for them to attempt any of those rescue efforts. Alison Chinchar, thanks so much for joining me now is the president of Refugees International, Jeremy Conondyke. You were shaking your head as you were watching that report. I assume with, one, based on your knowledge of the ground, you led the U.S. response to Nepal's catastrophic 2015 earthquake, but also what you're seeing. What was striking you? Well, obviously, this is a level of devastation that is extremely rare. I can't think of another incident in my career where I've seen something quite analogous to this.

56:22It is like an inland tsunami. I think you have to look at that sort of an event to get an analogy for the destructive power of what we saw here. And of course it sounds as though with the monsoon rains, which may have contributed of course to this first disaster, that there could be yet more waves of this to come. Your organization, Refugees International, you're not working directly on this disaster, but you've been documenting lethal impacts of USAID cuts. Yes. You say this incident is an instance of that. Explain. Yeah. So we've been documenting particularly some of the climate displacement and climate related cuts.

57:01This is a case, this is affected by that. So USAID prior to DOGE coming in had eight different programs active in Nepal that were supporting what's called disaster risk reduction. So that's trying to anticipate the kind of disasters that could occur and support a country to prepare to mitigate and respond to those. Doge canceled eight of those. One of those included a program that was a joint USAID initiative with NASA to do things like monitoring risky glacial lake melt and potential inundation routes for flooding. Of course, Doge also cut$420 million of climate programming over at NASA. And so would that have prevented this or anticipated it?

57:44Hard to say, but it's also hard to understand and prepare for risks that you have closed your eyes to. In terms of after something like this happens, the scale of the U.S. response, what is your sense of what's in place now in terms of is it effective? Has that also been a space where there has been money zeroed out and limits what the U.S. can do? Yeah, and traditionally we would maintain in my time at USAID a modest sized presence of partners in Nepal because it was a disaster prone area. That has basically been zeroed out. All of the US support that was maintained year on year was wiped out by Doge.

58:19And so far, all they have announced is that they are sending one single individual and have released one half a million dollar grant to a single NGO. That is not enough. It's not big enough. I really hope they will do more. Can I just ask, you know, it's right on the border with China, which has a significant resources presumably there playing a role. Other Indo-Pacific and Asian countries probably playing a role as well. What's the necessity of the U.S. role here in your view? In a disaster on this scale, you really do need an all hands on deck. And so in 2015, China responded, India responded, we also responded.

58:54When a disaster overwhelms the capacity of the host country, the whole world needs to step up. And I think it's a question of U.S. leadership. Do we want to show leadership in situations like this? Or do we want to just basically step back and leave it to China, leave it to India, leave it to other countries? I think that traditionally, if a form of leadership that the American public expects is when they see a disaster on CNN that is, you know, horrifying footage that the U.S. is going to be there and be there in a significant way. In terms of the folks that are on the ground right now, what concern, as you look forward, and what concerns you about the coming days?

59:29Well, obviously the risk of a further catastrophe if there is another flooding, as your colleague talked about. But even barring that, one of the lessons we took from the 2015 earthquake is when a hazard takes out the road network in these valleys, people get cut off. Villages in these areas will be cut off. They can only be reached by airlift. It's going to be important to get air assets in there. We deployed a lot of DOD helicopters and Ospreys to get to some of those remote villages. I haven't heard anything about a U.S. DoD deployment yet. But that's the sort of work that is going to be needed, I suspect.

1:00:04It's certainly a lot of work to come from everybody involved. I really appreciate you coming in. Thank you. Well, up next, the latest installment of our series, Business Leaders. Tonight, we're taking a look at how small businesses are faring after the Trump administration was ordered to give out tariff refunds. Stick with us.

1:00:25It's time for an update on our Business Leader series, where we talk to small business owners from coast to coast about how President Trump's tariffs are impacting them. Minnesota mom and Army veteran Beth Beneke joined us last summer to discuss the devastating impact of the 145 % tariffs on China on her infant product line, Busy Baby. This month, Beth's The tariff refund finally arrived, providing some much needed relief. She's back with us now. Beth, thank you so much for joining us. Anybody who's had a child in the last five years has probably benefited from what you and your company produce.

1:01:00In June of last year, you told Jake Tapper you were in a position to go out of business in six weeks. Catch us up. Yeah, well, we have managed to stay in business, but it has been the most difficult thing I've ever gone through in my life. and I was deployed to war zones. So it's been a rough year, but I've managed to stay in business. The tariff refund, explain, I've talked to many people who've gone through the process. That was complex and arduous enough, but how has it helped you and what do you hope it can deal with going forward? Well, my tariff refund has already come and gone. I waited weeks from submitting my refund to actually receiving the funds.

1:01:44because of the debt that I've accumulated over the last year. I had to immediately pay off a big portion of that debt with that refund. So it's gone. It was a small relief for cash flow in the moment, but it's already been spent paying back debt. One of the things, having covered this for the last year and a half, that I've tried to ask business owners about is, as the Trump administration continues to prioritize tariffs, we're obviously seeing a bilateral war with Canada that's playing out as we speak. What do you want policymakers to know? What do you want them to hear from small business owners like yourself?

1:02:18I mean, tariffs are a tax on American business owners. We are the ones that have to pay those tariffs, not the other countries. And tariffs were not put into place by our founding fathers put in the Constitution to be run by Congress so that the executive branch could just use them willy nilly however they want to. So for business owners, especially small business owners like me, it's incredibly hard to handle the mental load of trying to figure out what moves we should make, what decisions are safe to make when things are constantly changing and out of our control. To that point, the idea of planning quarter by quarter, trying to look into the horizon and know what's coming next has kind of been blown to hell based on my conversations with small business owners like yourself.

1:03:03Where are you right now? How are you thinking through, how do I get to the next quarter? How do we get to the next year? Are you even thinking to that point? No, I'm pretty much week to week. I'm hoping that things will continue to get a little bit brighter. We've had some bright highlights come into the business recently. So I'm hoping for more of that so I can plan a little bit further out. But right now, I'm still just getting by week to week. It is an enormous weight on you and other small business owners. It's remarkable, given where you were a year ago, that you're still here now. Again, as somebody who's used Busy Baby products, highly recommend.

1:03:40People should definitely check it out. Beth Beneke, I really appreciate your time. Please keep us posted. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well, tonight, CNN is learning two air traffic controllers left work early the night a jet collided with a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Those details next.

1:04:04International lead new details tonight about the air traffic controllers on duty the night a deadly plane crash shut down New York City's LaGuardia Airport. Two controllers left work early that night before an Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck on the runway, killing both pilots. Joining me now is Pete Muntean. Pete, walk us through what happened here. Well, we have just confirmed these new developments and they are huge. first reported by the Wall Street Journal because the NTSB said shortly after the crash that the LaGuardia Tower was fully staffed. But now CNN has confirmed that two air traffic controllers had left their posts in the LaGuardia Tower early the night of March 22nd, and now the FAA is considering disciplinary action.

1:04:43A source familiar with the investigation tells me those controllers are now on leave. It's a major new detail because the air traffic control audio captured the controller in the LaGuardia Tower frantically radioing an airport fire truck to stop from pulling out in front of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 as it was landing. Remember, the fire truck had been responding to an earlier incident on another part of the airport and was crossing the runway to go back to the airport firehouse. The collision killed both of the plane's pilots, dozens more on the flight injured. Now, we do not know exactly how the controllers leaving early really fits into the sequence of events that led to this collision, and it's not really clear if the NTSB ultimately determines if this played any role in the crash, But the NTSB said at the time of the crash that it would review controller staffing protocols and whether any single controller was overloaded with work by working multiple positions at the same time.

1:05:33The FAA has released a new statement saying the agency is, quote, committed to holding employees accountable and we will not compromise the safety or efficiency of the national airspace system. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also weighing in, saying, quote, We will not tolerate fraud, and we are taking appropriate action to hold folks accountable and prevent unlawful practices from disrupting the traveling public. The union that represents controllers is classifying these new details as allegations and says it will discuss things directly with the FAA. One more important note here. The NTSB investigation is still going on.

1:06:06A final report and a finding of probable cause not due out for another six months. The FAA and the controllers union are both considered party to this investigation. That classification usually means they are muzzled from speaking about an investigation publicly like this until it is over, making all of these new details especially extraordinary. Remarkable. Pete, new NTSB report is shedding light on a close call involving the president's helicopter, Marine One, and the passenger jet near Reagan National. I remember the video. What's happening here? Probably the biggest finding here is that construction at the White House may have contributed to the garbled communications that were at the center of this incident between the control tower, Reagan National Airport and Marine One.

1:06:49That led Marine One to lifting off without controllers in the tower being aware, meaning they could not briefly stop flights from taking off, which is the standard protocol when the president is being moved from the White House by helicopter. Aviation radios operate on what's called line of sight. That means a direct, unobstructed path between the antenna of the person transmitting via radio and the person receiving it. It's old school, but it works until things like buildings or mountains get in the way. And here is the quote from this new preliminary NTSB report. There was, quote, not adequate line of sight to ensure communications between the radio transmitter and receiver site and the Ellipse, where Marine One was temporarily operating from while construction was going on at the White House.

1:07:30Now, Marine One usually lifts off from the White House South Lawn, which is a clearer sight line. Marine One radioed the DCA tower that they were about to lift off, which the tower did not acknowledge. But the helicopter lifted off anyway, leading to it coming within eight tenths of a mile of a departing flight full of passengers. This investigation not over yet. And one question the NTSB has is what were the Marines protocols if there was a loss of communications between Marine One and the air traffic control tower, which is what happened in this case here. Still a lot of unanswered questions as NTSB investigators are still digging into this.

1:08:03That video is still remarkable to watch play out. Pete Muntean, great reporting. He's always my friend. Thank you. Well, it couldn't make Canada the 51st state. So for now, President Trump is settling for renaming a lake. The panel is here to weigh in next.

1:08:22In the politics lead, the legal back and forth over the Trump administration's Kennedy Center takeover continues. news. This afternoon's emergency hearing ending with no decision over whether Trump's name can be inscribed on the building, something the board says is necessary for the financial and structural future of the Performing Arts Center, lest it face demolition. Naturally, my panel is here. Neera Tanden, Democrat, like demolition, come on. Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty brought the lawsuit. She's on the board as an ex-officio member. She told CNN's Casey Hunt that today's hearing was a lot of rehashing of the same issues in this fight.

1:09:02Donald Trump and his handpicked board members ran it into the ground. They put its name up, unlawful. People then started not coming to the Kennedy Center because they didn't want to be in this political battle. I will not stop fighting. Donald Trump likes to wear you down. Well, he picked the wrong person. Neera, there's a number of issues in this category for me of things I don't necessarily want to spend a ton of time focusing on because I think there's lots of really important policy things happening in the world, but it won't go away. Explain to me, what do you think about this being back front and center again on the legal side of things?

1:09:46You know, I mean, my overall take is that the fact that the president likes to spend so much time and energy really trying to get his name on buildings and creating a stamp for himself is just an odd distraction. I think most Americans are actually focused on how expensive gas is and actually the Canadian trade war we've decided to have. And in fact, this is an important thing. I mean, the Kennedy Center is an important institution. And I think most Americans still see it as the Kennedy Center. And it's just an odd occurrence that we spend so much time. I mean, the president spends so much energy focusing in on putting his name and actually this whole thread around a demolition.

1:10:31I mean, the idea that the Kennedy Center would be demolished because he can't get his name on something. I mean, outrageous seems to be just too small a word for how fundamentally stupid this is. Malik, the thing that I always get stuck on is like, look, Look, I will grant the president doesn't sleep much. He's in a lot of things all the time. There's no question about that. Respect that hustle. But like, why in a midterm year, even if you don't care about the politics, like, is this a central focus? Is Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, who, by the way, plays a pretty significant role in the Canada trade talks, sitting in the front row of a courtroom?

1:11:08I'll say this, and I'll be the Republican to come on CNN, and they're probably going to attack me for it. I wrote a couple of months ago in Newsweek and the article was titled What's Left of Trump's Legacy if he burns it all down. And in that article, I talked about these very sort of things, the things that are not your kitchen table sort of issues that voters are concerned about, things that are symbolism. And Donald Trump spends a lot of time fighting for this symbolism. And what could possibly end up happening is that unlike in his first term, you see a lot of asterisks. in the second term.

1:11:44So things that courts had to overturn, things that like the Kennedy Center. So it ends up being a lot of asterisks because he's fighting for symbols that really only appeals to the base of the party. So I talked to Republicans today. They probably won't come on here and say it, but we would much rather Donald Trump talk about the midterms and his policies and how we win the midterm and keep his governance in place than talking about this. And the reason that we're talking about this is because of Donald Trump. Yeah. And I think same. And talking to Republican, my Republican pals on Capitol Hill or in the campaign world, who are just like, man, come on, like we need to start.

1:12:22It's about Labor Day. Like, let's start kicking into gear. You got a story. Let's tell it. Nero, I think he has a story. Republicans do. Let's tell it. All right. Nero, speaking of the president and things that he decides to pay attention to, the Trump administration recently threatened your think tank Center for American Progress with a five billion dollar defamation lawsuit. which I'm sure you have in a bank somewhere. I do not have$5 billion. I'd just like to ask her to tell everyone that. No$5 billion. Okay, I will be serious about this. Over a report that concluded the deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country had little effect on reducing violent crime.

1:12:55Attorneys gave you a chance to retract that report. You said you weren't going to back down. My biggest question, and I know you're in the midst of a legal fight right now, where does this stand? The president's lawyers gave us a deadline of last Friday at 5 to respond or to retract the report or face a lawsuit. They have not filed that lawsuit yet. There have been some, you know, we've received more letters from them. But we are expecting, or, you know, we are in the midst of this. I hope we'll avoid a lawsuit because fundamentally this would be a lawsuit over national guard, a report on federal government policy around the National Guard deployments and really ascertaining whether those policies were effective or not.

1:13:45And honestly, the ability to criticize a policy of the federal government should not be subject to defamation, a defamation case by the president's personal lawyers. So we have not been sued yet, but we are under the threat of litigation. Yeah. I like think tank reports. Can we not like sue them out of existence from all sides? And you can agree or disagree with lots of them, but the ability to do that work, I think is important. It's important for policymakers. It also shouldn't,$5 billion is a lot of money. Malik's got that. Okay. I want to pivot to a midterm story, getting continued attention in Georgia, the Washington Post reporting that the Republican U.S.

1:14:21Senate candidate in Georgia, Congressman Mike Collins, has a former staffer who frequently posts provocative, racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic content, including one image on his X account that appears to depict him in a KKK robe that he told the Washington Post he'd made using the Grok AI tool on X. The staffer, Preston Parra, told the Washington Post that he considers his content satirical and the congressman didn't know about the account when they worked together. The Collins campaign didn't answer the Washington Post questions about Parra. CNN has reported on Collins' son-in-law's track record of problematic posts as well.

1:14:54Collins didn't answer questions about that. Either Collins, of course, has his own history of being a little racy sometimes online and on Twitter. The thing that I ask, staffers doing staffer things, like this is not a staffer thing. Like this is a messed up thing. It's a mess. The bigger question that I have when it comes to the Collins campaign and Collins in general is like they got to win Georgia. He's already in a deep hole right now. This doesn't, it seems like we have this stuff every single week. If you're a Republican right now in the state of Georgia, like, what are you trying to do?

1:15:26Well, I think this is something, and we should point out that this, he was an intern, and apparently he was an intern only for a couple of months back in 2024. So this isn't something that should reflect on Collins himself. He does, I would say, he probably has more of an uphill climb this time around, just winning the Senate seat simply because Ossoff has been a senator for six years. So he actually has something, whether you agree with him or not, has something to run on. But I think what the Ossoff campaign and many Democrats are now trying to do on the back of the sexist and misogynistic attacks against Natalie Harp.

1:15:59And we've seen Debbie Dingell double down on that, wanting to name it Lake Natalie, as she said. And even Pritzker comes out talking about Natalie Harp. I think what Democrats want to do is actually to deflect to the intern who worked for him for two months, as opposed to talking about the campaign that they're actually running. I mean, I don't think these things have anything to do with each other. I think Mike Collins, you're right. This guy, this was a staffer or a person who was associated with campaign. But Mike Collins himself has a history of having really questionable, questionable social media.

1:16:35And, you know, I don't know why Mike Collins doesn't just say, I repudiate these awful images. He should. He should, and he hasn't. And I think that's very odd. And when you don't repudiate something, it does raise really significant questions. And I think Natalie Harp is a governmental employee. That's a completely different issue than this case. We could talk a lot about all of these things online. But we got to go. We got to go. Malik, Nero, I appreciate you guys. Thank you very much. Well, up next, more Americans aren't just stocking a few extra cans in their pantries. They're packing up go bags, buying backup power, even building bunkers.

1:17:17Why doomsday prepping is going mainstream and what's making so many people prepare for the worst. Stay with us.

1:17:27From basement bunkers to go bags, doomsday prepping is going mainstream. New numbers show one in three Americans spent part of their household budget on survival gear, and about 20 million call themselves preppers. That's double the number from 2017. This week on The Whole Story, CNN Stick, Peyton Walsh, takes us inside that world. Take a look. Jack shows us his safe house, where his training gets more violent and the gear gets serious. AR-15s, SIGs, night vision, this one with a thermal clip-on adapter. If you come at me with a number one strike, go ahead and give me a number one. I'm going to cut your arm.

1:18:06So go ahead and give it to me again. So then I'm going to step out. I'm going to trap the arm. All right. So you're going to slap. So follow my hand this way. Don't you don't have to grab it. Just slap it. Cut. No. So you're going to. Yeah. No. You're going to follow me with this hand. Cut. Control the arms. There you go. Would you mind slowing down your attack?

1:18:34And then that, right, okay. Okay, so then I can cut. Right, yeah, fine, okay, I'm very dead. Was that wrong? No, that's good, yeah, that's good. And Nick Payton-Walsh joins us now. Nick, I've seen you in some pretty hairy situations. That one is unique. We just saw Jack's safe house. I can't help but notice weapons, gear. what are people like Jack most afraid of right now? And has that changed in recent years? Yeah, I mean, outside, you know, chucking me around the room like a human mannequin, Jack, I think, is from the sort of staple world of prepping, ultimately, long been interested in this and, you know, slightly, I think, on the right end of Republican political spectrum.

1:19:22But it wasn't really his thoughts that were key. It was the people who were coming to him to learn the skills that he's essentially marketing there. The ultimate fear, I think, that the sense of political crisis, potentially building in the United States, the climate crisis, all that heaped up uncertainty leaves many thinking they may have to fend for themselves in the most extreme moments, Phil. In the course of reporting this, again, I was mentioning where I see you, usually you're one of the more level-headed dudes that's out there. It's part of your immense talent. What was the most extreme thing you saw?

1:19:57I think it's two things. The weirdest place to go was this converted missile silo in Kansas that has been done out for billionaires, millionaires for their ultimate survival. That had like nuclear biological air filters scrubbing the air to keep them alive in the event of whatever. It even had a small timeout jail cell if your billionaire drank too much wine and picked a fight with another billionaire. it was so tightly prepared and heavily financed that it was from a different planet, frankly. And it left me wondering, look, something's bound to go wrong here. And it just felt like such an enormous investment in the hope of managing to survive something that's such an uncertainty.

1:20:37But on the other end of it, the most really extreme thing for me personally was a survival course we did in Mexico in a beautiful Gulf beach. We went there with an incredible survival expert there who taught me things I should know really, like how to light a fire with a stick and how to catch fish. I could only eat what we found and I got bitten alive from head to toe with bugs and it really just showed you out there on your own, even in the most beautiful places on earth, I'm just woefully ill-equipped for anything remotely like that and all those skills that you think you know, how to get fresh water, how to light a fire on your own, how to catch a fish, how to not eat just coconuts for days.

1:21:17I don't have them. Phil? I absolutely cannot wait to watch. Nick Payton Walsh, appreciate you, my friend. Thank you. You can look for Nick's reporting on a new episode of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. That's Sunday night at 8 Eastern here on CNN, then Monday on CNN All Access. And I hope you'll join me for my video series, CNN Breaks It Down. We tackle some of the most pressing questions in business and politics. Find new episodes on CNN.com slash watch. Aaron Burnett out front starts now.