Trump’s Tariff Arguments Met With Skepticism From Appeals Court

24:20This is only a guess. I wouldn't even call it an educated guess. My guess is she'll play a little more cat and mouse with it rather than kind of be totally honest. There's a sense of loyalty that exists, as you probably saw in the campaign, that had its own complexity for her candidacy in that effort. I mean, my own take on this separate, when she first announces and goes from seven down to plus three, she totally embraces being change and something new. Somewhere after the debate or on the view appearance, she decides to be continuity. It's all about democracy. And then she loses the change and becomes continuity.

24:59And you know what happens in the election and the result. So my guess is there will be a revealing part. But again, it's not even an educated guess. She knows she would not have been vice president if Joe Biden hadn't given her the nod. So I don't think she'll turn her toe back on that. Hopefully it will be less about her. Hopefully it will be less about Joe Biden and more about the American people and more what she learned, saw, and effort. Anybody that's honest that when they campaign, they go in with some assumptions, some answers, but a very good candidate and person who is either president, Governor, Mayor, you learn by listening.

25:36You hear things that people have to say that adjusts. I can tell you from my own experience, I used to do this Congress on your corner. My Elder Justice Act came from somebody I met at a grocery store. So hopefully it won't be about her and hopefully it won't be about the campaign and it won't be about Joe Biden. It'll be about American people, their struggles, their hopes, their dreams, and their disappointments. And if she does that, it'll be a good book. If it's an inside look, it will be for junkies like you and I. President Trump just weighed in on Vice President Harris not running for governor of California.

26:07Take a listen to what he just said at the White House. Well, she can't speak. She can't talk. She can't do an interview. I thought it was a very strange campaign that we had. But, you know, I had two of them. I wouldn't call her a skilled politician would you what's your reaction to that president Trump never misses an opportunity to be small and petty could have raised could have kind of been presidential could have said look I wish her the best could have been gracious but between gracious big full-hearted small petty vindictive he chose the latter it's to character That's what I think. Why do you think he does that?

26:57I think, you know, it's part of the bully routine. He never misses an opportunity to hit you. Never misses an opportunity to be small. There's only a few times in character, I mean, when somebody is, because of maybe his own family's background, has got substance abuse or in some vulnerability, does he show any graciousness? outside of that it's one style one uh kind of demeanor one kind of uh kind of tone which is to be small petty vindictive and to hurt you where you're most vulnerable he does it when he's raising tariffs and he does it with somebody that he uh beat where he could have been you know these are hard jobs campaigns are hard and he could have been more gracious and bigger and it would actually would have caught people by surprise but he chose the path that is most definitive of his character Do you think Kamala Harris running for president again would be good for the Democratic Party?

27:53Look, I think she's a way all of us are that are even thinking about it a way off. I think there's an election in November in Virginia and New Jersey that will be very telling. There's an election in the midterm that will be telling not only about the country, but also telling about the rest of President Trump's tenure. He's very scared, which is why he directed Texas to change the map mid-cycle, never been done before in that effort. So before you even get there, you've got a lot of other elections to worry about. My guess is that Kamala Harris's book is a part of that. But again, I want to stress, if the book is about the challenges America faces, what she heard from people and what it informed her, that will be an informative book and a little learning.

28:37If it's, here's the campaign, here's the ad we ran, et cetera, I'll like it, you'll like it. But that's a smaller audience. If you know, President Clinton always said this, and I think it's very, very important, which is he's in New Hampshire, 92, kind of a worst dark low moment of the campaign. And he said, the hits on me are nothing like the hits your kids are going to take if we don't turn this country around. And that's what made him the comeback hit. And so if you make it about the American people, keep your focus not where Washington is around Washington, but keep your focus on the kind of what's happening in people's lives, how they're meeting their challenges, how they worry about what's going on in their kids' life, what's going on in the neighborhood, the job, the education, their ability to retire, the ability to take a holiday, own a home, buy a home.

29:23Then you're going to be contributing to the betterment of their lives. Then that's the key focus. And if it's about that, I think it will be a very important book. But if it's for junkies and people that love and can't get enough politics 24-7, it will have that kind of audience. We shall see. We shall see. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, always good to have you on, sir. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jay. Coming up next, a high-ranking Texas official called out today over his slow response to that catastrophic flooding on July 4th. CNN's Shimon Brokopez is in Texas. The tough questions he also put to a public official.

30:00That's next.

30:05Breaking news and our national lead flash flood warnings are in effect for Philadelphia and New York City through the next hour after heavy thunderstorms walloped parts of the East Coast. High water stranded drivers in Queens, New York and suspended some service on the Long Island Railroad. Cars were also submerged in floodwaters this afternoon in towns throughout Northeast Maryland. Air transportation is also being affected with more than a thousand flight cancellations in the Northeast. Thunderstorm warnings are in effect until 8 p.m. Eastern. Last week, you might remember, we reported first on the lead that the Kerr County emergency operations official was asleep during those deadly July 4th flash floods.

30:44And today we're also learning that key county officials were also missing from an emergency briefing call ahead of the catastrophic incident. CNN's Shimon Prokopos is in Kerrville, Texas, where the Texas legislature just wrapped a hearing. They were trying to get answers from local officials. Shimon, what happened in the hearing today? Well, there was really some fiery, but just this one stunning moment in particular, the lieutenant governor here of Texas really calling out a county leader, the county judge who has all the power in this county for his absence on that day. And just to watch this unfold was quite something.

31:20Take a listen. Judge Kelly, I never saw you on day one. I came here from Austin. In this room, I talked to the sheriff multiple times. Sheriff. I talked to the mayor multiple times. We had a meeting when we got here. Governor Youngkin was here. I was here. The mayor was here. Everyone was here. Then I wasn't. Then I wasn't. And you were not. We didn't just lose people. We didn't know where people were. And you aren't here.

32:04And Jake, there have been a lot of questions about the leadership here on the local level, on the county level. Were the local folks prepared enough? Even the fact that the state officials were warning to watch out for this storm, it's very apparent here based on this hearing and based on what the lieutenant governor there said, the presence from the county leadership and the local leadership was absent. And Shimon, you also spoke to the mayor, the Kerrville mayor. What did he have to say? So the Kerrville mayor, I've been trying to ask him for weeks now why he wasn't on any of the phone calls with emergency management.

32:41Did he get notified that there was this call? Well, today, he finally admitted to me that he did receive an email to get on the call, but he didn't see it. Take a listen. One of the times that I had questioned you at the press conference, I had asked you if you were on any phone calls. Yes, I misunderstood. I thought you said, did someone call me? And I did not receive a telephone call. I did receive an invitation. Okay. Which I've said, I wish I'd have seen it, but I didn't see it. You didn't see the invitation. I did not. Your emails that were released, you saw them. They were there. It was at 1 a.m.

33:16that you got an email. At 1 a.m.? Yeah. Well, I didn't know that. Texas Department of Emergency Management, saying that there'd be a call at 10 a.m. Okay. I didn't see those emails. I'm sorry. But, like, I guess, had you seen that email, you would have been on the call, right? I would have been on the call. I take responsibility for missing the email. I do. I do. I wish I'd seen it.

33:45And, Jake, it's not just him that wasn't on the call. The county leaders weren't on the call. The sheriff wasn't on that call. The emergency operations coordinator, who says he was sick on that day, was not on the call. Meanwhile, I spoke to a neighboring county judge from Kendall County. He said they were all on the call. His emergency operations coordinator was on that call. And it helped them. It helped them prepare. And it helped them realize that this storm could be much worse than what they were predicting. And as a result of that, the calls that they were on and the information they were receiving, they prepared much differently than Kirk County did, where there was absolutely no preparation.

34:24And then in the middle of the night, when everything started hitting and the weather started getting really bad, it was already too late. But the rescues went on and it was a very difficult time. And the rescue workers did as well as possible, despite the fact that so many of the officials were not there on that morning. I don't even understand. It's not even an abdication of leadership. It's just a complete absence. Like they weren't on the call. Like it's literally your one job, if you're the emergency response coordinator, to be on an emergency call. No, you're absolutely right about that, Jake.

35:01And that's the thing. You know, in the beginning, we were asking them these questions that first week. You remember those press conferences and how testy they were with us and how they didn't understand why we were asking these questions of accountability. Well, this is why, because you could sense that something wasn't making sense. Finally, today we're getting those answers. But that's certainly, I don't think, Jake, this is over. I think there's going to have to be a lot more accountability. I also remember that when those questions were being asked, the governor of Texas said that they were not the questions of, not the language of winners or some nonsense like that.

35:32Shimon Prokobos in Texas, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coming up, the show of force in New York today. to remember an NYPD officer killed this week when a gunman opened fire in a Manhattan office building. Stay with us. Our Law and Justice Lead Now new surveillance video shows yesterday's arrest of the man accused of killing a couple who were on an Arkansas park trail with their kids. The suspect's name is Andrew James McGann. He was sitting down for a haircut when detectives came in and arrested him. He had recently been hired nearby as a teacher candidate it but had not started working at the school yet.

36:07The yearbook shows McGahn when he taught fourth grade at an elementary school in Texas. McGahn is accused of killing Clinton and Kristen Brink on a state park walking trail on Saturday. The couple's two daughters, who were just seven and nine years old, were also on the hike. They witnessed everything. The family said, quote, Clinton and Kristen died heroes protecting their little girls, unquote. Today, thousands lined the streets in the Bronx, New York, for the funeral for fallen NYPD officer Diderul Islam. Islam was killed Monday when a lone gunman stormed a Manhattan office building, killing four people.

36:41CNN's Omar Jimenez filed this report. It was a solemn day in the Bronx as fellow officers, friends, and family gathered to honor fallen NYPD officer Diderul Islam, who was killed Monday in midtown Manhattan. Inside a crowded mosque, New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD leaders, and Islam's family spoke in his memory. I am responsible for the safety of New Yorkers. That is my obligation, and that is my most basic function. And for someone to drive across our country, carrying an automatic weapon, and taking the lives of innocent people, You ask yourself over and over again, what more could we have done?

37:33How could we have responded better? And you have a tendency to blame yourself. And I just want to say sorry to this family. Islam, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served just three and a half years on the force, was remembered for his dedication. Your journey started across oceans, but your purpose brought you here, to these streets, to this city, to this area of the Bronx, to this shield, and to the NYPD 47th prison. You made us proud. You made a difference. Though my heart is broken, I find comfort knowing that his sacrifice may have saved others in that lobby, people who were able to go home to their families that day.

38:18Officer Islam was just a few weeks away from welcoming his third child. He's Not only my brother-in-law, he was my protector. He was my best friend. Anything, everything, anybody need anything, he come to us. He was helping with everybody. Even neighbors who didn't know Officer Islam personally wanted to pay their respects. He's from the same town that I grew up in Bangladesh. So we have sympathy for his family. So we want to attend the funeral. Islam was working as a paid detail. But his death is being treated as a line of duty death, and he'll be posthumously promoted to detective. Omar Jimenez, CNN, The Bronx, New York.

39:03And our thanks to Omar Jimenez for that report. Moments ago, President Trump was pressed on his previous claim that Jeffrey Epstein stole young women from him who worked at Mar-a-Lago way back when. What the president says now about that episode, that's next.

39:27Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour demanding answers the serious questions being posed by the parents of the late Virginia Giuffre, who was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. What the family wants to know after President Trump claimed that Epstein stole Giuffre from him at Mar-a-Lago. Plus, desperate aid air dropped into Gaza today as two key Trump administration officials get ready to visit the Gaza Strip themselves this hour here from an Israeli human rights organization that is now saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Also, I'll speak with the Republican and the Democrat joining forces to help families exposed to toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

40:10And Lieutenant Frank Drebin is back. Well, sort of. The director and co-writer of the old school hit Naked Gun will be here with the new police squad now on the case.

40:28The lead tonight, the family of one of Jeffrey Epstein's most high profile victims, Virginia Giuffre, is seeking answers from President Trump after his comments earlier this week. Take a listen. He took people that worked for me and I told him don't do it anymore and he did it. I said stay the hell out of here. Mr. President, did one of those stolen persons, does that include Virginia Effrey? I don't know. I think she worked at the spot. I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. Jeffrey's brothers and sisters-in-law saying in a statement, quote, it makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey, quote, likes women on the younger side, no doubt about it, unquote.

41:22We and the public are asking for answers. Survivors deserve this, unquote. CNN's chief White House correspondent and anchor Caitlin Collins is here with me now. So, Caitlin, his staff hates the story, and yet President Trump keeps talking about it. And also keeps revealing information that is keeping it very much in the news cycle and creating even more questions for the president, including what he said on Air Force One, which was the first time he had acknowledged what Virginia Giuffre had been saying for years, which is that Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her away from Mar-a-Lago, where she was working, when she was just 16 years old.

42:00And the president's comments there obviously had raised a lot of questions about what he knew. Now, the president has not been accused of any wrongdoing here. He never has in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. But it's in terms of what he knew and why Jeffrey Epstein was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago. And after he was saying that he was taking young women away from the spot, obviously has only raised more questions about what his suspicions were. And he was asked about that again today. And this is what the president told reporters. No, I don't know really why. but I said if he's taking anybody from Mar-a-Lago he's hiring or whatever he's doing I didn't like it and we threw him out we said we don't want him you know at the place this is a story that's been known for many years as you know but it's I didn't like it that he was doing that.

42:48And notice there he said hiring them away from Mar-a-Lago he had been saying that they had stolen people from Mar-a-Lago before I had heard some White House officials say that you know he should use different language in terms of that. It's not clear when you're talking about people who have been trafficked. You don't want to talk about them as if they're objects. Right. And so the president went on to say that Caroline Levitt addressed this earlier today before the president spoke. And she was saying that when the president was asked about it on Air Force One yesterday, he was not bringing up Virginia Jeffrey two days ago that instead it was posed to him by a reporter, which it was.

43:20But he initially said, I don't know. And then he confirmed that, yes, she was someone who was recruited away from Mar-a-Lago. And so it's just raised even more questions about what the president knew if he was suspicious of Jeffrey Epstein's actions at the time. And also it comes as a major conversation has centered around Ghislaine Maxwell. And you saw her family, Virginia Giffre's family speaking out today in that rare statement saying, you know, all of these things about what a monster is. They described her, saying how cruel she was to their sister, but also saying that she should not get leniency from this president.

43:50And a White House official told CNN earlier today, right now he's not currently considering it. But notably, the president has not ruled that out when he's been asked personally by reporters. There's no reason to give her clemency. If the attorney general or the deputy attorney general want answers from Ghislaine Maxwell, they can convene a grand jury and force her to answer the questions. And if she pleads the fifth, they can have the judge impose penalties on her. This clemency thing is just this bizarre thing. There's no need to do it. But he hasn't ruled it out, which I just think is notable.

44:22I mean, clearly he does not put himself in a box there. It's also notable that he said when she went to prison that he wished her well. Yeah. I mean, and it has raised questions about what that means. And also, we still have no idea what information she provided to the deputy attorney general last week. We've heard nothing from the Justice Department since then, nothing from her attorney since they left the correctional or the U.S. attorney's office that day about what exactly she disclosed and how and if they plan to use it. All right. Caitlin Collins, always great to have you. And tonight, Caitlin's going to be talking to the family of the late Virginia Jufri, Skye and Amanda Roberts and Danny and Lynette Wilson on her show, The Source, with Caitlin Collins.

45:01That's a must watch. That's tonight at 9 o 'clock Eastern, only on CNN. Thanks, Caitlin. Let's bring in Dave Ehrenberg. He was the Florida State Attorney for Palm Beach County from 2013 until earlier this year. Dave, the statement from the Jufri family opens up the president to even more questions about what he knew about Epstein's behavior when they knew each other before they had their falling out. What kind of pressure can the Jufres family and other victims put on the administration to release more information? Jake, they're just keeping the story going. And so is Trump. I'm surprised that Trump is saying things like, well, I didn't like that Epstein stole away my employees and then said, well, I don't know who they were.

45:44And then, oh, yeah, it could be that underage girl, Jufres, who worked at the spa when it was pretty well known. that a reason why Trump broke ties with Epstein was reportedly Epstein was hitting on the underage daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member. Now, I don't know why Trump doesn't focus on that. Instead, talking about that he broke off with Epstein because Epstein was trying to hire away one of his employees. That just is bizarre and opens up many more questions and results in what you saw with the Jufres family saying, hey, what's going on here? And so all this just keeps the story going and it doesn't have to keep going like this.

46:25You know, Attorney General Pam Bondi-Wells, she used to be the Attorney General of Florida. Do you have a sense of how much of a priority this case likely is for her given the high level of public interest, but also the precarious position this seems to put the White House in where they have this story, this drumbeat of a story that they hate that President Trump keeps feeding? It's impossible to ignore it, Jake. This is what people are talking about. And she's been dealt a tough hand here because members of the administration, we're talking about the heads of the FBI, Cash Patel, Dan Bongino, were spreading these conspiracy theories.

47:02And now the bills have come due. And there's an old saying by Winston Churchill that an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Well, here, the crocodile is always hungry. And they're coming for the ones who made these promises and the promises are not being kept. So she has been put in a tough position. And so that's why she's she's trying to at least put stuff out, saying we're going to go to the grand jury. We're going to try to get that release, a grand jury transcript. But that's not going to satisfy anyone. The conspiracy theorists who infed all these lies over the years are not going to be satisfied until the full Epstein file is released and Bill Clinton's name's at the top of it.

47:44So I don't see this going away anytime soon. You have a view, most of us do not, given your experience in Palm Beach County and the legal system. Do you have any understanding as to why Epstein in that 2005 to 2008 period was so coddled by prosecutors in Florida, including your predecessor, Barry Critcher, and then U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta? Like, what was the reason for it? Why would they be so lenient? Why would they only indict him for one victim instead of the 34 who were available to talk? You know, I don't know the answers, Jake. I know mistakes were made. I do know that at the time this happened, which was years before I became state attorney.

48:32In fact, Barry Krischer was there three state attorneys before I got there. But at the time, the law in Florida made underage girls who took money in exchange for sex acts into prostitutes, criminals. Now they're rightly seen as victims. The law has changed. So they were dealing with older laws and they were dealing, apparently, according to what I heard, were reluctant witnesses to come forward and to testify. Now, that doesn't excuse anyone. I'm not excusing anyone here. But it was at a different time. And I don't know what happened then, but clearly mistakes were made. and you see people having to live with it.

49:06Alex Acosta had his career ruined. He was the Secretary of Labor and it all came crashing down because of this. The thing that troubled me the most is this non-prosecution deal that gave immunity to unknown co-conspirators. I've never seen that happen before. That was at the federal level, not the state level. So there are still a lot of unanswered questions and the grand jury transcripts are not gonna answer them. I'm not even sure if the Epstein files, if released, will answer them. Dave Ehrenberg, thanks so much. Appreciate your time, sir. Coming up, the head of an Israeli human rights group worries that Israel may already be a pariah nation because of the way it's conducted its war on Hamas.

49:42The group is accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, and the director of the group will join us next. And what may have been the most severe turbulence on a U.S. commercial flight, one passenger said it felt like an earthquake. What caused all the shaking? That's ahead.

50:00Our world lead now takes us to the Middle East. where pessimism over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is deepening. Sources tell CNN that Hamas has just simply stopped even engaging in negotiations. Today, Trump's special envoy, Steve Woodcoff, met with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Tomorrow, Woodcoff and U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, plan to visit Gaza to, quote, inspect the current aid distribution sites, unquote. And joining us now is Yuli Novak. She is the executive director of B'Tselem, one of the two Israeli human rights organizations that this week declared that the Israeli government and military are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

50:39Thanks so much for joining us. I want to get to your report in just a second. But first, I do want to ask about these developments. The leaders of Canada, the United Kingdom and France all have said in the last few days that they plan to recognize a Palestinian state, though the White House here in the U.S. says Trump disagrees with that designation. But even so, a growing number of lawmakers in the U.S. Senate here in D.C. are voting to oppose the sale of bombs and firearms and munitions to Israel. Do you fear that this international shift in attitude towards Israel and Israel's actions in Gaza might lead, if it hasn't already, to Israel becoming something of a pariah nation?

51:27I think we might be there already, but what I am much more worried about than the status of Israel as a country is what Israel is really doing in reality on the ground just here on this land where we live in. and the fact that Israel committing genocide. And I think regimes around the world who committing this kind of crime are supposed and was supposed way before to be marked as an illegitimate system or a system that works in an illegitimate way that has to be stopped. In that sense, I'm sorry to say, I mean, Palestinians do have the right to self-determination. It's good that the countries around the world are willing to recognize it in some way.

52:27But what we are talking about that takes place right now is much more serious than that, and that is a genocide. And genocide cannot wait to September. The genocide have to stop now. So let's talk about your report, because obviously the war has been raging since October 2023. after Hamas attacked Israel more than 20 months. Why did your group decide to make this determination of genocide now? So we actually, we understood it way before, but what we had to do during the months, and we worked as hard as we could to create the, to do the groundwork to create for us as an Israeli-based organization, as an organization of Israelis and Palestinians work together.

53:14And we have dozens of Palestinians in our team that live in the West Bank, in Gaza, and also inside Israel. So we had to do the legal and conceptual groundwork in order to come out of it. But I'll say more than that. As human rights defenders, we wake up every morning in the last two years and even before that, asking ourselves how can we be most effective in struggling this thing that we see in front of our eyes. And this report is actually our answer to that. Because what we have in this report is, first of all, we analyze and show how this, you know, what everybody sees around the world, the mass killing, the mass destruction, the mass deportation, displacement of people, the starvation, how all of this is actually part of a coordinated action of Israel that is oriented not only to hurt, you know, you called it a war.

54:18Israel is calling it a war against Hamas, but what we see happening in real life is actually a war against the entire population of Gaza with the clear intention to destroy this group. And that is exactly the definition of genocide. You told my colleague, Kristiana Mampur, that Israel's government leaders are becoming, quote, more delusional about the war. We just heard Prime Minister Netanyahu say on Sunday that there is no starvation, not only that it isn't a policy or that they're not trying to cause it, but just that starvation doesn't exist, what President Trump said that obviously it did exist.

55:04Are you getting any feedback from Israeli leaders about your report? So, no. And that's, I think, exactly a good or horrible example for if you want to ask yourself how a society can become a genocidal one and our system turns into a genocidal system, this is part of it. Because, you know, while I'm talking to you now and our reports were all over the world and footages from Gaza are all over the world, I would say that 99 % of the Israelis haven't heard about our report. Israelis are really traumatized, I mean, from October 7th, which was a real thing and a real trauma and an event with real crimes, war crimes, numerous war crimes that were committed, but also a moment that instill this existential threat feeling in Israel.

56:03Yuli Novak, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time today. Thank you. For decades now, families once stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina have questioned if old toxic water could be why they have health problems now. It's a story we've been covering here on The Lead for years. coming up a Republican and a Democrat joining forces to try to get answers coming up next on The Lead. Stick with us.

56:36We're back with The Buried Lead. That's what we call stories that we think deserve much more attention. There's a new bipartisan bill that could impact up to a million former service members and their families after being exposed to toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune. The water at the North Carolina military base was heavily contaminated with cancer-causing industrial chemicals from 1953 all the way through 1987. This new legislation would speed up the hundreds of thousands of claims connected to the exposure. And joining me now is Lance Corporal Jeff Riccobah, a retired U.S. Marine who was stationed at Camp Lejeune for a year and a half between 1986 and 1988.

57:15Thank you so much for being with us, Jeff. Tell us what you remember about the drinking water at Camp Lejeune?

57:26It had a foul odor and it did have a foul taste. We couldn't contribute it to anything at the time. And we were encouraged. Marines do not, we don't speak up. We're encouraged to keep our mouths shut and keep moving on and carrying out the orders of the day. It absolutely had a foul odor and a foul taste. Yeah, certainly Marines are not encouraged to complain. That's for sure. You have Parkinson's disease and you say there are others who were in your platoon at Camp Lejeune who also have Parkinson's. You were diagnosed in 2016, but it wasn't until recently that a VA doctor connected your ailment to Camp Lejeune.

58:09Is that right? Ironically enough, it was just the first time any doctor had asked me about it was just two days ago. He asked me if I had a family history, and of course, I don't. I researched my family history after the diagnosis, and then he had asked me about Camp Lejeune, And I'm grateful he did. Yeah. And you've you filed a legal claim under the PACT Act, which President Biden signed into law in 2022. So yours is one of more than 400000 claims. What is the status of your claim? It's it's in the queue somewhere, Mr. Tapper. What what we should really, you know, take a look at those numbers is to date.

58:59although there is 400 ,000 claims in queue, less than 200 have had a resolution and that bill was passed three years ago next month. Wow. So this bipartisan Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act that was just introduced, it aims to clear legal hurdles that are keeping thousands, hundreds of thousands of veterans such as yourself from being able to take your claims to court. How big of a difference might this legislation mean to you? To me personally, it would mean a dramatic difference. Section 804 of the PAC Act, it guaranteed us nothing except for the most important thing is to be heard in court before a jury.

59:46And as soon as that act was passed, the Department of Justice immediately went to turn it apart and they swiftly removed that right from us. Lance Corporal Jeff Riccoboth, thank you so much for your time and thank you so much for your service, sir. I'm grateful, Mr. Tapper, and thank you so very much. Joining us now, two bipartisan lawmakers who introduced this bill. It's called the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act. Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross and Republican Congressman Greg Murphy, both of them from the great state of North Carolina. Congressman Murphy, you actually represent Camp Lejeune.

1:00:23It's in your congressional district. How would this bill help veterans and their families? Well, the original bill, Jake, was what took so many years in coming. And sadly enough, our Navy was derelict, really, in recognizing the problems that were going on at Camp Lejeune. This was pulled together as part of the PACT Act and says, hey, look, it is time to have your day in court. You know, as the former, as the witness just, or witness, as the person just mentioned, there were problems with the Department of Justice. But this is what this correction bill is trying to get individuals really to get some adjudication to their claims so that they can get the relief that they really, truly deserve.

1:01:01And Congresswoman Ross, as the Lance Corporal just said, of the roughly 400 ,000 claims that have been filed, there have been maybe only 100 settlements or so that have been reached as of last year. What kinds of roadblocks have some of your constituents run into when trying to get the justice they deserve? Well, there really have been three roadblocks. And as a matter of fact, I had a town hall earlier this week and a veteran who has had medical problems because of water at Camp Lejeune was at that town hall and thanked both Congressman Murphy and myself for introducing this corrections act. So the three things are a jury trial.

1:01:44We thought it was clear that you get a jury trial under the original PACT Act, but a district court judge said it was not clear. So we are making it crystal clear. The other thing is that under the PACT Act, only one venue, only one federal court could hear the case. And that would be in the Eastern District of North Carolina, one of the fastest growing districts in the entire country. We haven't gotten a new judge there since 1990. This would open it up to three district courts in North Carolina and three in South Carolina. And then the third really important thing is it would prescribe what the attorney's fees are for both settlement and if you go to trial.

1:02:30And that would let victims, these brave service members, know what their compensation would be based on whether they want a protracted legal fight or whether they want to settle early. And it would help them make that assessment. And these attorney's fees are things that are consistent with what fair attorney's fees are around the country. Congressman Murphy, do you think this bill could pass as a standalone measure? Yeah, I do. There's plenty of bipartisan support. You know, Deborah is on judiciary. I'm not. And I think there's been plenty of bipartisan support occurring on that committee, which is really the one of jurisdiction.

1:03:09And then further in the House, I think it will. And there's plenty of momentum. Senator Tillis is spearheading it over in the in the Senate. You know, one thing I think that's important is I'm a physician. I'm not an attorney like Deborah is this. One thing that's brought out is general causation. If you are on the base for a certain period of time and you have a disorder, there is an association with this. It does not mean just because you were on that base and you developed Parkinson's, for example, that caused that. So it gives a little bit more leeway, a little bit better avenue to say, all right, you were there.

1:03:39This is a general causation. You should get relief. So, no, I do think I think there'll be a lot of momentum to have this passed. Congresswoman Ross, Congressman Murphy, both of you from the great state of North Carolina. Thank you both for joining me. Please stay in touch. We want to keep covering this legislation until it becomes law. Thank you for covering it. Coming up next, that Delta flight with the terrifying cause of turbulence. Should you worry it could happen on your next flight and later, what some call the funniest movie of the year. It's not even out yet. It will be tomorrow. The Naked Gun, 30-year sequel.

1:04:10The film's director and co-writer will be here coming up on the lead. Nobody messes with the police squad. That's the something I'm going to eat.

1:04:22In our National League, 25 people were hospitalized after a Delta flight from Salkland City to Amsterdam and encountered severe turbulence just after takeoff. Here's CNN's Pete Muntean. The images captured by passengers prove the force of what could have been the worst case of turbulence on a U.S. commercial flight in years. Anything not strapped down was tossed to the ceiling of the Airbus A330 about 40 minutes into the nine-hour flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam. The unplanned landing in Minneapolis was caught on video with emergency crews waiting at the gate. 25 people, nearly one in every 10 on board, were taken to hospitals.

1:05:09I watched a wine cart just get thrown into the air. William Webster says the bad turbulence came on quickly and only got worse. It was very unnerving. I mean, I'm a frequent flyer. I'm on like 80 flights a year, probably flown over a million miles in my life. Never seen anything like that. Flight Radar 24 shows the flight climbed more than 1 ,000 feet in less than 30 seconds, followed by a rapid descent, causing passengers to scream and phones to go flying. The flight was over Wyoming, where the National Weather Service warned of potential thunderstorms on Wednesday. A SIGMET, which is an aviation weather advisory, was in effect where we believe the turbulence took place over portions of Wyoming.

1:05:56It is just the latest example of passengers being rocked by turbulence in flight. Last year, a British man died after turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight. But fatalities are rare, and such incidents often leave flight attendants with broken bones. In this latest case, one passenger who suffered whiplash said the episode felt like an earthquake. There was a little girl across the aisle from me that was just terrified. She screamed, we're going to die, we're going to die. So I was trying to keep her calm, and I really thought we were going to die. It was that scary. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating this.

1:06:36It says turbulence is the top cause for injuries on board commercial flights. The pilot told the passengers that this episode came on without any warning. Delta says seven of its crew members were injured in this, and they have since been released from the hospital. Jake. All right, P. Monteen, thanks so much. Coming up next, that revelation from superstar Justin Timberlake earlier today that he is battling Lyme disease. We'll take a closer look at the condition next with CNN's chief medical correspondent. Also, some breaking news for you. Strong storms along the East Coast are crippling transportation in New York.

1:07:12Water flooding public buses in Brooklyn and falling down onto trains at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Dangerous flash flooding is possible throughout the night, and we will be monitoring it. We're back in a moment.

1:07:28Go ahead, threaten me like you have the American people for so long, but it's not going to work this time. You're part of a dying breed, Habsburg, like people who can name all 50 states. Their truth hurts, doesn't it, Habsburg? Oh, sure. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with a seat missing, but it hurts. In our pop culture lead, Lieutenant Frank Drebin of Police Squad is back on the case. But no, it's not that one. This one is Frank Drebin Jr., though he is also a hard-charging LA cop with police squad.

1:08:26Or maybe a Bronco or a 49er. We would have been happy with any team, really. Anyone but the Browns. Like father, like son, that's a clip from the brand new Naked Gun movie following Liam Neeson as Frank Devin Jr. on a mission to save the world. It hits theaters this weekend, and the director and co-writer of the film, Akiva Schaefer, joins us now. Akiva, the movie is hilarious. I saw it last night. It's amazing. There is a line early on in the film when Liam Neeson's character is looking at a plaque of his father, Frank Drebin Sr., and says, I want to be like you, but refreshed and original. Do you think you achieve that with the film?

1:09:06Yeah, he says, just like you, but completely different and original. I mean, that is our thesis statement, right? And when I signed up to do the movie, I was like, that's the whole challenge right there. I mean, I hope we did. You saw it. I think you did. I think you did. But I'm a fan. You know, I'm a member of Quaid Army, as you know. So you also did what they did in the original Airplane and the original Police Squad in 1982, the TV show, and then the movie in the late 80s, casting serious actors in comic roles and having them play it straight. Liam Neeson, Danny Houston, it's exactly how it was done.

1:09:48Now, I know, like, a few years ago, they were talking about bringing back Police Squad, but they were going to, like, cast a comic actor. Was it important to you to follow in the DNA of the original? Yeah, the original guys, Zaz, as they're known, the brothers, Zucker and Abrahams, that's what differentiated those movies. At least in my experience, I think they might have been the first. You know, when Airplane came out and people like Leslie Nielsen, who are famous for being dramatic actors, were in it. That's kind of what they, that is the DNA of it. So to me, if you put comedians in, then you're just doing a cop comedy.

1:10:25And putting dramatic actors is what, kind of the main thing that makes a naked gun. So I know you disagree with the premise that, you know, you can't make good, edgy, stupid comedy today. People are too sensitive, blah, blah, blah. I think your past work proves that's wrong. But there are new boundaries. There are new targets. It's certainly different than it was in the 80s and 90s. airplane, for example, is full of a whole bunch of ethnic jokes and stuff that, you know, probably wouldn't be seemed funny, wouldn't seem funny to a lot of people today. How do you negotiate that? I mean, it's just taste, right?

1:11:01And you can, I think you can still do everything. You just have to be willing to have to hear what people's opinions are. And I'm sure there were people offended back then. It's just that they didn't have social media to tell, tell you right away. so you didn't have to hear it as much. But I think you just always are in the time you live in and the comedy reflects that time. And we have some edgy stuff in here while being PG-13 and not cursing ever, just because the original didn't curse. Oh, is that right? There's no cursing? I don't think... Well, because the original was in 1988 and it was doing, you know, 50s TV, like M Squad with Lee Marvin.

1:11:39Right. So to feel kind of stiff and authoritative, you know, they're all about making fun of authority, right? All of these kind of naked gun movies. And so I think that's why theirs didn't. And then I didn't want to either just because I thought it was a fun challenge. It's like, see how dirty and edgy and risky we could be without without cursing. The romp in the snow with a snowman. That was that was a very interesting little subplot. I didn't say anything about it. I didn't say anything more than Neeson said with Colbert, I kept it. I kept it. No spoilers. So I have to say it's a great time to have a movie like this, just a stupid, hilarious comedy in theaters.

1:12:23People really need to laugh. I see this reflected in a lot of the comments that people are making about the movie, including the New York Times film critic. How did you know that this was going to be the right time to bring back naked gun? I didn't. I mean, we're always just trying. We're being me and Andy and Yorma, who you mentioned as the Lonely Island, and they're not involved in this one, but we just always, our favorite stuff growing up was this kind of stuff. And I know it has gone out of fashion, and there hasn't been spoof movies in a long time, but we've never stopped trying to make stuff that's surreal and really silly and stupid, as you say, in the good way.

1:13:01And so maybe finally it's time. We'll see if people show up in the theaters this weekend, but maybe it's finally time that everybody else was ready for it too. Well, I think it's fantastic and absolutely people should hit the theaters. It is just, and as has been said in the reviews, there are so many jokes coming at you. If there's one that doesn't land, like you don't even have time to react because there's another one coming, and that definitely captures the spirit of the original. The Naked Gun, again, hits theaters this weekend. It's a must-see. Akiva Schaefer, thank you so much. Later, Quaid.

1:13:36Later. Righteous Kill. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and on the TikTok at ChickTapper. You can follow the show on X at the Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of the Lead, you know what? You can listen to all two hours of the show from whence you get your podcasts. It's all two hours just sitting right there waiting for you. Aaron Burnett out front starts right now.

1:14:01Go inside the sports moments that brought us together and made history. From the underdogs to the rivalries and the miracles. It sends chills down your spine. It's what sport was all about. The new CNN original series, Decades in Sports. Now streaming on the CNN app.