U.S. & Iran Reach Deal to Open Strait, Trump Must Still Sign Off

26:09I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service. With me is Nathan Proctor. He's the senior director of the Right to Repair campaign. He'll share some tips for extending the life of your tech. When did you realize that this wasn't just an annoying thing that happens, but actually a systemic problem? Frankly, nothing lasts like it used to. Like our clothes and furniture don't last as long as they did. There's a really clear incentive for manufacturers of all kinds to create short lifespan products so that we have to buy more stuff. And that's exactly what's happening.

26:44Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, just once. Hi. Hey. Oh, me in the house. Welcome to the highest competition of the summer. Three amateur renovation teams paired with a top HGTV mentor will transform three beach houses into a life-changing opportunity. To win$50 ,000 cash. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say$50 ,000? Can we join? Season premiere, Battle on the Beach, June 1st at 9 on HGTV. Politics lead now. We're looking ahead to big primary dates in the month of June. Next Tuesday, California's governor's race is one to watch. Voters are going to decide which two candidates, regardless of party, move on to November's general election.

27:34Then the following Tuesday, look for the primary in Maine's U.S. Senate race. Democrat Graham Plattner pushing to replace Republican Susan Collins, who's been in office for nearly 30 years. Plattner is a Marine Corps veteran, yes. But then, of course, there's the tattoo on his chest that was a Totenkopf Nazi war skull and bones. He's since covered over with that. Of course, then there's also the old inflammatory posts on Reddit. CNN's John King went to Maine to see how Plattner's controversial past is sitting with voters, especially with women.

28:08The Portland headlight at Cape Elizabeth. Nearly half of Maine's population lives near the gorgeous southeast coast, and there are lots of these. Do you stay with a known entity in which you have a lot of recent disappointments, Senator Collins? Or do you go with an unknown, a young political newcomer who has said some things that piss you off? Her. Southeast Maine votes big time blue. Portland and the towns an hour or so north and south are critical to any Democrat running statewide. Yes, Graham Plattner is a phenomenon, but Emily Bruce Plum is proof he still has a math problem. I don't have all I need to be 100 % behind him.

28:51A Democratic Senate to stymie Trump would be a dream, and she's willing to move past shocking things Plattner has said about women and sexual assault. What I like about the moment and the amount of people who are forgiving of the things he said is that it's not this purest cancel culture. I like that. I think we need to be able to give people second chances. But she can't get to yes, despite all her Democratic friends who say stopping Trump is much more important than any Plattner shortcomings. Bruce Plum is a seasoned marketing executive and brand shaper. To her, the war veteran turned oyster farmer turned candidate sometimes feels too perfect.

29:28I admire what they're doing as a brand builder, for sure. It's pretty flawless. Does that worry you? I know enough to know to ask questions. That's what I would say. I just want to see some more qualification. Bath is about 40 miles up the coast, this the northern end of Casco Bay. Like Platner, Virginia Schaffer is an oyster farmer, Lady Oyster to those who come for her tours and tastings. That's the sweetest part of the oyster, the reductor muscle. That's probably enough because it's looking a little pre-chewed at this point. It's sort of a beautiful art. I fell in love with it, you know, 12 years ago.

30:10It's kind of hard to imagine this becoming this. It truly... Big generational change is more important to Schaffer than Plattner's imperfections. I'm going to live a long life, and it's okay to give someone without some experience who really knows me and knows my lifestyle a shot. There are some problematic things there, but I think that we really need to think about people who understand life as it is today for a working community. An example right there at the end, Jake, of the generational change we saw. A lot of the younger women who are inclined to be Democrats and progressive don't like Donald Trump, would like the Senate blue.

30:48They're much willing to forgive Graham Plattner more quickly, if you will. There are a lot of professional women, college-educated women who voted for Susan Collins maybe in the past. They're mad she hasn't stood up to Trump enough. They would love to flip the Senate blue, but they're just having a much harder time getting to Plattner because of his past. Doesn't mean they won't get there, but they're having a hard time. All right. Fascinating stuff, John King. Thanks so much. We're learning a lot more about what former First Lady Jill Biden really thought at the time about her husband's 2024 debate performance.

31:17Not only did she think at the time that he was maybe having a stroke, she then thought maybe he'd been drugged. More of her comments and the reaction rolling in. That's next.

31:36Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts. Yeah, in our politics lead, that's former First Lady Jill Biden praising Joe Biden right after his 2024 debate performance. Now, selling a book nearly two years later, former First Lady Biden says she wants to set the record straight about that night. So here she is in a new CBS News interview promoting her memoir out next week. Were you horrified as you saw it unfold? I wasn't horrified. I was frightened because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never. Or since? Yes. You've never seen them like that?

32:26Never. No. What happened? I don't know what happened. I mean, as I watched it, I thought, oh my God, he's having a stroke. And it scared me to death. Today, The Atlantic published some excerpts from the memoir, quoting her, quote, Is he short-circuiting, Jill Biden thought. Is this a stroke? I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged? Now, I asked a senior. Biden administration official what he thought about all of this. And he said, quote, that's quite an untimely revelation. She should have said it at the time because that fear reveals immediate concerns about his well-being, his health fragility and his vulnerability and brings into question his fitness for continued office, unquote.

33:11Again, that was a senior Biden administration official. Let's discuss with the panel. Jonah, what is your reaction to what we are now hearing from First lady, Jill Biden? Well, first of all, it really underscores that that doctor and Dr. Jill Biden is not a medical doctorate. An education degree. Yeah. So first of all, I would like to think that if my wife saw me on stage and thought I was having a stroke, she would. The technical term for it is do something right. I mean, I don't know. There were a couple of commercial breaks. Yes. But and then if you thought there was something like that that had happened And after the debate was over, maybe you wouldn't rush to like a diner for a campaign, you know, campaign appearance.

33:54I don't like to be too harsh about it. I've never been a huge fan of Joe Biden's, but I just think she's lying. I just don't think it makes sense with the time. There are a lot of Democratic people from the Biden campaign who don't believe that what she's telling. It just doesn't make it doesn't line up with how she reacted at the time or any of the reporting at the time. Just to be clear, you think that she had seen plenty of moments like that behind the scenes, and that's why, and so you think it wasn't actually a shock for her. I don't think she thought it was a stroke. I think that is some post, I think she's trying to, in some weird way, protect her reputation for some reason.

34:28I can't quite get behind it, get my arms around it. And the fact, the idea that we had, that she had never seen him in a bad way before, it makes no sense because we had seen him in a bad way. And one of the only reasons he wasn't in the dock for hoarding classified documents was because an independent counsel made a big stink that all Democrats screamed about for saying that he was too out of it to put on trial. So I don't get why she's doing this. I don't think it's good for Democrats. I don't think it's good for the country. And I don't think it's good for her. But I flatly do not believe her story.

35:05Well, it's definitely good for Fox's primetime lineup for the next week. For sure. Karen Finney, here's a new clip just released from CBS News asking if Jill Biden ever saw signs that Joe Biden, her husband, the president, was falling into any sort of cognitive decline. Here's that clip. No. Truly. No. I mean, people were saying he wasn't the same Joe Biden. Well, I don't think that's true. He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden. But, yeah, he was slowing down. He was getting older. I mean, we all observed that. Karen, I just don't think I think I'll hurt my brain if I roll my eyes too hard.

35:47So I'm going to. And as you know, that's not good for me. That's sensitive territory. Right. Let me not do that. I mean, this is ridiculous. Look, to my mind, though, let's go back. The moment Joe Biden said he was running for reelection, he broke his promise. The promise was I will do one term. I will be a bridge to the next generation. And so to my mind, everything that comes after that is a little bit of a sham. We had to defend it. He put the party in a terrible position. He put Kamala Harris in a terrible position trying to run in 107 days. And I don't really see the point. I don't understand why I read a book and why try to clean it up now instead of just let it go and let's focus on the future.

36:29Except what I will say is, the Democrat in me has to say this, a conversation about Joe Biden's frailties means is a reminder that our conversations about Donald Trump's frailties are perfectly fair. It is fair. And I know you do it all. We just did it Tuesday when he had his checkup at Walter Reed. And you got attacked for it, as I saw as well. So I mute all that stuff. So you think the real the real the real problem was his decision to run for reelection? Yeah, that's when he broke his promise. The proverbial original sin, you might say. Oh, would you have to write a book about that? Soon to be out in paperback.

37:02Do you think this matters for the midterms? Rob, I mean, it depends what she says on her book tour. I assume this is the juiciest stuff because they want to sell books and because CBS News wants the people to watch. Ultimately, I don't think so. I think it gets, I mean, like, it gets washed up in the noise. People are already turning to the$250 bill and all that stuff. So probably not. But I don't think it's good for Democrats because it puts Democrats, let's put it this way. I don't think it does an enormous amount of damage, but it opens up a bunch of old ruins. I don't think it's necessarily good for Kamala Harris.

37:36And it's just a conversation about Democrats when Democrats want to be having conversations about Republicans. Yeah. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, whose book tour lasted longer than her 107-day campaign, and seems to be looking possibly to run again in 2028. She sat down in an interview with Jon Stewart. Take a listen. I believe he was fully competent to serve. Do you really? Yeah, I do. That surprises me, actually. No, I do. But there's a distinction to be made between running for president and being president. What do you think? Uh-huh. OK. Yeah. OK, Kamala. That's honestly, that's the argument that his people make that like all the stuff on the campaign trail is just performance, whereas his decision making was solid.

38:29I'm not saying I agree with that, but that is the argument by the Politburo. And we hear Vice President Harris making the same argument. Yeah, look, she is entitled to her opinion. As I said, my opinion was he should not have been running for a second term. That was not what he promised. And as we saw, it did a real damage to the party. That being said, you were asking Jonah whether or not it's going to matter in 2028, not with the way the economy is right now, not with the fact that we're at war and people are, you know, economically, I don't care what Scott Besson says. It's not people don't feel like it's actually better.

39:00Well, he's very wealthy, so I'm sure. Oh, for him, it's fine. Yeah. But, you know, Jonah, just this week, Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, who also might be running for president in 2028. He was asked if Harris should be the Democratic standard bearer in 2028 if she decides to run. He said the person that needs to be the nominee needs to be, quote, looking forward, not backward. What do you think? I think Josh Spiro's running for president. And that's a pretty good talking point for why it should be him instead of Kamala Harris. All right, Jonah and Karen Finney, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

39:30For a seventh straight day, protesters are outside of New Jersey ICE detention facility. Democratic Senator Cory Booker, also from New Jersey, also went to that facility. He spoke with individuals detained inside. He's going to join me next to tell us what he saw. And later, we're going to have former reality star Spencer Pratt on the show. He is now running to be mayor of Los Angeles. And I will ask him about some things he said in which he seemed to embrace 9-11, truther, crazy conspiracy theories.

40:05Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. For this hour, protesters gathering outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey for the seventh day in a row. While inside, lawyers say detainees are on a hunger strike. They're protesting the conditions that they're enduring. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, toured the site yesterday. He joins me live to discuss what he saw in moments. Plus, a new poll shows an incredibly tight race for Los Angeles mayor with former reality TV star Spencer Pratt in striking distance of current Democratic mayor Karen Bass. So what are Pratt's plans to fix the most pressing issues in one of America's biggest cities?

40:42I'm going to ask him ahead. Plus, a former CIA officer has been charged with stealing tens of millions of dollars in gold bars and foreign currency from the U.S. government. Not only that, the FBI claims he only got the job by lying about his military service and education. How did all of this get by the CIA? And final preparations underway right now for a risky rescue mission after five men became trapped deep inside a flooded cave in the country of Laos. An international group of divers was able to find the men yesterday more than a week after they got stuck there. But now the race is on to safely get them out through high waters and tight passageways.

41:27The lead tonight, protests have erupted in New Jersey, which has become the latest home to the battle over President Trump's immigration policy, specifically an ice jail in the capital city of Newark known as Delaney Hall. This was the scene last night, demonstrators filling the streets and erecting makeshift barriers, federal agents wielding batons and deploying pepper spray. The detainees inside that facility are reportedly on day seven of a hunger and labor strike over inhumane conditions, they say. That's according to activists and attorneys representing those being held. CNN's Shimon Prokobos is on the ground for us there.

42:02Shimon, tell us what you're seeing there. Well, Jake, it's really the first time probably since January in Minneapolis where we're seeing such a large presence outside an ICE facility with protesters here gathered. You're seeing this large number of ICE officers. They've been out here for now nearly a week trying to secure this facility, keep some of the protesters out. As you showed in that video from last night, there were some clashes. There were six arrests. Now, many of the people have been gathering here over concerns about the conditions inside, saying that the conditions inside are inhumane.

42:40People are not getting the proper treatment, medical treatment. that the food is not properly being served. So there are a lot of conditions inside that is worrying a lot of the people that have been gathering outside. But this is really the first time I think what's significant here is that we're seeing these kinds of conditions, these kinds of situations, clashes with ICE officers since January in Minneapolis. And many of the people have been out here for several days holding signs. Much of what we saw early in January, we're seeing some ICE officers here, Jake, move through the crowd. Not entirely clear why they're doing that.

43:18But usually when that happens, as you know, is when we start to see some of the protesters get agitated and then there's an increase in activity. So we don't exactly know why that's happening. But many of the people here want the detainees to get the proper treatment, to get the proper care. And that's certainly the concern out here. Usually in the night, in the evening, as we get closer to the evening, is when some of the clashes start to pick up. But most of the people have been out here, have been peaceful. You're hearing some music and people chanting. And we'll see. But they really want to get the proper care they feel for the people inside.

43:54Also, I should note two things. The New Jersey governor said that she tried to get her health inspectors inside, that the facility would not give them the full access that she wanted. The Department of Homeland Security is denying those allegations. And it's saying that if things don't get better here in terms of the security, that they may pull the CBP officers and agents from Newark Airport that process international travelers and bring them here, which could severely disrupt some of the international travel coming into this area. All right. Shimon Prokopas in Newark, New Jersey. Thank you so much.

44:33And I misspoke earlier. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, not Newark. I knew that. In addition to activists, Democratic lawmakers have visited this facility to witness what's happening for Sand, and that includes my next guest, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Senator, you went inside the facility yesterday. You said it is a moral stain in our nation. What did you see? What did the detainees tell you? Well, remember, this is being run by a private corporation that showered Republicans with cash, have a billion-dollar operation. So it is a private, for-profit prison now profiting off of people's pain.

45:05Inside, the conditions were insufficient and unacceptable. From lots of complaints about medical conditions not getting the proper treatment, from women not getting the proper gynecological care when they were in severe crisis, and obviously we're hearing complaints about the food and more. Remember, these people are New Jersey's neighbors. There are people in there that I talk to that have been in our country, not years, but decades, who have American children and grandchildren, who have committed no crimes. A majority of people there have committed no crimes. And so this is a problem and a moral abomination on multiple levels.

45:41And here is what the president and his ICE are doing right now, is they're not deconflicting a situation, they're escalating a situation. With literally my phone right before we began talking blowing up, because airport officials are saying that what the next administration is going to do to the city of Newark is target our airport and stop international flights because they don't think international flights should be going to so-called sanctuary states. So I now see again, this is a president with a chaotic, cruel, and corrupt immigration enforcement, and we're seeing the epicenter now moving to Newark, New Jersey.

46:14So just for our viewers, you're looking at live images from Newark, New Jersey right now. You said that the people in there hadn't broken the law. They obviously are in this country illegally. My question for you is, are they there waiting for immigration hearings? Are they there waiting to be deported? Like, who are they exactly? Yeah, so I want to be clear. There are clearly some people, I talked to one guy nine years ago, had a DWI chart. That chart, that's breaking the law. On the whole, most of the people there, their only crime, if you want to say it's a crime, is to be in this country without documentation.

46:50Many of the people I talked to were already trying to work through the process to get green cards and to get permanent legal status. And it was during that process in which they were pulled off of our streets and out of our neighborhoods. So, again, that population that is in there, this is not the higher security facility that's in Elizabeth. This is a less secure facility because the people in there do not necessarily pose the kind of threats, the dangerous criminals, the people that Donald Trump said he was going to be focused on. And what we have now is a rapidly escalating situation that this administration, especially with their actions are threatening our airlines and our airports right now, seems to be intent on escalating and not de-conflicting.

47:30And I tell you this, we're coordinating with state officials, county and local officials. I'm working with my delegation to continue and up the oversight. The governor, who's trying to bring health inspectors and being denied access, and even New York delegations officials. In fact, I was there with Congressman Espyat. We're going to do everything we can to end this nightmare that Donald Trump has not only brought into our communities in New Jersey, but clearly across the country. Tell me about the conditions inside. Is it just like we've seen images from facilities, you know, towards the border where there's just like big open air, well, not open air, but like big, you know, fenced in places with like, you know, reams of bunk beds.

48:13What is it like? Are there kids in there? Well, there are no children in there, although I did meet 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds. Again, I was very struck by the thick New Jersey accent of one young man who was telling me that he doesn't even know the country they're trying to send him back to, has no memory of that country whatsoever, graduated from one of our high schools, is a decorated athlete. So these are our neighbors. These are people that are a part of our community, and they're enduring facilities that are not meeting their adequate medical needs. Many of them told me very difficult stories.

48:43There are people there, one woman who just gave birth weeks ago, postpartum was nurse feeding her American baby and was pulled into that again with no criminal charges but having a lack of documentation. This is not the dignity that we should be affording to people. It is not only an assault on their dignity, it's an implication of our humanity that we're allowing this private corporation, for profit corporation to provide such inadequate facilities. You're on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I do want to ask you about the news out of Iran. We've learned today that the U.S. and Iran have reached a tentative memorandum of understanding that would theoretically, if President Trump signs off on it, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and start a 60-day negotiation period to address Iran's nuclear program.

49:29Deal or no deal, before this war, the Strait was open, and we were already in talks with Iran about their nuclear program. You sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, you've run for president yourself. How would you get us out of this war? Well, I would not have put myself in a position where Donald Trump has, where now he's negotiating out of a position of weakness and not a position of strength. Here is this minor country that is taking the largest, strongest nation on the planet earth and brought us to a stalemate where Donald Trump, who said he was going to get a complete and utter surrender, has failed to do so.

50:01He's made the situation worse. And now he doesn't have a deal. He has an agreement to try to get us back to where we were before this war, which is opening the Strait of Hormuz. And understand this. Iran, now he's allowing our enemy in this case to now have access to billions of dollars like he already did when he allowed them to sell oil to the Chinese. So this man has weakened us as a nation. He's given away all of our leverage, which we had before this war started. He has shown that this weaker country can now do like Ukraine is doing to Russia with just low-cost drones, continue to inflict damage and menace our allies and ourselves.

50:39This is a disaster. And the people that are paying for it beyond the awful death of 14 soldiers and hundreds more injured, but the American people. We're spending billions more collectively at the pump for consumer goods. We're seeing inflation going up all because of this president's disaster. So he should not have put ourselves in this in the first place. What would I have done? In his first term, when he had a deal that was working, where Iran had no highly enriched uranium, when Iran actually had oversight on its milling, its mining, its centrifuges, when the International Atomic Energy Commission was doing spot inspections, he tore that deal up.

51:17And what did Iran do? It raced to enrich uranium. And then Donald Trump bombed them and said that he completely obliterated their nuclear program Well, he lied to the American people because months later that was one of the pretexts he used to go to war. This is a disaster. It is truly him hurting the American people and creating chaos and again, miring us in the Middle East. Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, thanks for joining us. The Treasury Secretary was pressed today on President Trump's new$1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. Hear how he tried to defend the massive deal next.

51:51Plus, just yesterday, a concert lineup was rolled out as part of the America 250 celebration. But just 24 hours later, multiple singers are saying no way. We'll explain what happened ahead.

52:09In our politics lead, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson today citing ongoing litigation, dodged questions about President Trump's settlement with the IRS of this lawsuit and the ensuing plan as part of the settlement to set up this$1.776 billion reparation fund for victims of what the president considers the weaponization of the Justice Department during the Biden administration. Here is all Secretary Besant would say. President Trump is a great American who has endured more than 10 years, 10 years of nonstop harassment and weaponization from the federal and state government actors. A bad actor at the IRS leaked more than 400 ,000 tax returns including the Trump family, all the employees, and that's how we got here now.

52:59No American should be targeted for political reasons and every citizen deserves fair treatment, full protection of the law. With us now, Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska. We brought you some clips of a feisty town hall in his District yesterday, you might remember. Congressman, what do you make of the Treasury Secretary's answer? Well, I think Donald Trump has been under assault from actors in the federal government for a long time, but so have pro-lifers, so has Turning Point USA, so have school board members that were questioning our school board, were people who cared about what the school board was doing.

53:33Parents, they were under assault in this lawfare world under Joe Biden. Listen, I think the fund makes sense from the standpoint of stopping the federal government from weaponizing against everyday Americans. I really do think that we have to talk about what the purpose of the fund is. If you're a pro-life American and the Department of Justice is screening juries, asking about their religion, asking them questions about whether this is the right call or that is the right call, That is completely out of bounds and it should be stopped. So if that's your take on this all, and let's just pause it for the sake of argument that all of that was inappropriate lawfare.

54:17I think there are probably people that would disagree with you, but let's just for the sake of argument. What about President Trump telling Attorney General Bondi to go after Adam Schiff and Letitia James and James Comey? What about the investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson? What about the investigation into E. Jean Carroll for, you know, allegedly for for perjury? Do you not see that other people can look at what's going on right now and say that's also lawfare, except it's against the president's critics? Well, in those situations that you just talked about, it takes a grand jury on the federal system, probable cause before they indict.

54:57Same thing with Trump. And as we have seen several times throughout this current president's term, his second term, they have attempted to get grand jury indictments and grand juries have said no. However, like we're talking like when I see the fund, I'm thinking about pro-life Americans. I'm thinking about Turning Point USA, about people that just disagree with their government. You know, James Comey was a government actor. He had government resources and arguably did things that were out of bounds. You know, Jean Carroll, it's been, you know, proven in some sense that she, in fact, did have her efforts underwritten by a donor.

55:41And so that, if true, is perjury. But, hey, we've got a court system that will protect the innocent here or those that prosecutors can't meet their burden on. We have to look at the big picture. We have to look at what everyday Americans are facing and how this all plays out so that we can stop warfare, lawfare, this misuse of going after anybody. And if it's happening under President Trump, then those individuals should receive compensation from a fund like this. So it does make sense in that regard. The fund came up at your town hall earlier this week. Your answer got something of a smattering of applause.

56:20It's worth listening to. Take a listen. I clearly think Congress needs to have an oversight role in this before I can sign off or support this. But listen, this is less than a week old. So I am I am going to be back in Washington on Tuesday. I will say this, though. I do not want one dollar of that going to anybody who physically assaulted police officers, period. There are a bunch of those people who physically assaulted police officers who are going to apply for that fund. There's an article about it in Slate today. I mean, people who were convicted or pleaded guilty even who are applying for those dollars.

56:59If you don't want it to go to them, what are you going to do about it? Well, we do have to have some congressional oversight. And I don't want one dime going to any of any insurrectionists was in that Capitol on January 6th, 2021, that violently was attacking or in any way assaulting a law enforcement officer or anybody else. And I think I speak for the great majority of Americans. Take party aside. All right. What happened on that day in that Capitol was so offensive. The idea that they could even be considered victims is offensive. And I would go a step further. And I said this at the time, I disagreed with anybody involved in that ever getting a pardon.

57:38I just do not think we are looking at the same video if that's the case. What I saw does not deserve a pardon. It does not deserve a victim's fund or a one dime of our taxpayer dollars. Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska, thanks so much. It's always good to have you on, sir. My pleasure. A former CIA officer is behind bars tonight accused of stealing millions of dollars of gold bars from the federal government. How does this much currency even go missing? CNN's John Miller is here to explain next.

58:14in our law and justice lead the shocking arrest of a former cia officer the fbi says it arrested david rush after finding hundreds of gold bars millions of dollars and more than three dozen watches many of them pricey rolexes all stashed away in his virginia home and according to court filings rush who had top secret clearance repeatedly lied on applications about his military service and his education. Let's bring in CNN's John Miller to discuss. John, how in the world could the CIA miss all of this? It's a great question, Jake. You know, when I got my security clearance renewal, not even the original, they still went back to my high school through all of my employment records and double-checked everything that was in the application.

59:02In this case, you have an individual who claimed, according to the complaint filed by the FBI to be a former Navy test pilot like Top Gun, to have run a 145 member Top Gun school between the Navy and the Army, to have had a master's degree from one university and another degree from another. None of this stuff, according to the FBI, checked out. But that's before we even get to$40 million in gold bars. So we have to ask, what kind What kind of job did he have at the CIA that he could dial up orders for money of, you know, gold bars in the millions, foreign currency in the millions? A lot of questions.

59:44Could be the tip of the iceberg here, really. What could have tipped the agency off to this? A couple of things. Number one, it could have just been the sheer amount of money that he ordered up in terms of gold bars and cash. And then a year into that saying, well, where are the results from this? tell us on this operation. Two, it could have been when his security clearance came up for renewal, he might have gotten into the polygraph and crashed there. And three, it could be just that he took a lot of foreign currency, according to the FBI, but what they found at home was$2 million in U.S. currency.

1:00:21Suspicious transaction reports from banks converting that money into cash. We don't know what the tripwire was, but it tripped. What is the damage assessment from all this? Well, it's interesting. You know, the cases that you and I know, FBI agent Robert Hansen spying for the Russians, Aldrich Ames or Jim Nicholson, turncoat CIA agents that gave devastating amounts of classified information. In this case, it seems all the money he had, according to the FBI and the CIA, came from the CIA as opposed to a foreign power. So the main damage may be just to reviewing the systems to figure out how all of this slipped by the nets.

1:01:02But there's one other question we've got to ask here. Sure, we want to know, what was his position in the CIA as a senior executive who could call up this amount of money for an operation? But the bigger question is, what was the op? What operation cost$40 million in this kind of funds, foreign cash and gold? is that to recruit Iranian insurgents? Is it dealing with Mexican cartels? Is it recruiting insurgents in Cuba? It has to be major operation and quite unique. And I'm sure that the CIA is not happy about the questions circling around even that. All right, John Miller, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

1:01:43He rose to fame as a reality TV star on MTV, and now Spencer Pratt is polling near the top of the field in the race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. He joins me to explain his top priorities next.

1:02:01In our politics lead, it is an extremely tight race for Los Angeles mayor right now. A new UC Berkeley Los Angeles time poll shows the top three candidates in a close battle ahead of next Tuesday's primary election. All three are polling in the mid to low 20s among likely primary voters. Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is at 26 percent. L.A. City Council Member Nithya Rahman at 25 percent. And former reality TV star of the show The Hills, Spencer Pratt, is at 22 percent. One in 10 likely voters in this poll say that they're still undecided. Joining us now is L.A. Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. Thanks so much for joining us, Mr.

1:02:40Pratt. Appreciate it. there have been several AI-generated videos that have really made your campaign go viral. They're pretty compelling, particularly making Mayor Bass look like a villain, you or a superhero. Now, your campaign is not making them, we're told, but you have reshared them at a time when AI is criticized by many, especially in Los Angeles, over how much energy and water the technology consumes and the very real fears about AI taking jobs away from tens of thousands of Los Angelinos. And I'm just wondering, do you think about those concerns at all when sharing these, albeit compelling, videos?

1:03:23Yeah, to be clear, I've never made an AI video. I've actually brought a job back to Hollywood. All my campaign is shot on a red camera by a director that had to move out of LA to Nashville and I brought him a job back to LA. Again, if I could go back in time, maybe I wouldn't have reposted a couple, but if I saw myself for a quick second dressed as Batman or Prattman and it said vote for Spencer Pratt, it got a quick repost. But the AI actually has not really helped my campaign because a lot of the messaging in it isn't what I focus on. It's not laser focused on the failures of the city leaders and there's a little too many characters in it.

1:04:02Again, Mayor Bass and Councilwoman Rahman have been in charge for the last 10 years almost in destroying Hollywood in Los Angeles. So if anybody's concerned about jobs, they've already cost L.A. countless jobs. If anything, I'm the only one who loves Hollywood and is going to fight for all the independent artists, creators, writers, producers to bring that back to Los Angeles. And again, you know, at the end of the day, these A.I. artists are creators. So that is the argument. Art is art. I don't judge the person that made something very compelling that people love to watch or somebody that made a really good song that people love to listen to.

1:04:44It's not my job to judge art. And again, I haven't made a single AI video. So it is what it is. Let's talk about one of the most compelling and important stories and issues in Los Angeles, homelessness. when asked in a recent interview about what your plans are for the estimated 40 ,000 homeless in LA. You said that 60 % of the homeless are not from LA or California. They're busted by scam rehabs and scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits, and that you would unplug them and ultimately they would all go to Seattle. So essentially they would be forced to leave. Now, I want to ask you about an issue that's near and dear to this show.

1:05:23According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as of 2024, forward, there were about 3 ,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles. Do you think the homeless veterans should also be essentially kicked out of the city? Yeah, to be clear, what I was saying when I unplugged these NGOs that are stealing 24 billion of our taxpaying dollars, these NGOs are going to go to a different city to keep their cartel scam going. How many people they take with them, that's on their scam. I personally am the mayor that's going to actually allocate our tax money and get these people mandatory treatment, whether it's to get off the fentanyl, whether it's to get off the super meth or maybe it's psychiatric medical facilities.

1:06:09Like, you know, I've had many conversations with Dr. Phil about this and he said, Spencer, these people, some of them don't just need therapy. They need psychiatric medicine. So again, I love America. I love veterans. I care about these people that are dying seven days, seven a day on the street. And the reality is Mayor Bass and Councilman Raman, they've been in charge for almost 10 years of these homeless people, drug addicts. It's a mix. The DEA says it's 90 % drug addiction problem in Los Angeles. The people in charge, they're the ones letting this happen. The reason I am surging in these fake polls or surging on social media is because I'm the one who's saying enough of these corrupt politicians taking our tax money and then increasing homelessness and death on our street.

1:06:58I'm the one with the compassion that's going to get these people to help so they have a chance to not only get back into their community, but go back to the states. A lot of these people are stuck here. These scams got them here and they want to go back to their homes once they are sober and able to go back to their families. I had this lovely lady crying to me in South Central earlier this week. And she said, Spencer, my daughter is not homeless. She's addicted to meth in the streets of downtown LA. She needs somebody to help her get off the meth. And Mayor Bass and Councilman Rahman, they think empty beds.

1:07:31They think it's a housing problem. It's a drug addiction problem. Of course, we need to house and find shelter and rehabs for these people, but we need to have mandatory treatment for people that are on drugs, naked in the street, attacking taxpayers, attacking moms, making kids unsafe. The videos that are shared with me that I can't post online because my accounts would get deleted are so horrific. The amount of naked drug addicts in front of children all across the city of Los Angeles doing horrific things that is just allowed because there's no more enforcing of any laws in the city. And as mayor, all I really have to do to make everyone safe is enforce all the laws that exist that any functioning, successful city does.

1:08:14They enforce a law and there's consequences for crime. And, you know, again, this is not rocket science. The reason I have a success is I'm telling people the truth with common sense. This isn't political. I'm not connected to any political party, no matter how much people try to say. Only reason I got in this race is because I was exposing the criminal negligence that burned down my town. And when nothing was done about it and the mayor was just going to run unopposed and get guaranteed four more years, I said is enough. I need to step up for my community and for Los Angeles and stop this. That's what people are voting for, a mandate in change.

1:08:51And that's what I represent. So you are new to politics and there's a lot of people don't know about you. I know you've been criticized for in the past having gone on the Alex Jones show. our K-File investigative team was interested when they heard that because some of your critics have been talking about that and it's interesting in a series of tweets back in July 2019 you praised this this film or films rather 2009 I should say in it back then you praised Loose Change that's a series of conspiracy films central to the 9-11 truther movement alleging that the attacks on 9-11 were an inside job you wrote quote anyone who can watch that and not see the truth is blind Now, around the same time of these posts, you went on Alex Jones' show, and you suggested 9-11 was an inside job.

1:09:39Take a listen. What about government-sponsored terror? What about 9-11? What about governments staging terror attacks? Is 9-11 an inside job from your research? Not from my research, but from your research, it 100 % is, because I can't even believe that it took me seeing your film to know about building seven. How did that not hit the news to meet with? Do you think that, do you still think that 9-11 was an inside job? What I've learned, you know, almost 20 years later is it's actually the negligence of the people in power. I would have loved to have gone along with when my house burned down and my parents' house burned out, everyone saying, it was lasers, it was a land grab, it was just like Maui.

1:10:28But it's not. The reality is people in charge fail us as taxpayers. And when you're listening to that audio, that's a 21, 22-year-old person. I'm now 42 and have experienced city negligence, state negligence. And I've learned a lot about it's actually worse than a conspiracy. It's that we have people in charge that make mistakes that get people killed. So unfortunately, you know, I was young and naive to understanding how there is people that will fail citizens across the board. And I would have to go back and look at all that. I haven't watched any of those things in 20 years or whatever. But I bet now with my fresh eyes of surviving the city's negligence that burned 12 people in my neighborhood alive, 7000 structures.

1:11:15It was horrible. seeing how fast the internet said that was a conspiracy and how I had to be like, no, this is how it happened, this, this, and this. Now with new fresh eyes, I'm sure I would look at that a lot different. I think anytime we see something that's just so shocking and unbelievable, we as humans want to try to find excuses, but sometimes the excuses are just real simple. People failed us as taxpayers. So that interview was in 2009. You were almost, it was in July 2009. So you were almost 26 years old, just to be clear. Do you regret saying that? I mean, you now accept that 9-11 was because of al-Qaeda terrorists, not because of an inside jive by the U.S.

1:11:54government. Well, no, again, what I'm saying is I believe a lot of people failed to allow the al-Qaeda terrorists to get in. So I think the negligence in government allowed, not on purpose, but just failures. They didn't burn my house down on purpose. They just failed. And again, everything I've done in the past, I was learning. I'm not perfect. I didn't run to be mayor because I was some perfect past. I ran because there was no other fighter to stop corruption now. I was happy just living my life, feeding hummingbirds with my two kids, taking them to school. This was not, I didn't have this life to become one of these career politicians where I didn't make mistakes.

1:12:33I wasn't human. I didn't say dumb or stupid things for 20 years in a very public light. So, you know, regret. Of course, I have 20 years of regret. I've talked about how many regrets, but that doesn't connect to my mission now. Once you lose everything, once your parents lose everything, once your neighbors lose everything, you become a new person. The person I am now is very different than the person before January 7th. All right. L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Could we soon get new$250 bills with President Trump's face on them?

1:13:09CNN's Kaitlin Collins asked the Treasury Secretary about these reports. Here is his response. That's next.

1:13:19In our politics lead today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defending the motion to put President Trump's face on a brand new thing called the$250 bill. Bessent, at today's White House press briefing, had this exchange with CNN's Kaitlin Collins. Politically, do you think it's a good idea, though, when people are struggling to afford gas and groceries? Look, I think it has, I think that it's bifurcated. Do you think we should have a 250th anniversary celebration? Well, that's happening anyway, but putting the president's face on a$2 billion bill is a choice. But, Caitlin, it's not happening anyway.

1:13:56It's happening because it's being funded by private citizens, by the federal government, by state governments, by municipal governments to celebrate our country. And I don't think that there's anything untoward about having the president of the United States, the person who was president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill. Oh, boy. Here's the panel. And let me Hillary Clinton, Trump's opponent in 2016, tried to take a little jab at this. She posted on X about this$250 bill. by the end of Trump's term, it'll be just enough to buy one gallon of gas and a carton of eggs. But more seriously, Senator Warner, Democrat of Virginia, says that's illegal.

1:14:37You cannot print money in America that has a living person on it. So the person in Treasury got moved aside, but we're going to play this out. Let's play this. Sorry. That is illegal. You cannot print money in America that has a living person on it. So the person in Treasury got moved aside. But how much more evidence before we all realize that Donald Trump doesn't care about affordability. He doesn't care about your family. He cares about self-aggrandizement, whether it's ballrooms, slush funds, his face on money illegally. I think when he said the person Treasury got moved aside, that's referring to an official at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who was pushing back on this apparently and suddenly found herself with the new bailiwick of a profession.

1:15:23Anyway, what do you make of all this? Well, yeah, it's illegal. It's been illegal for most of U.S. history. Since the 1800s. Yeah, since the 1860s. Some jerk put himself on a penny or something. Right, a mid-level bureaucrat at Treasury, which, frankly, I would have done, too, if I'd been him. But, you know, there's obvious civic reason for not having the politicians of the moment beyond the official currency of the U.S. government. I think that's a tradition that we ought to maintain. And of course, Secretary Besant's answer just was a word salad. It didn't make any sense. No, it didn't. Karen, what do you make of the argument from Mr.

1:16:00Besant that America is having its 250th birthday and nothing wrong with putting the president of the United States on a brand new$250 bill? So I brought a prop from 1976, which my father bought me a bunch of these, which I still have. Thomas Jefferson on the front, the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back. And as you may recall, it's all about America, right? What a lost opportunity to make this whole moment not about Donald Trump, which is his main focus. Forget about the economy. Forget about the war. He cares about himself. And what a lost opportunity to make it about America, to make it about bringing people together, American values, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, documents which Trump seems to feel hostile towards at times.

1:16:45I think that's, to me, that's part of it. And I think Americans are probably angry that the guy has time to do this, but not time to lower our costs. It's really like a flagrant lack of interest on the president's part in anything that the public actually prioritizes. But also, like, I mean, it is, if it was a$2.50 bill, maybe it would be a little less politically toned off. But$250 is a lot of money to a lot of people. Absolutely. But a little bit less every day. A little bit less every day. Speaking of America's 250th, multiple artists who were listed to perform on the National Mall for the celebration of America are now suggesting they don't want to perform.

1:17:26Young MC busted a move on Facebook saying, quote, I have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event. The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is nonpartisan, Spin Magazine describes it as Trump-backed. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged. Morris Day and the Time, who were also listed to perform, posted on Instagram, quote, Morris Day and the Time will not be performing at the Great American State Fair. You'll notice the caption in the post includes, quote, it's a no for me.

1:18:01the quote unquote singers of Milli Vanilli have also said they won't be performing or lip syncing or whatever it is they exactly do. I mean, that is not good publicity. You know, even before the withdrawals, I had some questions about that event. I mean, it seemed like it wasn't just celebrating U.S. history, but really drawing from stars from U.S. history that we hadn't heard of in some decades. It does show how hard it is in this era, and I think it's been made worse by Trump himself and how he's chosen to conduct his presidency, to have a unifying event. If you think back to the 1976 bicentennial, the country had gone through some very serious divisions, but its leaders and its sort of people in high positions in the culture still felt this need to be unifying, which we just don't have anymore.

1:18:54I want to also note this reaction to a story in ProPublica today that I found kind of shocking. It says the White House asked the Pentagon to approve a loan worth$620 million to a company that has ties to Donald Trump Jr. The White House in this story is directly intervening. Now, the Pentagon insists that Trump Jr. played no role. A spokesperson for Don Jr. says he had no involvement. But we get stories like this every day, it seems. Yeah. And I would just say in the context of a midterm election year, the ads write themselves, particularly at a time when I will tell you in some of the internal polling that I'm seeing, Americans unprompted are saying that they feel like the corruption in Washington is keeping their costs high.

1:19:39So something like that. I mean, again, the ad rights itself. We're spending nearly two billion dollars on the slush fund. Donald Trump's son is enriching himself. And Americans are left thinking, wait a second, to what you just said, you're not even thinking about me. What about our concerns? What about the things that you promised you would get done for us? And we do see a lot of these stories. And frankly, they are so much more common than I think we've seen in, at least in my lifetime, coming out of a White House. Anytime I read one of those stories, I go back again to the late 1970s and remember that Jimmy Carter felt compelled to put his peanut farm in a blind trust.

1:20:15This is not meeting anything close to that standard. I mean, not only that, I mean, I think one of our Democratic commentator friends said something like on Twitter, said like Don Jr. is who you all thought Hunter Biden was. That's right. And Hunter Biden was bad enough. Right. And well, and no doubt there will be more stories like this. And we know that there are millions and almost billions more that his family is making. Thanks to both of you. The new measure is introduced today to keep crowds safe when the World Cup kicks off in just a few weeks. That's next.

1:20:54Our last lead start in our world lead. Renewed hope for the five men trapped deep inside a flooded cave in the nation of Laos. After more than a week of hiding in damp, pitch black darkness, the villagers were found by a rescue team Wednesday. and now the race is on to try and figure out how to get the men out through flooded passageways and cramped spaces. Crews were trying to send water and food and medicine into the trapped group while they worked out an escape plan. In our Law and Justice League today, an Australian man, an Austrian man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to planning a foiled terrorist attack on that Taylor Swift concert.

1:21:32The man was arrested in 2024, the day before Swift which was set to perform three shows in Vienna. In a final statement in court today, he said, quote, I would just like to say that I'm sorry, unquote. And our sports lead today, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it's restricting drones at World Cup events, which start next month. Drones will not be allowed to fly within three miles of the stadiums or any fan events on game days. Anyone who violates the restrictions could face fines up to$100 ,000, not to mention criminal charges. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, threads, ex-BlueSky, on the TikTok of Jake Tapper.

1:22:04You can follow the show on accident Instagram at the Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of the Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. Aaron Burnett, Upfront, starts now.

1:22:19From the descendants of history makers involved in the Louisiana Purchase to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, discover the untold stories of American expansion in the CNN original series, This Land, premiering June 7th on CNN. I'm Daniel Dae Kim. I'm going to South Korea to figure out how this small nation conquered the world with its culture. Join me and meet the artists and creators behind the phenomenon. K-Everything. Now streaming on the CNN app.