U.S.-Iran Ceasefire on Shaky Ground Amid Continued Attacks

28:45So right now it's like our hands are tied. So I can't do anything until he's entered into the system. Well, stay in touch with our team. Joseph Williams, thank you so much. You bet. Thank you. Politics lead next. We're going to zero in on that special election in Georgia to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. How the results in that race could set a tone for the upcoming midterm elections now less than eight months away.

29:17We're back with the politics lead and House Republicans padding their ever so slim majority. They now have a four-seat advantage after yesterday's special election. Republican Clay Fuller, as expected, will replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia's 14th congressional district. That's along the state's northwestern border with Alabama. It's rather rural, heavily Republican. But given politics these days, Democrats hoped they could pull off an upset. They did not, but there is good news for them there. We'll tell you about that in a sec. They have similar hopes in rural North Carolina.

29:47Many voters there feel the Republican Party has just simply let them down, especially after the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in 2024. But there's a list of other complaints. CNN's John King heard out those complaints in his latest chapter of his series, All Over the Map.

30:05Marshall is along the French Broad River in North Carolina's 11th congressional district. Hurricane Helene's floodwaters rose above this bridge and pummeled the town. Sounds and signs of progress, but also lingering scars, lingering frustration. It still feels slow. It still feels like we haven't seen the government step in in ways that are meaningful. Tourism is the economy here. Lean back. We're good to go. See ya. Corey Hampton's outdoor adventure company saw sales drop 40 percent last summer. Hikers and campers, rafters and zipliners thought it best, or safest, to stay away. We all knew that that first season after the storm was going to be difficult, but we're hoping that this is the turning point for us.

31:00But now, a new worry. That folks are just not going to be as willing to travel. and on top of everything else that's happened to us. You drive a lot if you live in a rural place like Marshall. The price of gas matters, especially if things are already tight. It's just terrifying, you know. We're helping a hundred of our staff put food on the table. They say looks can be deceiving, and they say one picture is worth a thousand words. So which is this? A recent Monday night in Tiny Marshall, a packed fish fry for a local farmer running for Congress. Madison County voted 61 % for Trump. Jamie Ager is a Democrat.

31:39We're all thinking about our garden this spring, which is something that Mountain Democrats do, is grow a garden. Josh Kopis owns this hotel and restaurant. He went to college with Ager, works his real magic in a ceramic studio on the outskirts of town. Why do Democrats struggle so much here? I think we lost our way. I don't know. Like we got caught up doing something that didn't connect with the people in rural America. John, let's go back to that, the Georgia election, a little south of North Carolina. The Republican won. But explain why Democrats are also feeling like they had a good night.

32:21Because of the margin, Jake, and not just in this race, but we can show you this has been happening throughout 2025 and now 2026. Here's the race. You mentioned Clayton Fuller will soon be a Republican congressman. He won the race. You say 56-44. Wow, that's a big win. What are Democrats going to be excited about? How could Democrats possibly be excited about this? Well, this is the district. Marjorie Taylor Greene won back in 2024 by a wow, a 29 point margin. So margins matter. What does that tell you? Republicans aren't showing up. Democrats aren't are showing up even in rural red areas. So why does that matter going forward?

32:52Well, you pull out the map and you look at 2024. We were just in North Carolina. Right. So you come into North Carolina. We're out in this district right out here. Chet Edwards, he won it pretty handily last time. But look at that margin, right? So if the Democrats overperformed there, Chuck Edwards would be in trouble. So we'll see how that goes there. You come to other races as well. Tennessee, we've talked about that race before. This is the easiest way to show it to you. Democrats are simply overperforming. They have been throughout 2025 and 2026. The Virginia governor's race, Harris carried the state by six.

33:23The governor won by 16. Harris carried New Jersey by six. The governor won by 14. In Tennessee's special election, Mark Green had won by 22 points. The Republican who replaced him won only by nine. And then Marjorie Taylor Greene, again, she won by 29. The Republican replaced her only by 12. So if you are a strategist, you see Democrats are coming out to vote. It's an anti-Trump vote. And a lot of Republicans have, for whatever reason, a reason to stay home. So Republicans at the moment have an enthusiasm and a turnout problem. Interesting stuff. Let's bring in Democratic strategist Adrian Elrod and Republican strategist Ashley Davis, who has a brand new book out.

33:58It's called The Power Pivot with Grit, Grace, and Growth. Congratulations so much on this book. Thank you. I need to write seven more to keep up with you, I guess. But I love these graphics. I need to take them with me somehow. You can have them. You can have them. Can't wait to read it. I just got a copyright this second. What do you make of the results in Georgia last night? Obviously, Republicans won. Your party won. But the margins are getting slimmer. Yeah. And look, listen, when the president wins by 25 points and this person wins by 12, that's obviously not a good sign. But I think midterm elections, there's much more excitement on the opposite party side.

34:33The Democrats have tons of excitement right now. I think the key is going to be when we get out of these specials and get into the president unleashing his$300 million after Memorial Day, when he was just covering North Carolina and you look at some of those comments, that's why John Thune just put$71 million into North Carolina's Senate race. So I do think that a lot of this money is going to unleash soon. But listen, you guys have the excitement. Yeah. And the drive. We finally have some excitement on our side. And just looking forward to November, I'm looking at the piece John just did on rural North Carolina.

35:10And I'm not thinking about the House race there. I'm thinking about the Senate race there. Absolutely. Roy Cooper in a very competitive race. And I'm not thinking about Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat as a potential Democratic pickup as much as I'm thinking, what does that mean for John Ossoff, the Democrat running for reelection in Georgia? No, absolutely. I mean, I think, first of all, in terms of pickup opportunities, it is widely considered that North Carolina is going to be Democrats' number one shot at flipping a Senate seat. But I think there's also a number of other races that we're going to flip, too, for the very reasons that John laid out in his piece, which is, number one, One, rural voters who largely went for Trump in 2024 and even for Trump in 2020 are seeing their gas prices go up.

35:48You know, we live here in the Beltway where we might drive five or six miles a day. A lot of these folks in America are driving 30, 40 miles a day. So they are really feeling that they're driving diesel and they're driving diesel, which is substantially higher than regular gas. So they're feeling this impact. They trusted Trump to lower prices for them. They're not seeing that happen. Number one. You know, secondly, Democrats, you were seeing this play out in the poll results. I mean, Democrats have flipped 30 state legislative seats. Some of these we don't always talk about on TV because they're happening in smaller electorates across the country.

36:20But we have flipped 30 legislative seats since the presidential election in 2024, which does show that the momentum is on the Democratic side. And it's not necessarily because people are saying, yay, I love what Democrats are talking about. They're just incredibly frustrated with Trump and his lack of ability to actually address the issues that matter to American families. Is that what you're hearing? That is a critically important point. Democrats have not solved their problems. That will be 2027 to 2028. But this election is about Trump. Midterms are always about the incumbent. And they're always about how do you feel right now and who do you take that out on?

36:49So if you're mad about the price of gas, if you're mad the price of groceries, it's come down. Some inflation is down, some under Trump, but it's not down enough for people, especially because he promised he would do it like that. He said it would be easy and it's not. So to your driving point, if you live in New York City, you drive on average$9 ,000,$10 ,000 a year to 10 ,000 miles a year. You live in Madison County, North Carolina, you're driving 18 ,000 miles a year. And if you have a farm, you have equipment that all takes diesel. And so it's the cumulative effect. You also probably live in a place where a lot of the working class people get their health care through the ACA, through Obamacare.

37:19And the president said they would find a new plan to replace those subsidies, and they haven't. He said that in 2017 also. But it's a cumulative thing. The affordability thing at any moment today, it's gas. You drive by that thing every day. You see that it's gone up$1.18 in the last month. But for working families who racked up credit card debt, maybe under Joe Biden, that might not be Trump's fault, but they can't pay that debt off. The groceries haven't gone down. Their health care has gone up. Now gas is going up. They just they're not tired of winning. They're tired of being tired. So, Ashley.

37:48It's eggs and beef from two years ago. Those prices that are, you know, still not down as much as they should be. But other examples. Ashley, take a look at all the House special elections since Trump took back the White House. Democrats have been cutting into Trump's 2024 margins, overperforming in districts that Kamala Harris won. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, posted last night, quote, we're closing the gap and Republicans are absolutely terrified. You talk to Republicans all the time. Are Republicans terrified? I don't know if terrified, but I think that you can't look at this.

38:17I talked to a bunch of people today knowing, you know, what happened last night. And I think publicly they are waiting to see how the president helps with now when he gets on the campaign trail. Remember, this was supposed to start in January that he was supposed to be on every week. That's going to be the biggest concern I feel for us Republicans is Trump gets people off the couch to vote and him not being on the ticket is going to be an issue. And John, a Democratic momentum, perhaps, in the swing state of Wisconsin. Chris Taylor, a liberal appeals court judge, won a seat on her state's Supreme Court.

38:54They have elections for the state Supreme Court there. What is notable, if anything, about her win? Well, it was by twice the margin of the last state Supreme Court election won by the Democrats. So again, you're seeing the huge, huge enthusiasm gap. That's a state Trump won by one point, a little less than one point. And so you have a Democrat winning state Supreme Court race. It's not a presidential race. This year is not a presidential year. I get all that. But you just showed that chart. Republicans keep saying it's a special, it's a special, it's a special. But they're everywhere. They're in Mississippi, they're in Pennsylvania, they're in Wisconsin, they're in Texas.

39:22And the Democrats are winning, period. You want to be the side that's winning. The other thing about Wisconsin is the Waukesha mayor. That is a red-leaning suburbs. It is the suburbs that revolted against Trump in the 2018 midterms and made Nancy Pelosi speaker. If the Republicans are losing in Waukesha, if you're Brian Fitzpatrick in Buck County, Pennsylvania, you woke up today calling your team saying, holy, let's fix this. Well, outside Philly, they don't they actually say the word. Adrian, so John alluded to this. Despite the gains, the Democrats are clearly making it to polls. Here's a CNN poll.

39:55Democrats faced a favorability gap compared to Republicans. Republican Party, 32 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable. Democratic Party, less 28 % favorable and more 56 % unfavorably. Democrats are not popular either. We've got some work to do. But look, John just alluded to this. I mean, I think once Democrats have some power back at the federal level, once we get into the 27, 28 primaries for the 28 presidential campaign, we've got a lot of incredible people running, or I think we're going to run, including a lot of really dynamic governors. The leader of the party, the shape of the party is going to really start to form after we get some power back.

40:33And we have every reason to believe that that's going to happen based on these numbers. We will see. And again, the book, The Power Pivot by Ashley Davis. It's available now. Check it out. Thanks to all. Appreciate it. As the ceasefire talks progress between the U.S. and Iran, sources tell CNN that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not know which path President Trump would take. Brand new reporting just in from our team in Israel. We're going to go live to Tel Aviv next.

41:05Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, could the fragile ceasefire with Iran already be in jeopardy? Is the crucial Strait of Hormuz actually open or not? What are the next steps in this war, if any? The head of NATO traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Trump and discuss all of that today. So what happened behind closed doors? That NATO Chief Secretary General Mark Ruta joins me live in moments. Plus, the Artemis II astronauts are just about two days away from splashing down back here on Earth. But before then, they're sharing even more of their journey with us. Stunning images of what's known as Earthset.

41:43Craters that had never before been seen by human eyes. We're going to look at these photos with a retired astronaut live in studio to break down just how significant these discoveries are. Also, it was the case that haunted New York communities for decades. and today the man known as the Gilgo Beach serial killer admitted to strangling eight women and disposing of their bodies. Here's what he had to say to the judge inside the courtroom today. And on any given night, more than 30 ,000 U.S. veterans experience homelessness. It's an embarrassing and tragic statistic. So I traveled to Los Angeles to meet with Mayor Karen Bastetour, one of the brand new affordable housing sites being built for these American heroes who risk their lives for a country that is sadly failing them.

42:31The lead tonight, the fate of the Iran war ceasefire, which Vice President J.D. Vance is calling fragile. It rests right now on the Strait of Hormuz. The White House says Iran has offered private assurances that the key oil passage is open following last night's deal, despite state media reports there, Iranian state media reports, that Iran has halted traffic after Israeli strikes against Hezbollah and Lebanon. We have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today, and I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely.

43:07That is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that is what's taking place, and these reports publicly are false. Key members of the Trump administration will begin key negotiations regarding the future of the war in Pakistan this Saturday. Today, the Israelis are launching what they call their largest barrage of coordinating strikes across Lebanon, going after Hezbollah. They're killing at least 182 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry, and wounding hundreds more. President Trump says that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire deal. The White House says Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night and say he supports the president and the ceasefire.

43:46Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv. And Jeremy, Netanyahu just convened a meeting of his security cabinet. What more do we know about the Israeli position on this ceasefire? Jake, that's right. The Israeli prime minister is sitting down with his security cabinet to discuss this new reality, this new fragile ceasefire that has taken hold between the United States and Iran and also leading to Israel withholding its strikes on Iranian territory. But moments before that security cabinet meeting took place, the Israeli prime minister spoke out publicly for the first time since this ceasefire took effect, and he reaffirmed Israel's right to continue carrying out strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

44:28And that has been the story today. Israel and the United States both insisting that Lebanon is not part of this ceasefire agreement, despite the fact that the Pakistani prime Minister, who's acting as the mediator in this case, and the Iranians are both saying that Lebanon should be included as part of this. And it is leading to questions about whether or not this entire ceasefire may collapse over the fact that Israel is continuing to strike and claiming the right to continue to strike Hezbollah targets inside of Lebanon, as it has killed nearly 200 people inside of Lebanon today in the most severe strikes that it has brought down on Lebanon since this conflict began.

45:05And all of this happened after the Israeli prime minister was largely kept out of the loop in the dark about the progress of these ceasefire negotiations. We're told by sources that he was briefed on the current status of those ceasefire talks very shortly before President Trump put out that post on Truth Social last night. The question now is what happens going forward? As the vice president, J.D. Vance, who set to travel to these negotiations on Saturday is calling all of this a misunderstanding, but a misunderstanding that could lead to this entire ceasefire collapsing. Jeremy, do you know if the Strait of Hormuz is actually open, like the White House claims?

45:46We talked to somebody in the oil industry. He said that he doesn't think that the White House has the information correct. Yeah, there's no indication that the Strait of Hormuz is open right now. The Iranians, for their part have said that they allowed two Iranian flagged ships to go through the strait earlier today, as well as one Chinese vessel. We've looked at marine traffic tracking data. There is no ships. There are no ships going through the Strait of Hormuz at this moment right now. And the Iranians are insisting that as long as Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, they are going to keep that strait closed.

46:23And that is where this question of whether this is the issue that's going to lead to the collapse of the ceasefire comes to bear. The vice president also addressed this today, saying that if we don't see the Strait of Hormuz opened, then the president is not going to abide by our terms, meaning that the United States is not going to abide by the ceasefire unless Iran holds up its end of the bargain, which is keeping that straight open and opening that straight in the first place. All right, Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us. Thanks so much. Let's bring in retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton.

46:55Colonel, Vice President Vance called the ceasefire fragile. He said he thinks it was a legitimate misunderstanding on Iran's part when the Iranians believed that Lebanon would be part of the ceasefire. And of course, that's an issue because the Israelis are going after Hezbollah in Lebanon, bombing Lebanon, killing people there. It does seem like an important point. How does a miscommunication like that even happen? Yeah, that's a great question, Jake. It shouldn't have happened. And, you know, especially when you're talking about specific geographies like Lebanon and like the Israeli movements into southern Lebanon.

47:28But Israel is basically trying to take over the southern part of Lebanon to serve as a buffer zone for its forces and for its citizens in northern Israel. So that's a clear Israeli goal. And they haven't quite completed that. Plus, they've also just killed another senior leader in Hezbollah. So they are still pursuing those kinds of targets. And they'll continue to do so, I think, until there's a separate ceasefire for that particular area. So I think as far as how this misunderstanding happened, I think that the United States is basically, in this case, taking the side of Israel. And whether or not it was discussed with the Iranians is actually an open question.

48:11But it seems as if the Iranians thought that this would cover the entire Middle East, but it is not. It's clearly just covering the ceasefire. It's just clearly covering the Persian Gulf region. The White House says that any reports that Iran continues to have the Strait of Hormuz shut down, the White House says that's false. You heard Jeremy Diamond just now saying that there's no indication that the Strait of Hormuz is open other than two Iranian ships and a Chinese vessel that the Iranians let through. The chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil, we talked to him in the last hour, Tom Kloza, he just told me that the oil industry is not seeing any evidence of substantial oil tanker traffic moving through the strait.

48:49Can the U.S. military monitor this? I would assume that there are actual government, U.S. government experts that would know the truth of this. And if it's true that the Iranians are keeping the strait closed, even though President Trump denies it, what should happen? Yeah, well, basically, you know, in terms of international maritime navigation, the strait should be open. Under international law, it should be open, and it should be open in the way it was open, in other words, total free, before this war started. Yes, there are government experts, absolutely, who would be able to monitor the traffic throughout the Persian Gulf region and specifically at the Strait of Hormuz.

49:30So I checked some of the similar maritime tracking sources that Jeremy did a little bit before he did, and I saw the same thing. There is basically no traffic going through the Strait of Hormuz. And, you know, quite frankly, you know, until they reach the volume of 135 or so vessels per day, which they're nowhere near doing, the Strait is not quite open to the extent that it was before this war. Even if tensions between the U.S. and Iran die down, tensions between the U.S. and NATO countries continue. you. Caroline Levitt at the White House was asked about a joint statement from the NATO countries about the straight-of-form ruse.

50:09Here's what she had to say. I have a direct quote from the President of the United States on NATO, and I will share it with all of you. They were tested and they failed. What's your response to that? Well, I think we really have to take a step back and realize that NATO is, first of all, a defensive alliance. And the way most European nations see this, and practically all of them, I think see it, is that the United States, first of all, didn't consult with them. And secondly, in many cases, they believed that this war was an illegal war. So it's really hard to get a defensive alliance to agree to support you if you're engaged in an offensive war and you are conducting an illegal war in their view.

50:54So given those facts, you can't really blame the Europeans who have a political base that they have to serve and be in democracies, they have to do that. You can't really blame them for feeling the way they do. And that's, I think, the key element here. Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton, thank you so much. NASA released new photos of the moment known as not sunset, Earth set, when the Earth appears to set behind the moon. It's one of the stunning sights seen by the crew of Artemis II. We're going to break down the best images next. Plus, she's known as the Ketamine Queen. She's the woman who sold actor Matthew Perry the drugs that led to his death.

51:33She was sentenced to death. Stick with us.

51:42Time now for our out-of-this-worldly views that the human eye has never seen before. NASA has been releasing these images of the moon captured by the Artemis II astronauts during their lunar flyby. The images capture the moon's heavily cratered terrain, its dark plains. The images include rare views of the lunar far side. Here to walk us through these images is retired NASA astronaut and aerospace engineer Dr. Jeanette Epps. This is so cool. So, Dr. Epps, tell me what the Earth set is. It's like a sunset, but it's the Earth. It is the Earth. And this is a great image to show you that at any point on Earth, you have a nighttime and a daytime.

52:27Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, so it's nighttime in the dark part of the Earth and daylight. And when you're on orbit and your orbit kind of aligns with that, you're on the Terminator line. And so you never have a true sunset. But right here, you could see clouds over Australia. You can see clouds over the Earth forming storms. and on the dark side, completely dark. And then in the foreground, you have, I think this is definitely the far side of the moon. I think this is the Ohm crater there. What is that, the Ohm crater? Just a known crater? It's a known crater on the far side. You can't see it from Earth.

53:07But all of this is on the far side of the moon. So the Earth set is kind of exciting because you can see part of the Earth is nighttime and part of the Earth is daylight. So cool. So you're talking about craters. What is the Vavilov crater? Oh, this is an amazing crater here. So this is the crater here. That's the Vavilov crater. And it shows so much detail. One of the cool things is that you could see how many times, you know, there's a crater within a crater there, on there. Let me remove that. But you could see that there's a peak on the inside and you could see some terraces on the inner portion.

53:43So whatever impacted there, the force coming out, you could see the center points up and then you could see some of the ejecta around the crater itself. Do we have any idea how big that is? I mean, is that like the size of the Grand Canyon? Is it the size of like a continent? I can tell you that it is 98 miles wide. 98 miles wide? 98 miles. Okay, so that's big. It is pretty big. Yeah, Yeah, so those terraces aren't just like steps. Those are... No. So can you imagine trying to land there? You wouldn't want to land there. And it's from a meteor hitting the moon at some point. A meteor, some object.

54:23We're not sure exactly what hit it. But yeah, asteroid. So it could be a number of things. But it's on the far side, so we can't actually see this directly from Earth. But you know, once we get our people on the moon and they're there permanently, maybe we'll find out a lot more about what hit the moon. You could see all kinds of craters all over. And they got a photo of a total solar eclipse, right? They did, which is kind of 54 minutes of a solar eclipse. So what that means is that the moon is completely shielding the sun. But you can see the sun actually starts peeking out there. You can see a little bit of the sunlight here.

55:06And then in this right over there, we have a planet. I believe that's Venus. Venus. Oh, that's so cool. And what about Moonstruck? Oh, this is beautiful. So this is a great image of the Oriental Basin. And what it shows you is that, so this is a great... Also on the far side of the moon? No, this one is not on the far side. Okay. And so you could see here, you have one ring, another ring. So it has some concentric rings. And this one is about 183 miles in diameter. And one of the interesting things on it, on this, is the center part. The black portion there just gives us an indication of ancient lava flows.

55:46So there was some volcanic activity on the moon, which is kind of amazing and cool to think about. That is so great. Before you go, I have to ask you that the splashdown is going to be Friday. You've done one of those. It sounds absolutely terrifying, is it? It's not terrifying because we practice a lot of it. We go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We get in there centrifuge and we kind of experience all the G's that we would see, even some of the sea state that we might feel when we land in the water. And knowing is kind of half the battle. It's exciting. So great to have you here. Thank you so much, Dr.

56:20Epps. Appreciate it. The head of NATO just met with President Trump at the White House to talk about the war in Iran. What did they discuss behind closed doors? How mad was President Trump, if at all? We're going to talk to NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda live in moments.

56:42Now to the latest in our series, Homeless in America, today we're going to take a look at the painful truth about many of the men and women who once served our nation in uniform, but who now fight for shelter here at home. More than 30 ,000 veterans are homeless in the United States. It's a crisis that plagues communities across the country, including in Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass says she's determined to end homeless veterans. I didn't plan on being a homeless vet. Life just has a way of throwing things at you. That's David Sinatra, an Army veteran who served in South Korea and Panama before life took an unexpected turn into homelessness.

57:25I was living with my father in Pasadena in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment. And then the news came that he was terminally ill. I was also engaged at the time to be married to a beautiful woman named Cassandra Lynn. Cassandra died of a heart attack.

57:48Um, and my dad, he passed away on my birthday. I knew I couldn't pay the rent by myself. Sinatra says the grief and emotional weight of losing his father and fiancé just a few weeks apart sent his life spiraling. That was a miserable time. People don't look at the homeless the same way they look at other people. There's kind of a stigma attached to it. They think, oh, that could never happen to me. Yeah. Did you ever think that? I never thought for a minute I'd be homeless. If you're curious about David Sinatra's last name, yes, there's a connection to that famous other Sinatra, the one who was in the Rat Pack.

58:31And for those wondering, because I've had a lot of people ask me, Frank Sinatra was my cousin. Your grandfather was Frank Sinatra's cousin. Yes, first cousin. You've met Frank Sinatra? Yes. And he was at your grandfather's wedding? He was best man at my grandparents' wedding. That's incredible. According to the VA, on any given night, more than 30 ,000 veterans experience homelessness across the United States, including approximately 3 ,000 in Los Angeles County alone. This was my bed for over a year. I was miserable, but I had to do it. I used to look at my dog tags and say that I come so far to go so low.

59:13Now life is good. I can't complain. Got a roof over my head thanks to the mayor and HACLA and all these developers that are working hard for us. It's great. Sinatra credits HACLA, the housing authority for the city of Los Angeles, as well as a new initiative from Mayor Karen Bass focused on housing homeless veterans with helping him find stability and dignity again. I asked Mayor Bass about that outside the VA in West Los Angeles. I know that the population of veterans who are homeless is just embarrassingly high in the United States, LA being no exception. Here in a VA center, there are some homes here for homeless veterans, and there's a new city initiative right here on the side of this bus.

1:00:01So you know what, this is a perfect example. There's a lot of different categories of people who are unhoused. And this very street we're on, you know, several years ago, this street was lined. It was so sad. It was lined with American flags and tents. Veterans here, a couple of them even died on this street. And now they're moved inside. This is what this same street looked like just a few years ago. Dozens of tents lined up along the sidewalk, proudly displaying the flag occupied by Americans who once bravely served their country. The point of this program that we've launched is to let veterans know that we can house them now and they can keep their health care.

1:00:43Veterans were hiding and choosing to be unhoused because they were left with a choice. Between health care and housing? Yes. How crazy is that? So if you're a disabled veteran, we penalize you. Sounds like Washington. Exactly. This is the site of a new 53-unit affordable housing project for homeless veterans in West Los Angeles, expected to open later this year. Mayor Bass's office says this is part of more than 6 ,000 units already underway, with tens of thousands more planned. What does seeing a project like this mean? It's inspiring. Homelessness with veterans was rampant, and it's great to see that we don't have any more tent cities in front of the VA.

1:01:25Tell me what you think about this program. the mayor is doing here. It's huge. That's Luis Ordouela, another formerly homeless veteran who served in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm. Whenever you lose your income ability, your earning ability, you feel like a failure as a provider, as a man. The VA and HACLA helped me regain my self-identity and being proud of myself, not ashamed of myself anymore. I lived in a pickup truck. I lived in a vehicle. I would park on top of parking garages because it's safer up high. Luis Orduela and David Sinatra are among more than 750 veterans in their families.

1:02:03The mayor's office says have been placed through the How's Our Vets initiative, but their stories are just a small part of a much larger crisis with more than 70 ,000 people still experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Tackling the incredibly challenging homelessness problem in LA is one of the reasons you ran in 2022. We checked in with you 2024 when you were clearing out an encampment and bringing homeless people to these containers. So where are we? Where is Los Angeles on tackling this problem? Sure. Well, I am glad to report for the first time we've actually had a decrease in homelessness.

1:02:47So in the country, homelessness has increased 18%. Homelessness has decreased, and I'm referring to encampments and street homelessness, has decreased by about 18 percent. Mayor Bass says progress is happening, but she acknowledges there is a lot more work to be done. Part of this journey is not just getting people off the street, but it's transforming a very dysfunctional system that was put in place in a very, you know, unscientific manner over four decades. and unraveling what the problems are and solving those problems. Skid Row is still a huge problem because we have thousands of people unhoused in a very small area.

1:03:31That is horrible, and we're working on that. But what you see around the city is far fewer encampments on streets like this. David Sinatra says for the first time in a long time, he's hopeful. Got a lot of good friends that are still homeless, and they're struggling. They don't see any way out. The mayor says she's going to end veteran homelessness in Los Angeles. Do you think she can do that? I think she can. I'm seeing, like I said, I'm seeing a lot of homeless vets get housed lately. So the program's working. Here on The Lead, we're going to stay on top of that story in Los Angeles and continue to cover the homelessness crisis in America.

1:04:14Coming up, the head of NATO fresh out of a meeting with President Trump amid the Iran war. Trump's even been talking about withdrawing from NATO. So was there any tension in the meeting? NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda came straight from the White House to our studio. We're going to talk to him live in moments.

1:04:36Turning back to our world lead, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt teased a meeting between the president and NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda today. saying Trump may discuss the idea of the U.S. leaving NATO entirely after expressing his displeasure with American allies for not supporting the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda is here with me now. And you just came from a meeting at the White House with President Trump. He's not been hiding his frustrations with NATO countries. How was the meeting? Did he say he's withdrawing? Well, let me be absolutely clear.

1:05:08He is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies. And I can see his point. But at the same time, I was also able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they lift up to the commitments. And And there is also widespread support for the fact that degrading the nuclear and the ballistic missile capacity from Iran was really crucial. And that only the US was able at this point to do that. And let's not forget, there's Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, who is bringing together now a coalition of over 30 countries, even over 40.

1:05:56But 34 participated yesterday in a planning meeting with military leaders to make sure that free sea lanes, being able to use the Strait of Hormuz going forward, will be possible. So I also pointed him to the positive. But clearly, this was a very frank, very open discussion, but also discussion between two good friends. Did the president say he was going to try to withdraw from NATO, or at the very least not support NATO as much as other presidents have? Well, as I said, there is the disappointment, clearly. But at the same time, he was also listening carefully to my arguments of what is happening.

1:06:33And I also pointed him to the fact that it was his leadership which brought about the Hague spending commitment. So the 5%, which is a transformational change in NATO. There's a transformational legacy he leaves behind. This is NATO 3.0, the Europeans being able to take more care for their own defense. So a stronger Europe and a stronger NATO. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the president is weighing punishing some NATO allies for not being helpful to the U.S. and Israel during the war. Quote, the proposal would involve moving U.S. troops out of NATO member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and station them in countries that were more supportive of the U.S.

1:07:12military campaign. Did the president talk about that at all today? Again, it was a very frank, it was a very open discussion. He clearly told me what he thought of what happened over the last couple of weeks. Some countries specifically said you can't use our bases, you can't even fly over our airspace. Spain, France. Yeah, but listen, the large majority, including France, of European nations has been doing what they committed before they would do in a case like this. So Europe, as a platform of power projection for the United States, was in full play over the last six weeks. And yes, it is true, not all European nations lived up to those commitments.

1:07:52And I totally understand that he is disappointed about it. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not worried at all, 10 being terrified. Where do you leave Washington thinking President Trump, your opinion of President Trump wanting to leave NATO? Are you 1, I'm not worried at all, 10, I'm really worried Trump is going to pull out of NATO? Well, I'm not going to get into answering that question. I'm just trying to get an answer from you. No, I understand. But what I felt today, this was a meeting between friends. Because we like each other. I really admire his leadership and he knows what he did in The Hague last year at the NATO summit has been crucial.

1:08:30And NATO allies are with him when it comes to the aims of taking out, as I said, degrading the nuclear and the ballistic missile capacity of the Iranians. Yeah, but Europeans wanted to do it through diplomatic means. Yeah, I know. But we run the risk that this would lead into the North Korea moment, where you talk so long that at a certain moment, it's beyond the point where you can still get this done, because then they would get their hands on the nuclear capacity. And that is basically a big risk for Europe. It is existential for Israel. It is existential for the Middle East. So the whole world is safer by this president degrading those capabilities.

1:09:12And this is by many in Europe acknowledged, and they understand that continuing talking to get this done would have brought us potentially past that moment where we can still deal with it. So you talked about the statement of NATO allied countries about the Strait of Hormuz, about trying to figure out a way forward. Here is the White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt when asked about the joint statement from the NATO governments about the Strait of Hormuz. Here's what she had to say. I have a direct quote from the president of the United States on NATO, and I will share it with all of you.

1:09:44They were tested and they failed. Do you agree that NATO countries, some of them, were tested and failed? Some of them, yes, but the large majority of European countries, and that's what we discussed today, have done what they promised before in a case like this, because they know that when it comes to NATO, it's there to protect the United States, because the U.S. needs a secure Atlantic and a secure Arctic and a secure Europe to stay safe here, the U.S. mainland. But it is also there to make sure that, of course, Europe is safe and to be this platform of power projection for the United States.

1:10:21So what the U.S. did with Iran, they could do because so many European countries lived up to those commitments. Not all of them. And I totally understand his disappointment about that. But it is therefore a nuanced picture. It is not just saying it is black or white. How many NATO allied countries, a lot or a little, thought that the war that President Trump and Israel waged against Iran was illegal, was an illegal war? Do you think that's a prevalent view? No, no. What about - No, because NATO has always taken the position that degrading these capabilities of nuclear and the ballistic missiles is crucial, and that Iran can never get its hands on those two capabilities.

1:11:03There is widespread support for that point of view. I've also heard the argument that NATO countries weren't involved because NATO is a defensive organization, and this was an offensive war, a war by choice. Obviously a nuclear Iran, you know, an Iran with nuclear weapons is not acceptable to NATO, but that the president didn't have to wage this war at that moment. Is that part of this calculus at all? Yeah, but you cannot defend yourself without being lethal. And look at NATO. The Germans now spending in 2029 153 billion, twice as much as in 2021. They will spend the same as the French and the Brits combined.

1:11:41The whole of NATO is now on 2%. Last year, NATO spent 20 % more, Canada and the European NATO allies, thanks to President Trump's pushing for this. Trump 45, but also Trump 47 at the The Hague Summit. And then we agreed collectively to get to this 5 % of defense spending. I mean, without him, we would never have gotten there. So the Strait of Hormuz, obviously, that's been a real crisis for so many in Europe. I read that in Italy, they even have school by Zoom because of the gas crisis in Italy right now, almost as if it's COVID era and other European countries have been hit hard. Are the Strait of Hormuz open, as far as you can tell?

1:12:23Well, of course, we have to see over the next couple of days what happens. But as of now, I mean. Well, I don't have the intelligence now at my fingertips to give you that answer. But I think over the next couple of days we will know. And it is absolutely true that for the Europeans, but also for the Asians. Look at Japan, look at Korea, look at Australia. and other countries like Thailand and the Philippines, they get huge volumes in terms of their oil and gas, et cetera, from through the Strait of Hormuz. So for them, it's crucial, it's crucial for Europeans. And this is why Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, brought together this coalition, making sure that answering the questions what, where, and when, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, we can act collectively.

1:13:08When President Trump threatened to kill the entire Iranian civilization, did that bother you at all as a diplomat? Well, you know, what I always say when it comes to what leaders are saying, I'm not commenting on everything. What I want you to know is that I support the president, and I know large parts of Europe do, when it comes to taking out the capacity of Iran to export chaos to the region, to Europe, to the whole world. They are one of the main enablers of Russia's war effort in Ukraine. We all know this. Yeah, all the drones. With the drones, it is an existential threat to Israel if they would get their hands on nuclear capability.

1:13:48It is great to try to negotiate it away, but we also always knew that with North Korea, it took too long and then North Korea had its hands on the nuclear and then you cannot negotiate any longer and they have that power. Is the world safer today than it was before the war was started? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because, and this is thanks to President Trump's leadership, degrading these capabilities is really, really very important for your and my safety here in the US, in Europe, in the Middle East. Are you worried at all about the increased ties between Iran and China that have seemed to have been strengthened during this period?

1:14:25Well, but let's not be naive. We know that these ties were there. We know that when it comes to the war in Ukraine, for example, there's Russia, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, China, Iran working together. We see that these theatres of the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and NATO, so Europe and Transatlantic, are getting more and more interconnected. And you cannot look at this from one angle and then say totally separated from the rest. This is all influencing each other. It is Russia exporting its missile technology to North Korea, giving money to the Iranians in return for the drone technology, which Iranians use to basically pay for their proxies in the Middle East to create, indeed, the chaos they are doing there.

1:15:05So we know this. Let's not be naïef. All right. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, diplomatic as always. Thank you, sir. Really appreciate it. You know how President Trump threatened to destroy the entire Iranian civilization if Iran didn't make a deal? Wait till you hear how the White House is defending that today. We're going to discuss it with the panel.

1:15:30Our politics lead now. Drivers in Indiana are going to get a slight break from the surging price of gas due to the war with Iran. Republican Governor Mike Braun announced today, quote, I am suspending Indiana's gas tax for at least 30 days to provide Hoosiers relief from the pain at the pump from high gas prices, unquote. Here to discuss the impacts of the war is the panel Jonah. Caroline Levitt was asked today about Trump's extraordinary, some might say grotesque threat to wipe out the civilization of Iran. Iran has a population of 93 million, as you know. And she was asked if the world should take his word seriously or not.

1:16:05And here's part of what she had to say. The world should take his word very seriously in understanding that the president is always most interested in results. And it was the Iranians who backed down, not President Trump. What do you think? To be honest, I mean, someone referred to this as Schrodinger's ceasefire. It's very difficult to figure out what the hell to think about a lot of this. But we still don't know what's in the ceasefire. We don't know the ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. It feels to me very much that basically Donald Trump blinked, not because we were, it was a, wasn't for military reasons, it was for political reasons.

1:16:45He, what concerns me is if we're negotiating with the Iran, we'll be okay. I think we'll come out of that okay. If we're negotiating with ourselves, if Donald Trump has some sort of internal political calculation about how he can get out of this, this could end up being just a massive mess. If we're in a joint venture with the Iranians for a Strait of Hormuz toll, I don't know that that's a huge success. And I just think, Chow and Lai, at least apocryphally, when asked, was the French Revolution a success. He was asked in 1973. His response was too soon to tell. That's sort of how I feel about this right now.

1:17:26Why do you think this happened? Do you think President Trump was looking for an off-ramp and the Pakistanis just provided one? He was looking for an off-ramp and I think they did everything but sort of dictate the terms to the Pakistanis. And I think the more interesting question is who in Iran made the decision to say yes because Iran is such a set jake of overlapping political groups. It's never clear sort of how they come to consensus or if they do or if the decision was made by the new supreme leader. But I thought there was something really interesting in Carolyn Levitt's answer there because she answered the question completely as a matter of power politics.

1:18:09The president went up. He made this apocalyptic threat. We think people were probably leaving Tehran, you know, worried about what would go on. And in his view, that worked. What this takes out of the equation, at least for now, is the sense that the United States is guided by some rules of international law and war crimes. Or basic morality. Or basic morality. And, you know, I think the test for this is if Vladimir Putin had said the same thing, how would we have all covered it? Yeah. Let's turn to so this is the question about whether or not we were getting out of this war. But there was a great story in your paper, The New York Times earlier today from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan back from their book leave for their new book, Regime Change.

1:19:00Takes us inside the situation room as the war was being basically sold to the president. He didn't sound like he needed much of a pitch, but Netanyahu and others in the Mossad were there. The strong, the CIA, so Netanyahu does his big presentation about everything that's going to be achieved, include regime change, democratic Iran and all the rest. And then he leaves. And then there's this pushback from his cabinet, including, quote, the CIA director used one word to describe the Israeli prime minister's regime change scenarios. Farcical. At that point, Secretary of State Rubio cut in. In other words, it's bullshit.

1:19:39The Israelis have basically pitched this to a lot of presidents. This was something that actually came up in the Biden administration. When October 7th happened, Israel obviously went into Gaza with full force and started dismantling Hamas. And then, of course, the war expanded into Lebanon with Hezbollah. And then the Houthis came, you know, entered the fight. And then it sort of became contained within Gaza. But it was always Iran. It was always about what the Iranian proxies were doing. And it was something that we were always monitoring because our forces were getting attacked in Iraq and Syria.

1:20:09And killed. And killed. And so I think there was a quote in that story that General Cain said, basically, the Israelis come to the table, they oversell you on their ideas, and they try and bring you in. And that is something that presidents have had to walk this fine line of not being drawn into a larger regional war. And that was something that we had to calculate. It's unfortunate that we are where we are. I do think success should be given to Operation Midnight Hammer. That was something that this administration took on. Last June, bombing the nuclear facilities. Yes. That did kind of decapitate quite a power for Iran.

1:20:44But now we are in this mess and nothing has actually changed from the beginning except that now the strait is closed. And that is a huge power point for Iran. I do think it's funny that the day before that New York Times story came out, which is a great story, Not to get too criminology about it, but obviously much of it was as told to by J.D. Vance. At least that's the way a lot of people are reading it. But what I think is funny about it is like the day before at a press conference, Donald Trump was talking about sending a reporter to jail because of leaks about the rescue operation. And then basically huge chunks of his own cabinet.

1:21:18If not himself. If not, are leaking about these highest level secure classified conversations. Let me just read this because you're alluding to the fact that I don't know who the sources were, but J.D. Vance certainly comes across in a way that J.D. Vance would want to come across. In front of his colleagues, Mr. Vance warned Mr. Trump that a war against Iran could cause regional chaos and untold numbers of casualties. It could also break apart Mr. Trump's political coalition and would be seen as a betrayal by many voters who had bought into the promise of no new wars. Do you think that this article, while perhaps will help J.D.

1:21:51Vance in 2028, will hurt him with President Trump? Because here he is portrayed in the, you know, the best, the biggest newspaper in the country or the best newspaper in the country. Here he is splitting with the president heroically. I think it could. I also think it feeds into how much trust people are going to have for Vance in these negotiations. All right. Fascinating stuff. Thanks one and all for being here. We're appreciated coming up. The woman who provided actor Matthew Perry with the lethal dose of ketamine that ultimately led to his death has just been sentenced. That story's next.

1:22:26Our law and justice lead now. The woman who provided actor Matthew Perry with the dose of ketamine that ultimately led to his death was sentenced to 15 years in prison today. Last year, Jasveen Sangha, also known as the Ketamine Queen, pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges related to Perry's death in 2023. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, ThreadsX, and on the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at The Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can watch the show on the CNN app. You should be downloading the CNN app. Aaron Bernardo Front starts right now.

1:23:05I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm setting out to really experience France, to savor its world-celebrated cuisine and explore the country's rich history. Eva Longoria, Searching for France, premieres April 12th on CNN and next day on the CNN app.