WSJ: Trump Urges Pulte to Start Firing Intel Employees

25:36And Jake Reze also telling me he believed that for the United States, as he put it, negotiations would be the better option, saying that a return to violence certainly would be a lot more costly for the United States. At the same time, also saying that the Iranians, as he put it, are not looking for hostile relations with the other countries here in the Gulf region. Of course, we had had those drone strikes on some facilities here in the Gulf region. The Iranians saying they want to mend their ties with other Gulf neighbors. but at the same time warning that a return to violence with the U.S. would be very bad news for this entire region.

26:08All right, Fred Pleiken in Tehran, where it's a little bit after 1 a.m. Thank you so much. Closing bell last hour and major losses on Wall Street, including the worst drop for the Nasdaq in more than a year. What this could mean for your money and a turbulent U.S. economy. We're getting some insights next.

26:29Oh, just my tie. Hey. Oh, you mean 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? All new Battle on the Beach, Monday night at 9 on HGTV. Breaking news on our money lead. losses across the board today on Wall Street. The Nasdaq fell 4%, its worst day since April of last year. The S &P 500 and the Dow also lost ground. The drop follows a blockbuster new jobs report out today, showing the U.S.

27:17economy adding 172 ,000 jobs in May, way more than had been expected. Also, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. Here's National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett taking a victory lap earlier. This is a job market that's hitting on all cylinders. Right now, Wall Street just doesn't understand that the Trump economy is really creating an economic golden age. This is a kind of story that suggests that the Fed shouldn't hike rates. It shouldn't at all, and it'll have room as it watches the numbers to cut rates. For reaction, let's turn to our friend Professor Justin Wolfers, who is a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

27:57Thanks so much for joining us. So I want to start with your top line reaction to this jobs report, which you posted this morning as, quote, wowee, meaning and sincerely. Yeah, explain. Yeah, first of all, I just love the fact I got Jake Tapper on national television saying wowee, but it wasn't me. Look, this is very good news, and we should celebrate good news and lean into good news. I noticed you began the segment with happy Kevin Hassett. And I was madly writing stuff down because I thought if we had good news, maybe he would manage two truths in a row. But I counted one truth and two lies.

28:35So we reversed the old game, which is two truths and a lie. These two lies and a truth. But Kevin's truth is real, which is things are looking a little better than we thought. So you heard Hassett say that there is room for the Fed to cut interest rates. President Trump's made no secret he would like to see a rate cut. And now he has a brand new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. But the market is, I guess, pricing in the rate hike, which is a big reason, I'm told, why stocks fell today. Do you think it's likely that there will be a rate hike? It's very unlikely there'll be a rate cut. So when I said happy Kevin gave us two lies and a truth, one of the lies was that it was a good time to cut interest rates.

29:17funny thing is kevin has said a year ago was asked whether it would ever make sense to cut rates when inflation was at a at running at three point at four percent which it effectively is right now and even kevin has said of a year ago said that would be utterly absurd so he's just out there smiling and spouting a line that has no economic logic that i'm sure that not even who believes but he's out there just saying it anyway the reality is rate cuts are off the table they went off the table when we went into Iran. And now that the economy is actually looking like it survived that shock or riot, we might even see rate hikes to get rid of that inflation that it caused.

29:52Let's talk about Iran. Let's specifically talk about the higher gas prices Americans are facing right now as a result of the war in Iran. Here's how Hassett addressed that this morning. It's our view that it's a temporary phenomenon that is a result of the president taking strong action to make sure that these lunatics in Iran don't have a nuclear weapon. We've been hearing this argument now for months from the administration and from Republicans who support the president that, yes, this is the gas prices are high, but this is the price of of making sure that these lunatics don't have a nuclear weapon.

30:33But we're also hearing that America's surplus or America's stockpile, I should say, of emergency oil is shrinking. And that also whenever the Strait of Hormuz is opened, and who knows when that will be, it's going to take a long time for the world economy to readjust. Are these higher prices we see at the pump, are they a temporary phenomenon, as Hassett said? let me sound like bill clinton and say it depends what temporary is so if you pan back and you're willing to be really patient and um then yeah they're temporary but if you mean the word temporary the way americans mean the word temporary absolutely not and it's a lie let me zero in on this it's actually time for someone to take some responsibility at the beginning of this we were told this was a four to five week war we're entering month four that means these guys didn't just get their forecast wrong.

31:27They're wrong by three or 400 percent. This is a catastrophic forecasting error. At the moment, it's whittling their thumbs. Maybe eventually they'll get around to doing something about that. But we're now counting the duration of the war and therefore the duration for which the Strait of Humoz is closed and therefore the period in which global oil markets are utterly upset. It's now being measured in months, not the weeks that we were promised. Justin Wolfers, thank you so much. Appreciate you being here. Coming up next, an incredible survival story, a guide, a Sherpa, on Mount Everest, missing for days.

31:59His family even started to plan his funeral. But see the images of his incredible rescue and return. And the alarming moments today in space that had astronauts sheltering on board the International Space Station.

32:16You ever have somebody offer to come home with you from the hardware store? I am giving away a room makeover. Where's the catch? Three days to complete this renovation. You have no say in design, and we start today. Oh, wow. You're not just going to steal everything. Surprise! Ready to get your house pressed? For real? A little dated. It's time to turn this over to us. You guys got to get out of here. Got to get out of here. Crashers series premiere Monday, June 8th at 10 on HGTV. In our Out of This World lead, alarming moments on the International Space Station today as NASA astronauts were told to prepare to evacuate because of an air leak.

32:58The five crew members had to seek shelter inside their spacecraft after Russian cosmonauts discovered the issues during an inspection. Let's bring in retired NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who's flown in two shuttle missions. Mike, problematic leaks, I gather, are nothing new on the International Space Station. They were first identified in 2019. How does this happen? How tough is it to fix? Well, Jake, as you said, they've been going on for quite a while. It's been mainly on the Russian segment where they've had these issues. I think the problem is that it's been hard for them to fix it. It's been a slow leak.

33:30They know where it is, but they haven't been able to repair it. These things happen in space. It's not something that's great, but they've been able to control it. The problem today was is they saw an increase in the leak, which was a bit alarming. but then they were able to actually fix it looked like they had two leaks they're able to fix one and were left with the uh with the old one that they had had so these things aren't necessarily easy to fix you can't always fix them you can though what they do do is they can try to isolate it and shut off that section of the space station and in just in case they were being very cautious they had the uh the u.s crew uh shelter in place inside of the spacex dragon in case they had to come home.

34:08But that was really more of a precaution than a need, it appeared. How common is it for astronauts to have to seek shelter in their spacecraft? And what does that exactly mean? Yeah, Jake, it happens maybe once or twice a year. It's not typically for the leak. It's also if you're going to have what we call a conjunction, like you might be encountering a micrometeorite. You're not able to avoid it, to do a maneuver to avoid it. And you're just kind of crossing your fingers, you won't hit it, and they won't hit you. So just in case you put the crew in their vehicle so they can come home. So shelter in place means get on your spacesuits, get inside of the spacecraft that's going to take you home eventually.

34:46In this case, it'll be a few months from now during the normal timeline for them to come home. But get inside of that spaceship and be ready to undock and come home just in case it's a catastrophic hit. So that's the more likely scenario when we have to shelter in place is the potential of hitting a micrometeorite. Yeah. And tell us what it would it in detail, what it would mean to have to evacuate the International Space Station. Yeah, it wouldn't be great. There's this usually two ways to do it. One is kind of like an orderly evacuation where you're going to shut down your systems and save everything and make sure everything's in good condition where you have some time.

35:23And the other one would be an immediate abort. That would be you just kind of there trying to get out of there to save your lives. So that would be a more immediate departure from the space station. But even when they do the shelter in place, it's not a run for your life kind of thing. It's usually let's secure the area, let's close the hatches that we can, and let's get inside just in case. So it's typically an orderly thing. It's not like an emergency fire drill. It could be that, but that's unusual because usually we can, the leak, you can see it coming and you can try to protect against it.

35:57And if it's going to be a micrometeorite impact, again, that's something that can be predicted if that's going to happen. So they're usually not a super emergency run for it. It's usually more of an orderly shutdown. Get in your suits and get inside and get ready to come home. Retired astronaut Mike Massimino, thanks so much. Appreciate it, sir. And our world lead, what's being called a miracle on Mount Everest this week after a Sherpa who'd been missing for six days without food, without bottled oxygen, was rescued. A cleaning crew spotted the 52-year-old man as he was crawling through ice, exhausted, frostbitten.

36:27He was airlifted to a hospital. CNN's Derek Van Dam has more now on this amazing story. Missing for almost a week on Mount Everest, Nepali climbing guide Hilary Dawa Sherpa beat the odds, surviving six days without food or bottled oxygen on a mountain known not only for its brutal conditions, but the number of lives it's claimed. But Hilary Dawa miraculously isn't one of them. Frost-bitten and exhausted, he was found alive by a cleaning crew on Thursday, crawling near the Khumbu Icefall just above Everest Base Camp. He was airlifted to a Kathmandu hospital where he is stable and recovering. His family, thinking he was dead, had already begun funeral rites for him.

37:12At first, when we received the information, we weren't sure if it was him or not. Later, they sent the photos, and it was confirmed that it was indeed him, and we felt happy. Hilary Dawah's group was one of the last to descend the mountain just as climbing season came to a close. Other climbers say they last saw him on May 29th, just above Camp 3, located at around 23 ,000 feet, an area near the infamous Death Zone, where oxygen levels are so low, it's difficult to sustain human life for any extended period. Search helicopters were deployed this week but couldn't locate the missing Sherpa. His family says they should have begun searching when he was first reported missing.

37:55If he had been a foreign climber, the rescue would definitely have been organized much faster and prompt. The family has filed a complaint with Nepal's Department of Tourism in a police case against Hilary Damwa's employer, the Himalayan Traverse Company, which has so far not commented. Not much is known about how he survived for so long alone on Everest's notoriously inhospitable slopes. That survival story for now is between him and the mountain. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, Atlanta. Derek Van Dam, thanks so much. A live look at the White House. You can see the top of the so-called claw there set up behind the White House there for the big UFC fight coming up.

38:40Coming up next here from the longtime Trump ally organizing this event and the fan base that had been in the president's corner.

38:53In our sports lead, a live look at the White House where the UFC is taking over the South Lawn one week from Sunday. It's also Flag Day and President Trump's 80th birthday. CNN's Sarah Seidner sat down with the UFC president and longtime Trump ally Dana White to learn more about the upcoming fight and how he feels UFC fans influenced Trump's 2024 victory. I've been dragged into this whole manosphere thing and toxic masculinity and you name it. It's all been thrown my way. I'm in the fight business. You mentioned the manosphere, so now I'm going there. You brought it up. I walked into this one.

39:30You walked right into it. For those who may not be familiar, sort of a conglomerate of different dudes that are online that a lot of people saw Joe Rogan, for example, who I know you know well, saw as promoting Donald Trump and helped him win the presidency. Is that how you saw it? Did you introduce him to this manosphere, to go on podcasts as opposed to doing your typical interviews? Yeah, well, I felt like that if the president stayed on Fox, he wasn't going to win. and, you know, every other network out there was saying horrible things about him. So what I do know is he can sit on a three-hour podcast and be relatable to a lot of people.

40:18We're rolling. Good to see you, sir. Here we go. The podcast Dana White pointed Donald Trump toward? The Joe Rogan experience. It reaches an estimated 14 million subscribers per episode. Rogan was a UFC commentator first and still is. And so it's no surprise his audience overlaps with UFC fans, mostly young men who turned out in large numbers for President Trump in 2024. Do you think it's good for business or bad for business that that relationship exists and that people see it as a Trump sport, a MAGA sport, as opposed to just a sport? I don't know. And I don't know if that's how people really see it.

41:01I think that people on the far left are going to see it that way. And there's probably no changing their mind about that. This sport is for everybody. Now, Jake, if you are wondering who is paying for this, as many taxpayers may be wondering, Dana White says he is. The UFC is paying for it. How much might all of this cost where they have literally torn up the South Lawn, which, by the way, they say they are going to put back the way it was. Well, the cost is somewhere around, he says, 60 million bucks. Jake? All right, Sarah, thanks so much. We'll look for your reporting this weekend on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.

41:40That's Sunday night at 8 Eastern here on CNN and then the next day on the CNN app. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner is about to take the stage in Maine for a campaign rally as he remains defiant despite yet another scandal? Will Democrats continue to stand behind him when they cast their votes on Tuesday? Or might they vote for a candidate who suspended her campaign but remains on the ballot? Plus, the Justice Department now sending a prosecutor to watch over vote counting in California after President Trump baselessly claimed there was fraud.

42:17But why is the vote counting there still going on three days after the primaries? And when could we have the final results? Also the warning from some of the world's top spy agencies that China may be trying to trick you with offers of a new job. Why what you share on platforms such as LinkedIn could make you a target. And tonight is game two of the NBA finals with the Spurs hoping to even the series down in San Antonio. But up in New York, CNN is on the scene as Nick fans are gathering for what is set to be an electric watch party.

42:58The lead tonight right now in Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner is marching full steam ahead into a big campaign rally as as many scandals snowball behind him. Just days after assuring Democratic lawmakers in Washington there would be no new credible scandals following the ones over his tattoo with Nazi symbolism and his extramarital sexting and his deleted offensive Reddit posts, which slam police and rural white people. Well, another big story dropped yesterday when The New York Times, after interviewing three women who dated Plattner, accused him of, at least as these three women were concerned, at the very least unsettling behavior.

43:36And at least in at least one case, physically threatening. behavior. Now, one of the women named in the article is Lindsay Fifield. She's a Republican who denies any political connection in terms of her coming forward. She said she dated Plattner from about 2013 to 2015. The Times writing, quote, Mr. Plattner could be rough with her, she said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. She was quick to note that he never hit me. He never punched me. During one argument, And she recalled he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling her to remain there until she was calm, unquote.

44:18Now, Plattner was asked about this account last night in an interview on MS Now. Did that happen? No, it did not. There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true. anything alleging physicality anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was these are the statements of someone who's politically motivated in this piece there's a lot about my struggling not being a good boyfriend certainly self-medicating with alcohol so there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been speaking about openly for months now But those serious allegations are just not true.

45:04So now with Plattner on defense again, a source says Maine Democratic Governor Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign because she wasn't able to raise any money. She's being encouraged to suit up and get back in the Senate race. CNN's Danny Freeman is in Portland, Maine. Danny. Yeah, Jake, it's been quite a day speaking with Democrats here on the ground in Maine about story after story when it comes to Graham Plattner. And it's really interesting because so many of them are really wrestling with and grappling with the reality of many of these troubling details, but also the fact that so many of them have been so hoping to finally unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins, and many of them feel that Plattner may be their best bet to do so.

45:44So let me explain really the three types of Democrats that we ran into today. First, there were some who weren't bothered really by any of it. There was one man who said that he wasn't interested in Plattner's, in his words, foibles and just likes what he has to say on the issues. He's still going to vote for him. The second really were people who are pissed, Jake. They're angry and they're really frustrated about these stories, but they're going to bite their tongue and vote for him on Tuesday. There was one woman who I spoke with who said that she didn't even believe his explanations, let's say for that tattoo, but she's still going to vote for him because again, the best bet in her mind to beat Susan Collins.

46:19And then finally, there were the third group of Democrats who really weren't big fans of him to begin with. And now they're just resigned that more shoes will drop and the Democrats are going to lose in November. Take a listen to some of the voters we spoke with today. The truth is, is the Nazi tattoo should have been enough. It should have been enough. It should have been a non-starter. So I have not been team Plattner from day one, Janet Mills all the way. Do you believe Plattner when he says, I didn't know that was a Nazi tattoo. I didn't, you know. Yeah, I know that's troublesome. It's troublesome.

46:54some. What else do we have?

47:01Now, Jake, you heard that first woman there mentioned, Janet Mills. That's the Democratic governor of the state. Folks might remember she suspended her campaign before back in April, but now sources are telling CNN that she's been getting encouragement basically to reignite her campaign in these final days before the primary because of a lot of these scandals that Plattner is facing. But again, a lot of people that we spoke with, again, even if they're not thrilled about these Plattner stories, they think that at this point it's too late and they're probably going to pull the lever for Plattner.

47:30Again, a very, very interesting day up here speaking with Democrats in Maine, Jake. All right, Danny Friedman, thanks so much. Joining us now is Cheyenne Hunt. She's the progressive activist who helped bring attention to the sexual misconduct allegations against Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, which of course resulted in him suspending his campaign for California governor and resigning from Congress. She has now pulled her endorsement of Graham Plattner. And Cheyenne, you initially endorsed Plattner. What was the breaking point that made you feel it was important to take a stand and publicly rescind the endorsement?

48:01Thanks for having me, Jake. Look, I pulled my endorsement of Graham Plattner because the information that has come to light at this point is inexcusable. From comments on Reddit that excuse rape to now multiple allegations from a number of women that detail behaviors that are just grotesque from demonstrably poor judgment to physical altercations, emotional abuse, psychological abuse. It's disqualifying for someone seeking to hold higher office. And we have to do what is right, even when it is politically and electorally inconvenient. Obviously, of the three women in the New York Times article, the one who is the most prominent is a Republican.

48:45And Plattner is suggesting that her accusations that he was physically violent is being made for partisan reasons. She says that's not true at all. And that she has a liberal husband, liberal friends. She would be making these allegations if he were a Republican. It doesn't matter. What's your take? Do you think there's partisanship afoot here? I think that we need to remember who we are. If we want to claim that we have the moral high ground as a party, we need to remember what distinguishes us from those we claim to organize against. And that is holding our own accountable and standing up for women across the board.

49:23Accountability does not change whether someone is affiliated with one party or another. And the demand for justice and equity doesn't change. And so that is why I'm pulling this endorsement now. Plattner obviously had scandals before these women spoke out, including the Totenkopf, that tattoo with Nazi symbolism. And the New York Times piece says that his former girlfriend, Lindsay Fifield, recalled Plattner referring to it years earlier as my Totenkopf, saying that she learned the word from him, even though he has been publicly saying he didn't understand the tattoo significance until last October.

49:59Do you believe him on that? Look, it's been a steady drip of information over the last few months and more frequently in the last few days that has really chipped away at his credibility across the board. And again, I think it's just blatantly disqualifying at this point. So, no, I don't believe that. It does seem as though Democrats are still, I mean, at least Democratic officials, progressives, I should say, the Bernie Sanders wing of the party, which I think you identify with to a degree, the progressives, are sticking with him. Bernie Sanders said something the other day about sure interesting how much, you know, how many people are going after him, suggesting that all of this is about, you know, standing against progressivism.

50:42Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California, he's campaigning with Plattner tonight. He said Plattner's behavior was wrong, but that he sought redemption. What would you say to Congressman Kanna? I'm just calling on all of our leaders right now to understand that we can't sacrifice women for the next election and to understand how this always looks in retrospect. It's clear now, looking at the stories of Dolores Huerta or Eric Swalwell, that when we sacrifice women for the next election, that is always morally wrong. And so we have to understand that while a lot is at stake in this particular race, it's Graham Plattner who put us in this position, not the women coming forward, not the advocates calling for accountability.

51:26And the blame lays squarely at his feet. Cheyenne Hunt, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let's talk about this now with James Carville, the legendary political consultant and Democratic strategist who helped elect President Bill Clinton. And James, you have a different take than Cheyenne. You've been pro-Plattner. what do you say to Cheyenne who says women shouldn't be sacrificed for the sake of an election? Well, let's start. I endorsed Janet Mills. She called me. I sent out an email for her. It wasn't for him in the first place, but it's a choice. And I might point out is this guy had four combat deployments in every war that she voted for.

52:09And we can all be sanitized in peacetime. They can all do anything and not understand that the guy, as I said, he's probably five degrees off dead center. But it may be good to have a combat veteran who is having PTSD, who is struggling, who is having mental issues on the floor of the United States Senate. So the next time they send young men off to war, and now young women, by the way, to be fair, they'll think about it a little bit more. and this will be the consequence of it. I don't know who, by the way, that woman that you call a Republican, that's kind of an incomplete definition. She's a pretty hardcore activist Republican, but I don't know.

52:51I'm sure there's some truth at the end of this. I'm sure some of it might be exaggerated, but I know this, that this guy served his country four times, three in the Marine Corps overseas and one in the Marital National Guard while he was going to college. and we're going to sit here and judge him based on our cushy lives and not what he had to go through. And that's my point about Graham Plattner. But I wasn't for him. I'm obviously for him, Susan Collins, who wouldn't be for anybody against, you know, maybe the most duplicitous person ever served in the United States Senate. Right. But you would you would that's the point is that you would support Plattner over over Susan Collins.

53:34would you uh just to just to clarify where you're coming from if you were a main democrat would you vote for susan mill i mean would you vote for janet mills on tuesday i endorse janet mills right i let her use my name i sent out about email or blast but she suspended her campaign blast text whatever whatever you do i know her she's a friend of mine i like her but she suspended her campaign because she couldn't compete she couldn't compete against grant platter he was just raising so much money. I understand that. I understand that, too. A lot of good mind endorsements does. Don't even call me.

54:07Probably portion you. But this is what we do. And all of the people that are all in angst, one thing I hate is whataboutism. But what about? What about Ken Paxson? What about some of these people? And there's no slack given to this guy, no understanding, because they don't want to know what the effects of four combat deployments can mentally do to somebody. It'll mess you up. I know a lot of people get shot at. I never have been. But the people that have been shot at say it's not any fun. So what would you say to a Republican? Maybe the same thing that you've been saying, but what would you say to a Republican who says, James, if there was a Republican combat veteran who had a Nazi tattoo, a Totenkopf tattoo, you wouldn't be so forgiving.

54:58What would you say to that? That's true. I would say you're exactly right. If that person was a four-time combat veteran, I'd say I'd never vote for him or maybe it's her now. We have women in combat. But, you know, you can't do it. But I wouldn't vote. I wouldn't vote for him. I think the greatest danger we face right now is from Donald Trump. I think this country is in extreme peril. And by the way, as I pointed out, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill worked with Joseph Stalin. I don't think Graham Platt is Joseph Stalin at all. All right? They worked with the Sicilian mafia because they had to win the war.

55:36Abraham Lincoln suspended Haber's corpus. And you go, what about this? If he was a Republican, what would he do? Well, he's there. And by the way, the guy's got, I don't agree with his economic prescription so much, but at least he understands what inequality is doing to this country and wants to do something about it. And I would vote for him. in the general election in a heartbeat. And I wouldn't vote for Ken Paxson or Donald Trump, no matter who they were running against. And I'll be just frankly honest about it. James Carville, thank you so much. Always good to have you on. Granted clemency by President Trump, but accused of new crimes, the startling new analysis about some of the January 6th rioters.

56:13That's next.

56:23We're back in our politics lead. A new study reveals that at least 97 of the 1 ,500 people granted clemency by President Trump for their roles in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. At least 97 have been arrested, charged with or convicted of other crimes separate from January 6th since their participation in the 2021 Capitol riot. People such as Christopher Moynihan arrested in October for threatening to kill Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Moynihan pleaded guilty earlier this year, according to court records. He was originally sentenced to nearly two years in prison for his role in January 6th.

57:00Here with me now is Benjamin Wittes, the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, which published this analysis. Ben, thanks so much for joining us. So past studies have only found about 30 individuals charged with other crimes unrelated to the riot on January 6th. How was your team able to uncover so many more? So we, first of all, looked harder. There are a variety of sets of data that were available that don't seem to have been systematically examined. One of them, for example, is the sentencing memos in the federal January 6th cases, which often list other criminal activity that the defendants were the subjects of or were involved in and were prosecuted for.

57:49Another one is most of the reporting about subsequent criminal activity by January 6th comes from very sort of hyper-local reporting by hyper-local press. And these are not results that will show up high in a Google search. But if you do multiple probing searches of all of the names and you cross-reference it against other databases and other indications, like, for example, these sentencing memos, you can find out a lot. And it turns out that a very large percentage of the criminal activity by J6ers was missed by previous studies. So your analysis found 41 of these of these 97, 41 people charged or convicted of violent crimes, 14 sex crimes, including four charged with possession of child sexual assault material, 28 gun crimes, 51 other crimes, everything from public intoxication to charges of child endangerment.

58:56Do you think you're going to continue adding to this list? Are you going to keep doing this research? And do you think there are probably even names out there that you don't know about? Well, we've certainly, this is not a complete list. There are people that we're aware of that we are pretty sure should be on it, but we are not sure to the level of confidence to publish it yet. And then there are, remember, these are the 1 ,600, just under 1 ,600 J6ers who were prosecuted are only a small percentage of the roughly 10 ,000 people who were believed to be there, one of whom allegedly committed a murder the other day.

59:41And so he's not on our list, although we do talk about him in Catherine Pompilio's story about it, because he wasn't prosecuted. So I think there are two big sources of additional names that are going to start coming in. One is the people who were part of that 10 ,000-person day, but not part of the 1 ,600 who were prosecuted. And the second, of course, is that there are people who, you know, we did not satisfy ourselves, belong on the list, but who probably do. And I suspect that list will that list will feed this list over time. And then, of course, finally, life is long. And, you know, this is a group of people that will continue to commit crimes.

1:00:36The White House told The New York Times that these individuals, not the 97, but all of them, the 15, 1600, were victims of what they called a, quote, weaponized justice system. They said in a statement, quote, the White House has a rigorous pardon review process, which includes the White House counsel, the Department of Justice and ultimately the president as the final decider, unquote. As the study notes, some of this non January 6 related conduct actually predates Trump's pardon, although some came after as well. Is there any type of standard that an individual has to uphold once clemency has been granted, like how parole works?

1:01:10No. So the nature of a pardon is that it is forgiveness. And so once you are pardoned of a crime, you are not subject to any monitoring. You're not subject to the release is not conditional. Right. These people were granted full and unconditional pardons, at least the vast majority of them were. And that means that there's nobody whose job it is to keep track of what they do. And so if they engage in a DUI in which somebody gets killed, as one of them did, you know, nobody reports that to the responsible federal official who's like supposed to keep track of the J6ers who received pardons because there is no such person.

1:02:01Ben, I hesitate to ask, but we're out of time. But if you have a yes or no on this, it'd be great. Are there people who are now dead? Are there kids who have now been victimized that if President Trump had not pardoned these some of these individuals, that wouldn't have happened? There are definitely victims of crimes who would not have been victimized by these people had they been in prison and been unable, therefore, to victimize those people. Benjamin Wittes with Lawfare, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Coming up next, a warning from the world's top intelligence communities on China's newest way to recruit spies.

1:02:54In a world lead an extraordinary new warning from the top Western intelligence agencies that China is using online job platforms such as LinkedIn to find people who work for the government or the military and then turn them into spies who will send along secret or restricted information. CNN chief national security analyst Jim Shudo joins us now. Jim, tell us more about this warning? Where does it come from? What should people be on the lookout for? So in many ways, this is a brilliant strategy, right? Because China knows there are many tens of thousands of people who work for the U.S. government, U.S.

1:03:26military intelligence agencies, or are contractors, right? I mean, you know, there's multiples more that have security clearances and therefore have access to highly sensitive information that China wants. They also know that those people, when they leave the government, are highly sought after in the private sector. So to use LinkedIn as a platform to contact these kinds of folks behind fake shell companies that purport to be from outside of China is a great way to lure folks in. And it would send an invitation. You're coming out of a government job. You're looking for a job in the private sector.

1:04:00You get an invitation to ABC company based in Brussels, whatever. And what's also brilliant about it is that they ask for information first, which is something you could imagine in a job process to say, OK, tell me what exactly you know about, I don't know, missile defense technology, right, or intelligence collection and this kind of thing. So they had to kind of submit not just a resume, but a little bit of a taster of what they knew. So China was getting or trying to get information even before they recruited these guys, in effect. In many ways, it's a brilliant plan. Yeah. And who exactly are they targeting?

1:04:40Anyone or people with specific areas of expertise? Specific areas of expertise. But keep in mind that China views any classified information as potentially valuable to it. So it doesn't have to be about a particular weapon system. China builds files, frankly. And by the way, they probably build files on you and me as well, right? They build files and they like to build connections among those people. Who do you know? who do you meet with that help them identify American assets around the world? So not just the information itself, say physical information about a technology or intelligence collection or defense capability, but also who knows who, and therefore it helps China identify who the operatives are in their country.

1:05:21They're looking for patterns, connections, and this is, you know, just picture mounds and mounds, giga and terabits of information that they then build into a larger network. To be fair, the U.S. does a lot of intelligence collection abroad as well. But China is more aggressive in these forms of, well, misleading, right, the folks that they're going after. Because, of course, I mean, you see this, the CIA will be quite public about looking for potential sources in Russia or China. China more likely to use cloak and dagger methods to draw people in. Yeah. And you have some firsthand experience with this.

1:05:55Listen, I mean, because I served in government in China, I was very much monitored there, right up to the point where I knew they had listening devices in my family's apartment, and cameras as well. But since then, and either partly because of my past government work or because of the kinds of things you and I cover. Just to be clear, you work for the U.S. Embassy in China. In China, exactly. But because of the stuff you and I cover today, even many years after I did government service, they want to know who folks like you and me know as well. There was an incident a few years ago where the Vietnamese government was replying to my tweets with links, seemingly innocuous replies to a tweet.

1:06:33And the hope was if I clicked on that link, then malware would have been installed on my devices. There was a Washington Post and CNN wrote stories about this. I didn't see the tweet or click on that link. But there are intelligence collection methods like this going on all the time. And sometimes they're quite simple. Phishing can be highly, you know, it's the oldest trick in the book, right, since the days of emails and the internet. But of course, it was phishing that got John Podesta to click on a link and then opened up Hillary's files for the 2016 campaign. You know, that sometimes very simple methods can bring people in.

1:07:07This one is far more sophisticated. And frankly, given the number of people out there with this kind of experience, it's a smart plan. And by the way, those folks don't have to want to work for China. They think they're filling out a job application. Oh, man, nefarious and terrifying. And of course, the Chinese government denies any of this per usual. Jim Shida, thank you so much. As Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner of Maine prepares to take the stage in Portland this evening, I'm going to be joined next by a supporter of his campaign for her reaction to the latest allegations made against her favorite candidate.

1:07:42Stay with us.

1:07:51We're back with our politics lead, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner moving forward with his campaign full steam ahead as scandals continue to mount against him. Joining us now, Maine State Representative Vali Geiger. She's a Plattner campaign supporter. With me in studio, Corrine Hajar from the Washington Post editorial board. State Representative Geiger, let me start with you. The New York Times interviewed three women who dated Plattner and accused him of, at the very least, unsettling behavior. And at least in one case, she said physically threatening behavior. He's denied it.

1:08:23Do you believe him? Are you not disturbed at all by what you read? Well, let's be clear. The person who accused him of physicality was is a Republican operative who actually started a group called Ladies for Kavanaugh, who helped write the speech that Susan Collins gave on the floor to justify her vote for him. So frankly, I find it a little hard to accept her word when her own diary did not offer any collaboration and neither did her friends. That he was a lousy boyfriend during a period of time after his combat service. He has, I think, talked about pretty clearly since he started his campaign.

1:09:07He was in a dark place. He had PTSD. He had just come back from combat. He was drinking too much. I have no doubts he was a lousy boyfriend. But I don't think that's what this campaign is about. I'm not sure that that's right, that her diaries and her friends didn't collaborate anything that she said. They said that he was not, they could not collaborate the physicality of what she's accusing him of. Even before the New York Times report came out, he faced other controversies. Obviously, the tattoo with Nazi symbolism, the extramarital sexting, the other comments that he made on Reddit. At this point, do you really think that Plattner still has the best chance of defeating Susan Collins and not Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills?

1:09:53Are you asking me if a 79-year-old governor who is a corporate centrist Democrat who has alienated a lot of her more progressive base over eight years is more likely to beat Susan Collins? No. If you're asking me if David Costello, who has been running for four years now and is a bland imitation of a liberal Democrat, is likely to beat Susan Collins? No. If all of you keep with the character assassination for the next five months, you may succeed in taking him out. I happen to think it's a fight worth fighting. I happen to think that his campaign, the movement he is leading, is worth trying to keep going.

1:10:38I think he is a I know him. I've known him since last summer. Yeah. I don't know what you mean by all of you character assassination. I'm we're reporting. I mean, he had a totem cough tattoo on his chest. That's a fact. He did write those Reddit posts. That's a fact. These three women, these three women came out and they're making these allegations against him. It's a fact. I don't know him. I'm not making any character assassinations. We're stating facts. These women said this. He denies it. And we're reporting it. I just have never seen a single article about the fact that when he shows up, everything is packed.

1:11:17that 900 people show up to see him. You've really never seen an article about that. I don't see Susan Collins' votes that lead to hundreds of thousands of people being taken or killed in war being, I'm sorry, I just don't see his personal life and what we're talking about politically about a progressive economic populist movement as being the same thing. I've read and we've covered the fact that he's obviously very charismatic and obviously capturing lightning in a bottle when it comes to support among progressives in Maine. Absolutely, we have. You can ask the Plattner campaign because several weeks ago I said I will come up to Maine and travel with him and see what he is doing and why so many people are coming to his events.

1:12:05They have yet to take me up on that offer. I don't know that that's my fault. But let me go to you, Corrine, because I want to get a different perspective on this. Well, first of all, what do you think of what the state representative Geiger just said? Well, I just think Maine voters deserve better. And I think that Democrats who are scrambling right now are presenting a false choice to voters. They've known since October that this guy had huge red flags when news of the Reddit post came out, news of the Tottenkopf. And he's misled voters all along. How has he misled them? We've had months of knowing.

1:12:37For example, it was CNN, the K-Files that reported that he was posting on Reddit about a tauntencough. This recent New York Times bombshell about his three exes who are making accusations against him also seems to suggest that he was talking about his tauntencough ahead of running for election in Maine. So I think Maine voters deserve better choices. Democrats have had months to cobble together. If Janet Mills wasn't the right choice for Democrats, well, they've had months. And I think when you start with a Nazi tattoo, it's time to have some contingency plans. And what did you make of State Representative Geiger's suggestions that Lindsay Fifield is not credible because she's a Republican, she supported Brett Kavanaugh, and on and on?

1:13:20What did you think of that? I think that's a completely unfair deflection. And the amount of scrutiny that Lindsay has gotten so quickly, I wonder if that same scrutiny, if it had been applied to Graham Plattner himself, what he said about his past, what he said about his education, what he said about his working class roots. If people had applied that same level of scrutiny to Grand Planner, if we'd be stuck in this situation right now. All right. Thanks to both of you. Really appreciate your views. Three days later and still no final results in some of California's primary contests. But no, Mr.

1:13:50President, just because they're really, really slow counting ballots in California does not mean it's fraud. We'll explain after the break.

1:14:06And our politics lead, the Justice Department has sent a prosecutor to observe the ballot counting in Los Angeles. This is after President Trump without any evidence claimed Democrats are cheating in California. Here's the president repeating those allegations just moments ago. You're going to be waiting weeks to get these votes. It's corrupt. Somebody said it's incompetent. I said, no, just the opposite. it. It's unbelievably competent if you happen to be a Democrat politician, because with their policies, the only way they can get elected is to cheat. Okay, so none of that's true. But the president does have a point about how long tallies take in California.

1:14:48They take way too long compared to other states, especially. Three days after polls close, 60 % of the votes in, it's still too early to call. Which candidates will advance in the state's governor's race? Why does it take so long. Here's CNN's Alex Michelson. So in California, you can turn your ballot in up until the very last day. As long as it is postmarked by Election Day, there's up to seven days for that to come to a vote processing center like this one to be counted. Also, we mail ballots to every single registered voter in the state. Right now, about 80 percent of voters return their ballots by mail.

1:15:30Each one of them has to go through a signature verification process. If there's a problem in the signature verification process, then you're alerted and you have 10 days to fix that process to come what's called cure your ballot. All that takes time. Eventually, all those ballots come here where they are officially counted. But the whole process takes about three weeks, which is longer than most states who don't do most of that. And by the way, have a lot less people. L.A. County alone has 5.9 million registered voters, which is more voters than 41 other states. All right. Alex Michelson, a proud Californian, joining us now to discuss David Becker, Executive Director of Election Innovation and Research.

1:16:22So first of all, what exactly might a prosecutor sent by the Trump administration be looking for as they observe ballot counting in LA? I mean, we should note that the prosecutor was just allowed in that room. There's a live stream of that room in LA. I've been in that room before. The campaigns, the parties, the candidates all have observers in there 24-7 when everything is going on. The prosecutor was welcome to see it. They're not going to find anything. This might have been in response to a social media post by by the president of the United States and some of the false claims that he's making.

1:16:52But we should recognize right now in California, California does go a little more slowly than most states. But for mail ballot states, the states that have made the policy choice to do a lot of mail voting, blue states like Washington and Oregon, but red states like Utah, Montana, Arizona is kind of in the middle. But they all have a lot of mail ballots. It's just that the elections aren't very close, so we don't often notice that it's taking longer. Every state that had a primary on June 2nd is still counting some ballots. California is counting more. And the big factor here that's making a difference is that there were a lot of ballots that were delivered to election officials in drop-off locations or drop boxes on election day itself, usually late in election day.

1:17:32Those can't be processed until later. Of course, the election officials didn't have them. They need to be validated to make sure the right person sent them back. They're checking signatures. They're checking to make sure that person hasn't voted at some other time so they're not double voting. They're doing all the things we want them to do. And that takes more time. Just in Orange County and L.A. County alone, just those two of the 57 counties in California, about a million ballots were dropped off on Election Day itself. But you acknowledge they could do things to speed it up, right? I mean, I think Florida, I think they count the ballots before Election Day, the ones that come in.

1:18:06They process them. They process, right? So they're ready to go. We hit the button and then they get counted. And California does the same. California does the same. Yeah, almost every state does the same. What would you tell them to do differently to speed it up? Because three weeks is a long time. I mean, it's not going to take three weeks until the media gets to call the race. We know that. It'll be in the next few days, probably. There are some late ballots and the cured ballots that were just referenced. If it's a really, really close election, it doesn't matter whether it's Florida or California or any other state.

1:18:31If it gets down to a few hundred or a few thousand votes, they're going to be counting every single ballot. Right, but if you were king of California and somebody said, please, please make it more reasonable, what would you do? First of all, that sounds like a great job. But second of all, I'd give more resources to election officials. It takes a lot of money and staff time to review all of those ballots. I'd probably do a lot of voter education to encourage people to get their ballots in earlier or choose to vote in person, which you can do in California. And it's very convenient if you choose that.

1:19:01In-person ballots don't need to be validated later because you validated them when they went and got their ballot. So there are some options there. Florida has a lot of mail voting, but not nearly the volume or percentage that California does. So they're able to process them a little earlier, and they probably have people returning those ballots earlier as well. You can make a variety of choices, and I think encouraging voters, if they're able and if they might enjoy it, I personally choose to vote early in person. I think that's a wonderful way to perhaps get some of this passed. But the single biggest variable, two biggest variables are how many ballots are dropped off at the last minute.

1:19:35Election officials have no control over that. And then what's the margin of victory? Think about election night in 2024. California's called at 8.01 p.m. Pacific time. Right. That's not because they counted the ballots so fast. It's because the margin was so large, we already know. So I think Trump is doing a lot to try to delegitimize the idea of mail-in ballots, which is silly because members of his own family and he himself have voted mail-in. And I think Utah is all mail-in, right? It's entirely mail-in. Yes. Now, Utah is not the size of California, but we don't have this problem in Utah. and they're entirely mail-in.

1:20:08So what lesson could California take from Utah? Well, we don't perceive to have this problem in Utah because the margins are so big, we're not waiting on results coming in later. Well, they have a competitive congressional district. And that happens sometimes. Usually the margins are really big. Again, think back to that California presidential race. In primaries, the margins can be a lot tighter, obviously. And we're waiting here. We're not trying to figure out who got first place. We're trying to figure out who got third place in these races. So that can take more time. It just so happens the L.A.

1:20:33marriage race is really, really tight between the second and third place competitors. So we need to see how that plays out. And L.A. County is actually counting faster than the state on average right now. So there are some things you can tweak, but I think overall they're doing a good job. David Becker, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. We're just hours away from the start of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. CNN is live at a watch party right outside the Garden as excitement builds for tonight's matchup. That's next.

1:21:05In our sports lead tonight is game two of the NBA finals between the New York Knickerbockers and the San Antonio Spurs. It's happening in Texas, but excitement is building in New York City where fans are outside Madison Square Garden for a watch party hoping to net a second win. And that's where we find CNN's Shimon Brokobos. Shimon, what is the atmosphere ahead of tip-off there? Jake, crowds are already gathering here outside Madison Square Garden. It will be game to tonight with the possibility for the Knicks to take a commanding 2-0 lead. But fans have been gathering outside the Garden here for hours.

1:21:42Some, I was talking to a guy earlier here today who came to this watch party at around 12 o 'clock, was in line for hours ahead of anyone here. He wanted to make sure he had a front row seat. And the excitement in the city, you just can't really explain it. People here are excited. There are Knicks fans everywhere you go. And a lot of them will be gathering here outside Madison Square Garden like these guys here. How are you guys feeling about tonight? Great. We're going to win. Nixon 4. Nixon 4. How long have you guys been standing out here? Probably an hour, hour and a half. Why is it important to be here together?

1:22:18Like what's going on? Cities united. It's hard to be alive. Be here for it or be nowhere. Thank you guys. Have fun. So Jake, that's what's happening. There's so much excitement here. Many of the people really feeling that they are united here, seeing so many fans out. This is something that the Knick fans have been waiting for for years. And finally here, they have their moment at a potential championship. Jake? Jermon Prokobas in New York City. New York, New York. The city's so nice, they named it twice. Coming up Sunday on State of the Union, Democratic Senator and Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner and the co-chairs of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

1:22:57Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Democratic Congressman Tom Swasey of New York. That's Sunday at 9 a.m. and noon Eastern on CNN. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, ThreadsX, Blue Sky, and on the TikTok, H-A-K-Taffer. You can follow the show on X on 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 out front starts now. Have a great weekend.

1:23:28This is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, thrilled to introduce the new CNN weather app. Be prepared for anything with comprehensive coverage from real experts like me. Download the CNN weather app on iOS today. Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. As Ken Burns said on an earlier podcast, the half-life of grief is endless. Mariska Hargitay knows that very well. Jane Mansfield was killed in a car crash in 1967. Mariska was in the car with her. After decades spent coming to terms with her past and wanting to learn more about the mother she doesn't remember, Mariska has made a remarkable documentary called My Mom Jane.

1:24:13Our vulnerability is our greatest strength and our greatest connector. And so in telling the story, I don't feel vulnerable. I feel free. We all have a story, and you never know what somebody else carries. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.