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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden To Netanyahu: Make Changes Or Face Consequences; Trump Loses Bids To Dismiss Two Major Cases; New Episode Of Doc Series Alleging Abuse At Nickelodeon; Newly Obtained Transcripts Reveal Lack Of Evacuation Plan Before Chaotic & Deadly U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan; Thieves Get Away With $30M In Los Angeles Cash Heist. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 04, 2024 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:04]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You're going to be able to take up two 50 goats, but you have to catch them herself. You do need a boat to get them off the island. You have until April 10. Since I was a little kid, I just had this fascination --

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It is not true.

SANCHEZ: I --

KEILAR: Is that true?

SANCHEZ: Are you accusing me of falsehoods?

KEILAR: When you've always want to go through -- I was kidding.

SANCHEZ: So passionate -- passionate about goat cheese, about goat milk.

KEILAR: I love Feta.

SANCHEZ: It's not true. It's a joke

Thank you for being with us.

KEILAR: Speaking of goats. Let's send it on over to Jake Tapper right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We're now learning exactly what Biden told Netanyahu in that phone call earlier today.

THE LEAD starts right now.

New demands from the United States today, calling on Israel to stop killing innocents in Gaza. President Biden warning that the U.S. could even change its policies towards Israel.

But what if Israel conducts another deadly strike on civilians or aid workers? What will Biden actually do? We'll talk to some of the biggest names in foreign policy. Plus, Donald Trump rejected by two judges today in two different criminal cases against him as Trump allies go after one case, a different way. How they're trying to get the top prosecutor in the Georgia election subversion case, Fani Willis, out and out thrown off the case.

And an extra episode added to a docu-series as former child actress come forward with even more explosive games, claims about a toxic culture and abuse behind the scenes in Nickelodeon.

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

And we start today with our world lead. The president of United States is calling and Bibi might not like what he hears. Today, President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since the Israeli military killed seven international aid workers in Gaza accidentally, the Israelis say, during Israel's war against Hamas for the October 7 terrorist attack.

Now, the White House says Biden told Netanyahu the deaths of those seven innocent aid workers were, quote, unacceptable as is the president said current humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed and wounded, scores of others forced from their homes, the entire area on the brink of famine.

This afternoon, top Biden administration officials warned if Israel does not take concrete steps to fix these many problems, Israel could face consequences from its number one ally, the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: What we want to see are some real changes on the Israeli side and, you know, if we don't see changes from their side, they'll have to be changes from our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN's Kayla Tausche is at the White House and CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv.

Kayla, what exactly does the White House want Israel to do? What concrete steps and how quickly?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, for days, Jake, behind the scenes White House officials have been urging the Israeli defense forces and is Israeli government officials to improve their deconfliction process is to better transmit information about where those aid workers are operating and traveling. And today, President Biden said very clearly to Prime Minister Netanyahu that he wants concrete and measurable steps to be taken.

And here's NSC spokesman John Kirby outlining what some of those will be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRBY: We want to see more crossings opened up. We want to see more trucks getting in, particularly from Jordan. We want to see tangible steps at the mitigation of civilian harm particularly to humanitarian aid workers, but obviously also the answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Kirby says the U.S. needs to see those changes, needs to see announcements within hours or days. And while he says that, there would be changes to U.S. policy, he stopped short of elaborating on exactly what would or could change if Israel doesn't implement at some of those steps that he outlined.

The White House is trying to do a very delicate dance here, Jake. On one hand, they're trying to strong arm Israel into improving their tactics and bettering some of their processes during war on the other hand. They are also saying that support remains steadfast in both Kirby and Secretary of State Antony Blinken say, Israel still faces real threats, especially from Iran and the U.S. will help them in the face of those threats, Jake.

TAPPER: Jeremy Diamond, when it comes to the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. You've learned that Israel has actually finished initial investigation into what went wrong? Yeah, that's right.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. The Israeli military over the last several days has been investigating exactly what went wrong and how the military could have misidentified this envoy of three World Central Kitchen vehicles struck them, misidentifying them apparently as a threat. I'm told that that investigation has now concluded. In fact, the Israeli military has begun briefing relevant parties and we expect that they will release the findings of that investigation as soon as tomorrow morning.

[16:05:03]

Exactly what those findings will be and what kind of consequences there could be for any of the soldiers involved remains unclear at this hour. What is clear, Jake, is that this is a major inflection point in U.S.-Israel relations as it relates to this war in Gaza. The kind of language, of course, that we heard today from the White House briefing room is unlike what we have heard before in terms of outlining specific policy consequences here.

And there was also some foreshadowing of Israeli actions to address some of that, with John Kirby indicating that the Israeli government would be announcing some changes as it relates to humanitarian aid perhaps. That has yet to be disclosed to us here on the Israeli side, but certainly something that were watching for the Israeli prime minister right now, in a war cabinet meeting with his top advisers, we'll see if anything comes out of that, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Jeremy Diamond and Kayla Tausche, thanks so much.

Let's bring in Richard Haass, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

And, Richard, good to see you as always.

You hear the White House saying that Netanyahu and the Israeli government and the IDF need to make changes or face consequences. What do you think those consequences would actually be if at all?

RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, it's focused on two things, Jake, as you just heard. One is the amount of aid, humanitarian aid going into Gaza, and the other is rarely use of military force, how discriminating, how calibrated it is.

The obvious response on the ladder would be if we don't like how they're using military forces, we would not deny, but we would condition this transfer to Israel of our U.S. arms and say, you can only use them this way. You can't use 2,000-pound bombs, for example, in heavily populated area or it's things like that. I think that you go into there.

What was interesting also, can I say, Jake, what wasn't mentioned at least in the readouts I heard, anything on Israeli settlement activity and I didn't hear any pressure for Israel to introduce a political dimension to its strategy. So it seems that the lions share of not the only focus today wasn't on aid going in and the use of military force.

TAPPER: So just to put it bluntly, have you seen any evidence that Netanyahu is actually listening to Biden in any way. I mean, it seems like we've been in this pattern.

Biden, you know, it's either leaked or expressed his anger. He can't believe this is going on. Israel needs to do better.

The world wonders what Bibi is going to do if anything, nothing changes and bad things keep happening to innocent people in Gaza.

HAASS: Look, Jake, I wish I could sit here and say you've got it wrong, but I can't. For six months, the Biden administration after initial expressions appropriate -- entirely appropriate of sympathy and support after October 7, that basically advised Israel, they've tried to persuade it. We have six months of evidence, persuasion doesn't work, isn't working. We're also seeing that public criticism of Israel isn't working.

So the danger now is our words look empty. It's never good for a great power to look as though its words can be ignored or treated with a degree of impunity, particularly by -- by a friend. So, the real question is, what if any consequences, will liberal Israel suffer if the United States continues essentially to have his advice rejected? And this has been going on for six months.

I don't think -- I don't think it's good for the United States. It's not good for this relationship. Id even be prepared to say its not good for Israel.

TAPPER: What would you advise President Biden to do right now? Lets' just assume. I'm going to posit a theory that the IDF, and Netanyahu don't change. They keep conducting the war. They're doing it. They keep taking the rules of engagement are the same. They're taking the same risk to civilian life that they're doing, bad things keep happening, not enough aid is getting in, this humanitarian crisis keeps getting worse.

What would you tell President Biden to do, if anything?

HAASS: I would tell them to condition the use of U.S. supplied military arms. I would tell him to step up international efforts to get aid in, even if it interferes with Israeli military operations. I would tell him to make clear what economic prices row would pay for continued at settlement activity. And I would have the president of the United States give a speech in which he articulated in considerable detail what the United States believes or a political process, or to look like that satisfies at least some Palestinian political aspirations.

TAPPER: All right. Richard Haass, always good to have you on. Thank you so much.

Let's talk now with retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling former commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe, and the Seventh Army.

General Hertling, here's a question for you that I have wondered since December or January. Do you think Israel is exercising the same rules of engagement, the same cost-benefit analysis, the same caution versus need for action that the U.S. military would do in this situation when it comes to the balance here, the value of certain targets and the potential risk to civilians in any specific military operation?

[16:l0:10]

Are they doing the same thing that the United States would be doing?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I'm going to surprise you and say yes. I know the targeting process that Israel uses is similar to the ones that United States -- United States military uses.

And that is, they look at the intelligence, they assess the damage, they look at the protocols in terms of civilians being the area, they look at the cost-benefit analysis of conducting a strike, they look at the difference between hitting a time-sensitive target that is one, that intelligence pops up and they can prove with 80 or 70 percent assurance that it has the target inside the target package, that they're going to strike versus a plan target. Like we saw the other day when Israel struck the Quds Force headquarters disguised as a consulate in Damascus.

But what ill tell you is there are some breakdowns because specifically the way the Hamas fights this fight. They purposely put civilians in harms way. And I think that certainly has a different effect on the striking of targets by the Israeli military.

This strike against the World Food -- World Central Kitchen vehicles was just absolutely horrific. I'm sure the report is going to show some things. Its surprises me as you just talk to Jeremy Diamond, that they already had the initial report that's a fast initial report, but I would say that there was probably a breakdown in intelligence, a breakdown in decision-making, a breakdown in communication. And who was going to strike the target and how and what was in the target package area that the lawyers approved to approve that kind of target.

There are lawyers as well as operators and intelligence officials in the room when targeting take place. The Israelis are known to do it very well, but in the context of Gaza, it's just so much more difficult because Hamas wants civilians to be struck. This goes along with their strategy.

TAPPER: Oh, no absolutely. Just for the record, I -- you didn't surprise me. I actually didn't know what you were going to say and I wondered and I don't have an answer to the question. I don't know what Israel would be doing that the United States would be doing different. That's not a defense of them or a prosecution. I just actually think that our militaries are very similar.

You're friends with chef Jose Andres -- go ahead.

HERTLING: If I -- if I could, Jake, I'm sorry. If I could though, the one thing that I think the Biden administration and the U.S. military gave advice to the Israelis on early on is what we learned as one of our big mistakes in these kind of operations, you have to separate the noncombatants from the terrorist.

Israel has not done that. They have not allowed for the exfiltration of civilians in the area, especially women and children. And I think we're seeing the effects of that. Israel has not been from a political standpoint as effective in doing that. I'm sorry.

TAPPER: Yeah. No, no, it's fine. But you mentioned the World Central kitchen the tragic loss of those seven aid workers. You're friends with chef Jose Andres, who obviously started World Central Kitchen, you spoke with him yesterday.

What is this been like for him? He is a dedicated humanitarian. He is out there to help the most vulnerable people in the worst parts of the world. But the people he referred to them as angels. And I'm not going to quibble with that word, the people -- the people who volunteered to go to help people in Haiti, to go to help people in Gaza.

What has this been like for him?

HERTLING: Yeah.

TAPPER: I'd start off by just saying that you're right, Jake. He is an unbelievable human being and a great humanitarian and only wants to feed people and besides that, he's just a good guy. I got to know him in and a couple of commissions that we sat on to look at food crises in the United States and he is just a wonderful person. I texted him yesterday and just offered my condolences and within ten

minutes of me texting and he called. We had about an hour long conversation, which as busy as he is surprised me and truthfully, he's kind of experienced the same experiencing the same thing soldiers do in this kind of incidents. He's suffering grief and anger, and angst and anxiousness about what might happen next.

He also suggested that he had a little bit of survivor's guilt because he was supposed to be on that convoy and why wasn't he there convoy was struck. Soldiers know that kind of stuff, the survivor's guilt and the anger at seeing your comrades fallen, especially in this kind of situation where these weren't soldiers, these were individuals trying to just provide food to the hungry.

So he's going to continue on with what he's been doing. He's been miraculous and what he is -- he and his team of thousands that provided the Palestinians in the Gaza strips.

[16:15:02]

The things he's doing are miraculous and almost impossible to conceive, but he's going to continue on. I know that. And I think he had as well as President Biden having a discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu today. I think chef Andres did as well, but I'm not sure that.

TAPPER: All right. General Mark Hertling, thank you so much for your time and expertise.

Coming up in the next hour on THE LEAD, Senator Bernie Sanders will be here. He has opposed new U.S. aid for Israel because of the way that Netanyahu is conducting this war, Sanders was just at the White House yesterday. So I will ask him about these new demands from Biden today.

Coming up next in this hour, Donald Trump rejected by two different judges today as he tried to get some criminal cases against him thrown out, he failed.

Plus, nearly three years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, new transcripts from former State Department officials revealing why that exit was so chaotic and deadly. The headline there was no plan. The transcripts you'll see only on THE LEAD. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We have breaking news today in our law and justice lead. Former President Donald Trump facing harsh rebukes today in two of his legal cases.

[16:20:01]

First in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon rejected Trump's bid to dismiss all criminal charges in the classified documents case. This is the case about Donald Trump taking classified documents from the White House and storing them insecurely in bathrooms and ballrooms at Mar-a- Lago. Then the Georgia case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee

rejected Trump's latest bid to throw out that case. It's election interference. Trump was claiming free speech grounds. Again, the Georgia case is about Donald Trump's efforts to try to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results.

CNN's Paula Reid and Sara Murray join me now.

Paula, let us start in Florida. Big decision by Judge Cannon.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And it's a decision -- I was here at the table yesterday and we were talking about how she had so many decisions outstanding here. She is rejecting one of several efforts to Trump has made to get this case dismiss specifically his argument that he had a right to bring these classified documents home with him because they were personal records. Now, she appeared skeptical about this theory at a hearing a couple of weeks ago, but she left open the possibility he still could use this as a possible defense at trial even though special counsel said the entire theory should be rejected.

Cannon's whole approach to this case is certainly come under scrutiny especially this case, right, this slow case, because the Trump's whole strategy there is to delay and she's really helping them and a CNN analysis done by our colleagues Tierney Sneed and Hannah Rabinowitz shows she still has over a half dozen decisions outstanding and of those eight of them or other motions to dismiss. And if you look at today's, it's only three pages, so its unclear what's taking so long, the biggest outstanding question that was, when will this case go? We were in court over a month ago to hear arguments about that.

TAPPER: And, Sara Murray, what about the Georgia case? Trump was making a First Amendment argument to try to get that case dismissed, but what Judge McAfee have to say about that?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, this judge in Georgia also not buying these motions to throw the whole indictment out. What Trump's attorney Steve Sadow argued in court was that what Donald Trump did to try to overturn the election in Georgia was just core political speech. It should be protected under the First Amendment.

The judge said, you know, look, the allegation is that you use these activities, this speech you're referring to, to commit a crime, that you used it to lie, to deceive, to harm the government. So I'm not just going to throw this indictment out before trial.

But again, it doesn't mean that when they get to trial in Georgia, whenever that might be, that Trump's attorney can't raise the possibility in front of the jury that they should decide to toss this based on the free speech argument.

TAPPER: Interesting. Sara Murray and Paula Reid, stick around because I want to bring in CNN legal analyst, Elliot Williams right now.

Elliot, first to Florida, what do you -- do you agree with what Paula is saying in terms of the analysis, the Judge Cannon is moving at a slow Heinz ketchup like speed?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: She is not moving with deliberate speed, no.

TAPPER: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: And to Paula's point, it was a very short order today. And it's sort of -- there are -- there are important questions about the sensitivity of documents that might take a long time to resolve. There's a lot of other stuff that could have been resolved already, and even this question about the Presidential Records Act which on its face is actually not a particularly difficult one could have been resolved very quickly. So it's hard to know why she has such a backlog in such an important case.

TAPPER: So, Paula, Trump keeps filing these motions to dismiss and he keeps losing. I mean, I -- I can understand why lawyers would do it. I mean, they charge by the hour. But is there a chance at any of these motions will actually find a buyer?

REID: Well, it depends on your definition of success, right? It's not likely they're going to succeed on the merits, but it can still be a win because it takes time to decide these. I mean, in Florida, it takes a long time to decide.

TAPPER: But can the judge just say, cut it out, we got it, you're trying to delay?

REID: No, they have -- they have a right. These are, you know, constitutional question of political speech. That is a legitimate, again, A for effort, you're not going to win. But I see your argument. It's interesting.

They have a right to file these motions, and in addition to just delay, there's also the issue of preserving some of these issues for an eventual appeal. And then I'm told they're playing this long game strategy with a lot of these cases, if they go to trial, if there's a conviction, they're hoping that they can establish enough of a record mistakes, right, death by a thousand cuts to get it toss. So, there's a lot to be gained even if they lose on the merits.

And, Sara, you also have some new reporting today that Trump allies in Georgia are trying to different tack. They're pushing for a gag order against the prosecutor there, the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis.

MURRAY: Yeah. There are Trump allies that are sort of having these discussions among themselves and their defense attorneys, you know, should we ask for a gag order against Fani Willis, the prosecutor? She came under a lot of scrutiny, of course, for her romantic relationship with another prosecutor, but also for the public comments that she has made before about the case.

And those comments haven't stopped. I think we have some sound of what Willis said back in January that got her into hot water and got defendants to ask to disqualify her and what she said just last week about this case. Take a listen.

TAPPER: Okay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: Recently, they tell me they don't like me to talk about race. Well, I'm going to talk about it anyway.

[16:25:01]

Truth is, there are some challenges that come to being Black.

Isn't it them playing the race card when they constantly think, I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I've been doing almost 30 years?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, the fact that Willis is still making comments about the case and still invoking race even after a judge rebuked her and said, I'm not going to disqualify you from the case, but these comments you're making are legally improper, has some of these defendants wondering, should we ask for a gag order? The concern is, you really don't want that to boomerang around back on you.

And if you're a defendant who likes to talk about Fani Willis or the case, say, Donald Trump, say, Rudy Giuliani, say, David Shafer, the former Georgia Republican Party chairman, you don't want a judge to say, all right, fine. Everyone's gagged. No one can talk.

TAPPER: And, Elliot, Donald Trump today in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, said he thought that former President Nixon's firings during the Watergate scandal, which became known as the Saturday night massacre, were a mistake that he learned from. He said, quote, the firings were mistake. You notice the way I kept people that I couldn't stand. I learned that from Nixon. I said, let me just live with these people for a little while before I get rid of them.

So just to recap, of course, he -- Trump fired the FBI Director Comey for the Russia investigation. He fired deputy FBI Director McCabe for the same. He fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself and not protecting Trump and on and on. It was and a lot of us call did that at the time a slow motion Saturday night massacre.

But I guess he's saying, yeah, and that's why I did it in slow motion because Nixon did it all one day and that was a big scandal, I did it smartly?

WILLIAMS: I would make an argument that its even worse that it's not a Saturday night massacre, but also -- but a -- over the years of 2019 and 2020 massacre, it was such disrespect to the rule of law to fire the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, of all people simply for not carrying out his personal and political biddings.

So, you know, I think we -- it's just remarkable that we are now looking to Richard Nixon and the mere fact that he fired people in one night as an example, a behavior. But no, I think Trump's behavior was pretty awful and reprehensible.

TAPPER: Yeah, I'm just saying I think what he said, what he learned from is not the firings, it's doing them all at one time. I'm trying to decipher what he's saying.

WILLIAMS: It's ridiculous.

TAPPER: Anyway, Elliot and Sara and Paula, thanks so much.

Behind the scenes at Nickelodeon, former child actors already have been alleging abuse and a toxic culture in a recent docu-series. We're going to talk to the producers why they felt the need to add a bonus episode. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:58]

TAPPER: In our pop culture lead, the channel Investigation Discovery is about to release a bonus episode of its disturbing new docuseries, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV". The series details explosive allegations of child actors suffering because of the toxic culture and abuse behind the scenes at Nickelodeon.

And one of the most stunning revelations from the series, former "Drake and Josh" star Drake Bell acknowledged that he was the anonymous teenage victims whose testimony led to the arrest in 2004 conviction of his dialogue coach, Brian Peck. Investigation Discovery, which we should note is owned by CNN's parent company, says the new episode premiering on Sunday will build off the revelations explored in the first four episodes. It will feature Drake Bell and at least one former Nickelodeon star who was not in the first four episodes.

With us now from the series "Quiet On the Set" this, that Mary Robertson, executive producer and director and Emma Schwartz, co- executive producer and director.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

Mary, let me start with you. How did this bonus episode come about? Did the docuseries encourage other former child stars to come forward, make -- making them more comfortable with stories that maybe they weren't previously willing to share?

MARY ROBERTSON, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & DIRECTOR, "QUIET ON SET": Yes, that's pretty much exactly -- exactly the case. In the days after we released the trailer, we saw a voluminous and positive response. We saw questions emerge and then questions about the questions and questions about the questions that I think came to realize rather quickly that we had value that we could add in that moment, that we could step in and help to answer some of these provocative questions and do so in a sensitive manner.

We enlisted award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien. We approached some individuals that, you know, had appeared in the first four for episodes, and we do include the account of one cast member of all that who was not in the original four episodes, but after watching the response to the series and the generosity and compassion with which people met the accounts of his colleagues, he decided to come forward and share his story in this episode. He's joined by Geo (ph) and Brian and Tracy. Tracy is Brian's mom.

They've all been deeply and positively affected by their participation and they have strong feelings about some of the public response some of the videos and statements that have been offered in response to the series. We also feature never before seen footage and Drake Bell is interviewed as well.

TAPPER: Wow. Emma, can you give me just a taste of what are some of the questions that were prompted by the series that this next episode will explore?

EMMA SCHWARTZ, CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & DIRECTOR, "QUIET ON SET": I think one of the really interesting questions that so many people have been talking about is, you know, what -- what needs to change across the industry. There's been a lot of anger, a lot of concern, a lot of questions about how -- how some of these scenes were put together, how children weren't always pretty detected.

[16:35:07]

And we really hope that that conversation continues as we know number of the participants are trying to find ways to change either laws or rules, or create more supports for child actors on sets.

TAPPER: Mary, in addition to the unimaginable predatory behavior, there are also some allegations of racist behavior against some of the actors. Here's a clip from Brian Hearne, who appeared on a lots of Nick shows, including the sketch show, "All That".

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN HEARNE, ACTOR: For the little fetus role, and essentially, you're a fetus, so you're naked, but they had to put a body suit on you and obviously it has to be skin tone someone said the skin tone should be charcoal. I started to get teary-eyed. Whoever was doing my makeup at the time was kind of like, hand on my shoulder, like it's going to be okay. Don't worry about that (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, Bryan goes on to say that his agent discouraged his mother from addressing that.

Tell us more about that and what it was like to hear that, to bring it forward.

ROBERTSON: I remember the day that Brian came to set for his interview I remember listening intently. Everyone was listening very intently. I remember him sharing the story that he you see in that clip.

I remember him also talking about being asked to participate in what would be called an on-air dare where his body was covered in peanut butter and then dogs lick the peanut butter off of his body. He felt uncomfortable with that situation. He didn't want to participate, but he didn't feel as though he had agency or opportunity to voice objection without risking his advancement or his employment.

I remember how affected many onset where by listening to him and I remember his body language, I remember his facial expression, some of which you see in that clip and it was clear that what he had experienced as a child was something that had carried into his adult life. And I think I knew in that moment that those watching his story would be affected in a similar manner.

TAPPER: And, Emma, recurring theme seems to be the parents I'm sure people at home who haven't seen the series are wondering what -- where the parents on this? The parents were kept at bay often, isolated from the kids, isolated from what was happening on set are their industry changes enough, the ones that have happened to prevent this from happening in the future? Because obviously removing the parents can be a real recipe for disaster.

SCHWARTZ: I think one of the things that we heard from both the former child actors and their parents was that they felt that parents are actively discouraged from speaking up when they saw a concern and that if they did that, that could have a detrimental impact on their child's career. And, you know, many of the children didn't want their parents to speak up, you know, Brian actually talks about how there were times he didn't go to his mom because she knew that she would speak up.

I think those sort of power dynamics are very complicated and very difficult. And one of the reasons that some of the participants have been speaking about whether there should be more resources for children on set, whether that's, you know, having mental health specialists or social workers or somebody who's not their boss and not their parents, that they can go to when there are uncomfortable or difficult circumstances without fear that they might be losing their job.

TAPPER: So important, the work you're doing, bringing these issues to light and uncomfortable and issues are the most important to bring to a public attention.

So thank you so much, Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson. Their fifth episode of "Quiet on the Set", its title, "Breaking the Silence" is going to premiere this Sunday, April 7 at 8:00 p.m. eastern on investigation discovery. All four previous episodes, we should note, are now available to stream on Max.

Thank you so much again.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you.

ROBERTSON: Thank you, Jake. TAPPER: Coming up next, brand new details about the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, revealing just how much officials were making up plans on the fly. We have the transcripts obtained exclusively by CNN.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:41]

TAPPER: In our world lead, there is a reason that the deadly 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was so chaotic. The reason is that the officials in charge of coordinating that withdrawal say they were forced to make up plans on the fly from scratch?

CNN has exclusively obtained update hours of closed-door Senate testimony, closed door testimony at the top State Department officials gave to the House Foreign Affairs Committee rather, investigating the withdrawal and this, of course, included the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members killed by the terrorist suicide bomber.

CNN's Kylie Atwood reports now for us on why there was no working evacuation plan already in place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The chaos on the ground after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, a reflection of the chaos behind the scenes from the State Department, as CNN is learning from exclusively obtained transcripts from the testimony of three State Department officials to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that the department had no working emergency evacuation plan and three officials were rushed into Kabul in the days surrounding the Taliban takeover with virtually no time to prepare.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX), FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHAIRMAN: The Biden administration's failure to plan for their withdrawal threatened the safety and security of U.S. personnel in country.

ATWOOD: The interviews are part of an ongoing investigation led by the Republican Chairman Mike McCaul into the chaotic evacuation that resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers in a terrorist attack outside of the Kabul airport.

The committee plans to do a report of all 16 interviews they conducted. The officials painted a tumultuous picture of the evacuation. One testifying, quote, we had to create from scratch tactical operations that would get our priority people into the airport. He added: We were roughly as effective as we could be under the circumstances. Another saying he was never briefed on an established evacuation plan because we were already in the midst of executing an evacuation that substantially exceeded the scope and scale of what had been contemplated.

Top U.S. military generals suggested that the chaos could have been mitigated if the State Department had called for an earlier noncombatant evacuation.

GEN. MARK MILLEY (RET.), FORMER JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: It was my assessment, but that decision came too late.

GEN. KENNETH F. MCKENZIE (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We struggled to gain access to that plan and work with them over the months of July until we finally got a decision to execute.

ATWOOD: Those accusations have been disputed by the State Department.

VEDANT PATEL, STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN: The U.S. did not want to publicly announce planning for or the start of a neo so as to not weaken the position of the then Afghan government potentially signaling a potential lack of faith.

ATWOOD: Another state official testified to the setbacks on the ground due to a bleak reality, the Taliban were largely in control.

Quote, it was what will the Taliban allow? Will they let people move through? And how will they do it? And as someone who's worked in Afghanistan for 19 years, it's a little bit while to tell people that you can trust the Taliban, hold up your American passport, but it did kind of work.

Those descriptions a far cry from what the State Department said at the time.

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: My understanding is that things are moving quite efficiently at this hour at the airport, at the airport now.

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ATWOOD (on camera): Jake, the committee investigators told us that they are working towards a final report of all of these interviews that they conducted by the end of the year. And you talk to Biden administration officials, they're cognizant of the fact that there is a political impetus here for the Republicans. They want this chapter of Biden's foreign policy legacy. Obviously, it was a damning chapter for him to be front and center around the times of the election in November, so that folks heading to the polls remember what it was like when the a withdrawal from Afghanistan was occurring during the Biden administration.

TAPPER: Kylie Atwood at the State Department for us -- thank you so much.

The next one that has a lot of people talking, one of the largest cash heists ever in the history of Los Angeles, $30 million stolen from a storage facility. How? Well, a former FBI-special-agent-turned-CNN- correspondent is covering this case for us, and he'll tell us next.

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[16:52:22] TAPPER: In Los Angeles, we are following a whodunit that will undoubtedly someday via movie or TV show. But first, actual detectives will have to solve this actual mystery. Who broke into what's called a cash storage facility and stole something like $30 in cold hard cash. So I guess it's hot cash now.

CNN's Josh Campbell is here with the details.

Josh, this happened last Sunday night?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake.

And you know, this seems like it could be straight out of a screenplay written here in Hollywood. But this heist in fact, real, we know now based on our sources that the FBI, as well as the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating this brazen robbery, it took place on Sunday evening, on Easter Sunday, but the people there that worked at this facility didn't actually notice it until the next day.

I'm told from a law enforcement course, one source at this group of burglars, they made their way into this facility without tripping any alarms, making the way inside the vault, and then carrying out all of that cash. I'm told that one key focus of the investigation right now, Jake, is trying to determine whether this group had any type of inside knowledge about how this facility actually worked.

A lot of work is going on behind the scenes, right now. I'm told the authorities are conducting interviews. They're also trying to pull CCTV footage from in and around the area, to try to identify the route of travel for these burglars, both to that facility and then as they left.

Now, we've seen burglaries here in the past in Los Angeles. It was a heist back in 1997. Those burglars took away from an armored car upwards of about $20 million. They were eventually caught.

As far as this latest big heist, still no word on the suspects, Jake.

TAPPER: So I have to ask, Josh, what exactly some money storage facility. I've never heard of this and obviously seems like a great place to so heist. Why wouldn't people just put their cash into the bank?

CAMPBELL: Yeah, that's a great question. So were all familiar with the armored cars that go from business to business, collecting money. Sometimes that goes to the bank but oftentimes businesses, they're exchanging money, and sometimes those funds go to the storage facilities where they can be counted, they can be processed, they can be stored, again, you know, moving around here, the L.A. area from business to business.

As far as why this particular facility -- that's a big question right now. Again, did they have some type of knowledge of this particular location? And for that matter, how sophisticated or was this collective of people? I've talked to one law enforcement source who said one possibility,

this could be a cartel, this could be a group of organized burglars, or could be just, you know, some people who got together and decided were going to go where the money is. And that case I mentioned from 1997, that group actually evaded law enforcement for about two years until about two years later. One of those robbers actually tried to buy a house with a stack of bills that still had the same band wrapping that was on those bills, a realtor thought, okay, this is suspicious, called police, that's how authorities rolled up that group.

[16:55:05]

A lot to wait and see where the money is here, where these people went, how sophisticated they are, and whether authorities can try to break open who this group is?

TAPPER: All right. Josh Campbell in Los Angeles, thanks so much.

All smiles for the president and Senator Bernie Sanders, four years after these two were the last two standing rivals in the 2020 Democratic primary. Senator Bernie Sanders is going to join us in a few minutes. I'm going to ask him about President Biden's call today with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and much more, coming up.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.