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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Cardinals Fail to Pick New Pope on First Day of the Conclave; Trump Says, Not Open to Pulling Back on China; Newark Meltdown Exposes Pattern of Airport System Problems. Democratic Representative Pleads With White House Not To Cut Access To Overdose Drug; Today: Utah's Ban On Fluoride In Public Water Goes Into Effect. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired May 07, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, who will be the next pope? The world forced to wait at least one more day as cardinals sent up the black smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. We're live outside the Vatican looking ahead to the Conclave day two.

Plus, visible frustration from the White House today with Vladimir Putin, President Trump telling reporters that he's, quote, not happy about the state of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine just hours after Vice President J.D. Vance accused Russia of asking for too much to stop the fighting. But does the Kremlin care?

Also, new audio of yet another incident at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, this one back in November, as that airport tries to recover from the chaos and cancelations and delays stretching into its tenth day.

[18:00:04]

And a new law going into effect today banning fluoride in public water in Utah after RFK Jr. and others raised questions about its safety. How health experts and members of the community are reacting.

Our Lead Tonight, more than a hundred cardinals remain locked inside the Vatican as the Papal Conclave meets to elect the new pope.

We're going to start with CNN's David Culver, who's just live outside the Vatican for us. David?

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, yes. They're going to be probably going to bed around this hour, if they're not already asleep, because they'll be up at about 7:45 in the mornings, a little under eight hours from now where they'll start with morning mass and then they'll go into around 10:00 in the morning, the next ballot.

But it was a huge amount of anticipation that was built up. I mean, the square behind me, I was down there with a lot of the folks. You had tens of thousands packed in. And there was a lot of uneasiness because people were thinking, okay, there's a window of sorts between 5:00 and 8:00 in the evening. It was then pushing later, 8:30, 8:45, and then finally by 9:00, there were smoke.

But it wasn't all at once because what we noticed was the big jumbo screens that they have on here in St. Peter's Square, it suddenly went to black. And so the crowd had a moment of uneasiness, of uncertainty of what was happening and then suddenly it came back on and then the smoke was obviously black.

And you had, I think, a mixed reaction because you had people who, as I was looking at it, mostly are not from here, tourists who are in town, and there was a big sigh of disappointment. And then some of the locals seemed to just have a smile on their face. And as they were walking off the plaza, I looked at them and I said, are you disappointed? And they said the locals, no, we'll be back tomorrow.

The tourist, however, Jake, you've got to realize a lot of them are here by coincidence. They happen to be here where there's a Papal Conclave, a historic moment. And they were hoping to see the moment where white smoke would be coming out from behind me, and it wasn't the case.

But you do see in the streets here, there's just this different atmosphere. And I was speaking to a group of nuns earlier this morning, having coffee with them. And they said this is the first time they've been in Rome. And they come multiple times a year for different reasons and meetings and events that they feel like the people are on the streets so pleasant and engaging. And they feel like, given just what's going on in the world and how much really disunity there is and war and uncertainty, that people are more than ever engaged from a spiritual perspective. And they have people coming up to them wanting to delve deeper into their own faith.

So, it's really interesting, Jake, to get that sense and to feel this atmosphere. And now tomorrow morning, all eyes will be on behind me, the chimney, to see what's going to play out.

TAPPER: Well, let's talk about what's going to play out tomorrow. How many votes do you think the cardinals could theoretically take? How many ballots?

CULVER: So, we know for -- that's right. So, we know that there's essentially these two windows that they have. So, the first one will start at 10:00 local time, so that's 4:00 in the morning East Coast time, your time in D.C. And they have two ballots that they potentially go through. So, if they don't come to that two thirds majority in the first one, it'll move on to a second one. And then presumably we would see either if they do come to that majority for that second one, white smoke, or if not, black smoke again.

And then there will be an afternoon session that'll pick up around 5:00 in the afternoon local, so roughly noon your time. And then, again, you have two more ballots. So, you could have that opportunity where after the first one, you've got the two thirds majority, you get white smoke. And, again, if it doesn't happen, Jake, it'll continue on until yet another day.

So, that's why so many people come here and, you know, obviously, if you're a tourist, you're hoping it's in the moment that you're here. But for the locals they will drop everything and they'll leave their workspace and they'll rush here and they'll just try to be here for that one moment.

TAPPER: Yes, it's exciting. David Culver, thanks so much.

CNN Anchor Erin Burnett's also in Rome. She's going to have much more at the top of the hour, 7:00 Eastern, right after The Lead here on CNN.

Back here in D.C., President Trump says he will not drop his tariffs on China in order to get Chinese officials to the negotiating table.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House. Kristen, what is President Trump saying today as pressure grows on him to produce a trade deal with not just China, but, frankly, any country?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's what we've been trying to get to the bottom of is, where do any of these trade deals stand. Now, as you noted, what he said about China was that he wouldn't lower those 145 percent tariffs to get China to the negotiating table. This is consequential for a number of reasons. One, trade with China has essentially come to a grinding halt after this tit-for-tat escalation. But, two, we also learned just yesterday that Scott Bessent, among other high ranking trade officials in the U.S., are going to meet with their Chinese counterparts next week.

[18:05:03]

But we did hear Bessent kind of tamping down expectations on that, saying that it was time for a de-escalation, not necessarily any kind of deal.

What was also interesting about what Trump said was that it was very different than the Trump we heard over the weekend, when he sat down for an interview and he said that he would eventually lower tariffs on China because those high tariffs had made business nearly impossible. Clearly, a softening of rhetoric that then went back to being very harsh rhetoric against China.

TAPPER: And this comes as the administration is trying to broker a peace deal, we should note, between Russia and Ukraine. We heard from both Vice President Vance and President Trump on this today on their frustrations with Russia.

HOLMES: Yes, that's right. And we heard from J.D. Vance essentially saying that Russia was asking for too many concessions, that the U.S. wasn't happy with all the concessions that they were asking for in order to actually end this conflict.

Now, Donald Trump was asked about Vance's comments. He seemed relatively unaware of them, but also said he was unhappy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Vice President Vance said Russia was asking for too much to end the war. Given that, do you still have confidence?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: When did he say that?

REPORTER: Earlier this morning.

TRUMP: Well, it's possible that he's right. He may know some things that because I've been dealing with this and some other things, but we are getting to a point where some decisions are going to have to be made. I'm not happy about it. I am not happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Some decisions will have to be made. Obviously, this, of course, coming from the president who campaigned on the idea that he would end this conflict in 24 hours. We are told behind the scenes he has grown increasingly frustrated with the fact that this has not come to an end.

TAPPER: Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.

In Ukraine, roughly an hour ago, Russia's proposed three-day ceasefire to honor the end of World War II officially began. However, Ukraine says that they are rejecting Putin's ceasefire proposal, instead calling for a longer 30-day ceasefire, which the U.S. proposed.

CNN s Nick Paton Walsh is in Eastern Ukraine for us. Nick, tell us about what's happening on the ground there.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, an eerie silence here. That's not necessarily indicative of a sea change. We've heard from military sources that in the last hour or so, one particular unit with a good perspective on a large part of the front, well, they saw a slight downtick in Russian artillery use, but still in a small window, four or five artillery pieces firing, a big amount of Russian surveillance drones in the sky, and even recently a Russian jet taking off. So, not an immediate sign of the guns falling silent.

There's great cynicism here amongst Ukrainian forces. They saw the brief Easter ceasefire that Russia also called unilaterally as essentially a time that Russia seemed to reposition its troops and then launch greater assaults in the hours afterwards, using the lull for their tactical advantage.

As you said, Ukraine hasn't signed onto this particular ceasefire. They may change their mind if Russia indeed does reduce its activities. Zelenskyy pushing for a full 30-day unconditional ceasefire, calling this much more of a theatrical kind of game by the Kremlin, certainly something that he suggests potentially might be of use to them around their Victory Day parades to be sure that those aren't, in any way, in jeopardy potentially.

But we've seen an extraordinary day, Jake, of aerial activity, Russia claiming 500 or so aerial type vehicles, drones fired in Russia's direction. That seems to strand or delay 60,000 passengers in their flights. Multiple airports shut there. But also on this side too, Kyiv under persistent bombardment. We heard it ourselves there this morning, and that's persisted during the day, air raid sirens on many of the towns that we've indeed been through.

So, both sides being I think hit pretty hard here. Kyiv and Ukraine civilians certainly on the receiving end. And then this sort of hope potentially that in the next 72 hours we'll see a radical change and the pace of the violence, as we've just been seeing and hearing from military unit. No immediate signs of that.

But, you know, the hope is that this might just be the beginning of something larger, but great mistrust all around. Jake?

TAPPER: CNN's Kristen Holmes just reported, I'm sure you heard, Vice President J.D. Vance said publicly that Russia is, quote, asking for too much in the peace talks. How is Ukraine reacting to these talks?

WALSH: Yes. I mean, they've been quite clear that they want this 30- day ceasefire to kick in, first of all, to allow a space for diplomacy to begin. And we heard suggestions from the presidential envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, that there might be potentially some room for a 30-kilometer wide demilitarized zone. And there may be some of the thinking around how a longer term ceasefire and settlement might be more advanced potentially.

But we've also heard very maximalist demands from the Russians too, that they want way more territory than they currently seem to have under their control, and clearly also too, with the persistence of the bombardment by Russia here, no real signs that they're about to step back from the military phase of this.

[18:10:06]

And indeed too, a lot of signs from military sources, we're hearing here that there are more Russian troops moving towards the front line, and signs too indeed that they're pushing in certain key areas along the front.

So, I think it's fair to say that Ukraine has signed this rare earth minerals deal with the United States bought in very much that diplomatic process, but hasn't seen the ceasefire that they in the U.S. have made, in any way, reacted to positively by Russia. Instead, we had this very short ceasefire unilaterally called by Russia, which at this point hasn't yielded a sea change. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. CNNs Nick Paton Walsh on the frontlines for us in Eastern Ukraine, thank you. Stay safe.

Coming up, the new megaphone for MAGA media, according to the Trump administration.

Plus, in his first interview since leaving the White House, former President Joe Biden responded when asked if he should have withdrawn from the 2024 race earlier, would it have made a difference?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

TAPPER: Our Politics Lead now, is the Voice of America now the voice of Trump? Trump loyalist Kari Lake says right wing MAGA TV outlet One America News Network, OAN for short, will now provide free content for Voice of America and other government funded international broadcasters.

Kari Lake, of course, the senior adviser at the United States Agency for Global Media, in a social media post, she writes, quote, this idea came about after the Office of Cuba Broadcasting suggested we explore OAN as a newsfeed option for the Miami-based U.S. government-funded news operation broadcasting to Cuba.

A reminder, OAN had to settle a defamation lawsuit with voting technology company Smartmatic due to OAN's repeated lies about the 2020 election.

My panel, my political panel joins me now. Bryan, I get the conservative complaints about media being liberal, okay? Is the solution to those problems to put OAN as the Voice of America? I mean, in other words, is this correcting the problem or is this just making it on the other side?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER TO TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: I think it's just doubling down on the problem. We do not want the government involved in the content of the media. We just don't --

TAPPER: So, you don't think Voice of America should exist?

LANZA: No. I actually don't think Voice of -- Voice of America as it is today should not exist. I think the technology has made some changes to it. I think the contents has sort of geared a little bit more left than it should have. And I don't think the course correction of gearing it to the right is even better.

You know, listen, I think from the standpoint of I understand why the administration is doing this. You know, we need to provide this alternate voice, not alternate news, but this additional voice. And that's the platform. It's not a platform I think anybody should be involved in. But, you know, that is their decision.

TAPPER: What do you think, Ashley?

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER DPEUTY PRESS SECRETARY, V.P. HARRIS: I mean, I think just if you don't mind me making this very plain for the American people, one of my favorite lines in the Austin Power flick is when Dr. Evil was frozen, he's defrosted. He comes out and he says to number two, what have you been doing since I've been gone? And he said, I bought up all the media. And he says, well, that's the dumbest S-H-I-T I've ever heard. Why would you do such a thing? And his point was, if you control the inputs, you control the outputs. And that's what we're seeing.

And I think Donald Trump understands the art of manipulation better than anyone in politics. You know, you can see that happening. That's why he brought in Mark Zuckerberg and the social media platforms so that they're no longer fact checking. You got, you know, Elon Musk tampering with the algorithms. He's intimidating traditional media with the lawsuits, all these other things. So, he understands the art of manipulating? Sorry.

LANZA: But isn't Voice of America sort of pushing out American propaganda anyway? Like we're communicating with Cuba --

ETIENNE: But I think this is going to be Trump propaganda, not American propaganda, which is very different. So, I think they're going to use it to perpetuate Trump propaganda.

TAPPER: I think it's more intended to be something of a wire service that does cover the good and the bad of America while also just demonstrating that we have debate and we have freedom of speech, and --

LANZA: But still, at the end of the day, it's done to deliver a message to communities that would not have this message to hear our message, our -- you know, whether you want to call it propaganda or not, our message is being delivered to Cuba because Cuba does not have any level of transparency in media and they're getting this message. At the end of the day, it's all propaganda. We're just now making it right wing propaganda instead of left.

ETIENNE: (INAUDIBLE) actually has control the information to which people --

LANZA: Which is misinformed there.

ETIENNE: Yes. I just find that telling.

TAPPER: Well, let's move on to another topic, Ashley. Sure. I know it's your favorite topic. In a wide ranging interview with the BBC, former President Joe Biden did his first T.V. interview since his presidency. He was asked about his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, asked basically if he should have dropped out sooner. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should you have withdrawn earlier given someone else a bigger chance?

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't think it would've mattered.

Things move so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away to get, and it was a hard decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, I think your earpiece wasn't working. So, he's asked, should you have been withdrawn earlier, given someone else a bigger job? And Biden says, I don't, I don't think it would've mattered. Things moved so quickly that made it difficult to walk away and get, it was a hard decision. So, he's saying it was a hard decision to withdraw.

I have talked to a lot of Democrats. You know, I have this book coming on a week in six days who think not only should he have gotten out immediately after the debate, so June 28th, but he should never run for reelection to begin with. What do you think?

ETIENNE: I think it was the president's decision to make, Joe Biden, and he made his decision.

TAPPER: Yes.

ETIENNE: I think, but I think we're at a critical inflection point within the Democratic Party. We can either continue to look backwards and allow this issue to paralyze us as a party or we can move forward and decide we need to take full advantage of this opportunity, unprecedented opportunity that Donald Trump has presented the party to build a broader coalition, to draw a distinction with the way we would govern versus the way that he would govern, to cast a wider net and bring more voters to the table.

[18:20:07]

I mean, you've got a situation where Donald Trump's underwater on every issue.

So, you know, the other thing I think is very interesting, Jake, you know, I love you and appreciate you, but the former president talked about some really important things in that interview. And I hate for the conversation to keep sort of stay mired in sort of a page-six conversation about who said what did what versus what he really talked about, the substance of what he talked about in that interview, the consequences for what Donald Trump's foreign policy means for the American people. I mean, we're in a situation now where the world is more dangerous than it was before he was president.

TAPPER: He was talking a lot about foreign policy. He was talking about the NATO alliance. He was talking -- I mean, that was the newest thing. That was the new -- yes, it was substantive. It was also stuff we've been hearing from him for the last 20 years.

ETIENNE: And a little bit of sort of, I made my decision when I made it, you know, kind of a dynamic.

TAPPER: Bryan, I think you and I think you and I agree that the Democratic Party needs to have some sort of reckoning about the Biden presidency, especially the last year and year-and-a-half of it.

LANZA: The answer is they need to do it for themselves, because if they don't, we're going to fight it. At the end of the day, we're going to highlight the fact that this fraud took place, that, you know, Joe Biden, it's funny, he says in the comment that the world is moves too fast. Well, when you're moving at Joe Biden's pace, a snail is fast, right? And when he says, you know, the walking -- you know, walking fast, he's not walking fast.

I mean, people -- you know, if they don't cure this issue for themselves and it is a trust issue, you know, Trump gets away with a lot, I don't think the Democrats get away with that much. But if they don't cure this issue, we're going to bring it up and we're going to continue to highlight -- let me finish. We're going to continue to highlight that with real national security concerns, with real effects that affect real people, some guy who's supposed to be in the Oval Office doing the job was incapable of it and staff propped it up, that's a problem. We should be investigating. We should be doing that.

TAPPER: Okay. Ashley, last word.

ETIENNE: The only thing I would say is I don't disagree with you. I made an argument on a political podcast just last week that we need an autopsy from the party we have yet to get that autopsy. I think this has to be part of what they deliver to the Democratic Party in the nation explaining what happened and what consequences --

TAPPER: I got that autopsy coming for you in one week and six days.

ETIENNE: We can't wait to read it.

TAPPER: Ashley and Bryan, thanks to both of you.

New audio have yet another scare at Newark International Airport, this one back in November, revealing a pattern of problems with communication with airplanes. It's shocking stuff.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

TAPPER: Crisis in the skies in our National Lead, the meltdown at Newark Airport in New Jersey. Now revealing itself to be a symptom of a greater problem, as we've discussed, with the United Airline CEO today demanding changes stemming from last week's communications failure that one air traffic controller who was in the room calls, quote, the most dangerous situation you can have, unquote.

CNN's Pete Muntean has been all over the story. And, Pete, this seems like it obviously was just a crisis waiting to happen.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: And the big takeaway from our reporting today is that this actually happened once before. The meltdown that happened last Monday that caused all of these staffing shortages happened back on November 6th when there was a total communications blackout at the Newark Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility, which is actually in Philadelphia, and that controller who was in the room at the time of this most recent meltdown was also in the room at the time then. He tells me it was by the grace of God that there was not a midair collision as a result of that earlier incident.

This is sort of the blow-by-blow. It happened November 6th, a FedEx flight was getting turned onto final approach by the controllers there at Newark Terminal Radar Approach Control. They lost voice communication. And so that plane, instead of making that critical turn, essentially just kept flying to the east and into the airspace over New York's LaGuardia Airport. That's a really dangerous situation.

And I want you to listen now to the audio from liveatc.net and hear the confusion that pilots have as they're still in the air when they're not hearing anything from air traffic control. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have no answer on Approach. So, it seems like he's not talking to anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they said that they lost frequencies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on a 150 heading. What do you want us to do now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FedEx 743 heavy, turn left heading 360.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left 360, FedEx 743 heavy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FedEx 743 heavy, climb and maintain 5,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5,000. FedEx 743 heavy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've just had about five sectors in my ear all at once and they all have radio failure. And they're turning every plane that's in sky. So, I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, got you loud and clear, thank you. We just lost all frequencies and communications here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: So, this really builds a story here and a bit of a track record that they had that stemmed from the move of this facility from Long Island to Philadelphia, and really introduced a single point of failure, a according to the controller that I spoke to. Now the FAA says they're scrambling to fix that one data link between the old facility and the new facility, replacing copper wire with fiber optic cable. They're also trying to set up a more reliable backup system there. And the FAA vowed today to get some more trainee controllers out of the trainee status and onto full-time.

The help really can't come soon enough for these controllers at the Newark Approach Control Facility because they're down five controllers now, five controllers on Monday, after this most recent incident took 45 days of trauma leave, meaning they'll be out for quite a while and these delays may persist.

TAPPER: But I don't even understand. If this happened in November, why didn't they take care of the problem then, and it was there a cover-up? I mean, this is potentially criminal. Like what happened?

MUNTEAN: That is the central question now. And I'm hearing from folks on my Instagram and Twitter and airline pilots and my Rolodex, they say this happened not just once before but three times before. And so the depth of this problem were really only now starting to scratch the surface.

[18:30:02]

And it really did take a while for this to get noticed. And it was really these controllers who ended up going out on trauma leave that ended up bringing this issue to the surface and really giving attention it deserved.

TAPPER: It's just stunning though. I mean, can you think about the lives that might have been lost and people just sitting on this information and not calling their senator, not calling the governor of New Jersey, et cetera? It's shocking.

All right, Pete Muntean, great reporting. Thank you so much.

The recent string of airline mishaps, close calls and unfortunate tragedies have highlighted the enormous task facing air traffic controllers every day. CNN's Tom Foreman visited an air traffic control simulator to help us understand just what they go through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How much do I have to be thinking about the second plane behind him here?

TERRY CRAFT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CCBC: A lot. There could be a hundred aircraft in your airspace.

FOREMAN: Some may be small and slow, some may be big and fast?

CRAFT: That's correct.

FOREMAN (voice over): Terry Craft knows how dangerous, even a moment of unexpected silence from an air traffic control center can be.

CRAFT: How much space do you need between the southwest and the heavy?

FOREMAN: He's a lifelong controller and supervisor, now turned instructor in this tower simulator at the Community College of Baltimore County.

You're just looking at all of these and just like that, another one just shows up.

CRAFT: Oh, they just keep popping up.

FOREMAN: And this can change unbelievably dramatically in ten seconds.

CRAFT: Oh, not even ten seconds.

FOREMAN: Key to the problem, an air control system that is already under enormous pressure with 45,000 flights and nearly 3 million passengers daily in the United States, the workload for control towers is staggering.

You could have 25 to 50 aircraft in this area that you're managing all at once?

CRAFT: Well, you can see them coming in.

JOE EICHELBERGER, AIR TRAFFIC PROGRAM MANAGER, CCBC: We have, by far, by orders of magnitude, the largest air traffic system in the world. We do more movements just in the states of California and Texas than most countries do in a year.

FOREMAN: Cherokee 228 Lima Bravo cleared for the approach runway --

CRAFT: 16.

FOREMAN: -- 16.

CRAFT: So, now they get to go here.

FOREMAN: Training a new controller can take up to seven years. Approximately 40 to 50 percent of applicants do not successfully finish the demanding courses at the FAA Academy. Programs like this help students beat those odds, but staff shortages are common.

CRAFT: The less controllers you have on duty, the more those controllers are working harder for the same volume of traffic.

FOREMAN: Are some facilities out there routinely operating almost at their maximum level?

CRAFT: Oh, absolutely.

FOREMAN: And the technical problems are well-documented, outdated equipment, spotty communications, sometimes leading to dire moments, like Newark saw just days ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: United 674 Approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 674 radar contact lost. We lost our radar. So, just on the arrival and maintain 6,000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (on camera): The FAA has pledged a massive overhaul, but that will take years in which controllers coast-to-coast must be constantly ready to handle the next potentially terrifying moments when they're effectively flying their planes blind.

TAPPER: Absolutely terrifying. Tom Foreman, thanks so much.

Coming up next, our small business series, we're going to talk to a beauty supply and cosmetic store owner. How she says Trump's tariffs are already drastically threatening her bottom line.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

TAPPER: In our Money Lead, we're continuing with our series in which we talk with small business owners from coast-to-coast to discuss how they are being impacted by President Trump's tariffs. Some have been in favor of the tariffs, many are struggling.

My next guest is Chastity Monroe. She owns Pink Noire, which is the only black-owned beauty supply store in all of Memphis, Tennessee. Chastity, thanks for so much for joining us.

So, tell us about the role that global trade plays in the beauty and cosmetics industry.

CHASTITY MONROE, OWNER, PINK NOIRE BEAUTY SUPPLY AND COSMETICS: Yes. Thank you so much, Jake, for having me. If you don't mind, I'd like to talk a little bit more about Pink Noire so we can really frame this conversation.

TAPPER: Okay.

MONROE: So, Pink Noire, as you stated, is Memphis only black woman- owned beauty supply store. And if you don't know what a beauty supply store is, essentially, it is a specialty retail store that specializes in culturally relevant things, like hair care, skincare, wigs, accessories, things of that nature. So, essentially, these are things that you will not find in your big box retailer, right?

TAPPER: Why not?

MONROE: So, as you think about the -- well, these are just things that are not mass produced. They're not mass products, right? So, these are not things that, you know, the other, I guess, 80 percent of the population that they may use. And so oftentimes, retailers are just not really incentivized to carry them for that reason.

TAPPER: And Pink Noire --

MONROE: All that said --

TAPPER: Go ahead.

MONROE: Oh, go ahead.

TAPPER: No, please.

MONROE: So, all that said, essentially, you know, black people spend about $7.6 billion on this actual category. And although black women are six times more likely to buy their items from these types of stores, only about 10 percent are owned by black people, and less than 5 percent are owned by black women.

So, that is why Pink Noire's main mission outside of being a retailer is really to close the gap in ownership. And, gratefully, we have been able to be a thought leader in this space. We've been able to be an advocate to really share these insights and really try to amplify why this is so important.

TAPPER: And Pink Noire is relatively new. You opened it in 2022. Has that made it more of a challenge to try to plan for the future around these tariffs? Where do you buy most of your products from? Do they come from overseas? Where do they come from?

[18:40:00]

MONROE: Yes. So, as a retailer, essentially, you know, most of our products really depend on the international supply chain. So, on top of, you know, there being three to four increases on average across the board, these tariffs are really adding to our operating cost and they're really exacerbating them.

Now, as a brand, Pink Noire has an eight-product hair care line. So let's just be honest, even mass produced beauty brands, of those, only 7 percent are actually manufactured domestically. So, the gist of that really is this, the infrastructure in the U.S. just doesn't exist and it certainly doesn't exist for a small business like mine.

So, the implications are many, and not to mention, you know, just the impact on the community. You know, people think that these are just, you know, beauty products is vanity, but this is livelihood. You know, the Crown Act was just passed in 2022, and that really was to eliminate the discrimination of hair based on race, right?

And so, as you think about those things, that impacts job opportunities, that impacts, you know, promotions, that's actual livelihood. You know, these are also impacting milestones, proms, graduations, I mean, even people who may have chemo that come to us to get their sense of self back.

So, you know, this has many far-reaching implications and, you know, honestly, you know, I think we are grateful that it's accelerating our vision ultimately in the franchise model.

TAPPER: Yes.

MONROE: And so for us, that means really focusing on regional micro manufacturing. That is critical and that's a core component of our current franchise model.

TAPPER: All right. Chastity Monroe, it sounds like somebody needs to pick up the phones there, so we'll let you get back to work. The business is Pink Noire, it's located in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee, and the owner Chastity Monroe. Chastity, thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

MONROE: Thank you so much for having me.

TAPPER: Coming up, a daughter who watched her mother struggle with drugs, her mom is now clean and sober. The daughter is in Congress. She worries her colleagues are going to cut the very thing that helped save her mother's life. That great story, next,

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:46:19]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Our health led now, the Trump administration has named overdose prevention as one of its top priorities. However, after a draft budget proposal was leaked from the Department of Health and Human Services, we've been watching a back and forth within the Trump administration over whether some funding for key programs that provide access and training around the overdose reversal drug naloxone could be cut or restricted.

Now, you might know it as Narcan, which has been credited with saving thousands of lives of people who have overdosed from opioids. And now one congresswoman speaking out, pleading with HHS Secretary RFK Jr. to save the funding.

And with me now is that congresswoman, Democrat Brittany Pettersen of Colorado.

Congresswoman, you wrote a letter to Secretary Kennedy this week in which you shared your mother's very moving story, saying she became addicted to opioids after injuring her back. You wrote, quote, in one year alone, my mom overdosed -- overdosed more than 20 times, and even overdosed three times in a single day. But she is one of the lucky ones.

Time and time again, she was administered naloxone, and eventually she was finally able to receive the treatment she needed, unquote.

How important is this drug naloxone or Narcan, to those who suffer from opioid addictions?

REP. BRITTANY PETTERSEN (D), COLORADO: Yes, thank you so much for covering this story. This is devastating to see the cuts that are going to be proposed for taking away the funding that so many states rely on to make sure that our, our first responders have access to naloxone or Narcan.

It's an overdose reversal drug. So, you can't become addicted. You can't abuse it. All it does is take somebody out of from being overdosed into -- to bringing them back and having the opportunity to save their life.

And as you talked about, you know, my mom struggled with addiction. We're still in an opioid crisis. So many Americans are still struggling with this. And fentanyl is the most potent version of the opioid crisis. And so, it's when people are the most at risk of dying that right now they're proposing taking away the funding for this life saving drug.

TAPPER: So, HHS has draft budget proposal last week showed that they were considering cutting funding for key programs that expanded access to Narcan. Now, however, after there was something of an uproar, the Trump administration says that the presidents budget gives states funding they could use to purchase the drug. But if access to the drug is curtailed, what kind of impact do you think it would have? PETTERSEN: Well, when this is curtailed, you know, individually it's

$35 to $50 per on average for the cost of this if you were to buy it. And so, so many people who are struggling with addiction are not going to spend the money, don't have the money to spend on this.

And a lot of states don't actually fund access to naloxone. We did that in Colorado. It's been critical to saving thousands of lives. But the impact of this will be we are going to lose thousands of people across the United States unnecessarily if we don't have the opportunity to save their life, to get them into treatment, and they're never going to have a chance to rebuild their lives and live in recovery like my mom.

TAPPER: President Trump is known to watch cable news on occasion. If you could make a direct plea to the president, what would you say?

PETTERSEN: If you care so much about the fentanyl crisis, as we've heard around bringing fear for people who -- who are bringing this across the border, I hope that you'll care enough to make sure that we support funding for naloxone, for reversing overdoses, giving people a chance to rebuild their lives, live in recovery.

But also, if we don't support them with the treatment that they need, all you're doing is keeping them alive today without connecting them to care.

[18:50:06]

And Colorado is really a shining example of what's possible. We have a Medicaid waiver to fund treatment that's desperately needed. And right now, next week, Republicans are poised to strip away the funding that Coloradans rely on. And many people across this nation. So, it's not just about naloxone. We also have to fund treatment programs, as are people with a disease that deserve to have the care that they need.

TAPPER: House Republicans are meanwhile eyeing a wide array of potential changes to Medicaid, which is access to lower income people and who qualifies for it. One of the ideas being bandied about is to add work requirements for able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid. Do you think that's reasonable?

PETTERSEN: What -- what these work requirements are going to do is its going to make it so impossible for people to actually qualify for Medicaid benefits. And these are definitely not workable. I -- when you -- actually within the Medicaid population, you have a disproportionate amount of people who are struggling with addiction because it impacts their income.

And so, what you're doing are people who have this disease who are unable to get the help that they need or unable to work, and you're setting them up. This is really life or death. And so, work requirements are just a way to get around, to push people off of Medicaid. The people who desperately need it.

When you think about people with disabilities, our most vulnerable kids, 40 percent of kids across the United States qualify, rely on Medicaid for care and 40 percent of our pregnancies are supported through the Medicaid program.

So, this is absolutely -- this is a way for them to cut Medicaid like we've been warning about. And its going to be disastrous for millions of Americans.

TAPPER: All right. Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, thank you so much. And please send our best and our prayers to your mom.

PETTERSEN: Thank you. She's doing well, and I appreciate you covering this.

TAPPER: Coming up, the state turning off the taps today on fluoride in drinking water. The concern that has other states wanting to follow suit.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:20]

TAPPER: Our health lead now, Utah's ban on fluoride in public water goes into effect today. Fluoride is a natural mineral found in soil, rocks, water known to help prevent tooth decay. Dentists warn that removing fluoride will hit lower income families the hardest. So, because they have the least access to dental care.

So why are states such as Utah trying to remove it from the water?

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can see both of the transfer pumps have been disconnected from the main tank. So there's no way to transfer fluoride from the main tank to the day tank.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across Utah, water facilities like this one in Salt Lake City have been preparing to close the tap on fluoride.

The state Wednesday became the first in the nation to ban adding the mineral to drinking water, a practice implemented across the U.S. since the 1940s to prevent tooth decay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dentists in many cities are helping to bring the benefits of fluoridation to children.

TIRRELL: Local public health officials are trying to get the word out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The main message were trying to get to people is that they are going to have to be proactive about getting their fluoride. This will no longer be delivered to them passively.

TIRRELL: Backers of the ban call it a personal choice issue. ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: It makes no sense to have

fluoride in our water. I'm very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will come.

TIRRELL: Florida is poised to follow suit and bills are on the table targeting fluoride in several other states. Critics argue fluoride could negatively affect children's brain development.

An August 2024 report by the National Toxicology Program found with, quote, moderate confidence that higher levels of fluoride exposure are associated with lower IQ in children. The recommended level in the U.S. is less than half that. The report found there were insufficient data to determine if that level has a negative effect. Proponents of fluoride point out the effects of removing it have been well-studied.

Calgary, Canada stopped fluoridating its water in 2011, while its northern neighbor, Edmonton, did not. About seven years later, a study showed second graders in Calgary had significantly higher rates of cavities. Calgary voted to bring back fluoride in 2021, and it's set to be added back by this summer. Dentists warn removing fluoride hits lower income families hardest.

DR. BRENDAN DOWD, CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO: The first line of defense is water fluoridation because -- and I look at it as a health equity issue. Everybody has tap water that they can -- that they can use.

TIRRELL: In Utah, the same bill that banned adding fluoride to water made it possible for pharmacists to prescribe fluoride tablets. Dentists like Dr. Brendan Dowd warn not everyone will access those as freely as tap water, and that tooth decay can have serious health complications for kids.

DOWD: Cavities can be taken care of with fillings, but sometimes as they get worse, they turn into infections. Sometimes they end up in the hospital. They have to be treated there with IV antibiotics. So it can get very serious very quickly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TIRRELL: And, Jake, though some supporters of banning fluoride in drinking water point to its availability elsewhere as an alternative, like fluoride toothpaste, for example, there have been some recent efforts even to go after those products. Last week, Texas attorney general said he was investigating toothpaste companies for allegedly deceptively marketing fluoride toothpaste to kids in ways that get them to use more. Colgate Palmolive, for its part, told us that its products are safe when used as directed -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.

I have two books coming out, the first one in 1 week and six days, May 20th, "Original Sin". It's about President Biden's disastrous decision to run for reelection and the cover up of his decline. Then in October, I have a book called "Race Against Terror" about the hunt to prosecute an al Qaeda terrorist who killed Americans and was out to kill more. You can check him out at jaketapper.com and order -- preorder there.

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