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The Lead with Jake Tapper

White House Says, Trump to Decide on Iran Action Within Two Weeks; Source Says, Steve Bannon Had Lunch With Trump at White House; Los Angeles Dodgers, White House at Odds Over Presence of Federal Agents at MLB Stadium. Survivors Tell CNN About Abduction, Abuse By Syrian Militia; Heat Dome To Send Temps Soaring Into The Triple Digits. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:00]

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

This hour, President Trump puts Iran on the clock. The White House saying today the President will allow two more weeks for diplomacy before deciding whether to launch a strike. This comes just hours after a major hospital in Israel was hit during a wave of Iranian missiles. We're live in both Iran and Israel tonight.

Plus, protesters rallying outside Dodgers Stadium today after the team claims they blocked immigration agents from entering the Dodgers Stadium grounds, but the Department of Homeland Security is telling a very different story. We're live outside the stadium with the latest.

Also, he's back. President Trump's one-time strategist, former federal prisoner and MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon was seen entering the White House today. Is he filling the void? Left by former first buddy Elon Musk?

And it's about to get dangerously hot across much of the United States as summer begins with a widespread dangerous heat wave. We're tracking the forecast with the first impacts just hours away for some states.

The Lead Tonight, as the tension between Israel and Iran accelerates, a new wave of Iranian missiles and a major hospital in Southern Israel today taking extensive damage, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vows to quote, strike all the nuclear facilities in Iran.

Also, today, a Washington-based organization called Human Rights Group says the Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others.

The big question, whether President Trump will take direct military action against Iran using the U.S. military, that's not expected to be answered until sometime in the next two weeks, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in an effort to let diplomacy play out. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is live for us at the White House. Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. Obviously, this timeline coming after the world had been watching and waiting to see what it was President Trump had decided about whether or not the United States will get militarily involved in what is happening between Israel and Iran right now. And, of course, the indications that we had been getting over the last several days is that the president was considering striking an Iranian nuclear facility.

And he had been reviewing those plans with his team, but it was very clear, Jake, that he had not made a final call on that yet. He said as much to me yesterday in the Oval Office. And essentially what this timeline gives with the key word that she said is within the next two weeks is that it gives the president some breathing room here on a decision that he's making, Jake, and seeing what this call is going to be.

It's been pretty clear inside the White House and even Israeli officials have said this as well about the president and what direction he was leaning. But, clearly, there is a real divide within some of his most loyal supporters, Jake, in what he should do here, and whether or not striking Iran is aligned with his policy of America first, that obviously he pursued and touted out on the campaign trail.

And so we're looking at this. I should also mention that today during that press briefing, Karoline Leavitt talked about how the president's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff,, is still in contact with Iranian officials, despite the fact that no formal talks have really been happening ever since Israel struck one week ago in Iran.

But the press secretary did get into Jake why people should be looking and listening to what it is the president has to say and ultimately do on Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Trump has incredible instincts and President Trump kept America and the world safe in his first term as president in implementing a peace through strength foreign policy agenda. And with respect to Iran, nobody should be surprised by the president's position that Iran absolutely cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. He's been unequivocally clear about this for decades, not just as president, not just as a presidential candidate but also as a private citizen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, Jake, obviously this two-week deadline, as a reporter pointed out to Karoline Leavitt in the briefing, is something we've often heard from President Trump, whether it was on healthcare policy or infrastructure in his first term, or the Russia-Ukraine war, as has certainly been a timeline he has used repeatedly this time that he's been in office. At the end of this, two weeks though, there is going to be a concrete result here, Jake, either the United States does strike Iran or they do not. And the question is how the Israelis take that, what that looks like. The prime minister said today that he does believe they're fully capable of achieving their goals in Iran with or without the United States.

TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you so much.

And, of course, don't miss Kaitlan on her show, The Source with Kaitlan Collins. That's tonight and every week night 9:00 P.M. Eastern only on CNN.

Let's go now to CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, who joins us live from Tel Aviv, Israel.

[18:05:00]

Clarissa, how is Israel, the Israeli government, how are they reacting to this announcement from the White House that there's going to be two weeks of a timeline or even a deadline before President Trump makes a decision?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, so far they are not reacting publicly at all. And, frankly, that's not a huge surprise because they have really maintained this line of we're not going to interfere, we're not going to be seen as trying to strong arm President Trump. We're just going to keep reiterating how grateful we are for all the help that we've gotten so far, mainly in a defensive perspective. But, privately, I think it's safe to assume that this was not the result they were looking for, that they were feeling quite optimistic, in fact, that President Trump would intervene militarily and that they believe the timeline for that might be something like 24 to 48 hours.

Two weeks is a very different ball game. The concern, of course, will be that there's a sort of loss of momentum, that the other concern is how long can the Israelis keep up this pace in terms of their strikes on Iran? Do they now need to make separate contingency plans to do things on their own, as Kaitlan suggested there, and so a lot of questions going forward. But I don't think you will hear any explicit criticism or even attempts to persuade President Trump to take a more decisive and a quicker action.

They have been very clear, though, the Israelis, that they are not remotely interested in pursuing a diplomatic option, and they are even less interested in trying to be persuaded, for example, to stop the bombs or stop the strikes while those diplomatic negotiations would go on.

So, it remains to be seen what action the Israelis will take going forward, but almost certainly this is not the news that they were expecting or wanted to hear. Jake?

TAPPER: And, Clarissa, earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was at a site of an Israeli hospital that took extensive damage from an Iranian missile. What can you tell us about that?

WARD: He was one of several officials who went to visit the site. Obviously the striking of a hospital is significant escalation. The Iranians were saying that it was not the target, that the target was a nearby military intelligence command center, and that the hospital just got a secondary kind of hit from that. The Israelis obviously saying quite clearly there's a direct strike on the fifth floor in the urology department.

We heard also the defense minister, Israel Katz, after visiting the site, saying basically, Khamenei cannot be allowed to continue. When he was interviewed later by Kan, an Israeli T.V. network, Prime Minister Netanyahu seemed to not row that back, but at least allow some room for ambiguity, basically saying that no one is immune, but that he believes that actions speak louder than words.

He also went on, of course to say how grateful Israel is to the president of the United States for all the assistance that has been given to Israel thus far. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv, thank you so much.

Let's discuss this with Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz, a former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Lieutenant General Schwartz, I want to ask you the same question Kristen Holmes asked the White House today. How can the United States trust that Iran is serious about negotiating and not just stringing everyone along to avoid a U.S. bomb hitting the Fordow site?

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), FORMER U.S. SECURITY COORDINATOR FOR ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Well, I don't think they can trust Iran. Obviously in the past and the time has been given for negotiations hasn't played out, but the conditions strategically and tactically are much different than they were, you know, before last Friday when Israel started their offensive.

So, potentially, this dialogue, it will take place starting tomorrow with the U.K foreign minister, with France's foreign minister and Iran, and then, you know, follow on for the days to come may result in, you know, an outcome that doesn't require the United States to get involved. But that's going to be what's going to be necessary is not only to stop their enrichment capability, but then verifying that they are going to do it, which are two very difficult current or former red lines that Iran had that they weren't willing to negotiate on.

TAPPER: So, when people ask, well, what could Iran possibly do to the United States in retaliation, one of the responses we always get from military experts is these proxy groups, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Iran-backed Shiite militias. They could attack American soldiers, American service members, American citizens, et cetera. And, in fact, the Iran-backed powerful Shia militia in Iraq today vowed to attack U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East if the U.S. enters the Israeli-Iran conflict. How seriously do you take that threat?

[18:10:00]

SCHWARTZ: I would take it very seriously given, you know, over the course of the conflict since October 7th, we've seen and certainly well before that, we've seen the Shia militias attack U.S. forces. So, they are probably the most significant threat that, that remains to U.S. forces in the region. Hamas, obviously, Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis, they've been significantly degraded as a result of the campaigns that Israel has carried out, and also that the US and the maritime coalitions carried out against the Houthis in Yemen.

But the Shia militias in Iraq, I think, are probably the most viable threat, second only to the surface-to-surface missile capability that Iran still has in their inventory.

TAPPER: If Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, where uranium enrichment is taking place underneath this mountain, if that facility were to be damaged or even destroyed in a strike by the United States, that would likely lead to a limited radiation leak in the immediate area, experts say. And now some say that that would be manageable if people are wearing the right protective equipment. Still, how worried should war planners be about potential consequences for Iranian civilians, for any innocent people in the area?

SCHWARTZ: Well, they should be worried, and I'm sure they're taking those potential consequences into account. And, you know, all of our partners in the region, where we have security arrangements and basing agreements with are certainly concerned about that possibility that if in fact Fordow is hit and the uranium that's enriched to 60 percent grade right now gets, you know, destroyed as a result that it could cause a fallout that would, in fact, impact not only Iranian people, but also those across the region.

TAPPER: The U.S. intelligence community recently assessed that Iran was still about three years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, in other words, the enriched uranium put onto a missile, a ballistic missile that could be fired upon Israel. But now Trump and White House officials are saying it's weeks away. Do you think that Trump and other officials got new intelligence to suggest this or did they get intelligence from Israel? Where did this new assessment come from?

SCHWARTZ: I think there can be -- I've certainly seen it that there's differences in intelligence assessments. I think the weeks away really speaks to the ability to raise the enrichment from 60 to 90 percent. Obviously, there's a lot of science involved to then take that enriched uranium to compact it and to make it into a weapon and to weaponize it, putting it on a delivery system.

So, I think there's two components of this. You know, one is the enrichment that can take place. And I think there's even the IAEA and others have said that that is possible within days or weeks. But in terms of making a weaponizing it and then putting it on a delivery system in order to employ it against Israel or, you know, someone else in the region, much longer.

TAPPER: Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz, thanks so much for your insights. I appreciate it.

When it comes to navigating this conflict, the U.S. director of National Intelligence might not have President Trump's ear. CNN has new reporting about Tulsi Gabbard and why sources say she is falling out of favor with President Trump.

And he was fired from the White House during President Trump's first term, so why was MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon seen walking into the White House today? That's next.

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[18:15:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, after days of declining to say publicly whether he intends to order U.S. strikes on nuclear weapons facilities in Iran, the White House now says President Trump will make a decision within two weeks, allowing diplomatic efforts to proceed.

That's interesting because just yesterday, of course, President Trump said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I've been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I've been saying it for a long time. And I think they were a few weeks away from having one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Political panel extraordinaire joins us now. Jonah, let me start with you. You know, who was at the White House today for lunch with President Trump? Steve Bannon.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

TAPPER: A MAGA supporter. And do you think he's playing a role here when it comes to this? He obviously does not want the U.S. to get involved at all.

GOLDBERG: Yes. Well, it's going to take them a while to get the smell of sulfur out of the drapes, but --

TAPPER: You mean Trump or Bannon?

GOLDBERG: Bannon. Look, Trump is having an issue trying to make peace with his coalition, which is a majority coalition, but a very small majority coalition. And it contains people who really don't like Israel and don't want to do anything for Israel. And it contains people who really like Israel and want to help Israel out. And I think this is probably him, Trump, trying to maintain -- do a little coalition management. Bannon comes from the wing along with Tucker Carlson that thinks Israel should be thrown under the bus and that we shouldn't attack Iran. That's a defensible position, not the throwing Israel under the bus part. And so I assume Trump is just trying to make peace.

TAPPER: I mean, Jake, imagine if we would've had this process, this thorough debate on the Republican side during the Bush years. Imagine the catastrophes we would've avoided, the number of troops lost, wounded, a trillion plus dollars spent. Just imagine if the Republican Party had the courage at the time to have robust discussions about foreign policy the way we are now.

Now, they're going to be a disparate perspectives on this, but I actually think this is a healthy thing. I'm glad the president's taken his time because there are so many unknown variables that we cannot account for if we do directly involve ourselves in this situation that I think a year from now, we'll be thinking, well, you know, man, boy, we should have thought about this a little further, man, if only there were some folks out there contesting some of these decisions so that the president could consider various perspectives.

[18:20:00]

TAPPER: I think it's an interesting argument you're making. I don't disagree with it. I also think that it wouldn't be happening if it weren't for Iraq, right, because of the lack of internal debate in the Republican Party and to a large degree, the Democratic Party at the time, at least.

Let me ask you, Kate. The director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, former Democrat, is contradicting or contradicted Israel's claims that Iran is racing towards a nuclear weapon. And that appears to be causing a real problem with between her and Donald Trump. Sources tell CNN that Trump sees Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence, his off-message when it comes to this conflict. And CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Trump about Gabbard on Monday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon.

TRUMP: I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I don't care what she said, the president said about his director of National Intelligence testimony under oath.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, look, I think that's problematic. I think to the point Shermichael was just making, clearly, a robust debate is happening about whether the United States should move forward or not with what would ultimately be a significant military policy, one way or the other. I agree with Shermichael. That's a good thing. There should be robust discussion and debate. And in the Situation Room, the president should be hearing from everybody who has intelligence to bring here. The director of National Intelligence is somebody who has information the president should be hearing. And so the idea that he's not or that he is dismissing because he doesn't like the public argument she's making, I think that's troubling and I think it suggests that there is a fair amount of political manipulation or political calculation, I should say, not manipulation, calculation going into this discussion when it should be driven by intelligence and by what is in the best national security interest of the United States.

GOLDBERG: Yes. So, I'm not known for coming on here and doing a lot of defending of Donald Trump, but I'm on Team Trump on this narrow question. He should not listen to Tulsi Gabbard at all.

BEDINGFIELD: Then why did he make her DNI?

GOLDBERG: Because he's got this weird coalition and he thought there was this fun thing about having a Democrat in their --

BEDINGFIELD: Well, that's my point. Like that's an overly political --

GOLDBERG: I agree with you. If you don't care what your DNI says, get a new DNI.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

GOLDBERG: He should get a new DNI.

BEDINGFIELD: Fine.

GOLDBERG: The administration is saying, including J.D. Vance is saying that they've learned a lot of things since her testimony in March. There's a lot of reporting that says that Trump is really mad at Tulsi Gabbard because what Tulsi Gabbard did was basically put out this absolutely exorable, ridiculous video --

TAPPER: With music, by the way.

GOLDBERG: -- with music and a voiceover trying to sort of put pressure on Trump from the outside, which was full of like conspiratorial hogwash, like the idea that people who are for bombing Iran, which I think is a perfectly debatable policy question. But the idea that the only reason they're for it is because they desperately want nuclear war, because then they will be able to -- because they're the ones who have access to really nice bomb shelters.

TAPPER: Yes.

GOLDBERG: That is bat guano crazy nonsense and she has no business being part of any of these deliberations.

TAPPER: So, quick pivot for a sec. because, Kate, I wanted to get your take. All of this is going on as there are these protests having to do with ICE raids, et cetera. And we've seen some Democratic politicians get involved and get cuffed. In May, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested after trying to get into New Jersey immigration detention facility. Congresswoman LaMonica McIbver was with Baraka that day. She was later indicted for allegedly impeding and interfering with ICE officers last week. Senator Padilla of California was briefly detained after trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem question. He interrupted her press conference. On Tuesday, New York City comptroller mayoral candidate, Brad Lander, was arrested in Manhattan's immigration court.

Now, I hear Democrats saying Republicans are weaponizing law enforcement, and I hear Republicans saying Democrats are doing stunts and need to be treated the same way anyone else carrying out such a stunt should be treated. How do you see it?

BEDINGFIELD: Look, I don't think this is politically a winning issue for the Democrats, and I think the more they continue to drive day in and day out this new cycle to a place that is good for Donald Trump, I think that's not a good thing.

I think the way in which Donald Trump and his administration have cast an, I would say, inexcusably wide net in the way that they're conducting deportations, indefensible, and I think that it is -- it should be questioned.

However, when the entire messaging essentially focus of the Democratic Party seems to be on driving this issue that poll after poll tells us people think Donald Trump is broadly handling in a way that they're comfortable with, this isn't a winning argument.

And what I would love to see is for Democrats to go at places where Trump is incredibly vulnerable, for example, on this bill that they're trying to pass on the Hill, which we see polling this week that shows is really ill-defined, and what people do know about it is that it's going to cut healthcare and it's going to take healthcare away from people across the country.

TAPPER: Medicaid, yes.

BEDINGFIELD: And I would love to see Democrats put the kind of effort and energy behind driving a message on that.

[18:25:01]

Because, ultimately, here's the thing, Democrats have to get to a stronger political footing for any of this to be effective. And so my argument is not that they shouldn't question what Donald Trump is doing on immigration, which I would argue in many way, in many places, is unconstitutional. As a political matter, Democrats have to get to stronger footing and they can't do that on this issue.

SINGLETON: look, I think, quickly, the question is, do you want to handle immigration or do you not? And the American people are saying Trump is handling it, and maybe I don't agree with all of the tactics, but there is an approach here. And Democrats appear to say, well, we don't like it, and that should be enough to consider us in midterms? I don't think that's necessarily the case.

And as it pertains to the big, beautiful bill, what is the Democratic response to reform economically? What's the Democratic response to making sure that Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security can exist for another 50 years? I don't think there's a solution for that.

TAPPER: All right. Thanks one and all. I appreciate it.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Trump administration are now at odds after immigration agents were seeing near the team stadium earlier today. What both sides are claiming. One of them has got to be wrong. That's next.

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[18:30:00]

TAPPER: Sports and Politics Leads are intersecting today at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tonight's game will go on as scheduled at the stadium there. Protesters gathered outside the stadium earlier today as the team claimed that it had denied immigration agents access to the area. The Department of Homeland Security, however says that's not true.

CNN's Natasha Chen is outside Dodger Stadium. First, Natasha, what exactly is the Department of Homeland Security disputing?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. This has been a source of real confusion today. After the Dodgers said that they denied ICE entry into the stadium grounds today, the Department of Homeland Security on X, quote, tweeted the Dodgers and said, this had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.

Now, after that came out, I reached back out to my contacts with the Dodgers to ask them, what's really going on here? And they told me they're discussing and working on a reply for me and we've been waiting for that, Jake.

So, there is a lot of confusion about what took place this morning. What we do see from affiliate video is that at around 9:00 A.M. local time, there was a long line of vans seen parked along the street right outside Gate E, which is to the east of where we are, east of the stadium, one of the entrances to the Dodgers parking lot, very vast parking lot. And there were people seen around those vans in tactical gear, wearing bandana-style masks.

And so a group of protesters quickly showed up trying to ostensibly block ICE from entering Dodgers Stadium. And the L.A. police officers showed up to try and keep the peace and no real confrontations happened, Jake. And the protesters left after a few hours. The last few vans that we saw in that video got escorted out of here, off property.

So, right now, we are waiting for the Dodgers to come back to us, for DHS to come back to us with maybe a little bit more clarity on what actually happened this morning.

Meanwhile, you've got a celebrity softball game that starts in a couple of hours ahead of tonight's 7:00 P.M. game against the San Diego Padres. And there are fans coming out early, standing on the sidewalk here with signs. One says Dodger Boo. Another says, proud to be a Latina. I can tell you that the electrical box right behind our camera here says, silence is the problem. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Natasha Chen in Los Angeles for us, thank you so much.

Meanwhile, the FIFA Club World Cup continues with multiple matches today, amid uncertainty over possible ICE presence at those games. CNN's Gustavo Vales is in Atlanta where one of those matches just wrapped up. Gus?

GUSTOVA VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just under 32,000 fans witnessed a surprise victory of Miami over favorite Porto (ph) from Portugal, and this international competition that has attracted people from all over the world, although perhaps not as many as some might expect it.

Yes, this is an afternoon game. It's early in the tournament. Perhaps we'll see more people attending these matches. FIFA has said that just over half a million people attended the first 16 matches. But there seems to be a shadow over the tournament, especially a question if the current immigration environment in the United States is affecting attendance. There are people who were afraid that either migrants in the states would not come or participate, or people would simply don't want to come to the country. The foreigners that we have spoken with over this past week, they tell us they were not worried. He's -- your name, please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Raphael (ph).

VALDES: Raphael. You come from Brazil. Did you have any concerns about coming into the United States right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has a little concern without immigration going on, coming to America and afraid of going back. But we are here to enjoy the beautiful game and we want to have the best time. And right now, we're not worried about immigration. We're just worried about having a great time with the events.

VALDES: Do you have any problem getting into the country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at all. Everything was a breeze.

VALDES: Thank you very much. So, that's basically what we've heard from most of the people we've talked to. Monday during the Manchester United. I did talk to some British fans who told me that they were here for business. They took advantage of the opportunity, but they recognized that if they wanted to take some personal time off, maybe the United States would not be their preferred destination.

[18:35:02]

Jake, back to you.

TAPPER: All right. Gustavo Valdes in Atlanta, thanks so much. Our Business Leader series takes us back to Georgia next, where a company dedicated to helping you get a good night's sleep says it would love to make its products in the USA, but what are the barriers stopping that from becoming a reality? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: it's time for our Business Leaders series where we hear from small business owners from coast-to-coast, talking to them about President Trump's tariffs, how they're impacting them and their customers. Some are happy, some are not.

Our business today is Bamblu. Bamblu is a direct-to-consumer brand of sleep products, including bedding and pajamas and accessories made from bamboo. And the owner and founder, Angela Hawkins, joins us now from Atlanta, Georgia.

Angela you source most of your products from China, so I can't imagine that these tariffs have been good for your business. Tell me what the impact has been.

ANGELA HAWKINS, OWNER AND FOUNDER, BAMBLU: Absolutely. Thank you. First of all, thank you so much for giving us a platform of small businesses. We really need to have, you know, feet on the street and people really listening to what's going on out here with these tariffs and how they're affecting our businesses.

[18:40:05]

And for me and Bamblu, you know, when I started this business in 2017, our objective was to be able to create ideal products, bamboo-made products, to be able to give my customers the products they need to get the rest they want. And what we found was that China was the best place to source that.

There's always an underlying desire for small business to create products in America. Having a badge that says made in the USA would be an honor, but we just can't afford to do that. Small businesses make up 98 percent of the retail community and 98 percent of these small -- all of our small businesses are being affected by these tariffs proportionately.

There's no opportunity for me to go and find another source for bamboo that's going to be the quality that I need, the promise that I give my customer that they're going to get great quality bamboo product at the cost that I need to be able to sell them at.

I've tried even after all of the tariff information came down, I went back and I tried again. And I was just recently quoted to be able to produce the same pajama that I have been selling to my client now for eight years, it's going to cost me double what I've paid for in China to be able to make it in the U.S.

And I just feel like my company can absorb that cost. I know it can't and my customer doesn't necessarily want to do that either.

TAPPER: So, how are you navigating the cost of the tariffs right now? Are you being forced to raise the prices of your products?

HAWKINS: Unfortunately, what I did was in the beginning when we were going through the election process, there was a lot of talks about tariffs and how they were going to impact. I knew that being a producer of fine goods from China meant that I was going to be hit with that cost regardless of what it was.

No one could have ever expected it was going to be 145 percent at one time, but I knew that I had to put a pause on what I was ordering for my spring line because I knew that I couldn't necessarily tell my customer what that end result price was going to be because I was going to have to pass on that cost. And then furthermore, I couldn't tell my investors what their return on investment was going to be. So, it meant that we had to slow down our ordering process.

We had no (INAUDIBLE) line this year. That really hurts a small business. We don't -- you know, in a small business environment, we are ordering month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter with a very strategic plan. And in this environment, we can't do that. All the decisions being made are so sporadic and they're being made on a whim.

We don't plan that way. I have already planned for my 2025. I've already planned for my holiday of 2025, which now I'm trying to decide how do I approach that holiday, because I cannot afford to buy the products, even at 30 percent. Everyone, you know, kind of makes comments that 30 percent, you know, that's -- what do you think? That's great. That is 30 percent. If you were going to a big box store and getting goods for your home in bulk, and you got to the counter and you paid your bill, and then when you went to go check out and you handed that checkout person that receipt and they said, oh, you owe us another 30 percent, everybody would, you know, kind of gasp at that. So, 30 percent is still a lot. 145 percent is ridiculous, but 30 percent is a lot.

TAPPER: And you can find Bamblu products online.

Owner and founder Angela Hawkins, thanks for joining us. And it's B-A- M-B-L-U, right? If they want to search, B-A-M-B-L-U?

HAWKINS: Dot co.

TAPPER: Okay, dot co. Thanks so much.

HAWKINS: Dot co.

TAPPER: I appreciate it.

New video shows the moment that waves from Hurricane Erick toppled the statue today. We're going to go to the CNN Weather Center next for an update on that storm and on the dangerous heat wave about to hit the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:34] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: In our world, as Syria's new president tries to present his government as a force for peace and stability, even meeting with President Trump recently, a CNN investigation uncovers exclusive details about one of his newly appointed army commanders, a militia under the control of that commander has been accused of kidnaping, abuse, torture and trafficking of women.

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): Eleven captive women bonded together by the most primal of. Instincts to survive.

With them, a toddler kidnapped when he was just eight. Months old, a cheeky smile at his captor behind the camera. These four walls, the only world the child has ever known.

A CNN investigation details the horrors experienced by these women and children. Members of the. Kurdish ethnic minority, who say they were snatched from their homes in Syria, abused, trafficked, moved from one secret jail to another.

What sets this apart from other wartime abuses? CNN has found that these atrocities allegedly happened under the command of a man who's now a key leader in the new Syrian army. His name, Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, or Boulad for short. He was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023 for his role in the kidnapping and severe abuse of women.

CNN has obtained exclusive video and eyewitness testimony, piecing together what happened.

Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, appointed Boulad as a senior military leader in Aleppo, the very province where the women were abducted. Sharaa himself is a former militant who toppled the brutal rule of former dictator Bashar al-Assad. He's vowed to usher in freedom and justice and sought the acceptance of world leaders, including President Trump, who held a historic meeting with him in may. Boulad is just one of several former rebels sanctioned by the West for egregious crimes and still appointed to key positions in the new Syria, potentially jeopardizing the new governments ability to turn the page on a dark chapter in Syria filled with hope.

One former militant close to Boulad risked his life to speak to CNN, so he's masked his voice. He shares the sinister details of the kidnapping of women.

FORMER MILITANT: It was a trade. They were buying and selling them. They were selling them to people who were closest to them.

QIBLAWI: We spoke to three of the survivors, some now living in the safety of Europe.

SURVIVOR: It was filled with beatings, torture, insults and humiliation. There was no time to think about why I was there, because I was consumed with the hunger, the lack of hygiene and the insects feasting on my body.

QIBLAWI: Other women spoke to us from inside Syria, where they live in fear of Boulad's wrath.

What was the worst part of your captivity?

SURVIVOR: It was the rape. The hunger. The torture. Every phase was full of pain.

QIBLAWI: Only one woman agreed to show her face. Lonjin Abdo, now 29, and a refugee in France. She's dedicated her life to speaking out about her suffering and about the agony endured by those who were with her, including two toddlers.

LONJIN ABDO, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR: The guards told the mother to use her own blanket as a diaper, so the mother did. Our blankets were infested with lice and worms. The two children used to get so very sick.

QIBLAWI: Lonjin is seen here among her fellow abductees. The conditions were extreme. There was little food, little comfort, little hope.

Even though she's been free for four years, Lonjin has not fully escaped the reach of her tormentors, who harass her with twisted forget me knots, images sent to her from thousands of miles away. Like this photo, a memento from one of her darkest hours. Her torturers had torn out her hair.

ABDO: Everyday, I tie the strands together until I made this braid. This hair was soaked with blood. I was hiding it, but they took it away.

QIBLAWI: I asked her how the image made her feel.

ABDO: How did I feel? I felt like they were detaining me again. It was horrible.

QIBLAWI: Syrian President Sharaa visited Paris in May for his first official visit to a Western nation. Lonjin was just a few yards away, wishing she could tell him her story.

ABDO: These are tough feelings. This person rules Syria now. He should be our voice, defend our rights. But he's doing the opposite. Today, he's put the people who violated our rights, who committed crimes against us in positions of power.

QIBLAWI: For Lonjin and her fellow survivors, the prospect of closure fades into the distance, when Boulad, rather than facing justice, is part of Syria's top military brass.

Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Tamara Qiblawi for that report. The East Coast is dealing with severe thunderstorms today, but when

that clears up, some serious heat is on the way -- and I mean serious. A look ahead at the record-breaking temperatures anticipated, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:57:43]

TAPPER: We are following two major weather stories tonight. Hurricane Erick made landfall along the western coast of Mexico earlier today as a category three storm with winds up to 125 miles an hour. It's the first major hurricane on record to hit Mexico before July.

Now, here in the United States, parts of the country are about to get a lot hotter. A widespread heat dome is expected to send temperatures to record, breaking highs across the eastern half of the country starting this weekend.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the forecast, as well as the hurricane.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jake, there's really not much left of Erick. And that's what we like to see really getting that storm to weaken very quickly limits the potential for flooding.

Now, with that said, we are still expecting an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain as we go through the rest of the evening tonight and even into early tomorrow. However, because there is still some additional rainfall, we could still see some flooding issues right there along the southern coast.

Now, one thing to note, even though the Atlantic season really has yet to begin, the eastern Pacific is already on their fifth named storm, something that on an average year, wouldn't actually happen until the end of July.

Now, back home in the U.S., the big story here as we head into the weekend is going to be this heat dome that is expected to set up across the eastern portion of the U.S. Now, beginning Friday, you're going to start to see those temperatures ramp up into the central portion of the U.S., as well as the Midwest.

Take St. Louis, for example, getting almost to triple digits on Friday and then continuing with triple digits not just through the weekend, but also into next week. Washington, D.C. will eventually get to the 90s by Saturday. New York getting to the 90s by Sunday, but it's only going to go up from there because as this heat wave begins to spread east, it's really going to peak next week across portions of the Northeast as well as the mid-Atlantic.

Take New York, for example. The average high this time of year is only about 81. We will reach 90 on Sunday and yes, even triple digits possible by Tuesday of next week. Philadelphia also looking at the potential for some triple digit temperatures next week. Same thing for Washington, D.C. even though there high is only usually in the mid- 80s. The concern here is going to be some of those heat risk impacts. So,

you can see as we go into the weekend we've got some of those higher risk areas, not only into the Midwest, but it continues to spread across the Ohio Valley and eventually into the northeast and the mid- Atlantic as we start off next week.

TAPPER: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.