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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Donald Trump Insists Iran Nuclear Sites Were Completely Destroyed; Mamdani Wins Stunning Upset In Democratic Primary As Cuomo Concedes. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: -- of you for joining us today. And thanks to my panel. Also, guys, thank you very much for being here.

If you happen to miss any of today's show or any of our shows, you can always catch up. Our podcast for the arena is now live. You can scan the QR code below on your screen. Follow wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on X and Instagram at the arenacnn. But now Jake Tapper is standing by for the lead. Jake, great to see you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Hey, Kasie, good to see you. We'll see you back in The Arena tomorrow.

HUNT: Indeed.

TAPPER: Where do we even begin? The Lead starts right now. The president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, personally attacking journalists for reporting the news, singling out CNN today. Lots of reasons why, but most fundamentally, he seems to not understand the role of a free and independent press.

Plus, a political stunner, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, a controversial one, winning, sending shockwaves in New York's race for mayor. What the rise of Zohran Mamdani might say about the future of the Democratic Party and the future of politics in America.

And President Trump's former personal attorney now in line to be a federal appeals court judge. His response when asked about a whistleblower claim that he wanted to tell the courts F you and ignore a future order.

Welcome to The Lead. I am Jake Tapper and we begin with a fair question that many of you might be wondering is Iran's nuclear weapons program, quote, completely and totally obliterated?

President Trump said Saturday that was in fact the case for the, quote, key nuclear enrichment facilities. But what about the entire nuclear program? Is it all gone? It has only been four days since the U.S. military struck those three Iranian nuclear sites with more than a dozen GBU-57, that's the massive ordnance penetrator bomb, as well as with 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Now, intelligence assessments from Israel, from the International Atomic Energy Agency and from the United States government are still evolving as more information is gathered.

Now, CNN and other news organizations reported on an initial intelligence assessment that said that the U.S. strikes did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.

Now, as a response today, President Trump and his administration are pushing back. They are asserting that Iran's entire nuclear program, not just key nuclear enrichment facilities, not just those three sites, the entire program, they say, has been decimated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Iran's nuclear program is obliterated and somebody somewhere is trying to leak something to say, oh, with low confidence, we think maybe it's moderate.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It was really bad. It was devastated. They were obliterated. Like, you can't get into the tunnels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now later this afternoon, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard on X posted quote, new intelligence confirms what President Trump has stated numerous times. Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed.

If the Iranians choose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities entirely, which would likely take years to do, unquote. She did not provide details of what that new intelligence might be.

And then just moments ago, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said, quote, CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source, method.

Notable that CIA Director Ratcliffe said that the nuclear program was severely damaged. That's the term he used, not totally obliterated. It is of course possible that at some point after more intelligence assessments are completed, the President's claims of total obliteration of the entire program could bear out to be true. But so much right now remains unknown.

We still do not know what is underneath all the rubble at these bombed out sites. Has everything been completely destroyed? Another question, how much enriched uranium was transported from those sites by the Iranians before the attack on Saturday?

At this stage in the game, even President Trump's own intelligence community has not come to a final conclusion about the level to which Iran's nuclear program has been set back. It's simply way too early to know.

Now, CNN was first to report that one early DIA, or Defense Intelligence Agency assessment suggested that the U.S. military strikes on Iran this weekend did not completely destroy the core components of Iran's nuclear power.

[17:05:10]

Setting back the program by only a few months, not a few years. Now, it's a low confidence assessment, meaning that the DIA is far from sure about it. It was described to CNN by seven people briefed on the DIA assessment. And our reporting stress that the assessment's conclusion could evolve as new information comes to light.

Now, CNN reached out to the White House before reporting on this DIA intel assessment. And the White House attacked the assessment, but confirmed that it exists. Even President Trump himself today confirmed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not disputing the report said what it said, even though it was initial?

TRUMP: The report said what it said and it was fine. It was severe, they think, but they had no idea. They shouldn't have issued a report until they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Fine. But here's the thing. Today, President Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way. They're recalling journalists fake news for true stories. They're calling for an excellent CNN reporter, Natasha Bertrand, to be fired, which is preposterous. And to which a CNN statement today reads, we stand 100 percent behind Natasha Bertrand's journalism. As they should.

The Trump administration is also accusing any news media who reports on this intel assessment as not being patriotic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: And then the instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times, is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don't care what the troops think.

TRUMP: You, especially, you should be proud of those pilots and you shouldn't be trying to demean them. Those pilots flew at great risk. Big chance that they'd never come back home and see their husbands or their wives. You should be praising those people instead of trying to find some. By getting me. By trying to go and get me, you're hurting those people. They were devastated. You know --

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: It goes without saying, of course, the pilots and service members involved in this mission deserve honor and respect for carrying out a dangerous, risky mission assigned by their commander in chief. And if it turns out that Iran's nuclear program was not completely obliterated as the president asserts it was, that doesn't mean it was a failure on part of the pilots. The bunker buster bombs they dropped had never been used before, and there was always a question as to how much damage they could actually do.

No one is questioning whether this was a heroic and valiant effort on behalf of the United States. The key questions for the American people in the world are simply about the degree of success of the operation and the current state of Iran's nuclear weapons program and what the intelligence, not the politicians, what the intelligence reveals.

Our obligation as journalists is not to praise President Trump or protect his feelings or to disparage him or to praise him for that matter. Our obligation is to report facts. In this case, the fact is that an initial DIA intel assessment out of Secretary Pete Hegseth's own Pentagon exists.

And that's not going to change no matter how many insults Trump levels. A lot of insults, by the way, in a Truth Social post, he calls CNN and the New York Times, quote, bad and sick people. The administration casts any reporting on any questioning on the success of an incredibly difficult military operation as fake, as unappreciative, and as disrespectful to service members.

But that, however, flies in the face of what journalists have hopefully learned throughout the last 50 years of U.S. history.

What did we as Americans learn from the leak of the Pentagon Papers, a top secret 7,000-page leak of a Department of Defense study detailing the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam? Well, perhaps President Richard Nixon's White House Chief of staff, H.R. Bob Haldeman, said it best. In 1971, caught on tape speaking to Nixon about what the Pentagon papers might suggest to the American people.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

H.R. HALDEMAN, PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON'S CHIEF OF STAFF: But out of the gobbledygood comes a very clear thing, which is you can't trust the government, you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment. And the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it's wrong. And the President can be wrong.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: The Pentagon paper showed us that the government, the Lyndon Johnson administration, the Richard Nixon administration.

[17:10:04]

That officials had been lying to the American people for years about success in Vietnam at the cost of thousands of lives of American troops, service members who served bravely and honorably, and thousands of lives of innocent Vietnamese.

Now, some say the lesson from the Iraq war fiasco was that political leaders could twist intelligence to make a case for war. You know who thinks that? President Trump thinks that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, it is difficult to argue that the news media writ large questioned the Bush administration's cause for war sufficiently 20 years ago. And again, we don't know yet whether this administration is accurately portraying what happened in Iran or not. We don't know.

That's the point of publishing what we know, that the government learns once we learn it, the lessons there. The news media needs to press for facts, even if it's uncomfortable, even if as Americans and as humans there is a personal instinct to rally around the flag. Asking questions is literally our job. Demanding facts and answers instead of just taking a president's word for it.

History has taught us that the most pro service member action we can take is to ask questions of our leaders, especially in times of war. That for journalists is the height of patriotism.

Joining us now, CNN political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid. Barak, Trump says the U.S. and Iran will meet next week to discuss a potential nuclear deal. Trump seemed to lower expectations a bit, telling reporters that he doesn't, quote, feel very strongly about it. What are your sources telling you about the meeting?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So there are talks in an effort to conduct such a meeting next week between Iran, the U.S., I don't think anything has been finalized yet. The Iranians haven't confirmed it at all.

And what is interesting is that White House envoy Steve Witkoff told CNBC an hour ago that what the U.S. is looking for is not just a nuclear deal, but he's looking for a comprehensive peace agreement with Iran, which is obviously something much bigger, much wider, much more dramatic, that in as one part of this comprehensive peace deal will be a sort of civilian nuclear program with Iran that will not include uranium enrichment on Iranian soil.

So I think what we see here is that the administration wants to have some sort of an agreement with Iran, even if it's not specifically on the nuclear issue.

And one of the reasons is that there is still nuclear material in Iran that I think the U.S. and other countries would want to see it out of the country, even though most of it is buried under the rubble, I think still the U.S. and Israel and other countries would want to see it somewhere else and not in Iranian hands.

TAPPER: And Barak, the CIA has its new assessment, as does Israel's military. What are you hearing from your Israeli sources about the assessment of the damage four days after?

RAVID: So I think if you saw what CIA Director John Ratcliffe issued, I think this is much closer to where the Israeli assessment is. And I have to tell you, a senior Israeli intelligence official told me today that overall, other than the fact that he's using the word obliterated, but overall, the Israeli intelligence assessment shows that the reality is much closer to where Trump says it is than to where the initial DIA report said it was.

And obviously, a few days passed since that DIA report and more information, we have more information about what exactly happened.

But one of the interesting things that the Israeli intelligence learned over the last 24 hours is that in Fordow, the damages are also inside the compound underground. There is intelligence that shows that there has been internal collapse underground, collapse inside the facility, which is something that shows us that it was badly damaged. Because if you have centrifuges in this facility and there was a penetration of a bomb inside and there was collapse inside, then those centrifuges are gone.

TAPPER: I also want to bring in retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, CNN military analyst.

[17:15:00]

Colonel Leighton, I want you to take a listen to what President Trump said about the early intelligence assessment at the NATO conference earlier this morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And the thing that hurts me is it's really demeaning to the pilots and the people that put that whole thing together, the generals, that was a perfect operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you feel that this type of intelligence assessment, this early one that the DIA put out and the reporting on its existence, is that demeaning to the pilots and to the military?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Jake not at all. What it is that basically it's an assessment not of the pilots and their ability to hit the targets, which actually is unquestioned because they hit the targets perfectly from what we can see. But what it is an assessment of whether or not the bomb actually works. And in this case, we're dealing with the GBU 57, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which had never been used in combat before. It's been tested, of course, but it has never been used in a combat situation. And this was the first time that it was used in this way.

And so these assessments are absolutely critical. But to say that this is an attempt, the report was an attempt to demean the pilots. No, that's not what's happening here. What it is, it's an attempt to look at the results of this.

It's like any test and evaluation program that you would have in private industry, you know, whether or not a product works. This is basically that it's kind of the underwriter's laboratory version of what, you know, what we need here and that is to assess the effectiveness of the weapon and whether or not you need to use that kind of weapon again or whether you need to use different kinds of weapons.

So that's what this is. This is not an attempt to demean pilots or anything like that. And it is certainly not an effort to denigrate the mission planning that went into this, which was quite extensive and quite thorough and frankly quite good.

TAPPER: All right, Colonel Cedric Leighton and Barak Ravid, thanks to both of you. Coming up next, today's other big story, a shocker in the New York City race for mayor. The controversial candidate who appears set to take on the incumbent, Eric Adams. He is a 33-year old self- described Democratic socialist. Is this primary ringing loud alarm bells within the Democratic Party? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:21:18]

TAPPER: In our politics lead now, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hopes for a political comeback after resigning his office in disgrace, suffered a major setback last night after 33-year-old Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, known in part for views strongly critical of Israel, declared victory in the Democratic mayoral primary in a city with the biggest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel.

Andrew Cuomo has officially conceded the race. We won't know the official tally until at least July 1st, when the results of New York City's ranked choice voting are released. CNN's Gloria Pazmino takes a look now at Mamdani's political rise leading to last night's shocking upset.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A political stunner in the Democratic Party.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, PRESUMPTIVE CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We have won.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Zohran Mamdani on a path to clinch the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, poised to beat out former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo. The 33-year-old Ugandan immigrant served three terms in the State Assembly. If Mamdani goes on to win in November, he will be one of the youngest

and the city's first Muslim mayor.

MAMDANI: I must thank those who brought me into this world.

PAZMINO: Mamdani's mother is Mira Nair, a successful Indian American filmmaker whose credits include Mississippi Masala.

MAMDANI: I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Mamdani is on the brink of a come from behind win, which would send shockwaves through a Democratic Party struggling with how to run candidates in the age of Trump.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: What's clear is that the relentless focus on affordability had great appeal.

PAZMINO (voice-over): The Republican Party already weaponizing the Democratic socialist likely win as Democratic leaders extended congratulations to Mamdani. Mamdani's campaign focused on affordability and spoke to working class New Yorkers, often in their own language.

Mamdani's ground game was matched by a relentless social media campaign that captured the attention of the city's youngest voters.

MAMDANI: I'm freezing your rep as the next mayor of New York City. Let's plunge into the details.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Powered by an army of volunteers.

MAMDANI: We can knock a million doors by Saturday.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Mamdani eclipsed Cuomo's universal name recognition, his pitch for experienced leadership, and a campaign that cast the city as being out of control.

ANDREW CUOMO, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: He put together a great campaign and he touched young people and inspired them.

PAZMINO (voice-over): The last days of the campaign were dominated by negative ads. Cuomo casting Mamdani as a threat to Jewish New Yorkers and public safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zohran Mamdani a risk New York can't afford.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Mamdani declining to condemn the phrase globalize the intifada during an interview, instead defending it as a cry for Palestinian rights and freedom.

MAMDANI: You have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Cuomo has left the door open for an independent run in the general election.

CUOMO: We're going to take a look. We'll make some decisions.

PAZMINO (voice-over): It would mean competing for votes with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams also running as an independent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO: Now, Jake, Mayor Eric Adams is expected to launch his reelection campaign tomorrow right from the steps of City Hall. We have already seen how he has attacked Mamdani, calling him an unexperienced legislator who has promised ideas that are untenable.

[17:25:00]

The thing I am most looking for is whether or not Eric Adams is going to be able to mount a ground game similar to Mamdani's ground game at all. We've seen Eric Adams do this in the past. He rang a strong campaign when he was first elected here in New York City.

But in the last few months, Mamdani was really out here in the streets of New York City trying to connect directly with voters. Ultimately, it seems to have made a real difference from how Cuomo ran his campaign and how Mamdani ran his campaign. And we'll see just how Eric Adams takes any lessons, if at all, or if he just runs to the right and continues to embrace Trump as we have seen him do here in New York in last few months. Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Gloria Pazmino in New York City for us. Thanks so much and all. Senate classified briefing is now set for tomorrow on the Trump administration strikes on Iran's nuclear weapons program. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a decorated war veteran herself, will join us next to discuss her take on what's known so far about the public intelligence and what is not known. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:10]

TAPPER: Continuing with our world lead, the delayed classified briefings on Capitol Hill about the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites are set to begin tomorrow. And a senior White House official says the Trump administration is planning to limit the information it shares with Congress.

I want to bring in one Democrat demanding answer, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She's on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She's also a decorated Iraq war veteran. Senator, President Trump emphasized again today that Iran's nuclear facilities were, quote, totally obliterated. Now, that contradicts that early low confidence intel assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported by CNN, which suggests that the strikes only set back the programs a few months. What questions do you have about the extent of the damage after the strikes?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D) ILLINOIS: Well, Jake, I want to know what happened to the 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium that were moved in those trucks that we have pictures of in convoys leaving the site before we bombed it. They still also have thousands of centrifuges. So regardless of what happened to the site, we know from the footage that we have that happened before our strike that at least 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium was moved. Donald Trump seems to be more concerned about, you know, declaring that he's obliterated the site than actually the truth that's on the ground right now. And by the way, this briefing was beginning tomorrow.

My understanding is that they're not actually going to be sending anybody from the intelligence community to that briefing. So I'm not quite sure how much information we're actually going to get here at the Senate.

TAPPER: Does the existence of the centrifuges and enriched uranium that escaped obliteration, does that mean that it is not accurate to say that the nuclear program writ large, the nuclear weapons program writ large was decimated?

DUCKWORTH: Correct. I think that is a very fair assessment. And if anything, this attack and what Trump has done is only going to unite our adversaries like North Korea, Russia, the PRC to come to help Iran. And if you were Iran, if you were Iranian leadership, what this taught you was they better get nuclear weapons very quickly. Because look at how Trump treats countries that have nuclear weapons like North Korea, right? He goes and he pals around with dictators and then he shows -- he kowtows to Russia.

So if you were Iranian leadership, the lesson learned is we better actually speed up and try to get nuclear weapons as quickly as possible. He's actually accomplished the opposite of what we're trying to do with when he pulled us out of the nuclear, the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, which was on its way to keeping them from being able to develop nuclear weapons.

Now, where are we? We have a peace deal that only exists between Israel and Iran that doesn't cover U.S. Troops who are in the region. We have 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium, at least that we know has been moved to God knows where they still have thousands of centrifuges. And our adversaries are united to help Iran develop their nuclear weapons.

I don't think that this is what has, you know, this is not decimated their nuclear program.

TAPPER: I want to turn to the goings on Capitol Hill because the Senate majority leader, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. He still wants to bring President Trump's big beautiful bill, they call it the massive tax cut and domestic policy bill. Up for a vote before July 4th, you have long expressed concerns about what this legislation would do to Medicaid. As negotiations continue, Senate Republicans are debating a $15 billion stabilization fund for rural hospitals to help offset some of the concerns about what the bill does to Medicaid. What do you think of that suggestion?

DUCKWORTH: Well, it's like the person setting the fire saying, hey, you know what, we need a fire department, when you're the one that set the fire to begin with. These hospitals are going to shut down 30 percent of our safety net hospitals will shut down if these Medicaid cuts go through. And by the way, setting up a, you know, for a party that says they want smaller governments, they seem to be creating more government bureaucracy. So they're going to start a new fund with more bureaucracy about it that hospitals have to apply for to get this money. And by the way, that doesn't help the, you know, hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans are going to get kicked off of Medicaid.

This will help the hospitals, maybe if they can process through the paperwork and they can get this fund set up. But what does it do to the mom who is trying to make sure that she can take her kid to the emergency room for care? What does it do to the pregnant woman, one of the 40 percent of all births in this country are covered by Medicaid. What does it do for that person?

[17:35:02]

So this is not a fix. This is just a fig leaf that they're trying to put out there to try to distract the American people. Bottom line, 30 percent of our safety net hospitals will shut down many times. These are the last remaining hospitals in a tri or quad county area. They're also the largest employer in the area. You're going to see people die.

Americans did not vote for we're all going to die at anyway party. But that's what they're getting from Donald Trump and his Republican allies.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois. Thank you for joining us. Another notable Democrat is going to join us next. This one is a New York Democrat challenging New York Governor Kathy Hochul for the governor's seat next year. What does he make of the political uproar happening in New York City? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, former Trump personal attorney turned top U.S. Department official Emil Bove is denying today a whistleblower complaint alleging that he previously told DOJ prosecutors they could ignore court orders. All this unfolded during Bove's rather tense confirmation hearing over his nomination to serve on the federal bench. CNN's Paula Reid has more on today's hearing and the whistleblower complaint against Bove.

[17:40:20]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMIL BOVE, FEDERAL APPEALS COURT JUDGE NOMINEE: I am not anybody's henchman. I'm not an enforcer. I'm a lawyer.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Emil Bove, President Trump's former personal attorney and current high ranking Justice Department official, faced tough questions from lawmakers today as they weighed whether to confirm him for a seat on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. SEN ADAM SCHIFF, (D) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Did you suggest telling the

courts fuck you in any manner?

BOVE: I don't recall.

SCHIFF: So what's your red line? What could the president ask you to do that you wouldn't do?

REID (voiceover): President Trump has appointed several personal attorneys' top legal positions in his administration office, but this is the first time that he has tapped one of his lawyers to serve on the federal bench.

TRUMP: They fought, they weren't afraid, and they were brilliant.

REID (voiceover): The hearing comes as Bove faces fresh allegations from a whistleblower that claims he suggested ignoring court orders on deportations, an allegation Bove denied.

BOVE: No, I have never advised a Department of justice attorney to violate a court order.

REID (voiceover): For the past six months, Bove has served as a high ranking official in the Justice Department. He has been involved in a series of controversies, including dropping federal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

SEN. DIC DURBIN, (D) RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: In order to get Mayor Adams to cooperate with President Trump's immigration policy. You were prepared to drop the charges against him?

BOVE: That's completely false.

REID (voiceover): Some federal prosecutors, including the interim U.S. Attorney, quit in protest over the move.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I am absolutely flabbergasted that you would come before this committee and refused to tell us basic facts about a case that is at the core of the challenges to the appearance of impropriety that should disqualify you.

REID (voiceover): The dismissal was ultimately approved by a judge in April. Bove also drew controversy over moves seen as an attempt to politicize the department. He issued a memo threatening to prosecute state and local officials who resist the administration's federal immigration crackdown.

He also ordered the firing of eight senior officials and sent a memo demanding information about all current and former employees who had any involvement in the January 6th investigations.

BOVE: I did and continue to condemn unlawful behavior, particularly violence against law enforcement. At the same time, I condemn heavy handed and unnecessary tactics by prosecutors and agents.

REID (voiceover): The hearing was mostly focused on Bove's controversies, but he did get a few questions about how he would conduct himself as a judge.

BOVE: I think I would be tough but fair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: If confirmed to this job. Bove would be one of roughly 12 judges reviewing federal appeals from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands. For the past few days, Jake, I've spoken with many of his current and former colleagues and they tell me, look, this is a guy who spent a long time as a federal prosecutor. He's defended against federal charges. He's been at the top of the Justice Department. They argue that that is what makes him perfect for this job. And of course, the Third Circuit is just one step away from the Supreme Court and multiple administration officials tell me that is not the planned next step for Bove.

TAPPER: Not the planned next step.

REID: Planned.

TAPPER: Paula Reid, thanks so much. Coming up next, the inaugural meeting today for the CDC vaccine advisory board after its radical transformation by HHS Secretary RFK Jr. How this could affect you and your kids. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:47:59]

TAPPER: Back in our politics lead that stunning upset in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Democratic socialist Zorhan Mamdani, appearing on track to defeat former Governor Andrew Cuomo and a field of nine other Democrats. Joining us now is the Democratic lieutenant governor of New York State, Antonio Delgado, who is challenging incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul in next year's Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Thanks so much for joining us. Lieutenant Governor Delgado, what do you make of what happened last night in New York City?

LT. GOV. ANTONIO DELGADO, (D) NEW YORK: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. Appreciate you giving me the chance to talk to you. I think what happened was a proof point that the status quo is broken, that I think people are at a point now where they are ready to move beyond the establishment. They're ready to move beyond politics as usual. And they're looking for fresh, dynamic voices that speak to the needs in a very direct, intentional and authentic way. And I think the more we are able to tap into that kind of energy and meet people exactly where they are, the better off we will be as a party.

TAPPER: Are you endorsing Mamdani for New York City governor?

DELGADO: Absolutely. He's the Democratic nominee. And I think it's important that with the Democratic nominee now having emerged, we have to unite. We have to come around and build collaboratively. You're talking to somebody who won in upstate New York in a 90 percent white rural congressional district that Trump won by 7 points.

We have the ability here as a party to be a big tent, a truly big tent that meets the needs of working families all across this state and all across this country. And this is an opportunity to do just that.

TAPPER: What would you say to voters in New York who are concerned about Mr. Mamdani's position on Israel? I don't think he supports it being a Jewish state, about his refusal to condemn globalized intifada as a, as a rallying cry about his socialist, for want of a better term, solutions, such as having citywide groceries and that sort of thing, about his willingness to impose limits or cap on raising rents. What would you say to somebody who say, I get you want to, like, endorse the Democratic nominee, but what about these things that this gentleman says or has proposed?

[17:50:29]

DELGADO: Well, first of all, I think that you listed a lot of things there, so I don't want to take every single one because we'd be here for a while. And I think people can have concerns about any number of different things that, you know, any individual brings to the table, and that is fully appropriate, and it is important to be able to articulate those concerns. I think more important, though, is the reality that we put ourselves in a position as a party where we can have a robust conversation about how we collectively come together, sometimes with divergent points of views.

I don't agree on every single issue with Mamdani, but I understand the fact that he's been able to bring to the table a lot of individuals, a lot of actors, particularly young people, who have been disillusioned by our political process, who feel very cynical about where we're going, who feel like it is consistently about politics as usual, where you have a lot of political actors who are more concerned about their own power and preserving that power than they are about uplifting people.

And if we have individuals within our party who. Who have the ability to bring new voices, new actors into the system, to engage, we should embrace that and then work collaboratively to figure out where there's common ground to move ourselves forward collectively.

Again, no one's going to agree on every single issue, but the notion that we would just outright reject what people. People have ultimately elected, I think is not really Democratic.

TAPPER: What do you make of the Democratic Party establishment rallying around Cuomo? A lot of the same people who endorsed him for mayor had called for him to step down as governor in 2021. I just -- I wonder if you think the Democratic establishment in any ways has a credibility problem.

DELGADO: I do. I do. I think that part of the challenge that we face right now and part of why new voices and fresh voices are very compelling for the electorate across the political spectrum, is because a lot of people feel like a lot of political actors who've been in politics for a very long time are more concerned with protecting themselves and protecting the party than they ultimately are with protecting the people. And we've got to get beyond that.

People do not want to feel like they're just pawns in a larger game. They want to feel like you're actually here to serve. And so I do think that what we're seeing here is a reckoning and it's a moment of accountability.

And, and if we as a party are not in a position to actually elevate voices, all voices, and do so in a fashion that is authentic and genuine and real, and not just in a fashion that is about making sure that one's position within the party is protected, then we're going to continue to falter. And arguably, we are where we are today with Trump back in the White House because of this kind of mindset. As you may recall, I was one of the first people, first individuals to say that Biden should step down, particularly here in New York.

These are not easy decisions, right. But ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, what are the right things to do? I said Mary Adams should resign. Another difficult decision that politically may not have been the best calculated decision.

But ultimately the question boils down to morality, right? What is right? What is the thing that you feel is the morally right thing to do? And I think people more than anything right now want moral leadership, particularly when we're living in a time where there is more morally bankrupt leadership.

TAPPER: New York Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir.

DELGADO: Thank you for having me in our healthy day.

TAPPER: One of the meetings for the CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee that it was revamped by HHS Secretary RFK Jr. Two weeks ago, as you may recall, RFK Jr. fired all 17 members and replaced them with eight new names. One already withdrew during a review process of his financial holdings.

Then Monday night, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who's also a doctor, called for today's meeting to be postponed. He said some on the panel, these new members lacked experience, may have preconceived biases. He also said the now seven-person panel is too small and it has no director in place to approve recommendations. CNN's Meg Tirrell is in Atlanta where this committee met today.

Meg, given recent criticism, what tone did this vaccine panel take on today?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it was a bit of a tense meeting. You know, the advisers here who are newly installed acknowledged a lot of the pushback that has been made around how they were installed. The chair of the committee insisted that they are not anti-vaccine writ large and said that they were going to examine the evidence. And there was pushback, as you noted, not just from Senator Bill Cassidy, but also from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which said this morning that it was not going to participate in this meeting with the ACIP on vaccine policy anymore, as it had for years, because it didn't believe that a science-based process was being followed.

[17:55:11]

And then early in the morning we learned that this group is going to start some new projects reexamining established vaccine guidelines, including looking at the cumulative effects of the childhood immunization schedule, for example, which pediatricians and infectious diseases physicians say is continuously examined for its safety, as well as reexamining guidelines around giving a hepatitis B vaccine at birth which the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes is a lifesaving intervention, as well as looking at the measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine.

So, Jake, we're expecting to hear a lot more about some of those issues tomorrow, including one of the most hot button issues which is around a preservative in vaccines which have been taken out decades ago. And a lot of folks are saying it being brought up now by this committee is a sign that they're trying to stir up more concerns around vaccine safety that have been settled for some time.

TAPPER: The Marisol is what you're referring to, right?

TIRRELL: Yes.

TAPPER: Yeah. All right. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coming up, the new intelligence today from the Trump administration about last weekend's U.S. Strikes on Iran. I'll also ask a House Republican about what is publicly known about the strikes.

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