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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Epstein Files Fallout, President Trump, Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino And The MAGA Base; President Trump Threatens Putin with Tariffs if No Deal Reached in 50 Days; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Is Interviewed About Tariffs on Russia; Texas Search Efforts Could Continue For Months, Officials Say; U.S. Citizen Killed In The West Bank; Nine Dead In Fire At Massachusetts Senior-Living Facility. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 14, 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]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Kasie, are you an Orioles fan?

KASIE HUNT, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT & HOST: I am an Oriole's fan. Yes, I am.

TAPPER: Yeah. I mean, you guys should be taking like 12 year old, 13 year old, whatever you guys can get. Honestly.

HUNT: Oh, come on. Come on.

TAPPER: You should be -- you guys should be trolling middle schools at this point.

HUNT: Well, you know what, you should call up the friend of the outfit that just bought the team and let him know that.

TAPPER: Mr. Rubenstein?

HUNT: Yes, that's one, you know. It's -- whatever. We're used to it, alright. It's going to be fine.

TAPPER: Alright, Kasie. We'll see you back in "The Arena" tomorrow.

HUNT: Bye. Have a good one.

TAPPER: Sources tell CNN that Dan Bongino's relationship with the White House is basically, as of now, untenable. "The Lead" starts right now.

President Trump picking sides after a heated blow up last week over the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein pedophile case. What is going on at the Justice Department? The memo that kicked all this off. Why MAGA is mad, and why an investigative reporter says it's the American public, not just MAGA, that should be outraged over the entire saga.

Plus, the president's new pressure campaign on Putin nearly one week after accusing the Russian leader of peddling him BS. Trump's latest tactic? New weapons for Ukraine. And an unfathomable tragedy. Fire ripping through an assisted living

facility, killing nine. The daring rescues to save other elderly people who were trapped inside.

Welcome to "The Lead," quote, "boys and in some cases, gals," unquote. I'm Jake Tapper. Major new fallout from Trump's weekend Truth Social post telling his MAGA boys and in some cases, gals to just move on from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Nothing to see here, folks. His administration's handling of the cases battering the president on two fronts. One, within his own base, which for once doesn't seem to be entirely giving a pass. And two, within his own administration, it's to the point that no one was sure whether the Deputy FBI Director, Dan Bongino, was going to show up to work today. He didn't go to work on Friday.

Bongino is furious with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for building up the release of the Epstein files only to release nothing new. Sources tell CNN that as of this morning, no one in the Justice Department leadership had spoken to Bongino since last Wednesday when he started suggesting he could not stay in his position as long as Bondi was still there.

And, well, Bondi is still there. Trump is siding with her big time, publicly attending a soccer match with her yesterday. But Trump and Bondi scored an own goal, revving up the base for years with promises of Epstein transparency and then failing to deliver in colossal fashion. And what really inflamed the MAGA anger was trump's humdinger of a Truth Social post Saturday night. He began with an all-time opening question, quote, "What's going on with my boys and in some cases gals."

They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi who is doing a fantastic job, all caps. It gets wilder from there. Trump delivered a flaming hot take, quote, "For years it's Epstein over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to files written by Obama, crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the losers and criminals of the Biden administration. They created the Epstein files just like they created the fake Hillary Clinton-Christopher Steele dossier that they used on me," unquote.

So, according to Trump, suddenly the Epstein files are not trustworthy because they were authored by Democrats, his enemies on the left. We've never heard that claim before. For the record, the case was originally handled by the Bush Justice Department and then more recently by the Trump Justice Department in the first term. And here we are. Trump closed out that post by saying, quote, "One year ago, our country was dead. Now it's the hottest country anywhere in the world. Let's keep it that way and not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about," unquote.

Except the MAGA base, and honestly, many other people do care about Jeffrey Epstein, more specifically perhaps about the dozens of his victims and about the powerful men who may have been involved with these underage girls who were sexually trafficked. Very much so. And the thing is, there is a lot that remains undisclosed as a just factual matter. Epstein's computers that Epstein's lawyers grabbed before his house

was raided in 2005. Then there were the computers and files taken by his staff at his home in the Virgin Islands in 2018.

[17:04:59]

The computers seized in Manhattan by authorities in 2018. Plus, all the FBI documents that are there but remain redacted. Plus, U.S. Marshals records, flight records, Epstein's autopsy report.

Let's start with CNN's Paula Reid and Kristen Holmes at the White House. They both reported new details on Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino essentially being in purgatory or limbo over this fallout. Kristen, tell us about all this tension. What are you hearing happened between Friday when Bongino was thinking about resigning and today when he's back at work?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, things got incredibly ugly. We know that there was a huge blow up with Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday at the White House and Bongino started telling people he was looking to leave. Now one thing that should be clear is Bongino has publicly said on a number of occasions that he doesn't actually like this job.

He said it in an interview and it's not something that he enjoys but on top of that he built an entire brand on this idea of really promoting some of these conspiracy theories including around these so- called Epstein files, and was very unhappy with the way the was handled and released by the Attorney General. I am told that he stormed out of that meeting and as you said that he did not talk to leadership at the Department of Justice since that.

Now, we know that this is not what President Trump wants and he's made that clear to everyone around him. He doesn't want infighting and he doesn't want a situation in which Bongino is storming out of his role at the FBI. So what we saw over the weekend, what we heard from sources is that Vice President J.D. Vance played a huge role. He essentially was navigating the phones between Bondi and Bongino and Kash Patel as Trump was incredibly angry, particularly with the head of the FBI, Kash Patel and with Bongino, and trying -- Vance trying to make this work, trying to be a peacemaker, is what one person told me.

And so, now, you have Bongino showing up for work on Monday and I will tell you that these sources that I've spoken to, it is not clear what his actual future is, his long-term future with the administration. But one thing is clear, President Trump doesn't want this to be the way that his time, his tenure at the White House and as part of the administration ends. And so they worked very hard to get him in the front door at the FBI today.

TAPPER: And Paula, what are you hearing about Attorney General Pam Bondi and she's handling all this tension between her and the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRSCORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a huge relief that President Trump came out this weekend and made it clear that he is a Team Bondi, especially during the biggest controversy of her tenure so far. I'm told that now that she knows that she has President Trump support, quote, "she is in a great headspace." Her relationship with Trump is strong as ever, and she looks forward to going on offense. Now, Jake, usually I would leave the sports analogies to you, but even I know that it's going to be a while before they're on offense. They're going to be on defense here for a while. Some things, though, they might try. They're going to try to change the conversation. We'll likely see some new announcements out of the Justice Department later this week, but that's not going to eclipse this controversy.

We also have another option here on the table that we see, and that is at least one right-wing influencer calling for a special counsel to take this off Bondi's plate and review this. Now, I'm told they're not planning to do that now and they probably wouldn't tap a traditional special counsel. Instead, they would likely tap a U.S. attorney to review this, but all that does is kick the can down the road.

And when this is all dredged up again, it'll all come back on Bondi, and now President Trump, because the fact that he is siding with Bondi, that he agrees with how this was handled, he owns this just as much as she does right now.

TAPPER: Fascinating stuff. Paula Reid and Kristen Holmes, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. I want to bring in Julie K. Brown. She is the award-winning investigative reporter for "The Miami Herald" who investigated the Epstein case exposing many of the horrific

details of the sex trafficking story that had not been previously brought to light. Her book, which I have been rereading this weekend, it's called "Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story" came out in 2021, just as timely, if not more so.

Today, Julie, good to see you as always. So the Trump administration, before all of this was hot on the Epstein files. They promised transparency, and then came this moment about a week ago when they basically said, nothing to see here. Why do you -- what do you think is going on here?

JULIE K. BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE MIAMI HERALD: I mean, nobody really knows for sure, but there is apparently some things in there that they really don't want the public to see. I mean, that's the only conclusion you can reach by this because there's so many other avenues that they could have taken rather than to just shut the whole thing off.

It could have released something to the effect that you still need to look at these and investigate some of these leads that were never pursued. They could have blamed the Biden administration for not pursuing some of these leads, for example. The reality is this did happen when the case was reopened under Trump's first administration.

And the other point I wanted to make when you were mentioning the president's comment on social media, he actually fired the U.S. attorney out of New York, Jeffrey Berman, who was the person that reopened this case and brought, ultimately, his work and the work of his prosecutors, brought charges that convicted Ghislaine Maxwell. [17:10:07]

So, there is some kind of a disconnect apparently between what's really going on here and the fact that there's probably a lot of things in there that they don't want you to see.

TAPPER: Now, you say it's possible that Epstein killed himself, as the Justice Department asserts, but you say as of now you're not entirely convinced because there are so many unanswered questions about his death. What are the biggest questions that need answering in your opinion?

BROWN: Well, the files that we have seen so far are very spotty. We don't have his autopsy, for example. We know that his brother doesn't believe that he committed suicide. We know that the forensic pathologist that the family hired, Michael Baden, who's a very renowned forensic pathologist, and was at the autopsy doesn't believe that he hanged himself. We know that there were cameras that weren't working.

We know that he allegedly tried to do something to himself before, yet all those records disappeared. So we know that they took out the -- he was on supposedly on suicide watch. He was supposed to have a cellmate. We know they took out his cellmate just hours before this allegedly -- this incident happened. So there's just too many questions there for me to just conclude or to believe everything that the government is saying.

And quite frankly, because I've been on this case for so long, I've seen so many things that don't add up from the very beginning. So I think that it's not a conspiracy to be skeptical when you find that the government really isn't releasing everything or they're keeping something secret.

TAPPER: Well, you make that point in your book when the detective drives up to Epstein's Palm Beach estate to do the very first search warrant and somebody has tipped Epstein off and computers have been taken out of his house, computers that are, I guess, still with his attorneys. The fix was in from the very beginning, it seems to me.

Now, the Justice Department released a surveillance video from jail the night Epstein died. There's a minute missing. According to Pam Bondi, the recording system resets every night in the same minute it skipped each time, but you say the recordings not even really showing Epstein cell. Tell us more about that.

BROWN: No, the implication is because there's two cells in the forefront of that video that that's his cell. That isn't even his wing. They're pointing to some shadowy figures in the background that they claim shows Epstein walking in the common area but they don't show him walking into his cell because the cameras on his wing where his cell was were not recording. They all were working in real time but only one was recording and that one was far from where Epstein was housed.

So, there's also a catwalk. There's other entrances to that wing besides that one camera that they showed you. So, you know, I've done prison deaths a long time and it's quite possible that someone from another part of that area could have gone up into his cell. We don't know because we don't have anything on his cell door. Those doors that they show in that video are not of his cell.

TAPPER: Epstein of course didn't orchestrate all of his heinous crimes by himself and he didn't do it just with Ghislaine Maxwell either. You say he had a lot of help. So, why do you think it is that only Epstein who's now dead and Maxwell are the only people that have faced any consequences?

BROWN: Well, you know, really these kinds of cases are very, very, very difficult to prove. Think about it. These women were young girls when this happened. Twenty years ago this happened and I was -- went -- watched the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and it was very hard because, you know, memories fade. They've been through so much trauma. You know, Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers were pretty successful in pointing to inconsistencies in these women's, you know, story about what happened to them.

I mean, ultimately, she was prosecuted, but it was a very hard case. And I think that that's part of the reason why, but I still feel that they could make a case by, for example, looking at where the money is. Jeffrey Epstein made an awful lot of money. And there doesn't seem to be a real good explanation from anybody where he earned it, why he was paid millions and millions of dollars, for example, from Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria's Secret, and several other billionaires who he did business with.

[17:15:03]

It doesn't seem to add up why he got that money. We also know, for example that the banks settled with these victims for millions of dollars. So the banks knew that they were getting money in some nefarious ways and for God knows what reasons. So there's a lot of questions there involving finances that I think could be pursued by the Justice Department should they choose to do that or had they done that.

TAPPER: Not to mention all the documents they could release even if they redacted the names of the witnesses and the victims out of it, there's still a lot of information in those documents. You wrote a piece about this in I think February of this year in "The Miami Herald" about what is out there already in what still has yet to be released. Julie K. Brown, always good to have you on. Thank you so much.

BROWN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Later here in "The Lead" some of the outrage were hearing from MAGA world over this Epstein episode.

Plus, Lara Trump, President Trump's daughter-in-law, hinting today that there's probably more to come. Also today, the president's new 50-day deadline for Vladimir Putin as he gives Ukraine more weapons to try to fend Russia's attack off. His change of tactic in this war is next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But we thought we had a deal. Numerous times I'd get home, I'd say, First Lady, had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we're finished. And then I'll turn on the television or she'll say to me one time, wow, that's strange because they just bombed a nursing home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump, this afternoon, after announcing a new plan to sell U.S. weapons to Ukraine through NATO, Trump also set a 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire or face punishing tariffs against his country. CNN's Matthew Chance is in Moscow and CNN's Natasha Bertrand here in D.C. Natasha, tell us more about this plan to get the U.S. weapons to Ukraine through NATO.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's the key here. The U.S. is not going to be providing these systems to Ukraine directly. Instead, President Trump says that he is going to be selling these systems to NATO allies, and they are then going to backfill themselves and then send the ones that they have to the Ukrainians. So a bit of a multi-layered process here, but primarily what is going to be the key aspect of this package is those Patriot systems that you see on the screen there.

It's something that the Ukrainians have been asking for, for quite some time saying that they need more to protect their cities and their critical infrastructure. Essentially, the Patriot is one of the most sophisticated air defense systems that the U.S. currently has in its arsenal, and there are a finite number of them, which is why it has been kind of a touch and go about whether the U.S. would be able to provide more, whether these allies who also only have a finite number of them would be able to send their Patriots to Ukraine.

They're very expensive as well. Each one costs over a billion dollars with everything, including the system itself and the whole missile system within it. And so these are not cheap and they are again very sophisticated. They can intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, even aircraft depending on the type of interceptor used. So something the Ukrainians really desperately need here.

And one other question I think that we have at this point is just what else is going to be provided because the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, he spoke to Kaitlan Collins earlier and he did not rule out the idea that the U.S. could provide additional offensive weaponry in addition to the defensive air defense systems that it plans to help to provide Ukraine. And that of course would be welcomed as well.

But a big shift here from the Trump administration which previously had been allowing packages approved by the Biden administration to move forward to go to Ukraine but had not pledged additional new weaponry and equipment and so this is a market shift given President Trump's apparent frustration with President Putin, Jake.

TAPPER: And Matthew Chance in Moscow, President Trump sent a pretty loud message to Russia today. What has been the reaction from the Kremlin?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, there's been no reaction from the Kremlin at this point to President Trump's statement. Russian state television, which is of course controlled by the Kremlin, has been all over it. They've been sharply critical of President Trump's decision.

Basically, it's the worst insult on Russian television to compare somebody with former U.S. President Joe Biden. But that's exactly what they're doing now with President Trump saying he's repeating the mistakes of the Biden administration, providing weapons to Ukraine in the hope of bringing Russia to the negotiating table. It's not going to work. Biden failed. It would fail this time. That's what Russian television is saying.

There's a more telling clip as well that's been posted on Telegram by a senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev. He's actually sort of been pretty nonplussed by this 50-day deadline that President Trump has imposed for a peace deal before any sort of tariffs or sanctions are imposed, saying a lot can change on the battlefield in 50 days. The Kremlin, the Putin administration here, very confident that their push in Ukraine is going to yield military results.

The other thing he said is that in 50 days, we all know that the leadership can change its mind as well. People know that President Trump is a very mercurial, changeable figure, and I think that 50 days is plenty of time for him to change his mind back again.

TAPPER: Alright, Matthew Chance in Moscow, Natasha Bertrand in Washington, D.C., thank you so much. Joining us now Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. She is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Thank you so much for being here Senator. So your Republican colleague, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, says 85 Senators have signed on to a bipartisan Russian sanctions bill.

And even though President Trump says Putin was throwing a lot of, quote, "bullshit" at him and last week, the president's gonna get Putin 50 days to make a deal before imposing more tariffs. Why do you think Trump is waiting and do you think he should wait?

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): I don't think he should wait. The fact is, Vladimir Putin and the Russians have already had over three years of attacking Ukraine unprovoked, killing innocent civilians in ways that need to now end.

[17:25:04] We need to ramp up the pressure in every way we can on Russia. And so we need to take up the Graham-Blumenthal sanctions bill. As you say, it has 85 bipartisan co-sponsors. It will send a very strong message, not just to Russia, but to China, to India, to those countries who are funding Russia's war machine, that it's time to stop. We are serious. Vladimir Putin needs to come to the table. He needs to understand that it's time to end this war. He needs to get serious about negotiating.

TAPPER: And you led Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today to release a report, a report that argues in the first six months of the Trump administration, the U.S. has ceded considerable ground to a different geopolitical threat, China. And you say that Trump's actions, such as gutting U.S. aid, the tariff war, efforts to shut down radio-free Asia means, quote, "Chinese officials are gleeful" characterizing the United States as unreliable.

Why was it important to you to focus first on the China effect of Trump's foreign policy moves rather than his approach to Russia or what's going on in the Middle East? Why was China your focus?

SHAHEEN: Well, this is the report. It's the Minority Report coming out of the Foreign Relations Committee. And what we have heard for a long time has been bipartisan agreement that the biggest threat to the United States is coming from China. It's an economic threat, it's a military threat. And the Trump administration has said they agree with that, that China is our biggest competitor and they're trying to take advantage on the world stage.

And what the Trump administration has done since President Trump took office is to roll back our ability to compete with China, whether that's been through the foreign assistance cuts, whether it's been the tariffs on our allies and partners, whether it's been rolling back our diplomatic footprint. All of that's coming at a time when China is increasing. Its diplomatic footprint is coming in after the United States and picking up programs that we have stopped funding, calling the United States an unreliable partner for our allies.

All of that is having an impact and this administration doesn't have a coherent strategy. They don't have consistent messaging about how we're going to deal with China and we should all be very concerned because there are real ramifications here at home for what's happening.

TAPPER: I have heard Republicans argue that Biden's withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan in the way that was done versus Trump's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities is the contrast in leadership when it comes to China, that China would be dissuaded from acting, for instance, against, you know, to cease Taiwan or any other moves because of the muscular military intervention in terms of the strikes against Iran by Trump. What do you make of that argument?

SHAHEEN: Well, I opposed the withdrawal from Afghanistan and I supported the strikes against Iran's nuclear program so, I understand those arguments, but the reality is it doesn't help us to make those strong arguments at the same time that we are -- have turned our backs on Ukraine that we are reviewing programs like AUKUS that have been one of the strengths that we have in the Indo-Pacific when we are turning our backs on our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, in the Philippines where there have been additional sites for the U.S. to land on in the Philippines.

A lot of that has been based on support for disaster assistance to the Philippines, that's been eliminated by the Trump administration. So, you know, it's one thing to say we're going to be strong. It's another to look at the actions of this administration. And that's what this report on China lays out. It lays out that while we all seem to agree that China is our biggest competitor, the biggest threat for the United States, there is no coherent strategy, no consistent messaging coming out of this administration.

And what they have done is actually ceded ground to the Chinese at a time when we're all facing this threat and are doing it in ways that are going to have real implications for us here at home.

TAPPER: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, thank you so much for your time today, appreciate it.

SHAHEEN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Moments ago in Texas, new information just in from Governor Greg Abbott on the devastating flooding in that state.

[17:29:57]

The new questions about evacuation orders when deadly floodwaters moved in.

Plus, the search to find those still missing 11 days after the tragedy.

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TAPPER: Back with our National Lead, where Texas Governor Greg Abbott just held a news conference on the ongoing response to the deadly July 4th flash floods. Officials are asking the public for patience during the ongoing search and recovery efforts following the devastating floods over July 4th that killed at least 132 people.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is in Kerrville, Texas. Julia, what is the latest on the ground there?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we did hear this update, Jake, from Governor Greg Abbott, where he gave an update on the numbers, the statewide deaths now at 132, missing people still 100 people missing, 95 of those are here in Kerr County.

Now, the governor also went out of his way to thank all of the agencies that have helped here. And we have seen agencies from Florida, from Georgia. And also the 13,000 volunteers that have showed up to help as these searches become more and more difficult, Jake, with the rains over the past couple of days. And those missing are still out there for these search and rescue teams to try and recover.

[17:35:17]

TAPPER: Earlier today, the Kerr County commissioners had a meeting. How do they address some of the scrutiny they've come under for their preparedness, or lack thereof, and then the response, or lack thereof, to the deadly flooding?

JONES: Well, Jake, they -- I -- I spoke to the county judge here today. He said he's not authorized to speak to media. But he did look at me in the eye and say, look, if I had known that this would be this bad, I would have acted differently. They sustained that they did not have the information that this flood would be as bad as it was.

And we also seen that reflected in reporting first by "The Washington Post" of how Camp Mystic received this. Now, we are learning that the Camp Mystic director, Dick Eastland, received a 1:14 flash flood alert on his phone and about an hour later started evacuating campers to higher ground between 2:00 and 2.30 a.m.

Now, that initial alert did not have an evacuation order, Jake. That only comes in at around 4:03 a.m. Now, I have to mention that Eastland lost his life trying to save campers from a Bubble Inn, the one that housed some of the youngest campers there. And his family says that all of the leaders of the camp acted promptly with the information they had at the time.

Now, if we are hearing from officials here that the people in charge of emergency management did not have the proper information for this, it's hard to think of who would actually know and who would have been responsible then for warning all of these people who were then in harm's way, Jake.

But that search and rescue operations now continue in even more difficult conditions as the rain has been coming down hard here in Texas over the past couple of days and the search for those missing continues.

TAPPER: All right, Julia Vargas Jones in Kerrville, Texas. Thanks so much.

Also in our National Lead, Arizona's Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs, is calling for a federal investigation into the National Park Service's decision to not aggressively fight a wildfire near the Grand Canyon. It was started by lightning back on the 4th of July and allowed to keep burning.

It flared up over the weekend, destroying between 50 and 80 structures and forcing the closure of the entire north rim of the park for the rest of the 2025 season. Sadly, the Grand Canyon Lodge is among the buildings destroyed. It opened back in 1937 and held many historic artifacts and archives, also all presumably destroyed. The only good news in all of this is that, as far as we know, no lives have been lost.

In Massachusetts, new details ahead about the deadly fire at an assistant living facility and the unbelievable scene -- unbelievable scene as firefighters tried to save other elderly residents.

[17:38:01]

Plus, what the U.S. State Department is now saying about an American who was killed by settlers in the West Bank, and dramatic encounter for a CNN team who showed up to cover the funeral.

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TAPPER: In our World Lead, the family of a Florida man, an American citizen, who was killed on Friday while visiting relatives in the West Bank, are demanding that the U.S. State Department and Israeli officials investigate his brutal death. Twenty-year-old Saif Musallet's family says he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers. Musallet's funeral was held Sunday.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond and his crew were there to cover the funeral when they had their own dramatic encounter with a group of settlers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the back of an ambulance, Saif Musallet's aunt says one final goodbye. She is far from alone. Hundreds in this West Bank town have come to honor the American son who is deeply rooted in his Palestinian community. Saif was killed on Friday, just two weeks before his 21st birthday, beaten to death by Israeli settlers, according to his family.

Those settlers also shot and killed another Palestinian man in the same attack, according to eyewitnesses. It is a senseless yet all too common outcome in the West Bank.

DIAMOND: Today it is an American citizen being put to rest here, but over the course of the last 20 months of this war, nearly a thousand Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. But today, Saif Musallet's family is demanding an American investigation into his death.

KAMEL MUSALLET, SON KILLED BY ISRAELI SETTLERS: We want justice.

DIAMOND (voice-over): His father, Kamel, was home in Florida, where he runs an ice cream shop with his son, when he got the call that Saif had been attacked by settlers.

MUSALLET: You never think that it's your son or anything, that -- that -- who this is happening to. And then I got word that it was my son. He was hit, he was beaten, he lost conscience, but nobody could get to him. Ambulance couldn't come in. Why? Because the IDF restricted that. The IDF blocked that.

DIAMOND: So you hold the Israeli military responsible?

MUSALLET: I hold the Israeli military just as responsible as the settlers and the American government for not doing anything about this. DIAMOND (voice-over): The State Department said it is aware of Saif's death, but declined to comment further on calls for an investigation. Israeli authorities say they are investigating, but have not made any arrests.

For two months now, Palestinians here say Israeli settlers have been encroaching on their land and terrorizing Palestinians who try and access it.

[17:45:07]

This was the scene on Friday, as Saif and other Palestinians have been encroaching on their land. Hafez Abdel Jabbar said he saw settlers chase after a man he would later learn was safe.

HAFEZ ABDEL JABBAR, SON KILLED IN 2024: They ran up the hill, they caught Muslims, they started beating them with sticks.

DIAMOND (voice-over): By the time he reached Saif's body, he was already dead. As we head to the location where Saif's body was retrieved, a white vehicle suddenly appears behind us.

DIAMOND: We have a group of settlers who are now following us in their vehicle. They put their masks on as well, which is a concerning indication.

DIAMOND (voice-over): At an intersection, the settlers get out and try to pelt our vehicle. We manage to approach a nearby Israeli border police vehicle, and the settlers turn around. But minutes after the border police head out to search for the settlers, we are ambushed.

DIAMOND: Everyone OK?

JABBAR: Yes, yes.

DIAMOND: Go, go, go. Drive, drive, keep driving.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The masked men smash the rear windshield of our car, but we manage to speed off unharmed.

JABBAR: No, no, no, they went down.

DIAMOND: They turned. They turned. They turned.

JABBAR: They turned. They turned.

DIAMOND (voice-over): It is just a small window into the reality here.

JABBAR: But what if it would took us five more seconds, we all would've been beating with these --

DIAMOND: You think they would've been beaten us.

JABBAR: Yes, sir.

DIAMOND: Your son was also killed. JABBAR: In January 2024 by a settler. Simply just being there barbequing.

DIAMOND: What does that feel like, to -- to have to constantly try and tell the world what's happening?

JABBAR: You scream into the whole world. And the whole world is watching. Simply silent. Seen all these mothers put their son that they work so hard to raise them up for 20 years, and you pick them up and you put them in the ground, under the sky, and the silence goes on and on and on.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Sinjil, the occupied West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Jeremy Diamond for that report.

Again, CNN has asked the U.S. State Department whether the United States will open its own investigation into the murder, apparently, of this American citizen by settlers. We have not heard back.

Next, new emergency calls for help as tragedy unfolded at an assistant living facility overnight in Massachusetts.

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[17:51:34]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, at least nine people have died and dozens more injured after a fire broke out at a senior living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts.

That's about 60 miles south of Boston. The Fall River fire chief called the incident at Gabriel House an unfathomable tragedy. CNN's Jason Carroll has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fall River firefighters arriving at the facility Sunday night were met with screams of panicked elderly residents calling out for help.

ALBERT ALMANZA, RESCUED FROM GABRIEL HOUSE FIRE: All the smoke from the hall went right in my face. And all I could do was just stand there and choke. And I thought it was going to be the end of everything.

CARROLL (voice-over): Albert Almanza lives at Gabriel House Assistant Living Care. He says he was almost overcome by smoke until a firefighter found him.

ALMANZA: He says to me, walk this way, and I couldn't even see the door. And he says grab ahold of my hand, I couldn't even see that. So he grabbed my arm and him and another officer helped me down the stairs.

CARROLL (voice-over): Seventy-one-year-old Lorraine Ferrara says it was about 9:45 Sunday night when someone banged on her door on the second floor of the facility.

LORRAINE FERRARA, RESCUED FROM SECOND FLOOR OF GABRIEL HOUSE FIRE: I got up and opened the door and the smoke just overtook me. It was so smoky, I will never forget the smell.

CARROLL (voice-over): Ferrara says the smoke was so thick she couldn't make it out her front door, so she tried escaping through her bathroom.

FERRARA: I thought I was going to die there, I did. Then I opened the window, I got the window open, and I started yelling, help, help, help.

CARROLL: Out of the bathroom window.

FERRARA: Out of the bathroom window, and the firemen were there, and they put the ladder up to the window.

CARROLL (voice-over): The Fall River Fire Department says 70 residents were housed at the facility. Rescues made more difficult because many were immobile, needed wheelchairs, while some needing help were on oxygen tanks.

FIRE CHIEF JEFFREY BACON, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS: You know that rescue is going to be 10 times harder than it would have been in a normal situation. So it's a very difficult scene, it's a very challenging scene.

CARROLL (voice-over): Investigators say it appears much of the fire was contained to the front entrance of the care facility, the same area where fire officials say the blaze may have started.

CARROLL: Was there a sprinkler system, a fire alarm system?

BACON: It was fully equipped with sprinkler and fire alarm systems per code.

CARROLL (voice-over): Gabriel House Assisted Living did not return calls or reply to e-mails about the incident. The website says it has 24-hour staffing, and that assisted living facilities in Massachusetts must always have sufficient staff to handle emergencies and meet resident needs as required by resident service plans. Residents who live there now trying to come to terms with all that has happened.

FERRARA: I survived for a reason. I'm meant to do something with my life. I don't know what, but something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (on camera): And, Jake, we are learning more about the victims. One of them, 78-year-old Richard Rochon, he was a Vietnam veteran. He was a sharpshooter in the Vietnam War. Behind me right now here at Gabriel House, they've boarded up the building.

Investigators now trying to work on a cause of this fire. The district attorney releasing a statement saying at this point, the cause of the blaze does not appear to be suspicious. Jake?

[17:55:07]

TAPPER: All right, Jason Carroll in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Coming up, the deep divide at the Justice Department and beyond, sparked by what the public knows about a dead pedophile and sexual trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. Will the Feds ever release more information about his case? We're asking that very question to some key folks. That's next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, Trump's MAGA base at odds with Mr. MAGA, the President himself. And all in on calling for the Justice Department to release those long hidden files about Jeffrey Epstein and say publicly who else helped this pedophile commit sexual crimes against children.

Plus, a deadline approaching tonight for thousands of Afghans living in the United States, the urgency by the Trump administration to end their special temporary protected status. One Afghan told CNN if he's deported, he and his family will be killed.

[18:00:09]