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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Hundreds Of Officers And Agents Deployed To D.C.; White House Calls U.S.-Russia Alaska Summit "Listening Exercise" For President Trump; Trump's Pick For BLS Head Has History Of Criticizing The BLS; White House Ordering Review Of Smithsonian Museums And Exhibits To Ensure Alignment With Trump Directive; Chinese Ships Collide While Chasing Philippine Boats. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired August 12, 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: Illuminated orange last night to celebrate. How's that for a collab? This is Taylor's first new album since the record breaking Eras Tour last year. Her first release since becoming the owner of her entire music catalog.
I think whoever wrote my script on this, Jake Tapper is not a Swifty, because I don't think there was a single pun or reference to a song from a Taylor album. I hope you're not having a cruel summer, though.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's very sweet and funny. You're talking to the wrong Tapper. Alice Tapper is the Swifty. I have a whole team of Swift fans that are going to write my coverage of this later on and it will be full of puns.
HUNT: There you go.
TAPPER: But I have nothing to add. I'd love to talk to you about Jason Kelsey, though, and the 2018 Super Bowl if that's something --
HUNT: Let's do it.
TAPPER: -- If that's something you'd be interested in discussing. We'll see you back in the arena tomorrow.
HUNT: Have a great show. A fearless show.
TAPPER: Trump's federal takeover of the D.C. police arrested -- resulted in 23 arrests just yesterday. The Lead starts.
New today, nearly 1,000 federal agents and officers on the streets of Washington, D.C. from homicide to metro fare evasion. The White House today revealing the kinds of arrests that those feds were involved in as CNN gets new community reaction about the visible presence of this temporary federal takeover.
Plus, Anchorage, Alaska, the confirmed location for the Trump Putin summit. But is the White House now downplaying what could come out of Friday's face to face meeting and if why? And new video of an armed group in Gaza pretending to be workers from the World Central Kitchen humanitarian organization.
See the strike as the Israeli military tries to separate whom to trust and whom to be taken out.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to begin with our Law and Justice Lead. It has been more than 24 hours since President Trump placed the Washington, D.C. Police Department under direct federal control. He said he's doing this to help combat crime.
Today we have some new answers and some new questions on how this could all play out. This afternoon the White House gave an update on the latest numbers saying approximately 850 officers and agents have been surged across the city. We do not know specifically how many of those 850 are National Guard troops or National Park Police or FBI agents, which have all been mobilized.
The White House says those officers and agents made 23 arrests, including arrests for homicide, firearms offenses, possession with intent to distribute narcotics, lewd acts, stalking, possession of a high capacity magazine, driving under the Influence and fare evasion in D.C. s metro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the President's order will be reevaluated in 30 days. Just moments ago, Trump border czar Tom Homan weighed in on the President's action with this stark assessment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, BORDER POLICY ADVISER: I think the President made the right call on, you know, cracking down on crime in D.C. I've been to D.C. for several years. I won't walk the streets without having a gun. I mean, it's just the violence and the crime is terrible here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The Trump administration has said these actions in D.C. are just the beginning. But we should note it isn't the beginning. Los Angeles was the beginning. You might recall, in June, Trump deployed roughly 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, the stated goal being to combat violent insurrectionist mobs, unquote, in and around LA.
The protests were in response to immigration enforcement action around the city. Critics say that troop deployment quickly became fairly pointless. Or as the Los Angeles Times put it, quote, the National Guard came to L.A. to fight unrest. Troops ended up fighting boredom.
All but 250 National Guard troops had left by August. Very little actual crime was charged from those protests. Regardless of how easy it is for prosecutors anywhere to get a grand jury to indict anyone.
So easy you can get an indictment of a ham sandwich and all that. Trump's top federal prosecutor in L.A. struggled to secure indictments in the protest cases. Out of at least 38 people charged with felonies, only seven out of 38 were indicted, according to the L.A. Times. Then there's the actual cost of that operation. Shortly after the L.A.
deployment began, the Department of Defense testified to Congress that the Pentagon would spend $134 million on it. $134 million. California Governor Gavin Newsom has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to reveal the total cost. But despite the lack of indictable crime and bored troops and a hefty price hike, Trump recently said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:05:02]
TAPPER: Crime is a problem all over the United States, and it has been for decades. But you have to wonder, why would President Trump bring up Los Angeles in his list of very bad cities? Is that an admission that his blueprint plan for troop deployment in American cities didn't work? Or does he think it didn't go far enough?
CNN's Brian Todd has been out on the streets of D.C. spotting all the additional law enforcement and trying to get a clearer picture on how they're all going to work together.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDREA SEEGARS, DC RESIDENT: I think this is long overdue. I've been one of the National Guards in this area for years. I like it. I love it. I feel safe already.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): longtime D.C. resident and community advocate Sandra Seegars is welcoming President Donald Trump's law enforcement and National Guard surge in the nation's capital because of the crime she sees in her neighborhood, much of which she says goes unaddressed and causes her to live in fear.
SEEGARS: I'm going to wait a while, listen for sirens or more shooting or running. Then I come to the door and see what's going on.
TODD (voice-over): Seegars is one of two community leaders we spoke to in southeast DC's Ward 8, one of the city's areas hardest hit by crime and poverty.
SEEGARS: Children can't be children anymore. They're running and playing. Just look like the police might be coming next to somebody chasing them. So this is how bad it is.
TODD (voice-over): Last night, according to the White House, 850 officers and agents dispatched by Trump from federal agencies like the FBI were out patrolling D.C. streets, making 23 arrests. KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: These arrests consisted
of homicide, firearms offenses, possession with intent to distribute, narcotics, fair evasion, lewd acts, stalking, driving under the influence, reckless driving, and a bench warrant.
TODD (voice-over): And Trump has called up about 800 National Guard troops who began reporting for duty this morning. They are expected to perform administrative tasks and manage logistics. They will also have a physical presence and be able to temporarily detain people.
The National Guard will have weapons available but are not expected to openly carry rifles, keeping them in their vehicles, for instance. Today, Washington's Mayor Muriel Bowser met with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who Trump assigned to oversee the takeover, vowing to make the best of the situation.
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D) WASHINGTON, DC: Right now we have more police and we want to make sure we're using them.
TODD (voice-over): The D.C. police chief insisting it's a collaboration.
CHIEF PAMELA SMITH, WASHINGTON, DC POLICE: We will allocate and look at the locations around our city where we have, where we believe there areas of pockets of crime that we would like to address.
TODD (voice-over): Many D.C. council members and scattered protesters have denounced the takeover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was unprecedented and unnecessary.
TODD (voice-over): Community activist and researcher Joy Doyle, also from DC's Ward 8, is in favor of the increased law enforcement presence, but says it has to go deeper, that the intervention can't come just when violent crimes occur.
JOY DOYLE, FORMER DC ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSIONER: We are not understanding why the property owners who rent to whomever these people are that are demonstrating open air drug markets on these properties, why are they not being held accountable?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: And we're now in a very popular area in the District for bars and restaurants. This area has seen a stepped up presence of local and federal law enforcement officers and look to see more of them as we head into the evening hours tonight. Now, so far the White House is saying this surge could last up to 30 days. At that point, they're going to reassess.
And as you mentioned, Jake, the administration is looking at other high crime cities in the U.S. for similar operations. Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Brian Todd on the streets of D.C. thanks so much. Joining me now, Brandon Scott. He is the mayor of the city of Baltimore, which shares an overlapping labor market region with Washington, DC. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us.
So President Trump today called out your city, Baltimore, as one of the cities that is, quote, very bad and quote, so far gone. Are you concerned or would you welcome President Trump sending National Guard troops to Baltimore? And how would you respond if he did?
MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT (D) BALTIMORE: I think that, Jake, we've been through this with the president before. We had him calling us during his first term and never lifting a real finger to help. This is the latest in the distraction tactics that the president and his team is undertaking to get folks away from having him talk about the issues that he should talk about, the economy, how the country has lost its state in the world. When you think about things, even things like the Epstein files, the stuff that we should be pressing the president on.
And let's look at the facts, because I always say women lie, men lie. Numbers do not lie, Jake. The city of Baltimore through this moment that you and I are talking right now has the fewest amount of homicides through this date ever on record, ever. That is 50 plus years.
So for the president to say that we're too far gone, yes, we are too far gone from the outdated policies that the president likes to push that did not make Baltimore safer when I was growing up here in the 80s and 90s and 2000, like zero tolerance policing or policing while black policing.
[17:10:01]
But what we have done now, we are acknowledging this historic reduction that we have in our city. But we're not celebrating here, Jake. You don't see me celebrating. You don't see my brother or sister mayors across this country celebrating. We're still remaining focused on the issue because even this historic drop still is causing still too much of our residents to be victims of violence.
TAPPER: As you note, violent crime in Baltimore is down. It has come down. Baltimore is still number three on the list of U.S. cities with the highest violent crime rates in 2024. That's according to the FBI's crime database, which relies on reporting from local jurisdictions such as Baltimore.
So specifically, what is working in Baltimore, as you were just discussing, and what federal help could help you bring the violent crime numbers down even further?
SCOTT: Yes, what we're doing now is that we have our comprehensive violence prevention plan, Jake, where we do all of the above. We have a deep partnership with my office, the police department, our State's attorney, our attorney general, our governor, and other federal law enforcement partners, where we have our group violence reduction strategy or focus deterrence, where we actually go to the very small group of people who are the most likely to be a victim or perpetrator of gun violence and say, choose, change your life. They actually get a letter directly from me as the mayor that says, change your life.
We'll help you do that. But if you don't, we will remove you. We, under my direction, my police department has taken 2,500 guns off the street each of the last two years. The president could also do some very simple things for us, Jake. Not just for Baltimore, but for the whole country.
The President can say, no one will no longer be able to go into a store and buy a AR-15. The President could join mayors around the country and standing up to Glock to end these Glock switches that allow our residents and our police officers to be shot with a gun that is now automatic.
And that can only happen with one company. He could end ghost guns in this country. He could do all of these things, but he won't.
TAPPER: So I'm sure you read the article in the Baltimore Sun yesterday talking about how so many Baltimore residents don't recognize their neighborhoods anymore and they're also stuck. They can't leave. The report says, quote, a 77-year-old woman from Curtis Bay who asked to remain anonymous due to threats she's received from drug dealers on her block compared the morning drug traffic to a fast food drive through when a real estate agent assessed her property about a month and a half ago. She said the agent told her I can't sell this house with that, referring to the 10 or 12 people involved in the drug market loitering across the street. I'm going to get hurt one day, I know I am, she said.
What do you say to those residents of Baltimore who may think that citing falling crime statistics glosses over some of the harsher day to day realities and needs that they have to their lives in Baltimore need for things to change even further in terms of just regular drug trafficking?
SCOTT: Yes, so we don't -- we're only having that discussion because the president is having that discussion. And I want to be very clear. I didn't read the Baltimore Sun article. I don't read it because they're a part of the president's propaganda machine. So I don't read that.
But what I will say to the residents is very clear, Jake. They know me very well. And you know me. You met me as a young councilman. Excuse me. You met me as a young city councilman who was leading the largest anti violence movement in this city before Freddie Gray in 2015. This -- I am someone who is different for me. I've had the gun in my face. I've lost friends. This isn't just talking about or talking points. This is actually a life that I have lived.
And what we're going to continue to do is work in every community around the city to deal with this issue, but none. When I talk to our residents, they understand that. They weren't expecting me to come and eradicate a problem that has existed, Jake, longer than I've been alive in four years or five years at this point.
We will not stop until we remove all of those people. But that's not going to happen overnight, Jake, and why we have to continue this partnership and why it's important that we acknowledge where were. Right.
TAPPER: Yes.
SCOTT: Where were. When you think about Baltimore in 2015 or 1993, when I was nine years old and where we are today, we have made significant progress. And when you can see that you can have the best veteran is good. And it definitely isn't good enough for me.
TAPPER: All right. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, I'm going to take issue with your description of the Baltimore Sun and my brethren and sister reporters of the Baltimore Sun. I understand that the Editorial Board might have a more conservative bent than you, but the news stories I think are reliable.
SCOTT: I would say, Jake, I would say you should reach out to your counterparts and former counterparts at the Sun in.
TAPPER: Any case it was a story worth reading. And I appreciate your time today.
SCOTT: Thank you.
TAPPER: Today the White House announced that Anchorage, Alaska, will be the site for Friday's face to face summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
[17:15:05]
Plus what the press secretary says about the president mentioning twice that he was going to Russia for this meeting. He's not. He's going to Alaska.
And the glaring detail the Chinese government failed to mention after two of its military ships collided in the South China Sea. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Our World Lead now, the White House today revealed that Friday's meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will specifically take place not just in Alaska, but in Anchorage, Alaska. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appears to be holding down expectations for what may be achieved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: The goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war. This is a listening exercise for the president. Look, only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present. And so this is for the president to go and to get again a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: CNN's Frederik Pleitgen in Moscow, Russia for us and many in the diplomatic community, Frederick, think that inviting Putin to a summit is already a win for Putin as it removes him from some of the international isolation.
[17:20:10]
There are also many concerned about a summit without any prearranged deliverables. Those are the concerns. What are Russians saying about Friday's meeting?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that the Russians certainly are very happy that the summit is taking place and I think also very happy about the fact that the president is saying that it's more of a feel out summit. I think, as he put it, because that's one of the things that could lead them to believe, Jake, that President Trump is not going to go to that summit thinking that he's going to walk away with a immediate ceasefire for Ukraine, because that's certainly something that the Russians really don't seem to be gunning for and don't seem to be up for, at least in the short term.
The interesting thing that we've seen on the ground here is the Russians seem to have come to the conclusion that the best thing for them to do is be as silent as possible and let President Trump do most of the talking. Some Russian officials saying that obviously all of these are very sensitive matters.
And actually the last time that we've heard from a senior Kremlin official was this past Friday. That doesn't mean, though, Jake, that the messaging would have stopped. It's still very much going on here in Russia, first and foremost on state media, where the Russians are showcasing what they say are accelerating gains by the Russian military on the battlefield, specifically in eastern Ukraine where the Russians say they're very close to taking some key towns.
And the message that they're obviously trying to send to audiences here in Russia, but of course also internationally into the U.S. is that Vladimir Putin is going into this meeting a winner. He's going into this meeting with momentum on the battlefield and certainly wanting to push through his own agenda as far as this meeting is concerned.
And the Russians have said that they haven't changed their stance on Ukraine, which means they don't want an immediate ceasefire. They want longer term talks possibly leading to a larger agreement, of course, during which the fighting would still be going on. And of course they want territorial concessions from Ukraine. They don't want Ukraine to become a member of NATO and they essentially want Ukraine to disarm as well. That's as far as the Russians are concerned.
They obviously have no illusions that they could get this at that meeting. But the big thing that we hear from Russian officials here, Jake, is that for the Russians, this is also about a reset in U.S.- Russia relations. And they certainly hope that this could be a stepping stone to achieving that. Jake.
TAPPER: All right, CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Moscow. Thanks. Let's bring in New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser of the former Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post, who co-authored a book on Putin. Susan, thanks for joining us. So it seems unusual that we know so little before such a major meeting between the leaders of the United States and Russia or the old Soviet Union. Have you ever seen anything quite like this?
SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well, I am having a little bit of a flashback to Helsinki. And I'm sure you remember the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in the summer of 2018. But even that was prepared far in advance. And of course, the stakes have gone up dramatically, Jake, when you think about the fact that at that time there was Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, there was essentially semi-hot, semi-cold war going on in eastern Ukraine, but the full scale invasion was still several years in the future.
Now you're talking about, you know, a mass casualty war, the largest war in Europe that's been going on for several years. So the stakes are higher. It's much less prepared than any previous meeting I could imagine.
And of course, you know, the Donald Trump administration, especially the second iteration of it, there's no process of any kind really that we would think would be how American decision making is made about our national security. And so he's winging it. He actually told us that yesterday. Right.
TAPPER: Yes. And, you know, I suppose that one argument is that we should applaud anybody who's attempting to bring peace to the world and reduce fighting and end a war. But practically speaking, given the fact that according to President Trump, Putin keeps making as Trump puts it, quote, bullshit promises to him and not fulfilling any of them, what do you expect will come of Friday's meeting?
GLASSER: Yes, I mean, I think there's a combination of very low expectations combined, however, on the part of people who support Ukraine with a lot of trepidation, I think their fear, and you heard this in Trump's rhetoric yesterday, where he's kind of reverted to the status quo ante, which is to say seeking Trump Putin's approval, seeming to be very willing to go along with demands that Ukraine considers nonstarter and this real animus and this edge in his voice as he talks about Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, as he seems to blame Ukraine consistently for somehow having been invaded by Russia.
And so there's a lot of trepidation on the part of Ukraine and its supporters. That's one reason why the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has convened essentially an emergency call of European allies tomorrow, Wednesday, in advance of the summit.
[17:25:00]
They're hoping to get Trump on board and to hear him get a little bit of preparation from people. But I remember talking to his advisors, Trump's advisors in his first term, about what it was like to try to prepare Donald Trump for a summit. And let's just say he's not very into studying up in advance to prepare for this. He just wants to get in there and as he said, you know, check out
Putin eye to eye and that he'll somehow know magically whether there's a deal possible or not. That's not really the way international diplomacy works.
TAPPER: Yes. I'm reminded of in the first term when Putin had just won, you know, one of his sham elections in Russia and one of his aides, one of Trump's aides wrote on the top of a piece of paper before a conversation with Putin, do not congratulate because that would suggest that the election was real. And I believe, if memory serves, that President Trump specifically congratulated. He doesn't like to be told what to do.
There was an odd moment when he spoke to reporters yesterday and President Trump two different times said that he was going to Russia. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And it's embarrassing for me to be up here. You know, I'm going to see Putin. I'm going to Russia on Friday. It's going to be a big thing. We're going to Russia. That's going to be a big deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about that today. This is what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president said at the podium yesterday twice that he was planning to go to Russia. Is that a verbal slip up or does he actually plan to go to Russia? LEAVITT: Perhaps there are plans in the future to travel to Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: I mean, some vague future trip to Russia is not what the President said, despite Karoline Leavitt's yeoman's attempt there. He said he was going to Russia Friday. What did you make of that?
GLASSER: I mean, you know, Jake, you know better than many that there is a real hazard in having a president who is near an octogenarian, who is more prone than many others to slip ups of this kind. He may also just be conflating Putin with Russia.
I do think that's a verbal tic of his, we've heard in the past. But Donald Trump has wanted to meet with Vladimir Putin once again almost from the minute that he returned to office in the second term.
TAPPER: All right, Susan Glasser, thanks. We'll check back with you later in the week, if not sooner than Friday, then on Friday. Thanks for joining us today.
Look for CNN special coverage for the Trump Putin summit on Friday. I will lead coverage live from Alaska itself. Anderson Cooper gets the cushier spot here in Washington, DC. Look for more details as the White House confirms plans.
Just last hour a record close for Wall Street on the heels of a big economic report today. We'll talk about that coming up.
Plus, a suggestion to suspend the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This suggestion is from the president's new pick to oversee that bureau which puts out the data. What the White House said today about that idea, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:32:27]
TAPPER: In our Money Lead, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs today. This as average inflation stayed even in July, although there were some products that did see tariff-related price increases. That's according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which could be under new leadership quite soon. E.J. Antoni, President Trump's new pick to lead the Bureau, has been criticizing the department's approach to data collection in the past. And he's now going to change course.
On a comment he made yesterday that the BLS should suspend monthly jobs reports. Let's bring in University of Michigan Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Justin Wolfers. Justin, the market's hitting a record, but inflation's still sitting steady. We're seeing some price increases from tariffs. Do you think there's a disconnect here?
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS & PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: It's one of those funny moments where bad news is good news and -- and good news is bad news. So it looks like there's enough space right now maybe for the Fed to cut rates. Normally the Fed cuts rates when it's worried about the economy. And so the markets have convinced themselves that's what's coming next.
TAPPER: Interesting. On Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni told "Fox Business" yesterday, "how on earth are businesses supposed to plan, or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy when they don't know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It's a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly jobs -- jobs reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data."
Karoline Leavitt today said the White House still plans to release the monthly jobs reports. And now economist Stephen Moore says that Antoni tells him that the monthly jobs reports are going to continue as well. What do you -- what do you make of this quick reversal?
WOLFERS: Look, this is a fellow who's completely in over his head. He is manifestly unqualified for the job, but in fact probably wouldn't be able to get a job as a junior staffer at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He has exactly one qualification, which is he's a Trump loyalist. The problem with that is that's going to lead you to do all sorts of things to hide data that are inconvenient. The one thing we need in a BLS commissioner is a commitment to truth. This guy's got no commitment to it. And he's doing -- and talking -- even contemplating the idea that we would stop publishing jobs numbers when the economy might be on the cusp of a recession, that's the sort of thing that strikes fear into my heart.
TAPPER: In 2022, Antoni criticized a methodology change as a way to mask inflation. Back in July, he echoed Trump's criticism that revisions were different under the Biden administration, that they were always done with a political lens to be more favorable to Democrats. And here is what Antoni said to Steve Bannon yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[17:35:10]
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Have we put in our own person into BLS? Is -- is a -- is a MAGA Republican that President Trump knows and trusts, are they running the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet, sir?
E.J. ANTONI: No, unfortunately, Steve, we still haven't gotten there. And I think that's part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It's interesting that he said that it's unfortunate that there isn't a MAGA person, one of our own people in Bannon's description, as head of BLS. The politics here are striking. Of course, this would be just one person speaking for an entire Bureau of qualified economists. Do you think the data will be just as credible, even if Antoni takes charge?
WOLFERS: No. This is exactly how you undermine truth. It's how you undermine any understanding about the state of the economy. There are many, many serious Republicans who could be appointed to that role. But let me point something out to your viewers, because I think it's critically important. This historically has never been a role that's gone to an ideologue. It is appointed by the President, but it's been a dork.
It's been a nerd. It's been someone committed to numbers and numbers only. This is someone whose only qualifications are frequent misunderstandings and misrepresentations of data. Even if he were to change his stripes tomorrow, every time we see a number, we're going to wonder to ourselves, did he really change his stripes? Or is he telling an ideologically tinged truth?
The hundreds of millions of dollars that you and I and other taxpayers pour into this institution are now going to produce data and output that's worth far less because it's always going to be tainted.
TAPPER: Michigan economist, Justin Wolfers, thanks so much. Appreciate it, sir.
WOLFERS: My pleasure, Jake.
TAPPER: Coming up next, the stepped up vetting of Smithsonian museums, the new reported process directed by President Trump to dictate what goes in exhibits, what gets left out. We'll talk about it all, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:41:28]
TAPPER: Our Politics Lead now. The Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. are about to undergo major scrutiny by the White House. "The Wall Street Journal" was first to report, "the White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian Museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America's 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump's interpretation of American history."
We should note this comes on the heels of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History that removed a placard about Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit about impeachment. Although the museum has since reinstalled it with some tweaks and denied it had been pressured by any government official to make changes to the exhibits. And Meridith McGraw, who is the White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, joins me now. Meridith, tell us more about your reporting. What's going on?
MERIDITH MCGRAW, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: So the White House just sent a letter today to Lonnie Bunch, who leads the Smithsonian, outlining everything that they want to get from the Smithsonian in terms of materials, details about their exhibits, things that go as far as their operations, information about how they curate exhibits, what grants go to artists. And it's all in preparation, they say, of America's 250th anniversary.
But really this is part of a broader theme from President Trump and his administration to really reshape and put Trump's touch on some of our arts and cultural institutions and also try to paint American history in a more positive light. The letter talks a lot about American exceptionalism, and they really want the Smithsonian to avoid anything that they deem is politically or racially divisive.
TAPPER: Yes, and this is -- this is far beyond just having much more gold in the Oval Office, right? I mean, this come on the -- this is basically a campaign when it comes to facts, assertions, interpretations that he doesn't agree with or doesn't like. He's going after news media companies over coverage he doesn't like. Most recently, your employer, "The Wall Street Journal," over reporting about Jeffrey Epstein. He wants to get rid of the Fed chair, Jerome Powell.
According to the White House, he's now considering suing Powell for -- for what we don't know at this moment. He's ordering a new census to exclude undocumented immigrants, even though in the Constitution it says that persons should be counted, not citizens. Reinstating Confederate statues, changes to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and on and on and on.
And I guess my question for you is, is anyone pushing back on this that you see, other than "The Wall Street Journal" standing up?
MCGRAW: Well, when President Trump came to town, he really wanted to take a wrecking ball to a lot of these institutions, and his administration has pretty quickly done just that. But I think what's different this time around in this administration is the -- the speed with which they're making a lot of these changes, and also the -- the lack of -- of real pushback that we've seen in Washington, either from Congress or even the courts.
TAPPER: Yes, one of the other things that's interesting, I -- I can certainly understand the idea of celebrating America, but the idea that we shouldn't, for instance, right now in Philadelphia -- I'm from Philadelphia, so in Independence Hall they're talking about whether or not they should move -- remove any mention of the fact that George Washington had slaves.
I mean, there is making a celebration of America, and then there is whitewashing American history. And -- and I don't know where this is landing.
MCGRAW: Well, my colleague Jasmine Li at "The Journal," she spoke to some historians about this today, and that's some of the pushback that we've heard from them, is that, you know, American history, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly, and part of a museum's responsibility is to present that full picture to the American people.
[17:45:06]
And the Smithsonian did respond in -- in a statement right before I came on air. They said that they're going to be working with the White House on this, and this is going to be a process that's going to be going on for -- for many months, and they expect to wrap this up by 2026. But what sort of changes actually come about because of this, and how far-reaching this is, is yet to be seen, but it seems the White House is pretty ambitious in how they're hoping to -- to change and reimagine parts of the Smithsonian.
TAPPER: Are people at the Smithsonian worried about, they're not going to -- we're not going to be able to talk about slavery, we're not going to be able to talk about internment camps, Japanese internment camps, we're not going to be able to talk about the slaughter of Native Americans, things that happened, and it's important that we know about them.
MCGRAW: I don't know about the view inside of the Smithsonian right now, but I -- I do know, like I said, from the historians --
TAPPER: Yes.
MCGRAW: -- that we heard from, that there are certainly concerns about how history could be reimagined and presented for years to come.
TAPPER: There's also news today, a separate issue about the Trump administration going after George Washington University over past pro- Palestinian, anti-Israel protests. The administration is accusing G.W. of violating federal civil rights laws regarding Jewish-Americans, American-Israeli, Israeli students at the faculty. What do you know about the administration's goal on this?
MCGRAW: Well, this is, again, part of this broader pattern that we've seen with the Trump administration targeting universities, especially over their response to anti-Semitism on campuses. My colleagues had some reporting about the Harvard University deal. It's a potentially $500 million settlement, and -- and some of the -- the parameters of that, the agreements that these universities have to make to settle with the administration, because, again, Trump has deemed either some of their curriculum to be anti or to -- to be too woke or to be too political or because they were dissatisfied with how they responded to a lot of those pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
TAPPER: "The Wall Street Journal's" Meredith McGraw, thank you so much. You guys are doing a great job at "The Journal." Thanks so much for being here.
MCGRAW: Thank you.
TAPPER: Next, who to trust? How Israel says terrorists in Gaza pretended to be workers from the acclaimed World Central Kitchen humanitarian group, the one headed by celebrity chef, Jose Andres. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:51:43]
TAPPER: In our World Lead, Israel's military says it struck an armed group posing as air -- aid workers using cars marked with the World Central Kitchen logo on top. That's the U.S.-based nonprofit founded by celebrity chef, Jose Andres. The strike, which happened last week, took out, quote, five armed terrorists, according to the IDF. Israel says the men were, quote, cynically exploiting the status and trust afforded to aid organizations.
World Central Kitchen tells CNN it strongly condemns those who posed as aid workers. The IDF video you're watching does not show the moment of the strike.
Also on our World Aid, a Chinese warship collided with one of its own Coast Guard vessels while chasing Philippine boats in the highly contested South China Sea. CNN's Ivan Watson takes a look now at how this latest fiasco highlights the dangerous tensions rising in the east.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two Chinese ships colliding at high speed. This crash took place on Monday in a tense part of the South China Sea. Video released by the Philippine Coast Guard shows a China Coast Guard ship with a water cannon and a gray Chinese PLA Navy ship, both appearing to pursue a Coast Guard ship from the Philippines.
Chinese sailors hold a bumper at the front of the Coast Guard vessel when it suddenly smashes into the larger Navy ship. Seconds later, no sign of those sailors on the heavily damaged bow of the Chinese Coast Guard ship. Aggressiveness and incompetence, says one 25-year veteran of the U.S. Navy.
TOM SHUGART, ADJUNCT SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY: There's a saying in the fleet, you know, play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. And the PLA Navy has been engaging in what certainly the U.S. Navy has characterized as pretty unprofessional operations for quite some time.
WATSON (voice-over): The incident took place near Scarborough Shoal, which both the Philippines and China claim. These contested waters, the scene of frequent confrontations, which CNN witnessed firsthand last year.
WATSON: That little boat in front is a Philippines resupply boat, and it is currently being pursued by one, two, three, at least four Chinese ships.
WATSON (voice-over): It's a David and Goliath style contest. They blast the boat with water cannons. And it's not just ships from the Philippines and China that have come in close contact in the South China Sea in recent years.
WATSON: We're getting a close up look at a Chinese fighter jet, and it's been shadowing this U.S. Navy plane now for about 15 minutes.
WATSON (voice-over): CNN has also filmed U.S. and Chinese warships and planes operating in close proximity here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U.S. aircraft. U.S. aircraft. This is Chinese navy warship. You are approaching me. Keep safe distance away from me over.
WATSON (voice-over): After Monday's maritime collision, Chinese state T.V. issued this statement from the China Coast Guard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The China Coast Guard took necessary measures such as tracking, monitoring, blocking and controlling to drive away the Philippine vessels. On site operations were professional, regulated and legitimate.
WATSON (voice-over): No official mention of the crash or possible casualties. Exactly the kind of incident experts have long warned could happen when huge ships play a dangerous game of chicken.
[17:55:09]
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: And our thanks to Ivan Watson for that report.
Just days ahead of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, a power move by Russia. They're trying to snatch even more territory overnight -- overnight in Ukraine's Donetsk region. How this may play out when Putin is face to face with President Trump, that's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. In this hour, we now know that President Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin not only in Alaska, but in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. Whether at a military base or the international airport or somewhere else, we don't know. But what about that invite for Ukraine's President Zelenskyy? Has it been completely ruled out? We're going to go to the White House and to Kyiv in moments.
[17:59:58]
Plus, investigators are revealing new details about the shooting at the CDC in Atlanta last Friday, including that the gunman fired nearly 500 rounds and left behind writings about his distrust of the COVID vaccine.
