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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Peace Efforts Show Little Progress Since Alaska Summit; House Committee Gets Birthday Book, Top South Korean Official Heading To U.S. Amid ICE Raid Tension; Trump's U.S. Open Appearance Causes Security Nightmare For Fans; What's Next For Netflix's Most Watched Movie Of All Time? Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 08, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

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

This hour, of the infamous Epstein birthday book is now in the hands of Congress.

[18:00:02]

And the page allegedly from President Donald Trump is now public. The White House is already claiming that the signature is fake. Of course, we'll let you take a look for yourself and decide in just minutes.

Plus, a high-profile meeting in Washington, D.C., today, as President Trump says, he is ready to slap new sanctions on Russia, but time after time, we've heard Trump give Moscow a deadline that's come and gone with little to no consequences. So, what's different now, if anything?

Also, just yesterday, the Florida surgeon general admitted to me that he and his department and his state did not do any research as to the possible impact before deciding to end vaccine mandates for everyone, including school kids. So, just how severe could the consequences be? I'll ask a scientist who won a Nobel Prize for helping to develop the COVID vaccines. That's ahead.

The Lead tonight, 24 days since the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, still no ceasefire and, in fact, Russia's attacks on its neighbor have only escalated. Over the weekend, Putin's army launched the bus biggest aerial assault of the war yet, targeting a Ukrainian government building for the first time.

Remember, right before the Alaska summit, President Trump warned Putin there would be, quote, severe consequence if Putin wasn't serious about a ceasefire immediately. But a week after that summit, Trump gave Putin, quote, a couple of weeks. And last week, Trump promised, quote, you'll see things happen, unquote, if Putin makes a decision Trump doesn't like.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters he'd speak with Putin, quote, very soon. He threatened to face two of sanctions. Phase one was the secondary sanctions against India, which put a steep tariff on India's purchases of Russian oil and gas.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is here. And, Kaitlan, just using the words for like on their face, that doesn't seem like severe consequences yet.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. I mean, in these threatened sanctions multiple times, not followed through on them yet and given multiple deadlines. And obviously a lot of those have come and gone. All of them have come and gone. But the president has been watching these attacks. He says he's not happy, something that he's been saying privately for months now, but really publicly has started saying more clearly recently. And he was talking to reporters yesterday about this most recent attack, and this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: But I am not happy with them. I'm not happy with anything having to do with that war. It's just such a waste of great humanity.

You know, Europe, certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday or Tuesday, and individually. And I think we're going to get that settled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, the top sanctions official is here in Washington. Whether or not they do decide to move forward with sanctions remains to be seen.

I thought what Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, had to say about this most recent strike on the Cabinet of Ministers in Ukraine was telling, because he had just visited there, visited the prime minister recently. And he said the danger in any war's escalation and that Russia appears to be escalating with this largest attack of the war hitting the offices of the Ukrainian cabinet in Kyiv. It's that last sentence though, Jake. He says, the attack was not a signal that Russia wants to diplomatically end this war.

Now, people inside the West Wing, that is not a surprising viewpoint from Keith Kellogg. He has very much been someone who has been advocating for action against Russia. Whether or not though the president adopts that stance remains to be seen.

TAPPER: And, Kaitlan, we should note that Ukraine's first lady, Mrs. Zelenskyy said she's going to meet with First Lady Melania Trump later this month. This is one of the rare issues where Melania Trump has said something publicly about the war. She expressing outrage about all the Ukrainian kids that Russia has kidnapped.

COLLINS: Yes. Remember when we were in Anchorage, President Trump gave President Putin a letter from Melania Trump basically saying, end this war for the sake of the children who were caught up in the middle of this. Obviously, days later, Russia responded by attacking Ukraine and striking them again, which was not --

TAPPER: Killing some Ukrainian kids.

COLLINS: killing Ukrainian children, hitting a school at one point. That was not taken well inside the White House. Obviously, it seemed like a rejection of what Melania, her personal request to President Putin, which obviously the White House places high value on.

So, this meeting will be really interesting because it's the first time they've met, I believe. She was invited to a summit in Europe. And instead the two of them are meeting in New York, her words way heavily on President Trump and her viewpoint. And you've heard President Trump talk about that saying, you know. after he's had a call with Putin that he's described as great and then there's a Ukrainian -- or a Russian strike on Ukraine, Melania Trump will say to him, didn't you just talk to him and have a great phone call? Like, obviously, he's not listening to you. So, her viewpoint has a lot to do. If this meeting, would that change anything, it could be significant.

TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. And don't miss Kaitlan on her show, The Source with Kaitlan Collins. Tonight, she's speaking to House Oversight Committee Member Jasmine Crockett, congresswoman, Democrat from Texas. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern only here on CNN.

[18:05:01]

Joining us now, Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis. And, Senator, good to have you here. You posted on Twitter or X after Russia's most recent massive attack, quote, it's time to stop this liar and murderer, referring to Vladimir Putin, of course. How would you stop Putin if you were calling the shots?

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Well, I'd be redoubling my efforts to support Ukraine in every way that I can, in terms of weapons, in terms of resources, in terms of intelligence, the things that we know that could absolutely defeat Russia. The only reason Russia wins in this war is that the west and the United States back away. There's no way Putin can be successful otherwise. We've got to put the pedal to the metal. I think that we should pass the sanctions bill out of the Senate, let it lie in the House until the president wants it, but up the pressure on this guy who met with our president about three and a half weeks ago in Alaska, and then gets a red carpet greeting here, then he gets a red carpet greeting meeting with the world's worst totalitarians, and then he goes back to Russia and orders the largest air assault since the beginning of this war.

He is a liar. He is a murderer. He's responsible for the abduction and relocation of thousands of children, rape, murder and torture of Ukrainian women and men. It is time to stop and America needs to lead on this issue.

TAPPER: Take a listen to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy this weekend talking about the summit in Alaska.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I think that President Trump gave Putin what he wanted. He wanted very much to meet with President Trump, with the president of the United States. And I think that Putin got it, and it's a pity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you agree with Zelenskyy that Trump gave Putin what he wanted and it's a pity?

TILLIS: No. I think we got to get a little bit of a context here with respect to the president of Ukraine. President Trump hates war. And the thing he hates most about war is sacrificing American men and women. And I understand that. But I really believe if you don't have a counterweight to a growing threat of totalitarianism, and the litmus test is in Ukraine, we fail in Ukraine, we're going to put far more American lives at risk, having to regain the foothold that we have for democracy in Europe.

So, now is the time. The president has done a number of things to, to demonstrate that he was being patient. But now is the time to actually put Putin in a position where he is going to fail. I don't believe that that man deserves the seat at the table and I believe that the Ukrainians deserve our fulsome support and the support of the western world.

TAPPER: Do you think Trump's sanctions on India for buying Russian oil were enough of a response to Putin not agreeing to the ceasefire back in Alaska?

TILLIS: You know, why make a country that we have great economic ties and growing evidence that they were looking to the west for armed shipments? They saw what a piece of junk Russia's technology is on the battlefield. I mean, my goodness, they couldn't -- they thought they were going to occupy Europe -- or, I'm sorry, occupy Ukraine in a couple of weeks. Now we're talking years.

So, India was moving in our direction. And then we add another level of tariffs that make them talk to totalitarians to have an option. I think that we've got to be very careful with that. Hold India accountable to a trade deficit, but not let that get swept into an alliance of western-looking countries. India's got a lot of work to do, but then the Wikipedia picture of totalitarians in Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin.

TAPPER: Yes. Let's turn to something, a tragedy in your home state, North Carolina, recently surfaced a gruesome video shows this poor woman, this 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee getting stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train last month, August 22nd. The video has sparked a debate about crime in U.S. cities.

You say the problem is, quote, weak on crime judges and prosecutors. What do you think should be done to prevent this sort of thing? Obviously this assailant --

TILLIS: Well, I think it's more complicated than that.

TAPPER: Okay.

TILLIS: You know, there's only so much you can communicate. I mean, it's a soft on strategies for behavioral health. This man should have never been in the general public. But between prosecutors not going after them or having access to behavioral health, there's a lot of ways that you could rationalize or look at what a tragic event that was and the victims.

But also I have to say that Mecklenburg County's a sanctuary county. There are some local law enforcement agencies that work with federal agents, but, hey, we've got to get into this. You've got to set the tone by cooperating with every law enforcement agency at every level, and probably need to get rid of the freed turnstiles the honor system that they have for our metro system there.

[18:10:00]

I mean, this created a dangerous environment where police officers and public safety officers were not present.

So, there are a lot of -- I mean, I'm not going to blame any one group, but I do believe that the mayor, the city council, the Mecklenburg County leaders need to get focused on reducing crime.

North Carolina and Charlotte still is a relatively safe city. There are many cities, many red cities that that actually have to work on their crime problems too at the local level with us providing support.

TAPPER: Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, thank you, sir, always good to see you.

TILLIS: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Jeffrey Epstein's estate has just turned over the birthday book to Congress and the White House is claiming this signature in the book is not President Trump's signature. But with an actual picture of the letter, Trump's defamation suit might have gotten a bit more complicated. We're going to have a legal breakdown next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead tonight, the White House is claiming that a signature in Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book from 2003 is not President Trump's signature.

[18:15:05]

This afternoon, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released this picture from the birthday book with the text, quote, we got Trump's birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the president said doesn't exist, unquote. But White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Taylor Budowich quickly tweeted, time for News Corps to open that checkbook. It's not his signature, defamation. As you may recall, Trump sued News Corps, which owns The Wall Street Journal for $20 billion after the Journal initially published the report about the Epstein birthday book and Trump's contribution.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Elie, I don't know, the signature looks pretty close to Donald Trump's signature, if not exactly like Donald Trump's signature, and maybe not the ones ones in the pictures that Taylor Budowich tweeted out, but here's one from an executive order to President Trump did in a letter rather in 2015. I mean, it's pretty identical. Is this going to make Trump's defamation case against News Corps more difficult?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's going to be way more difficult, Jake, now because if you look at Donald Trump's actual complaint here, his lawsuit, he alleges first that the letter is, and I quote, non-existent. Well, now we know that's off the table. The letter certainly does exist. And now Trump's going to have to make a fallback argument that we're hearing that, well, maybe this is not his signature.

But, again, if you look back at The Wall Street Journal, they hedged on that. The original article by The Wall Street Journal does not say definitively this is his signature. In fact, the article actually says the circumstances around the creation of the letter are unclear. So, Trump has to prove, a, that the reporting was false, B, that it was knowingly or recklessly false. And I think this was a long shot to begin with, and I think the appearance of this letter has made it even longer of a shot.

TAPPER: But what do you think is going to happen next? Will News Corps try to get the case thrown out since the public has now seen this image that Trump allegedly signed from the Epstein estate, from the actual birthday book? I mean, I don't know what the Journal reported that isn't proven today.

HONIG: Absolutely. So, the next move you will see will be from The Wall Street Journal. The defendants, they will make a motion to dismiss. This new development will certainly feature in that they will argue, A, nothing was false, and, B, nothing was knowingly or recklessly false.

And that's a really important moment in the case, Jake, because if this case gets dismissed, then, of course, it's over. But if not, that may not be great news for Trump either because that means we move into discovery, and that will include under oath depositions of Wall Street Journal personnel, potentially up to and including Rupert Murdoch, but definitely of the plaintiff, Donald Trump. So, if this does not get dismissed, we're going to see Donald Trump questioned under oath about this letter, about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I'm not entirely sure Trump has thought this one all the way through.

TAPPER: Another big legal headline today, the U.S. Supreme Court siding with President Trump over the controversial ICE patrols in Southern California at issue. A series of incidents were masked and armed immigration agents pulled over people who identified as Latino to ask them about their immigration status. What exactly did the justices rule here? Because there are a lot of Democrats saying that, basically, they said, the justices said racial profiling is okay.

HONIG: Yes. So, the district court said that this practice was unconstitutional, that it was racially discriminatory, that it violated the Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure. The Supreme Court today temporarily disagreed. They said ICE may continue to make stops based on the language that a person is speaking, Spanish as opposed to English, based on their apparent ethnicity, meaning based on their appearance, their skin color, and based on where they are, Home Depot or a car wash or something like that. We don't know the exact reasoning because the Supreme Court didn't really go into detail. Justice Kavanaugh simply said, well, agents of immigration are allowed to look at all of the circumstances in deciding whether there's reasonable suspicion. The three liberals dissented ferociously.

TAPPER: A lot of court cases. We should also note in an appeals court upheld the $83.3 million jury award against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll.

But I want to ask you about Trump today saying that his administration will soon issue guidance protecting the right to pray in public schools. Where does the law stand on this?

HONIG: So, there was a Supreme Court decision three years ago where the court said it is okay for a public high school football coach after a game to have a prayer at Midfield where he took a knee and other people could join him. But the thing is that is different. That is not nearly as invasive and coercive as having required prayer in the classes.

So, the Supreme Court has definitely shown willingness to expand the ability of people to engage in religious activity in school, but I don't think they're going to go that far.

TAPPER: Elie Honig, thanks so much. And Elie's new book is coming out. It's called, When You Come at the King, Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President from Nixon to Trump. It comes out next week. We'll talk to him all about the book next week, but it's available for pre-order now.

Coming up, furor from a top U.S. ally today after more than 300 South Korean workers were swept up in an ICE raid down in Georgia. We're breaking down exactly what happened in the fallout next.

[18:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: And back with our World Lead, the longstanding critical relationship between the United States and South Korea appears to be in something of a hot water situation. South Korea's top diplomat is making its way to the U.S. right now after one of the biggest ICE raids in years, swept up more than 300 South Korean nationals, workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia last week.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is here now. Kylie, there's at least enough goodwill that South Korea's government, negotiated with the U.S. to get the workers back to Korea on a charter flight.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We don't know when that charter flight's actually going to leave the United States and go back to South Korea. We don't know what the immigration status of the workers on that flight is going to be, if they're going to be able to come back to the United States or not. So, there are still some open-ended questions, the foreign minister coming here to Washington this week. We'll watch and see what comes out of those meetings.

But I did talk to some U.S. diplomats who are familiar with this topic, and they did say that it has been in the backdrop for a while.

[18:25:01]

There are some South Korean companies and subcontractors who have been skirting the visa rules, sending workers here on a visa for work. That's not allowed on the visa that they're here for. So, it has been an issue that's in a backdrop clearly now on the front page.

TAPPER: What is the immigration status of these workers? Were they here illegally?

ATWOOD: Well, there were about 300 of them and we don't know the immigration status of all 300. I spoke with a lawyer representing some of them who said, listen, the people that I'm working with were here legally. They were here on a visa waiver program. They were doing work that was allowed as part of that visa waiver program, installing engineering issues at this plant that was just trying to get up and running in the coming months. But we don't know the immigration status of all of these South Koreans, and that is a key question that we're going to watch diplomats and, of course, ICE enforcement folks key into.

The backdrop here, Jake, is also that Trump is headed to South Korea next month. So, the U.S. and South Korea really do want to make sure that their relations are on a good page leading up to that critical visit.

TAPPER: All right, interesting. Kylie Atwood, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

What are the potential consequences of Florida push to end all vaccine mandates in the state, including those for public school children? I'm going to ask a doctor who won a Nobel Prize in medicine for his contributions to the COVID vaccine. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

TAPPER: In our Health with Health Lead, the state of Florida announced that it will be become the very first state in the United States to end vaccine mandates for everyone, which immediately impacts mandates on school vaccines for Hepatitis B and chickenpox and HIV, influenza and diseases including meningitis. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers will now look at passing a law to end the remaining mandates that needed to be passed using legislation, including vaccines for polio and mumps and measles and tetanus.

Yesterday, I spoke with the man behind this major decision, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Did you do any data projection of how many new cases of these diseases there will be in Florida once you remove vaccine mandates?

DR. JOSEPH LADAPO, FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL: Absolutely. So, absolutely not. What I'm saying is that it's an issue of right and wrong in terms of whether parents should be able to control, have ultimate authority over what happens to their kids' bodies.

In terms of outbreaks, we do have outbreaks in Florida, just like every state, and we manage those. So, there are no new, you know, special procedures that need to be made.

Let's discuss with Dr. Drew Weissman, director for the Institute for RNA Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He is a 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient for his discoveries that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that saved millions of lives in the United States.

So, Dr. Weissman, what was your reaction to both the fact that the Department of Health in Florida did not engage in any sort of data projection as to how many new cases of these diseases there will be once they lift the mandate and also just his reasoning that this is just a matter of liberty and parents' rights.

DR. DREW WEISSMAN, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR RAN INNOVATION, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: So, I guess I have to take exception to everything. Not having data on major medical decisions is crazy. It's anti- science. And, you know, giving people ultimate rights, you know, that's wonderful. But if you drive a car, do you have a driver's license? Do you have auto insurance? Those things are mandated by the government because they protect lives.

Vaccines protect more lives than anything else we've ever done in medicine. So, by taking those mandates away, and we can already see this from the measles epidemics, whooping cough, tetanus, other preventable childhood diseases that are running rampant across our country and killing kids. So, to me, it's really an unbelievable event.

TAPPER: I was also surprised because I asked him that if, you know, obviously making such a projection, first of all, would allow you to make a cost benefit analysis, okay, if we do this, these. You know, these millions have full and complete liberty, but we're going to lose these number of kids, or they're going to be these number of people who will get hospitalized. Obviously, Florida has a lot of seniors too.

But then I also wondered what about like just positioning, prepositioning treatments in the most vulnerable counties where they think this is going to hit the most, and he said no, we don't need to do that, we're all ready for outbreaks, just the way we deal with outbreaks all the time? WEISSMAN: Yes, it's completely different. The way you treat an influenza outbreak is very different from a measles or a polio virus or another preventable disease. I mean, polio has an enormous mortality rate. We've had cases of polio in the past decade. In an unvaccinated population, polio will kill hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people.

TAPPER: For Florida parents who might want to vaccinate their kids, will the lack of vaccine mandates make it more difficult for them to figure out what shots they need and how to get them? Could that also lead to lower vaccination rates as opposed to, you know, a list that you get from the school and it says here are the ten vaccinations that your kid needs to be able to enter kindergarten?

WEISSMAN: So, I would hope not. I think the pediatricians know that vaccines are necessary, and they're going to remain in contact with the parents. The problem is going to be increasing numbers of parents who in the past looked for other exemptions to avoid vaccines, when they'll just say no. And that number is going to increase because people don't want to have to lie about religion or other reasons to avoid vaccines.

[18:35:07]

So, the number's going up.

TAPPER: Yes. We just lost Dr. Weissman. Thank you so much, Dr. Drew Weissman. I appreciate it.

Is there a chance that President Trump's meddling and the New York mayoral race is actually helping the candidate that he wants to lose? Our political panel will weigh in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDDIATE: We do not need the National Guard here in New York City.

This has nothing to do with questions of crime and safety.

It is an attempt to insert Donald Trump his agenda, his vision into the hearts of municipalities that showcase an alternative style of politics that is actually for people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's Zohran Mamdani. He's the Democratic nominee in the upcoming New York City mayoral race speaking earlier today.

[18:40:01]

My panel is back with me.

And, Chuck, you're the Democrat on the panel here. Some politicians in New York think the President Trump is actually helping Mamdani rather than hurting him, whether it's Trump talking about former governor Andrew Cuomo beating Mamdani if it was a one-on-one race, Trump aides talking about a potential ambassadorship for Mayor Eric Adams, who's an independent candidate trying to get him to leave the race. Take a listen to what former Governor Cuomo said earlier today on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO (I), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: And I believe the Republicans could take Mamdani and make him the poster child for what has happened to the Democratic Party. They've been taken over by socialists. I believe it would be very damning to the Democrats in midterms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your reaction? Where do you come down on this? Because, obviously, I mean, Schumer, a senator from New York, has not endorsed Mamdani. Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader in the House, minority leader, has not endorsed Mamdani. I don't think Gillibrand has either. I mean, so, obviously, he's something of a conundrum for your party.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STATEGIST: Right. And it cuts both ways. And the Democratic Party's big and I get that, and New York City is not East Texas. I get that too. And it cuts both ways of where when he wins, and he's going to. Republicans will run T.V. ads saying we're all Democratic socialists in East Texas where I'm from. But he also has brought like 50,000 people have set up and a lot of excitement because he's run a campaign about affordability that even somebody in East Texas could do. But the Republicans, who are very good at this, will run brandings saying that everybody's Mamdani and everybody's a socialist.

TAPPER: So, Cuomo has also said he has not sought President Trump's support. He would not accept it. He went on to say how he's the only one that can stand up to Trump. How do you see this?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look I want to touch on something Chuck just mentioned about the affordability issue. I agree there is certainly a message to be articulated to the voters about affordability and the answers that both sides would approach to addressing those concerns and needs. But I think from the conservative perspective, the question is, in addressing affordability, should you have significant federal encroachment from the government or should you see increased private sector participation with some limited government support to address those concerns and issues? And I think most people would probably say yes.

We've tried some of these things that -- Abby Phillips just interviewed this guy, and she asked him about the grocery store issue. And she said, Mr. Mamdani, we've tried this before, it was not very successful. You don't have to look at --

TAPPER: Governments setting up grocery stores.

SINGLETON: Correct. TAPPER: In food --

SINGLETON: Correct. But my point is when you challenge the merits of the veracity of his claims of what he would like to do to make life better for New Yorkers, one doesn't need to look very far, Jake, to see the results are disastrous.

TAPPER: The Washington Post is reporting that the West Point alumni group is canceling a ceremony on honoring actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks. They say they're doing this so they can focus on preparing cadets for the future. But President Trump is celebrating the move. He posted on Truth Social earlier today, our Great West Point, getting greater all the time, has smartly canceled the award ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move, we don't need destructive woke recipients getting our cherished American awards.

ROCHA: Speaking of government overreach, as we bring it up here, here's a great example --

SINGLETON: Go ahead, Chuck.

ROCHA: -- that Republicans are doing this, right? This is exactly what -- Americans can this piece of it. I mean, sometimes Democrats can be too lofty in our messaging. We can talk over people and I own all of that because I agree that my party can do that. But this is just blatant, like payback politics.

And I think regular folks out there are uneasy with this kind of stuff, and they all love Tom Hanks.

TAPPER: And we should just note, I mean, he has done a lot of work for I think at the World War II veterans memorial and --

ROCHA: Disabled veterans.

TAPPER: And disabled veterans. He is very altruistic. He's done some incredibly important, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, he produced, I mean, you know?

SINGLETON: Good movie, like we're living in very disparate times. I would venture to say if Democrats were to invite someone who was a known star who happened to be a supporter of President Trump, many supporters of that organization would not be very happy, even if that person was very benevolent in their private lives.

And I think you're seeing the same thing here. We're living in a very closed society now in terms of politics where people are in their silos. And this doesn't surprise me the result that they rescinded that invitation.

TAPPER: Do you guys remember Cleta Mitchell? She was a legal adviser back in 2020, tried to help Trump overturn the election results. She's now suggesting that Trump might declare a national emergency to take control of national elections. This is what she had to say on the show, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLETA MITCHELL, SENIOR LEGAL FELLOW, CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE: The chief executive is limited in his role with regard to elections, except that where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States, as I think that we can establish with the poorest system that we have, then I think maybe the president is thinking that he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:45:10]

TAPPER: Now, to be -- to be clear, there's no evidence that President Trump or the RNC are on board with that. But what do you make of it?

SINGLETON: There's a reason she's an ex-advisor. I don't think the president's thinking about this. And the president has made numerous statements about what he plans to do beyond 2028, hopefully continuing to help the Republican Party raise money. Hopefully, we win the White House in 2028.

I think we have a good candidate being the vice president of the United States, compared to what my friends on the other side are looking at. And so, I think that's ludicrous, preposterous thing. Even throw out there.

I would not give that any oxygen whatsoever, Jake. I think the president is focusing on governing and what his life will look like after the White House.

ROCHA: But our forefathers saw all of this coming, like, let's -- the Mexican redneck give y'all a history lesson is that this is why we run elections at the state and local level, because our forefathers knew that some president, if they wanted to -- I'm not saying Donald Trump wants to take over the election, but that's why we have elections Pennsylvania different than we do in Texas.

But when she said that he could, like I used to say, Donald Trump couldn't get elected, then I used to say he'd never do this. I don't never say he'll never do anything anymore because anything is possible. And when she puts it out there, she's just salting the clouds to see who will pick it up.

TAPPER: But can I just ask this --

SINGLETON: But who is this woman? Who's listening to her? Who is she advising?

ROCHA: A woman named Cleta, the same name as my great grandmother.

SINGLETON: Either one of us, no, please? Okay.

TAPPER: When did that change for you? Was it January 6th? Was that when you decided, like, I can't say he'll never -- ROCHA: Three weeks after January 6th when they all caved? Because on

January 6th, I was like, okay, this is it. Folks are going to stand up.

But it's when everybody cowed down. And then the speaker went to Mar- a-Lago when I was like, we're never going to see a change.

SINGLETON: Again, I don't think that's going to happen. I think the president's been very clear about what he plans to do during this term and beyond, when he's out of office.

And by the way, I know a lot of Democrats give Republicans a lot of hell about, quote/unquote, not standing up to the president. But I think you'd have ire in the house and the senate with Republicans wanting to respect the democratic norms, if that was even a possibility.

But again, it is not a possibility. This is a fringe ex-advisor. That means nothing to me or the White House.

TAPPER: Chuck and Shermichael, thanks for both of you for being here. Great panel. Really appreciate it.

Turning to our sports lead, President Trump's U.S. Open attendance yesterday causing a security nightmare for thousands of fans. Many of them had to wait nearly two hours to get in due to extra security measures. Pretty typical for any time any president goes anywhere.

The president was met with boos and also cheers from the crowd. Those watching the match on TV, however, only saw Trump a few times.

Joining us now to discuss is former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe. He did the play by play for the women's final and was an analyst for the men's final.

Patrick, good to see you as always.

It was reported that the U.S. Open asked broadcasters, ESPN and ABC, to avoid showing any disruptions or reactions to the president's attendance. I don't think that they abided by that request, but what was it like inside the stadium? Did his presence cause a distraction?

PATRICK MCENROE, FORMER PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: I think it caused a lot of excitement, Jake, to be honest. And when I had heard a few days before some rumblings that the president may be coming, the first thing I thought to myself was, you know, this is a big difference from what happened potentially could happen ten years ago, 11 years ago, before he became president.

2015 was the last time Trump came. He used to come all the time. There's celebrities all over the place at the U.S. open. It's like the A-lister event for the Manhattan elites, which of course Trump was one of them.

And what I heard, I thought, well, Trump must think that things have changed because the last time he came to the U.S. Open, he was booed out of the stadium. And we certainly know that the New York City crowd may be not as pro-Trump as some other places that he's been for sporting events, college football games, UFC, et cetera, et cetera.

But as you said, yes, there were some boos when he was shown on the big screen. There were also a lot of cheers, you know, so I heard from my liberal friends and I heard from my conservative friends, you know, both doing what we all seem to be doing in this country now, which is sort of taking sides.

The reality is it was great for tennis I think that the president, the sitting president of the United States, came to the U.S. Open Final. There's a lot of buzz, a lot of excitement around that.

As you mentioned, the security issue turned out to be a nightmare. I mean, I called the match, as you said, Jake, the match started, first of all, 45 to 50 minutes later than it was supposed to, not because of Trump, but because of those people that you're showing right there that were waiting that, by the way, paid a fortune for those tickets to get into that stadium. And then the match started. It was four to three in the first set. They've been on the court for half an hour.

So, now, this is about an hour and a half after the scheduled 2:00 p.m. start time. There were still thousands of people waiting outside to get into the stadium. If I were one of those fans, I would have been pretty ticked off, Jake.

TAPPER: Yeah, that's the U.S. Secret Service. They don't take any risks there.

As for the men's final, let's talk about that. Carlos Alcaraz won his second U.S. Open title, defeating Jannik Sinner in four sets. This means -- Alcaraz remains a -- reclaims, rather, the new number one player in the world, replacing Sinner.

Given how many finals matchups we've already seen between the two, do you anticipate Alcaraz to hold on to the number one spot for long?

MCENROE: You know, it's interesting because these two guys, you know, we just finished the era of the big three in men's tennis, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic is still hanging around, but he's -- he can't keep up with these two young guys.

[18:50:10]

So, now, you've got Sinner and Alcaraz that have won the last eight majors combined, Jake, four and four each of them. That's the last two years. There's nobody else out there, at least at the moment. That looks like they're going to be able to challenge these two. So, for the -- for the near future, these two are far and away the two best players in men's tennis. And it seems like that's going to continue for the next few years.

It's been -- it's been quite something to see these two take the game to a whole another level.

TAPPER: Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka defeated American Amanda Anisimova in straight sets to win the U.S. Open for a second straight year. Talk about how important it was for Sabalenka to win this grand slam, given the number of missed opportunities this season.

MCENROE: Yes, she lost in the finals of two of the other three majors. She lost to Anisimova in the semis of Wimbledon. She was close. She's been the best player, the most consistent player all year. But if you don't win a major, someone of her stature is a bit disappointed.

So there's a lot of pressure on her. She put on herself, she won it. She's back to back now at the U.S. Open. The last female player to do that in New York, the one and only Serena Williams. So, it was an awesome performance by her.

And by the way, how about my Jets blowing it yesterday. And I know your Eagles -- your Eagles getting it done. But they go to Kansas City. And believe it or not, Jake, your Eagles on the road, one and a half point favorites.

TAPPER: So I have to tell you -- some of my best friends are Jets fans. And man, I really wish you had shown Aaron Rodgers the door. I mean, I'm sorry, but like, that would. I was rooting for the Jets.

Patrick McEnroe one of the best in the biz, thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have you.

MCENROE: Good to see you, Jake. Thanks.

TAPPER: It's the animated movie that has taken over at Netflix -- as Netflix's most watched film ever, ever.

Coming up next, we're speaking to the directors of "KPop Demon Hunters" to find out why it's appealing to viewers all around the world.

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TAPPER: Infectious indeed.

In our pop culture lead, this is now Netflix's most viewed movie of all time. It's become a total social media sensation.

But even if you are perhaps of a certain age, and had not seen this movie, you probably heard songs like "Soda Pop" or "Golden" from the huge hit, the animated Netflix movie film "KPop Demon Hunters". Multiple songs from the song are still, still in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, more than two months after the film premiered.

To talk about what could come next, movie directors, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans join me now.

Wow. Congratulations.

So, Maggie, "Golden" still number one on the Billboard chart. It was even nominated for a VMA. Last night, the song's artists talked about what they would love to

explore next. So what is the future of this film? Will there be a sequel? Is this now a franchise?

MAGGIE KANG, DIRECTOR, "KPOP DEMON HUNTERS": It's the question of the moment. I think we're just very excited about the response. And you know, I -- you know, were excited for what's next and, and more to come.

TAPPER: Chris, it took almost seven years to release this film. What are your thoughts on a possible timeline? If there is a second one, presumably, the success would not mean another seven years.

CHRIS APPELHANS, DIRECTOR, "KPOP DEMON HUNTERS": Yeah, no, I think I mean, animation is a painstaking medium, no matter how you do it. But obviously, we learned a lot making the first one, and there's an incredible team of people that were brought together to do that, and a lot of institutional knowledge. So, it always takes time, but probably not seven years. Yeah.

TAPPER: So, Maggie, you've been outspoken about how important it is to bring Korean culture to light, to see heroines being silly and real. What is your reaction been to girls and adults around the world, not just Koreans dressing up as these characters and giving them life outside the screen?

KANG: It's -- I mean, it's been incredible. We, you know, we were fortunate enough to attend a sing-along screening in New York a couple of weekends ago. And just to see young girls just dressed up, as our characters and knowing every line of the movie, let alone the songs, was just incredible.

And it just for me being a woman and, and a mom myself to a young girl, it's really incredible to see these weird, silly, you know, sometimes stupid girls be embraced by, the young, younger generation. So it's really -- it's really incredible. Yeah.

TAPPER: Have you called, Maggie? Have you called any of the people who told you no seven years ago and said, see, see, I told you? Have you done that?

KANG: I'm working on it. I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to rub it in their faces. But no, just kidding.

No, it's -- you know, seven years ago, we didn't know, you know, with any of these movies, it's a risk. And we didn't really know where content and K-pop would be. And, you know, still, it's great to see that its going strong and getting the kind of love from those fans, but also seeing you know, people who didn't know anything about K-pop finding this movie and getting educated in it and becoming fans of K- pop. It's really fun to see.

TAPPER: It's great.

Congratulations, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, thank you so much. And before we go, we have some breaking baby news. CNN senior producer

Will and his wife, Paige welcomed Hollis Michael Cadigan to the world yesterday on their wedding anniversary. Hollis weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces. That's a big boy, 21-1/2 inches long.

Congratulations to Will and Paige and big sister Theo on this very exciting news. We can't wait to meet him.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.