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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Sean "Diddy" Combs Sentenced Four-Plus Years In Prison; Hamas Agrees To Enter Negotiations To Release All Hostages; Trump: I Believe Hamas Is "Ready For A Lasting Peace"; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Is Interviewed About Gov't Shutdown Likely To Go Into Next Week With No Deal In Sight; WH Freezes Funding For Blue Cities & States Amid Shutdown; Trump Posts A.I. Song Parody Of Russ Vought As The Grim Reaper. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 03, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN REPORTER: It is whatever he decides he's going to be when he gets out. Of course, this is always going to be a stain on his career and his legacy. And I think but also at the same time, America loves a comeback story. And so I think that we are -- you know, there might be some leverage there, some opportunity for him maybe not to be as famous and have, you know, the career that he had before he went in --

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Yes.

FRANCE: -- I don't think that's at all possible, but I don't think that he's going to be completely shut out. But, you know, we never know.

HUNT: Yes.

FRANCE: We don't know what's going to happen after the next couple of years.

HUNT: All right, Lisa France, thank you very much.

And thanks to all of you for joining us here in The Arena. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

[17:00:44]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we start with the breaking news in the law and justice lead. It is judgment day for music producer Sean "Diddy" Combs, who just moments ago was sentenced to 50 months. That's four years and two months in prison.

He was also fined the maximum fine of a half million dollars. You will recall back in July, a jury found Combs guilty on two federal felony charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. Jurors acquitted Combs, however, of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Let's go straight out to CNN anchor and chief legal analyst Laura Coates who's outside the courthouse. We should note that CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister was inside court and is her making her way to our cameras.

Laura, the prosecution wanted a harsher sentence and defense wanted time served. What did the judge say about arriving at this 50-month sentence?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The judge arrived at 50 months not pleasing either the defense or the prosecution who had a very big disparity from what they wanted. The key issue all along for sentencing was whether he was going to take into consideration the so called acquitted behavior, specifically violence. Why I say acquitted behavior is as you know, he was found not guilty of the more serious charges of RICO, racketeering and of course, sex trafficking. The sex trafficking component had a force, a violence or a fraud component actually they had to consider.

The defense said because he was acquitted of those charges, that meant that fraud and violence and force was not being considered or should be considered when it came to the transportation to engage in prostitution claims. Well, the judge said no. He factored in the manner in which the crimes occurred, manner in which he was convicted of those charges. He also pointed to the duration of these so called freak outs and hotel nights. I don't mean the length per session, but the overall time period for which he's occurred and the vast resources available to him.

He used words like subjugation and, of course, the powerlessness of the women who testified about their experiences, including, of course, Cassie Ventura and the pseudonym Jane, both of whom Sean "Diddy" Combs directly apologized to and addressed in his opportunity to speak today before he was ultimately sentenced by this judge. Also adds that a half a million -- half a -- like half a million dollar fine, $500,000 included here as well. But remember, he has been in jail waiting for a sentence and waiting for the trial, that can be applied to that overall sentence. He'll also have to have sort of anger management, domestic violence intervention programs as well, mental health issues related that were also detailed in the presentence report as well as what happened by the judge.

On -- on her way over here is Elizabeth Wagmeister who, as you know, has been so pivotal in securing the coverage about the Intercontinental Hotel footage that we so -- we all saw across the entire globe. And it had a very interesting role here in the judge's talk. The judge referencing the visible scars, the gashes, the violence that was on display.

Sean Combs also referencing the video that the world saw to apologize to domestic violence victims all across the globe who were most assuredly triggered by what they had seen. Now, that all came into play when the judge actually, in his words and in handing down the sentence, talked about the violence, talked about the -- the women who came forward, the pride of their families and their bravery.

All of that really factored in here. But I want you to have a sense when you talk to Elizabeth Wagmeister of what it was like in that courtroom to hear his children speaking, most of whom were sobbing in each other's arms trying to get the words out, begging for their father to return home so they would not be fatherless. And of course, Sean Combs turning at one point, Jake, he turned to his children, apologized to them each by name, grabbed his hair as he apologized to his mother as well and said that he had failed her as a son. A very emotional moment that drew some emotional reactions in the courtroom as well.

[17:05:12]

But, you know, I want you to understand, Jake, that what we saw today is so atypical in the federal sentence. I mean, this began at 10:00 a.m., here we are after 5:00 p.m. Normally, a federal sentence is done in about an hour or two. Why? Because all of the paperwork has been filed.

The judge has read through in this case, the hundreds of pages, hundreds of pages from victim impact statements, from the precedent's report, and of course, from the defense and the prosecution.

I want to bring in Elizabeth Wagmeister, who has been inside that courtroom and covering this case from the very inception. And of course, that consequential video of the Intercontinental Hotel. Tell me what you saw when that sentence was handed down.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, Laura, it was a very emotional day. As you said, we were in there for hours since 10:00 a.m. which is very atypical for a sentencing. But in a strange way, the actual sentencing, when the judge came down and said 50 months, was one of the least emotional moments. Sean Combs was quite stoic at the end when he stood up to exit the courtroom. He looked at his family, made a gesture that made it seem like it'll all be OK.

But it was earlier in the day when he spoke that he was crying, saying, I failed you as a father to his children, saying to his mother, you raised me better than this. But what really stuck out to me is something that you just mentioned, Laura, which is the judge made a very big point to talk about domestic violence.

I want to read you a few of his quotes that I'm just going through my notebook here right now. But he spoke directly to Cassie Ventura, directly to Jane, and he said, quote, "I am proud of you for coming to the court to tell the truth of what happened to you." He spoke about how the number of women around the world that they have reached is, you can't even put a number on it. And he said that he did want to send a message to victims of domestic violence. At one point, he said to Sean Combs, a substantial sentence must be sent to abusers and victims because victims need to see that them coming forward can result in real accountability.

He called both Cassie and Jane credible with their testimony. He said, they absolutely are victims. He said, I am not buying what the defense is putting forth, which is these were consensual relationships gone wrong, toxic relationships. So he was very compassionate for the women.

While also, I will point out, final note, is that at the end he did say to Sean Combs, you have the chance to make a real difference. This is hard time in jail. He used those words, hard time. You will be away from your family, but you can help others. And he said, all of us have a voice, but Mr. Combs, you have a megaphone, use that and change the world.

COATES: Wow.

TAPPER: Fascinating stuff. All right, Lara Coates and Elizabeth Wagmeister, excellent work to both of you. Thank you so much.

Let's bring in CNN Legal Analyst and Criminal Defense Attorney Joey Jackson.

So, Joey, the judge said the government request of more than 11 years was not reasonable and also said that the defense proposal of 14 months' time served insufficient. What do you think?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: What I think, Jake, is that you have to put everything in perspective. And when you put everything in perspective, thinking about how this case began as a racketeering case wherein he could have spent the rest of his life in jail, a charge for which he was acquitted, thinking about how racketeering not only takes away your liberty but could have indeed unraveled everything because of asset forfeiture, taking away all of your money. And then you go to that from the fact that he was only convicted of the two counts, very significant, of course, the transportation for prostitution. And then you come today with regard to what the judge is doing, considering punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation. And no matter how you slice this, this is a big day and obviously there are no winners.

There are victims here who are rail this, of course, we need to be sensitive to that. But from all things measured, I think this is a big victory for the defense. He got four years. Prosecutors wanted 11. More perspective.

The United States Department of Probation had put together their recommendations, noted that five to seven would be appropriate. So the judge even went down below that. More perspective. Yes, there's a half a million dollar fine considering you should have and could have lost a billion dollar empire, $500,000 compared to that is wholly significant.

And so yes, the judge had strong words as he should have, talking about the victimization that he engaged in and how he got away with it because he could and how he abused and manipulated. But at the end of the day, the sentence, in keeping with the federal guidelines and in keeping with what he was actually convicted of, was appropriate and fair under all circumstances.

TAPPER: I want to play just a small part of a nearly 12 minute documentary style video that the Combs defense team played in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:10:08] SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS, RAPPER: From New York, I love New York, I love the city of New York, I love the children of New York. I wanted to do something good. I wanted to get my generation and the hip hop community behind us. They come through in a big way. And we wanted to raise some money for the children of New York City for health and education.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you think this was Diddy's team trying to make some kind of public appeal ahead of his eventual release, not even necessarily focused on anything else?

JACKSON: So you can argue that, Jake, you can also look at the fact that under the sentencing guidelines and under what a judge must consider, you have to consider the past history and characteristics of the defendant. From the prosecution's perspective, he's a person that can't be trusted, a person who abused and manipulated. From the defense's perspective, that history includes charity. It includes being an icon to the community. It includes doing things much larger, all right, and significant than his worst day and his worst foray, which was this case.

And so they put it together in order to give the judge, again, I've said it a lot, perspective with regard to who he is and what he's done. And I think clearly it had an impact with respect to the 50 month sentence that was ultimately imposed, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Joey Jackson, thanks so much. We're going to wait to see if we hear from the attorneys outside the courtroom. We'll bring that to you.

There's also breaking news in our world lead, the terrorist group Hamas responding to an ultimatum from President Trump threatening all hell if the group did not agree to his peace plan proposal. We're going to have more on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:27]

TAPPER: Breaking news in our world lead, just moments ago, a response from the terrorist group Hamas to President Trump's ultimatum. He gave the group until Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time to agree to his 20- point plan for peace with Israel. That response is now with mediators. If no deal is reached, President Trump threatened, quote, "all hell, like no one has ever seen before will break out against Hamas," unquote. Hamas has announced it will agree to immediately enter negotiations for release of all hostages under Trump's proposal, adding, quote, "by providing the necessary field conditions for the exchange process," unquote.

Before this announcement, President Trump's post also urged, quote, "all innocent Palestinians immediately leave this area of potentially great future death for safer parts of Gaza," unquote. He was not specific about how they should leave or which parts of Gaza are safer than others.

Let's bring in Barak Ravid, a political and global affairs analyst for CNN. He also writes for Axios.

Barak, you're so well sourced in what leaders are saying in the Middle East, 6:00 p.m. Sunday. It's about 48 hours away. The response from Hamas seems significant on its own. Does this feel different than other previous attempts at peace here?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Jake, I think we just have a dramatic statement from President Trump just right now. Listen to what he just said on -- on -- in a post on Truth Social media. President Trump says, "Based on the statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for lasting peace." President Trump continues and writes, "Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly. Right now it's far too dangerous to do that."

President Trump continues and says, "We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought peace in the Middle East."

Jake, this is super dramatic. President Trump calls on Israel to stop the war immediately after Hamas responds with a yes back to his proposal. I think this is a point we haven't been in since October 7th and definitely we haven't been in since January 20th when President Trump came back to office.

TAPPER: It seems momentous, it seems potentially huge. I do wonder, it does seem like the sticking point about whether Hamas will play any role in the future of Gaza is one that really there can't be any compromise ever made on. Even the Arab League has been saying Hamas can't be part of the future and Hamas has not agreed to that. But you think that they will be able to ultimately get past that?

RAVID: I think that at the moment, to be honest, I think it doesn't matter. I think what President Trump just said, calling on Israel to stop the bombing of Gaza so that a hostage release and an exchange of prisoners could be implemented. I think the most important thing, it basically means that President Trump accepts Hamas' response as a positive response. And I think this is super dramatic because it paves the way release of hostages and -- and -- and for the end war.

TAPPER: You -- you noted, you reported that President Trump told Netanyahu, I think on Sunday that he needed to get on board with this peace proposal or it would be a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy, right? Tell us more about that.

RAVID: I think the shift -- I think the shift is happening in front of our eyes right now. I think we are witnessing the shift right now. The question is whether Prime Minister Netanyahu will get with the program or not. And if he doesn't get with the program, there's going to be problems between him and President Trump, big problems.

TAPPER: Is he willing to take on the extreme right wing zealots in his cabinet who don't want any peace, who want to annex Gaza, the Ben Gvirs, the Smotrichs of there, is he is -- Netanyahu willing to side with Trump over them because their opposition could mean his government falls -- falls apart?

RAVID: Well, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu will have election in the next year, I think most likely at the beginning of 2026. Benjamin Netanyahu's political situation is not good to say the least. He will not be able to win an election if he is in a confrontation with Donald Trump because Donald Trump is the most popular politician in Israel at the moment. And I don't see that changing. So Netanyahu needs Trump. He cannot move without Trump.

[17:20:16]

He's totally dependent on Trump. And therefore, if President Trump tells him that he needs to stop the war, he will have no -- but to stop the war or risk an all-out confrontation with Donald Trump.

TAPPER: Well, let us hope that this is actually a final step out of this horrific, horrific war.

Barak Ravid, thank you so much.

Joining us now, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib. Did I pronounce that correctly?

AHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Sure did.

TAPPER: Oh, great. OK. Thank you so much.

I've read your name so many times, I've never said it out loud. He grew up in Gaza. He's an outspoken critic of both Hamas and Netanyahu. I think that's a fair characterization.

ALKHATIB: Certainly.

TAPPER: What's your response to all this? Hamas saying basically we're on board with this proposal. It sounds like there might be a couple little things, but Trump taking it as a, we're accepting it. We're accepting this as a positive news. Netanyahu, stop the bombing now.

ALKHATIB: I have to say I'm positively surprised by President Trump's reaction to Hamas. This is very much so what I predicted all along, that there would be a yes, but by the organization, after all, they don't really control a lot of the command and control structure in Gaza. You have the leadership abroad, you have the guys with the guns on the ground who have to make the ultimate call and decisions. I think this is a pragmatic first step to getting the Israeli hostages out. I'm desperate to see what remains of my family, my community, my people have a shot at a new future, a new hope.

I am very concerned nevertheless, that Hamas may use the lack of precision and what they've agreed to to maybe maintain some level of control and reign and try to reign without ruling directly. And that would present all sorts of other problems. But in the immediate future, I would -- I believe this could be a very welcome reprieve from the horror we've witnessed over the last two years. TAPPER: Let's hope so. One of the sticking points seems to be that Hamas will not agree to not being part of any future state of Palestine. They want to be part of it. They insist they must be. The Arab League doesn't want it.

Obviously the Europeans and the Americans don't want it. What do the Palestinians want?

ALKHATIB: Well, contrary to popular belief, Hamas is actually is extremely deeply unpopular in the Gaza Strip. And some of that precedes October 7th. Some of that is due to the group's behavior since the horrendous massacre on that fateful day. And so if Hamas really wants to remain relevant in the Palestinian street, it can no longer rely on the armed resistance narrative.

It can no longer rely on holding the Palestinian people hostage against their will in Gaza, sealing their resources, diverting aid and -- and money towards vanity resistance projects like the tunnels and rockets. And so Hamas would not only have to reform, but have to actually present a nation building agenda away from the armed resistance agenda that it has relied on for three decades.

TAPPER: And what do we need to see, like, you and I are old enough to have -- to be cautious about any optimism we feel in our hearts about peace in this region. I could go back and name all the moments where it felt like peace might have been at hand. What are like three things you want to see happen? I'll throw out one of my own. I would like to see not just the Europeans, but the Arab world volunteer not just -- not just to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza, but also to -- to volunteer to help govern, at least in the short term.

What would you like to see?

ALKHATIB: Well, certainly, and I've actually been in contact with several parties over the last couple of years and that includes Mr. Tony Blair. And one of the things he had talked about when I met him was how Gaza needs to be reconstituted, not just rebuilt. And I agree with that sentiment. We don't just need to rebuild the destroyed refugee camps. We want to build a city of the future.

We want to build something compelling. So a new and reimagined Gaza where it's the actual homeland of our people, not just temporary refugee space. So that's one. Two is the pragmatic evolution of the peace narrative. Peace is courageous.

Peace is necessary for the evolution of the Palestinian people into becoming the best version of themselves. And so I want to see an evolution in that sense. I want to see the adoption of multiple truce, the rejection of violence. And then finally, I want to see Gaza being regionally integrated. I want to see Gaza being opened up so that my people can travel.

Seventy percent of Gazans have never left the coastal enclave. And so if you open it up, you let people come in and out, commerce, connectivity beyond just Israel and Egypt, where Gaza squeezed in. I believe we could see the seeds for Gaza becoming a role model for successful Palestinian self-governance and what an occupation free west bank could look like.

[17:25:13]

TAPPER: From your mouth to God's ears. Thank you so much.

ALKHATIB: Inshallah.

TAPPER: Inshallah. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, thank you so much.

As if there weren't enough going on today, don't forget that government shutdown. We're now on day three. I'm going to speak with the Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, about where those negotiations stand. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our politics lead, no clear end in sight for the federal government shutdown now in day three. Today, votes for both the Republican and Democratic stopgap funding bills failing once again on the floor of the U.S. Senate as was expected. And with no votes scheduled this weekend and the House out of town, the shutdown is expected to last at least until next week.

[17:30:00]

TAPPER: And joining me now, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. Senator Schumer, Leader Schumer, thanks for joining us. The White House press secretary earlier today said that the President is not directly involved in any conversations to end the shutdown, but that some Republican senators are speaking with Democrats. What is the status of negotiations right now?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER: Well, first, we received another blow when the House, Speaker Johnson, said the House isn't going to be in session next week. They seem to care more about protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people and their health care.

But even more outrageous is the fact that they're going home and they're getting paid. And what about the millions of federal workers who aren't getting paid? The people cleaning the cafeterias, the people in the air traffic control towers, the people who run the national parks.

And it takes a lot of nerve for Johnson to tell the House to go home when they get paid and all these people don't. It also shows that it's Johnson who seems to be the main focal point of wanting a shutdown, because if you didn't want a shutdown, you'd come and stay and negotiate with us. That's what we've been asking them to do.

Here in the Senate, Jake, they tried the same play with the same result. They didn't have the votes. They didn't have the votes today. They didn't have the votes the three other times. And so, again, the Senate ought to sit down and negotiate. There are some Senate Democrats, I've encouraged them sitting down with some Senate Republicans. But so far, they haven't come to an agreement.

And according to the Senate Democrats, the Senate Republicans offered them virtually nothing new.

TAPPER: So, obviously, we were here six months ago and you voted to keep the government open back then. And -- and you seem to be against at the time of using a shutdown as a tactical move. I want to play some of what you said in March of this year, the last time the issue was up for debate, and then get your reaction.

SCHUMER: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHUMER: I have said many times there are no winners in a government shutdown. As bad as passing the C.R. is, as I said, allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a -- via a government shutdown is a far worse option. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, obviously, back then there was a shorter timeline at hand, but isn't the outcome the same? I mean, President Trump is -- is threatening a host of federal firings. He's already frozen billions in funding to New York, your state and other blue states.

SCHUMER: Yes, well, look, there -- there's a lot of difference between now and then. Back then, we wanted to see what they would do. And we've seen how horrible they are. The horrible the health care cuts that they made were made in June in their so-called big, beautiful bill. Trump even now says they want to change the name. They're so embarrassed about it.

And they hadn't started doing these technical things called rescissions, which lets them undo the budget on their own unilaterally. So the times are different. And we don't want a shutdown. That's for sure. And there's a simple way to deal with it. For the Republicans, we've been asking them for months to sit down and talk with us.

They've refused and refused and refused. They should sit down and negotiate. And we can get something done for the American people. You know, there are two issues here, the shutdown and helping the American people. Democrats feel we can avoid the shutdown and help the American people. The Republicans don't seem to want to do that.

TAPPER: So Republicans are obviously their talking point is that Democrats want to give health care to illegal immigrants. Now, the Trump administration, when I asked them, what are you talking about? They said they're referring to this section in the Democratic stopgap funding proposal. It would repeal the section of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that addresses Medicaid, specifically one provision, reduced federal reimbursement for emergency Medicaid for hospitals. And some of that obviously goes to people who don't have insurance, including undocumented immigrants. SCHUMER: Jake, it's -- it's all a lot of bull, not a single federal dollar, not a single federal dollar goes to undocumented immigrants, not for Medicare, not for Medicaid, not for ACA. Why are they making up this lie? It's a typical Republican thing. They don't want to talk about the pain the American people are in or are going to be in because of these cuts.

You know, the average family, a family, a couple of 55 years old who makes $85,000 will get a $25,000 a year cut. Imagine them sitting down at the kitchen table one night and saying, we're about to retire. We've worked hard our whole lives. How the hell are we going to afford $25,000? But how the hell are we going to live without health insurance?

But that's what they're doing. It's cruel. It's mean. They're in a bubble. Twenty -- 24 million Americans will have their rates raised by close to $1,000. And they're going to start getting these notices in the next week or two. You know, John Thune cavalierly says, let's do it in Thanksgiving. Well, if they can't do it now.

[17:35:01]

And by the way, they voted against it three times when Jeanne Shaheen tried to put these bills on the floor. How the heck are they going to do it later? So this is a lot. It's a cover up from them. It's bull. And that's because they're afraid to debate the issue because they know, listen to this, a new survey from I think it is Kaiser Health. Seventy nine percent of Americans want us to renew to extend the health care premiums, the ACA premiums.

Fifty eight percent of Trump voters want it. So they know they're in a pickle. Now one of the problems is they don't know where Trump is. When I was at -- you asked about Trump before.

TAPPER: Yes.

SCHUMER: I was at the White House, Trump said different things but seem not to be aware of how bad this is. And, you know, nobody reads the polls better than Donald Trump. He's going to see these polls.

TAPPER: But are you disputing that the -- the addition of the money, the emergency Medicaid money to hospitals, that none of that goes to undocumented immigrants? I mean, I thought it was brief.

SCHUMER: No federal dollar is allowed by law to go to undocumented immigrants. It's been on that. And they just came up with this recently because they're afraid to talk about the merits.

TAPPER: Oh, let me ask you, because this is just in and I know you have to go. Hamas has just announced that it agrees to immediately enter negotiations for the release of hostages under President Trump's Gaza proposal based on the exchange formula and providing the necessary conditions. Obviously, it's -- it's early yet when it comes to this. But it is some breaking news. What was your reaction to that news? SCHUMER: Well, I've always said our goal should be to bring the hostages home and have a good ceasefire, a strong, lasting ceasefire. This bill, see, this proposal seems to be a step in the first direct -- in the right direction. But we need two things. We need to see the details. I haven't seen them yet. And second, then Trump needs to get it done. He has a penchant for announcing things before they get done.

TAPPER: All right. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. Thank you so much, sir.

SCHUMER: Good to see you, Jake. Bye-bye.

TAPPER: As soon as this shutdown started, the Trump administration start -- administration started yanking funding for various issues and all of the cities and states impacted have one major commonality. We're going to tell you what that is, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:41:22]

TAPPER: Back with our Politics Lead. President Trump is freezing billions of dollars in federal funding for Democratic-leaning cities and states, with Chicago and New York City topping the list of targets as this partisan standoff over the government shutdown continues in Washington, D.C., CNN's Tom Foreman takes a look at the projects on the chopping block and the ongoing pressure campaign, really unprecedented, from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the windy city of Chicago, $2.1 billion in federal funding for transit has been blown away by the White House, according to the Illinois governor, hurting our economy and the hard-working people.

In New York, $18 billion federal dollars have been frozen for transportation projects. Amid all that, President Trump posted this video, portraying his budget boss, Russell Vought, as the Grim Reaper, who, like Trump, wants to pressure Democratic lawmakers from blue strongholds to end the budget stalemate that triggered the government shutdown.

RUSS VOUGHT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: We're not going to be held hostage to these kinds of insane, ridiculous demands by the Democrats.

FOREMAN (voice-over): One of the administration's tools for removing all that money is the idea that some of it might be spent to promote race and sex-based contracting, DEI programs that the White House has forbidden. But the administration has also canceled what it calls nearly $8 billion in green new scam funding, hammering 16 states, all of which Trump lost in the last presidential race.

CHRIS WRIGHT, SECRETARY OF ENERGY: We're going to count on energy imports. FOREMAN (voice-over): The Secretary of Energy suggests red states may be involved as well, and he's just saving money.

WRIGHT: These cancellation decisions, absolutely not tied to the government shutdown.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Yet hundreds of millions in disaster preparedness grants are being withheld too. The White House is demanding states recount their populations in the wake of aggressive deportations so the distributions can be adjusted. That move came just hours after a federal court put a temporary block on efforts to divert FEMA funds largely away from Democratic-led states. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says the president just wants the government running again.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: And is he trying to apply pressure to make that happen? He probably is, yes. And I applaud that.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But Democrats say Republicans' strong-arm tactics will not work.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: They need to come to the table. We can go back to the White House, or they can come up here, and we can have a conversation to end this shutdown. They're hurting the American people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Part of the irony in this is that Democrats are saying many of the steps they're trying to take to -- to solve this insurance issue will actually help a huge number of people in red states, in Republican areas, while the Republicans are trying to punish them.

TAPPER: All right, Tom Foreman, thanks so much.

[17:44:18]

The man widely seen as architect of the shutdown, remember the name Russ Vought? How much sway does this man actually have? We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: And we're back with our Politics Lead. President Trump's shutdown plan seemed to hinge on the opinion of his director of the Office of Management and Budget. He's a guy named Russ Vought of Project 2025 fame. Trump reminded us in a post on Truth Social, you know, in case his name sounded familiar. My panel's here.

First of all, let me just also remind people that President Trump claimed during the campaign that he had nothing to do with Project 2025. He has no idea what it is. A lot of it's now been implemented. And Russ Vought is the guy that brought Project 2025 to fruition, and he's doing it now.

RACHAEL BADE, JOURNALIST: Well, I guess he thinks it serves him now. I mean, clearly he's trying to rattle the Democrats. But the interesting thing to me here is that despite all this saber -- saber rattling with these memes and what they're saying about gutting entire Democratic agencies, they haven't done it yet. They've been talking about laying off, you know, hundreds of thousands of federal workers. They haven't done it.

I'm not saying they're not going to. But one of the reasons they haven't is because there's a discussion, a disagreement behind the scenes about strategy here. And you do have some who think they should just use this as a threat and not actually do it. You have some conservatives who say, go for it. We should do it while we have the power and Congress isn't doing their job. But there's a large constituency of Republicans on the Hill who worry about them overplaying their hand.

I mean, Kevin Cramer, who is very close with -- with Donald Trump. He's not, you know, some -- some moderate Senate Republican. Even he was out there saying, look, we've got the moral high ground here, but we could overplay our hand and we could sort of squander that political capital with going too far.

[17:50:02]

TAPPER: So speaking of that, so President Trump said he and Vought are meeting to determine which of the, "many Democrat agencies, most of which -- most of which are political scam. Vought recommends to be cut." And then he also put out this A.I. song parody video. Let me run a little bit of that, because talking about overplaying their hand, I guess they're trying to, like, embrace the dark idea of him coming to kill agencies and fire people. But take a look.

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TAPPER: So that is obviously and I don't know if I'd call it an homage, but that's don't fear the reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. Probably most of the people out there know it from the center and live skit with the more cowbell. But that's a pretty dark image. I mean, I know that MAGA folks think it's funny, but I don't know that in North Dakota they think it's funny.

MAURA GILLESPIE, BLUESTACK STRATEGIES FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL: I don't think it's funny. I don't think that this is how I want my president to be spending his time. I mean, just think about that, the context of it, that not only is this severity of what he's threatening to do, right, cut federal jobs and cut federal workers and fire them, not just furlough, but fire them.

People who work in his White House, people who work for Senator Mike Johnson or Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator John Thune. I mean, this is their staff that are also currently furloughed. And I've been through three of these shutdowns, and it's -- it's not fun.

TAPPER: Yes.

GILLESPIE: You know, and -- and after a certain point, people here in D.C., people who have who have -- who work paycheck to paycheck, federal workers, a lot in the House and the Senate, we get paid once a month. If things go on, you can't pay your rent and you're asking these questions. And so and to look to your leadership and you're saying you're putting out a mean video and you're making a mockery of something that could be very serious.

And I get that -- that the firings haven't happened yet. But these threats and then to make a joke about it and think that -- and then for Speaker Johnson to say, oh, well, they're just having fun up there. No, this isn't fun. Get -- get to work. Do your jobs.

BADE: It goes beyond a disagreement about strategy. It's also disagreement about the tone they should be hitting. I mean, Speaker Johnson has said over and over again that this is a serious thing. We don't -- we don't like that we've got to make these cuts or the administration might have to make these cuts.

They're trying to sort of change the -- the tone here. And then you have the President, you know, tweeting these sorts of things, creating these memes, clearly thinking it's a bit of a joke. And Republicans actually are concerned that this looks particularly toned up.

I want to say one other thing, though, about, you know, this threat to make all these cuts to -- to agencies and such.

TAPPER: To make them permanent.

BADE: Yes, well, yes. And Democrats are obviously out there sort of expressing outrage, but they knew that this was a possibility going into this shutdown.

TAPPER: Sure.

BADE: I mean, Schumer said this way back in March. You played it a clip when you're interviewing him a few minutes ago. He said we shouldn't shut the government down for this very reason.

TAPPER: Right, because Trump will get the keys to the car and do whatever he wants.

BADE: Absolutely. And so they did it. They did it anyway. And look, this is what they risk and they don't have a plan to get out of it.

GILLESPIE: Right. And it reminds me of 2013, to be honest.

TAPPER: The government shutdown means no September jobs report out today. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer spoke with CNN today. Take a listen.

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LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER, LABOR SECRETARY: The markets do depend on this information. And every single month since I've been on the job, we have released the information and worked with BLS. We need that government open.

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TAPPER: What we do know to be true is that absent that jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the market is still operating with a low hiring activity and low layoff activity. What kind of picture do we have of the economy right now?

BADE: You know, it's interesting, I was just looking at a headline yesterday talking about, you know, stocks doing really well. And I guess I was expecting and one of the things I was sort of warning in terms of Democrats embracing the shutdown is what happens to the economy. So far, we haven't seen a huge impact. Perhaps, you know, the economy is sort of numb to this because they've talked about.

TAPPER: Known to the -- known to be shutdown?

BADE: Yes, the shutdown in particular. But yes, obviously, people are hurting right now. Still, you look at the polling, people's pocketbooks remain their number one concern, concern about inflation. And that's going to be a big challenge for Trump going into the midterms.

TAPPER: Yes, it's going to be tough. I don't know that he's doing himself any favors, though.

GILLESPIE: I don't think he is. I think that having a unified message, which Thune and Johnson have had, gets really clouded when you have Trump making a mockery of things that are so serious. And when the American people currently aren't, you know, feeling this golden age of America that he had promised, right? The housing market is still a mess.

Yes, our health care system is a mess, but our grocery costs haven't gone down. And so some of the things that he promised haven't come to fruition. And his focus on memes online doesn't help us get there.

TAPPER: All right. Thanks to everybody here.

[17:54:55]

We're going to go well outside the Beltway. We're going to go to London next for the big album release day for Taylor Swift and screening events literally happening all over the world to complement the main event.

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TAPPER: Swifties, you can finally cross it off your wish list. Taylor Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," has finally arrived. And Swifties around the world stayed up late for the midnight release, lining up and packing stores to get their hands on the new album. Big brands also leaned into the release. Starbucks transformed one of its Nashville locations into a "Life of the Showgirl" Starbie's coffeehouse. Krispy Kreme dropped two new orange donuts to celebrate the singer's 12th album.

CNN's Anna Cooban is at a "Life of the Showgirl" screening in London. Anna, what are -- what are our British Swifty friends saying?

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, they're all really excited, Jake. In fact, most of them now are actually in the cinemas watching the film that was released to accompany Taylor's new album. This film is a behind-the-scenes look at "The Fate of Ophelia" music video, one of the tracks off the album as well as the music video itself.

But this is a big departure from Swift. This album is all about her love for NFL player, Travis Kelce, which is a really big departure from last year when she released an album all about heartbreak. But I really think I should pass the mic over to some real Swifties who I spoke to earlier. This is what they had to say.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's such an inspiration for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's just been here through all my major milestones of life from when I was a tween. So just seeing her success is amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just makes us happy on a day to day basis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every sort of song that she sings just shows like the adversity she faces. She always overcomes it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she's inclusive of every single person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

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COOBAN: So that really gives you a sense, Jake, of just how beloved Taylor Swift is, but also the phenomenon she is. Remember, this album comes off the heels of her record breaking Eras tour.

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TAPPER: All right, Anna Cooban, thank you so much. Appreciate it.