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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Says He And Hegseth Didn't Know About Second Boat Strike; GOP Lawmakers Incensed Over Trump's Pardon Of Former Honduran President; Major Storm Ices Roads, Dumps Snow In Northeast; Affordability Emerges As Key Campaign Issue In Tennessee Special Election; How Comedy Shaped Ben Stiller's Family And Upbringing. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 02, 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, so many new questions tonight about that follow-on strike on that alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. President Trump says that neither he nor the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, even knew that there was a second strike, which killed survivors hanging onto the wreckage, according to The Washington Post. I'm going to ask a current senator who served in Iraq as a CIA analyst if she thinks the White House is trying to make an admiral the fall guy for this controversy.

Plus, as many Americans are struggling with the cost of living, President Trump says that any questions about affordability are actually a Democratic scam and a fake narrative.

[18:00:07]

We'll talk about that with our panel.

Also, a winter storm now bearing down on the Northeastern United States, threatening to drop nearly a foot of snow in some places, and that's before the really big chill sets in. We're going to go to the CNN Weather Center for the latest forecast.

And for comedy legend Ben Stiller, it's all in the family. He's out with a brand new documentary about growing up with comedian parents. And beneath the humor, there are lessons for all of us. Ben Stiller will join us live ahead.

The Lead tonight, President Trump defending the follow-up strike on the suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean in September that killed survivors of the initial attack. But the president also says he and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not know about that second strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I didn't know about the second strike. I didn't know anything about people. I wasn't involved. And I knew they took out a boat.

Pete was satisfied. Pete didn't know about second attack having to do with two people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: During today's cabinet meeting, both President Trump and Secretary Hegseth remain defiant about the strikes that the administration says are meant to curtail the flow of drugs into the United States. But questions remain about whether or not the follow-up strike constitutes a war crime.

Let's get to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Jake, I think one of the key things here that we saw there was that, yes, they were very much defending Admiral Frank Bradley, the one who had, they said, directed the order for that second strike. But then in the next breath, they tried to distance themselves as well. And that's why I think the comment you just played of the president saying that he nor Hegseth had any knowledge of a second strike is so notable.

But then the other point that I really took away from that cabinet meeting was when Hegseth was asked specifically about whether he had seen the footage of the second strike, and if he had known at the time that there were still two survivors after that first initial strike before the second one had been ordered. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So, I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So, I moved on to my next meeting.

I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire, that was exploded in fire, smoke, you can't see anything. You got digital -- this is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick and you plant fake stories in The Washington Post about kill everybody, phrases on anonymous sources not based in anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, he is clearly criticizing the press there, Jake, and saying that this was the fog of war, but incredibly notable that he was not in the room, he says, when that second strike occurred. And that's really going to be the key as we look ahead to how this all plays out moving forward where Congress and Republicans and Democrats alike are raising concerns about this. Some Democrats saying it could have amounted to a war crime. Republicans maybe not going as far but saying they need more answers and information on this.

That is going to be the key question, is whether they knew at the time that there were still two survivors after that first initial strike, because that's really where, I think, the concern and scrutiny around all of this is only going to grow. TAPPER: Alayna Treene at the White House, thanks so much.

And joining us now, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin from the State of Michigan. She's had an extensive career in defense, including three tours in Iraq alongside the military as a CIA analyst. Senator, thanks for joining us.

So, the Trump administration has spent more than a week now denouncing you and five of your fellow Democratic lawmakers for that video in which you reminded members of the military that they have a duty to reject unlawful orders. CNN's K-File found that Secretary Hegseth once told an audience something pretty similar in a previously unreported video from 2016. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: And I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you're doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That's why the military said it won't follow unlawful orders from their commander-in- chief.

There's a standard, there's an ethos, there's a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your reaction to this discovery?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Well, good, I'm glad at one point he thought that. And, actually, I mean, you know, this is something I've engaged with Secretary Hegseth on since his confirmation hearing. This was my line of questioning. If something illegal was ever asked of you, would you reject it? And it shouldn't be a hard thing to do. And I think just over the last week, you know, we clearly hit a sore spot for the president and for Secretary Hegseth. And so it doesn't -- I guess it, I'm glad to hear that in 2016, he had something to say about the ethos of the military.

[18:05:04]

TAPPER: The White House today put out a new video attacking you six. It features veterans attacking you for making that video. And they said -- they say they stand behind President Trump. What's your reaction to that video? We're not going to air it, but I know you've seen it.

SLOTKIN: Yes. I mean, look, leadership climate is set the top when the president of the United States is saying that people should be arrested or investigated or hung, then we shouldn't be surprised when people up and down in society are going to do that. And that's certainly -- and worse. And that's certainly been happening in my life and in others' lives.

I think, you know, the fact that we've been talking all day about these strikes in the Caribbean and what actually happened, and now the president is distancing himself from the strikes in the Caribbean and the secretary of defense's distancing himself sort of proves the point. You know, I think, to me, you know, again, we need transparency on what's actually happening. The secretary should just come and brief publicly what's going on. The video of these strikes should be released so that we can just say with accountability what actually happened.

But, you know, less than a week of us doing this video, which we didn't think was anything other than restating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, we now have a situation where Democrats and Republicans are questioning what they're hearing about the striking of, you know, survivors floating in the water.

TAPPER: President Trump says that he and also Secretary Hegseth didn't know about the second strike on that September 2nd operation in the Caribbean. Secretary Hegseth said he watched the first strike on the ship live, and then he moved on. He says that Admiral Bradley made the call to make the second strike. What's your reaction to that?

SLOTKIN: Well, again, I don't know. This is why we need transparency. But I think it's interesting, after the initial strike, the secretary said that he watched the whole thing, right? And we know that there's video of the whole thing. So, this thing could be easily deciphered if they just released the video. And I think the fact that they haven't, again, is certainly raising eyebrows on this issue.

So, I just -- look, come down, have a hearing, walk through it, explain to the American public what happened and do what leaders do, which is take accountability and take responsibility.

TAPPER: The secretary of defense also says he did not personally see those survivors after the first boat strike because the boat was on fire and he blamed the fog of war. From your experience working in the Pentagon, working in Iraq, do you find that credible?

SLOTKIN: Again, I don't know, but here's what I have seen. I've seen -- you know, I've worked at the Pentagon under Republican secretaries of defense and Democratic secretaries of defense. The buck stops with the secretary of defense. And it wouldn't be the first time that a secretary has had things go on that they don't like or they don't approve of or whatever, but there is a sense of responsibility when you're a leader to take accountability for these things. And that's something that Mr. Hegseth doesn't seem to be able to do. In fact, it's the opposite. And right now, he's blaming those in uniform.

The secretary of defense is the ultimate leader responsible, and he should accept responsibility, just like Democrat and Republican secretaries before him.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan, thank you so much.

SLOTKIN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Vaccine advisers who work under RFK Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services are scheduled to meet this week. We're going to explain the changes they're considering to the childhood vaccine schedule.

Plus, a growing number of Republicans questioning why President Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in the United States of being part of 400 million tons of cocaine trafficking. CNN just spoke to that former president's wife about his release, and that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:10:00]

TAPPER: In our World Lead today, Republicans range from perplexed to pissed off this week after President Trump formally pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, erasing a major U.S. drug trafficking conviction for, according to a U.S. attorney in New York, helping, quote, to facilitate the importation of an almost unfathomable 400 tons of cocaine to this country, and billions of individual doses sent to the U.S. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy posted on X, quote, why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States?

Lock up every drug runner. I don't understand why he is being pardoned, unquote. Regardless, this afternoon, Trump told reporters, quote, I feel very good about it, unquote. Hernandez was released from a West Virginia prison after Trump's pardon Monday night.

Joining us now, CNN Espanol Anchor Maria Santana, she's been covering President Hernandez for years. And, Maria, you spoke with Hernandez's wife this afternoon.

MARIA SANTANA, CNN ESPANOL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jake. Well, for years, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his family have insisted that he is innocent of the drug trafficking charges brought by the U.S. government against him, saying that he has been the victim of political persecution and a witch hunt led by the Biden-Harris administration. And it seems, Jake, that this narrative was central to the extraordinary way in which he secured a total and unconditional pardon from President Trump.

Tonight, we are learning new details about how it all came about. His wife, Ana Garcia de Hernandez, confirmed that Hernandez, the ex- president Honduras, wrote a letter to President Trump back in October calling Trump, your Excellency, and praising Trump's resilience in what he called the face of political persecution. Writing in part, just as you, President Trump, I have suffered political persecution targeted by the Biden-Harris administration not for any wrongdoing but for political reasons.

[18:15:00]

And that letter, Jake, along with a persistent lobbying campaign from long time Trump Ally Roger Stone who argued to the president that Hernandez was a victim of leftist lawfare was what helped propel the former Honduran president to freedom, according to Stone, who said just as much in interviews today. Now, I sat through the trial of Juan Orlando Hernandez, all two weeks of it, and the evidence that was presented was pretty strong. The U.S. government, we listened to testimony from cooperating witnesses, drug traffickers who said they would pay bribes to Hernandez in order to secure their drug trafficking routes. One of them even said that Hernandez boasted about how he was stuffing cocaine up the noses of the gringos, of the Americans.

So, as you can imagine, this is why this has been so controversial as Trump has this aggressive campaign against drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and how he has gone after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for his supposed ties to drug trafficking.

But I asked his wife today what she makes of this contradiction in whether you, know, Trump is not sticking to the standard by pardoning her husband but by going after Maduro. Let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANA GARCIA DE HERNANDEZ, FORMER HONDURAN PRESIDENT'S WIFE: Because I don't think there is any contradiction in the decision of President Trump. On the contrary, I think that what he's doing is that he's making -- is doing justice and in a case that is clearly like my husband, a case of lawfare, political persecution, also a case where they didn't have any proof at all. They didn't have anything against my husband, just the word of narco traffickers who wanted to get revenge against my husband and that wanted to go out of jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Trump has also meddled or at least spoken quite a bit about the country's dramatically close presidential election. He's alleging fraud without evidence as the candidate that President Trump endorsed remains locked in a virtual tie with his opponent. So, separately, how are Hondurans responding to President Trump involving himself in the election?

SANTANA: Well, this has definitely been controversial also in Honduras. I mean, this announcement by President Trump on social media on Friday that he was going to pardon ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez came just hours before the presidential election in that country. And he said he was backing right wing candidate Nasry Tito Asfura, Hernandez's political ally.

So, this is seen as -- this has been seen as very coincidental that he wrapped both things together. I'm endorsing this candidate for president who is an ally of the ex-president that we have sitting in a U.S. a federal prison. So, I am going to pardon him. Many people have seen it as just another way in which the president is trying to disrupt that process. You know, when I went to the trial, there were many Hondurans who traveled from Honduras, who live here in the tri- state area, who assisted every single day, protested outside court because they saw this as justice, because of how their families suffered because of the drug trade in Honduras.

So, there's been a lot of reactions, but definitely some disappointment on the part of some of the community members.

TAPPER: All right. Maria Santana, thank you so much for your insights. I appreciate it.

A fast-moving winter storm is dropping a lot of snow across the Northeastern United States. We've got the latest forecast. Plus, a look at the next cold blast heading our way, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

TAPPER: A major winter storm is turning roads in the Central and Eastern United States into a slick and slippery mess.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is keeping track of the storm, which is dumping snow on the northeast.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jake, the latest storm in our winter blitz that's been impacting Northern New England continues to throw snow at us. This is a scene earlier today in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had the trucks out in full force really trying to clear the roadways, but it was simply coming down too heavily in some locations. And that, of course, caused the traffic backups and the delays and also the hundreds of accidents that were reported with this winter storm that continues to impact the interior of New England.

So, this is the swath of snow that's currently on the ground. Again, this is from multiple winter storms that have rolled through the region recently. Now, the most current one is still impacting the northeast but it's really more of a rain event, a cold rain for the I- 95 corridor, where the majority of the population lives along the eastern seaboard. But, of course, you travel inland a little bit and that's where it quickly changes over to snowfall, and that is impactful snow, over a half a foot in some locations possible.

I think on the backside of the system, we could wrap around enough cold air that we actually transition to wet snowflakes that could accumulate in Boston tonight. So, that's something to monitor, but it will stay all rain for New York and before coming to an end.

This is a bomb cyclone. We talk about that often because it's a storm or a low pressure system that intensifies or strengthens quickly, and that's exactly what it's done and continues to do as it exits off the northeast coastline.

So behind it, we've got another round of cold air. So, we're going to lock in the wintry temperatures and keep the snow on the ground as well. Lots of purple in this map, and that just kind of gives you an idea of the type of weather that we should anticipate coming at us here in the days to come. The wind chill on Wednesday morning will be below zero for some portions of the Upper Midwest.

[18:25:00]

And we're talking single digits to lower teens across portions of the Great Lakes. And then we see that reinforcing shot of cold air progress further and further east as we head into the end of the work week.

Here's our temperatures, a brief look, we're cooling off quite dramatically across the East coast. Jake, back to you.

TAPPER: All right. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

Top vaccine advisers are set to meet this week to consider changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. We're going to break down some of the potential moves, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Health Lead today, major changes could be coming to the childhood vaccine schedule, including on the recommendation to give hepatitis B shots to newborns. Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.s' vaccine advisers are meeting Thursday to discuss all of this.

So, let's bring in CNN's medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Dr. Reiner, thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it.

So, current recommendations are the babies should be given the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of being born.

[18:30:06]

And we'll see whether the Vaccine Advisory Committee votes to change that, but it does seem like they might be willing to do so. Are there risks to delaying the first dose?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Sure. So, the reason why babies are immunized so quickly after birth is that if mom has hepatitis, mom can pretty effectively transmit that virus to the baby. And --

TAPPER: After the baby's born?

REINER: Through childbirth.

TAPPER: Through childbirth, okay.

REINER: Through childbirth. And although it's part of protocol, prenatal protocol to test moms, you know, people get different levels of maternal care. And depending on when you're tested, you can contract the virus after that. So, it's a more perfect solution to vaccinate all the kids when they're born. And a child who gets hepatitis B has about a 90 percent chance of contract -- of having a chronic hepatitis, which is a bad lifetime disease.

TAPPER: This is actually the expertise of Senator Cassidy, right, and he's really upset about the idea that they might be taking away this recommendation.

REINER: You know, if they push back vaccinating kids from birth to two months, it's estimated that about 1,400 kids in the United States will get hepatitis B. If they push it back the first dose back to 12 years, it's estimated that that's more like 2,700 kids per year. So, it's a big deal with real, heavy consequences.

TAPPER: So, The Washington Post says that the new chairman of RFK Jr.s' vaccine committee, and let's remember, he fired all these people who actually knew what they were doing, that the new chairman says, is also going to look at the childhood vaccine schedule in general and whether it's linked to allergies and autoimmune disorders.

REINER: Yes. I think what they're specifically going to look at is something called aluminum adjuvants, which it's not really the metal like that you wrap your sandwich in, so aluminum salts, which make the vaccine more immunogenic. And it'll actually allows vaccine manufacturers to use less vaccine to get the same immunologic response.

These adjuvants have been used for a very long time, for like 70 years. They've been exhaustively studied. And, in fact, a recent Danish study looked at 1.2 million kids over 24 years and found no adverse consequences for a variety of things, including neuro developmental disorders, very, very hard data.

TAPPER: Let's turn the subject to President Trump, because, obviously, he had an MRI in early October, and it wasn't until yesterday that we had gotten any details about why he got that MRI. Here's President Trump talking about that earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I had one day where I didn't do a news conference, there's something wrong with the president. You people are crazy. I'll let you know when there's something wrong. There will be, some day. That's going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I'm sharper than I was 25 years ago, but who the hell knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, yesterday, the White House released the details of the MRI of his cardiovascular and abdominal systems, saying both showed, quote, perfectly normal results. But there are questions about why he would be going through that. And also there are all these clips we see of President Trump and his gait being a little different, seeming to favor one leg. What's your general response to all of this? Is this kind of screening standard procedure?

REINER: There's no chance that this was just sort of routine preventative care. First of all, it's not part of routine preventative care. There aren't patients who come to see me or any of my colleagues where we say, you know, let's just scan your whole body. Now, in fact, we don't even know if they scanned their whole body. They disclosed that he had a chest scan and an abdominal scan. The president's doctor didn't even disclose what kind of scan.

The president said, MRI. All that the president's physician said was advanced imaging. Did he have an MRI? Did he have a C.T.? Did he have both? And what he didn't say is whether the president had a scan of his brain. He didn't say he didn't. He just included some data from the chest and abdominal scans.

So, it's not plausible or really credible to believe that they just decided to do some preventative screening for a third time this year. Almost certainly, this is in response to some sort of a symptom or sign or concern.

And you mentioned the president's gait. Occasionally, the president seems to swing one of his legs a little bit or seem a little bit unsteady as he walks, sometimes on uneven ground, like the lawn. So, I don't know why they scanned him, but that's certainly a reason why one could be scanned to understand why perhaps your gait is a little bit difficult.

TAPPER: It'd be great if there was a law saying they had to give us all the information about the health of a president.

REINER: There should be a law. The president's physician should have to certify that every year.

TAPPER: Yes.

[18:35:00]

All right, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we always appreciate it. Thanks so much.

It's the final hours of voting and the last big election of the year in the United States. And coming up next, I'm going to ask a Tennessee Republican member of Congress if he's worried that his party might lose tonight in a Congressional district that President Trump won last year by 22 percentage points.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, for the last time in 2025, let's cue the CNN election music, please? Nice. Yes, the election jam. We're just over an hour away from the polls closing in the great State of Tennessee. There, we have a special election in the state's Seventh Congressional District and it's unusually become a national test for both parties. The race is pitting Trump-backed Republican Matt Van Epps against a Democratic state Congress -- Democratic State Representative Aftyn Behn.

Now, traditionally, this is a Republican stronghold and would be a slam dunk for Republicans. But on the heels of last month when Democrats won big from coast-to-coast, up and down the ballot on the issue of affordability, the party is looking to add to its wins and flip this historically red seat blue.

[18:45:0]

It's unlikely, but who knows?

Republican Congressman John Rose represents the Sixth District of Tennessee. He joins me now. Congressman, House Speaker Mike Johnson felt the need to campaign with Van Epps yesterday. President Trump has called in to multiple events signaling that this race is closer than they'd like it to be. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Is this a warning sign for the GOP that you are barnstorming the state the first day back from Thanksgiving recess in a state that went 20 points for Trump and you have to be here campaigning so hard?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): No, ma'am. I did this all last year.

TRUMP: The whole world is watching. This is a big deal because right now we're like three votes up on the radical left and this would be a wonderful victory for us. It'll be really a positive sign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Congressman, how well do you need to do tonight in order to stop this narrative that Democrats are ascending?

REP. JOHN ROSE (R-TN): Well, I think we will win this race. You know, Representative Behn is actually my constituent. She lives in the Sixth District of Tennessee, the part of Davidson County that I represent running, of course, in the Seventh District, and it is a Republican district with a decisive Republican majority. But it is a special election, and as we all know those are turnout elections.

And so what matters today is can Republicans get our voters out, which are the majority in this district? I don't think this is somehow a referendum on the broader question about what's happening in the country. And I do think Representative Behn is out of touch with the Tennesseans that she seeks to represent in the Seventh District, and I think you'll see that in the results tonight.

TAPPER: But President Trump won this Congressional district by 22 percentage points last year. The fact that we're even talking about this and that so many Republicans are sending money and the President Trump's involved and Speaker Johnson even felt the need to go there, I mean, it shows that you guys are concerned.

ROSE: Well, I think when you have a special election on December 2nd, following the Thanksgiving Day holiday, you're going to have a question about whether you can get your base to turn out. And, certainly, that's what the progressives have done. They've been running to the left in Aftyn Behn, whose policies are very out of touch with this district. She's been espousing views that are really out of touch with the mainstream of what the folks in the Seventh District would want to see. And I'm very in touch with that because they're my neighbors. They look very much like the folks that I represent in the Sixth District.

It's a special election, therefore, it's a turnout election, and that's what you see manifesting here. We don't want to get caught not, you know, responding and not motivating Republicans to come out to vote on this kind of blustery December day.

TAPPER: Democrats won big in November largely on the issue of affordability. A recent CBS News poll shows that 60 percent of the American people think that the president is making the issue of prices and inflation sound better than it really is. 58 percent of Americans say prices in just the last few weeks are going up. All sorts of data says prices are going up. Do you worry at all that the president and the Republican Party, in general, are not in touch with the reality of affordability and prices in this country going up?

ROSE: Not at all. You know, the president ran on a set of policies, which he's been working quickly, along with the help of Congress to implement, to get the Biden inflation of the last four years under control. You know, the complaints of Democrats, of progressive Democrats, including Representative Behn, that somehow the president's responsible, when it is kind of simple. You know, it's like an arsonist who wants to then claim credit for trying to put out the fire or for claiming that they have policies that will help.

It was their policies over the four years of the Biden administration, the profligate spending that created the worst inflation in my adult lifetime, not since I was a senior in high school, have we seen this kind of inflation. It takes time to get out that under control, but the president's made great progress. I just filled up my car with gas in Nashville this week at $2.39 a gallon. We haven't seen prices like that since the last Trump administration.

And so I think it points to the progress that Republicans and Republican policies are making at making this country livable once again. And I might point out that those elections where you saw Democrats do well are happening in states where the policies and the policies that Aftyn Behn is advocating for have led to these very problems.

And so it's rich for them to come to Tennessee and suggest that the policies that are not working in New York and New Jersey might work in Tennessee. We're very proud of the economy in Tennessee and the folks moving to Tennessee from New York and New Jersey to escape those liberal policies don't want to see them implemented in our state.

[18:45:02]

TAPPER: All right. Republican Congressman John Rose of Tennessee, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate your time.

Let's talk about this now with the panel.

Bryan Lanza -- well, first of all, let me just ask you about something Congressman Rose said, because I'm sure that plays fine in his congressional district. But the idea that the president can blame this all on Joe Biden. I mean, that's just not what polls suggest. People are buying.

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Listen, I think he had a window to blame Joe Biden, but that window is gone, right? It is clear that prices -- you know, we made promises that we're going to bring prices down. We had a -- we had an off-year election that said affordability is the number one concern. And the American people are concerned that Trump's not doing enough. And --

TAPPER: Tariffs are making things worse in some cases.

LANZA: And there's an acknowledgment from the administration that tariffs were making things worse. He recently reversed himself on policy tariffs related to agricultural products. Agricultural products is the thing that sort of has the biggest impact. He's focusing on driving energy costs down.

So he's doing some things and some things will work. But I think in the long run, as they analyze, you know, where they're going to spot check, you know, the tariff conversation. You can't just have affordability in food and think that's enough. You're going to have to have affordability in everything in housing and cars and all these other things.

And for them to just try to focus on the agricultural part, I think that's good to have that focus. But the focus needs to be everywhere.

TAPPER: Congressman Dent, how well do Republicans need to do tonight? He didn't give me an answer, I should note. I mean, he just said they're going to win, but if they win, if the Republicans win tonight by three points, five points, six points, anything single digits, I think people are going to -- are going to really worry in the Republican Party.

CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, they ought to. I mean, this is just one of many special elections we've seen in 2025 where Republican candidates have underperformed significantly, Democrats overperformed. Remember the two Florida special elections? Republicans are winning those seats by 30 and 35 points. The ones who replaced them were winning by 12 and 15 points.

In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, state senate seat went from -- went from a -- was elected a Democrat for the first time ever since Abraham Lincoln in Lancaster County. I mean, this is what's happening. And so, if you're a Republican in a district that Trump won by ten points or fewer, you know, you ought to be really nervous going into this midterm.

Probably not going to need a laxative for the whole year. You're going to be awfully loose, let me tell you that much.

TAPPER: All right. That was not a metaphor I was anticipating.

President Trump ended his cabinet meeting earlier today by ratcheting up some of his rhetoric against the Somali population in Minnesota. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work. These aren't people that say, lets go, come on, lets make this place great.

These are people that do nothing but complain. But when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What was your response when you heard that?

DENT: Well, you know, this is kind of just part of the nativism that were just kind of getting used to that, you know, blaming immigrants for all of our problems. I mean, all of us, our families came from someplace else at one point or another. I'm sure they were all demonized, but not like this by the leader of the country.

So, it's really tragic that we are scapegoating a lot of people who come to this country to just to find a better life. I know that was the case in my family.

TAPPER: So, another interesting thing about President Trump's rhetoric is you're now starting to see more Republicans pushing back on it, and that's having an impact when it comes to his efforts to redistrict. In Indiana, State Senator Michael Bohacek made news last week when he vowed to oppose efforts that are pushed by President Trump to redraw the Indiana congressional map in favor of the Republican Party after Trump used a slur, the R-word for people with intellectual disabilities to describe Governor Tim Walz.

Bohacek, whose daughter has Down Syndrome, spoke with CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE BOHACEK (R), INDIANA STATE SENATE: But at some point, we have to stand up and you can't -- you can't validate slurs like that and rhetoric like that, because how do we expect our children to not use terms like this, to be respectful of each other when the most powerful person in the world is using them? It just -- it just goes to a matter of character. And, it's -- somebody has to speak up. And at this point, I have the microphone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What was your response when you heard that?

LANZA: I mean, he certainly does have the microphone, and he has the reason to feel that way, but I think his constituents are going to have a much different feeling. I mean, he has a sympathetic story, obviously -- you know, you know, intellectually challenged kids, you know, have a soft spot. And they certainly deserve our love and respect and consideration.

But, you know, this this state senator holding up hostage a redistricting plan that the vast majority of Republicans in Indiana want, that the vast majority of Republicans here in Washington, D.C., want that the vast majority of Republicans want it in the U.S. it creates a political problem for him.

[18:50:00] DENT: I don't know that Republicans around the country want this redistricting. If you're a Republican in California right now and you just lost your seat, you didn't want this to happen. If you're in New York, you don't want this to happen.

This juice is not worth the squeeze.

LANZA: Yeah, but Charlie, here's --

DENT: The thing has to happen once every 10 years. This mid -- this mid-decade redistricting, I think, is terrible. It's got to end, I think.

TAPPER: We got to end it there. Thank you so much guys. I appreciate it.

You know him from "Meet the Parents" and "Zoolander" and "Dodgeball" and "Night at the Museum". Too many other hits to name. He's also one of the compelling forces behind the show "Severance" on Apple.

Coming up next, I'm going to be joined live by Ben Stiller. He's going to talk about a very new, incredibly personal project. You don't -- you don't want to miss this.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:55:02]

TAPPER: Our pop culture lead, for actor and director Ben Stiller, show business is the family business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY STILLER, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: We're looking at not only my comedy. This is the mother of my two kids.

ANNE MEARA, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: This is the father of one.

BEN STILLER, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: When they were working, I remember sometimes hearing laughter, sometimes hearing raised voices, never knowing if that was real or them rehearsing something.

AMY STILLER, ACTRESS: We don't know, Ben. That's why we're so messed up.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Raised by famous comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Ben Stiller had a front row seat to their rise to fame and all the work that went on behind the scenes. In his new documentary, "Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost", currently on Apple TV, Stiller examines the thin line between his parents act on stage and their marriage offstage. It's really quite a project.

Ben Stiller joins us now.

Ben, congratulations. It's a fantastic documentary. First of all, what made you want to do it?

STILLER: You know, Jake, when my dad passed away in 2020, it was during COVID. And we -- I -- we couldn't do a memorial for him, and I was trying to figure out how to deal with all my feelings about having lost both my parents. And, you know, these careers they had and their relationship.

And I just had this instinct that I wanted to do something about them, make a movie about them and sort of about their lives. That's all I really knew. And also, when he passed away, I knew that the apartment that wed grown up in, they had left it to my sister and she was going to sell it. So, I wanted to document the apartment because our whole lives had been there.

So, it was sort of started from there. And then it evolved into what it is, you know, what it became in terms of the themes of the movie, which is really about family, I think. And, you know, creativity and marriage and parenting and, you know, all the things that I experienced growing up with my parents.

TAPPER: Yeah. It's really -- it's beautiful. I really do recommend it. One of the things that's so interesting about it is your parents kept a lot of stuff.

STILLER: Yeah.

TAPPER: And so when you're going through the apartment just to memorialize it, you're finding all these things, tape recordings and photographs and film letters that your parents wrote to each other, some of them a little naughty.

I'm wondering, how did you decide what to include? What not to? I mean, there must have been -- I mean, it could have theoretically been like a 30 hour movie, I'm sure. How did you decide what to use?

STILLER: Yeah, I mean, that was one of the challenges of it was there was so much stuff. And I was lucky to have all of this footage of my parents being interviewed on talk shows in the '70s and '80s and doing their act and commercials and TV shows and movies. And there was all this stuff.

And then it really became about how to tell the story of their relationship and how it evolved over the years. And then also finding all of this personal stuff, these letters you mentioned between them when they first met each other, these love letters between them. I mean, I think everybody has that experience of -- if you've lost a parent or parents and you have to go through and clean out all their stuff and go to the house they lived in, and for me, it was a long process. It took about five years to really figure out what the movie was. And for a long time, I thought, I don't even know what I'm doing here. It's just -- it's, you know, because you can also get lost in the memory when you get into that stuff and, you know, you hear these recordings of your parents talking and it takes you back to another time.

TAPPER: Yeah. There's -- it's obviously a lot about your parents marriage, but its also about your life through the prism of your parents' marriage, your children, through the prism of your parents' children, your marriage through the prism of your parents' marriage.

How did that end up? Was that automatic when you were doing this or did this develop?

STILLER: No, not at all. At first, I just wanted the movie to be about them. And as I was going through the process of making the movie and screening it for people and showing them, they -- a lot of feedback I got was, well, I'm really not seeing that much about your perspective on them, because I really wanted to make it about them.

But when I realized that really, since I was the one making the movie, you know, it's that thing that how your parents affect you. And when I started opening up to that more and I started to really look at my own life in relation to theirs in terms of my relationship at the time, I was going through some relationship issues with my wife and, and I was looking at how my parents got through that stuff and then started talking to my kids and them telling me things about myself as a parent that I had criticized my parents for it, that I thought I was, you know, mistakes I had made that I thought I wasn't -- that they had made, that I thought I wasn't going to make.

Then, it really became clear to me, oh, this movie is really about that. It's about that cycle, you know, and --

TAPPER: I love the part when you're talking to your daughter and she's talking about how she looks at you the way -- she's an actor growing up as an actor's child. But she also can -- she can bond with you because you also grew up as an actor's child.

Ben stiller, thank you so much. You can watch the new documentary "Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost". It's airing right now on Apple TV. It is wonderful.

Ben, congratulations.

STILLER: Thanks, man.

TAPPER: You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bluesky and on TikTok @jaketapper. You can follow the show on X and Instagram @TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can watch the show on the CNN app. Download the CNN app.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.