Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Rep. Ro Khanna, (DA-CA), Is Interviewed About U.S.-Iran Ceasefire On Shaky Ground Amid Continued Attacks, DOJ Says Bondi Won't Appear For Next Week's Epstein Deposition; Oil Prices Plunge And Gas Prices Climb Amid Shaky Ceasefire; Trump's Immigration Policy Sidelines Foreign Doctors; Can Democrats Win Back Rural America?; Democrats Outperform 2024 Margin In Georgia Election. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 08, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks to my panel. Really appreciate all of you being here. Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well. Do not go anywhere because the one and only Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead." Hi, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Wow. One and only. Nice. All right.

HUNT: There's only one of you.

TAPPER: I'll take it, I think. Kasie, we'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

HUNT: See you soon.

[17:00:36]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we're going to start with breaking news in our world lead. The two week ceasefire between the U.S., Israel and Iran launched last night that the vice president calls fragile. Today, Iranian state media reports that Iran has stopped oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz despite having agreed to open the strait.

That's because Iran says after the ceasefire went into effect yesterday, Israel began carrying out what that country calls the largest strikes on Lebanon since the start of the war. Israel is going after an Iranian backed militia in Lebanon, one called Hezbollah. President Trump told PBS that the strikes in Lebanon are a separate skirmish and that Lebanon was not included in the two week ceasefire, Iran disagrees. White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt was asked today about the reports that the Straits of Hormuz remain closed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president was made aware of those reports before I came to the podium. That is completely unacceptable. We have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today. And I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely.

That is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that is what's taking place. And these reports publicly are false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The White House said that negotiations will continue over these next two weeks as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains open. There are lots of questions that remain over the terms of this ceasefire and what comes next. So over the next two hours, we're going to try to get answers for some of these questions. Just a few of them include what does the ceasefire say, if anything, about Iran's nuclear enrichment? What is the status of the Strait of Hormuz?

Our ships confident that they'll be safe if they go through. Is Iran going to be demanding a toll? What is the status of sanctions against Iran or against Russia? What is the status of Iran as a regional power now and Iran's abilities regarding proxies in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq. And are the Israelis really on board with what Trump has agreed to?

Here's another question, in the midst of these major earth shaking issues surrounding the ceasefire last night, life and death issues, why was President Trump so focused on attacking CNN for an accurate report we put out on a real statement put out by Iranian government officials? Maybe you missed this last night, you were sleeping. Not sure. Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Iranian state media read a statement from Iran's Supreme National Security Council. That's the country's highest military body.

That statement spun the ceasefire that claimed Iran had achieved victory, forcing the U.S. to accept its 10 point plan. It said in part, quote, "The enemy, in its unfair, unlawful and criminal war against the Iranian nation has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat," unquote. CNN reported that statement online, real time.

There was also a separate, more measured statement from Iran's Minister of Foreign affairs which CNN published as well. At 7:42 p.m. Eastern, President Trump posted that second statement which basically said Iran would cease their attacks if attacks against Iran stopped and then they would reopen the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. But President Trump apparently did not like that first statement that we reported on, the one from Iran's Supreme National Security council. So at 8:01 p.m. Eastern, the president posted on Truth Social, quote, "The alleged statement put out by CNN World News is a fraud. As CNN well knows, the false statement was linked to a fake news site from Nigeria.

Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the fake CNN World statement or was it a sick rogue player? CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw the statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible reporting," unquote.

Before I go on, let me just say none of that is true. None of that is accurate. Then Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr tweeted, quote, "Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN's false headline attributes to them. Time for change at CNN," unquote. Hold that thought on Brendan Carr's statement.

By 11:39 p.m. President Trump still not over it, claiming that CNN invented the statement. Not true. And wrote, quote, "It was totally made up and posted as a headline for purpose of perhaps inflaming a very delicate situation. CNN just got caught cheating a very dangerous thing to do," unquote.

[17:05:13]

Again, none of that's true. None of that's factual. None of that's accurate. Here's what actually happened. Iranian officials made that first statement. It was reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets and by other news outlets all over the world. CNN also received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.

Chairman's Carr -- Chairman Carr's attack on CNN that, quote, "Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN's false headline attributes to them," unquote, is quite revealing. But it doesn't reveal anything about CNN. If you've been paying close attention, you know that the Iranian government frequently speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Some faction of the regime will put out a statement that is hardline, propaganda for its base, for want of a better term. A different faction of the regime releases a more measured statement.

This is not a bug, it's a feature. It's clearly what happened here. In fact, today, both the Secretary of Defense and Karoline Leavitt alluded to such thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What we know is that Iran is going to say a lot of things. A lot of people are going to say a lot of things, claim a lot of things. What has been agreed to, what's been stated is the strait is open.

LEAVITT: What Iran says publicly or feeds to all of you in the press is much different than what they communicate to the United States, the president and his team privately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: No argument with either of them. The issue boils down to this. The statement from Iran's Supreme National Security Council, which claimed victory for Iran, did not fit the messaging that the Trump administration wanted to project. And instead of calling out the Iranian regime for its conflicting statements or explaining how Iran does this all the time, President Trump attacked CNN by falsely claiming we made it up, by lying to you. We didn't make it up.

Nor did we present any of Iran's narratives as fact. We simply presented what the statement said in the context of the rest of the war. And that is our job as journalists, to report on what is happening in a war. Our job is not to try and please the president or only report the statements he likes. We're going to tell you what's going on, and we're going to keep doing that no matter how many lies this administration or the Iranians tell.

CNN has live team coverage. Clarissa Ward's in the region. She's in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Kristen Holmes is at the White House.

Clarissa, what are you seeing in the region now? What are you seeing that could impact the ceasefire?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning the region woke up to a palpable sense of relief. But now there is a growing sense of concern and unease that this ceasefire is looking increasingly fragile. We have seen attacks taking place here in the Gulf, also of course, in Lebanon, as you mentioned earlier, Israel launching a devastating series of attacks, more than 100 people killed as a result of them. There had been this back and forth, he said, she said as to whether Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement, the U.S. and Israel has one idea about that, Iran clearly has another. The IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warning that if those attacks do not stop that they will be forced to retaliate against the aggressor.

So that giving real concerns to another possible escalation. And also as you mentioned earlier, Iranian state media reporting that the Strait of Hormuz was closed once again after being opened for a brief window earlier due to those Israeli strikes in Lebanon. Now, we also saw a very critical post from a man, Ghalibaf, Mohammad Ghalibaf. He is Iran's speaker of the Parliament. He's also the primary interlocutor between the U.S. and Iran, expected to play a prominent role in those face to face talks that are still anticipated to take place in Islamabad, Pakistan.

And he basically outlined three points, Jake, in this post on X which he said were clear violations of the ceasefire. One of those being Lebanon, another being a drone that flew into Iranian airspace, and the third being Iran's right or the denial of Iran's right to continue to enrich uranium. So all of these calling in to question whether this ceasefire could be on the rocks, so to speak, Jake.

TAPPER: Kristen, what more did the White House say today about the exact terms of the ceasefire? Have they released on paper this 10 point plan?

[17:10:05]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, we haven't seen anything that has any kind of details on what was agreed to. The only thing that we heard about the 10 point plan was really in regards to the statement that you just mentioned, the fact that we had seen this statement come out from the National Security Council in Iran. That said that these were some of the 10 points, Karoline Leavitt not specifically addressing that statement, but saying that there was an original 10 point plan that was so laughable that President Trump threw it in the trash can and then there was a second 10 point plan that was more negotiable.

Now when it comes to Lebanon, that really seems to be the key point here of confusion on both sides. We heard from Karoline Leavitt doubling down, that Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire. President Trump said in a brief interview with another outlet that it was not part of the ceasefire. And then this is what J.D. Vance said just now when he was leaving Hungary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn't. We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, of course, again, we haven't seen anything in writing, but I do want to note that after he said that, he added that Israelis have indicated that they may cool it when it comes to what they're doing in Lebanon, but made clear that this is not because it was part of any ceasefire agreement, but instead was because they wanted the negotiations to go well between the U.S. and Iran.

TAPPER: Clarissa Ward in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Kristen Holmes at the White House. Thanks to both of you.

The White House says when President Trump launched this war, NATO allies, quote, "were tested and failed," unquote. How did that blunt talk go over with NATO? Well, I'm going to ask the head of NATO fresh off a face-to-face with the president moments ago. Stay tuned.

Plus, how's Congress taking this all in? I'm going to talk with a Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:58]

TAPPER: Back with the breaking news in our world lead. A short time ago, the vice president, J.D. Vance, addressed public confusion over just what is in this U.S. ceasefire with Iran, what's in the proposal criticizing the speaker of Iran's parliament for claiming the U.S. had violated the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English because there are things that he said that frankly didn't make sense in some of the -- in the context of the negotiations that we've had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, are you confident that the U.S. and Iran are on the same page when it comes to the ceasefire?

REP. RO KHANNA (DA-CA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, we obviously aren't, but I'm relieved that the president has this ceasefire, that he didn't follow through on his illegal and immoral attempt threat to wipe Iran off the face of the earth. What we need now is for diplomacy, and we need both the United States and Israel to stop bombing and Iran to stop bombing. I mean, Iran is still hitting Gulf allies, Israel is still hitting Lebanon. All of that needs to stop.

TAPPER: Following President Trump's post on Tuesday when he threatened a whole civilization will die tonight, you were one of many Democrats calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against President Trump to remove him from office, you said in your video that Congress should convene immediately. What kind of response did you get from Democratic leadership of the House on that?

KHANNA: Well, after we posted our video calling for that, we had almost 70 Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, call for the 25th Amendment. Look, you don't just threaten to exterminate another Nation. Ronald Reagan never did that when fighting the Cold War. Richard Nixon, who came up with the madman theory, never did that with Vietnam. It's something that no president in American history has done. And the very threat erodes our moral credibility.

It says that America doesn't have any moral standing where we value the dignity of human life and he should be removed for making that threat. And we don't know if he would make those kind of threats again.

TAPPER: The president in his Truth Social post about a day ago when he announced the ceasefire, said that it was only because of the threat he suggested. That it was only because of the threat, at least according to the Pakistanis, that Iran agreed to come to the negotiating table.

KHANNA: I mean, that just makes no sense. First of all, let's look at where we are. We used to have $2.30 gas, we now have $4. We now have a more hardline regime in power in Iran, Khamenei Jr. and the IRGC. Iran still has enriched uranium.

Iran now has more control over the Strait of Hormuz. So for all the President's bluster, what have we achieved? Yes, we have destroyed Iran's navy and they have less ballistic missiles, but they still have one third of ballistic missile capability. I think most people think this was not worth 13 Americans dying and the enormous cost. And you certainly didn't need to threaten civilizational extinction to be able to get Iran to the negotiating table. What we should have done is engaged Oman, Pakistan, China, and what we need is statesmanship. But I don't want to be too critical because I don't want to goad the President into getting into war. And as long as they're working on a ceasefire and bringing this war to an end, I'll be good to my word, as many others on the armed services and progressives, we will support an end to this war.

TAPPER: What do you say to those supporters of the president who would argue that President Trump's decisive action in Iran both last summer and currently has undoubtedly paralyzed their capabilities of building any sort of nuclear weapon?

KHANNA: Well, first of all, as I mentioned, they still have enriched uranium. I will grant that they destroyed about two thirds of the ballistic missiles capability and the navy. But there was no need for a prolonged weeks long effort aimed at regime change. There was no need to risk 13 service members to do that. There was no need to engage in a tit for tat escalation that has led to gas prices increasing and Iran having more control over the Strait of Hormuz.

[17:20:06]

So while I was opposed to the president's initial action a few months ago, where he struck the facilities, at least there could be a debate about that. But this action has left us less safe, has increased the price of gas, and really betrayed his fundamental promise that he wasn't going to try these regime change wars.

TAPPER: Turning to former Attorney General Pam Bondi, you and your Republican colleague, Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina sent a letter to the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, urging him to publicly reaffirm Bondi's legal obligation to appear for her deposition, which is scheduled for next Tuesday. This is all obviously tied to the Justice Department's handling or mishandling of the Epstein files. How confident are you that Bondi will show up for that deposition or that Comer would support you in this showdown?

KHANNA: I'm confident Pam Bondi will eventually show up. Nancy Mace and I drafted the subpoena. It was for Pam Bondi as an individual, not Pam Bondi as attorney general. But they're playing games. But we still have the votes to get her to be able to testify. And we'll have a vote again.

Look, I know Jim Comer, I like him on a personal basis. But he was Captain Ahab in chasing Hillary Clinton to testify. And Hillary Clinton has been out office for 20 years. So certainly he can have Pam Bondi come and testify and answer why they haven't released the Epstein files.

TAPPER: Congressman Ro Khanna, Democratic of California, thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

KHANNA: Thank you.

TAPPER: Thanks to the fragile ceasefire with Iran, called fragile by the vice president. We saw huge price drops on global oil markets today. But when will you, the American consumer, start seeing lower prices at the pump? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:11]

TAPPER: In our money lead, the White House says Iran has privately committed to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. But according to Iranian media, only two oil tankers have successfully crossed the crucial waterway since President Trump agreed to a two week cease with Iran. White House says not to believe Iranian media on this matter. Despite oil prices plummeting and stocks surging, gas prices in the U.S. continue to trend upward, with the national average increasing to $4.16 per gallon. So what does this ceasefire mean for your wallet?

Let's bring in Tom Kloza, the chief energy adviser at Gulf.

So, Tom, assuming the ceasefire holds, when might Americans see lower prices at the pump?

TOM KLOZA, CHIEF ENERGY ADVISER, GULF OIL: You might see lower prices on the weekend, and particularly if you patronize the big box stores. But a typical gasoline retailer moves about 8,000 gallons a month, which means he buys a truckload of fuel, like, every four days. So it's going to take some time. And I would emphasize these are really baby steps right now.

There's no real indication that the strait is going to reopen. And it seems like a flimsy ceasefire to say what's obvious.

TAPPER: Yes, the vice president called it fragile. What is the feeling among people who send oil through these straits about whether or not it's safe to send the tankers through?

KLOZA: I think right now they would be very reluctant to do so. And it looks as though we're weeks away from any restoration of even 50 percent or 70 percent of the Strait of Hormuz traffic that we depend on. You know, the price of oil is much higher than what you hear when you get here quoted on the futures market, it's about 96.50 as you and I are talking here. But if you go to the world markets where they actually buy it, physically, it's about $20 higher. So we're going to be dealing with this for a while, maybe for a good percentage of the baseball season.

TAPPER: I've heard a lot of different conflicting messages about the status of the strait. One of the questions, I think, is whether or not Iran is going to be able to charge a toll, whether or not Iran will be in control of the strait. There was even some talk, I believe, from the president about the U.S. and Iran going into some sort of partnership where they both charge a toll. Do you have any sort of understanding of what the status of that is?

KLOZA: Jake, everybody is making this up as we go along. I mean, it almost sounds like this could be an easy pass system to go, you know, vacate the strait. And for now we're not seeing any additional tankers go through there. And there was the threat today of, you know, attacks on what had been an outlet where they were moving crude -- the Saudis were through an east west pipeline to the Red Sea, that got attacked earlier today. And there was also an attack on a Saudi processing station that moves about 5 Million barrels a day of crude.

So I -- you know, this is a tough one to call. This could be a one off today with this big drop. I'm not sure if we're going to see follow through in the next few days.

TAPPER: The White House said the reports that ships were generally not being able to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, that wasn't true. But you're saying it is true, ships are not able to sail through.

KLOZA: Yes, I think you need to, you know, to probably talk to the people at Lloyd's of London or companies like that to find out. But we're certainly not seeing the evidence of more crude oil departing the reds, excuse me, the Strait of Hormuz. And we're talking about a vast amount of oil. We're talking about, you know, 14, 15 million barrels of crude.

[17:30:00]

KLOZA: For now, you know, there's just a trickle that's leaving the region. So that has left Asia and Africa and Australia in a mess. And some of that mess has come, you know, to the Pacific Coast of the United States as well.

TAPPER: Tom Kloza, thank you so much as always for your insights. Appreciate it.

Coming up, a doctor who practiced in a rural area of South, Texas where health care it's hard to come by. How that doctor ended up in the custody of immigration officials. It's another story in Trump's immigration crackdown. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:34:54]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, Trump's immigration crackdown is pushing some foreign-born doctors out of jobs in areas where they're critically needed by the community. This includes Dr. Ezequiel Veliz born in Venezuela. He started his residency in an underserved area of South, Texas. When the Trump administration stripped deportation protections for Venezuelans last year, Dr. Veliz was left without legal status to work and he lost his job.

And on Monday, with Dr. Veliz still waiting on his visa approval Trump administration authorities detained him at a Border Patrol Checkpoint. CNN has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, we have yet to receive a response. Joseph Williams is Dr. Veliz's husband. He was in the car when Dr. Veliz was detained. And Joseph, thanks for joining us about this horrible story. You spoke with Ezequiel this morning. He's at a detention center in Texas. How's he doing?

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, HUSBAND DETAINED BY ICE: He's doing good. He said the conditions aren't ideal but I guess it's expected. He said he's -- it's very gloom there. He's sleeping on the floor with a little foil. He said referred to as a blanket, but he said it looks like foil. But he's in good spirits overall.

TAPPER: Walk us through what happened Monday night.

WILLIAMS: Monday we were -- we just thought was going to be a routine move, honestly. We joked light-heartedly on the way there. He's like, oh, maybe he goes don't be surprised if I get detained. I'm like, oh, I'm like, you'll be fine. But sure enough, you know, we get there they ask if we're citizens. He responded he was in the passenger side. He responded goes, he is my husband is but I am not, I'm in process. I have a work visa in place right now. But I'm just pending because the hold.

And the guy was like, well, where's your visa? And he's like, well, I'm -- I told you. So he said well, do you have any documentation? So he hands over some papers. But I say -- asked us to pull up and pull to the side so they could further interrogate him. They approached the vehicle. They asked him to get out. They take him inside. I wait patiently about 45 minutes go by. I was like, what is going on?

I see so many cars come up behind me and leave. I was like, hey, I'm like, you know, I put my hands up I'm like on hey, I'm just curious on what's happening with my husband. I don't understand what's taking so long. They're like, I'll have a supervisor come talk to you. I'm like, OK, great, you know. I'm like, please return to your vehicle. I'm like, will do. So I again I get the vehicle approach. They're like, they asked me and like what are you doing?

I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm like, I don't mean to be a bother but I'm just really just trying to get what's going on with my husband like any information would be helpful. It's like, OK, I'll reach out to my supervisor. Please remain the vehicle. Someone will come to you when they have a chance. I'm like, OK. So I wait another two more hours. Ezequiel actually approaches I got excited.

I'm like, hey, I'm like, are we ready? And he -- and I can tell that he's visibly upset. And he's like, no, they're detaining me. You know, he's used some profanity. He's like, they're detaining me. They say I overstayed my visa, which is impossible because I was in school at the time on my visa. He goes, I filed all the paperwork. It's not my fault.

The government is -- has a pause, on hold. We open up the back of the truck. He tries to grab a box full of papers. And the agent was like going, sir, that is way too much. You cannot bring that inside. And he's like, why? I just want my paperwork. You're saying that I'm here illegally, I want to show you proof that I'm not. I was like, I'll grab the papers. They have in the car. So I grabbed the papers that were in the car. I hand them to him.

I give them, you know, a hug and a kiss. And he's like, please call my lawyer. Please call my friend, Genesis. This cannot be happening, please, please, please. And he's just -- and then, you know, they escort him away. But he's doing well. Like I said, you know, I talked to him this morning. So I'm happy that he's OK. The lawyer said they can't do anything until he's uploading the system. And I don't know what's taking so long for him to get upload into the -- to the system, for the database. So right now it's like our hands are tied. So I can't do anything until he's entered into the system potentially.

TAPPER: Well, stay in touch with our team. Joseph Williams, thank you so much.

WILLIAMS: I will. You bet. Thank you.

[17:39:31]

TAPPER: Politics Lead next, we're going to zero in on that special election in Georgia to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. How the results in that race could set a tone for the upcoming midterm elections now less than eight months away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We're back with the Politics Lead. And House Republicans padding their ever so slim majority. They now have a four-seat advantage after yesterday's special election. Republican Clay Fuller as expected will replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and George's 14th congressional district. That's along the state's northwestern border with Alabama. It's rather rural, heavily Republican.

But given politics these days Democrats hoped they could pull off an upset. They did not. But there is good news for them there. We'll tell you about that in a sec. They have similar hopes in rural, North Carolina and many voters there feel the Republican Party has just simply let them down, especially after the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in 2024. But there's a list of other complaints.

CNN's John King heard out those complaints in his latest chapter of his series, All Over the Map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[17:44:57]

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marshall is along the French Broad River in North Carolina's 11th congressional district. Hurricane Helene's floodwaters rose above this bridge and pummeled the town. Sounds and signs of progress, but also lingering scars, lingering frustration.

KOREY HAMPTON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: It still feels slow. It still feels like we haven't seen the government step in, in ways that are meaningful.

KING (voice-over): Tourism is the economy here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lean back. And we're good to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See you.

KING (voice-over): Korey Hampton's outdoor adventure company saw sales drop 40 percent last summer.

HAMPTON: Clear for guide?

KING (voice-over): Hikers and campers, rafters and zipliners thought it best or safest to stay away.

HAMPTON: We all knew that that first season after the storm was going to be difficult. But we're hoping that this is the turning point for us.

KING (voice-over): But now a new worry.

HAMPTON: That folks are just not going to be as willing to travel and on top of everything else that's happened to us.

KING (voice-over): You drive a lot if you live in a rural place like Marshall. The price of gas matters especially if things are already tight.

HAMPTON: it's just terrifying, you know, for -- we're helping a hundred of our staff put food on the table.

KING (voice-over): They say looks can be deceiving and they say one picture is worth a thousand words, so which is this. A recent Monday night in tiny Marshall, a packed fish fry for a local farmer running for Congress. Madison County voted 61 percent for Trump. Jamie Ager is a Democrat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all thinking about our garden this spring which is something that mountain Democrats do, reel a garden.

KING (voice-over): Josh Copus owns this hotel and restaurant. He went to college with Ager. Works his real magic in a ceramic studio on the outskirts of town.

KING: So why do Democrats struggle so much here?

JOSH COPUS, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I Think we lost our way, I don't know. Like, we got caught up doing something that didn't connect with the people in rural America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: John, let's go back to that the Georgia election a little south of North Carolina. The Republican won. But explain why Democrats are also feeling like they had a good night.

KING: Because of the margin, Jake. And not just in this race, but we can show you this has been happening throughout 2025 and now 2026. Here's the race. You mentioned Clayton Fuller will soon be a Republican congressman. He won the race to say 56-44. Wow, that's a big win. What are Democrats who would be excited about? How could Democrats possibly be excited about this?

Well, this is the district Marjorie Taylor Greene won back in 2024 by a wow, a 29-point margin. So margins matter. What does that tell you? Republicans aren't showing up. Democrats aren't are showing up even in rural red areas. So why does that matter going forward? Well, you pull out the map and you look at 2024, we were just in North Carolina, right? So you come into North Carolina. We're out in this district right out here.

Chuck Edwards, he won it pretty handily last time. But look at that margin, right? So if the Democrats over perform there Chuck Edwards would be in trouble. So we'll see how that goes that -- there. You come to other races as well, Tennessee. We've talked about that race before. This is the easiest way to show it to you.

Democrats are simply over performing they have been throughout 2025 and 2026. Virginia governor's race, Harris carried the state by six, the governor won by 16. Harris carried New Jersey by six, the governor won by 14. In Tennessee special election, Mark Green had won by 22 points that Republican who replaced him won only by nine and then Marjorie Taylor Greene, again, she won by 29, the Republican replaced her only by 12.

So if you are a strategist, you see Democrats are coming out to vote. It's an anti-Trump vote. And a lot of Republicans have for whatever reason, a reason to stay home. So Republicans at the moment have an enthusiasm and a turnout problem.

TAPPER: Interesting stuff.

Let's bring in Democratic strategist Adrian Elrod and Republican strategist Ashley Davis who has a brand new book out, it's called "The Power Pivot: With Grit, Grace and Growth." Congratulations so much on this book.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER GW BUSH ADMIN. HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: Thank you. I need to write seven more to keep up with you, I guess.

TAPPER: Yes.

DAVIS: But I love these graphics. I need to take them with me sometime.

TAPPER: You can have them. You can have them. Can't wait to read it. I just got a copy right the second. What do you make of the results in Georgia last night? Obviously Republicans won. Your party won. But the margins are getting slimmer.

DAVIS: Yes, and look listen when the President wins by 25 points and this person wins by 12, that's obviously not a good sign. But I think midterm elections, there's much more excitement on the opposite party side. The Democrats have tons of excitement right now.

I think the key is going to be when we get out of these specials and get into the President unleashing his 300 million after Memorial Day. When you were -- when he was just covering North Carolina and you look at some of those comments, that's why John Thune just put $71 million in the North Carolina Senate race. So I do think that a lot of this money is going to unleash soon. But listen, you guys have the excitement.

TAPPER: Yes.

DAVIS: And the drive.

ADRIENNE ELROD, FORMER SENIOR SPOKESWOMAN, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: We do. We do. We finally have some excitement on our side. It's great.

TAPPER: And so -- and just looking forward to November, I'm looking at the piece John just did on rural North Carolina. And I'm not thinking about the House race there, I'm thinking about the Senate race there.

[17:50:04]

ELROD: Absolutely.

TAPPER: Why Cooper in a very competitive race and I'm not thinking about Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat as a potential Democratic pickup as much as I'm thinking. What does that mean for Jon Ossoff, the Democrat running for re-election in Georgia?

ELROD: No, absolutely. I mean, I think first of all in terms of pickup opportunities, it is widely considered that North Carolina is going to be Democrats number one shot at flipping a Senate seat. But I think there's also a number of other races if we're going to flip to for the very reasons that John laid out in this piece, which is number one, rural voters who largely went for Trump in 2024 and even for Trump in 2020 are seeing their gas prices go up.

You know, we live here in the Beltway where we might drive five or six miles a day. A lot of these folks in America are driving 30, 40 miles a day. So they are really feeling then --

TAPPER: And they're driving diesel too.

ELROD: And they're driving diesel, which is substantially higher than regular gas. So they're feeling this impact. They trusted Trump to lower prices for them. They're not seeing that happen, number one. You know, secondly, Democrats if you were seeing this play out in the poll results, I mean Democrats have flipped 30 state legislative seats. Some of these we don't always talk about on T.V. because they're happening in, you know, smaller electorates across the country. But we have flipped 30 legislative seats since the presidential election in 2024, which does show that the momentum is on the Democratic side.

And it's not necessarily because people are saying, yay, I love what Democrats are talking about. They're just incredibly frustrated --

TAPPER: Yes.

ELROD: -- with Trump and his lack of ability to actually address the issues that matter to American family.

TAPPER: Is that what you're hearing about that?

KING: That is a critically important point. Democrats have not solved their problems. That will be 2027 to 2028. But this election is about Trump. Midterms are always about the incumbent and they're always about how do you feel right now and who do you take that out on.

So if you're mad about the price of gas if you're mad the price of groceries has come down, some inflation is down, some under Trump but it's not down enough for people especially because he promised he would do it like that. He said it would be easy and it's not. So to the -- to your driving point, if you live in New York City, you drive on average 9, $10,000 a year, 10,000 miles a year.

You live in Madison County, North Carolina, you're driving 18,000 miles a year. And if you have a farm, you have equipment that all takes diesel. And so it's the cumulative effect. You also probably live in a place where a lot of the working-class people get their health care through the ACA, through Obamacare.

TAPPER: Yes. Right.

KING: The President said they would find a new plan to replace those subsidies and they haven't.

TAPPER: He said that in 2017 also.

KING: Yes, so it's a key but it's a cumulative thing, the affordability thing at any moment today it's gas. You drive by that thing every day. You see that it's got up $18 in the last month. But for working families who racked up credit card debt, maybe under Joe Biden that might not be Trump's fault but they can't pay that debt off. The groceries haven't gone down, their health care has gone up, now gas is going up. They just -- they're not tired of winning. They're tired of being tired.

TAPPER: So Ashley --

DAVIS: Eggs and beef from two years ago, those prices that are, you know, still not down.

TAPPER: Yes.

DAVIS: They should be but other examples.

TAPPER: Ashley, take a look at all the House special elections since Trump took back the White House. Democrats have been cutting into Trump's 2024 margins overperforming in districts that Kamala Harris won. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee Ken Martin posted last night, "We're closing the gap and Republicans are absolutely terrified." You talk to Republicans all the time. Are Republicans terrified?

DAVIS: Well, not terrified. But I think that you can't look at this. I talked to a bunch of people today knowing, you know, what happened last night. And I think publicly, they are waiting to see how the President helps with now when he gets on the campaign trail Remember this was supposed to start in January that he was supposed to be on every week. That's going to be the biggest concern I feel for us Republicans is Trump gets people off the couch to vote and him not being on the ticket is going to be an issue.

TAPPER: And, John, Democratic momentum perhaps in the Democratic state or in the swing state rather of Wisconsin. Chris Taylor a liberal appeals court judge won a seat on her state's Supreme Court. They have elections for the state Supreme Court there. What is notable if anything about her win?

KING: Well, was by twice the margin of the last state Supreme Court election won by the Democrats. So again, you're seeing the enthusiasm, huge, huge enthusiasm gap. That's a state Trump won by one point, a little less than one point. So you have a Democrat winning its state Supreme Court race is not a presidential race. This year, it's not a presidential year. I get all that.

But you just showed that chart. Republicans keep saying it's a special. It's a special. It's a special. But they're everywhere, they're in Mississippi, they're in Pennsylvania, they're in Wisconsin, they're in Texas and the Democrats are winning, period. You want to be the side that's winning. The other thing about Wisconsin is the Waukesha mayor. That is a red-leaning suburbs. It is the suburbs that revolted against Trump in the 2018 midterms and made Nancy Pelosi speaker.

If the Republicans are losing in Waukesha, if you're Brian Fitzpatrick in Buck County, Pennsylvania, you woke up today calling your team saying holy -- let's --

TAPPER: Yes. Well, outside Philly, they don't -- they actually say the word. Adrienne so, John alluded to this, despite the gains the Democrats are clearly making at the polls. Here's a CNN poll. Democrats faced a favorability gap compared to Republicans. Republican Party 32 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable. Democratic Party less 28 percent favorable and more 56 percent unfavorably. Democrats are not popular either.

[17:55:02]

ELROD: We got some work to do. But look, John, just alluded to this. I mean, I think once Democrats have some power back at the federal level, once we get into the '27, '28 primaries for the '28 presidential campaign. We've got a lot of incredible people running or I think we're going to run including a lot of really dynamic governors.

This -- the leaders of the party, the shape of the party is going to really start to form after we get some power back. And we have every reason to believe that that's going to happen based on these numbers.

TAPPER: We will see. And again, the book "The Power Pivot" by Ashley David -- Davis. It's available now. Check it out. Thanks to all. Appreciate it.

As the ceasefire talks progress between the U.S. and Iran, sources tell CNN that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not know which path President Trump would take. Brand new reporting just in from our team in Israel. We're going to go live to Tel Aviv, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:59:57]

TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, could the fragile ceasefire with Iran already be in jeopardy? Is the crucial Strait of Hormuz actually open or not? What are the next steps in this war if --