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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Top Energy Agency: World Faces "Major Energy And Economic" Crisis; Hegseth Defends War Despite Polls Showing Its Unpopular; Defense Attorneys: Suspected Gunman In Press Dinner Shooting Currently In 24/7 Lockdown In Jail; Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA), Is Interviewed About Ghislaine Maxwell's Ex-Boyfriend Testifies Before House Oversight Cmte; U.S. To Venezuela Flights Resume After Maduro Capture. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 30, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

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[17:00:35]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much for watching. The Lead with Jake Tapper starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: America, according to one analyst, in the next 24 hours alone, you're about to spend half billion dollars more for gas. The Lead starts right now.

The price of gas is on the rise, hitting the highest point nearly four years. Why this spike right now? We're calling in the experts.

And yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision already upending elections? Louisiana putting House races on hold one day after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the state's congressional map, saying district lines could not be based in any way on race. We're going to talk to a lawmaker who could be impacted as other states reevaluate their own districts.

Plus, a brand new chapter in the Epstein files investigated by Congress. Questions today for a billionaire businessman who once had a romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's coconspirator.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. I apologize for my voice. I have something of a head cold here. A lot of allergies in DC. We're going to start in our Money Lead. Oil prices have spiked dramatically overnight, leading the International Energy Agency to warn that the global economy is now in a major energy and economic crisis.

U.S. gas prices jumped another 7 cents to $4.30 a gallon. That's the biggest one day jump in prices in the last six weeks. Gas now at its highest price since July 2022, according to AAA. The increase means prices are up 27 cents, up 7 percent.

In just the last week, prices are up 44 percent since the start of the war against Iran February 28th, when the average was $2.98 per gallon. Earlier today, President Trump was asked about these rising prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4.30 in this country.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And you know what? And we're not going to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran. The gas will go down as soon as the war is over. It will drop like a rock. There's so much of it. It's all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world. And it'll be It'll go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Except oil futures suggest that prices are going to go up. Today, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, surpassed a high of $126 a barrel before falling to $113. Today's peak was its highest price in four years as traders worry about a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz that would further squeeze global oil supplies.

Also, WTI, the U.S. benchmark is sitting at $1.05 a barrel. So 100. I'm sorry, $105 a barrel. So why have oil prices been on this roller coaster ride overnight? While some of the overnight traders do not have a direct interest in taking possession of the physical oil, that made the price go a little crazy. But it did settle down slightly once the markets opened and the major traders got involved.

There was also a low volume of trading, which made the price swings much worse than usual. Joining us now to discuss, Henrietta Treyz, Director of Economic Policy, at Veda Partners, and Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy.

Henrietta, why did energy prices go so crazy overnight? And what do you make of the President saying gas prices are going to come down soon?

HENRIETTA TREYZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICY, VEDA PARTNERS: There's a lot of reasons, actually, and the biggest one is really that energy forecasters and the data sets that we're getting suggest that regardless of what the President says about a ceasefire or maybe the war ending or a deal being reached, the problems are with us structurally.

There are 80 facilities across the Gulf that have been bombed out, including the world's largest LNG facility. I was on the phone with insurers this morning and they expect that even if the war ended tomorrow, it would not be until September until they were able to get the flow through the Strait moving in anything like normal amounts.

So the energy traders are dealing with that data set and also the fact that now we know exactly how much of our strategic petroleum reserves the United States and the rest of the world has used to get us through the last 60 days of this war.

[17:05:00] And we are at roughly a 58 percent tolerance level right now. And that's going to further drop as we try to deal with what is a global price spike in crude and fertilizer around the world.

TAPPER: Patrick, President Trump has made a point to say that most of the U.S. oil doesn't come through the Strait of Hormuz, not for us anyway. So why are U.S. gas prices still spiking so much?

PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: Well, Jake, a lot of it comes down to the fact that this oil can move anywhere around the world and we are beholden to a global economy, though our oil doesn't necessarily come through the Strait. Other countries are now buying record amounts of crude oil from the United States and refined products at paces we've never seen before. And that is putting upward pressure on our prices as our supplies start to decline.

In fact, in the last week alone, the U.S. Energy Information Administration pointing out that a record amount of oil and refined products left the United States amounting to nearly 100 million barrels in the last seven days. Question is, how sustainable are record exports? As more oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel leaves the United States, it's likely to put more upward pressure on our prices here at home.

TAPPER: Henrietta, talk to us about the latest on how insurance companies for tankers are handling this whole situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

TREYZ: Well, they've got a real tricky path to hoe here. They have to and are making it contingent upon providing insurance, which is pretty essential for any of the shippers going through. They are requiring that you communicate with the IRGC and the IRGC is requiring that you coordinate with them and oftentimes play a toll.

And when you pay a toll, let's just say it's $2 million per ship, which is roughly a dollar a barrel of oil, and you then pay that sanction or that fee to the Anatole (ph). And then the United States Undersecretary Bessent has reminded everybody that if you pay a fee to the IRGC, you are operating with the state sanction of terror and we're going to slap a fee that's twice that size on you. And oh, by the way, you're going to get 20 years to life should there be any problems through that traversing of the strait as a result of that insurance.

And the problem, and Secretary Rubio has recently acknowledged this, is that the -- the insurers are effectively normalizing, working with the IRGC. And as ships go through the strait, that's not where we were before the war started and that is our reality today.

TAPPER: Patrick, how high do you see gas prices going?

DE HAAN: Well Jake, as I look at fresh data, live data, the national average now just five minutes ago at 4.39 a gallon, we're headed to 4.50, maybe even as high as 4.65. That's what's in the pipeline. And that pipeline could deliver even higher gas prices depending on where oil goes and how long the Strait remains closed. Conceivably by Memorial Day, if the Strait is not reopened, if there's

not a all-encompassing agreement, we could be seeing the national average pressing up of that $5 mark. That would be just 4 cents away from the record that we set back in June of 2022.

So as goes the Strait, whether reopen or close, as go gas prices either up if the straight remains closed or potentially some relief if the straight reopens.

TAPPER: Henrietta, the chair of the Fed, Jerome Powell said that the economy has remained resilient. Federal data released today says the economy grew at a 2 percent annualized rate during the first quarter. The estimated jobless claims filed last week mark a nearly 60-year low. Workers' wages and benefits rose at a stronger than expected rate of 3.4 percent during the first quarter.I mean this is all great news.

So does that suggest that maybe things aren't quite as bad as they seem just when we're filling up our gas tanks?

TREYZ: I think you never want to bet against the U.S. economy when there's an AI boom and there is a robust consumer, especially on the high end. But the really important part was what Powell said at the end, which is we're probably not going to be able to lower interest rates, which is a reverse of what we were hoping for before this war started.

And it's caused by two things. A combination of the tariffs, which Powell has spoken about at length, and now the war that he can't predict and now the market is pricing in that we will not get an interest rate hike to not just in September, excuse me, cut, not in September or December, but we might even get a hike in 2027.

And that's because the bleed through of these costs to food from fertilizer that flows through the street and is also a global commodity, but there are no global stockpiles of fertilizer that takes 60 to 90 days to start to bleed into the consumer.

And the agriculture space is expecting food inflation to peak in first quarter of '27. So right now we're doing well. But in the look forward, there's a real problem ahead.

TAPPER: And Patrick, speaking of agriculture, I'm reminded of diesel prices, which are also very high. And these are prices borne by a lot of hardworking people who drive trucks, who drive tractors. Where do you see diesel prices going?

DE HAAN: Yes, Jake, right up alongside those of gasoline. We had seen a little bit of relief for both, but now we've swung the opposite way.

[17:10:04]

Diesel is now back up about a nickel and it's only about 35 cents below its all-time record high. And it could get to the 5.62 a gallon mark in the next week. That was the high water mark that we saw in April and ultimately the national average for diesel hit a record of 5.81 back in 2022. That is certainly something that we could get very close to if not exceeding the longer the strait remains closed.

TAPPER: Henrietta Treyz and Patrick De Haan, thank you so much for your expertise and your time.

Coming up with just days into war with Iran, President Trump said the conflict was almost over. Then we heard the administration say that they were well ahead of schedule.

Ahead what we heard from Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth earlier today as the administration nears the 60-day mark. Stay with us.

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TAPPER: In our World Lead, we are now more than two months into the Iran war, a military operation that the Trump administration initially told us would only last four to six weeks and constantly reminded us was ahead of schedule.

[17:15:00]

Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth was on Capitol Hill earlier today and was asked about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I would remind you and this group that we're two months in to an effort and many congressional Democrats, as I pointed out, want to declare defeat. Two months in. Iraq took how many years? Afghanistan took how many years? And they were nebulous missions that people went along with. This is different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: With us now, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. She's on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She's also a former CIA analyst who served three tours in Iraq. So, Senator, what's your take on the clip we just ran from Secretary Hegseth?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Well, I think a theme throughout the hearing today was that the Secretary wanted, you know, to have the world be the way he painted it, rather than what the average person can understand. You know, the Pentagon, president has taken military action in 10 different places in his first 15 months, more than any president in U.S. history, and has really become a foreign policy president.

But until now, until the Iran war, a lot of that military action, you know, hasn't really been felt at home. This one on Iran, with the Strait of Hormuz closed like the average person feels it 10 times a day when they drive by a gas station and go and fill up.

So he was trying to kind of wave his hands and say it's all good and we're kicking butt and we're winning and we want that. Like, like I want, no matter how I disagree with some of the ways we got into this war, I want us and our military to come out of this safely and winning.

But he was trying to sort of convince people that somehow it was someone else's fault. It's all bad press when in reality things are great. Not when gas is 4.99 a gallon.

TAPPER: Yes, the war started February 28th. As you know, we're right at 60 days since that happened. I'm not sure if the War Powers Act requires the President to congressional authorization for continuing the military operation 60 days after -- it began or 60 days after the President notified Congress. But either way, I want you to take a listen to what Secretary Hegseth said about that today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Is that accurate?

SLOTKIN: Well, I know who doesn't think it's accurate. Susan Collins, who flipped her vote today and voted with Democrats on the War Power Resolution. Senator John Curtis wrote an op-ed a few weeks ago saying if we get past a certain date, I'm going to be a yes on pushing back on the, you know, with the War Powers Resolution.

So, you know, I've obviously been voting on these regularly, but it appears my Republican colleagues see it differently. And, you know, look, until my Republican colleagues decide that they want to kind of act as a separate branch of government and provide just a natural check and balance on the White House, he's going to keep moving, right? He's going to keep doing what he's doing.

But I just thought that was interesting that for the first time in eight weeks or so of Republicans switched their vote because of that 60-day clock.

TAPPER: You asked Secretary Hegseth about the possibility of that President Trump might order members of the military to the polls during this year's midterm elections, possibly to seize ballots or voting machines as he has expressed a desire to do in the past. Here's a little part of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Yet another gotcha hypothetical, which is your special.

SLOTKIN: It's not in 2020. He's the president, your boss, the guy you're performing for right now told the journalists this year that he wished he signed that Executive Order to your predecessor, tell the American people, will you deploy the uniform military to our polls to collect voter rolls or machines?

HEGSETH: Are you accusing me of performing because you're performing for cable news right now? SLOTKIN: No.

HEGSETH: I've never been ordered to do anything illegal and I won't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your reaction to that exchange?

SLOTKIN: My reaction is he should have just said very clearly. Look, we've never had uniform military deploy to our polls during World War II. Right after 9/11. Two months after 9/11, like we've never done it in our history. So I do not believe there's any reason why the active duty military would ever be deployed to the polls. Law enforcement can handle whatever comes up.

I think if he had just said that very clearly, and again, if I believed that he understood that his role is not just loyalty to the president, but actually to protect the installation institution we all care about, which is the uniform military, then I think we would be in a different place.

But he just can't. You know, I'm very aware the whole hearing that he knows President Trump is watching. He wants to make sure not to anger him. But he's also the guy in charge of our military. So to me, if he could just be clear about these things and protect the image, the brand, the important values of the military, then we'd be in a different place.

[17:20:02]

TAPPER: On another matter, you and Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio have introduced legislation that would ban the importation of Chinese vehicles, Chinese auto parts, Chinese vehicle software. The Secretary of Commerce, the Department of Commerce already has a rule restricting such imports. So why do you think a law is necessary?

SLOTKIN: Yes, so we like that rule that the Secretary of commerce has continued. It started, I think in Trump one continued under Biden and strengthened. And now we're just trying to enshrine that in law. And the reason why we're doing it is because the president has not ruled out allowing Chinese companies to set up shop in the United States and allowing Chinese vehicles to come and be sold here.

And in response to all this bipartisan attention this week, the president put out a statement saying, look, maybe not having the cars sold here, but we're open to making deals and having China set up their own plants here the way Toyota does.

I got a real problem with that. As a national security person and certainly as a Michigander, you know where this industry is strongest. So I think we just wanted to send a bipartisan signal ahead of the summit that the president is going to on May 14th with the President of China. Just do not give away the farm. Do not be so desperate for a deal that you allow, you know, the camel's nose under the tent, you allow the Chinese in. They are not playing on a level playing field. They do use those cars

to collect full motion video on our military bases, our infrastructure. They can be hacked. So, I think we just wanted to send that signal before the summit.

TAPPER: All right, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, thank you so much.

SLOTKIN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Since this war began, Iran's supreme leader has yet to be seen publicly in any way. But we did get a new message supposedly from him today. His stark language about so called foreign actors in the Persian Gulf. Next.

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[17:26:15]

TAPPER: Continuing with our World Lead and more tough talk from the purported leaders of Iran, including a new written statement from the still yet to be seen Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei saying that foreign actors have no place in the Persian Gulf except in, quote, the depths of its waters. Tough talk for a guy we have yet to see.

Meanwhile, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, complains that the U.S. is trying to force Iran to surrender by applying economic pressure and exploiting internal divisions.

Let's talk about what's happening inside Iran with actress and human rights advocate Nazanin Boniadi. Again, I apologize for my voice. Allergies in D.C. you know what I'm saying? So in the wake of the bombing, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. blockage of Iranian ports, what is life like right now for ordinary Iranians?

NAZANIN BONIADI, BRITISH-IRANIAN ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: Thanks for having me back on, Jake. We've now entered the third month of an internet blackout. And the last longest state imposed internet blackout in the world was Sudan in 2019. That was 36 days. This is now approaching double that time. There's no end in sight.

So as you can imagine, we're not hearing the narrative of the people, what the voices of the people and what they want. The closest thing we have to that is intermittent, sporadic communication that we get through satellite connections or clever use of VPN.

And what I'm hearing now is a desperation that I have not heard in a long time. Just today, 21-year-old karate champion Sasan Azadvar was executed.

TAPPER: For what?

BONIADI: Related to the protests in Japan,

TAPPER: Just for protesting. BONIADI: Yes. And of course the danger here is that when you

criminalize dissent in this way and people outside of the country, pundits and various other people are talking about collusion with foreign states and how this has all been orchestrated by a foreign government, it fuels this criminalization of dissent and more and more people will be executed.

And that's really what we're looking at is a repression like we've never seen before inside the country. Actually another report that just came out today was Reporters Without Borders and their Global Press Freedom Index which puts the Islamic Republic at 177 of 180 countries. This is a type of repression that we haven't seen before inside the country. And people are just desperate because they don't know what comes next.

They don't know if it's going to be more bombardment. Obviously, it's the economy and free fall and repression like they've never seen before.

TAPPER: So you mentioned one individual, one young -- young boy who, or young man who was executed. The U.N. says at least 20 people have been executed and 4,000 arrested in Iran since the bombing began February 28. Now Iran's top judge claims that the executions reflect the quote, legitimate demands of the people. Tell us what you think.

BONIADI: I mean, with this young man, we're looking at 22 people from the time that the war started of people being executed. Overall in 2026, we're now looking at, with this young man, 613 executions documented by the Abdul Rathman Burman Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Any country that has to shut down the internet is not legitimate in the eyes of its people. They clearly are not representative or accountable to the people. We saw what happened in January of this year in a 48-hour period when people rose up at least, and this is the most conservative number documented by the human rights activist news agency. 6,500 people were slaughtered in that time. Figures of upward of 30,000 as we've discussed before, are more likely. This is not a government or a regime that is representing the voices of the people. And that propaganda war is winning the propaganda wars.

[17:30:13]

However much the U.S. and Israel want to say that they won the kinetic aspect of this war, every piece of information that we're getting that our news is getting every anybody published in our opinions pages or platform that I think tanks are representatives of the regime, they do not represent the people that is very clear by the conversations I'm having with people on the ground.

What scares me is the humanitarian aspect crisis that I'm, you know, what's unlikely to unfold. I'm seeing what people have predicted in the past few weeks inside the country saying that people are escaping and going to Iraq and various other countries to find safe haven, giving up on this idea that democracy might prevail. That is heartbreaking. TAPPER: Have you given up?

BONIADI: I have not. I can't.

TAPPER: All right, Nazanin Boniadi, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it as always.

The suspect accused of trying to assassinate President Trump at the correspondents' dinner last Saturday night was in court today. The line of defense his attorneys are taking after the suspect ran past security and allegedly fired his shotgun. Stay with us.

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[17:35:44]

TAPPER: Our Law and Justice Lead now, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump and top members of his administration at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner will stay in prison or jail as his case plays out in a hearing today.

Defense attorneys for the alleged assailant Cole Tomas Allen said that their client would not fight detention. Those defense attorneys did raise questions about what happened when the suspect bolted past security and allegedly fired his 12 gauge shotgun. Now moments ago, the Secret Service director detailed what he knows about what went down Saturday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN CURRAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: All the evidence that I've seen the suspect shot our officer point blank range with a shotgun. Our officer heroically returned fire while being shot point blank range in the chest with a shotgun. It was able to get off five shots. It's great training. The officer just acted heroically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in CNN's Katelyn Polantz. She was at today's detention hearing. Katelyn, defense attorneys tried to challenge exactly what happened before the Secret Service -- before the Secret Service agent was hit.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right. And they are talking on television about this case and the evidence they're finding right there. The Secret Service director saying it was point blank range that Cole Allen fired at the Secret Service agent. But that's not in the court record as of this point.

And actually, the Justice Department has only been filling in little pieces of the story of what exactly happened in the moments before those shots were fired that there was one they say from his shotgun and then five in return from the Secret Service officer who was hit by something was shot apparently in his protective vest.

What the Justice Department's latest has been in court is that they say that Cole Allen held a shotgun in both hands in a raised position parallel to the ground. A U.S. Secret Service officer observed the defendant fire the shotgun in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom. That in court yesterday is a little bit different what they than what they first said, which was that he fired at the Secret Service agent.

So the U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, she got asked about this as well. Did he actually shoot the Secret Service agent? She was asked on "Fox News" this morning. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: I don't think there's any question but that Cole Allen was intending to fire that Mossberg. And what we do know is that he fired off that 12 gauge shotgun one time. The cartridge was still in the weapon. He fired that gun in the direction of the Secret Service officer. And what we do know is that the Secret Service officer fired his weapon five times. The Secret Service agent did not shoot himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: Now, I will say the Justice Department wanted to give more information in court today and the judge didn't let them. It just wasn't needed because the guy was going to stay in jail. But she raises what he was intending to do. And that "Fox News" clip and intent is going to be a question in this case like it is in all cases.

TAPPER: The suspect's defense attorneys had some comments on the assassination charge. What do they say?

POLANTZ: Yes, they say that his manifesto isn't as cut and dry as it appears to be either that this letter that Cole Allen wrote to his friends and family Senate at the moment he was running through the toward the ballroom with these weapons. He didn't name Trump in it. And he was on this unspecific about targeting administration officials.

And so the defense team is very likely going to be digging into that. How can you charge him with attempted assassination of the President? How do you know he was actually going after Donald Trump?

TAPPER: Right. He said something about a like rapist pedophile. But that's --

POLANTZ: Correct with which Trump has taken issue with on an interview.

TAPPER: Yes, in "CBS." All right. Katelyn Polantz, we know that Allen's due in court again on May 11th. Thank you so much.

In our National Lead, Camp Mystic, the Texas Christian girls camp, where tragically 27 campers and counselors died in floods last year. Camp Mystic has withdrawn its application to reopen this summer. A representative for families told CNN, this is welcome news. It follows intense pressure from state leaders and victims' families. [17:40:03]

And a recent Texas legislative hearing, Texas investigators said as waters rose Camp Mystics leaders had no real evacuation plan. And they had a delayed response. The mother of Kellyanne and one of the girls who died explained what happened after she dropped off Kellyanne at the camp and told the camp owner to take care of her baby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALORIE LYTAL, DAUGHTER KELLYANNE DIED IN FLOODS AT CAMP MYSTIC: Dick said back to me, we got her. Those words will haunt me for the rest of my life. Camp Mystic did not have her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Multiple criminal and civil inquiries are still ongoing, including a wrongful death lawsuit.

Still ahead, the Epstein files investigated by Congress the questions for one particular billionaire businessman who once had a romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:17]

TAPPER: A deeper dive on an Epstein related story in our Law and Justice Lead, a story you might not have heard before. He's not a household name. But Ted Waitt, a wealthy tech businessman, was the one facing questions today before the House Oversight Committee as part of its far reaching investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Waitt had been in a relationship with Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, for roughly seven years in the early 2000s. That's the same time period when she was engaged in crimes with Epstein. Waitt's close relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell and proximity to Epstein's world could provide context and maybe some answers as lawmakers push ahead with their probe.

We should note that Waitt has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Congressman James Walkinshaw, Democrat of Virginia, joins me now. He sits on the House Oversight Committee. He questioned Ted Waitt earlier today. So what did you learn today that you didn't know before?

REP. JAMES WALKINSHAW (D-VA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Well, truthfully, very little. I mean, Ted Waitt is another in the long line of folks we've talked to who were in Epstein or Maxwell's orbit who now claim to have seen no evil and heard no evil.

As you noted, Maxwell and Waitt had a relationship for a long period of time. He claimed today and stated today that he had no knowledge of her crimes. She never discussed her crimes, didn't spend much time even talking about her relationship with Epstein throughout the time that they were romantically involved. He did, like a lot of folks who have talked to us, use the phrase, I don't recall, often. And I think there are still some unanswered questions coming out of it.

TAPPER: Did he not answer your questions to your satisfaction?

WALKINSHAW: He didn't answer my questions or our questions to my satisfaction. In fairness to him, he's being asked to recall incidents and conversations from a decade ago or more in some cases. There are strange e-mails in the files asserting that he, Ted Waitt, was the victim of an attempted blackmail related to his relationship with Maxwell. He denied that today and said no one had attempted to blackmail him because of his relationship with Maxwell. But he couldn't recall some key details of that incident that leaves me with more questions.

TAPPER: We learned yesterday that Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, will appear before the House Oversight Committee next month in May to answer for how she handled or mishandled the Epstein case. What do you plan to ask her?

WALKINSHAW: It's important to note, it had been radio silence. She missed her April 14th deposition. Then we had heard nothing. Yesterday, Democrats filed contempt resolution against her to charge her with civil contempt. All of a sudden, her interview was scheduled for the 29th.

TAPPER: What a coincidence.

WALKINSHAW: What a coincidence. I want to know what conversations took place when decisions were made to illegally redact files, including some that were redacted, as far as I can tell, to prevent Donald Trump from being embarrassed. What conversations took place and who decided to not fully release the files? Were there any conversations with the President? Were there conversations with others at the White House about those decisions? She was responsible for it. I want those answers.

TAPPER: You're pretty circumspect. You're pretty careful with your words. I have to say, I have heard some of your Democratic colleagues talking about what's in the Epstein files in a way that I find irresponsible. As you know, interviews with accusers is not adjudicated, factual, proven evidence. And I've seen some Democratic congressmen citing these things as if they are factual proof.

And using this language, using this 502s, they're called the FBI interviews, as evidence that some people, including President Trump, are definitively guilty of certain crimes.

WALKINSHAW: Yes.

TAPPER: Does that bother you when you hear them do that?

WALKINSHAW: Well, look, I think everybody deserves due process. And I think part of the frustration here that survivors have, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have, is that it doesn't appear that the FBI conducted full and complete investigations.

People very close to Epstein never even interviewed by the FBI. So I think that has created a vacuum, where yes, a vacuum is going to get filled. My conclusion thus far, is that I find it very hard to believe that the only two people who had knowledge of the crimes, the only two people involved in the crimes, were Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. I don't buy that. I don't believe that. The extent to which others engaged in crimes, we don't know.

[17:50:00]

But the idea that no one else had knowledge, I find very hard to believe. And it's clear the FBI didn't run that down. And I hope that they will at some point in the future.

TAPPER: I think a lot of people agree with you on that. House Republicans today passed a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that ends the 75-day partial government shutdown. President Trump just signed it. It will fund TSA. It will not fund immigration enforcement. This is something of a victory for Democrats.

We should note, though, ICE is being funded by money from last year's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. The new funding has none of the ICE reforms Democrats were pushing for. So I have to ask, especially since you represent so many people that have gone 75 days without being paid because you represent Northern Virginia, a lot of government employees there, Secret Service, Coast Guard, others, was the shutdown worth it?

WALKINSHAW: Well, first, in terms of going without pay, there was a several-week period where folks were going without pay. And then President Trump decided to start paying people.

TAPPER: That was his TSA, wasn't it?

WALKINSHAW: No, that was across the agency. So he used some of that so-called Big Beautiful Bill money to start paying folks across the agency. But your point stands. I guess I look at it differently. The Republicans control the White House, the House, the Senate. In the House, if they want votes from Democrats like me to fund the Department of Homeland Security, they've got to listen to my priorities on behalf of my constituents.

And I've been very clear my priorities are that we put some common- sense guardrails around ICE or CBP before I will vote for any funding for ICE or CBP. So I don't look at the shutdown in the same way that it was caused by me or caused by Democrats. We put conditions on every appropriations bill every year. These are the conditions I've needed to vote for funding for ICE or CBP. They haven't been willing to do it.

TAPPER: It was caused by Senate Democrats, just to be clear. I wasn't blaming you. Congressman James Walkinshaw, Democrat of Virginia, thanks so much.

After the January capture of Nicolas Maduro, something in Venezuela not seen in nearly seven years, and CNN was there for the moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:56:07]

TAPPER: We are back with our World Lead and you're looking at the very first commercial flight from the U.S. to Venezuela in more than six years. The plane landed a short time ago in Caracas, marking the latest easing of tensions between the two nations following January's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. CNN's David Culver was on the flight. He joins us now from Caracas. David, a TSA worker looked at your boarding pass and said, wow, I haven't seen that destination in a while.

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She did a double take on that, Jake. And she's like Caracas, realizing that today was the day the first time in nearly seven years that there's direct service between the U.S. and Venezuela. And we were on that flight and stepping on board. They had a huge rollout American Airlines, decorating most everything in yellow, blue and red, the colors of the Venezuelan flag that was out of Miami International.

And when we took off, and finally made it here to Caracas, touching down, we know that that same plane was going to head back to the states. And they had the red, white and blue rolled out for those passengers. Now, as far as the folks who are on board with us, of course, a lot of journalists, you had officials and representatives from American Airlines. But you had a few folks who are also coming back to visit family.

And the return trip, I can tell you, our colleagues here were speaking with some of those folks who are lining up and getting their tickets sorted. They were going for the direct service, what they say is long overdue to go back and visit family and friends in the U.S. It may sound like it's limiting in the sense of it's one daily flight.

And folks who are able to do that they have the visas, they have the right passports to be able to enter the U.S. So that in of itself is selective, and it's costly. That said, there's a symbolism here, that folks see this happening, this connectivity resuming between the two countries in this manner. And for them, that gives them a sense that perhaps that means an opening up and easing of tensions and repression that they felt for so long.

TAPPER: And David, you're going to spend some time in Venezuela to take a look at how life has changed since Maduro was ousted, if at all. But we know what hasn't changed is that, with the exception of Maduro and his wife, the Maduro government remains in place.

CULVER: And I was talking to our local colleague here, CNN producer Mary Triny, and she was telling me, where we're standing, Jake, you go back just a few months, we would have been harassed and surrounded by police within a few minutes. There are a bunch of police here, but they're here for a demonstration. Nobody has come up to talk to us or say anything to us.

So that in of itself is significant. But you're right, we're going to spend our time here in the next few days to really try to get an understanding as to what has changed. Because the leadership, at least at the top, we know Maduro is gone, but the other faces are all the same.

And even as some ministers have changed out, they're still part of the same ideology. So the system itself is still in place. Now, the relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela, that is what has changed significantly. And so we want to get a sense as to what folks here make of that. I can tell you that from the few folks we've been able to speak with over the past few hours and our colleagues here I've connected with, it's really not so much about the politics or geopolitics. The bottom line for everyone right now, the economy, it's dire. And if that doesn't change, social stability is going to see some shaking up here.

TAPPER: All right. David Culver in Caracas, looking forward to your pieces from there. Thank you.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the latest U.S. Supreme Court ruling leading to midterm election chaos. Louisiana now postponing its upcoming primaries after some ballots had already been sent out. Tennessee Republicans are talking about redrawing their maps to eliminate the state's only Democratic congressional district. Will this back and forth gerrymandering ever stop?

[17:59:57]

Plus, Elon Musk back on the stand today in a trial that could change the future of A.I. What Musk said during a heated cross examination and when we expect his rival, Sam Altman, to testify.