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The Lead with Jake Tapper

SCOTUS Voting Rights Ruling Shakes Up Midterm Maps Nationwide; Platner Set to be Maine Democratic Senate Pick After Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) Drops Bid; OpenAI Attorneys Cross-Examine Musk in His Lawsuit Against Company. Trump On King Charles: "He's The Greatest King"; Will the PGA Tour Allow LIV Golfers To Return?. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 30, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: 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?

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.

[18:00:09]

And speaking of artificial intelligence, a disturbing report in The New York Times today, details how an A.I. company hired a scientist to test out its chatbot before it was released to the public. And that chatbot then provided instructions on how to make biological weapons and how to plan a mass casualty attack. This scientist is now revealing what happened as a warning for Americans. He'll join us live.

And King Charles and Queen Camilla wrapping up their four-day visits to the U.S., but not before getting a parting gift from President Trump. What is it? That's ahead.

The Lead tonight, two big political stories with monumental implications for this year's midterm elections, states are now scrambling to take advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling and begin redrawing their own Congressional maps. The 6-3 decision effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act, deeming Louisiana's Congressional map unconstitutional for racial gerrymandering when lawmakers had added a new majority black district.

Louisiana Republicans are now delaying the primaries for House races originally set for May 16th, even with early voting set to begin Saturday. Overseas ballots and mail ballots had already been sent out. Now, House contests will still appear on the ballot, but all the votes already submitted, the votes cast early, or the ones that are cast on Election Day, they won't count in those races.

A little bit farther north today, President Trump said he spoke with Tennessee's governor and is encouraging him to redraw that state's maps to target the one House seat held by Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana is encouraging other states to follow suit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully and I think they should do it before they're midterm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The other huge political headline today, Maine's governor, Janet Mills, is suspending her Democratic Senate primary campaign, citing a lack of financial resources, clearing the way for Marine veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner to seize the nomination despite what many consider to be his political inexperience and despite past controversies, including that tattoo from 2007 that he has acknowledged is a totenkopf, a Nazi symbol that he has since had covered up. He said he didn't know what it was when he got it.

Let's bring it in CNN's Arlette Saenz. And, Arlette, you just got off a phone call. Tell us more about that.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the Platner campaign is fully shifting into general election mode as they're preparing to take on Susan Collins in November in one of the races that could determine the makeup of next year's Senate.

Now, Governor Janet Mills had been recruited into this race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but she struggled with fundraising. She struggled with generating enthusiasm at a time when Platner's populist and progressive message had really resonated with a lot of voters in Maine.

Now, Platner and Mills have yet to speak, and Mills has yet to endorse Platner, but a bit earlier today, he thanked her saying that they were both focused on the same mission of defeating Susan Collins. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER, DEMOCRATIC MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: We both got into this race because we knew how critical it is to defeat Susan Collins. And her decision today reflects a commitment to that project. I look forward to working closely with her between now and November to do just that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, as you mentioned, Platner has had a fair share of controversies in this Senate campaign so far. A big question is what Republicans will try to do to try to highlight some of those controversies. I was on a campaign call with Graham Platner and other in his campaign manager, and Platner said that he knows that Republicans are going to go scorched earth on him, but he believes that they can push back on a lot of those attacks.

Mills had tried to highlight some of those controversies in her own campaign but they didn't fully land. Platner's team believes that a lot of voters already know about these controversies and have moved past them, but there are millions of dollars waiting on the GOP side to try to draw that contrast and define Platner, something that could be a critical issue heading into this November election.

TAPPER: And, Arlette, you've also been following the redistricting wars that's been the center of which party can control the House come November. How quickly could we see changes to some of these maps?

SAENZ: Yes. If Republican states want to act, they're going to have to do so very quickly because there are a slew of House primaries coming up on the calendar.

Louisiana is one state that could act very quickly. We heard from the governor, Landry, who said that they were going to delay the House primaries that were slated for May 16th.

[18:05:01]

Leaders in the state legislature believe that they could potentially pass new maps in Louisiana during this current session, which is set to end at the beginning of June.

The question is, what other states might try to do? One state to watch will be Tennessee. The president said that he spoke with Tennessee's governor about possibly moving forward with maps. But if they were to do so, he would have to call their state legislator back into session before their primary is no guarantee that's happening just yet.

But this is just the latest chapter in this redistricting fight as Republicans continue to try to look for an edge in this midterm election when they know that their majority is on the line right now in the U.S. House and potentially in the Senate.

TAPPER: Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.

Joining us now, the man in the center of that bull's eye, Tennessee's only Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen.

Congressman Cohen, President Trump posted today that he had a, quote, had a very good conversation with Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee this morning, wherein he stated that he would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw, unquote, in the Tennessee map and that, quote, likewise, other political representatives of Tennessee have promised to do so. This should give us one extra seat, unquote. That's your seat. What's your reaction?

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): Well, I think there was a shame that the Voting Rights Act Section 2was overruled basically. They said they didn't, but they gutted it, the Supreme Court. And they don't understand what's going on in politics. They were saying that we don't need this anymore because people are -- more African Americans registered to vote and participated in voting, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's still a lot of discrimination against African American candidates, African American constituencies.

Memphis is a little unique. We had Harold Ford Sr. as our congressperson. The Voting Rights Act says, if you can form a majority minority district, you do that so that the majority -- the minority population has the votes to elect a candidate of their own choice. And they chose Harold Ford Sr. on 1974 and then his son, Harold Ford Jr. in 1996. And I was thankfully elected in 2006.

Since that time, I've had nine reelects. In my nine reelects, we've had 80 percent African American votes in the primaries, and I have not lost a precinct. It's a very unique district that they chose a white person to be their congressman and have not allowed me to lose a district in nine elections.

So, it's worked. And Memphis is an example of a place where there's not racial voting, but the African Americans do have, because of the Voting Rights Act, the right to choose their candidate. The way they're going to change it, it'll extend these districts out 120 miles out of Memphis. They'll probably split it into thirds, and the African American population will be diluted.

They'll claim it's politics, which the Supreme Court encourages, or at least accepts, but they claim it's not race, but African Americans generally vote about 80 to 90 percent, more like 90 percent in my district for Democratic candidates. So, if you want to divide up the Democratic vote, you've got to divide up the African American vote. This is Jim Crow redistricting.

TAPPER: So, current senator, former House member, current gubernatorial candidate, Marsha Blackburn, she supports this new map if she's elected. How are Tennessee Democrats planning to keep pushing back? Even if this doesn't come to pass before the midterms, it looks like a Governor Blackburn would continue the effort.

COHEN: I suspect it would happen and it would be effective for 2028. I've kind of thought that might happen for a while. But, you know, now we've had our filing deadline, which was March the 6th. Every candidate who has an opponent knows who their opponent is. They've been working against that opponent or for their own positions to counter themselves and ballots themselves against their opponent for two months.

And once the system has started, I don't think it's a change. And, of course, the district in Memphis is compact and it was created after the 2020 census. It was Republicans who created and passed this ninth district that was 62 percent African American and compact.

You know, the district of Louisiana that caused Alito so much trouble, he called it -- or Roberts might have said it was like a snake to put all together the populations. Well, that may be the case, and he said that violated the 14th or 15th Amendments, which is a heck of a way to take this Civil War amendments and use them against African Americans. But this is a compact district that was created by Republicans on their own choosing.

So, the reasons why it's -- and it started -- the election has already started with the filing deadlines gone past. So, I don't think they should do it. And I think this it was a -- the Voting Rights Act was one of the quintessential and finest legislative acts of the last half of the 20th century. 1965 was Dr. King's work. It was John Lewis' work with Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Caucus's work with Everett Dirksen's help and I think Representative Michael too. So, it was a bipartisan situation.

And John Roberts just had a thing for it. He's worked to eliminate it over the course of his time in the Supreme Court.

[18:10:04]

TAPPER: Tennessee Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, thanks so much.

My panel's here to discuss. Ashley, Republicans complained just last week that the Virginia maps that benefited Democrats in the same way, kind of, taking Democratic votes and extending them into districts to make them more Democratic, that they weren't fair and now they're turning around and basically doing the same thing in Louisiana and Tennessee. How do you square the circle or is it just everybody's a hypocrite?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL, GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Everyone's a hypocrite. I mean, I don't like anything about it from the beginning. I actually don't like it when Eric Holder started this in 2017, but I also think that also we're not, we're ignoring what happened in Florida. I mean, they're going to draw a new map too.

TAPPER: Yes.

DAVIS: But, I mean, listen, at the end of the day, there's maybe three seats, maybe four seats after you do all of this that will actually matter one way or the other, and I'm not sure if Republicans are going to be able to make it up completely, but this does help. But I still think with the Supreme Court decision, you're only talking about two, maybe three seats, probably more like one or two if Tennessee and Louisiana actually does it.

TAPPER: So, Kate, let's take a look at the whole map if we could bring that up. We've been talking about Louisiana. The president today posted on social media about changing the map in Tennessee. Eight states have now approved changes to their Congressional maps. Florida's legislature voting this week to approve a map that would add more Republican districts, as Ashley just noted. How are Democrats going to combat all these efforts by Republicans?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think Democrats probably have more options on the table at this point. If you look at states like New York, Illinois Washington State, I think there are probably more options for Democrats where there's control that would allow them to draw maps like this. But I -- and I would expect that they're going to continue to retaliate. And I think that an impact of the Supreme Court decision is that is going to turbo-charge all of this, which, by the way, I think is a tragedy.

And I think -- and Ashley and I were talking about this before we came on air. And I think that this is -- all this does is further encourage partisan districts. It encourages, you know, primaries to dominate over general elections. It further disincentivizes members of the House from having to reach any kind of compromise, to reach across the aisle in any way. And it's an incredibly dangerous thing for our politics.

And I think you see Democrats who are who are addressing this, you see a lot of the framing as being sort of, you know, we're sorry we've been forced to this point.

TAPPER: Yes.

BEDINGFIELD: Because at the end of the day, this actually is not popular with voters, and I don't -- Democrats, I don't think, want to own this, but they also are not going to leave one hand tied behind their back if Republicans are carving up new districts for their gain.

TAPPER: So, let's talk about the Senate race in Maine because it was a bombshell today when the governor, you know, relatively popular incumbent governor announced, I can't raise enough money to compete with Graham Platner. Republicans already attacking Graham Platner. Here's just one example, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, quote, it's official, the Democrat United States Senate nominee from the state of Maine is a Nazi tattooed neophyte who says women are responsible for being raped, unquote.

As we said earlier, Platner has acknowledged that he had a totenkopf tattoo, which he got in 2007 when he was in the Marines. He said he did not know what it symbolized at the time. It's a skull and crossbones. And the comment about women is in reference to resurfaced Reddit posts of Platner's from 15 or so years ago that he's also disavowed. He told The Washington Post, I don't want people to judge me off the dumbest thing I said on the internet 12 years ago. I would like people to engage with who I am today, unquote.

I'll start with you, Kate, and then to you, Ashley. Are Democrats ready for Graham Platner to be the nominee? I'm not taking a position one way or the other. I certainly understand the argument that he actually brings something new beyond the controversies. He owes a debt, by the way, to Janet Mills to getting a lot of this stuff out there now.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Well, I was just going to say, I mean, I think there's no question this is going to be a brutal race. Obviously, Republicans are going to put a lot of money behind making sure that every voter in Maine knows about these things, but --

TAPPER: I don't know that they don't already know to be honest. I have my friends in Maine.

BEDINGFIELD: So, I was just going to say, but I do think, you know, this has been the kind of dominant narrative in this primary, and Platner is still leading in a lot of head-to-head polls against Collins and obviously was able to siphon enough energy out of the race that Janet Mills couldn't even get to the finish line.

So, I think --

TAPPER: Schumer's chosen candidate, by the way.

BEDINGFIELD: Indeed. So, he clearly brings a lot of energy, and I think we'll see how it plays out.

DAVIS: Well, yes, absolutely, he brings it. I never underestimate Susan Collins, but I actually think that he's a harder candidate for her than Janet Mills. And I actually think that the Democrats knew they were losing with her because she was not -- you know, she was not energizing anybody, and he's -- everything about him is out there, just like Donald Trump.

[18:15:04]

Everyone always says, like how did Donald Trump ever get elected? But everyone knew everything about him and still votes for him. I kind of feel the same way about this.

So, this concerns me more than her, 100 percent.

TAPPER: Yes. He certainly has a Maine 2 (ph) vibe, for the political junkies out there.

DAVIS: Exactly.

TAPPER: Ashley Davis, Kate Bedingfield, thanks so much.

Some drama in the courtroom today as billionaire Elon Musk took the stand against his former friend, the latest on this major tech trial.

Plus, is this the end of the road for LIV Golf? The league is looking for new investors, but we'll explain why it's not looking so good.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Tech Lead, Elon Musk back on the stand. The tech giant is suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. He alleges that OpenAI betrayed him and the company's original non-profit mission by shifting to a for-profit model.

Attorneys for OpenAI cross-examined Elon Musk today and pointed out that he has not created an A.I. non-profit since he left the OpenAI board. Musk responded, why would I start another non-profit when I already started a non-profit, that doesn't make any sense, unquote.

[18:20:02]

OpenAI claims that Musk's suit is meant to derail its position as a competitor to Musk's own artificial intelligence company, XAI.

Let's bring in CNN Contributor and host of the On Podcast and the Pivot podcast Kara Swisher.

Kara, you've covered Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for a long time.

KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

TAPPER: How sincere is Musk, do you think, when he says that he wants OpenAI to return to its original non-profit model for the benefit of humanity?

SWISHER: Well, you know, he was sincere at the time when he did it in the first place. So, back then when we talked, he was quite worried about that happening. Today, I'm not so sure because he created a company, a for-profit company. It has a lot of problems. It's probably the most problematic of all these companies. And he created Grok, which, as you know, as you and I have talked about, this non- consensual imagery and all manner of white supremacy on Twitter, et cetera. So, he was concerned initially, but painting himself as some hero here is just ridiculous at this point in the story of Elon Musk.

TAPPER: What implications do you think this trial could have for the future of A.I. if hypothetically the court does force OpenAI back into a strict non-profit model?

SWISHER: Well, you know, it's a very competitive set right now, so it would be very -- it would be devastating for OpenAI and advantageous for Grok, I guess, even though it's still not as good as the others, like Gemini or, of course, the real -- the dark horse that has really taken over, which is Anthropic, which has a huge valuation now and a huge enterprise business.

So, you know, this to me is just a competitive fight. And he's angry because he left and he didn't think it was going to be as big as it was, and then he got regrets. So, this is a story of whiny regret of something he did himself. He signed all these papers leaving no matter what they did. He wasn't tricked. That to me is sort of at the heart of this is this fight between Altman, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Elon, who just don't like each other, and Elon wants to catch up in this regard.

TAPPER: Well, that's my next question, which is how much of this do you think is about differing business philosophies versus just Musk's ego versus Sam Altman's ego?

SWISHER: Well, you know, they used to be very close. They were very close, I would say. And that's where I first started hearing about this. And they formed it because they were worried about the strength of Google and Meta and Microsoft, and this was a counterbalance. At the same time, once it became clear it was going to become an enormous business, things change.

And that's why, you know, if Elon really cared about people, why does he have a data center that's hurting people in the south, like he's under siege there? Why does he have a Twitter, which is very toxic, as we -- I think we both can agree? And why didn't Grok clean up those images? I mean, I just think it's very -- Elon of today is very different than Elon of yesterday, and you could see that by the jury selection where they said Altman, you know, he's a jerk and worse. Jerk was the nicest thing some of the jurors said about him.

So, I think it's not good for brand A.I. in general, period because A.I. is on a downward slope right now in terms of imagery and about branding and about reputation, and especially young people hate it. So, this isn't good. None of this is good for the brand A.I.

TAPPER: Speaking of A.I., you do this great documentary series for us here at CNN in this week's episode. It's called Kara Swisher wants to Live Forever. In this week's episode, you're exploring the loneliness epidemic, examining how A.I. chatbots and social media and a lack of real life human connection can lead to chronic isolation, especially among young people. What was the most surprising thing you learned?

SWISHER: Well, these chatbots, I've been -- as you know, I've been interviewing a lot of the parents whose kids commit suicide and these -- and we all feel this way, Jake. You and I talk about the doom scrolling, the constantly online, the shooter with Charlie Kirk was an extremely online young man. And it's bad for people and it's also bad for people's health.

And so I interviewed a lot of experts, neuroscientists, Sherry Turkle from MIT and other places. And this growth of these relationships with online chatbots is very dangerous for people's health. And what turns out to be good for people's health is other people, the friction that you get from being around other people, the community and social connections.

And one of the primary indicators of longevity and longevity in health are social connections, family, friends, people you don't know, doing things in a community. And so I did everything from, you know, going in the ocean with a bunch of women in San Francisco to playing card games with a bunch of young people in Brooklyn who put down their phones and met each other.

[18:25:02]

And so you have both the cognitive fun of playing a game and also having a connection with human beings.

And just remember, it's very hard to play most games alone, and that's the key part of staying healthy longer.

TAPPER: Speaking of social connections, let's grab a drink soon.

A new episode of Kara Swisher --

SWISHER: Oh, anytime. You know I love going out with Jake Tapper. I'm in.

TAPPER: The feeling is mutual. A new episode of Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever premiers Saturday 9:00 P.M. Eastern on CNN. Kara, always great to have you on, thank you.

SWISHER: Thank you. TAPPER: The first pilot program launches tomorrow for a new product that puts drones in schools as a potential tool to stop school shooters. CNN's Pete Muntean got a hands-on demonstration on how it works, and that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: The unfortunate and particularly American problem of school shootings had schools and law enforcement constantly looking for ways to stop the often deadly violence before it happens.

[18:30:09]

One question, could drones be the answer?

A handful of states are now looking at placing small flying devices throughout school hallways. But how exactly would they detect danger and what are the risks?

CNN Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean got a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, pilots good to go.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Here in this Austin, Texas middle school, we're seeing how to stop a school shooting with a swarm of tiny drones. It's a new idea ripped from the world of indoor drone racing, placing a nest of drones inside hallways.

So, what do you guys call this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've just been calling it the box.

MUNTEAN: And launching them remotely the moment a lockdown begins.

JUSTIN MARSTON, CAMPUS GUARDIAN ANGEL: So, in a school shooting, most of the death happens in the first two minutes, and it's really hard to get an effective response there in that first two minutes.

MUNTEAN: Justin Marston is the founder of Campus Guardian Angel, the Texas startup that envisions drones mounted on the wall of every school nationwide waiting for an emergency.

For now, the system is still in trials here in Texas with a pilot program launching in Florida and lawmakers in Georgia considering it next.

MARSTON: As soon as people see it, it becomes really obvious and compelling.

MUNTEAN: To prove it, I got to watch a test live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bye. MUNTEAN: For this demonstration, the drone operators are right at our side instead of in a control room where they navigate using a 3D scan of the school's interior.

Part one, speed, the drones ripped through halls scanning for a threat and feeding point of video back in real time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as I can find him, five seconds later, I can be flying.

MUNTEAN: Bill King is a former Navy SEAL and co-founder of Campus Guardian Angel. Live drone video can be relayed to police giving them a clearer picture before they move in.

So, we've moved on to a different part of the demo now that apparently requires safety glasses.

The team here has now pulled out a stand-in shooter. His name --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Silent Bob.

MUNTEAN: Silent Bob?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because he never complains.

MUNTEAN: Even as he is pelted with pepper spray balls, enough to stop a real shooter. Even an unarmed drone can still pack a punch and can subdue a shooter by ramming into them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.

RICK GOODRICH, BOERNE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: Anything that causes that distraction, anything that takes their attention away from potential victims is a win.

MUNTEAN: Rick Goodrich is the chief of safety and security for a school district near San Antonio.

GOODRICH: When a drone enters the room, it's the only thing you're thinking about.

MUNTEAN: Campus Guardian Angel admits this system will not be cheap, costing schools about as much as a school police officer's salary and benefits. This technology is still in its early phases and has never been used in an actual school shooting. But the hope is this can be an emerging tool in a fight with no easy answers.

MARSTON: If we see somebody murdering children, we want to stop them murdering children.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): We're about to see how this works beyond just a demonstration. Florida's first pilot program launches tomorrow at a high school in Deltona. But not everyone is convinced this system is a game changer because some critics argue it may not offer much beyond what security cameras already provide and question whether it's the best use of already tight school budgets.

So, as this rolls out, it won't just be how this works or whether this works, but whether schools find that this is really worth it.

TAPPER: All right, Pete Muntean, fascinating.

We have some breaking news now. Brand new video just released from the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and the suspect in the moments right before Saturday night's shooting. We're going to have that next.

My next guest was hired to test out an A.I. chatbot. Before it was released to the public, he was so alarmed by what he saw, that he has a warning for all of us. The latest installment of our series, A.I., Friend or Foe, is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

TAPPER: The latest in our Lead and our special series, A.I., Friend or Foe now. We look at stories that highlight both the benefits and the risks of this developing technology. Here's a risk, a report from The New York Times describes a chilling encounter between an A.I. chatbot and a microbiologist hired by an A.I. company to test its biosecurity.

Now, the chatbot explained to Dr. David Relman in detail how he could modify a virus to create a superbug that would be resistant to every known treatment. And then the chatbot went further. It outlined how to release the virus. It identified vulnerabilities in a major public transit system where that virus could be released. Why? For maximum casualties. The chatbot even suggested ways for Relman to avoid getting caught.

Now, the tech company has since added new safety guardrails, they say. Relman says those guardrails aren't enough.

And here with us now, Dr. David Relman. Dr. Realman, after the chatbot gave you detailed instructions for how to release this virus to cause mass murder, a mass casualty event, you said you were so shaken, you took a walk to clear your head. What was going through your mind during that walk?

DR. DAVID RELMAN, MICROBIOLOGIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: I was really sobered by the whole experience. I was prepared to hear it provide useful information, but when it went beyond literally the questions that I was asking and thought ahead about where the obstacles might lie and how to get around them and how really to be most successful in ways I hadn't even thought about, I just thought we're at a different place in this whole ongoing saga.

TAPPER: You've said that the guardrails that the company added after the exchange aren't enough. Can you tell us what safeguards did they put in place and what more do you think needs to be done? RELMAN: Yes. Well, I think this is -- you know, this is an ongoing struggle. The companies, of course, are -- have put constraints into their models so that they refuse to answer questions that are clearly motivated by, you know, an interest in doing harm. But we all know that there are ways of getting around those refusals. And you can, you know, get around them by pretending to have altruistic or beneficial purposes that easily fool these models.

So, I'm not at all reassured that we have enough or have fought enough about how to really manage this problem.

[18:40:02]

TAPPER: Yes, no. We did a piece, the last one, the A.I., Friend or Foe, that we did was about a chatbot talking to somebody who became the FSU shooter. And it wouldn't give him the instructions on how to make a Molotov cocktail, but it would tell him right -- after he talked about suicidal and feeling isolated, it would tell him how to load a gun, the best ammo, when the school lunch area was the most packed. So, it really doesn't understand humans at all, even if it can answer questions.

Even when A.I. models get new guardrails, the older versions are also still available often, and the times asked a different chatbot about using a pathogen to threaten agriculture. It refused. It suggested using an older model The Times did that. And then the older version described the optimal conditions to wipe out thousands of acres of a key crop.

Were you able to test the bot after the guardrails were added? Do you know whether the older version is still available out there?

RELMAN: I haven't extensively tested that idea, but I can tell you one thing. Even with the current guardrails included, models, if you simply say something like, hey, look, I work for the FBI. I need to understand how a bad person would go about doing bad thing so that I can thwart them. Or my job is to develop countermeasures, drugs, and vaccines, I need to know what's the worst thing that could come at us from Mother Nature? What do I do?

And that's -- you know, that's the kind of thinking that a chatbot will recognize as potentially a beneficial use or well-intentioned and answer without hesitation.

TAPPER: Now, despite the warning, there are experts who say a major biological attack remains unlikely. What do you think?

RELMAN: I think this, we can disagree on how likely it is that today these chat bots will enable a novice or someone modestly skilled in carrying out a major biological attack, we can disagree on that. But one thing we all agree on is that these models are advancing so quickly that if not today, then a month from now or by year's end, that novice or modestly skilled individual will be able to do a whole lot more harm than we might agree upon today.

I'm worried about the trends, and I think we're in a state of denial. We're just unwilling to confront what's coming down the rails at accelerating speed.

TAPPER: Yes. And it's not as though our Congress or our government are doing anything. They're just sitting there watching it happen and taking tech money.

Dr. David Relman, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

TAPPER: And we have some more breaking news. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., just released new video of the suspect accused of trying to assassinate President Trump and other members of his cabinet on Saturday night.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here to walk us through this new video. Katelyn, walk us through it.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we hadn't seen this before and it's something that the U.S. attorney's office wanted to give to the court. They have now. And what the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, says this shows is it shows Cole Allen casing the area in the Hilton Hotel the day before the attack. So, you see him there walking down a hallway, unclear exactly which hallway that is, but some of it may not be guest rooms given the double doors there.

TAPPER: Yes.

POLANTZ: There's also another section of this video where he is -- this would also be him supposedly casing the area at the gym of the hotel going in.

But the piece of this that has been looked at quite closely, and we still are looking at very closely to see exactly what it portrays, is the part where Jeanine Pirro says it shows Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service Officer during his attempt to assassinate the president at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. She also says there's no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire, meaning fire between Secret Service officials, as this man ran through the magnetometers.

You'll see in this video in a minute. He does run, he comes out and he runs through the mags. And there is -- there are shots that are fired there. This video is much clearer than previous footage available. The Washington Post appeared to look at something very like this and wrote a story about it and noted that they didn't see the muzzle flash of his rifle. And in court filings, what the Justice Department said as of yesterday was that when he fired his rifle, it fired.

TAPPER: Here's a slowdown version of it.

POLANTZ: Yes. There he comes through the mags and they are highlighting him.

[18:45:00]

I don't know if that means that that's when he is shooting at that officer. That officer that's highlighted then is the one that's shooting back at him.

But the court filings and the affidavit says that he shoots that rifle off toward the stairs, which, I mean, you and I both know what this area looks like. Those stairs are in a different direction than, than the way that he's running until the very end. So, there's a lot of questions right now of did he attempt and intently fire toward the Secret Service official? How was that Secret Service agent hit before the Secret Service agent fired back?

That is -- this is clearly going to become part of the case. It's a little unusual. The U.S. attorney is releasing it right now because nobody's disputing what happened here. Given that there were shots fired and this man was apprehended and charged with several very serious violent crimes.

But right now, this is what the Justice Department wants to release. They've sent it to the district court. There's not another hearing in this case until May 11th. And there's still no indictment. So a grand jury will also very likely be looking at this and looking quite closely on what exactly it means.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And we should note this is this is from the Hilton, but it's also one floor above where the event was, right? I mean, because so just to reiterate, not that this wasn't a very serious offense, but the Secret Service stopped him before he was even able to get to the floor where the president and the cabinet were, which is an important reminder, because there's a lot of talk about secret service failures here.

I think it's important to remember they didn't -- the guy didn't even get to the floor. They did. President was, that's important. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

President Trump just weighed in on reports that "The Apprentice" TV show could be making a comeback with his son, Don Jr., as the host.

We're going to break down this and other Trump headlines with the esteemed Maggie Haberman. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Great king, the greatest king in my book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:50:02]

TAPPER: The great king. The greatest king. A farewell fit for a king.

King Charles, Queen Camilla, rather, wrapped their four-day state visit to the U.S. today, stopping by to say goodbye to President Trump and the first lady at the White House.

CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times" joins us now.

Maggie, so good to see you.

So after the royals left the White House today, President Trump posted on Truth Social, quote, "In honor of the king and queen of the United Kingdom, I will be removing the tariffs and restrictions on whiskey having to do with Scotland's ability to work with the commonwealth of Kentucky on whiskey and bourbon. The king and queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do without, hardly even asking," unquote.

I have to say, the royal visit has really been a master class by the king and maybe the queen, for all I know, in how to win over President Trump.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Completely, Jake. I mean, I think that you've seen the king and queen have a very light and deft touch with the president. It's obviously a relationship that the royal family has wanted to preserve and keep good. And we saw that last year with President Trump's visit to the U.K. And this is the reciprocation.

I will say that it continues to be very interesting to look at the trajectory of the kings trip, and it involved a speech before Congress reminding Americans what they gained in breaking free from the monarchy in the first place hundreds of years ago, and also then visiting Ground Zero in New York, which, you know, underscored a point he made in that same speech that the last time that the only time that article five of NATO had to be invoked was when the U.S. was attacked.

And so, it was a little like watching two different trips, frankly, Jake. I mean, there was the part that President Trump was enjoying, which was the pomp. And then there was what the king was focused on, which was the relationship.

TAPPER: The circumstance I thought you were going to say, but yes, absolutely. From Trump's friends --

HABERMAN: That, too.

TAPPER: From Trump's friends to Trump's foes, President Trump still not letting go of his feud with Jimmy Kimmel. Trump hosting today, quote, "When is ABC fake news network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel it better be soon, three exclamation points."

What's your take on what this fight is really about? Because again, there's no evidence. Even if people hated the joke that Jimmy Kimmel made, there's no evidence that it had anything to do with what happened Saturday night.

HABERMAN: I can't profess to understand exactly why they're leaning in this hard on this. You know, obviously you saw that the first lady say something because she was partly with the joke was about people don't have to like every single joke. People can actually find jokes distasteful or, you know, find them unfunny or unfair or what have you. But this is -- this is free speech. And you know, that is -- that is

the essence of what Trump claimed to be fighting for in 2024, after saying that the censorious left had cracked down on conservatives too much. And now he is using the apparatus of government to go after a network over this joke.

Again, to your point, there's -- there's just no evidence that we have seen, and I think they would have shown us the governor if it existed at this point. But, you know, maybe I'm wrong that that joke had anything to do with what we saw from this alleged gunman at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night.

I do also just I want to underscore, Jake, that I mean, one of the things that is striking here is President Trump celebrated when Rob -- I mean, you know, not -- I shouldn't say celebrated, but President Trump said something insensitive at best when Rob Reiner and his wife were killed, allegedly by their child. That has -- he was still entitled to say that whatever anybody thought. So, anyway --

TAPPER: He celebrated when Bob Mueller died. So I mean --

HABERMAN: Right.

TAPPER: -- there is -- there are a lot of standards here. Maggie Haberman, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

They ditched the PGA tour for promises of less work, more money. But life just got a lot more complicated for those golfers who jumped ship to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. I guess you live and learn, or do you?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:42]

TAPPER: In our sports lead, it might be the end of the road for LIV Golf, right in the sand trap. Just four years after it set out to revolutionize the sport, the league's Saudi backers are pulling funding at the end of the season, leaving LIV to look for new investors. It appears the league's players are already looking for an exit strategy, with ESPN reporting representatives for multiple golfers have reached out to the PGA tour to ask about a path for returning.

Joining us now to discuss, golf journalist Dan Rapaport.

Dan, Saudi funding was very controversial from the beginning. Does LIV Golf have any viable path for replacing that funding?

DAN RAPAPORT, GOLF JOURNALIST: Not in its current iteration, not in the form that pays $30 million in prize money every single week. Now, you know, I've been talking to sources today that have said they are meeting with private equity companies that see an opportunity here, distressed asset. Maybe they can get in. But one thing golfers don't like doing is playing for less money one

year than they were playing for the year before. So unless they can raise the like the same amount of money in the same amount of purses going forward, the players aren't going to have interest. So that's the real problem. The players have grown accustomed to a certain level of money coming in, and its going to be very, very difficult without the Saudis to keep that going.

TAPPER: So, Brooks Koepka accepted significant penalties in order to return to the PGA tour after leaving LIV golf. When it comes to other players who now will presumably want to return, the chief executive of the PGA tour tells "The Wall Street Journal", quote, there were rules and they were broken. With rules comes accountability.

So what do you think a path to returning to the PGA tour looks like?

RAPAPORT: So there were two guys who left LIV at the end of last season to come back to the PGA tour. Brooks Koepka, the one you mentioned he was, you know, welcomed back right away, and this returning member program. But I think the more kind of illustrative one is Patrick Reed.

So he left LIV at the end of last season. He's actually sitting out a full year suspension. So he's not eligible to start playing on the PGA tour again until the end of August. I think that's what's going to happen. I think these guys are going to be on a one year suspension from whatever the last live event they play. So if they play through the rest of the season, that's the, you know, end of August and they'll be eligible to return to the PGA tour in August 2027.

But they gave that deal to Brooks Koepka because LIV still existed. So they saw a window where they could, you know, give a death blow to live by taking one of their best players. Now, if LIV is going out on their own, there's no real incentive for the PGA tour to hand them an olive branch.

TAPPER: Those are the executives when it comes to the golfers on the tour. Let's -- let's -- I mean, do they even want the LIV players back, the guys on PGA?

RAPAPORT: Yeah, I think -- I think they do. I mean, there's certainly a couple I mean there's -- there's really two, Bryson DeChambeau, who's by far the biggest, you know, star on LIV, at least American star. And he's been one of the most popular players in the world, especially among young people because of all his work on YouTube golf. And there's Jon Rahm, who's, you know, consensus top five player in the world.

So there are definitely a couple of stars who I think the other players want back because more eyeballs, more dollars media rights deal coming up in a couple of years. But there are a lot of golfers kind of the middle class on LIV and below that, who, they're going to be stuck without a paddle. They're going to go back to the European tour. They're going to have to try to get through qualifying school. They're going to have to play maybe the minor leagues, the PGA tour, to try to get their way back. But look, these guys got a lot of money. They got paid a ton of money

to do this because it was such a risk. They knew this could potentially happen and it has happened, but they have tens of millions of dollars in their pocket.

TAPPER: Yeah, nobody's crying for them. I appreciate that.

Dan Rapaport, thank you so much.

And 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.

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