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The Lead with Jake Tapper
DOJ Creates $1.776B "Anti-Weaponization Fund" For Trump's Allies; Countries Scramble To Contain New Ebola Outbreak; Police Provides Update On San Diego Mosque Shooting. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired May 18, 2026 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
MARK REMILY, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI: Good afternoon. My name is Mark Remily. I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office. Today, the FBI responded to assist our local law enforcement partners at the Islamic Center of San Diego. This was based on reports of an active shooter.
As the chief said, what we know at this time is that there are three deceased adult males. Those are the presumed victims at this time. On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the victims of this tragic incident. There were two subjects, both teenagers and both are confirmed deceased. I want to thank our local law enforcement partners for their quick response that undoubtedly saved the additional loss of life.
The FBI is meticulously assessing the situation and is prepared to employ every resource we have to uncover the facts of this incident. No community should have to go through such a tragic incident, but we will work tirelessly until we learn the truth. We have on scene a number of special agents, task force officers, our evidence response personnel, victim specialists, and many more.
As we work through this investigation, we ask for your patience to determine any motive and facts associated with the shooting. The FBI continues to ask for the public's help in providing any information that could help us resolve this investigation, and we remind the public that any detail, no matter how small, could be useful. The FBI has set up a digital media tip line for information regarding the shooting. We ask that the public submit their tips to FBI.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI with any information you may have. Thank you.
CHIEF SCOTT WAHL, CHIEF OF POLICE, SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: One more piece of information that I failed to put out. There is a reunification center set up at 4125 Hathaway, where parents can be reunified with their kids and any other loved ones that might be related to the Islamic Center. That is the location where you can be reunified. Next, I want to bring up the mayor of San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria.
MAYOR TODD GLORIA, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: Thank you, chief. I want to be here to reemphasize what our police chief said. The threat currently has been addressed. Children are safe and that is a good thing. Obviously, we've had the loss of life here at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
And to our local Muslim community, my prayers are with you. I want to assure our Muslim community that we will do everything it takes to make sure that you can feel safe in this city. Those resources will be spared in making sure that our religious institutions and locations are protected in this sensitive time.
I want to express my appreciation to the San Diegans who responded to our calls to clear the area, to allow law enforcement to do their jobs. I ask you to continue to do that until you hear otherwise. As chief said, students can be picked up at the church just down the street here. That information already sent out.
Lastly, I would just say, at this time, obviously, we'll have more comments later today, but at this moment, I want to simply express my immense gratitude and that of all 1.4 million San Diegans for the incredible law enforcement response that we saw here today. As Chief mentioned, a response within four minutes. This is what we train for, this is what we budget for, this is what we ask of our public safety professionals, and they absolutely delivering the way that we ask them to do so.
I appreciate our San Diego Police Department, our San Diego Fire Rescue Department, our chief of the fire department is here as well, as well as our local, state and federal partners, many of whom have been in touch with me directly, recognizing the gravity of this situation and why it is so such a tragic situation for which there will be a lot more work to be done in the days, weeks and months ahead.
Again, my condolences to the victims and their families, to our Muslim community. One of our great leaders is here, Imam Taha, who is directly impacted. This is a time for making sure that we do everything that's necessary, to investigate and fully address the incident that was here today, but to reassert, as I always will, that hate has no place in the city of San Diego, and when it happens and crime of any nature occurs, we will hold you accountable. Again, appreciation to our public safety professionals. I'll turn it back to our chief.
WAHL: I'll open it up to questions here in just a second. I want you to keep in mind, we're giving you what we have and what we know at this point.
[17:05:00]
There's a limitation to what we can go into at this point until we can confirm information. So, with that, we'll open up to a couple questions.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Chief, there are five in total? (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Yes. So, thank you for asking. How many total deceased? So, we have our two suspects that are deceased, we have three victims at the Islamic Center, all three are adults, for a total of five people that are deceased related to this incident. UNKNOWN (voice-over): I want to just confirm (INAUDIBLE) that was asked this morning, if that was in connection to this (INAUDIBLE) 911 saying (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Yes --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): One of the suspects here (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Yes. So, we're actively investigating that right now to figure out and piece together exactly what led to this moment. And as we get that information confirmed and verified, we'll be back out here providing more details moving forward.
(CROSSTALK)
WAHL: So, the suspects at this point appear to have died from self- inflicted gunshot wounds. There were no officers involved in firing their weapons. But that is still very preliminary at this point. But that's what we believe right now.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Chief, are the suspects two males?
WAHL: Two males.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): What ages, sir? (ph)
WAHL: At this point, we believe them to be 17 and 19.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): The suspects' identities were put out (INAUDIBLE) planned this and people are aware of what happened?
WAHL: So, again, we are actively investigating the things that led up to this. Obviously, these things don't typically just happen on a whim. The information that we knew preceding it is what we're actively looking into. Once we get that information verified and assembled, we will provide it. Yes, ma'am.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Yes. So, the Islamic Center does have security. One of deceased is a security guard that works there, and I think played a pivotal role in assisting from this being much worse.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Yes. Yes, the Islamic Center does have cameras and there is footage. There's going to be a tremendous amount of information and details that we're going to try to sort and put this puzzle back together again.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Not confirmed.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: No, we don't.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE). Is that something (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Shannon (ph), you know, I don't necessarily know, you know, which locations were put on, you know, a lockdown. There are other neighboring schools in the area. It's standard protocol. When information like this comes out with an active shooter, we try our best to get that information out and either shelter in place or evacuate from the area if it's -- if it's ideally safe to do so. So that would not be outside of protocol for that to happen.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): One more question. Yes.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): When they (INAUDIBLE) the scene, (INAUDIBLE) or they were not inside of the (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: So, our initial officers that got on scene did not engage with the suspects in the parking lot. They began to make entry into the Islamic Center. They observed three deceased bodies outside of the center, which, you know, obviously, forced them to engage in an active shooter response, immediately deploy inside of the Islamic Center and start working from room to room. They did have to breach doors to get into all of the different rooms. Extremely chaotic.
There were somewhere between 50 to 100 police officers inside of that facility. All of you that responded here could see how many officers and deputies from around the county that were surrounding the outside of the facility.
We also have the scene a couple blocks away where we had active gunfire coming in on a landscaper that was just out there doing his job. Thankfully, he's okay, was not hit.
[17:10:00]
He was not -- he was not injured. But we got a lot of work to do to try to figure out what led up to this and exactly what actions took place. But I can tell you with 100 percent certainty, the heroic actions of the responding officers and deputies is beyond words. To know that this many of our public servants are willing to leave their loved ones behind, drop what they're doing and run towards gunfire without asking any questions is remarkable.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
WAHL: Not yet. We're obviously making notifications as we speak to family and loved ones. And so, I want to respect that. So, we will be back. We will be back with more information a little bit later today. Thank you, guys.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) like to say anything?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN LEAD WASHINGTON ANCHOR: All right, welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. We have been listening to authorities in San Diego, specifically San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl, updating after a deadly shooting at the largest mosque in San Diego County, California. The imam is speaking. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IMAM TAHA HASSANE, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC CENTER OF SAN DIEGO: And at this moment, all what I can say is sending our prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here. And also, the other mosques and all the places of worship in our beautiful city should always be protected. It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship. Our Islamic Center is a place of worship. People come to the Islamic Center to pray, to celebrate, to learn. Not only Muslims, but we have people from all walks of life. Just this morning, earlier, a group of people, non-Muslims coming just to learn about our faith and our cultures. So, this is something that we have never expected. And I would like also to thank all the people who contacted us from all over the country and even from overseas to give condolences and to ask about is there anything they can do to help. And I would like also to thank our local authorities, our San Diego Police Department, the FBI, the San Diego Police Department, FBI, and all the sheriff's department, our mayor for showing up and standing in solidarity with us. So, this is what I have to say. Thank you so much.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Did you know the three victims?
WAHL: Thank you very much. That's all the time we have right now. We will come back in two hours. We will also set up for Spanish interviews.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: That was Imam Taha Hassane of the Islamic Center of San Diego talking about how no one should ever attack a place of faith like the Islamic Center of San Diego. Police confirming that three adults, adult males, were killed at the Islamic Center by, they believe, two shooters, a source tells CNN. One of the people killed included a security guard. There were two suspected shooters. The FBI says they are believed to be, have been rather, ages 17 and 19, and they were found dead after what is believed to be self-inflicted wounds. You can see the large response there in our shot there. Law enforcement covering a wide area there. Police say any chance of a threat, they believe, is now neutralized.
Let's get right to CNN's Josh Campbell, who's a former FBI official. Josh, what do we know about what went on here?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we got some critical information from the San Diego police chief, specifically the timeline. What he said is just a little over two hours ago, authorities were called to the Islamic Center of San Diego due to reports of gunshots. He said they arrived within about four minutes, police did, and then found these three men victims in the parking lot of the mosque. He said authorities then went to try to enter the mosque. As they often do, they'll try to identify any potential shooter.
But then police got calls of yet more shots fired at another area near the mosque. They then went to that location. They said they learned that there was a landscaper there who had been fired upon, but thankfully was not struck by bullets.
[17:14:55]
But here, I have to admit, Jake, is the most strange, bizarre, however you want to describe that part, authorities say that they found two men ages 17 and 19 in a vehicle they believe to be the suspects. They believe they died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
That raises a lot of questions about, who those people are, but obviously what potential motivation there was here. We have had this question over the last couple hours, whether the shooter or shooters, plural, may have been associated with this mosque or whether this was complete, you know, targeted violence from the outside.
We did appear to get some indication of an answer to that from the police chief because he said that they have now brought in the FBI, the San Diego field office. He said they are treating this as a hate crime until they've determined that it's not. And, of course, what that signals to us is that that would not appear to be someone who was a member of the Islamic Center there if they're describing this as a hate crime. But again, a lot of questions here.
You know, we've covered, you and I, so many acts of mass violence in this country, so many shootings. Rarely do you ever see two people engaged in the same type of targeted act of violence in a shooting. But here, authorities say they believe that these two teens are indeed the suspects. A lot of questions about who they are, what the motivation was, and obviously why they decided to take their own lives outside these houses of worship. A lot of -- we often say that there are lot of questions, more questions than answers. This is truly one of those very peculiar situations that authorities are trying to get to the bottom of, Jake.
TAPPER: Yes. Josh Campbell, stay with me. I want to bring in Steve Moore, who's a former supervising special agent with the FBI, along with Josh Schirard, a former police captain and civilian active shooter trainer. Steve Moore, what was your first reaction to what we heard from police, the San Diego Police Department, about the shooting at the largest mosque in San Diego County?
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: I was kind of surprised at the fact that we didn't know that there were five fatalities until now. It obviously happened in a very short amount of time when -- and they found the shooters fairly quickly.
What's interesting to me, Jake, is that, obviously, two shooters, you rarely get that. The other thing is that I responded to an active shooter one time who went to a Jewish community center. And after escaping from the Jewish community center, he shot a postal worker who was non-white. And the reason was he was a white supremacist, and that was fair game for him.
The fact that they just ran randomly shot at a gardener makes me wonder if they had an agenda that would involve, I don't know, white supremacy, something like that, that would cause an anger at Muslims and at the same time people who might appear not to be citizens.
TAPPER: Josh Sherrard, police said the suspected shooters appeared to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. They were 17, they were 19, we were told. What does that say to you?
JOSH SCHIRARD, CIVILIAN ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINER, DIRECTOR OF BYRNA LAW ENFORCEMENT, FORMER POLICE CAPTAIN: You know, the questions that we're going to have to answer concerning what would go from here is, were they involved in a larger operation? We're going to need to be digging into investigating their homes, their digital apps, social media accounts, discords that may have been a part of.
Wondering if they were part of a larger organization or group and wondering if this is just the first in a series of possible targeted attacks. Like Josh and Steve both pointed out, we don't see multiple shooters in these attacks very often. The vast majority of active shooters across the country for the last 25 years have been lone wolves. Is this part of a larger organization that we need to be concerned with? We need to rule that out as quick as possible, especially when we're talking about this age group that is very, very susceptible to that radicalization as we've seen over the last several years.
TAPPER: Josh Campbell, how unusual is it when there are horrific mass shootings like this one, how unusual is it for there to be more than one shooter?
CAMPBELL: It's exceedingly rare. I mean, we almost never see it. We talk about the number of acts of violence that happen in this country involving firearms. Rarely do you see two people involved or two people or more trying to go toward the same target. We have seen incidents where people are firing at each other, and they end up striking people. Again, this is very rare.
We've seen incidents. I'm in Los Angeles over in the San Bernardino area several years ago. There was a terrorist attack at a government building that involved multiple fatalities, that involved a man and a wife, two actual shooters. But, again, this is very rare.
[17:20:00]
But this does raise a lot of questions, a lot of work for law enforcement ahead. And just to break this down, I mean, we're seeing the images on what the scene looked like at the time whenever police were responding. But now that it's secure, they believe that there's no longer a threat, they believe the suspects have now been neutralized and are deceased. They have to work to try to identify them, but they also have to scour that area to gather any potential evidence that they can.
These two people aren't going to be prosecuted, obviously, but they will try to work to determine, was there someone else who might have been assisting in this? We're not saying that that's the case right now, but that is textbook, something that authorities want to determine. Is this a group of people that were inspired to conduct an act of violence, targeting Muslims? Was this something much different? Was this, you know, targeting specifically the people who were indeed injured and then killed? Again, a lot of questions.
And then opening the aperture. We know the FBI is now on the scene. They would not only be assisting with the crime scene forensics. But the authorities have said they're going to treat this as a hate crime until it's not. If it turns out that these two men have some other connections elsewhere around the country, which we've seen a lot of instances, the FBI would then be able to work with their resources around the country.
And then the final thing I'll note is, sometimes, whenever you see an act of targeted violence, people are proud. They'll actually leave behind some type of, you know, note or communication or so-called manifesto indicating why they did what they did. A lot of times, they often don't, which obviously makes it much more difficult for authorities to try to get to that motive.
There won't be a prosecution of these two individuals, but authorities still want to identify what was it that inspired this. Oftentimes, that will involve looking at the electronic media of these individuals if they have it, social media if they have it. All of that is where you see federal investigators coming in. They work very closely with the very social media and online companies as well to try to gather information as quickly as they can, again, to try to rule out, to make sure there isn't someone else out there who may have known what was about to happen.
TAPPER: Josh Schirard, wat more are you hoping to learn about the motive for this? Obviously, law enforcement saying that they are presuming this is a hate crime until that is disproven.
SCHIRARD: You know, the hate crime tag on this crime really doesn't change the way it's investigated. It may be changing the way that it's prosecuted down the road, but it's going to be investigated like any other attack. That's exactly how it needs to be.
Understanding the motive between these two teams, interviewing those friends and family, understanding where they came from, and then, as Josh Campbell just pointed out, again, making sure that this isn't part of a larger organization. Is this a group that we need to be concerned with? Are there further attacks that we need to be concerned with?
We also have to take a look at the way that this was carried out. We've got two shooters that didn't make it inside the building. Now, we don't know what their plan was but, most likely, it was to do as much damage as possible, which means getting inside. But that little bit of resistance, having that security guard outside, seemingly prevented them from making it inside.
So, as law enforcement professionals, as religious organizations, as educational institutions, public places, everything, should take a look at this and see how they can start to harden themselves against attacks like this.
Look, we've done everything we can over last 25 years to prevent this. What happens is we keep missing the mark. And the only way to save lives in the future is to harden ourselves as targets. And right now, we know that we've seen an escalation in this violence, especially politically-driven and religiously-driven as well. We have to harden ourselves from targets and learn from this incident.
TAPPER: And Josh Schirard, thankfully, no children were hurt. That's one of the only parts -- only tidbits of good news from this whole horrific affair. We're looking at video right now of kids being escorted out, walking hand in hand out of the Islamic Center in San Diego. There were children there. How do you train people to react when kids' lives could be in jeopardy in such a situation?
SCHIRARD: You know, over the last two decades, I've been training both police officers and civilians alike and responded to an active shooter at a high school and had to deal with these children as they're running out of the school and we're moving them somewhere safe. And really, it goes back into that preparation. It goes back into that training.
I understand it's nothing that we want to do. We don't want to do the active shooter training. It's very, very difficult to process and to think about. But there's a reason that we do fire drills every month or six weeks or whatnot. Nobody died in a fire, decades, because we've prepared for it. The same can happen if we prepare for this. If we train them how to respond, which is exactly what it looks like they did, we will save lives. We've seen it time and time again, that if they understand how to act in these circumstances, it will save lives, and that's why this is so important.
TAPPER: All right. Thanks to everyone. Appreciate your insights. We're going to continue to follow the breaking news, this deadly shooting at a mosque in San Diego, the biggest one in San Diego, the Islamic Center of San Diego.
[17:25:04]
Three adult males killed. Sources telling CNN that a security guard at the Islamic Center was among the three victims. We're also following an unprecedented move by the Trump administration, creating a 1.8 or rather 1.776 billion-dollar fund of your taxpayer dollars to compensate allies of the president, those who claim to have been unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. We're going to talk about that with FBI Director James Comey next here on "The Lead."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In our "Law and Justice Lead," the latest on President Trump's second term in which he seems to be punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends and allies. A particularly stunning example of this, a brand-new one, is to be funded by you, the taxpayers.
[17:29:59]
Today, the Justice Department announced $1.776 billion, so-called anti-weaponization fund, to pay Trump's allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, potentially including January 6th defendants who beat up police officers. The 1.776 symbolic figure, $1.776 billion, marking the Declaration of Independence, of course. This newly created fund is part of a settlement in exchange for President Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.
The Justice Department says that Trump and his sons and his family business will get formal apologies, but they will not get any money from the fund. Oh, and the five people who will run the fund will be handpicked by the U.S. Attorney General, or in this case, Trump's former personal attorney acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. Trump will have the power to fire any of them, we're told.
And for those who want to make claims against the Justice Department for this stuff, they have until December 2028. That's a month before Trump's second term ends. There's also a legal disclaimer about the funds. The Justice Department says, "Once the funds are deposited into the designated account, the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse of the funds.
So if these funds are used to commit crimes, the Justice Department is saying that's not our fault. Now, this will likely face immediate legal challenges, the formation of this fund, but the move to use taxpayer money to pay Trump's allies is rather unprecedented, one, some critics see as a political slush fund.
Here in the studio with me is former FBI Director James Comey. He's also the author of a brand new novel called "The Red Verdict." We'll get to that in one sec, but thank you so much for being here, Director Comey. What is your reaction to the creation of the so-called anti- weaponization fund?
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I first thought it was a piece from The Onion because it can't be serious. It appears that they're serious. It's to compensate people who've been targeted by the Justice Department for, they say, personal, political, or ideological reasons. So I'm guessing I'll be in line. I hope I'll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sack the Capitol.
TAPPER: Are you going to apply?
COMEY: I'll talk to my lawyers, but it certainly sounds intended for someone like me.
TAPPER: I don't think that that's how it's intended, but I understand what you're saying. You are facing a second indictment, of course, this one over allegations that you threatened Trump by posting this photograph online on Instagram, a photo of seashells on the beach arranged to write 8647. I know you don't want to talk about the case because it's an actual active case and it may go to trial.
You have said you expect Trump and his administration to keep coming after you. They went after you once before with a different alleged crime that fell apart. What else do you think they might go after you for? COMEY: I don't know, but as I've told my family, we just have to be prepared that his obsession with me and John Brennan and Letitia James and others is not going to go away until he leaves office. So he will push them to do something else.
TAPPER: You spoke with CNN's Kaitlan Collins last week. You said that you hoped that Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, would look at his time working at the Southern District of New York, one of the most respected U.S. attorneys office. And remember, "The standards and the norms that have made the Department of Justice special for a long time." He's behind this fund. Do you still have those hopes for him?
COMEY: Well, I still hope he'll look at those standards and norms and try to conform his behavior in the departments to the way it ought to be and bipartisan basis ought to be.
TAPPER: Well, here's Todd Blanche on "Fox" just yesterday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The whole Russia hoax, there was absolutely nothing to it. And so the question that the American people have to ask is, well, then why did they do it? That's what we're studying right now, because it did great damage to this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Of course, there is evidence, despite what he said. Just look at the 2020 bipartisan report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It was led, the acting chairman at the time was Marco Rubio, who's currently Trump's secretary of state. And that report links ties between former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and the Russian government. The report says, in part, "Manafort's high level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services represented a grave counterintelligence threat." But what is your reaction to Todd Blanch calling this a Russia hoax?
COMEY: Well, I don't know whether he's met Marco Rubio, but he ought to introduce himself and read the thousand page report that the Senate Republicans and Democrats put out that verified everything that had been investigated by the FBI, validated the work of the FBI and the intelligence community. There's no fuzz on it. It's just they're apparently going to lie about it and ignore it.
TAPPER: There's also Trump's lies about the 2020 election, which he continues to falsely claim was stolen from him. And obviously, it was not. Again, Todd Blanche.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[17:35:05]
BLANCHE: There's a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. We have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia, in Fulton County, Georgia. And that's exactly what we're looking at. We're very focused on finding out whether the right people voted, whether people who were supposed to vote voted, whether there was one vote cast per voter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What's your response to that?
COMEY: Is any job worth compromising yourself in that way? I gather that he wants to be attorney general. But really, how far will one go for a job?
TAPPER: So let's talk about your new novel. It's called "Red Verdict." It touches on the role of artificial intelligence and drone warfare, the difficulties of prosecuting espionage. What more can readers expect from this? And how did you draw on your experience in the FBI to write this?
COMEY: Well, it's a fictional story because I can't tell real FBI counterintelligence stories. But what's real is both the way it feels inside a counterintelligence investigation and the way the people are. My characters are flawed because all humans are, but they're fundamentally honest people trying to get it right. That's the way it is in overwhelming Maine inside these organizations. And I want to inspire people with cool stories, but also show them this is how it is and how it must be if we're going to be healthy.
TAPPER: Why is it difficult to prosecute espionage?
COMEY: Because you have to protect information. You can't allow your effort to try and bring to justice a spy to expose secrets that the spy wanted to expose.
TAPPER: What was your reaction to Pam Bondi being fired?
COMEY: Well, I gather her standards were too high, which surprised me. So that may be what you're witnessing now is a race to the bottom. But I don't have any insight inside. I guess she was going to move to some important private sector job. I haven't seen the announcement yet.
TAPPER: You're -- you've been a tough critic of Donald Trump for a long time. And I'm wondering we're about a year and change into his second term. What's been your reaction been so far to this term as opposed to the first?
COMEY: There are no guardrails. There is no one trying to sneak a piece of paper off his desk or humor him or distract him with a shiny object to get him away from something. You are seeing the government run by Donald Trump's three in the morning obsession on social media. And people are just carrying out his wishes. That's a scary place to be. I prefer to think of it as we have two and a half years to go. We'll get there. It's just going to be a very difficult ride.
TAPPER: There were incidents of that have given Donald Trump and his supporters fuel. This -- the Lisa Page struck Peter struck text messages and e-mails. There was that false presentation to the to the FISA court by an FBI official. I mean these individuals have been punished et cetera. I don't know how many of those happened while you were FBI director versus before or after. But what do you what do you make of that. I mean there is evidence not that there's a Russia hoax or anything like that. But there were people who their behavior didn't stand up to scrutiny.
COMEY: Yes. As there is unfortunately in every human endeavor of any complexity there's always going to be screw ups mistakes things that you wish shouldn't have happened. But the bottom line is read the Rubio report. If you have any doubt about the rush what the Russians did in the 2016 election.
TAPPER: I have read it. Yes. No I know it's not a hoax. I appreciate it. Again, the book is called "Red Verdict." It's out now. It's the fourth in Director Comey's novel series. James Comey thanks so much for being here.
COMEY: Great to be here.
TAPPER: We appreciate it. Good to see you.
Let's talk more about the Justice Department's unprecedented plan to compensate Trump allies with this new $1.776 billion fund. Let's bring in Scott MacFarlane the chief Washington correspondent at MeidasTouch. He's reported extensively on the January 6th riots and much of the aftermath since the Capitol attack on January 2021. Scott I can't be overstated. This is unprecedented. Tell us more about who has discretion over who is going to get any of this money in this so- called anti weaponization fund.
SCOTT MACFARLANE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK: Here's what we know Jake. We know that it's going to be appointees of the Trump administration won by Congress who will be overseen by Todd Blanche. We know this is our money. This is taxpayer money from soup to nuts top to bottom and we will not know, Jake, who gets the money how much they get. This is not a transparent process. This is all happening behind closed doors in a process that does not have transparency. We also know this is a political albatross for Republicans.
If I handed you, Jake, copies of every supportive triumphant statement from Republicans backing this fund today you would be holding no papers in your hand. This is like a rotten egg salad sandwich politically for Republicans so far. Maybe that changes, maybe in the days ahead.
TAPPER: I want to read Clause D from the Justice Department's announcement of the fund. It says, "Once the funds are deposited into the designated account, the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers or any other fraud or misuse of the funds." This is -- I mean the way I read that is this is preemptively somebody -- if somebody uses this money from taxpayers to commit a crime no legal retribution for the Justice Department.
[17:40:23]
MACFARLANE: Two more things we know, Jake. First of all a number of dozens of people pardoned by Trump so far who could be eligible are convicted fraudsters. They tend to make misuses of money. But also there's one January 6th case in particular post pardon a man from Florida was arrested again in recent months convicted of molestation. According to the police report we reviewed, Jake, that defendant tried to silence the victim by promising him future Trump reparations money that he was expecting from a fund just like this. Some of the January 6th defendants, Jake, knew something like this was coming.
TAPPER: That's so sinister and awful. As you have reported the idea of this fund specifically for January 6th defendants is not new. You note a call from a Trump ally guy named Mark McCloskey. Folks out there might not remember his name. They probably remember the photograph of him and his wife standing outside their home in Missouri with a gun during the 2020 George Floyd protests. Fast forward to 2026 McCloskey was calling for this fund to be created.
MACFARLANE: McCloskey has been a focal point of this effort to get money payoffs to January 6th defendants. He didn't send a back channel secret message to Trump, Jake. He posted on social media within 24 hours of that Trump IRS suit being filed. He thinks the president should find a way to route some of the money to January 6th rioters. It has come to pass about four months later.
TAPPER: All right Scott MacFarlane thank you so much appreciate it.
We're also following a health emergency an American doctor now in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the latest cases of Ebola next to the move by the Trump administration today trying to keep the disease away from the U.S.
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TAPPER: In Our National Lead, three of the four U.S. Navy pilots who somehow managed to eject before this terrifying mid-air collision yesterday are out of the hospital. The fourth is still getting treated but for non-life threatening injuries thankfully. The planes were performing at an air show over Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. The event was canceled and the base was put on lockdown. An investigation into what went so horribly wrong is now underway.
And we have some breaking news now in our Health Lead, the CDC confirms that an American working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has tested positive for Ebola amid a much larger outbreak in the region. An International Christian Missions Organization called Serge says Dr. Peter Stafford caught Ebola while treating patients at a hospital in the region. The organization says Stafford, his wife, and their four young children, along with another doctor, will all be moved to another location for observation and treatment.
This outbreak has infected hundreds of people and caused dozens of suspected deaths, and as CNN's Larry Madowo reports for us now, the World Health Organization warns that the spread could be much larger than we currently know.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This remote corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo, now the epicenter of a deadly outbreak. More than 100 deaths so far, authorities suspect from Ebola. The U.S. CDC is scrambling to evacuate, "a small number of Americans who are directly affected."
When we heard about Ebola, we were terrified, this man says, even though the disease has affected us before, here it is again. As authorities rush to stop the spread of the virus, there is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for this strain.
The relatively rare Bundibugyo strain kills an estimated 25 to 40 percent of those who catch it, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres. Like other Ebola strains, it's highly infectious, transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people. It's also frequently spread at the funerals of its victims.
This clinic in the affected region is already treating one suspected case and is preparing for more. A doctor there telling CNN supplies of vital PPE are already starting to run low.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is a major battle, which requires enormous resources in order to save all those who can still be saved from this illness.
MADOWO (voice-over): The World Health Organization has declared this outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, but stopped short of calling it a pandemic. Experts warn cutbacks in funding by the Trump administration may limit the response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With reduced assistance into the health sector, it means that we have less resources, and therefore it's a very difficult time when it comes to responding to an outbreak like this.
MADOWO (voice-over): There are fears this new outbreak could be much larger in scale than authorities are currently aware of. The first suspected case was reported around a month ago.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
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TAPPER: And our thanks to Larry Madowo in Nairobi for that report. Let's bring in Dr. Craig Spencer. He's a public health professional at Brown University and a survivor of Ebola. He contacted the disease -- contracted the disease while caring for patients in Guinea in 2014. Dr. Spencer, thanks so much for being here. We know how an American -- we know now that an American working in the region has Ebola along with hundreds of other suspected cases. Do you think we have an accurate idea of how large this outbreak is right now?
[17:50:04] DR. CRAIG SPENCER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Absolutely not. I've been saying that the most concerning thing to me has been how much we learned, how quickly we learned it. And with learning that much that quickly, there's no doubt that this is probably much worse than what we think right now. I suspect that the true case total is much higher than what's being reported.
And I expect that to increase in the coming weeks as we increase our surveillance. I also expect there to be more deaths and unfortunately more cases. As you know, there is no treatment or vaccine for this strain of Ebola. And it's going to make it much harder for us to do this response, particularly in a zone that already has weak health infrastructure and is quite suspicious of outsiders.
TAPPER: What is it like to have Ebola? What was your experience like?
SPENCER: Imagine the worst 19 days of your life. That being said, I was pretty lucky for having the worst case scenario because I was being treated in a wonderful Western facility in New York City. I survived largely because of that. I think of the care that I was able to provide in Guinea over 12 years ago. And I think about the really tough conditions that this doctor, this American doctor who we hear has been confirmed and his family are going through, and all the other providers who are going to be taking care of patients in the coming weeks and really coming months under less ideal conditions. It makes it much, much harder and it makes the risk, unfortunately, much higher to them in terms of likelihood of infection.
TAPPER: So this is the Bundibugyo virus strain. What do we know about this particular strain and how it spreads?
SPENCER: For all intents and purposes, this spreads just like every other strain of Ebola, including the strain that was responsible for the 2014 outbreak, the Zaire strain. The only difference here is that we only have FDA approved treatments and vaccines for that Zaire strain. We do not have any treatments or vaccines for this Bundibugyo strain. That's primarily because the Zaire strain has been responsible for way more of these Ebola outbreaks in the past.
This is only the third time that we've had a documented outbreak of Bundibugyo. That means that we're going to be working with really just bread and butter public health tools to try to get this under control. That's going to be tough in ideal conditions. It's going to be much tougher in conditions like this, where you're trying to do this on top of an underlying humanitarian crisis and in the setting of a lot of cuts over the past year, primarily by the United States in our response, our detection, and our humanitarian support capacity in the region.
TAPPER: Is there any link, do you think, between the elimination of USAID by the Trump administration last year and this outbreak? Not the existence of the disease itself, but it being so big and the world learning about it after more than 100 suspected deaths have already taken place in Congo alone.
SPENCER: There is no doubt in my mind that there is a link between the U.S. and our abdication of global leadership over the past year, not only just with USAID, but also with things like CDC pulling out of the WHO. I'm certain that there's a link between that and the fact that this got out of control so quickly and the U.S. wasn't aware. On a presser yesterday, the CDC noted that they found out about the outbreak the same time we did, normally, you know, just the regular public. Normally we would know about this much earlier, the U.S. would be surging support before the rest of the world found out. We were just catching up when we should have otherwise been two steps ahead.
TAPPER: During yesterday's CDC briefing, you posted on social media, this is an absolute embarrassment, this is so non-transparent, let our CDC folks speak and share what we know, this is going to explode in your face if you don't. Do you think the U.S. right now is unprepared for how serious this outbreak could become and whether it comes to our shores?
SPENCER: Yes, absolutely. Look, we don't have the leadership we need in our public health agencies around the country. We have the same guy running the NIH, that's the acting director of the CDC. We don't have anyone in our office of pandemic preparedness and response. And we have built multiple times over the past decade the ability to coordinate quickly across agencies at the federal government. This administration has torn that infrastructure apart and so we are starting flat-footed anew, learning the same lessons that we've already learned multiple times before.
TAPPER: Yes, we also don't have an FDA commissioner or a confirmed U.S. Surgeon General and of course RFK Jr. is the HHS secretary. Dr. Craig Spencer, thank you so much, appreciate it.
SPENCER: Thank you.
TAPPER: Right now in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a last chance for Republican Thomas Massie, a congressman, in a fight to save his seat in Congress. Can he survive his Republican primary tomorrow as President Trump attacks him, repeatedly calling him a third-rate congressman and an obstructionist, weak and pathetic. He even did a video from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and that's just in the last day. We're going to go live to Kentucky with Massie's message as he tries to keep his job.
[17:55:07]
And the breaking news, a deadly shooting at the largest mosque in the San Diego area. Three people killed. The suspects seem to have died by suicide. The latest on that scene, that's next.
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[17:59:47]
TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we are following breaking news. Three people, including a security guard, adult males killed in a shooting today at the largest mosque in San Diego. The San Diego police chief crediting that security guard with playing a vital role in decreasing the severity of the attack saying the shooting could have been much worse without him.
