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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, (R-FL), Is Interviewed About First Claim Filed To "Anti-Weaponization" Fund, Soon: Polls Close In K.Y. As Trump Looks To Oust Rep. Massie; Murdaugh Sues Former Court Clerk Whose Actions Caused His Murder Convictions To Be Vacated; Ebola Death Toll Rises As Concern Grows Over Scale Of Outbreak; U.N. Warns Of Escalating Risk Of Famine In Somalia; Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Is Interviewed About Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Combat Anti- Semitism. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 19, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate you all being here. Nice to be in New York City. Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well.

Don't go anywhere. Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead." Hi, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Hey, Kasie. We'll look for more in "The Arena" tomorrow.

HUNT: Have a great show.

[17:00:38]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You know that $1.776 billion fund to help wronged Trump allies? Well, there was just a major addendum today. The Lead starts right now.

When the fine print matters, President Trump and his family and his businesses now all protected under new terms added in a settlement with the Treasury Department, the Justice Department and the IRS. The settlement that creates this fund to compensate people the Trump administration feels were unfairly targeted by past administrations now has a big, big addition.

And brand new details about the deadly shooting at San Diego's largest mosque. How a hero security guard and two other men in the parking lot distracted the teenaged gunman keeping them away from the young children inside the Islamic Center.

And strong messages today from Epstein survivors. Why they're taking issue with new comments from Acting Attorney General Tom Blanche.

Welcome to the Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're going to start with our politics lead and more on Trump's tour in which he seems to be punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends and allies. His multifaceted vengeance campaign spreading in several directions, including in tonight's Election Day. Several competitive Republican primary races are happening across the country at this hour. And in fact, in one hour, polls are going to close in Georgia and Kentucky.

Kentucky is where President Trump's influence will likely be tested the most. Trump's furious fight to oust longtime Republican Congressman Thomas Massie. They've had clashes over the budgets, over the Epstein files, over U.S. support for Israel, over the war in Iran, and on and on, all leading to this bitter showdown. The president making these comments about Congressman Massie earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman. He's been a terrible congressman from day one. Dealing with him is just horrible. I don't think he's a Republican. I think he's actually -- I think he's actually a Democrat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Trump is also -- pardon me. Trump is also getting involved in the Texas Senate race with just one week until the primary runoff there. In a major disappointment to several Republican senators, Trump has endorsed this morning, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been indicted and impeached over the incumbent, Senator John Cornyn. Now, many Republicans fear Paxton, whose wife last year filed for divorce, quote, "on biblical grounds." They fear he will be the weaker Republican nominee against Democrat James Talarico.

In a lengthy Truth Social post today, Trump writes, quote, "John Cornyn is a good man and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough."

Also getting attention today, The Justice Department's $1.776 billion fund critics are referring to as a political slush fund. Those prosecuted by the Justice Department can apply for some of that money, such as January 6th rioters. And in fact, today, Vice President J.D. Vance not only would not rule out compensating January 6th defendants, but also those who specifically attacked law enforcement officers.`

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer. We're trying to give money, not give money, we're trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them. They were mistreated by the legal system.

We do have people who were accused of attacking law enforcement officers. That does -- that doesn't -- that doesn't mean that we're going to completely ignore some of the claims that they're going to make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes who's at the White House. Kristen, so there's a real possibility right now that January 6th defendants, including those who attacked police officers, might get taxpayer money?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it doesn't seem like a possibility. It seems inevitable at this point. I mean, you heard J.D. Vance, he's talking specifically about attacking a police officer. But when it comes to the January 6 cases, it certainly seems that these defendants are going to be submitting to try and get compensation for the crimes or for what they say were politically motivated crimes. And President Trump has really leaned into these January 6ers as he's taken office.

[17:05:05]

Just a reminder, one of the things that they said over and over again before he took office and as soon as he got in was that they were going to look at the January 6 cases on a case by case basis, which of course, is what they're saying about this fund as well. And then they all got blanket pardons. So we'll see how it plays out in this case.

But I do think one thing that we need to note that shouldn't be lost on everyone is just how this deal, this agreement, this settlement, the formation of this fund just goes to show you what a departure there has been from any kind of modern day relationship that we've seen or discord that we've seen between the White House, the Department of Justice. I mean, they are now operating hand in hand. And President Trump is getting this fund as well as, as you noted, protection for no investigations from the IRS.

TAPPER: On Trump's effort to oust Congressman Thomas Massie in Kentucky, this is now one of the most expensive Republican primaries in the history of the United States.

HOLMES: And President Trump is watching every second of this race closely. He is obsessed with making sure that Thomas Massie does not remain in office, which is pretty clear if you just take a scroll through his social media, I mean, every other post is a rant on Thomas Massie. Now, I do want to say one thing. We know that the campaign, the -- not the campaign, but the administration is on this revenge tour, this is what someone said to me specifically about Massie. They said it's not a retribution campaign.

It's a send a message campaign. It's about reminding people of the political power. This is basic political management of a party. You have to keep everybody on the reservation. Occasionally you have to shoot a hostage.

The next one is Thomas Massie.

TAPPER: That is a lovely metaphor. How wonderful. Kristen Holmes at the White House, thank you so much.

The Justice Department's $1.776 billion compensation fund not only was defended at the White House today, but also on Capitol Hill where acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testified in a Senate hearing. CNN's Paula Reid is with me.

And Paula, you're breaking some new reporting right now about the very first claim filed by to this fund, what critics are calling a slush fund. And President Trump says is to compensate for weaponization.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. This is the first known claim. I mean, I don't know everything that's inside Todd Blanche's inbox, but this is a confirmed claim from longtime Trump ally and former Trump administration official Michael Caputo. Now, he sent this request to the acting attorney general writing, quote, "As survivors of the illegal Russiagate investigations, our family was encouraged by news of the anti weaponization fund. I write with profound gratitude to you and President Donald J. Trump for creating a process to right these wrongs."

He is asking for $2.7 million in restitution and reimbursement from the fund to, quote, "help repair what is left of our family. The cost of the decade long attack are difficult to enumerate so this amount may change."

As we heard from the acting attorney general earlier today on the Hill, he said this fund is open to anyone. Now, he insists that there are no partisan requirements to get an apology or reimbursement. But the concern among many lawmakers is that this will disproportionately benefit the president's allies.

Now, of course, the fund also hasn't been set up yet. Caputo sort of getting ahead of the formal architecture around the fund. The attorney general, if Todd Blanche is selected, if he is confirmed, he would choose five members to oversee this. One of those members he will choose in coordination with Congress. He would also be the only one who would have the ability to audit their decisions.

But earlier today, when he was really pressed by lawmakers about the details, how are you going to put in guardrails about who gets money? He didn't have a lot of answers. He had one really significant exchange with Senator Coons. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): I heard from a number of law enforcement friends who found it appalling that there was the possibility that folks like the peace -- the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys who had assaulted Capitol Police officers, could receive multimillion dollar payouts from this fund. Will you commit that no one who has been convicted of assaulting a police officer will receive a payout from this fund?

TODD BLANCE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: So I shared the concerns that apparently members of law enforcement gave to you last week, although none of this was announced last week, so that's surprising. But I accept that.

COONS: They had heard rumors there would be a settlement fund.

BLANCHE: OK. But anybody can apply. The commission will set -- the commissioners will set rules. I'm sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: So the problem there is that if Todd Blanche doesn't know what the rules are, the guardrails will be nobody does. We don't even know who these members will be who will ultimately decide. So this will continue to face a lot of scrutiny.

TAPPER: Interesting. Well, former FBI Director Comey was on the show yesterday and said he has been -- he's being prosecuted for a weaponized Justice Department he might put in for the funds. I don't think that's who they have in mind.

[17:10:01]

We've also learned that a part of the agreement that's established this fund is an addendum that Blanche posted today on the Justice Department website that would protect Trump, his family and his businesses from the IRS going after them. Is that just for previous tax years or is it forever?

REID: Yes, for right now. It's backward looking. But remember, he could also give himself a blanket pardon when he leaves office to avoid any consequences of future tax issues. But a lot of questions raised here. We knew from our reporting last week that this was something that was being discussed between the president's personal lawyers and the lawyers at the Trump Justice Department as they tried to settle that lawsuit that he had filed that the judge overseeing said may not actually even, you know, live in her courtroom for another few weeks.

So we knew this was something they were considering. But it's notable that this wasn't posted until today, but it's raising more questions about self-dealing, Jake. I mean, obviously, these are all Trump administration lawyers who are overseeing this agreement. And I think a lot of taxpayers will have questions about why you can file a $10 billion lawsuit against your own government, have your personal lawyers negotiate with your government's lawyers to not only create a $1.7 billion fund that may disproportionately impact you, your allies, but also then protect you, your family and your businesses. So, clearly, we're in uncharted waters here.

And I think taxpayers are going to have a lot of questions about this.

TAPPER: Yes, well, Republican Congressman Don Bacon said something today about this. He said that Trump -- basically, Todd Blanche was negotiating with and responding to answering to the same person, Donald Trump.

REID: Yes.

TAPPER: That's inherent --

REID: And auditioning for a job to be his permanent attorney general. But look, I've covered this president is legal entanglements for a long time. Nobody manages President Trump and his legal issues and questions better than Todd Blanche.

TAPPER: All right, Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Let's bring in Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida.

Congressman, so several Republican senators, along with Senate Majority John Thune, are expressing some concerns and skepticism over this compensation fund. Thune told CNN today, quote, "Yes, not a big fan. I'm not sure exactly how they intend to use it, but my understanding is that was just announced. But, yes, I don't see a purpose for it," unquote. Are you comfortable with the idea of January 6 defendants who beat up cops to get taxpayer money from this fund?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): No. No, I'm not. And so, again, devil's already in the details and how it's going to be set up. Look, I thought this was a lawsuit based on the unlawful release of President Trump's IRS information. And so that was what the lawsuit was about.

So that I would assume that any kind of settlement in dealing with some kind of compensation would be dealing with those maybe 501 C3s in the past that have been targeted by the IRS because of certain beliefs, maybe right leaning beliefs. And that was well documented, you know, some years ago. So, and I don't have much information as to the details of this, but certainly somebody who was convicted of assaulting police officers, I don't think has any right to get compensated by taxpayers.

TAPPER: Yes, I mean, not for nothing, that leak of Trump's tax information, which should never happen, but I mean, that occurred during Trump's first administration. It wasn't Joe Biden that leaked it. I mean, Trump, you know, if the buck stops here, he ultimately should be suing himself.

But moving on, your Republican colleague, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, he's going to find out in just a matter of minutes, really, whether he gets to keep his job.

For months, the president has been railing against him, calling him an obstructionist, a sleazebag, the worst Republican in history. Do you agree?

GIMENEZ: Look, I'm not going to, you know, launch names that Thomas Massie was one of my colleagues, but I will say this, that every time that we voted, it was certainly not surprising that Thomas Massie didn't vote with the conference. And so he was a contrarian to be a contrarian. And at first I thought it was -- it was all due to, well, this is the way he feels and all that but at the end I started feeling he was just saying no, just to say no. And so, you know, that's a problem. And so, you know, you might as well have a Democrat in the seat of every time that we've got something coming up, you're going to vote with the Democrats.

And so maybe we need somebody in the -- in the seat that every once in a while will vote with us.

TAPPER: Yes. GIMENEZ: Because he's supposed to be a Republican, right?

TAPPER: Well --

GIMENEZ: And so everything else, calling him a name, fine, I'm not going to do that. But, you know, without a doubt, more often than not, OK, he would not vote with us. He would vote for the rules and stuff like that, things that we're supposed to do. But at the end of the day, man, a lot of times you would have saw Thomas Massie on the other side -- on the other side of the vote.

TAPPER: He definitely voted not the way you wanted on the Big Beautiful Bill and budget resolutions and the like. But he voted with Republican Party more than 90 percent of the time.

We're running out of time. But I do want to ask you about Cuba because there are reports that the Justice Department is going to soon indict former Cuban President Raul Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro. Do you support that move? It will likely escalate tensions between the U.S. and Cuba. Do you have any concerns about that?

[17:15:06]

GIMENEZ: No. I think that right now we need to tighten the screws on that regime. That regime has been oppressing its people for over 67 years. No democratic elections. They have political prisoners, no freedom of expression, no freedom of religion.

And so the problem with the Cuban people is the regime. It needs to go. Raul Castro 36 years ago ordered the shoot down of a civilian plane over international waters. And what was the civilian plane doing? They were looking for Cubans fleeing the island that were doing so, you know, by sea by any way possible with a raft, with an inner tube, et cetera trying to save Cubans who were fleeing the island.

And Raul Castro ordered a MiG jet to shoot it down. It did. It killed three American citizens and one American resident. Yes, he's guilty of murder and he should be indicted. He should have been indicted a heck of a long time ago.

TAPPER: Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida, thank you so much, sir. Always good to have you on.

GIMENEZ: All right, thank you.

TAPPER: Up next, new details about that deadly attack at an Islamic Center in San Diego yesterday. What police are now saying about the heroic actions of the three victims and about a possible motive for the two shooters fueled by hate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:07]

TAPPER: In the national lead, we are learning a lot more about yesterday's deadly shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego. We now know the hero security guard who was killed got -- in a gun battle with the 17 and 18-year-old gunman. Police also revealed the two other victims killed were in the parking lot and purposely drew the attention of the killers, distracting them, keeping them away from the Islamic Center school where some 140 students children were inside.

Also from a suicide note and hate speech on a weapon, we also know this attack was indeed motivated by hate as suspected. Let's bring in CNN's Kyung Lah. She's at the mosque where this tragedy unfolded.

First, Kyung, tell us more about the heroic actions of the three victims killed in this attack.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, very simply said is that they essentially prevented a disaster, a much big disaster from happening by sacrificing their own lives. The police chief said that essentially these three men, a security guard, an elder here at the church and a member who is married to a teacher here at the school drew the attention of these gunmen, putting their own bodies between that hatred and the violence. Here's what the police chief said, beginning with the security guard and how he started the prevention of further loss of life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SCOTT WAHL, SAN DIEGO POLICE: Individuals that did this heinous act ran past the security guard, most likely not knowing he was there. You can see the security guard reach for his radio and put out the lockdown protocol. His actions without a doubt delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred.

IMAM TAHA HASSANE, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC CENTER OF SAN DIEGO: They tried to do something. They were hiding in the parking lot next to the kitchen. They tried to do something to protect but unfortunately they sacrificed their lives to protect the entire community inside the Islamic Center of San Diego.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: And I want you to take a look at the three different images of those three heroes that they were talking about. Mansour Kaziha, he is the elder. The imam says that he has known him since ground first broke here at the -- at the mosque. Amin Abdullah, the security guard and then Nader Awad, the member, again married to the teacher here at the mosque and school.

And over my shoulder you can see that there are flowers being delivered. And these aren't just Muslims in this community. I've seen people of all sorts of faith come here to pay homage to what's happened here, Jake.

TAPPER: Horrible thing. Kyung La, thank you so much.

Coming up next, the man at the center of the effort to retry Alex Murdaugh for the brutal murder of his wife and son. He wants to fast track a new criminal trial, but is that realistic? We're going to talk to the attorney general of South Carolina himself coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:27:32]

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead Alex Murdaugh is suing the former South Carolina court clerk whose actions led to a court vacating his murder convictions last week. The 17 page lawsuit against Becky Hill says that the court clerk deprived Murdaugh of his right to a fair trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM GRIFFIN, ALEX MURDAUGH'S ATTORNEY: As a result, we've got to do it all over again, which nobody wants to do. The damages that we've alleged include the over $600,000 that was spent to try the first case and other compensatory damages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in the attorney general of South Carolina, Alan Wilson.

General Wilson, thanks for joining us. What's your reaction to the civil lawsuit? Do you think Murdaugh is justified in seeking these punitive damages?

ALAN WILSON, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, first off, I'm not going to speak to the civil lawsuit. I mean obviously his defense team is going to do everything that they can to give him the best chance at winning this next trial. So I'm going to defer to the analyst out there talking about the civil case. My focus rather than is on the criminal charges and the criminal trial that's going to be coming up hopefully here in the next few months.

TAPPER: So Murdaugh's lead defense attorney talked to The Lead a few days ago. He told me he plans to seek a change of venue. He wants to move the case out of Carlton County. He argues it's not possible to find an unbiased jury in that county. Do you agree?

WILSON: Look, right now our team is evaluating all of our legal options, all legal courses of actions, and all legal strategies to include whether or not we're going to agree or disagree on the appropriate venue to retry this case. Right now, I'm not ready to say I agree with the defense on this issue, but it's one that we're certainly considering.

TAPPER: You've got to be upset about the clerk, though, right? I mean, ruined your whole thing, the whole case.

WILSON: Look, absolutely. I mean, this is horrible. I mean -- I mean, I agree with the defense when they said no one wants to retry this case. We certainly don't want to retry this case. What she did was inappropriate.

Obviously, our office has always asserted that her comments, while harmless error, were definitely inappropriate, should not have been condoned. We certainly did not know about it at the time she was making them. We only found out about them later. But nonetheless, here we are. Our office is prepared to take this case back up and retry this case.

TAPPER: So you're currently running in the Republican primary for Governor of South Carolina. Your current term as South Carolina Attorney General ends in January, and you've said your hope is to retry this case by the end of this year. Is that timeline still on track?

WILSON: Look, that was my hope. That is our intent. But you know, I don't know if it's possible. We'll find out. Like I said, we're going through the evaluation of the timeline right now.

[17:30:05]

I will say this, regardless of who the Attorney General is, our intent, for as long as I'm the Attorney General, is to try to get this thing teed up and prepped for trial as quickly as we possibly can. If that's by the end of the year, by early 2027, you know, great. If that's later in 2027, so be it. But my goal is to try to move as quickly as we can to get this thing back to trial.

TAPPER: South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, thanks so much for your time today, sir. We appreciate it.

WILSON: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Moments ago, the head of the World Health Organization sounded another alarm on the scale and speed of the Ebola virus spreading. Did DOGE cuts by the Trump administration play any role in this outbreak that went undetected for weeks? We'll have a global epidemic expert weigh in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:11]

TAPPER: In our Health Lead, is the Ebola outbreak in Africa linked in any way to the Trump administration's decision to end funding for USAID? Well, I wondered that very question. So this afternoon, I spoke with a former USAID official, one, who previously was based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the DRC. And that official told me that President Trump and Elon Musk, "Have blood on their hands."

This official also said if USAID were still in the DRC, the agency would have acted within 24 to 48 hours of this year's first Ebola death and help the country respond, moving in proper testing equipment, including the right testing equipment that would figure out this particular strain of Ebola, and distributing critical PPE, or personal protective equipment. The head of the World Health Organization is also sounding the alarm about the scale and speed of this outbreak. As of today, the DRC reports at least 131 deaths from the virus, with 30 confirmed cases and more than 500 more suspected.

Dr. Peter Stafford, an American medical missionary infected with Ebola, was evacuated from the DRC to Germany for treatment. Meanwhile, in Uganda, officials have reported one death and two confirmed cases of the virus. Incidentally, the USAID official who worked in Congo also told us that Trump and Musk had blood on their hands regarding USAID cuts long before the Ebola outbreak, because, the official said, of the dismantling of USAID, which stopped valiant efforts to curtail hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths from the outbreaks of other diseases, including HIV.

Here to discuss, Nick Enrich, former USAID official turned whistleblower and author of the book "Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID." Do you feel -- do you agree with your fellow former USAID official there that Trump and Musk, for these cuts, are responsible for thousands of deaths?

NICHOLAS ENRICH, FMR. ACTING ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, USAID: Absolutely. When the agency was destroyed in January 2025, the last thing I was able to do was send out a warning of what the impacts would be. And unfortunately, those warnings have turned out to be coming true, with over 750,000 people already having died, and estimates of up to 14 million dying over the next five years alone.

TAPPER: And one of the things that the official also said to me is that if there had been some sort of ramping down period, if it was like, OK, we're going to shut down USAID in six months to a year, you have that much time to get everybody up to speed on what needs to happen in our absence, that would have been at least something.

ENRICH: Right. I mean, I think that that was a major cause of the problems. I mean, Elon Musk and Trump came up with lots of reasons why they shut down USAID. It was inefficient. It was wasteful. The truth is that none of those were the reason. It was actually destroyed by a group of uninformed and unqualified sycophants who were trying to soothe the ego of a billionaire.

TAPPER: So in your book, "Into the Wood Chipper," you detail the many warnings that you gave the Trump administration before the gutting of the agency, including a memo in which you warned about accelerated global disease, specifically the possibility of an additional 28,000 cases of viral hemorrhagic fever, such as Ebola. What needs to happen to keep that from becoming a reality, 28,000 cases?

ENRICH: Yes, I mean, well, with this outbreak, we're already way behind the curve, as you mentioned. And as you spoke with the doctor earlier, that's exactly right. USAID would have already had a team in the country. And what we're missing here is the element of speed, which is exactly what we need when we're responding to an Ebola outbreak. As you said, for getting PPE into the country, but also the contact tracing.

Right now, we don't have any sense of how we're going to contain this. And the fact that USAID is not there with tried and true systems, and instead, whatever American response that is going to be set up is struggling and improvising and reinventing the wheel, is every day we're losing time. These are decisions that need to be made in hours, not days or weeks.

TAPPER: Yes. And you also warn in the book that without effective disease surveillance networks, the U.S. will be flying blind until diseases show up at our border. And you mentioned it cost New York's health department $4.3 million in response measures to treat one single patient. What would an outbreak in the U.S. do to our health system?

ENRICH: Well, look, I think that I should start by saying, I don't think that what we have here with Ebola is the next pandemic. And I don't think were -- we need to be worried about an outbreak coming to the United States, although there have been Americans that have been involved and in some cases, infected actually. But I think what we're seeing from this outbreak of Ebola, what we saw from the recent outbreak of Hantavirus, is two serious outbreaks of infectious diseases in the last couple of weeks that are just showing how much ground we've lost as the American government has stepped back from global health leadership, from the destruction of USAID, the gutting of the CDC, and removing itself from withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

[17:40:29]

TAPPER: All right, Nick Enrich, thank you so much. The book again, "Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID." And experts now say we're seeing the results of that with the Ebola outbreak.

Between global humanitarian aid cuts, the ongoing war in Iran and severe regional conflict, the country of Somalia is facing the risk of famine for the first time since 2022, according to the United Nations. A "New York Times" reporter -- a "New York Times" reporter by reporter Peter Goodman digs into the catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfolding in Somalia right now.

Peter Goodman joins us right now. So Peter, you traveled to Somalia visiting schools and camps for displaced people. You write, "In some areas children are still getting food, but not pregnant mothers." The World Food Programme Somalia director told you it's literally who dies first and who dies next. Tell us what you saw on the ground in Somalia.

PETER GOODMAN, GLOBAL ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, one of the things I saw in this town of Doolow, which is a place on the Ethiopian border that traditionally has been a place that people went seeking refuge, drought, conflict, you know, whatever crisis comes along, about 100,000 people internally displaced people, refugees, but they haven't crossed the border. So that's the technical term.

And this is a place where I met a family that had walked for nine days carrying their three-year-old on their shoulders, fleeing when they lost their entire herd of cattle. That's their whole life savings in their rural area. And they had arrived hoping to get health care, food, of course, water. And they were horrified to learn that the international community had essentially packed up and abandoned this place.

And shortly thereafter, I went and visited a World Food Programme warehouse complex and they had these 13 A-frame tents that would ordinarily be packed with this nutrient-rich paste for severely malnourished children, pregnant and breastfeeding moms. And 12 of these tents were empty. And I toured this place with the director and she said, look, this is the last of it. It runs out at the end of June and then we've got nothing.

And the last thing I saw was these cartons that had the USAID logo on there and the message from the American people. And she said, you know, once this is gone, we're out.

TAPPER: So many humanitarian organizations, humanitarian aid organizations are sounding the alarm about just how bad this crisis is. And as you suggest, how much worse it's going to get. But you write that these funding cuts for this critical aid, these cuts are going to continue.

GOODMAN: Yes, I mean, they are continuing. I mean, you know, just look at what the U.S. contributed to Somalia. Just a year ago, it was about $1 billion in humanitarian relief, $467 million last year as the USAID dismantling happened. This year, so far through April, we're looking at $3 million. And this was Somalia's largest source of aid. So the World Food Programme, which has gotten a lot of funding over the years from the U.S. government in Somalia and other parts of the world that are vulnerable.

They've got -- they're looking at 6 million people in a country of 19 million people who are acutely malnourished. That's about a third of the population. About a year ago, they had funding to serve as many as 2 million people with emergency food rations and more severe treatments for more severe cases, 2 million a month.

Now they've got enough for 300,000 a month. And again, that runs out in July. So it is getting worse. The cuts are continuing. And what's happening now is that, you know, the situation was already dire with these cuts. And I went there because it was clear that the impacts of the Iran war, you know, the U.S. and the Israeli strikes in the Middle East and the retaliatory strikes from the Iranians have so disrupted transport and production of food, fertilizer, obviously energy.

And Somalia depends upon imports for something like 70 percent of the food, much higher percentage of fuel, that you've now got those impacts landing atop the consequences of the cuts to humanitarian relief. So, you know, I'll give you an example. I mean, UNICEF is trucking water to drought-afflicted areas of Somalia.

[17:44:57]

Well, the price of diesel has gone up double, and in some places even more, and there are shortages. So they now have to pay double to move those trucks, so they're moving fewer trucks. So you now have all of these factors now in this sort of feedback loop that is getting worse by the day. TAPPER: Peter Goodman, thank you so much for your reporting and thanks for coming on today. We appreciate it. And those very moving photographs from your "New York Times" photographer, we're appreciative of them as well.

Coming up, we're going to talk to a senator looking for a bipartisan solution to the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How close were you to striking Iran?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was -- I was -- I was an hour away. They knew that we were very close. I would say we were -- I was an hour away from making the decision to go today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:50:08]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, that's President Trump earlier today revealing his decision-making as he now lets negotiations with Iran continue to play out instead of striking Iran as he said he was an hour away from deciding to do. Here now is Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada. She serves on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee. I'm sure you're happy I said Nevada.

SEN. JACKY ROSEN (D-NV): I am happy you said Nevada, and everyone in Nevada is very happy you said Nevada.

TAPPER: I could feel that you were ready to pounce if I said Nevada.

ROSEN: No, I wouldn't do that to you.

TAPPER: I know. I learned it from when Michelle Obama got booed. All right, so the Vice President said today that Iran wants to make a deal. It's just a matter of when. Is that right? Is that true?

ROSEN: Well, you know, I can't vouch for what the Vice President says or even what the President says, but what I can tell you is that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon. Iran, we know, the leading state sponsor of terrorism. But I also know that this President violated his constitutional authority by starting a war and going around Congress, and 60 days ago, more than that, the Strait of Hormuz was open. And right now, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, and they're the ones in control.

So the President has a lot of explaining to do. He hasn't come to Congress to justify this. Servicemen and women have died and so many others injured. And I'm not sure Iran wants to make a deal. It seems that they're getting everything right now.

TAPPER: So let's turn to the bipartisan bill that you have worked on with Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. It's a -- you introduced it to combat the alarming rise of anti-Semitism across the U.S. This month, the Anti-Defamation League published a report of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. last year and found, "2025 was the third highest year on record for anti-Semitic incidents since ADL began tracking them in 1979." Physical assaults reached a record high, with three people killed in anti-Semitic attacks last year. So how would your bill combat, how would it fight this growing threat?

ROSEN: Well, thank you for asking me. We've been working on this bill for well over a year now. It is the Jewish American Security Act, and it's going to address three things to fight domestic anti-Semitism. One, on our college campuses, we're going to be sure that we have a mechanism for Jewish students and actually for all minority students to have this mechanism to report and be able to get their complaints heard and mitigated. So there's a lot going on there to protect our students.

Next, we're going to protect our houses of worship. And my heart goes out to the folks in San Diego yesterday.

TAPPER: At the Islamic Center, yes.

ROSEN: Islamic Center. We need to be able to harden our places of worship and religious community centers through our nonprofit security grants. So we're asking for more funding for that and more funding for our local police departments to help protect vulnerable religious communities within their purview.

And the third place we're looking at is online. So if you're a platform that has more than 50 million users, we want you to report on what you're seeing against anti-Semitism, how you're responding, how the algorithms are working, because we want to protect free speech. But there's a place that it goes from free speech into fomenting violence or really crossing over, crossing that line.

TAPPER: Who decides the line? Because, I mean, you know, an example is from the river to the sea, right? Some people mean, some people chant that, and it just means we want justice for people, you know, in Israel-Palestine. And that's what we want. Other people mean it in a much more violent way. Who decides what's --

ROSEN: Well, I think the point is not who's going to make the decision. We want to see what's happening online, try to do an analysis of that, and how is the algorithm, what the algorithms do. It's great if you're shopping and you say, oh, I want a blue jacket, and they say light blue, dark blue. Then they kind of get you down, and this is what they say, going down the rabbit hole. It's terrific when you're shopping and you're trying to find just the right color blue jacket, but we want to see if the algorithms themselves are taking people down to a rabbit hole where they'll commit violence. So this reporting mechanism from our large platforms, I think, will be instructive to us as maybe some future ways that we can fight online anti-Semitism.

TAPPER: So earlier this week, we heard some of the horrific voicemails left on the congressional answering machine of Congressman Jared Moskowitz, Democrat of Florida. ROSEN: Yes.

TAPPER: Your last name's Jacky Rosen. I mean, your last name's Rosen. I assume you're Jewish.

ROSEN: Yes, I am. I'm the third Jewish woman in the United States.

TAPPER: Are you getting similar messages?

ROSEN: I am getting similar messages. I do have someone in jail now, a federal prison, for threatening me and threatening my team. We get threats all the time. Capitol Police.

TAPPER: Are they worse since October 7th, 2023?

ROSEN: Much worse since October 7th. Much worse. And every day and every time something comes out, you see them spike depending on the news cycle. And again, this is why my bill is so important, because what happens is that Jews get blamed for everything. So we're blamed for this war. We're blamed for this, for that, the other you can go through centuries over time. Jews are the canary in the coal mine. It might -- hatred might start with anti-Semitism in the Jews, but it never ends there. And so, sadly, we have a lot of security.

[17:55:17]

Our Capitol Police, our FBI are on top of things. They're monitoring our social media. And of course, our young staff that has to listen to some of those really horrific voicemails is very difficult for them some days.

TAPPER: I'm really sorry you're going through that. It's awful.

ROSEN: Thank you.

TAPPER: Thanks so much for being here, Senator. I appreciate it.

ROSEN: Thank you for having me.

TAPPER: Attention Republican voters in Kentucky. President Trump wants you to kick Thomas Massie out of Congress. But is that what you want? The final minutes of voting in the Commonwealth of Kentucky are ticking down in most of the Commonwealth. Will this be a long night? CNN's John King is headed over to the Magic Wall. We're headed his way next.

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[18:00:06]

TAPPER: Sweet election music. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.