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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Study: New Treatment Cuts Recurrence, Spread Of Melanoma; Lawyers: Trump's Name To Be Added Back To Kennedy Center Building In Nearly September; Judge Orders Review Of Grand Jury Proceedings In Don Lemon Case; Former News Anchor Defeats Rep. Mills in GOP Primary; U.S. National Debt Hits Ominous $40 Trillion Milestone; Psychologist: Clancy Could Not Understand Right From Wrong During Killings Of Her Three Children. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired August 19, 2026 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate you all being here. Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget, you can now stream The Arena live. You can catch up whenever you want to in the CNN app.
Scan that QR code below. You can also catch up by listening to our podcast. You can follow us on X and Instagram at thearenacnn. "The Lead with Jake Tapper" starts right now.
[17:00:36]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: President Trump with some notable defeats for candidates he endorsed. The Lead starts right now.
On the heels of consequential primary race results, some of the big winners are here on The Lead, including one candidate now backed by Trump after the president flipped his script after the one he actually endorsed lost. And did you know North Korea has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons? I didn't until President Trump spilled that and revealed plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year. What the White House is now saying about plans for a potential face to face.
But first, what could be a medical miracle, an experimental vaccine showing promising results for patients with melanoma. That is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to begin in our Health Lead because a huge first of its kind breakthrough in the fight against skin cancer tops our health lead. Moderna's mRNA vaccine combined with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda has succeeded in a late stage trial for melanoma. The study is ongoing, but so far results show that the combination significantly reduced the risk of the cancer returning or spreading to other parts of the body compared with Keytruda alone. This treatment is actually custom made for each patient based on an analysis of mutations found in their own melanoma tumors. The trial enrolled more than 1,000 high risk patients with melanoma tumors that had been surgically removed. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer.
In 2023, more than 1.5 million people in the United States had melanoma. And an estimated 8,510 melanoma deaths are expected this year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Let's go to CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell.
Meg, this is encouraging news. What did this trial find?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, as you pointed out, melanoma is a very deadly form of cancer. And for these folks, you know, they have had surgery to remove the melanoma and then they're taking additional therapy to try to make sure that the cancer doesn't come back and doesn't spread further. Now, if they add this personalized mRNA treatment, we call it a vaccine because what it's doing is training the patient's own immune system to find their own cancer and to be able to fight it better. So each person, their tumor is sampled, their vaccine is essentially designed just for them. They give them this mRNA therapeutic vaccine, and it helps recruit the immune system to work on top of an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda.
And now what they are finding in this trial is that it succeeded on those goals that you pointed out. We don't yet know the degree of that benefit in this large phase three study. We've heard from the companies Moderna, telling me today that they do plan to file for regulatory approval within months. We should see the full data set presented at a medical meeting coming up sometime soon, Jake. Previous data from smaller studies has been really promising for this.
And of course, melanoma, as you pointed out, very deadly in the most advanced stage when it spread to other parts of the body. You know, about a decade ago, the five-year survival rate was only about 35 percent. Now, that has been improving, but there's room for much more improvement there. And folks really hope that this could be a way to do that. Not just from melanoma, it's also being tested in other cancers, from lung cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer as well, Jake.
TAPPER: And just to be clear, this is the very kind of research that RFK Jr., the Health secretary, has been cutting funding for, right?
TIRRELL: Well, he has been cutting funding for mRNA vaccine development, but specifically focused on respiratory virus vaccines. So about a year ago, they cut 22 projects worth about $500 million in funding focused on infections like COVID and flu. Now, when it's come to cancer, the administration and HHS have been more appreciative of the potential of mRNA here. But doctors point out that given the strength of these data today, it's not a good idea to be cutting back on mRNA technology at all, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Meg Tirrell, thanks. Let's discuss now with Dr. Catherine Wu. She currently leads the division of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies at Dana- Farber, one of the nation's top cancer Centers.
Dr. Wu, before we dive into the details, put this into perspective for us in terms of how big of a deal this is in the world of oncology fighting cancer. Would you call it a, a potential cure? Have you ever seen anything quite like it?
[17:05:04]
DR. CATHERINE J. WU, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR CANCER VACCINES, DANA- FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: This is a big deal. I mean, this is a phase three study. We've long been very excited about vaccines, but really to have a phase three show promising results really infuses a tremendous amount of momentum into the field.
TAPPER: And what do you make of the data coming out of these trials? What more do you need to see to feel 100 percent confident?
WU: Well, these are interim results. They already show that there is positive signal. I think that what we're going to gain in the time to come is a sense of the degree and the extent to which that benefit is there. But this is already enough to fuel excitement not only for melanoma research, but also research across other cancers.
TAPPER: Yes, that's what I wanted to ask about next because I wonder, can this treatment be used as a potential building block to treat any other forms of cancer, you know, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, et cetera?
WU: Absolutely. So immunology is cross cutting, so it doesn't restrict its activity to only one disease. So I think what's going to be exciting in the time to come is to see how this rolls out for other cancers. For sure, there are difficult to treat cancers and so that's still going to present challenges, but that's why we always need to create more and more tools to add to our toolkit to combat cancer.
TAPPER: And what do you hear from patients about this treatment? Are they anxious to try it?
WU: Absolutely. So there's a great excitement among patients. It's very well tolerated and often patients feel well on the vaccine. And so I think that all adds to this picture where there is benefit without a lot of toxicity.
TAPPER: And how did this even --
WU: And that --
TAPPER: Go ahead?
WU: Yes, go ahead.
TAPPER: Well, I was just going to say, how did this -- how did the idea of combining these two even come to fruition? Is that -- is that something that people try all the time in labs to take two different -- two different medicines and see if they work well together?
WU: It's actually a long standing approach that, you know, I think cancer is a hard problem. You want to kind of come to it at different angles. And -- so it makes sense to put two different strong immune modulators together. The Keytruda is really kind of at some level, in my mind, it's a little bit like lifting the invisibility cloak. So it's really creating vulnerability for the cancer.
And then the vaccine is kind of having very focused fighters come in and go at the cancer in a multipronged attack.
TAPPER: We really seem to be in a -- I mean, there's a lot in this world that seems pretty horrible right now. But in terms of medical developments, we really seem to be in a -- in a renaissance in a -- in a great period. And I'm wondering how hopeful you are that within the next 10, 20 years there might actually be cures and immunizations and such for all sorts of cancers.
WU: It is, it is such an exciting time. I think that the technologies that we have right now to really unlock the secrets of the human immune response and also understanding human cancers are -- it's never been better. And the way that we can kind of put all of those kind of understandings together to create better therapeutics are there. So I think it's a -- it's a truly exciting time.
TAPPER: Well, Dr. Catherine Wu, thank you for your time and thank you for being part of all this. It's really exciting to cover and I hope there's more to come.
WU: Thanks for having me.
TAPPER: A major marker in our Money Lead, I wish it was a good marker, but it's not, the U.S. national debt just passed $40 trillion, 40 trillion. What this means for your personal finances next.
[17:09:00]
Plus key testimony today in the case of Lindsey Clancy, the mother on trial for the killing -- for the killing of her three children. What a psychologist could say about her claims of having postpartum psychosis the time of those killings. That's ahead.
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TAPPER: Some breaking news on our Money Lead, confirmation that the U.S. national debt just crossed the $40 trillion mark. That's a big deal especially for you kids watching out there because you're going to have to pay it off. It's a milestone that will currently impact every American, every business, and of course, the federal government. Let's bring in CNN's Richard Quest.
Richard, translate this milestone as folks look for specifics on how it affects our money.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: Very simple. It costs more money for everybody to borrow. Why? Because the federal government borrowing money at these sort of rates, by the way, it's the highest rates for long -- for 30-year bonds since 2007. And what that means is everything else that's related to it, for example, mortgages are also costing more money.
Give you an example, a year ago a 30-year mortgage was 6.5. Today it is 6.6. Doesn't sound much. But if you think about the federal government spending a trillion dollars a year just paying interest, 20 percent of all tax revenue is going just to pay the interest on that number. You start to see why this is so serious and why it crowds out and makes it much more difficult for everybody else. And that's by the way, Jake, just to be technical, is why today the Treasury started this twist operation to try and bring down rates.
TAPPER: And beyond the fact that the percentage of the --
QUEST: Yes.
TAPPER: -- the revenue in the United States that goes just to pay the interest on this debt is hundreds of billions of dollars that is not being spent on education or healthcare or whatever. What are our kids -- I mean, how does this impact our children? What are they going to think in 20, 30 years?
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QUEST: There will come a moment where the bond market will not continue to supply the level of funds to the U.S. government that it is at the moment. We're a long way off that. But as long as I've been covering business journalism, put it in perspective, I remember that number 40 trillion was 16 trillion. And everybody said when is the U.S. going to get serious about debt reduction? And then again and again and again, and at the moment from the one Big Beautiful Bill and beyond, there is no serious credible attempt at long term debt reduction.
Until there is, that number gets bigger, interest rates remain higher, higher costs for borrowers and your children, Jake, will be paying the bill.
TAPPER: Richard Quest with a bad message for Jack and Alice, my children, thanks so much.
And the World Lead, President Trump revealed today he expects to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. The president defended his relationship with Kim, who is a brutal dictator, as, quote, "A good thing for the United States." Trump also revealed this bid about North Korea's nuclear capabilities.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. They should have never allowed it. If I were president, I wouldn't have allowed, but he's got them. I get along with him very well.
I can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong Un very well and he's going to be fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: President said that North Korea would not have expanded its nuclear capabilities if he had been in office. Of course, North Korea's largest nuclear test to date came in September 2017 when Trump was in office. You might remember during this period, Trump threatening North Korea with fire and fury and mocking Kim Jong Un as little rocket man. The president's comments today follow his recent move to scale back long standing joint military exercises with South Korea, arguing that the U.S. ally should have done more to support the U.S. mission in Iran. The Trump administration has yet to say exactly when or where his meeting with Kim Jong Un will take place.
Coming up, just how soon we could see President Trump's name back up at the Kennedy Center. Plus a judge's request in the case of former CNN anchor Don Lemon that may signal some mistrust that judges have with the Department of Justice. The DOJ, of course, bringing charges against Lemon and other journalists. Stay with us.
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TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead today, President Trump's name could be back on the wall of the Kennedy Center as early as September 8th. Lawyers for the performing arts venue made that clear in a new court filing that's less than three weeks away. Could we see a legal challenge before that? Let's talk about this and more with CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz and Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.
So, Kelly -- Katelyn, the saga over Trump's name on the Kennedy Center has gone back and forth. It wouldn't be, I guess, the Donald J. Trump John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It would just say something like renovated or something by --
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump right under Kennedy's name.
TAPPER: Under his -- yes, it's their little workaround about it. Do we think that this is actually going to happen? They're going to put it up before September 8th?
POLANTZ: Oh, I think it's going to be on in court before that. We already know that the judge -- the reason we know this, the reason that we know that that's the plan, that it would say those names or those words below John F. Kennedy's name on the front of the building is because everybody had to tell a judge that's been overseeing this and had previously said, you can't do that, the law says Congress --
TAPPER: Right.
POLANTZ: -- only allows Kennedy's name to be on this public memorial, the Kennedy Center. But they're telling the judge, well, this is what the board just voted on. And everybody in here, or at least the people that are suing Joyce Beatty, the -- one of the board members, they want the judge to have a ruling by September 8th. And the judge has already indicated, this is Judge Casey Cooper in the D.C. district Court, that he wanted to get things resolved pretty quickly. He wanted to know what was happening here.
Now we know and we're just waiting to see is he going to schedule a hearing? Is he going to tell them that this is not what they can do? I mean, I don't -- I don't know how -- what is proposed here by the board is going to be defensible based on the ruling that judge -- that Judge Cooper previously wrote, it's 100 pages long or so, and it's very explicit that you just can't add other people's names to the Kennedy Center. It is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and it is protected in a way by Congress that the board just can't change. But it's an issue and it's still an ongoing debate.
TAPPER: And Elie, another issue on the legal front, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, he is being accused by the Justice Department of disrupting a Minnesota church service. Don says he was there as a journalist covering protesters disrupting the service. But what's interesting is that a federal judge in Minnesota, a former federal prosecutor, says that she wants to see all the grand jury material, the transcripts, the notes. This seems to indicate that they -- she -- that she's wondering whether or not the grand jury was given all the right accurate information. How unusual is this?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Extraordinarily rare development in court? And signals to me that this judge is giving serious consideration to dismissing the case. So two things to know about the grand jury. One, it's a one sided process. The only people in the room are the prosecutor witness, grand jurors and a transcriber.
And two, judges almost never agree to look at the minutes before a trial happens. And so we don't know exactly what the alleged infirmity here is, but 99 times out of 100 judges going to say grand jury is not my business. So the fact that the judge is saying, I'm going to take a look at those is a real red light to me. And the judge has noted that DOJ, this Justice Department, has been found to have violated grand jury procedures in other cases, including out of Illinois against anti ICE protesters. So there's a bit of history here as well.
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TAPPER: And Katelyn, you also have some new reporting today on the Justice Department's case against former FBI Director James Comey. This whole 8647 thing. It sounds like the Justice Department wants to distance the brand new attorney general, Todd Blanche from this case.
POLANTZ: Yes, and this indictment came right at the moment where Blanche was really trying to prove himself to become the next attorney general. However, the Justice Department in these filings overnight says it wasn't Donald Trump that wanted to indict Comey for the sea shell post. It wasn't Todd Blanche. It was the U.S. attorney in North Carolina, a man named Ellis Boyle. The they say that no one even suggested that he pursue this investigation a year after Comey had posted that seashell picture on Instagram and then apologized profusely, talked to the FBI.
They say it was Boyle's doing and they only clued in main justice at the very end. But this is all becoming part of the court case against Comey where he's trying to beat back and his entire indictment by claiming that he was vindictively pursued by the Trump administration because the president wanted to see him prosecuted. And if successful, if the Justice Department doesn't win in an argument like this, we could find ourselves back in the place of either having the entire indictment dismissed or almost a worse outcome for the Justice Department at times having the grand jury record exposed. That's one of the cases previously. The other case against James Comey where a judge pried in and looked and saw that the grand jury was misinformed.
TAPPER: Elie, one more for you. So a trial was set to start about this movie, "2000 Mules." This nonsense movie by Dinesh D'Souza full of lies about the 2020 election. The movie spread these false claims that some 2,000 people were paid to illegally collect absentee ballots. D'Souza faced a defamation lawsuit over falsely depicting one man.
The case ended in a settlement we just learned. Claims such as these do run rampant in conservative circles. What do you make of this outcome? I mean, is this just Dinesh panicking and not wanting to have to tell the truth on the stand?
HONIG: No surprise that Dinesh D'Souza settled this case because he has already admitted that he was wrong. So the plaintiff, the guy who filed the lawsuit in this case, is a normal civilian, a guy named Mark Andrews. He's shown in the movie, the video, delivering ballots, which Dinesh D'Souza says, you are witnessing a crime. This is ballot fraud. Now, of course, it turned out to be completely false.
This guy was delivering his own ballot and his family members ballots, which is perfectly legal. Dinesh D'Souza, believe it or not, actually acknowledged after the fact that he was wrong. So this defamation trial, had it happened, would have been incredibly ugly for Dinesh D'Souza. We don't know the terms, we don't know how much he paid. But let this be a reminder that this film, I don't want to call it documentary, it's certainly not that --
TAPPER: Yes. Fiction.
HONIG: -- but this fiction, whatever it is, is used by a lot of people as support for these election fraud theories. D'Souza himself has acknowledged that this was false.
TAPPER: All right, thanks to you both. Really appreciate it.
Fresh off their primary races, we're going to have some of the big winners, including one candidate now backed by Trump after the president endorsed his rival during the primary, but then publicly dropped his support after that candidate lost. Stay with us.
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TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, the losses are piling up for President Trump this primary season. Last night, Republican voters rejected Trump-backed candidates in the Wyoming governor's race and in a pair of U.S. House races in Florida. It's the loss in Florida's 7th congressional district that President Trump is speaking out about today.
Trump posting on Truth Social, "I told Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, a friend of mine, to get out of the race, but he wouldn't listen." Trump, of course, endorsed Mills in February, and he never publicly rescinded his support for Mills despite the scrutiny against him, allegations of sexual misconduct, potential campaign finance violations. Mills denies any wrongdoing.
But there was one Florida Republican lawmaker who grew concerned and reportedly worked against Mills' re-election bid. Notice reports that a freshman congressman, Republican Mike Haridopolos, "helped engineer Mills' defeat by recruiting a primary challenger for Mills who beat him last night," former news anchor Ryan Elijah. Meanwhile, Trump is now endorsing Elijah, saying he stands for, "everything MAGA."
And Ryan Elijah, the Republican nominee for Florida's 7th congressional district race, joins us now. Ryan, congratulations on your race. What made you decide to get in the race? It's not a small thing to challenge an incumbent Republican congressman.
RYAN ELIJAH (R-FL), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Yes, Jake, I love my career in T.V. I mean, I know you love what you do, and I could have retired as a T.V. anchor, but I had, you mentioned Congressman Haridopolos. He was one of a number of voices that had throughout the last 18 months or so, remember these allegations have gone on for a while, you know, saying that if you're going to think about this, maybe you should consider this.
And after hearing a number of voices, we decided we had enough support to do that. Once we then got in the race, Jake, we just continued to see that drum beat get a little bit louder. And you realize when you go to about three and 10 doors, Republican doors, and they're telling you they can't vote for this incumbent, you know there's an issue.
[17:35:00]
And what we tried to do was make sure we headed that off before Congressman Mills was able to win in August and then lose the seat in November.
TAPPER: According to local reports after winning last night, you said that independents are going to decide the race in November. What makes you think that independents will side with you and not your Democratic opponent Bale Dalton, especially considering how dissatisfied so many voters are right now with President Trump's performance and the war in Iran and high gas prices and on and on?
ELIJAH: Yes, Jake, I'll tell you this. I tried to really not establish myself on my page. I put conservative versus Republican. You know, we got a situation where we tried to not define who we are as a candidate. As a news anchor, I kind of appealed to everyone.
And that's what I set out this to do. Certainly, I'm going to support a lot of things in the President's agenda, but that doesn't mean you can't get people. We got a lot of people. All four gubernatorial candidates had people that supported us. So you're going to have issues where some Republicans don't all agree with the President. That doesn't mean they can't back you. And I think both parties need to get to the point where you're not isolating a group of individuals if they don't think exactly like you do.
TAPPER: Let me ask you, the national debt just hit $40 trillion, $40 trillion. You know that this can't just be taken care of with tackling waste, fraud and abuse. There are larger systemic issues here. Are you ready to take that on? Because that that is obviously politically risky, but it's essential for our kids to not have to grow up in a world where, you know, 50 percent of the GDP is going to or the 50 percent of our money is going off to pay interest on the debt and such.
ELIJAH: Yes, Jake, I can tell you, my wife will tell you, I'm frugal. That's one reason we were able to walk away from our T.V. career. You have to manage your own money well to manage the government's money. But both sides will tell you a lot of voters I spoke with, they are tired of the government continuing to raise the debt ceiling and keep spending. We're obviously endangering our kids' futures and we've got to do a better job. The problem is, it's one thing to talk about.
It's a lot harder thing to cut some of that spending. And I know getting to Washington, that is going to be a challenge. So many members of Congress go there and they say, we're going to cut this and then it doesn't happen. So I think it takes it takes a commitment from both sides. We've not seen a lot of that, but that's something waste, fraud and abuse. I will focus on. But I also know there's not a huge appetite for that in Washington.
TAPPER: You have a meeting with the governor, Ron DeSantis, in just a few minutes. Who arranged the meeting? You or him? Can you give us a preview of what you want to talk about?
ELIJAH: Well, we're going to meet with a group of people. But let me say this. I know President Trump had endorsed Cory Mills. I also appreciate he said nothing at the end. And I really appreciate Governor DeSantis, who has really high numbers in Florida, came out and said, well, he didn't endorse us. He stood up as a leader and said, we need to go a different direction. We need more leaders to do that because not many leaders will do that against an incumbent.
So I'm just hoping to be with the governor for a while, obviously continue to -- we've met before. I've interviewed him before. You know, he's a key person for sure. So just connect a little bit and talk about moving forward, how we can both work together.
TAPPER: Well, I appreciate you, you taking up the slack for an underrepresented group in Congress. And that's T.V. anchors. So thank you so much for doing that. Ryan Elijah --
ELIJAH: I'm trying to balance things out.
TAPPER: Yes. No, we appreciate it. We need representations. Very important. Congratulations. Ryan Elijah, Republican nominee for Florida's 7th Congressional District.
ELIJAH: Jake, thank you.
TAPPER: Let's hear now from the Democratic nominee in Florida's 7th Congressional District, Navy veteran and former NASA chief of staff, Bale Dalton. Bale, congratulations on your race. I asked your Republican opponent, Ryan Elijah, about the U.S. national debt, which just crossed the $40 trillion mark. He said it's going to endanger our kids' futures, acknowledge it's going to be a challenge to get Congress to stop spending. What's your response to the $40 trillion debt figure?
BALE DALTON (D-FL), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Well, it absolutely is going to be tough to get Congress to stop spending. And of course, we've seen in this Mike Johnson-led Congress that there's been no indication whatsoever that anybody will take up the mantle to actually answer to their constituents who are just struggling with bills to pay in their own houses.
You know, I mean, to have the government be incapable of planning for the future and really voicing our entire future onto a generation that doesn't even have a credit card yet. I mean, the folks that I'm talking to around the district, these young adults, there's no access to capital because inflation remains high and interest rates remain high.
And that's all due to poor economic decision-making that's happened over decades and certainly been exacerbated in the last two years. So I think what people are looking for is, yes, we'll acknowledge that it's hard. Of course, anybody can do that. It is hard. But what folks want here in Central Florida is somebody that's going to go up and try to do something about it. We could talk about words all we want, but, you know, folks are looking for action.
[17:40:01]
And I think to get that action together, it's going to require a coalition of people who care desperately about what the voters in their districts are saying and try to get this corrected for our kids and their futures.
TAPPER: So you just heard the congressman, I'm sorry, you just heard the candidate there say that the reason he ran against the congressman, Cory Mills, is because he thought that if Cory Mills, you know, was the nominee for the Republicans, the Democrat would win. Cory Mills is not going to be on the top of the ticket. Trump is not going to be on the ticket either.
Trump did decisively win Seminole and Volusia counties in 2024. Why do you think you have the best chance to flip this central Florida congressional seat?
DALTON: Well, we are confident that we are going to win, Jake. We actually have data already that shows in this district folks would prefer a Democrat at this moment in time over a Republican by two points. We have data that shows by a wide margin, folks are interested in somebody that represents them to work across the aisles to lower costs. And, you know, in the last segment, we heard about, you know, my opponent not wanting to define himself. Well, in the last day, he certainly has been defined.
He's now been endorsed by the President as someone who will stand up for MAGA values. And we have seen those items just not work. You know, people have voted for a government that would be working more efficiently. They've been voted for an economy that would be getting better. And they were voting for our leaders to be focused on our struggles here at home. That is happening.
And, you know, it's hard to say that he hasn't been defined. I mean, he has said that our economy is in a good spot right now. That's not what I'm hearing on the doors. He has said that these tariff taxes are working. That's not what we're hearing from small business folks in central Florida. And he supported this war in Iran that has no strategic end state, no goal and political leadership that's hanging our servicemen and women out to dry and causing a lot of fear and discontent and their family members back home wondering if they're actually being taken care of.
So, you know, I think my opponent is well-defined and he's defined as the status quo and another rubber stamp. And people are just tired of that. They don't care whose name is on the rubber stamp. They want the rubber stamp gone.
TAPPER: Bale Dalton, the Democratic nominee for the race for Florida's seventh congressional district. Thank you so much. And congratulations again.
And in just a few minutes, we're also going to hear from the nominees in Florida's race for governor, Republican Congressman Byron Donalds and Democratic former Congressman David Jolly.
We do have some breaking news, though, involving the royal family and what could be a big move back home for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. CNN royal correspondent Max Foster is coming up with what he is learning from the palace. That's next.
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[17:47:17]
TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you in our Law and Justice Lead. It's day three in the trial of the man accused of orchestrating rapper Tupac Shakur's murder. That's underway right now. On the stand right now is a former FBI special agent named Wade Lee, who testified that he encountered the defendant, Duane Davis, in the 1990s while investigating the Grape Street Crips. That's a gang Davis later wrote about in his memoir, Compton Street Legend.
That connection is key because prosecutors have built much of their case around Davis' own words. Their primary piece of evidence against Davis is his actual memoir, in which he describes his role in the killing of Tupac Shakur. Lee also testified about a 1998 proffer session where he asked Davis about the murder. Lee says that Davis suggested members of the Compton Police Department may have been involved, and he connected them to Suge Knight, which raises the question, will Suge Knight testify? And if so, when?
That's one of the two big cases we're following. The other one is the murder trial for the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her three children in 2023. Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to the murders, claiming that she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis at the time. Today, jurors heard from the forensic psychologist who evaluated Clancy after the killings.
Let's get right to CNN's Jean Casarez, who's been covering this trial on CNN's All Access platform. And, Jean, what new insight did the psychologist provide today?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a big witness, Paul Zeizel. He met with her almost 60 times. It took about almost 40 hours to assess her criminal responsibility or lack thereof. He said, beginning on December 2nd, she started having intrusive thoughts that her brain was damaged, she didn't want to live anymore, she never thought she could get better, and she thought these intrusive thoughts were being heard by everyone.
She called the suicide hotline two times. They turned her away because she didn't have a plan. She checked herself into a mental hospital, didn't feel that was helping, so she left. And also the question was asked by the defense to this very important witness. Four days before the killing, she did a Google search on can you treat a sociopath. Is that because she's a sociopath? His answer was no, that if she is in psychosis, that that can happen. And so an answer for what the prosecution had brought out earlier in the trial.
TAPPER: It really is just stunning how much the mental health world failed this woman, all the outreach she did in terms of suicide hotlines, places to go. Prosecutors questioned the psychologist on what he knew about Lindsay and her then husband Patrick Clancy's relationship, as well as a phone call that he facilitated for Lindsay to Patrick. Tell us about that.
[17:49:56]
CASAREZ: Patrick Clancy came up again today. This forensic psychologist actually went into her hospital room. As he says, she was locked to her bed. And it was it was about 11 days afterward. So it was a ways away. But that she wanted to talk to her husband. And so he gave her his personal cell phone to call Patrick voicemail. She left a voicemail and she wanted to talk to him because she loved him.
She wanted to tell him she loved him. He returned that call a couple of days later. We don't know what he said, but we do know a little bit about the interaction of Paul Zeizel and Lindsay Clancy. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In your testimony yesterday was that she had called him to tell him that she loved him and to see where they were at, right? DR. PAUL ZEIZEL, CLINICAL AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meaning what their relationship.
ZEIZEL: I made no interpretation of what that meant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But in that subsequent conversation that you are a witness to where they were speaking on the phone and she told them about these voices or explained about the voices, did she ask about the kids?
ZEIZEL: She did not. As I recall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: So she did not ask about her children.
TAPPER: This witness also offered new insight into Clancy's life at Tewksbury Hospital. That's the Massachusetts psychiatric facility where she's been in state custody since May 2023. What are you learning about it?
CASAREZ: This is interesting. So interesting. Prosecution brought it out. They had a calendar and they brought out all the pivotal dates since this happened. When Cora would turn six, her birthday, when Dawson would turn four, his birthday, the anniversary of killing her children. What were the notes from the hospital? All of the notes were the same. No behavioral issues. She was playing some cards that day. She joined the coffee club. Maybe her parents came to visit her. But no emotions at all on pivotal anniversaries, birthdays of her children.
TAPPER: In an unusual situation that underscores just how popular this case is on social media. A TikToker who posted about this case took the stand today without the jury present. What was that about?
CASAREZ: Right. That was the voir dire. She posted a very long rant on TikTok because of the mental hospital. It is an offshoot of Harvard, by the way, that Lindsay Clancy checked herself into because in the prosecution's case, Lindsay Clancy said, you know, it's a foremost hospital, but they didn't do anything for me. And she walked out. But the experts said it was a great hospital.
Well, the defense wanted to counter that because this was a former employee. They said, no, there's not good therapy sessions. The doctors don't give you one on one visits. But she didn't work there at the same time. She did. There are different personnel there, not the same rounds that she made. So the judge said it's just -- it's not as succinct that we need. We need specific in time treated Lindsay or someone that knew Lindsay to be treated.
TAPPER: Yes. This case is big on TikTok. And now TikTok is infiltrating the case.
CASAREZ: It's a new world.
TAPPER: It's interesting. Jean Casarez, as always.
Some breaking news in our World Lead, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are planning to move back to the U.K. six years after announcing they were stepping back from royal duties and moving to North America. Let's go to CNN's royal correspondent, Max Foster, who's in London. Max, did anyone see this coming?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: No. Well, even the King didn't see it coming, I'm told. He was only told of the plans on Sunday, even though they met quite recently as a family a few weeks ago when Harry and Meghan were over. So my understanding is they will be moving to the U.K., probably keeping their home in California.
And the British newspapers have got a couple of details, the Telegraph, for example, suggesting that children have been enrolled at British schools and they won't be staying in a royal residence. They will be a private residence of some kind. So this has clearly been in the planning and they kept it very quiet. The king's making it very clear, is my understanding, that they will not return to their roles as working royals. Jake?
TAPPER: Why now? I mean, is there a reconciliation going on here that we don't know about? Do they not like being in California?
FOSTER: It's unclear at the moment. I understand that she's bringing her business over here as well, the Duchess of Sussex. Harry has spoken about wanting to be in the U.K. more to spend more time with his charities. So we're expecting him to make more visits. So we know that he has had face to face meetings, obviously, with the King and the Queen.
My understanding is that they haven't patched things up with the Prince and Princess of Wales. But bringing the children over also takes it to a completely different level. It does suggest that they're moving over here properly to make it their home again. It's not clear why they want to leave California or why they want to come to the U.K. Their office aren't confirming anything to me tonight officially, but they're not denying that it's happening either.
[17:55:08]
TAPPER: All right, Max Foster in London. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Coming up, the new sexual misconduct allegations against yet another congressman. This time it's Democrat Jimmy Gomez. He denies the allegations. What are we learning? That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Welcome to The lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour after a consequential night of primary election results, we've got two of the big winners here on The Lead live. The Republican and the Democrat vying for to replace Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will join us in moments. We're going to ask them about some of the biggest issues and what their race could say about how their parties might fare around the country.
Plus, disturbing new allegations against Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez of California. Attorneys say that a woman has come forward to the House Ethics Committee with serious accusations, which he denies. But we're learning about the investigation into the congressman.
[18:00:02]
Also, top Democrats demanding a group of ICE agents be put on leave after video showed them surrounding a woman in her car shouting --
