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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Offers $5,000 To Every U.S. Adult If GOP Wins House & Senate; GOP, Dem Officials Ask Supreme Court To Kill Mail-In Ballot Rule; Secondary Cockpit To Provide More Security On Flights; Kimmel Interview With Dem Candidate Talarico Won't Air On ABC; Entrepreneur Outlines $750B Plan To Cure Deadliest Diseases. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 10, 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 to my panel. Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well. We always appreciate you. Please do not go anywhere, though, because Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead."

Hey, Jake, great to see you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Kasie, hello. Good to see you. We'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

HUNT: See you tomorrow.

[17:00:30]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Is Trump's brand new promise of $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans keep Congress, is that even legal? The Lead starts right now.

Five thousand dollars for every adult who is an American citizen if Republicans keep the House and the Senate, that's the offer on the table from President Trump. Is it a bribe for votes? And where would that estimated $1.3 trillion come from? What the president, about last night's pledge.

Plus, what people are saying in conservative circles. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro will be here from the midterm rally in moments.

And 54 days before the midterms, a group of election officials say it's just too late to change the rules on who gets to vote by mail. We're going to talk to Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. He's among those making this new urgent plea to the U.S. Supreme Court as we await their decision.

Plus, one day after apocalyptic warnings about AI, a word from Anthropic revealing that they blocked bad actors from possibly trying to use AI to build biological weapons. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to start in our Politics Lead, President Trump trying to make American adults an offer they can't refuse, $5,000 Each. But wait, there is a catch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here is my promise. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic, tremendous economic success, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: OK, I got some questions. First of all, is this even legal? We check the U.S. code and 18 U.S. Code 597 about expenditures to influence voting reads, quote, "Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to every person either to vote or withhold his vote or to vote for or against any candidate shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both," unquote.

The same penalties also apply to whoever solicits, accepts or receives any such expenditure. So a payment incentive to influence votes might not pass all of the legal smell tests. And even if it were deemed to be legal, how would it work?

Trump's $5,000 check idea would have to pass both chambers of Congress, which Republicans do control right now. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio last night tweeted, quote, "I will get a bill ready so we can get the Trump dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election," unquote. So there's at least one eager beaver. But even Trump himself today seemed to acknowledge congressional approval might be a problem, saying he cannot distribute the money immediately because Democrats would object.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Why not just give the money now, if you have the money? Why not give it now?

TRUMP: Because they can't -- I'll tell you what, because the Democrats can't do it. Because with them, it's negative growth. With us, it's so positive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: But then Trump told CBS that he would not need to get congressional approval. OK. Either way, so far, we don't really see any Republican leaders chopping at the bit to implement this plan that would surely require adding to our already sky high national debt, which you might remember a few weeks ago surpassed $40 trillion, 40 trillion. Which brings us to the next big question, where's this money going to come from, 1.3 trillion for this dividend with around 260 million adult Americans per the 2020 census, $1.3 Trillion to honor the commitment? The White House has not said from what bucket of money this money would come.

So before you literally start banking on any $5,000 check out your way, be aware there is a good reason to be suspicious of verbal promissory notes from President Trump. So far, money from other cash payments he has promised have yet to hit my checking account, at least. No sign of the $5,000 stimulus checks via the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE dividend that Trump promised back in February 2025 or the $1,000 plus checks via savings from expiring Obamacare subsidies that Trump promised last December? Still waiting on those. And then, of course, the $2,000 stimulus check via the Trump dividend that Trump floated back in July 2025, that must have bounced, I guess. Here was Trump in October on that tariff dividend.

[17:05:27]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We also might make a distribution to the people, almost like a dividend to the people of America.

DANIEL BALDWIN, OAN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: How much are you thinking for that, sir?

TRUMP: Well, we're thinking maybe a $1,000 to $2,000 be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: As has been said, the check is in the mail. Joining us now from the Republican midterm conventions, Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and host of the "Ben Shapiro Show," a daily political podcast and radio program.

Ben, your thoughts on this Trump dividend $5,000 per American citizen adult that back of the envelope math would cost $1.3 trillion.

BEN SHAPIRO, HOST, "THE BEN SHAPIRO SHOW": Well, I mean, I don't think it's going to happen, but beyond it not happening, I think that we are now in a political period in which both parties have decided that we are simply going to raise up our national debt as high as humanly possible and competitively bid out for votes. So we can either Medicare for all to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars over time, or, you know, we can promise dividend checks that aren't going to arrive to the tune of trillions of dollars over time. Nobody in government at this point is fiscally responsible. Nobody even pretends to be fiscally responsible. And basically, anytime Republicans are openly fiscally irresponsible, Democrats yell about it. And the opposite is also true.

So great. The debt will continue to rise and no one will actually face down the problem.

TAPPER: Well, and your kids and my kids are going to have to deal with it. Why do you think President Trump made this offer, essentially paying Americans if Republicans hold the House and Senate? Why not just if affordability is his concern, why not devote a little bit more attention towards ways to make life more affordable? The tariffs come to mind. This is obviously in no small part how he got elected, because he wanted to bring prices down.

SHAPIRO: I mean, I think that the president of the United States, he will -- he does have a gift for the bumper sticker. And I think that the idea that he is going to essentially pledge certain amounts of money entering people's pocket and then he might backfill how exactly he comes up with that, that is a very Trumpy approach to how to do politics. So instead of necessarily saying, well, we'll lower tariffs here or we'll give a subsidy there, lower tax rates here, instead, what he might do is just say $5,000 for everybody, and then he'll let the policy experts kind of fill in that bubble, however they feel like they want to fill in that bubble. It's kind of a coloring book.

TAPPER: Part of the reason, obviously, that prices have risen is because of the tariffs. As you note, I mean, he could get rid of those, you know, a bunch of them.

SHAPIRO: That is certainly a possibility. But obviously the president is very wedded to the idea that tariffs bring manufacturing home. I've expressed my disagreement with that policy in terms of pricing. And again, I think if you look at sort of the president's approval ratings, where the streams cross from approval to disapproval, was directly on Liberation Day, when I think the American people sensed that the president had priorities other than pure affordability. With that said, the tariffs have contributed some to the sort of price spiral that we've seen.

But the reality is that in -- the rate of inflation has remained relatively low to midrange under President Trump. And what people I think are very angry about is the fact that over the course of the last five or six or seven years, you've seen an increase in prices that amounts to 20 or 25 percent, not the fact that year over year you're seeing an increase in price of about 3 percent. And I think that that's a lack of clarity in how the president addressed that issue when he was running back in 2024 when he said, I'm going to bring inflation down. I think Americans understand that to mean lower prices in the absolute sense. And I think that typically, as anyone will, who knows, this will explain, prices only go down on a massive scale in an absolute sense if you experience a severe economic contraction, as that was never going to happen.

TAPPER: So one of the reasons -- another one of the reasons why prices are high have to do with the Iran war. Let's just put on the table, it's obviously a good thing for the Iranian leaders to not have nuclear weapons. But beyond that, one of the reasons, for example, that airline air, you know, air travel is 25 percent higher today than it was one year ago is because of what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz. What is the solution to that, do you think?

SHAPIRO: Well, I mean, I think that the solution is going to materialize over time given the fact that the United States has successfully been able to open the Strait of Hormuz to the tune of 18 billion barrels of oil that were going out just last week on a daily basis, which is pretty close to the prewar rate. And now the fact that we have oil that presumably will come online from Venezuela, the fact that you have all the oil producing powers in that region building pipelines the other way, it's something that's going to mitigate over time. But obviously, when you're trying to communicate with the American people that the prices are going to come down, you do have to explain that every war entails sacrifice. And one of those sacrifices is temporary spikes in oil prices. And that obviously is what has happened here, even if you agree, as I do, with what the administration has done.

[17:10:10]

TAPPER: Ben Shapiro, always good to have you on. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Have a good time in Dallas.

SHAPIRO: Thanks so much.

TAPPER: Can the Trump administration change the rules on who can vote by mail? We're 54 days away from the midterms. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing that very question. Coming up next, we're going to talk to the Georgia secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger. He's one of many top election officials across the country trying to get the court's attention before that decision comes down.

And later, a businessman pushing to get some $750 billion towards preventing and curing some of the world's deadliest diseases. We're going to hear him out ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: New today in our continuing series, AI Friend or Foe, the AI company Anthropic says its threat assessment team blocked bad actors from around the globe from misusing its AI model Claude for illicit activities such as developing bioweapons or carrying out surveillance. This comes just one day after various AI experts sounded the alarm about a potential AI apocalypse. Let's get right to CNN's AI Correspondent Hadas Gold.

[17:15:15]

Hadas, take us through this Anthropic report.

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. This is part of a very lengthy report that Anthropic issued into malicious activities on Claude that Anthropic said that they eventually stopped things that they observed over the last eight months from around December to August. And this wasn't just regular people sort of messing around on Claude. These were state sponsored groups, these are scientists, these are state propaganda institutions, these are criminals that Anthropic has identified.

The most concerning though that Anthropic highlights in this lengthy report were five cases where users were using Claude in ways that could have helped create biological weapons. Anthropic calls this one of the most serious risks of frontier AI models. This included research into things like infectious diseases and bird flus, as well as novel venoms and toxins.

I want to read you part of this report. Anthropic says, "The cases we share here are not typical misuse, but rather examples of the most notable and novel threats activity we have identified to date. We're publishing this work because we believe we have a responsibility to disclose malicious misuse of our services." Saying, "As models become increasingly capable, their risks will increase unless AI developers and society's defenders act to make them safer."

Now, Anthropic said that they shut all of these activities down because even though scientists can use this for good, it wasn't clear to them whether the scientists who were doing this research were using it for real research purposes or if they were malicious actors that were actually trying to create bioweapons. Because you do need to do some research into things like viruses to try to create things like vaccines. And we all want that to happen. But Anthropic said that they wanted to err on the side of caution in these cases.

There were other malicious activity that they found throughout these last eight months. This include things like state propaganda uses as well as what were likely to be, you know, terrorist groups that were trying to develop software for weapons design and development. So very interesting to see all this malicious activity that Anthropic said that they spotted.

And what's interesting here, Jake, is that this is kind of an argument for these closed models. These are Anthropic models, OpenAI models that live on their systems because that means that they can monitor for this type of activity. Those models coming out of China, all those open weight models, those live on your system and those companies can't monitor the activity. Jake.

TAPPER: Hadas, put this threat assessment from Anthropic and Claude, put this in the context for us of what's going on more broadly, considering the viral resignation announcement of an Anthropic employee just yesterday and all the other experts sounding the alarm.

GOLD: Yes, this is actually something that Jacob Coxon, that former Anthropic researcher, specifically talked to, saying that one of the ways he thinks AI could kill us all is through these extinction level bioweapons. And that, you know, this is one of the main concerns over how capable AI is becoming. And there's kind of two main concerns over how AI could go wrong in this case. One is what we saw with Anthropic, AI falling into the wrong hands, into the bad guys' hands, and they use it to help them create bioweapons. Something that would have previously taken you dozens of scientists many months or years to create, you can now do with a much smaller team.

Then the other fear is AI going wrong on its own. These are the agents that are hacking into systems, you know, breaking out of their test environments. There is also a concern though that as robotics get better and those humanoid robots get better at, you know, everything from folding our clothes, that at some point they're going to be in the labs. And so there is a concern that AI agents will somehow be controlling those robots. That's further in the future, but you can understand why these AI researchers who are working in the industry see that future and are afraid of it.

Jake.

TAPPER: Hadas Gold, thank you so much.

This just in, word of a notable resignation from the Trump Justice Department. We're going to have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:23:27]

TAPPER: Breaking news in our Law and Justice Lead, right now, voters and election officials are waiting with bated breath as the U.S. Supreme Court reconsiders President Trump's order to restrict voting by mail. There are only 54 days until the midterm elections. The proposed rule would give the U.S. Postal Service an unprecedented role in elections. It would require states to upload voter rolls from their states to an online portal. And if the data from that state does not perfectly match, then the ballot will not be delivered.

A recent whistleblower report went further, saying that if a single envelope doesn't match, the United States Postal Service would throw out the entire batch. The Trump administration sent its final brief to the court today. Meanwhile, North Carolina and Alabama have already sent out their mail-in ballots and several more states are set to send them out in the coming days. Last night, a bipartisan group of nearly 40 current and former election officials urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block the U.S. Postal Service mail ballot rule from going into effect, this Trump rule to restrict voting by mail.

Let's bring in one of those officials signing onto this warning, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger.

Mr. Secretary, you and the other election officials warn that if this rule goes into effect it, quote, "will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays and confusion for both voters and election officials." With all due respect, don't you think that might be the point?

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, our concern with the people that I signed on with, there's eight conservative secretary of state lieutenant governors. Plus in Georgia, three of our very conservative county election directors signed on to this. We're concerned about the process.

[17:25:08]

We're actually going to be mailing out, you know, our overseas military ballots next week, starting on the 15th, all the way through the 19th. There's just not enough time to implement this detailed policy change. And that's our concern is it just may not work out because we've not had the time to put this into place. And that's why we're saying put a pause on this. Let's continue with the program that we have.

We're ready to run an election here in Georgia.

TAPPER: How do you think the justices might rule given that the fact that the election is so close, as you note? RAFFENSPERGER: Well, there's been prior rulings that you shouldn't be making extensive changes in the election cycle. And we are in the election cycle, as you mentioned, you know, when you kick this off. Two states have already started mailing out absentee ballots, and that -- that's happening this week. And so other states are farther ahead than Georgia is. But next week we start mailing them out.

That is our concern. We want to make sure that we have a process in place and that no one, you know, does not end up getting an absentee ballot. People have to understand in Georgia, we use photo ID for absentee voting and our voter list is just checked by an outside independent audit, 99.9 percent accurate. Only 0.1 percent of, you know, potential discrepancies did they find in a list of 8 million people.

TAPPER: And yet because Trump lost Georgia in 2020, your state is currently under a microscope. In January, as you know, the FBI raided the Fulton County election offices in July. CNN reported that the FBI assigned hundreds of personnel to the investigation into the 2020 election. You maintain there's no evidence of widespread fraud and there has been no evidence that the administration, the Trump team, has brought forward to demonstrate this -- these fraud claims they make. Have you learned anything new about this investigation in recent days?

RAFFENSPERGER: Oh, not on the Fulton County. That's between the feds and Fulton County. But I know I support accountability and I support a transparent process. That's why I'm the first secretary of state to do a citizenship audit back in 2022, did one in '24 and also did one here in 2026, working with Department of Homeland Security and their SAFE database, making sure that only American citizens were on the list. Photo ID for all forms of voting

And then quick results on election night. Everything. Keep in mind, shorter than one hour. But we have a process in place. And that's why our concern is it's just too late in the process.

It's -- as it works, the judicial system, they took their time, but importantly, they used up all any slack we had in the schedule to actually implement something like this.

TAPPER: President Trump seems to have been following his 2020 playbook in 2026 in the sense that he is devised lots of different efforts to try to undermine the election. The most recent prominent Trump allies are pressing the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, to use his department's authorities over supply chains to ban certain voting machines, arguing that any Chinese made components could leave those voting machines vulnerable to hackers. Do you have any concerns about voting machines that have any Chinese made components?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, really, we know about that, but in Georgia state law we're only allowed to use equipment that has been pre-certified, pre-approved by the Election Assistance Commission. And so that's the equipment we have in place. We also do our own testing. And so at the end of the day, you know, we want voters to have very high trust in our process. But that's also why we're going to be doing 20 risk limiting audits, 20 different races.

That is a record breaker. Most states maybe do one, maybe two. We're actually getting ready to do 20 of them, every congressional race, every statewide race that's on the ballot this year. And so that'll be a record beater for us. And it's going to try, you know, our county's bandwidth, but they're going to get it done.

But that just helps ensure, you know, that we have a transparent, very apparent process. This is the people that won these races.

TAPPER: Georgia Secretary of State Republican Brad Raffensperger, thank you, sir. Appreciate it, as always.

RAFFENSPERGER: My pleasure.

TAPPER: Breaking news in our Law and Justice Lead, the man in charge of investigating Trump's enemies has resigned from the U.S. Department of Justice. Joe diGenova was apparently clashing with top Department officials over the pace of the probe, meant to look into charges into high ranking federal officials. CNN's Evan Pettis is following this.

Evan, remind us who diGenova was investigating.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joe diGenova was investigating people like John Brennan, the former CIA director, of course, one of the top foes of the president, political foes of the president. There were more recently they were expanding -- he was expanding the scope of the investigation to try to see if he could bring additional charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. And Jake, this is an investigation that as diGenova has outlined in podcasts and so on over the last few months, he was pursuing basically this idea of a vast conspiracy against the president, stretching from 2016 and the Russia investigation all the way to 2024 and the charges that the president faced in the January 6 investigation and, of course, the classified documents case.

[17:30:08]

Joe diGenova hit the ground running down in South Florida back in April and at the time he was promising that he could bring charges as early as within 30 days and since then of course things have turned out to be a lot more complicated and there's been a lot of clashes between him and some of his supervisors at the Justice Department here in Washington.

One of the things that I was told today, Jake, was that, you know, the officials here simply thought, you know, just bring the Brennan case for instance and you could make time for additional investigation. But Joe diGenova was going big with this investigation and still had nothing to show for it and that's the reason why in the end he was pressured to resign.

That resignation happened just today. He told me that, I talked to him on the phone, he said it was an honor and privilege to serve the President and the department. I asked him, you know, about these clashes with people at the Justice Department, his bosses at the Justice Department and he declined to get into those, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much.

Turning to our National Lead today, a somber wreath laying by 9/11 families, veterans groups and others at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. The 184 memorial benches represent the 125 people inside the Pentagon and 59 aboard American Airlines Flight 77, all of whom were killed 25 years ago in the terrorist attacks, 25 years ago tomorrow. Several more 9/11 commemorations will take place tomorrow which includes of course the Ground Zero ceremony in New York which will feature a moment of silence.

Traditionally, there have been six moments of silence, four for the plane crashes and two for each of the twin towers that collapsed and now for the first time ever, there will be a seventh moment of silence. This seventh moment of silence is to honor the nearly 10,000 people who have died from diseases linked to their exposure to the toxic ash and rubble at the site of the former World Trade Center, Ground Zero.

All four living former U.S. presidents including their spouses will attend the memorial in New York as well as Vice President J.D. Vance. President Trump will not be there, he will mark the occasion at a ceremony at the Pentagon in Virginia.

Also on our National Lead post 9/11, everything changed when it came to airport security in the United States. It also changed the security on flights, particularly the security of the cockpit. The next time you walk onto an airplane, you might see the latest recommendation from the 9/11 commission starting to be implemented, but as CNN's Pete Muntean reports, it could take decades for every plane to get this new security feature.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This gate is supposed to close one of the last gaps in aviation security revealed by the 9/11 hijackings 25 years ago. Known as a secondary cockpit barrier, it is designed to keep the flight deck of commercial airliners secure when the cockpit door has to be opened. At Southwest Airlines headquarters in Dallas, the company has taken delivery of dozens of new Boeing 737s equipped with the barriers.

DAVE HUNT, VP SAFETY & SECURITY, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: Essentially this is the first line of defense, right, is a hardened blast-proof door with electric locks.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Dave Hunt is head of safety and security for Southwest. He was a pilot for the airline on 9/11.

HUNT: Back then we were very reactive. We were on our heels, something bad would happen, we would react to that. Now we're thinking ahead and trying to understand where could people with bad intention go and then coming up with new procedures and technologies to mitigate those.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Before 9/11, cockpit doors were required to be weak enough that they could be kicked open in an emergency. After the attacks, cockpit doors were hardened and stricter protocols were put in place, but those changes did not deal with what happens when a pilot opens the cockpit door to go to the bathroom, get food or make a safety check. Ever since, flight attendants would place beverage carts and even themselves in the front galley to block cockpit doors.

MUNTEAN: As soon as the cockpit door opens, the protection it provides is obviously compromised. That's why the secondary barrier is here. But here is the catch. This is required only on new airplanes, not the thousands of airplanes already in service.

CAPTAIN JASON AMBROSI, AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: In 25 years, it's long overdue.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Captain Jason Ambrosie heads the Airline Pilots Association. The Federal Aviation Administration's requirement for secondary barriers in new planes did not take full effect until last month. But even that, Ambrosie says, is a half measure.

AMBROSI: Let's get these things installed on all airplanes so passengers are safe and secure on any airplane you're flying, not just if you're lucky to be on a new one.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): An FAA analysis says it would take another 25 years for most of the U.S. passenger fleet to get secondary barriers. Ellen Saracini has been fighting to get pilots better protection for years. Her husband, Victor, was captain of United Flight 175 as terrorists took over the plane and crashed it into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

[17:35:12]

ELLEN SARACINI, WIDOW OF 9/11 PILOT: What are you going to do the day that they take over another aircraft? You're going to say, wow, I thought we had our acts together.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pete Muntean, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Pete Muntean for that report.

Coming up, comedian Jimmy Kimmel's decision to move his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, putting it online on YouTube instead of airing it on ABC. Is Kimmel about to be a trendsetter in order to avoid further sanctions from the Trump- friendly FCC? We're diving into this one next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:10]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, the young Democrat who's been surging in the polls recently, was set to appear on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. That is until President Trump's FCC got involved in some way. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": My interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television. It will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on T.V. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety. And thank goodness we have that, because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November, of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The race between Talarico and the Republican nominee, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is shaping up to be a key contest in what could help decide control of the U.S. Senate.

My panel joins me now. Jonah Goldberg, let me start with you. So beginning this year, the FCC directed late night T.V. hosts to offer equal air time to all candidates running for any given office. So it's not clear if the FCC told Kimmel's show to do this or if ABC preemptively said, let's not do this. And there is this chilling effect also that ABC has complained about. What's your take on it all?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, so first of all, I think this is dumb, right, just on the merits. Let them interview James Talarico. It's ridiculous. But I also think it's just profoundly stupid for the FCC. It's also corrupt and it puts a lie to all the talk about this administration being so pro-free speech, all that stuff. It's also just dumb that the FCC has anything to do with broadcast television anymore. Fine, regulate standards for emergency band radios and 6G and all that kind of stuff.

There's room for spectrum options. But what the hell, in a world of 10 trillion streaming platforms and options, is the FCC getting in nickel and diming a handful of networks about what they can and can't put on T.V. anymore? FCC was created for the radio era in the 1930s. Just be done with it.

TAPPER: And Xochitl, we should note that one of the issues here on the equal time idea is it's not just that Jimmy Kimmel will have to interview Ken Paxton, the Republican, theoretically. It is that ABC or Kimmel or some sort of Disney operative would have to offer equal time for every candidate running for Senate. And you're a Texan. You know it's not just two. There's like 6,000 candidates running for Senate in Texas.

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right. And I think the funny thing about this whole thing is that Ken Paxton doesn't do interviews. He does interviews with "Fox News." But even Donald Trump said he's terrible on television. And Donald Trump right now is essentially the campaign manager of the Ken Paxton campaign. And Donald Trump isn't going to approve him going on Jimmy Kimmel or anywhere else because he's criticized the way he looks as of last night.

TAPPER: Oh, you don't have to describe it. I got the clip ready. HINOJOSA: You got the clip ready.

TAPPER: Here is, as Xochitl puts it, President Trump, as Ken Paxton's campaign manager, given his full-throated endorsement to Attorney General Ken Paxton running for Senate in Texas in this midterm convention. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly. And he may not be the best looking guy I've ever seen. But you know what he is? He's the greatest attorney general in America. And he deserves to be your next senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He added something there. It used to be just he's not good at talking and he's a bad dresser. He added he's not the best looking guy in the world, which, I mean, fact check true. But what? Why?

CARINE HAJJAR, MEMBER, WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD: Well, I honestly don't think that there's a deeper message here beyond the fact that Trump himself has said that he likes, you know, politicians from central casting.

TAPPER: Right.

HAJJAR: So that's pretty much in character for the president. What's really stunning about this at all is that the president had to go to Texas and stump for Ken Paxton. Texas. And I think people in Texas are really worried. Republicans in Texas are really worried about this race. It must have stung for Attorney General Paxton. He has run a campaign largely around evoking the good old days of MAGA. I went and saw some of his events right before the primary.

And so he's trying to draw comparisons with the President that people criticizing my character. It's the same type of political persecution that Trump has faced. And then you get burned by the President. That's not that's not a great look.

TAPPER: And we should note this Republican midterm convention was a who's who of the rights. But there was one notable Democrat who made a virtual appearance. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I'm Senator John Fetterman, Pennsylvania. Yes, I'm a Democrat. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done. And he's going to fight for Pennsylvania. I'm proud to count him as my friend. Right back over my shoulder, that's the iconic U.S. steel mill. And that's exactly the kind of thing that will work together and will work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:45:10]

TAPPER: Now, it's not always clear that Senator Fetterman's office knows what Senator Fetterman is doing at any given moment. But when CNN reached out, the idea that Fetterman might run -- might become a Republican, he's up for reelection in two years, they released a statement supposedly attributed to Fetterman that says, "I'm a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelming with my party. And should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on." But what if the Senate doesn't flip and the Senate stays Republican? I mean, there's a -- anyway, what do you think about all that?

GOLDBERG: Well, look, there's a lot of people talking about him moving to the Republican Party. I think it's as interesting to talk about the Republican Party moving to Fetterman. He is a old style, you know, Democrat, industrial policy, protectionist Democrat of a bygone era. And that's what Trump has turned the GOP into is a protectionist industrial policy party. And they kind of deserve each other. I have more respect for Fetterman than I do for what Trump has done to the Republican Party. But it's interesting, the convergence.

TAPPER: Fetterman's former chief of staff was on CNN earlier today. He was asked about the senator's statement. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM JENTLESON, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN: I think it's encouraging if you're a Democrat that he is saying that, but I certainly would not put too much stock in it going forward. I think that, you know, this is somebody who just wants to get attention. And if, you know, getting switching parties would get him a lot of attention if he's the deciding factor, I think we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think Xochitl?

HINOJOSA: I do think he wants attention. I also think when Fetterman talks about being the 51st senator, if you're campaigning for Republicans, you are not going to be the 51st senator. And that is what that message was in that video is he's not just saying, I agree with Republicans and can work with them on certain issues. That is somewhat campaigning for Republicans so that we don't get the Senate back. And so I think Democrats should rightfully be frustrated about that.

TAPPER: And Carine, before we go, you just got back from New Hampshire. There's a big Senate race there. It's going to be between Chris Pappas, the Democratic congressman, and former Senator John Sununu running for an open seat. What's your biggest takeaway?

HAJJAR: I think Sununu is going to have to run a campaign fully about New Hampshire to get through to voters. Pappas is running against Trump. He's trying to link Sununu to Trump. But actually, that race links to this Fetterman issue here. Democrats are doing their math. They don't just have to flip four Republican seats anymore. They have to hold the seats that they already have. And I think Senator Shaheen leaving this open seat, you know, Chris Pappas is going to make a go at it. But if anyone's going to buck a national trend against Republicans in this midterm, it would be in New Hampshire. And it would probably be a Sununu. So it'll be a tough race.

TAPPER: Interesting stuff. Thanks, everyone. CNN is hosting a debate in California. Alongside CNN's Dana Bash, it's Wednesday, September 30th, 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, live on every CNN platform. Tune in.

[17:48:09]

What if we could find a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's? A businessman thinks he has a diagnosis to get this done, but it comes with a high price tag. He'll explain next.

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TAPPER: In our Health Lead, what if there were a cure for Alzheimer's or diabetes or Parkinson's? My next guest is on a mission to do just that. By way of a bipartisan proposal that would allocate $750 billion towards trying to prevent and trying to cure some of the world's deadliest diseases. But he's not a politician. He's a businessman. Joining us now is Lou Weisbach. He's co-founder of the American Center for Cures.

So Lou, you've been working on this bold initiative for more than 25 years. But as I mentioned, you're not a lawmaker. So what gives you the confidence that you could have success now with this proposal for the government?

LOU WEISBACH, CO-FOUNDER, AMERICAN CENTER FOR CURES: So we've worked on it for 27 years. And I got involved when I was working in the Clinton White House. And President Clinton introduced me to a Dr. Rick Boxer, who's now in the National Cancer Advisory Board. And we sat down and said, at that time, if we had a blank sheet of paper and wanted to cure diseases, how would we go about it? And we realized that we wouldn't do anything that we were doing 27 years ago or anything that we're doing today.

And we had a bill in Congress, co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman, Thad Cochran, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Tom Carper. And it went nowhere. But all of a sudden, eight months ago, the tide changed. And the tide changed when the research community started being very concerned about their future funding. And they reached out to me and said, your model now is what we need. And ever since then, we've been on a sprint.

I was never able to do any shows like yours, Jake, until the last couple of months. And now I'm being asked to do every show because people realize that our system doesn't work. The way we try to cure diseases, doesn't work. The only way to be successful at anything is to have the five pillars of success, which is have enough money, the right leadership, the right business plan, accountability, and a sense of urgency.

In the world of cures, we have none of those. And it's nobody's job to cure. Think about it this way. It's nobody's job to cure anything. Who's going to get fired six months from now, two years from now, if we don't cure Alzheimer's or Parkinson's? So we don't have a business model to get it done, but we've come up with one. And it's being embraced across the country. And we're extraordinarily excited about it. And we're excited about it from the context of the midterm elections.

[17:55:07]

Because we're reaching out to everybody in the country right now, and we're talking to entertainers and athletes and the owners of teams and the commissioners of all sports and basically saying, this is the same for all of you. Disease is the only issue. It's the same for Jake and me and people living on the street and veterans. And so we're saying, this is the same for all of you. And so we've got the answer to once for all get it done, and it makes sense on every level. It makes sense politically, financially.

TAPPER: Yes. So, Lou, how are you working with the Trump administration right now, given that this White House has notably cut a lot of the research funding that you just alluded to?

WEISBACH: So our perspective is really simple. We need to get the American public to stand up en masse, especially with the midterms coming forward, and support our plan, and let the President know, let the Republican Party know. But the Democrats as well, I've met, I know all the leaders of the Democratic Party, know that on an issue that's 100 percent an issue that's the same for all of us, that them not working together is, and having our country as divided as it is, and I'm sure you see that division every day in your broadcast, we're the United States of America. And there's no better issue to unite the country on than disease, because it's the exact same for you, Jake, as for people living on the street, as for Elon Musk, it doesn't make any difference.

TAPPER: Lou Weisbach, thank you so much, appreciate it.

WEISBACH: Thanks so much.

Breaking news, we have a lot of new CNN reporting just coming in on the second night of the Republican midterm convention. What we're learning about how President Trump's $5,000 per American adult citizen offer came together. Plus, a big speech expected tonight from Vice President J.D. Vance, the heir apparent.

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