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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Is Interviewed About Trump Visits Baltimore Shipyard As GOP Sinks In Midterm Polls; Previewing The U.S. Supreme Court's Most Consequential Cases; Trump Suggests Iran Could "Take Out" L.A. Or San Diego; California Heat And Iran War Driving Up Pistachio Prices In U.S. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired October 06, 2026 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Don't forget, you can now stream The Arena live. You can catch up whenever you want. It's all in the CNN app. Just scan the QR code below.
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But of course, do not go anywhere, the dapper Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead."
Hi, Jake.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Hey, Kasie. We're going to look for more tomorrow from you in "The Arena."
HUNT: Sounds good. See you tomorrow.
[17:00:27]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Is the president in political panic mode? The Lead starts right now.
The nation is exactly four weeks away from midterm Election Day, and right now, President Trump is in Maryland on official White House business. Can he help himself from veering into campaign mode? We're going to be watching. Plus, a brand new audio recording surfacing in the alleged gang rape case at Cornell University. What a fraternity member is heard telling the woman known only as Jane Doe just days after the alleged assault?
And an unprecedented student protests rocking the country of France. The issue that has young people turning out by the thousands and why it's been so difficult for authorities to control the crowds.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to start with breaking news and our Politics Lead. You're looking at live pictures from where President Trump just spoke moments ago Sparrows Point shipyard in Baltimore as his approval rating remains underwater. Trump's unpopular war and the rising cost of living have been sinking Republicans chances in the midterm elections now just 28 days away.
President Trump, though, just said his rallies are helping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, I'm going around doing rallies. The Republican Party starting to go right through the roof, somebody said today, I wonder why. Well, I started -- I had to get out. I had to do it. We had to explain what we're doing.
There's never been a time like this in our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Recent polls seem to indicate that roofs across the country are largely marked safe from Republicans going through them. CNN's Kevin Liptak is in Baltimore.
Kevin, Trump's message today was meant to discuss the submarine manufacturing shipyard that is set to bring new jobs. That is exciting news. Walk us through what you just heard from the president. Did he mostly stay on message?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: He did mostly, but not entirely. You know, I think he's really trying to sort of reinforce his focus on manufacturing, trying to show vote that he is still committed to that pledge he made as a candidate in 2024. And he did talk about the multibillion dollar investment in this facility. It's a former steel plant. They're turning it in to a shipbuilding site to build components for Virginia class submarines.
But that was not the only thing he talked about. You know, he has a way of veering well off script. And he did talk about a number of other topics, including some that are very unpopular with the American people. So, for example, he talked about Iran. You know, you don't really hear that much about from the president a month before the election, trying to put it, I think, at the back of voters mind.
But he talked about it at some length, saying and acknowledging that the war was not over, saying that the U.S. still had to finish it off. He talked about tariffs. He talked about the president of Mexico. He described her voice as beautiful. Listen to a few of the other topics that the president wound around to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're getting along great with Venezuela. We're taking out billions and billions of dollars of oil. In my first term, we had the best economy that we've ever had. It was interrupted by COVID at the end, but we had the best numbers. Even with that, now we're building more car plants than we ever have in history.
It's all because of my favorite word, my fourth favorite, maybe my fifth, tariff.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LIPTAK: Now, one of the people who was partly responsible for bringing this investment to this site was the Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore. He says that President Trump actually blocked him from speaking at this event. He wasn't here. The White House said that the president had, quote, "graciously invited him here as a guest" and accused him of throwing a temper tantrum because he wasn't allowed to speak.
Wes Moore saying today that if Trump, quote, "wanted to bring the circus to town," that he would, quote, "let the circus be conducted and he would go back to work." Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Kevin Liptak in Baltimore, thanks.
Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Congressman, your reaction to what we heard from President Trump heralding tariffs there in Baltimore?
REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Yes, look, I mean, the American people are not stupid. And farmers in the Midwest, in Iowa and Nebraska and other places where the president's numbers are terrible are smart enough to understand that when you put tariffs on foreign goods and foreigners respond by putting tariffs on pork and soybeans and all this stuff, they get badly hurt, not to mention by the fact that farmers -- not to mention the fact that farmers can't find work -- workers out there because of the immigration crackdown.
[17:05:09]
So, look, it's a bizarre political thing when you talk about probably the two ugliest things that have your numbers in the toilet. I love the way you put it. Yes, no roofs are getting blown up by any Republicans. But to actually affirmatively bring up the Iran war and the tariffs, which are why Americans are suffering such high costs, is a -- well, let's just say that's a new political approach.
TAPPER: So the midterms are coming up. Democrats are favored according to polls. You have long said that President Trump has tried to sow doubt about the upcoming midterm elections, making claims of foreign interference with zero evidence. Former U.S. attorney or acting pardons attorney, I should say, Ed Martin, he was also acting U.S. attorney, he claims that Trump yesterday, I think, met with infamous election denier Tina Peters from Colorado, who did some time in prison for her election actions in the Oval Office this week. Take a listen to Ed Martin describing that meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED MARTIN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Tina Peters, you know, from Colorado, was in the Oval Office meeting with the president on election integrity. And they were talking about the plans. And the one thing that they know is that Secretary Mullin of the Department of Homeland Security came out in late August and conceded and said, as a matter of law, a finding that there is the machines for voting the election voting machines use parts from China and Russia and foreign places and are therefore compromised.
If the Congress won't pass the Save America Act, and they won't, then the president's going to have to do what he's going to do. And it is not a local issue when it's national security, and it's clearly national security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So there is this concern, of course, that President Trump is going to declare a national security emergency to do something having to do with voting machines, especially in states that he's not doing well and the Republicans are not doing well. And what is your reaction to this?
HIMES: Yes, I mean, I'm not one bit surprised, right? I mean, I, and Jake, you know, I'm an optimist in orientation, but I was also in the chamber on January 6, 2021, when the president sent a mob to stop the peace for transfer of power. And we know, we just know this president has never accepted an election that he has not won. In fact, he didn't accept the results of the election that he did win in 2016 because he demanded people to assure him that he won the popular vote. So he's going to say that this election was corrupt.
And so a lot of us are spending a lot of time making sure that the avenues he has to do that are cut off as best as we can. Because there's a ton of scenarios. Yes, one of them involves him directing, you know, DHS officers to confiscate machines in sensitive states like Michigan and North Carolina. Another one, one I'm very focused on, is him saying that he's gotten information that the Iranians have compromised the machines in Florida or wherever. And so, you know, we know he's going to do that.
And so all of us are just doing the best we can, along with lots of nonprofits and lawyers and others to prepare to be able to say that, no, that is not true. And by the way, you do not have the authority to compromise or to confiscate voting machines anywhere.
TAPPER: One of the questions that I think a lot of people have in terms of how well the Democrats are going to do or not do in the midterm elections is what is the positive agenda Democrats are putting forward? Because a lot of these polls, even ones that suggest the Democrats are going to do well or are favored on the generic ballot, seem to suggest the Democratic Party remains very unpopular. And people don't have confidence that the Democratic Party is necessarily going to put forth some sort of popular agenda. They're just not Trump. Do you wish that there was more of a Democratic agenda being put forward for voters?
HIMES: Yes, you know, Jake, you got it exactly right. And I'm worried -- I am warning my colleagues that we not misinterpret what looks like it could be a big win. Again, just look at the, you know, whatever the, you know, prediction markets out there, look at the polls. Do not misinterpret a big win as the American people love the Democrats, they do not. Look at any of the polling.
We're less popular in some instances than the president of the Unites States. So the answer to that, of course, is the moment that we take a majority is to start putting forward those affirmative policies that are about making Americans lives easier and the bills at the end of the month smaller and convincing them that this time around, we're actually going to get them done. You know, part of the story and part of the reason Americans aren't terribly excited about the Democratic Party is that we did a lot of stuff in the Biden administration, which is kicking in years later.
You know, there's just not a lot of sustainable energy being built out there. And so the magic is super clear, Jake. We got to instantly, literally, on day one, put forward those proposals that are going to quickly reduce the price of energy, quickly reduce the price of health care and housing, et cetera, and then dare the Republicans and the president to vote against them, and then convince the American people that this isn't just talk, it's going to happen and ease their pain.
[17:10:11]
TAPPER: From your vantage point on the House Select Committee on Intelligence where you're the ranking Democrat, how concerned are you about what's going on at this anti-plague lab in Siberia where a woman has died and the Russians are not particularly being forthcoming?
HIMES: Yes, you know, I mean, pray God that we're not seeing another episode. I mean, these were the conversations that we had when, you know, there were cases of COVID reported in Wuhan, China. The experts I've talked to tell me that this is not what we're dealing with. This is not a respiratory transmitted thing. But again, it's a little early to say, but you're absolutely right to point out that this has echoes of where we all were so uncomfortably six years ago.
And I mean, one of the reasons I'm concerned now is that this president and Elon Musk and his chainsaw have dismantled a lot of the groups like the Centers for Disease Control that are there to really monitor this stuff in real time. You know, Elon Musk and his chainsaw, you know, got rid of an awful lot of the people that should be telling us precisely what's going on, should be on the ground there and giving us more comfort. But again, Elon Musk and his chainsaw have left us a lot less secure than we were even six years ago.
TAPPER: Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.
Coming up, some of the backlash President Trump is getting today after suggesting last night in Nebraska that Iran could, quote, take out Los Angeles or San Diego. What exactly did he mean by that? But first, brand new developments coming out from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, including yet another high profile investigator now looking into the 2024 alleged gang range. Plus, a new audio recording of one of the man Jane Doe says was involved in the attack on a phone call with her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:15:55] TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, the launch of yet another investigation into that alleged 2024 gang right -- gang rape at Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity house. Today, Cornell hired career federal prosecutor Sally Yates to lead an independent review of the school's handling of the case. Yates served as deputy attorney general under the Obama administration and briefly as acting attorney general under President Trump's first term until Jeff Sessions was appointed0. This all comes as ABC News obtains new audio from a November 7, 2024 phone call between Jane -- between Jane Doe and one of the men named in her recently filed civil lawsuit. Here is a part of the conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so sorry about all, like the backlash you're getting from this, by the way. Oh, dude, I'm so sorry, no, I'm very like, I feel so bad for you, dude.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: According to ABC, Jane Doe responded with, quote, "I was completely and totally intoxicated and then given multiple sedatives. And then I was surrounded by men -- surrounded by upwards of eight to 10 men. This is classified as gang rape," unquote. Then the tone of the conversation changes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? Wait what's -- can I -- can I ask, like, what's the purpose for why you decided to call me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: These latest developments unfolded alongside massive student and faculty protests on the campus of Cornell demanding the resignation of the university president, Michael Kotlikoff. Let's bring in CNN's Gloria Pazmino, who's in Ithacao, New York.
Gloria, what is the latest in the investigation as this new audio surfaces.
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, take two different investigations, and that's important to highlight because we have two separate inquiries happening here. One is being led by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, after she was appointed special prosecutor by the governor, Kathy Hochul. And the latest development in that investigation is that the Office of the Attorney General has said they are bringing in outside counsel, specialized lawyers that work on these types of cases to begin this investigation. So that's the first inquiry that we need to worry about.
The second inquiry that we learned details about today is this investigation that Cornell itself is voluntarily agreeing to. And they announced today, the Board of Trustees has created a special committee and appointed Sally Yates, a former federal prosecutor, to lead this inquiry into how the university handled the Jane Doe case, but also how the university responds to incidents of sexual assault. And they're going to take a broad look at everything. They're going to look at resources, what's available for students. How does the university work with law enforcement?
How does the university work with outside law enforcement? Remember, the university has its own police department. So Sally Yates is going to be in charge of leading that investigation. She has a long career, significant experience. Not only did she serve as acting attorney general under Trump, but you might remember she was fired when she refused to defend his travel ban in 2017.
And perhaps most relevant here, she also led an investigation into U.S. women's soccer and looked into allegations there of sexual misconduct. So an experienced prosecutor that will be taking over this investigation.
TAPPER: Gloria, you were the first to report on Cornell's faculty Senate introducing this no confidence resolution over the administration's handling of the alleged assault. What do they hope to achieve with that?
PAZMINO: Look, Jake, we have been speaking with faculty over the past few days about what the fallout is inside Cornell University, what faculty members are saying to each other. And it's very clear that not only are they upset, but they're frustrated. And they're frustrated by the university's response so far. And that is the reason why they decided to submit a resolution of a vote of no confidence in the administration's ability to handle sexual assault cases. Again, they don't see this as a singular event to Jane Doe.
[17:20:00]
They see this as sort of an endemic problem at the university, that Jane Doe was not the first and they don't want more Jane Does to come forward. So they have submitted this resolution. There will be a meeting in a matter of days. And the point of all of this is to really put some real pressure on the administration of Cornell University in this vote of no confidence for them to take action. And I think certainly the president under significant pressure.
Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Gloria Pazmino in Ithaca, New York, thank you so much.
Coming up next, a rare interview with the CEO of Delta, one of the biggest airlines in the world. What he told CNN about the skyrocketing price of airfare and the group he says is buying the most tickets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:25:07]
TAPPER: In our Money Lead, as the Iran war sends fuel prices skyrocketing to new records, more airline leaders say they still expect a steady level of travel from customers. In a rare interview, CNN's Randi Kaye spoke one-on-one with the CEO of Delta Airlines as that company faces a new era of challenges.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To have your voice with all that's going on in the world, I think it's really important.
KAYE (voice-over): Ed Bastian has been CEO of Delta Airline Lines for 10 years and with the company for nearly 30 years.
ED BASTIAN, DELTA AIR LINES CEO: The Wall Street community had declared us dead. They had us DOA that we weren't going to make it.
KAYE (voice-over): He has seen Delta through bankruptcy, restructuring, 9/11 and COVID, and today is dealing with the effects of the Iran war, energy shock and rising airfares.
KAYE: You have built Delta around this idea that taking care of employees ultimately takes care of customers.
BASTIAN: Take care of your people first and then they will take care of your customers who will reward you with loyalty and repeat business. And that virtuous circle that goes around is really important in a high touch business like we are.
KAYE: And you're building Delta now more around that premium customer.
BASTIAN: And I'd say today over 60 percent of our revenues are not in our main cabin for the company. It's coming from the premium side and that's growing double digits. We're focused on the upper end of the K. And our consumer demographic we talk about as household earnings a minimum about $100,000 a year, which is not an elitist definition. That's over 40 percent of the households in the United States fits that definition.
Ninety-five percent of our revenues come from that demographic.
KAYE: What are you seeing from customers who aren't at the top end of the K?
BASTIAN: We still see the -- those consumer spending and investing, it's younger folks, it's our Gen Zs, the millennials that see Delta and travel as an aspirational brand.
KAYE: When you look at the Iran war, it certainly has sent gas prices higher, jet fuel prices higher, airline tickets higher, which of your customers would you say are absorbing most of that increase?
BASTIAN: I'd say they are across the board. We expect oil prices to be about $6 billion higher than they were a year ago.
KAYE: Wow.
BASTIAN: And that's a substantial shock that we're not meeting any resistance wrongly. Consumers understand why prices are up.
KAYE: At some point do you expect you would see resistance? BASTIAN: We can see the holidays already. We can see kind of the first part of next year through advanced bookings. There's no slowdown in sight.
KAYE (voice-over): Delta Airlines began as a Georgia crop dusting operation in 1925. Last year, Delta celebrated its 100th anniversary, the first U.S. airline to do so.
BASTIAN: The promise of the next century of flight to me is exhilarating.
KAYE: We're walking under the spirit of Delta Airplane.
BASTIAN: Well, this is the airplane in 1982 that the employees of the company purchased and gave to the company. It means everything to me. Sometimes I'll just come down to the museum and walk around. I kind of speak to the spirit, speak to the airplane. What do you think?
It just helps me get settled on priorities.
KAYE (voice-over): As Bastian looks ahead to the next century, that includes figuring out where AI fits into Delta's people first playbook.
BASTIAN: Our people will always be at the heart of whatever AI provides in terms of benefit.
KAYE: Is there any part of you that's worried that we're moving too fast with AI?
BASTIAN: Yes, of course it does. When you -- when you hear the -- you hear the stories about what the AI inventors say it could do.
KAYE: How will AI change the Delta experience?
BASTIAN: I think it'll make our people smarter, more efficient, be able to get answers to customers sooner, be able to solve tough problems because our company, 100,000 people, 1,200 airplanes, 5,000 flights every day, it's like a Rubik's cube trying to always get the perfect answer in response.
KAYE: What about AI in the cockpit?
BASTIAN: There will never be less than two pilots in a Delta cockpit as long as I'm here. And I think that's going to stand true for a very long time. You want to use the technology to make our pilots jobs as easy as possible and as safe as possible.
KAYE (voice-over): Bastian makes a point to stay directly connected to passengers.
KAYE: When I reached out to you for this interview, I was surprised to find that your e-mail is publicly available. I'm guessing you get a tremendous amount pf e-mail.
BASTIAN: I get -- I get -- I get a lot. I hear from everybody about everything every day. I mean, literally thousands a day.
KAYE: So you actually respond to some?
BASTIAN: Oh, many, many, many. Many.
KAYE: Do you ever sit and coach?
BASTIAN: I do. I do. I want to make certain I'm seeing the product. I'm seeing all aspects of our business. I know our customers.
When they see me back there, they're first puzzled. They're kind of curious --
KAYE: Exactly.
BASTIAN: -- why I'm back there, but then they actually enjoy that I'm back there.
KAYE: Do they talk to you, your fellow customers?
BASTIAN: Oh, 100 percent. They talk to me wherever I am.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE (on camera): No doubt.
[17:30:00]
And, Jake, one thing that Ed Bastian is very excited about as he looks ahead to the future is their investment in Joby Aviation. That's this electric air taxi that he really believes can transform home to airport travel. He sees it as one day passengers getting on that airport, that electric taxi, that air taxi, and landing on the roof of a Delta sky club, going downstairs, relaxing a bit, maybe having a bite and then jetting off to their next destination. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, CNN's Randi Kaye, thanks so much.
We have some breaking news for you on Christa Pike. That's the Tennessee death row inmate who survived two lethal injections. She is now awake and speaking, we're told. What her attorneys are now saying about her condition, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:35:06]
TAPPER: Breaking news in our National Lead, Christa Pike, the inmate who survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking in the hospital. That is according to her attorneys, who say she continues to need critical medical care. Pike, as you may recall, was convicted in the 1995 torture and murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
Pike's attorneys also say she suffered severe damage to her arms and she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. This is the first indication that Pike has actually improved at all since an ambulance carried her away from a Nashville prison last Wednesday. Pike survived two different doses of a lethal injection as officials tried to put her to death.
Turning to our Law and Justice Lead, there are a number of consequential cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in its new term. The court's conservative majority will tackle a slew of issues, from climate change to immigration, gun rights to voting. My next guest will be watching closely. Her name is Cecillia Wang and she's the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cecillia, thanks for joining us. So you argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and you won the birthright citizenship case against the Trump administration. What about that case might give you any insight into how they will view President Trump's mandatory detention policy or his push to deport migrants to countries other than their homeland?
CECILLIA WANG, NATIONAL LEGAL DIRECTOR, ACLU: Thanks for having me, Jake. So I think that our victory last term in the birthright citizenship case, as well as early signs from the court's so called shadow docket, what we call the emergency docket, give us positive signs for hope that the Supreme Court is willing to step in and stop the Trump administration when it violates the law and violates people's rights and freedoms in order to carry out their agenda.
So far, I think we've seen this term that there are good signs and we're looking forward to defending due process in the immigration detention system this term.
TAPPER: The court's also going to look at state laws that require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public classrooms, public school classrooms. How do you anticipate a conservative majority might handle this?
WANG: So the court might take that issue up. We have asked the court to take up a Texas case that we brought challenging a state law that requires the posting of a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in Texas, K through 12. And I think that the court is going to be favorably inclined toward our position.
Our clients are a wide range of parents and students of various different faith backgrounds who believe that it is up to families, up to parents and their children to decide on their children's practice of religion. Faith has no place in the state. Faith has no place in public schools. And what you see here is the state of Texas not only breaking down the wall between the separation of church and state, but also trying to infringe on parents and students religious freedom rights.
The state of Texas is trying to prescribe this particular religious scripture that's particular to Protestant sects. And I think that the Supreme Court is likely to take up the case. We've asked them to do that. And I think they're going to see that the state of Texas has really gone too far and violated the first amendment by prescribing particular religious text for all students to have to stare at all day long while they're sitting in school classrooms. TAPPER: Yes, a lot of people don't know that Protestants and Catholics plus Lutherans have different versions of the Ten Commandments. And there are a lot of Catholics on that court. I wonder if that will matter to them. National legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Cecillia Wang, thank you so much for your time today.
WANG: Thank you, Jake.
TAPPER: The highly anticipated Paramount Warner Brothers Discovery merger took place today, officially. And we should note, of course, Warner Brothers Discovery is the parent company of CNN. This larger company is called Skydance and it is a media behemoth now. This is not an uncontroversial deal, as you know, but what you need to know is that David Ellison, the co CEO of Skydance, said today regarding CNN, "We believe in complete editorial independence" of Sir Mark Thompson, which who is our CNN boss.
Mr. Ellison said, we trust Mark. We trust the team. Ellison made these comments at a town hall that was moderated by my friend and colleague Anderson Cooper, who then followed up with to Ellison, "You're pledging not to interfere with news coverage of CNN." To which Mr. Ellison said, "Correct, we've been very clear." So we here at The Lead want you to know that we take Mr. Ellison at his word and we will hold him to it.
[17:40:12]
Still ahead, leaders in California calling out President Trump after suggesting Iran should, or Iran could, "Take out Los Angeles or San Diego." Was the president serious? We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, a new firestorm stirred by a sound bite from President Trump last night in Nebraska. He mentioned two American cities as targets that Iran could, "Take out if Iran had a nuclear weapon." Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[17:45:01]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let him take, let it -- let him take out Los Angeles, let him take out San Diego. That's -- this is a very small price to pay and he's going to be up with very soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: We should know when he was talking about small price to pay, initially he was talking about gas prices, higher gas prices, a small sacrifice in exchange for American safety from a supposed nuclear attack. But that's not how some people took it. The mayor of Los Angeles, for example, said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: You are the President of the United States, and your number one job is to protect and defend the American people, not to invite a foreign power to attack a city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Our panel is here now. Matt, you just heard the mayor of Los Angeles saying that the President was inviting a foreign power to attack an American city. I'm guessing that's not how you took the comment.
MATT MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It's not, and that's because I've watched a lot of Trump rallies, I've attended a lot of Trump rallies. I've been in roundtables recently with the President. And he makes abundantly clear what he actually means on this. You know, he talks about the fact that, you know, the price of gas, while it's an important economic issue, while it's obviously an important political issue, he believes it's something that has to be baked into the American psyche right now to continue to support what he's doing in Iran. And he believes that ultimately that is what is a small sacrifice to pay, the price of the pump, in order to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.
Anyone who's watched him has seen him talk about these issues before. He says he doesn't want Iran to actually be able to send off a nuclear weapon into the United States. I think we all knew what he meant. I'm not too surprised by what the L.A. mayor said, though, either.
TAPPER: It wasn't just the L.A. mayor, though. It was also a Republican congressional candidate in California, the governor of California. How did you take the comments?
JOHN MCCARTHY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, I mean, I agree with you. We've all heard the President say these things, and he is often way too flippant in the way that he talks about these serious issues. This war has next to no support, and he's not really brought people along with him. So being flippant at a time like this is probably not helpful.
And, you know, when voters hear this, I think that they're looking for a leader who can call us to something better. I mean, he's not talking about blue cities here. He's talking about an American city. I mean, San Diego has 100,000 active duty military. And this is something he's talking about flippantly.
But I think it's important to note where he said it. He had this conversation in Nebraska, right? And if the President was actually concerned about talking about the cost of war and what he's trying to prevent, I mean, diesel's going up in Nebraska. These are farmers who have been talking for months about how they're looking for relief from tariffs. I think that if that's the message he's trying to sell about affordability in Nebraska, it's not going to stick.
TAPPER: So Republicans are facing some tough headwinds. And in fact, they're now sending money, the Republican Party to South Carolina to boost Darline Graham, the late Senator Lindsey Graham's replacement in the Senate, who is running for election. And Matt, President Trump is taking a cue from Defense Secretary Hegseth using this anti transgender slur to attack Annie Andrews, the Democratic candidate there, Dr. Annie Andrews, he calls her Tranny Annie. She's obviously not transgender. I guess he's -- I don't know what he's doing. But does this work with the base? Does it also risk turning off people who might be divided?
MOWERS: But take out the crass language, you know, the President --
TAPPER: But I'm asking you about the crass language.
MOWERS: But what he's doing is he's, you know, never is one to pass up a good rhyme, which is what he's doing. And it does illuminate a political issue. They've been attacking Annie Andrews over her opposition to the Save Women's Sports Act. They've also been attacking her in a number of different issues where she is wanting to actually permit for transgender either surgeries or for gender affirming care for minors.
So it is a political issue in South Carolina. Did the President ramp up the rhetoric? Shocking. Yes, he did. But that's what he's ultimately trying to do. And what he's done is gotten everyone to talk about her record on trans issues, which I'm sure is not going to pull well in South Carolina.
TAPPER: So, John, let's move to Kentucky. Democratic Governor Andy Beshear is making a real push to help his former aide Zach Dembo flip a Republican friendly House seat. Here's Dembo's new T.V. ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZACH DEMBO (D-KY), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I'm Zach Dembo and this is my opponent. OK, you got me. That's a cardboard cutout of Matt Bevin, but Ralph Alvarado is basically the same guy. Matt Bevin was bad for Kentucky. Ralph Alvarado would be even worse.
I thought we got rid of this guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, tell me about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What do you think? I mean, Trump won that congressional district by about 15 points, but Beshear won it by about 20 points a year earlier.
MCCARTHY: Exactly. I mean, you're seeing almost a 30 point, you know, delta here. And I think it actually, yes, we'll say something about Governor Beshear's chances should he decide to run in 2028. But I also think that the thing I'm looking at in this race is does it give a roadmap for how sensible Democrats can win in some of these tough places.
If you can actually look at how Beshear has kind of governed over the last few years, he's governed as a culturally relatable, kind of normal Democrat. Who's --
TAPPER: Kind of normal?
MCCARTHY: Yes. I mean, he's --
MOWERS: That's the bar these days, kind of normal.
MCCARTHY: -- social issues, right?
TAPPER: OK.
MCCARTHY: He's someone that when he runs, you kind of know him. So, I mean, you're seeing candidates like that, like Rob Sand in Iowa, like you're seeing Roy Cooper, that Democrats can, you know, fall into these issue traps, but Republicans are going to try and paint them all as socialists, and it's not going to stick when you have candidates like this.
[17:50:06]
TAPPER: So, Matt, we should note that the Republican Ralph Alvarado's campaign mocked Beshear's support for Dembo in a statement to CNN saying, "It's too bad Zach Dembo isn't his own person and needs his political sugar daddy to hold his hand in the final stretch of this campaign." Is that effective?
MOWERS: I mean, look, I think I assume at the end of the day Alvarado is going to win. It's a Republican seat. No surprise that Governor Beshear is trying to support a former staffer. That's great. I imagine Matt Bevin's numbers are probably not that good there. It's you know, we just saw that. So that's why they're attacking him. But you notice they're attacking Matt Bevin. They're not attacking any national Republican political figure. That's because it's an overwhelmingly Republican seat and Republicans likely to win in November.
TAPPER: Right. It's in a state that Trump won. But Matt, Bevin not -- that's the for people who don't know. That was the incumbent Republican governor that Beshear first beat. And I think he's having a little trouble with the law these days, I believe.
MOWERS: You might be right about that.
TAPPER: I might be. So, John, a group of potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates heading to Denver days after the midterms to discuss the party's future. The group includes multiple senators, Pete Buttigieg, former ambassador and mayor, Rahm Emanuel. It's called the What Next Summit. What is next for Democrats, assuming that they take the House?
MCCARTHY: It's an exciting time for Democrats. I mean, you have this conference that's happening in Denver. The week after that, you have the New Deal summit that's happening here in Washington with electeds beneath the level of a governor coming together. And I think, you know, Democrats are expected to obviously make good gains in this midterm election. I think the Democrats need to do some introspection. I don't know that we're going to be totally winning just because we have an amazing proactive message. Midterms are referendums on the party in power. So I think that there's really exciting things that are coming out of these candidates. You have candidates like, you know, Rahm, who's clearly winning the ideas primary right now. He's proposing all of these new exciting things about what Democrats are proactively for. And I think groups like this getting together now are going to paint the picture for this new generation of Democrats.
TAPPER: What do you make of it?
MOWERS: I think there's a risk that Democrats were on, that they ran in 2022, which is drawing the wrong conclusions from 2020, from the midterm elections. You know, look, you had AOC out there talking about Abdul El-Sayed and whether he wins. It means we can win anywhere. You have a bunch of these progressive Democrats who are, I think, going to draw these types of lessons about what they can do next time that don't necessarily apply. We saw them in 2022. And I love John.
I think John's one of my favorite Democrats. But, you know, those who were in the Biden administration might have believed that Joe Biden was somehow going to be, you know, his form of politics was going to be the future. Clearly it wasn't two years later.
TAPPER: All right. Thanks to both. Appreciate it.
Expect a slew of political headlines in the next 24 hours, because there is a debate tonight in Georgia's Senate race, another in Maine's Senate race, then President Trump. He's headed back to Texas tomorrow. My next guest is a Republican in Congress. What has his attention right now? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:56:55]
TAPPER: In our National Lead, a ripple effect of California's rare heat earlier this year. Back in March and April, temperatures near Fresno quickly hit the 80s and 90s. That's not normal for Fresno. And as CNN's Julia Vargas Jones reports, that weather did a number on one of the state's most popular crops, pistachios.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE COELHO, PISTACHIO GROWER: This little cut along the tip, there's no pistachio inside. It's a blank.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was supposed to be the year of the pistachio. American growers expected to profit from the high demands of Dubai chocolate, pistachio lattes, pistachio- crusted everything. But because of an early heat wave in the Central Valley of California, pistachios may become harder to find and, as a result, more expensive.
COELHO: It took one week of high temperatures at the wrong time to send it in the wrong direction. And as a result, roughly 60 percent of the nuts in about half of my fields are blank.
JONES: What is that?
COELHO: So it's just an unfertilized pistachio. And that goes in the garbage can.
Coming into this year, we're estimating something like 1.4 to 1.5 billion pounds of production. Our estimate right now is between 600 and 800 million.
JONES (voice-over): In California alone, the pistachio industry is valued at nearly $3 billion, according to the state's Department of Food and Agriculture. And because of tariffs and conflicts in the Middle East, that region no longer has the same grip on pistachio production it once did, positioning California to really cash in.
JONES: So what happens now? In this moment, with so much demand, you have a crop that is being hit really hard by just the elements.
COELHO: You have to make a determination if it's worth the harvest. And in some cases, it just might not be. Some cases, you may be filing an insurance claim. In other cases, you might be filing an insurance claim and walking away from it entirely.
JONES (voice-over): Joe and many growers like him in California are now faced with the question of how to keep farming in an era of rising temperatures, increasing competition for water, and more unpredictable weather.
COELHO: To have these records every year is like the hottest month ever. That's a scary thing. We need to create resilience in front of these issues so that when we see something like that in the crosshairs, we can do something about it.
JONES: It sounds like there's just so many challenges that you're dealing with that, like, I can't -- just you listening through all of this show, it just makes me think, why would you grow pistachios like that seems like it's such a difficult crop to grow here.
COELHO: You know, maybe we're gluttons for punishment or it's just in your blood, or there are good years and there's bad years and you have to ride them all out.
JONES: Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Fresno County, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[17:59:57]
TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson both on the campaign trail, trying to boost Republican candidates in some tight contests.
