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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump And Netanyahu Meeting At White House; Trump Wants To Take Over, Develop Gaza After Palestinians Removed; FBI Turns Over Info On 5K Employees Who Worked Jan. 6 Cases; China Retaliates With Tariffs On U.S. Natural Gas, Coal And More; NTSB: Black Hawk Was At About 300 Feet During Collision. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 04, 2025 - 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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[17:00:44]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are in the Oval Office talking. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: But we have the right man. We have the right leader of Israel. He's done a great job and we've been friends for a long time. We do a great job also. And I think we have a combination that's very unbeatable, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I ask what would happen, Mr. President? What would happen, Mr. President? What would happen if you hear -- Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Where is that person? Where is that person coming from? Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what will happen if you'll hear from the Israeli side today that they're not willing to go through with the deal to get all the hostages back home and finish the war?

TRUMP: We'll see what happens. Whatever happens, we'll be prepared to handle the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the Saudis demanding the Palestinian State?

TRUMP: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the Saudis demanding a Palestinian state?

TRUMP: No. They're not? No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they demanding a path towards a Palestinian state or any other recognition?

TRUMP: Everybody's demanding one thing. You know what it is? Peace. We want peace. We want people to stop being killed. But everybody's demanding one thing. Very simple, peace. And he wants peace also. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you think it's politically

possible in Israel to get this deal done until the end?

TRUMP: To get the deal done?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Sure. Why wouldn't a deal get done? A deal can get done. We'll see what happens. We're dealing with very complicated people, but a deal can absolutely get done.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Israeli strike in Iran?

TRUMP: We'll see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump highlighted Prime Minister Netanyahu. We have heard Joe Biden and Donald Trump take credit for the hostage and ceasefire deal. Who do you think deserves more credit?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think President Trump added great force and powerful leadership to this effort. I appreciate it. He sent a very good emissary. He's helped it along. And, you know, I'll just tell you, I'm happy that they're here and I'm sure the president is happy that they're here. And I think that's about enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prime Minister, what about Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli hostage held in Iran?

NETANYAHU: What about the Israeli press taking the press conference in Israel and not in Washington?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would love to take a press conference --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few more questions, Prime Minister Netanyahu, do you support going forward with this deal and getting all the hostages out?

NETANYAHU: I support getting all the hostages out and meeting all our war goals that include destroying Hamas's military and governing capabilities and making sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you willing -- are you willing.

NETANYAHU: All three.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can those things go together?

UNIDENATIFIED FEMALE: Are you willing to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You promise to the families that you --

(CROSSTALK)

NATANYAHU: That I should talk to President Trump

TRUMP: One at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One at a time.

NETANYAHU: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I'll ask -- do you agree with Trump's vision of getting all the hostages back home, even if it means to end the war?

NETANYAHU: Well, I'm not sure that you articulated correctly what the president's vision is. You can ask. He can speak for himself. He does that very, very well. I have my own views. Three goals. Not one, not two. Three goals. And I will meet all three goals. I think the president can help enormously. He brings fresh thinking -- fresh thinking.

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: Terrorists who murdered hundreds of people who listed their home as a part of the deal.

TRUMP: It's a horrible thing. We can't forget it. I'll never forget it. And you can't forget it. And some people want to put it out of their memory, but we're not going to ever let that happen. It was a horrible day, October 7th. That was a horrible, that was a horrible period of time.

And a lot of people like to pretend it didn't happen. It happened. It's a big group of people that like to pretend it didn't happen, like the Holocaust didn't happen. Same mindset. No, we're going to get this thing wrapped up and we're going to get it done.

We're also dealing, I think, very successfully with Russia, Ukraine. We're going to hopefully get that one done at some point in the not too distant future. That's a complex problem also, but we solve problems.

[17:05:04]

We'll, you know, when I left, we had no problem. There was no Ukraine and Russia fighting. There was no October 7th. There was nothing. And some very poor leadership led to a lot of problems and a lot of death. And it's a shame, but we'll put it out. We'll put out the fires. We have a lot of fires, but we'll put them out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why do you support the Palestinian state like the peace plan you presented in January 2020? Is this plan still on the table?

TRUMP: Well, a lot of plans change with time. And a lot of death has occurred since I left and now came back. This death occurred not while I was here, but while somebody else was here. It shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have allowed it to happen. It would have never happened. And that includes Russia, Ukraine would have never happened. Not even a little bit, not even a chance. But now we are faced with a situation that's different in some ways

better, in some ways worse. But we're faced with a very complex and difficult situation. But we'll solve. We'll solve the problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If not Jordan, Egypt, what other countries do you think might accept Palestinians from Gaza?

TRUMP: Well, I think Jordan and Egypt will. I know they've spoken about it with you, and they say they're not going to accept. I say they will, but I think other countries will accept also. I think that Gaza maybe is a demolition site right now. If you look at Gaza, it's all, I mean, there's hardly a building standing, and the ones that are going to collapse. You can't live in Gaza right now. And I think we need another location. I think it should be a location. That's going to make people happy.

You look over the decades, it's all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It's all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza. And right now you have in Gaza a very dangerous situation in terms of explosives all over the place, in terms of tunnels that nobody knows who's in the tunnel, the whole thing is a mess.

And I think that if we can resettle, and I believe we can do it in areas where the leaders currently say no. I mean, I've been saying that with Mexico having to do with the border and all of the things, and you saw what happened, 10,000 soldiers and they're going to do a good job. I really believe that. And I believe Canada is going to do a good job also. They said the same thing and then they did something much different than what you were hearing.

This is a very, very difficult situation, but we're going to get it solved. I don't think people should be going back to Gaza. I think that Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They've lived like hell. They lived like you're living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living.

And the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly is because they have no alternative. What's the alternative? Go where? There's no other alternative. If they had an alternative, they'd much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that's safe.

(CROSSTALK)

Peter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza if they left while the rebuilding was happening?

TRUMP: It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good where they wouldn't want to return. Why would they want to return? The place has been hell. It's been one of the meanest, toughest places on earth. And right now it's -- I've seen every picture from every angle better

than if I were there. And nobody can live there. You can't live there. So if we can build them through massive amounts of money supplied by other people, very rich nations, and they're willing to supply it. If we can build something for them in one of the countries, and it could be Jordan and it could be Egypt, it could be other countries and you could build four or five or six areas.

It doesn't have to be one area. But you take certain areas and you build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like someplace where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that they're going to end up dying, the same thing is going to happen again. It's happened over and over again, and it's going to happen again, as sure as you're standing there, Peter.

So, I hope that we could do something where they wouldn't want to go back. Who would want to go back? They've experienced nothing but death and destruction.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Egypt and Jordan tell you no. What will you do then?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think they're going to tell me no. I don't think they're going to tell me no. I think they're going to tell Biden no, and I think they're going to tell other people no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you think it will happen at the end?

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TRUMP: I think there's a good chance. Yes, I can it then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people or you're thinking about?

TRUMP: All of them. I mean, we're talking about probably a million seven people. Million seven, maybe a million eight. But I think all of them, I think they'll be resettled in areas where they can live a beautiful life and not be worried about dying every day.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do support building settlements, Jewish settlements back in Gaza in the next years?

TRUMP: Say it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Building settlements, Jewish settlements back in Gaza in the next year. Do support this idea.

TRUMP: I don't see it happening. It's too dangerous for people. Nobody can go there. It's too dangerous. Nobody wants to be there. Warriors don't want to be there. Soldiers don't want to be there. How can you have people go back? You're saying, go back into Gaza now the same thing is going to happen. It will only be death. The best way to do it is you go out and you get beautiful open areas

with the sunlight coming through and you built something nice. They are not going to want to -- they are not going to want to go back to Gaza.

UNIDENATIFIED FEMALE: Prime Minister Netanyahu, what is your message to the families of the hostages that look at this deal? They are worried that this deal won't go through. What do you say to them at this moment?

NETANYAHU: Same message I said from the beginning of the war. Get them out, get them back. We got over 70 percent, close to 75 percent of the people who everybody believe will not get out. We got them in successive deals and most recently with the help of President Trump. We're not going to give up on any of them, and we're not going to give up on our other war aims. Hamas is not going to be in Gaza and we're going to get everyone back.

TRUMP: And you would not have --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How optimistic are you about reaching phase two of the ceasefire? How optimistic are we going to happen?

NETANYAHU: Well, we're going to try. That's one of the reasons, one of the things we're going to talk about here. And if we, you know, when Israel and the United States work together and President Trump and I work together, you know, the chances go up a lot.

It's when we don't work together, Israel and the United States don't work together, that creates problems. When the other side sees daylight between us, and occasionally in the last few years, to put it mildly, they saw daylight -- then it's more difficult when we cooperate, chances are good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the right (INAUDIBLE) once and for all?

TRUMP: Say it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now is that Iran is so weak, isn't the right time to hit their nuclear facilities once and for all?

TRUMP: So you say Iran is so weak. I appreciate you saying that. They're not weak. They're very strong right now. And we're not -- we're not going to allow them to have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. You know, I signed a very strong proclamation. Iran was in big trouble when I left. They were broke. They didn't have money for Hamas. They didn't have any money for Hezbollah. You had no problem. October 7th could have never happened. When I left, October 7th could have never happened. And frankly, Russia and Ukraine, as I said, could never have happened. They became very strong very fast.

They sold massive amounts of oil to China and everybody else who would not buy the oil when I was president, because we said, don't buy the oil. And they became very rich very quickly. But they're not weak. They're not weak. They're strong. Doesn't mean they won't be weak.

But you know what? We just don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. They can't have a nuclear weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Prime Minister. Sorry, sir. Mr. President, the prime minister wants you to strike Iran. That's what he wants.

TRUMP: You don't know what he wants. What do you know about anything? Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But is that option is on the table?

TRUMP: Yes, please?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, is that option on the table?

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: You're not just talking about Jordan and Egypt?

TRUMP: No. Could be other places, too. There are many people that have reached out, many countries, many leaders of countries that have reached out that would like to participate in that. Doesn't have to be Jordan and Egypt, but I think it would be also them.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your relationship with Mr. Netanyahu knew ups and downs. How would you describe it right now?

TRUMP: No, I think it's mostly ups.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how about Palestinian Authority --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- can it rule Gaza because Gaza will be empty?

TRUMP: What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Palestinian Authority, can it rule Gaza? What do you think?

TRUMP: Well, it's had a pretty hard time, wouldn't you say? I'd say it's had a pretty bad time of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Qatar has -- you've criticized him in the past as a funder of terrorism so is the prime minister. Do you think they're part of the solution or part of a problem moving forward?

TRUMP: I think they're trying to help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Qatar is absolutely trying to help. I know them very well, and they're doing everything they can. Very tough situation, but they are absolutely trying to help. OK, thank you very much, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, guys. We'll see him soon. TAPPER: All right, you've been listening to President Trump and

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House as they've been talking about what next in the Middle East? What next with the ceasefire and hostage deal? What next in a more expansive regional way?

[17:15:00]

Israel really wants to have a natural a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that has largely been on hold ever since October 7, 2023. They are going to hold a joint news conference, the president and the prime minister, shortly, and we'll bring that to you as well. And we're going to discuss just ahead.

Let us now take a quick break and we will be right back.

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TAPPER: We do have some breaking news in our world lead you just heard from President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting in the Oval Office talking about the future of the Middle East. There were a lot of comments there that I'm sure were very shocking to a lot of individuals where President Trump was talking about how Palestinians should not go back to Gaza, should not live in Gaza, that it's a place of death and destruction and maybe there's someplace better where they can live.

[17:20:09]

Also, asked about whether or not he would support Israeli settlements in Gaza, he also said, why would that happen? It's a place of death and destruction. No one should want to live there. Very interesting comments, to use a word.

John King and Beth Sanner are here. John, interesting comment. And again, I'm saying interesting because I'm really not even sure how to respond to it. But Palestinians in Gaza, some of whom we should note, have been living there for generations, their families, if not literally centuries, saying Gaza should not be there. It's not a, quote, place people should be living.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If you don't think elections have consequences, listen to that over and over again. And President Trump says so casually, sometimes you don't understand what he's saying because he just says it as if he's saying, you know, Tuesday comes after Monday and there's a weekend before that.

That was the president of the United States sitting in the Oval Office endorsing the forcible resettlement of Palestinians off their own land, off land that international law recognizes as their land, as land that the United States, until two weeks and a day ago, at least recognized as their land.

And the prime minister of Israel, the state created because Jews were forcibly relocated, forcibly resettled and then killed in Europe by Hitler, sitting there smiling while the president of the United States is saying we should forcibly resettle a people off their land.

Now, the Arab nations in the neighborhood have all protested mutedly because they don't want to pick a fight with President Trump. But Jordan and Egypt have said no. It goes against everything the Arabs have said for decades. Now the Arabs have often used the Palestinians as pawns in their other grievances. Beth can scrape that better than me.

But for the president of the United States, a democracy, to say we would forcibly support the forcible resettlement of people because he says, it's hell. The Palestinian people would tell you that's their land and they didn't want to be, you know, there was a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th. We can never forget that. There was a terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th.

But the idea that a result of that should be the Palestinian people forcibly resettled off their land with no international conversation, no Palestinian representation by the president of the United States. Can't think of a bigger policy shift like that.

TAPPER: So I guess one of the questions, Beth, is first of all, in addition to what's your take on this? Like how much of this is like this is the policy? Because what he was just saying, I don't like Steve Witkoff. As of now, his Middle east envoy has been by all observations that I have heard, been very thoughtful and diligent leader in this region.

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

TAPPER: While that sounds, you know, there was a joke during the first Trump administration, you know, Donald from Queens, you're on the air. Like, you know, he would just say like what? Just, you know, just like some guy from Queens was spouting off on AM radio and like how much was that new policy and how much of that was Donald from Queens, you're on the air.

SANNER: Well, I mean it does. If you don't really -- when you're not focused on the history of this place or what it means to displace people and other things --

TAPPER: But if it's a real estate problems.

SANNER: -- then it is common sense. It does kind of make sense. Why would you have people living in rubble with as what National Security Adviser Walt said today or and also Witkoff said today, you know, I think 80,000 unexploded ordinance in this area with buildings falling down. It's literally a dangerous place. And both of them, the national security adviser tried to change this and they said, you know, this isn't about cleaning up Gaza. This is about a safety issue. And on the face of it, that's not wrong.

TAPPER: Right.

SANNER: It's just that there is on top of that the layers of reality, of history, of culture, of symbolism and also of the what this would do to the region. TAPPER: Yes. And let me just bring in Jeremy Diamond. And Jeremy, I

know that there are millions of Palestinians, there were 2 million in Gaza before this war began, before Hamas launched this war against Israel with the attack. They want to go back to their land. They want, I mean, I think there was a talk of rebuilding before two weeks and one day ago. How is this going to be received?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, all you have to do, Jake, is look at the images that we have seen over the course of the last few weeks of this cease fire in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning to the northern part of the Strip, despite the fact that they are very much aware that much of it has been turned to rubble.

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But that is how strong many Gazans feel about the connection to their homeland, about the connection to the place where they and generations before them have lived. And so that is all the answer, I think, that the Palestinians would give to President Trump as he is talking about forcibly displacing them from Gaza. Something that comes very close and might even meet the definition of ethnic cleansing when you look at the kind of direct impact that would have on the people of Gaza.

So, you know, and then you look at the response here in Israel, and just moments ago, actually Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was the National Security minister as of a few weeks ago, a right wing -- far-right politician here in Israel. He just tweeted, Donald, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

And that is because President Trump is speaking directly from the playbook of far-right Israeli politics, settler politics in particular. And the Israeli Prime Minister is sitting there and smiling because this could be the answer, of course, to all of his political problems.

If Donald Trump is successful in finding a way to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, that gives Netanyahu an opening to extend a hand to his right wing governing partners and to tell them, look, I've gotten the Palestinians out of Gaza. Now those settlements can be created.

TAPPER: John King, I mean, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a bigot, a far right zealot, not somebody you want to have supporting anything you have to say.

KING: But somebody Netanyahu has needed on his side because of his precarious coalition back home. He's had to cater to people even more to the right, even more extremist in his coalition, and now them saying nice things about Donald Trump.

And again, you know, to Beth's point, the president could have said, you know, we have to find a temporary solution until we can get all the weapons out of Gaza, until we can get Hamas out of Gaza too, and then clean it up. We have to find a solution to get the Palestinian people back in a productive place. That's not what he said. He said they should be resettled somewhere else because it's hell. And then he was asked a couple of times, did he support a Palestinian, independent Palestinian state. Now, he ignored the question, more or less.

And then he criticized the Palestinian Authority, which is governing in the West Bank. Gaza has been -- Hamas has been governing in Gaza. And he said, they've done a pretty bad job. So everything that President Trump said there is what Netanyahu wanted. So what helps Netanyahu.

SANNER: And what he needs. And what he needs. So here's what Netanyahu said. He said two things. He said, we will get all of the hostages back.

TAPPER: Right.

SANNER: And I will complete my war aims.

TAPPER: Yes.

SANNER: The war aims are to make sure that Hamas isn't in control of Gaza, that Hamas.

TAPPER: Yes.

SANNER: And so how do you do that? And how do you keep the government together? So you do that by saying, I'm going to get all those Palestinians out so there won't be Hamas running Gaza anymore. So this is the drug deal I think, that we're seeing right here.

TAPPER: You have more evidence --

SANNER: It is to keep that coalition together, help Netanyahu. We are going to work together. He says only America can work together. And it is to get the phase two.

TAPPER: Yet more evidence that what Hamas did on October 7, 2023 was not just an abomination in terms of all the innocent lives. They significantly hurt the Palestinian people and any hope of a Palestinian sovereign territory. Congratulations, guys. We'll be right back.

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[17:32:55]

TAPPER: Busy couple weeks. Also in our Politics Lead, information on the thousands of FBI agents and employees who investigated the January 6th attack on the Capitol. That information about those FBI employees is being handed over to the Department of Justice, according to sources. And now a group of FBI employees are suing the department -- just -- the Justice Department, accusing Trump appointees of aspiring to deliberately purge the Bureau of People who went after the criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6th.

Let's bring in CNN's experts John Miller and Josh Campbell. Josh was an agent at the FBI for more than a decade. John was an assistant director at the FBI. Josh, to you first. What's going to happen to the thousands of agents on that list? Have you heard from any of them today?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Heard from a lot of them. And that's still the big unanswered question is, to what end? Why is this information being requested from the FBI by Trump appointees at the U.S. Justice Department? Most employees that I've spoken with think that this is only leading in one direction, and that is retribution. President Donald Trump has obviously called for retribution against his perceived political enemies.

The one difference here is that these aren't political appointees. We're talking about thousands of career FBI agents, analysts, professional staff. What I'm told today is what -- what was turned over with these -- this batch of information. You had employees by their unique identification number. They had their job titles. They had their role in the January 6th investigations. And then the last time they actually touched one of those cases, interestingly, the names were not provided.

Again, they were marked by their unique employee identification number. I'm told that's for purposes of security. We know that in the past that FBI employees whose names got -- have gotten out there, those that were involved in -- investigations involving Donald Trump, received serious threats. That's the concern to hear, Jake.

TAPPER: And John is there anyone in the current leadership of the FBI, and I understand a lot of them were let go, but is there anyone in the current leadership who's publicly pushing back on this?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, there is, Jake. I mean, first you've got the acting director, Brian Driscoll. He's an agent that has been around the FBI, but comes out of the New York office, out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. You've got the acting Deputy Director Rob Kissane. And basically what they're doing, and I mean, Josh gave a perfect example by saying, we'll give you the employee numbers but not the names, is they are trying to push back to the extent they can on this kind of mass request for information until two things happen.

[17:35:22]

One, until the attorney general is a confirmed sitting attorney general, not an acting. Two, until the FBI director is not an acting but Kash Patel. Their connection to Kash Patel, if in fact he's confirmed as FBI director, is they work together on terrorism cases in Africa, in the United States. So they have a bond and they are counting on his testimony under oath before the United States Congress during the confirmation hearing where he said no FBI employee will have any action taken against them for the legal proper work they did on a bureau investigation.

So what we're seeing is a push and pull. And you have people at the White House like Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, who was out there on the lawn on Friday, saying that they need a cleaning of the ranks in the FBI and the intelligence community. And that was the mandate of the American people by electing Donald Trump. So you've got a lot of suspense going on.

TAPPER: Josh, what are you hearing about the mood among agents toward the Bureau's acting head, Brian Driscoll?

CAMPBELL: Well, there's certainly a lot of anger within the FBI about what is happening here. The fact that you have -- have employees that could be the subject of mass firings. I haven't heard any actual animus directed towards FBI leadership to include Acting Direct -- Director Driscoll. In fact, he's been highly respected within the ranks of the FBI because this is someone who was a career employee. That his colleagues think, you know, this person gets it.

He's been in the trenches, working a lot of very dangerous cases in a lot of very dangerous places. And so they think this is someone who certainly is looking out for FBI employees. Interestingly, there's been this kind of groundswell of A.I. generated challenge coins and memorabilia with his likeness on it spreading around the FBI. Again, they're looking to some -- someone who will lead this organization and defend them.

But of course, Jake, he can only do so much. What was asked from the Justice Department and turned over today is something that the deal DOJ can actually obtain. The FBI works for the Department of Justice. But of course, if you're an FBI employee, you're looking at all this happening. You're facing two major issues. Not only that Donald Trump has said specifically I'm going after the FBI. But you look at this larger purge on the horizon for federal employees, we've seen things like the so called fork in the road e-mail that was sent out to all employees across the federal government, basically asking them to leave early.

By the way, inside the government, they've been privately referring to that as the fork in the eye e-mail. But it's clearly they feel under each year being targeted not only because they're federal employees, but specifically because they work for the FBI.

TAPPER: All right, Josh and John, thanks so much to both of you.

[17:38:03]

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be -- be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back. In our Money Lead, it is a trade war with China, although the White House calls it a drug war. Trump's 10 percent across the board tariffs are now in effect, while in return, Beijing announced a broad package of economic measures targeting the United States. President Trump has said that by this time today, we would also be in a trade war with our neighbors Canada and Mexico.

But yesterday he put that on hold after some concessions from north and south of the border. CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing for us. And Marc, what's the goal here? Trump's White House says this isn't a trade war, it's a drug war. They're targeting fentanyl. Is there any sign of when this might end? MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, I think a lot of China scholars feel that the goal of all of this is to end up with a trade agreement between China and the United States and have a big photo op with Xi Jinping and President Trump sitting next to each other signing it. That's a big school of thought. But getting there, as we see, is not so easy.

Right now we see China fighting back against these Trump tariffs, throwing tariffs of its own toward the United States. But what's interesting, if you look at the list of these Chinese tariffs on American products, it very much is symbolic. Not a lot of substance, not a lot of teeth. In fact, we are going through the list. One item that caught our attention here in Beijing, American pickup trucks.

As someone who lives here in China, I can tell you that pickup trucks are not a high demand item among Chinese consumers. But this is very much along the China playbook of diplomacy. Tit for tat, you do something to hurt us, we'll do something to hurt you back. And that's the direction this is going in. We know that these two leaders are expecting to have a phone call sometime in the days, perhaps hours ahead.

That phone call likely will determine if the U.S. would throw more tariffs back or if the table is open for a broader discussion. These two leaders just talked about two weeks ago after the whole TikTok decision. And China very much pushed this narrative of a fresh start, a new start between the two nations. Jake, it is already Wednesday morning here in China. In just a few hours, the Chinese government will hold its daily press briefing. We hope to ask questions of our own to see exactly where this roadmap will take us. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Marc Stewart in Beijing, thanks so much.

So between the new American tariffs on China and China's retaliatory tariffs on the United States, could you at home soon be paying even more for everyday goods? Let's bring in CNN's business and politics correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, how could these tariffs from China affect Americans?

[17:45:00]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly going to affect Americans because they are wide sweeping. There are no exemptions. And they're going to hit over $400 billion worth of products coming into the United States. Take electronics, for example. This was something that saw some exemptions under Trump's first term. But now, you're going to get hit with a 10 percent tariff on things like smartphones, laptops, computers. Smartphones make up 77 percent of all exports coming into the U.S. from China.

You also have things -- things like toys. About 77 percent of all of the imports coming into the U.S. come from China, 77 percent of toys. And also footwear is a big one. We import to the U.S. 99 percent of our footwear, 56 percent of those items come from China. And, Jake, there are already tariffs in place from Trump's first term. There's 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles coming into the country. And also there's a tariff on aluminum and steel, 25 percent. So these are tariffs on top of tariffs.

TAPPER: And how are businesses responding?

YURKEVICH: Yes, businesses and industry leaders are very nervous. Just take a listen to the CEO of Footwear Distributors and Retailers, which represents big footwear companies like Nike, DSW and Under Armour. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT PRIEST, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FDRA: We brought in about $10 billion in value for -- of footwear from China last year, 10 percent. I'm not a mathematician, but 10 percent is about $1 billion in additional costs at the border paid by American companies. So that $1 billion has to go somewhere. It's got to be absorbed somewhere for companies to be competitive, to continue to have profitability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And that somewhere is either the retailer determining that they've brought enough product in ahead of time to beat these tariffs and they can hold off passing that 10 percent down to the consumer. Some companies can absorb a point portion of that percentage. But, Jake, for the smaller companies, they simply are not going to be able to absorb that 10 percent tax. They're going to have to pass that down to the consumer a lot more quickly. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:51:23]

TAPPER: And we're following the breaking news in our National Lead. The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, just released its findings about the altitude of that Black Hawk helicopter when it fatally collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 one week ago tomorrow night. Let's get right to CNN's Pete Muntean, who's outside Reagan National Airport. Pete, there's been a lot of questions and speculation about high -- how high that Black Hawk was. The limit is supposed to be 200 feet, I believe. Tell us more. Tell us what the NTSB has concluded.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, here is the big new headline, Jake. The National Transportation Safety Board was able to get new radar data which shows what was on the radar displays in the control tower here at Reagan National Airport. And the NTSB now says that Black Hawk helicopter was at 300 feet according to the radar displays in the tower. Remember, that is above the 200 foot altitude restriction for the helicopter route that goes through the airspace just up the final approach paths here at Reagan National Airport. Not a smoking gun, but another key piece of data as this investigation is in its infancy. The salvage operation is moving along here at a good clip. The floating crane still in the Potomac River behind me. Today, they were able to recover a large portion of the tail section of American Airlines Flight 5342. Also more pieces of the fuselage. Investigators say they just said that they've recovered Most of the wings and a significant portion of the cockpit. All of those will be key to the layout that they will do of the parts in one of the hangars here at Reagan National Airport.

What were really waiting on today is new data from the Black Hawk black box recorder. It's a combined function. It gathers data from the voice, also a flight data recorder. So it's both in one, it's different, it's separate in a commercial airliner. And the NTSB says it needed to essentially wait to get more data from the Black Hawk helicopter itself. They're also culling through that data. And NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy says it's a slow manual process. They're going to try and corroborate that data with the data from the commercial airliner and they're having to line up those timestamps. But it's very slow and very meticulous.

TAPPER: And Pete, there's been a -- a recovery update. What -- what are you hearing from Unified Command?

MUNTEAN: We've heard today that they have recovered all 67 bodies. Remember, a major human toll with this crash. They positively identified 66 of those bodies. The big challenge now for recovery crews is the fact the weather is going to significantly change here. It was about 60 degrees here in D.C. today. The winds were heavy, although they were able to make some pretty big progress. Now winter weather is moving in tomorrow.

I just heard from a source here at the airport that they're going to still try and do a lot of work tomorrow by taking parts of American 5342 at high tide on barges and then moving them on the flatbed trucks and then into a hangar here so investigators can continue their work.

TAPPER: And Pete, quickly if you could, the CEO of American Airlines spoke with President Trump?

MUNTEAN: President Trump called CEO of American Robert Isom. He expressed his condolences according to a company-wide memo from American Airlines today. That memo also says Isom told or Trump told Isom that he wanted to express his condolences to all the workers here and congratulate or thank them for all the good work that they're doing.

TAPPER: All right, Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport, thanks so much.

[17:54:58]

Our last leads are next. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: Our last lead start in our World Lead. Thousands are fleeing one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, the Greek island of Santorini, which was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes in the past four days, some as strong as magnitude 4.9. Greek officials estimate that the activity could continue for many more days, if not weeks.

In our Money Lead, starting Monday, Waffle House customers can expect to see a temporary surcharge added to their bills. The Georgia based chain says soaring egg prices caused by bird flu has forced the company to add a 50 cent charge per egg order. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this will only get worse this year with egg prices estimated to increase by 20 percent.

[18:00:13]

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and on the TikTok at JakeTapper. You can follow the show on X at TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can listen to the show all two hours once you get your podcast.

The news continues on CNN with one Mr. Jim Sciutto in for Wolf Blitzer still right next door in a place I like to call The Situation Room. I'll see you tomorrow.