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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Meets With Cabinet, Musk on Making Cuts More Precise; Trump Backtracks, Delays Tariffs on Canada and Mexico; House Censures Rep. Al Green (D-TX) for Trump Speech Protest. Hunter Biden Moves To Drop Lawsuit Over His Laptop Data; Newsom Breaks With Most Dems On Trans Athletes In Sports. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 06, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, did Elon Musk finally go too far? President Trump calls a cabinet meeting of sorts to clarify how much power the first buddy really has. And it might be less than you think, maybe.

Plus, from TikTok videos to a House floor sing-a-long, Democrats trying to find their footing when it comes to being an effective opposition party, is any of it working?

And make milk great again, how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could use his new role as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to bring raw milk into the mainstream despite those safety concerns.

[18:00:10]

Our top story tonight, President Trump trying to shed some light on his strategy for these massive job cuts, telling his cabinet secretaries they should be in charge and they should be using a scalpel, not a hatchet.

Let's go to CNN's Jeff Zeleny at the White House. Jeff, is Elon Musk, is DOGE, are they being sidelined at all here?

ZELENY: Jake, I think far from being sidelined, but the scalpel not hatchet, certainly interesting language from the president himself, revealing that he had a cabinet meeting today not with cameras present, like the one from a week ago, which Elon Musk was holding court, but this was one that was added to the president's schedule, and he advised cabinet members, we're told, that they are in charge of their own departments. He urged them to hold on to the good people, perhaps throw the ones who he said are not very good employees aside, but made clear that it's the president and the Senate-confirmed Cabinet Secretaries who are in charge of their departments.

Now, all this is coming after Elon Musk, of course, we saw him at the president's address the other evening, nearly basking in the applause from Republicans in the room, but there have been many concerns piling up from some of those same Republicans about the aftermath and the fallout from some of these decisions that Musk's company has been making.

So, the president described the whole meeting like this later to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I want the cabinet members to go first, keep all the people you want, everybody that you need. And it would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks. Because in two years, they'll know the people better. I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people, Elon and the group are going to be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, the President went on to say that he certainly supports everything that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency is doing. He said he wants to streamline the government. But it's also really the first sign, Jake, that we have seen the president reining in, even to a small degree, the latitude that Musk has had over the entire government and also responding a bit to really a lot of concern from Republican senators. Last week, 22 Republican senators came here for a meeting in Musk's office. He went back to Capitol Hill just yesterday to meet with senators and House members. And, Jake, were told he gave his personal cell phone number to senators to House members. He did not. Jake?

TAPPER: Yes. No, it's interesting also because Trump says you should be using a scalpel, not a hatchet. Meanwhile, it was just a few weeks ago, Elon Musk literally brandishing a chainsaw at a conservative convention. Is the White House considering how this new guidance will impact the pending legal issues, the lawsuits against DOGE?

ZELENY: I mean, that really is a central question because so much litigation is handing up and really waiting in the wings and a lot of the criticism have been that, you know, some of these firings have not been well thought out. So, this certainly is giving a more linear, sort of a systematic sense to it. So, that could be part of it, Jake.

But, again, the bottom line is, I don't think we should overstate this, Elon Musk still wields considerable power. The White House is clearly, though, just showing that they're listening to some of those concerns from Republicans. But there is no doubt he's still in charge of the government efficiency program, which is largely in charge of the government. Jake?

TAPPER: Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, President Trump is making a major reversal on his own tariff policy. The president now suspending most tariffs on Canada and Mexico for one month. It is unclear whether that decision is doing anything to ease concern among some Republican lawmakers who oppose these tariffs.

CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. Lauren, tell us what you're hearing from members of Congress.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. For the last several days, Republicans in the Senate especially have been making clear that they were not satisfied with these decisions, in part because they said it was really going to affect people in their states, manufacturers, farmers, and that was really coming from Republicans who are extremely supportive of Donald Trump in many other areas, including DOGE that you were just discussing with Jeff there.

Here are just a litany of senators with some of those concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Almost every industry in Kentucky is convinced that it will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars. And so I'm going to continue to argue against tariffs.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Should he back off of it if it goes -- if it starts to hurt the constituents?

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): When we start losing, you back off, you know? There's such a thing as a strategic retreat.

At the day, I think we have more leverage than any other nation, but we've got to be smart and we don't have all the leverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:05:00]

FOX: And you heard the president really addressing lawmakers just a couple of days ago that there were going to be some pain points when it came to these tariffs. But I think the other piece of pain here is the uncertainty that so many lawmakers and their constituents are facing now that Trump has once again made this reversal. Jake?

TAPPER: Are you hearing any concern from lawmakers about just the chaos, the whiplash over the tariff policy in terms of what they can prepare their constituents for, what their constituents can do when it comes to planning that these tariffs might have a negative impact on?

FOX: Yes, absolutely, Jake. It's so interesting because lawmakers were really leaving for the weekend just as this news was breaking. But I caught up with one Democrat, Senator Tammy Baldwin, who, when I told her about this reversal, she seemed kind of shocked. She was really trying to ask me some questions about what had transpired, because that is just how quick this is moving.

And she told me, quote, if I know one thing about farmers that I represent and manufacturers that I represent, it's that they want certainty and they want to be able to plant. They have been bracing after hearing about on and off again tariffs for the chaos that they cause and this seems like just another chaotic turn of events.

Again, just this really remarkable scene because many lawmakers had already left for the weekend when this news broke, and it just speaks to the fact that most of the week lawmakers have been warning about the impact these tariffs could have now potentially another month break. But, again, Jake, we just don't know what's around the corner.

TAPPER: I know. It is disquieting when lawmakers ask us in the media to figure out what's going on. It's supposed to be the other way around.

Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

Let's bring in our panel, former Democratic Congressman from the great state of Ohio Tim Ryan, former Republican Official Ashley Davis, and Politico's White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns.

Dasha, you and your colleague wrote about President Trump's decision to have these cabinet meetings with Elon Musk every two weeks. And the first line says, quote, President Donald Trump convened his cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message. You're in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk. So, is he and Doge, are they being sidelined a bit? And what's the back story here?

DASHA BURNS, WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF, POLITICO: Well, look, my sources are telling me that the number of calls that the president has been getting about this has just been overwhelming and particularly Senator Thune coming out and saying, hey, we confirmed these cabinet secretaries. They should be the ones making these decisions. That really struck a chord. And so the president last night called the cabinet secretaries, called Elon Musk, and said come to the White House tomorrow, we're going to have a conversation, and cleared up some of the questions. Because I've been talking to government employees whose bosses don't know if they're their bosses or not, you know, that there was so much confusion.

And so he told the cabinet secretaries with Musk in the room, by the way, that you are in charge. You make these decisions. Musk will be there in an advisory capacity. You know, every agency just about now has DOGE advisers in the agency. I asked about that. My sources told me the agency heads can decide, do they want to keep those advisers there? Do they want to take their advice or not?

TAPPER: So, we've seen, you know, experts on nuclear weapons fired then rehired, experts on tracing pandemics fired, then rehired, people at the Veterans Crisis Line fired, then rehired. I mean, it must be frustrating to be in the federal government right now trying to make things work. What do you think is going on behind the scenes?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL, GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Well, absolutely, and I think the chaos needs to stop, especially, as you said, about 95 percent of the cabinet secretaries are confirmed, so they're actually in charge. But from what I was told by both Senate Republicans and House Republicans that were in the meetings yesterday with Elon, that he very much said, I'm giving the recommendations, or my people are giving the recommendations. You take a look at not who's fired but the efficiencies that could happen if you cut X, Y, and Z, but it's up to the cabinet secretary at the end of the day. And from what I understand as well, that he said was, if you need to blame it on me, blame it on me. I'm okay with that.

So, I think that it is more of just a -- and, legally, he has to do this because they've been talking about this the last three weeks of, is he a special government employee, what type of authority does he really have?

BURNS: But this is the first time that the president himself has weighed in and in such a deliberate manner on this and that's significant.

TAPPER: So, we're talking about the cabinet secretaries not being part of this, and Congress -- I mean, just to remind people at home, the House of Representatives continues to exist, the Senate continues to exist. These are programs and agencies and departments that were stood up by the legislative branch. I mean, where is Congress?

FMR. REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): Well, that's a hell of a question. I think we know, I mean, clearly Trump took over the Republican Party. Johnson's de facto speaker, everything runs through Trump. But you're talking about C.R.s, continuing resolutions, whatever. Everything's going to get approved by Trump. That's why I think what he said in that room is performative.

[18:10:02]

It's to say, you know, the better word to use a scalpel, not chainsaw, because people are getting worried. But at the end of the day, those cabinet secretaries are going to do what Trump wants them to do and what musk wants them to do.

TAPPER: Yes. And, Dasha, Trump also seems to be reading the room more than he is reading the stock market. He keeps saying, even though he's known for a keeping an eye on the stock market, monitoring, you know, what's going on there, he keeps saying like he's not paying attention. And the stock market keeps going down. I mean, there was one day it went up yesterday, I guess, but like, generally speaking, the tariffs have been not embraced by Wall Street.

BURNS: But he loves the word tariffs. I heard him say at a rally, even more than the word love. So, this is something that matters to him. That was a big platform to him. It's simple and it's straightforward, the idea of reciprocity, right, even though economists might differ with that idea. And right now, it is so much more about the court of public opinion than it is about any changes that he's saying.

And you heard him say at the State of the Union, yes, there might be a little disturbance. The question that I haven't asked the press secretary, this is, do Americans need to buckle up and expect for things to get worse before they get better?

RYAN: I mean, what's crazy about this is, we renegotiated NAFTA. I mean, you remember being from P.A., like, NAFTA was a huge issue in the Obama-Clinton primary that made its way to the Great Lakes states. It was a huge issue, obviously, in '16. Trump was on the right side of that in those industrial states. TAPPER: And to Trump's credit, I suppose to Obama, he actually did renegotiate.

RYAN: Organized labor signed off on the new NAFTA, NAFTA 2.0.

TAPPER: USMCA, yes.

RYAN: Yes. And so it was an incredible effort by Trump's team, by the unions, and Rich Trumka, and we had a great deal that's lifting up labor standards in Mexico, which is ultimately how you start leveling the playing field. And so at the end of the day, he's basically kneecapping his signature initiative when he was president last time.

DAVIS: I think there's something just much broader than this, though. So, we're all talking about tariffs. We understand like what it means. But I still think the general American public care about what they're paying for eggs, what they're paying for meat at the grocery store. And so that's what's impacting them every day.

So, we're watching the stock market go up and down but the major, major problem is going to be the people that voted for them, is their life better, are their groceries cheaper, and that's what I think he's going to have to defend.

RYAN: You're right. And these businesses are already baking in the tariffs to their costs already. They've been planning on this for months, they plan months in advance, years in advance. So, you're already seeing in the steel industry, aluminum, titanium, you're seeing 15, 20, 25 percent increases in their prices already, and the tariffs were on and then off. That's what's going to happen.

TAPPER: There was a report on Fox, I think, of a car immediately going from $80,000 to $100,000 just overnight.

Everyone stick around, we got a lot more to talk about.

Yesterday on this show, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said Democrats were working on a unified response to President Trump. Is this what he meant, a group of Democrats singing, we shall overcome on the House floor, because Congressman Al Green was censored in some form? We're going to discuss that next.

Plus, the new ruling today in the case of Adnan Syed, whose case made headlines around the world after the Serial Podcast raised serious questions about his actual guilt.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): And that representative Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution by the speaker. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That unusual moment on the floor of the House of Representatives earlier today after the House voted to rebuke Democratic Congressman from Texas Al Green. He was ejected from the chamber. Tuesday night. He was standing, waving his cane, heckling President Trump during the president's joint address to Congress.

Green joined with other members on the floor to sing, We Shall Overcome, kind of the anthem of the civil rights movement.

The resolution against Green passed 224 to 198. Ten Democrats joined every Republican in voting to censure Congressman Green.

We should note Green is not the first lawmaker to ever heckle a president, of course. You'll remember when Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert repeatedly interrupted President Biden during his first State of the Union. I don't remember if Republicans voted to censure them.

Anyway, I want to play sound from two Democrats, Congressman Jim Himes, one of the ten Democrats who voted to censure Green, and then there's Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. You could guess how she voted. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): There's a deeper principle at stake here, which is reverence for this institution, and when somebody disrupts the institution, particularly in a moment as important. And, look, you know, I have no love for Donald Trump, but I do have reverence for the office of the president.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): It's really because Republicans just, they're very thin skinned, and they're very sensitive. And their feelings are very easily heard. And so they have to vote on censure resolutions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: How would you have voted if you had been in Congress?

RYAN: I probably would have voted to censure him.

TAPPER: Yes.

RYAN: Yes, I just think, in this chaotic time, we have to look mature, disciplined.

TAPPER: We meaning lawmakers or Democrats?

RYAN: Democrats. And I think anything that's off of that, you're missing the point. You know, people don't -- the one thing they don't like about Trump is the chaos that is associated with him. So, if you want to start laying the groundwork for rebranding the party, you want to lay the groundwork for taking back the House and potentially taking back the White House in four years, the brand has to change and the brand has to be opposite of the pendulum that's going to swing back.

[18:20:11]

It's going to be disciplined, be respectful, start bringing reverence back to these institutions, like Jim Himes was saying. I think that's really, really important now. It's not an issue. You know, it's not a policy position. It's a tone. It's an emotional state. And Democrats are missing the emotional beat that's happening in the country right now.

TAPPER: So, just Al Green, Congressman Green was waving the cane and apparently he was saying that you don't have a mandate to take away Medicaid, which is probably an effective message, but I couldn't hear what he was saying. I only found that out because he's told a reporter later.

Speaking of rebranding, and speaking of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I want you to take a look at this, along with five other Democratic Congresswomen released this Choose Your Fighter video, their take on a rather old TikTok friend in an effort to show the Democrats are going to take on the Trump administration. Ashley your thoughts?

DAVIS: Well, I probably -- yes, I wouldn't do that. There is a whole theory that any press is good press, and I was watching all the different networks, and everyone's playing the video, so maybe it's good.

But I do agree with you in generally the whole conversation. I was embarrassed when Marjorie Taylor Greene did it. Obviously, it's embarrassing what the Democrats did. You don't want to be Jeffries right now defending what your Democrats did during the State of the Union. So, no one's concentrating on all the stuff that Trump said, good or bad. They're concentrating on kind of criticizing Democrats. So, I don't like it either way.

TAPPER: So, Dasha, that video, presumably, is there to show, hey, we're ready to be an effective opposition party. Do you think that is conveyed in the Choose Your Fighter video? What's your take?

BURNS: I think Democratic voters want a whole lot more than that. And I'll tell you that during the State of the Union and the Democratic actions during the president's speech, some of the Republican operatives I was talking to during the speech were praising Trump's speech, but the vast majority of the texts and calls I was getting, Republicans were gleeful, gleeful at their response from Democrats, because they feel like it undermines the Democratic arguments and strengthens the Republican arguments and Trump's power to see that dynamic play out in such a massive way. They're thrilled with how Democrats are, or rather are not handling this administration.

RYAN: It stepped on Elissa Slotkin's message, which was the message.

DAVIS: Right. And she was good.

RYAN: She was great. She was great. She's a Midwestern, you know, legislator from Michigan who talks about the auto industry and building stuff and manufacturing, and it plays into the tariff issue with Canada. She's articulate. She's sharp. I served with her in the House. She's awesome.

BURNS: That displays the lack of unity among Democrats of not just the message, but how to deliver the message, which is sometimes even more important.

TAPPER: Thanks to one and all. I appreciate it, great panel.

The new meeting that was just announced after Trump sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a week ago tomorrow devolved into that Oval Office shouting match that resulted in serious repercussions for Ukraine.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

TAPPER: Our World Lead now, the U.S. and Ukraine are coming back to the table to discuss a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Officials are going to meet in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to try to right the rocky relationship between the two nations, still on shaky ground after last week's explosive Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy that led to Trump halting U.S. aid and even U.S. intelligence sharing to Ukraine.

Today, Zelenskyy appeared at the E.U. Council Summit to present what he called first steps to peace to European leaders who are no doubt feeling more pressure to step up for Ukraine.

Nic Robertson is not there. Okay, never mind. The Hudson Institute's Rebeccah Heinrichs joins me now to discuss. And, Rebeccah, Ukrainian leaders are set to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Envoy Steve Witkoff next week. Zelenskyy has signaled Ukraine's ready to sign that minerals deal now. We spoke at length about the deal earlier this week about how you think it's smart for Ukraine to do it because then the U.S. is more -- is commercially inclined to defend Ukraine. Is this meeting and this deal is going to be all it takes to get the alliance back on track, do you think?

REBECCAH HEINRICHS, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE: Well, I think we're going to have some smoothing over between the United States and our NATO allies as well. If you notice that right after President Trump approved turning off intelligence sharing, which I think is actually more detrimental, has immediate battlefield consequences for Ukraine. As soon as he did that, that's when Zelenskyy wrote that more apologetic post saying that he was ready to sign the deal.

So, then I know that, you know, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said that they were still negotiating some terms with the Ukrainians, but that they were very hopeful. And then the idea here is that turning off this intelligence, very painful for Ukraine, results truly in the Russians being able to conduct assaults without Ukraine being able to see where these things are coming from, that now we're going to turn that intelligence sharing back on.

U.S. Envoy Keith Kellogg, retired General Keith Kellogg, spoke today about President Trump's decision to pause aid to Ukraine. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH KELLOGG, U.S. ENVOY: Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians, what I mean by that, you don't negotiate peace discussions in public.

[18:30:03]

You don't try to challenge the president of the United States in the Oval Office that in fact you need to side with me and not the Russians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What does all of this, what is going to be the long-term effect of it? Because it does seem to a lot of people, a lot of Americans out there, are we not on the side of the good guys anymore? Are we not on the side -- I mean, Ukraine hasn't had elections because they're in the middle of a war and I think even the opposition party's on board with that, but they are a democracy. They are an ally. Russia is not a democracy. Russia does a lot of horrible things. And it feels like our alliances are in terms of just like right and wrong.

HEINRICHS: Well, it's interesting. You can see opinion polling actually that the American people are very supportive of President Trump's foreign policy before all this happened. And there's a dip now, and The Washington Post indicates that. I think the American people want the president to be tough, but not cruel, not mean. And so you kind of have to be careful there.

But, again, I think to General Kellogg's point, this is diplomacy conducted, you know, in public and Zelenskyy did make a mistake by thinking he could use that public setting to kind of triangulate against the president. It didn't work out for them. But I think it's interesting that since that happened, Chinese officials now have publicly said that they want the Europeans to have a seat at the table. So, now China seems to be trying to take advantage of the moment to pull the Europeans towards the China side. So, we have to be careful if the Trump administration's effort is to try to peel, you know, Russia from China, you're going to see that the Chinese are still closely working with the Russians, but they're going to try to pull the Europeans away from the United States.

TAPPER: We got the signal back with Nic Robertson and let's bring him in. He's at the E.U. summit in Brussels. And, Nic, what message did President Zelenskyy Have today for European leaders.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, a sense of urgency, a sense of how much he depends on them in their efforts to raise more money for defense spending up to 800 billion euros is what they're talking about, a very, very significant change. So, his message to them on that was, thank you very much. We're really grateful. And he said, I'm not just saying these words. This means a lot to the people of Ukraine so that we know we're not alone. I think that gets to his sense of abandonment a week ago.

But he's sort of moved on from that already. He's talking about the support that he's had here. He's talking about his planned trip to Saudi Arabia. He's talking about the conversations he may have there with the crown prince at the beginning of next week. He is talking about the possibility of a ceasefire or a truce in the air that would extend to the sea and hopefully building that, of a seriousness for peace.

This is also his message here in the European Union. And that their message to him is we've got your back. No discussions on the future of Ukraine without Ukraine in the room. No discussions on that affect European security without Europe in the room is a very clear message that's being sent to Moscow and I think here to Washington as well, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Thank you so much, Nic.

And, Rebeccah, Reuters is reporting today that Ukrainian opposition leaders, so the people who want to run against Zelenskyy when it's okay to have an election, they remain opposed to having an election now because they're in the middle of war. But this comes after a different report in Politico that Trump officials were meeting with potential political opponents to Zelenskyy about this very idea, quote, top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy's Ukrainian opponents. It does seem as though President Trump wants Zelenskyy replaced.

HEINRICHS: Well, I think at this point, what we know from the Trump administration is they want Zelenskyy, you know, to relent. And so that's the official position. As you pointed out, Jake, you know, different democracies do things differently. The Constitution in Ukraine forbids there to be an election when there's martial law, when there's a war going on. And so, as you said, even Zelenskyy's political opponents oppose there being an election. So, I think that's important.

The other thing that's important here is to remember that China and Russia continue to increase their collaboration against the west. So, you're going to have Europeans step up and say, look, we can help Ukraine. We want to be -- we want to have a seat at the table as well. The other thing that we haven't heard much yet from is how much the Russians are going to respond to this. We've started here a little bit.

The Russians are already saying they're not going to allow European peacekeepers in Ukraine. That's a key part of this. Ukraine is not going to demilitarize Ukraine needs to be tough and strong. That's actually a key part of the U.S. effort to make sure that Ukraine has its own domestic military capability.

So, even though this has been very difficult between the United States and Ukraine, this is actually the easy part. The harder part is coming and that's going to be getting the Russians to stop their assault against Ukraine.

TAPPER: All right. Rebeccah Heinrichs, as always, so great to have you. Thank you so much.

Raw milk has become more popular in recent years, despite health and safety concerns. And now Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, could push raw milk even more into the mainstream.

[18:35:04]

That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Health Lead, Dr. Marty Makary, President Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, was on Capitol Hill today for his confirmation hearing. Makary says he plans to have a group of experts review Mifepristone. That's one of the drugs used in medication abortion. Also notable, he would not commit to rescheduling a meeting of vaccine experts set to make recommendations on next year's flu shot.

If confirmed, his decisions will have a huge impact on Americans' lives. The FDA regulates prescription drugs in addition to the U.S. food supply. Makary would serve under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. One of Kennedy's proposals to make, quote, America healthy again, unquote, is to potentially loosen regulations on raw milk.

[18:40:02]

That is milk that not pasteurized or homogenized.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has this look at why conservatives are rallying around raw milk, which the FDA currently says can pose serious health risks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes, she's got milk.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): No pasteurization, no processing, just milk straight from the cow.

Despite safety concerns, raw milk is having a moment. Mark McAfee is at the forefront of a movement to elevate it from the cultural fringes to the national mainstream.

Raw milk has spiked in popularity in recent years and spilled into culture wars and even into politics.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I only drink raw milk. JONES: Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. turning it into a policy flashpoint.

KENNEDY: The FDA is the enemy of raw milk.

REPORTER: So you buy into the whole movement of making America healthy again?

MARK MCAFEE, CEO, RAW FARM: So, to make America healthy, to make the world healthy, we have to address the fact that food is medicine.

JONES: McAfee's Raw Farm takes a grass to glass approach.

MCAFEE: Are you ready? Just a sec.

JONES: Oh gosh.

He says his product is not only safe to drink, but also offers a wide ranging list of health benefits.

MCAFEE: These are anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti- hypertensive, re-mineralization, good for the immune system, mast cell stabilization, all these kinds of things that are destroyed in pasteurization.

JONES: But all of that disputed by food scientists.

So, I'll read you a claim and you tell me if that's true or false. Raw milk has additional bacteria that is beneficial for the gut.

JOHN LUCEY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR DAIRY RESEARCH: False.

JONES: Raw milk helps build the immune system.

LUCEY: False.

JONES: Raw milk can help cure allergies and asthma.

LUCEY: False. The idea that pasteurization is, you know, reducing the nutrient profile or making this milk somehow inferior is just nonsense.

JONES: Fewer than 1 percent of Americans say they regularly drink raw milk, and the FDA has issued numerous warnings about the risks. Raw Farm has faced multiple lawsuits and recalls after E. coli, bird flu, and salmonella outbreaks, the latter, the largest connected to unpasteurized milk, in decades.

California is one of 15 states where you can find raw milk at a grocery store. In some parts of the country, you can only buy it directly from farmers. 16 states prohibit sales for human consumption. Nationwide, the FDA strongly encourages pasteurization for all milk and prohibits sales of raw milk across state lines.

But change may be on the horizon. McAfee says he was invited to apply for an advisory role in RFK Jr.'s FDA and has already drafted a proposal for an ordinance that would establish an office with budget from Congress, create raw milk standards for farmers and remove current regulations.

MCAFEE: If you expect people to have access to super high quality raw milk, you're going to have to change a bunch of rules.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (on camera): The HHS has not responded to CNN's request for comment, but McAfee said that Kennedy, who he says is a customer of his as well, has already reached out to his company, telling them to plan on having raw milk meetings as soon as his new FDA chief is confirmed.

Julia Vargas Jones, CNN.

TAPPER: And our thanks to Julia Vargas Jones for that report.

Why Hunter Biden is now trying to drop a lawsuit that he filed and what those efforts are revealing about Hunter's life since his father left the White House.

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[18:47:42]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Our law and justice lead now, a new twist in one of Hunter Biden's many sagas. The former president's son is now trying to drop a lawsuit that he filed over alleged efforts to hack his devices. This comes after Hunter Biden was found guilty on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty in a federal tax case, only to be pardoned by his father.

CNN's Paula Reid joins me now.

Paula, Hunter Biden claims he still believes in his case against this individual, this conservative activist. So why is he trying to drop it?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's out of money. And look, he's had money problems for a long time, but now its gotten to the point where he wants to withdraw one of these lawsuits against his detractor, former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler. He filed this lawsuit against Ziegler in September 2023, alleging that Ziegler had hacked his iCloud and tried to manipulate some of his data.

Now, in his letter to the court, Hunter Biden says, as you noted, he still believes in the merits of the case, but he doesn't have the resources to fund this litigation because his income, he says, has decreased over the past 18 months. And he laid out exactly how he sees his financial picture. He says that prior to 2023, his income came from, quote, sales of my artwork and sales of my memoir entitled "Beautiful Things".

He says, before December 2023, he sold 27 pieces of art at an average price of $54,000, roughly. But since then, he's only sold one piece for $36,000. He also talked about his book sales, saying between April 1st and September of 2023, he sold over 3000 copies of his book, but since then he's only sold about 1,000.

And he said, given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances. But that has not happened. He also told the court that he was impacted by the Pacific Palisades fire, which rendered his rental house unlivable.

Now for a long time, several years now, he has relied on a benefactor, Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, who funded most of his legal pursuits over the past few years. When Kevin Morris came on, they hired Abbe Lowell, a very famous criminal defense attorney, and took a much more aggressive strategy, not only in his criminal cases, but also against his detractors. But this kind of civil litigation, as you know, it's very expensive.

[18:50:03]

And as of now, Hunter says he's assessing the other lawsuits that he filed on a case by case basis. But right now, until he finds lucrative employment, he is not going to be able to fund this kind of thing.

TAPPER: So is the thinking that his paintings are suddenly not as good, or that people were only buying them to curry favor with his father?

REID: I mean, that was always the question about his art. We know that Kevin Morris also bought some of his paintings. Look, his art is certainly not my area of expertise, but I think its certainly an open question why so many people were buying this art, and also why he thought he could rely on that, which clearly he cannot.

TAPPER: Paula Reid, thanks so much.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is frequently talked about as a potential 2028 candidate. Today, he's taking a stance that breaks from many Democratic officials. That story next.

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[18:55:18]

TAPPER: In our national lead, as Democrats struggle to find an identity in this new political landscape, one of their most recognizable faces and hairdos is distancing himself from many in the party, on one particular issue. California Governor Gavin Newsom debuted his new podcast this week, and his first guest was conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. They discussed topics such as trans athletes and police funding, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Joining me now is Joe Garofoli. He's a senior political writer for "The San Francisco Chronicle".

Joe, the -- the exchange getting most of the headlines is this one on trans female athletes raising eyebrows among progressives?

Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CHARLIE KIRK, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Would you say no men in female sports?

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness.

KIRK: So --

NEWSOM: It's deeply unfair.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: So here he is basically saying that trans girls or trans women should not participate in girls or women's sports. This is the guy who pioneered same sex marriage. What's your take on this?

JOE GAROFOLI, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Well, I mean, this has been deeply disappointing to a lot of Newsom supporters for a couple of reasons. Number one, just like you said, Jake, 20 years ago, Newsom was the first big city mayor to greenlight same sex marriages here in San Francisco, when he was mayor of San Francisco, just a few weeks in. And that was unpopular among the Democratic Party.

Dianne Feinstein called him out. Barack Obama didn't want his picture taken with him, but Newsom stood his ground, and he has been a hero to the LGBTQ community since then. So this is deeply disappointing to them.

We have state legislators here in California saying -- one said WTF. You know, you're -- you're basically repeating conservative talking points here on this. And another Scott Wiener, who's a longtime ally of Newsom, saying this is -- this is deeply disappointing to be with Charlie Kirk and to be saying the same things as Kirk.

So it's that and then the other disappointing thing that many are saying here is that, you know, Newsom has. After the election, he said Democrats should be going on shows like. Joe Rogan's podcast and places where, you know, Democrats were to meet Republican voters where they are.

And Newsom's been very good at that. He goes on conservative media, and he and he and he and he does things there that the viewers there are very unfamiliar with, which is like recite facts. And so, he is not -- so -- but in this case, this podcast, which he claimed he would be stress testing, in his words, you know, Republican talking points and beliefs, it was there was very little stress testing at all.

I mean, he -- it was very -- it was very friendly interview of Kirk and he didn't push back on him hardly at all. TAPPER: Yeah.

GAROFOLI: And I think a lot of Democrats are -- are sort of baffled about this is not the Newsom that they've -- they've seen and know.

TAPPER: So a Democratic strategist not -- not in San Francisco or California but in D.C. might think, look, this is an issue. This is an 80/20 issue where Democrats are in the 20 and the rest of the public is in the 80.

Do you see this as part of an effort for Newsom to broaden his appeal for a potential run for president in 2028?

GAROFOLI: Yes. Well, that's the thing. It's -- it's a move to the center by Newsom. And but its surprising and disappointing to many of the people who have known him for and, and worked with him for 20, 25 years here in California, where he, where he basically rocketed to national stardom because of his take on same sex marriage and his leadership on the issue. But here, he's kind of dropped the ball.

TAPPER: Joe Garofoli, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

I'm thrilled to announce that the show "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL" is back this weekend for season two. Sunday's episode focuses on the Abscam scandal, the FBI's complex and undercover scheme to offer politicians cash bribes through hidden -- hidden camera meetings by posing as Arab sheiks. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't investigate and convict criminals with angels.

TAPPER: So the FBI takes a gamble. They'll let this con man try to earn his freedom by conducting stings on white collar criminals. But they had no idea how far that would go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It started in a very humble way. The object was only to recover stolen art and securities. And to everyone's amazement, who was involved in the investigation, three years later, it resulted in the conviction of six United States congressmen and a United States senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I hope you'll join me Sunday night for the premiere of season two of "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Also, I have two books coming out. One is in May. It's called "Original Sin". It's about President Biden's decision to run for reelection and the cover up of his decline.

In October, "Race Against Terror", about the hunt to prosecute -- tough, keeping them on track. The race to prosecute an al Qaeda terrorist who killed Americans was out to kill more.

Check 'em out, JakeTapper.com.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now. Sorry, Erin.