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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Trump Dismisses Recession, Markets Slump; U.S. Resumes Talks With Ukraine; ICE Arrested Palestinian Activist; Sen. John Kennedy (R- LA) Is Interviewed About Mahmoud Khalili, Recession And Elon Musk; Man Accused Of Being A "Predator" By Rep. Nancy Mace Denies Her Allegations; Elon Musk's "X" Experiencing Waves Of Global Outages; Famed Tree House Ignites Seven-Year Legal Dispute. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired March 10, 2025 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST & POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Multimillion QB wasn't (inaudible).
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, I feel like in 6th grade I had a choice between debate club and football and I made the wrong choice.
HUNT: Or the right one, you're here. But yes, the money is not -- the money is not as good.
WILLIAMS: Not as good.
HUNT: All right. We are lucky enough to be able to do this live. Jake Tapper standing by for "The Lead." So wait, Jake, did you play peewee football?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I did not, but I will observe that both Elliott and Josh had won the same number of Super Bowl.
HUNT: Oh, burn. I think we have a picture of you playing though.
TAPPER: You have a picture -- that's me.
HUNT: Oh, Jake.
TAPPER: That's little -- that's little Jacob Tapper.
HUNT: I love it. That is a great way to wrap this program. Of course, Jake's "The Lead" starts right now. Jake, take it --
TAPPER: Thanks so much, Kasie. Appreciate it. We'll see you back in "The Arena" tomorrow. The Dow, NASDAQ and the S&P all finish the day way in the red. "The Lead" starts right now.
It's a good thing President Trump doesn't really watch the markets anymore, or so he claims because they just all plunged like members of the polar bear club to dive. One day after Trump would not say straight up whether he thinks the U.S. is headed for a recession. So how long does he think this so-called quote, "period of transition" unquote, will last? As American consumers watch the threat of Trump's trade war dip into their pocketbooks.
Plus, bad day for Elon Musk and his business empire. Musk says his social media platform, X, or formerly known as Twitter, was hit by a cyberattack. Meanwhile, Tesla showrooms are being hit by acts of vandalism, violence and crime.
And in a CNN exclusive, a man labeled a predator and accused of sex crimes on the floor of the House of Representatives. Accusations by Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, he is speaking out and speaking only with CNN.
Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to start in our "Money Lead" with cracks beginning to show in the U.S. economy. The Dow closing down almost 900 points today, a loss of about 2 percent marking its worst day of the year. The NASDAQ also plunging, losing 4 percent of its value and marking its worst day since 2022. U.S. stocks tumbling after President Trump in an interview on Fox refused to rule out a recession later this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: But are you expecting a recession this year?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: A period of transition. Not exactly a no, no recession from the man elected in no small part due to his promises that he would lower prices and boost the economy. All this as layoffs are mounting across the federal government as well as some other key industries with hiring slowing and inflation picking up speed. Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs, sowing confusion for businesses around the world, stoking concerns about inflation at a time when prices were already heading upward.
Today, the government of China instituted retaliatory tariffs against the United States, and the government of Canada is threatening more tariffs and possibly even cutting off electricity to parts of the United States that it provides electricity to. We're going to start with CNN's Kaitlan Collins who's at the White House. Kaitlan, how is the White House responding today to this market drop?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jake, it has been incredibly quiet here today. President Trump has several things on his public schedule. They started out closed press this morning, but typically all the White House reporters know that usually one or two of them will open up to reporters, including a meeting that he had with the Technology Council earlier, an executive order signing that was scheduled for about two hours ago, and then also the swearing in of the new Secret Service Director.
But none of that has been opened to the press, Jake, as they have been watching the numbers here at the White House as the stock market has had its steepest decline of 2025 and obviously the steepest since President Trump took office for his second term. And yes, he has said that he does not pay attention to the stock market anymore. That is not really the basis for any of the decisions that he's made, but certainly the decisions that he's been making when it comes to implementing tariffs, threatening tariffs, backing off of tariffs or suspending and pausing tariffs has bad -- quite the impact on the stock market.
Not just because of the tariffs themselves and what the president has been threatening and what has gone into effect, but also the uncertainty that the business community has been facing by these tariffs, not knowing if they are actually going to go into effect or be pulled back at the last minute, as we have seen happen in some cases. And obviously, the president's comment to Maria Bartiromo in that interview, which I should note Jake was taped here at the White House late last week on Thursday and aired yesterday, where he declined to rule out a recession.
I've covered President Trump for a long time. And it's a moment like that where he does not like to answer questions in the definitive, because he does not want, if that event should happen in the future, that moment to be used against him.
[17:05:00]
He's always been hesitant to speak in those terms. And clearly, in that situation, was asked about his own policies potentially leading to that and certainly suggesting, by not declining that it could -- not ruling out that it could happen, that there is that possibility, and that has roiled the markets today.
I will note, Jake, that his Commerce Secretary was out on the Sunday shows yesterday, Howard Lutnick. He said that he believes there is no chance of a recession, but we have certainly not heard that from the President, nor when he was asked again about it by reporters when he was flying back here to Washington on Air Force One last night.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much. And of course, Kaitlan's going to have much more on her show, "The Source," tonight at 9:00 eastern here on CNN, a show devoted to journalism and news, not ideological preaching to the choir.
This all comes as Canada continues to escalate the trade war with the U.S., with the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, threatening to cut off electricity to 1.5 million Americans living in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan, if President Trump adds new tariffs on Canadian goods. Ford also blamed the global economic woes squarely on President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: There is no reason for a recession. I call it the self-made Donald Trump recession. He ran on a mandate to lower prices, to make sure we didn't have inflation, create more jobs, and it's backfired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: CNN's Phil Mattingly as well as Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson join us now. Phil, usually, Canadian officials are rather demure. I don't know that anybody in the Ford family fits that description, but this is some really strong language we're hearing from Canadian government officials.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think it's a recognition that not only do they know that they're in what is now a fight or a trade war on some level, even though administration officials try and say it's not, this is about fentanyl, they also are unwilling to back down. And I think you can't look at this just in isolation of Trump's tariffs related to the drug wars that his administration officials have laid out, but also the politics that are happening in Canada right now.
A party and a prime minister that we're seeing their prospects absolutely crater for months have suddenly seen a significant rise, with Mark Carney now taking the lead of the party heading into another election. So there are political incentives for the Canadians to have this fight right now, but there are also very real economic incentives.
And I think people who underplay the kind of existential moment that you hear Canadian officials reflect that they think they're in right now based on what they've heard both publicly but also in private meetings from President Trump are making a mistake. This is going -- they go back and forth and it only seems like it's going to move up the escalatory ladder in terms of the bilateral relationship right now.
TAPPER: Yeah, no, that's entirely true. President Trump resuscitated the Liberal Party even if he didn't want to. Kristin, podcaster and commentator Ben Shapiro, generally a pro-Trump, a conservative commentator, put out a statement defending Canada, saying, quote, "Canada is the number one trade partner of the United States. They are not a financial or economic or physical threat to the United States. Treating them as such is not a wise move." And this kind of gets into the fact that there are a lot of Republicans who feel the same way Shapiro does.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, trade is an issue that divides the Republican Party, and especially when you start getting into the details of, are we talking about tariffs on China, where you can, in fact, get quite a number of Republicans to say, okay, let's make that relationship a little more fair. But when it comes to our neighbors in the very north and very south, it's where things get a little dicier. And so in some ways, it shouldn't surprise me to see prominent conservative commentators coming out and saying this, because this has been a divide within the right for some time, and especially if it begins yielding negative economic consequences, tariffs are going to get a lot less popular a lot more quickly.
TAPPER: Well, they already are. I mean, at least the threat of them in terms of the long term. Phil, take a listen to what President Trump said aboard Air Force One defending his tariff policy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All I know is this, we're going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and we're going to become so rich, you're not going to know where to spend all that money, I'm telling you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Do you think Trump supporters or the public in general are listening to him, you know, the stuff like we're going to be taking in tens of hundreds of billions of dollars or are they just watching the value of their 401k's plummet?
MATTINGLY: I think what he said on the campaign trail, which he's saying now publicly and which kind of gives validity to the people who are saying, look, he campaigned on this. I don't know why you're surprised. It becomes a little bit more personal and vivid when you're seeing it in your 401k or when you're watching it in the markets right now. And I think Kristen makes a great point here where the kind of pain threshold will be tested by when Republican lawmakers who are hearing from their constituents are calling the White House saying, this is too much. We have to change the direction of what we're going right now.
The reality is that when you listen to what the president has been saying, when you listen to what his top economic advisors have been saying, they very much plan to reorient the entire kind of global trading infrastructure. It's what they campaigned on, but it's also what they plan on doing and will do with the reciprocal tariffs that they're planning on April 2nd.
[17:10:00]
Whether or not the base, whether or not Republican lawmakers are willing to hang on for that long and what comes after that, I think is the very, very -- probably the most important question.
ANDERSON: And this is going to be the competing short term versus long term consequences. I actually think there are a lot of folks in Trump's space who would willingly accept some short term consequences, some pain, some price increases if it meant the things, I've seen in my data that we become a more resilient, we have more resilient supply chains, that we bring more manufacturing back home. The problem is those are all long term things. Those are multi-year long projects for the American economy and saying we'll get there five years from now but sorry all your stuff's going to get 25 percent more expensive right now, that's politically very tough place to be.
TAPPER: So I heard a lot of Democrats especially after the election was over say that President Biden, he misunderstood his mandate. His mandate was normalcy and just like bring, you know, get the country out of COVID and yet he attempted this big sweeping LBJ style reshaping of our government and I'm wondering if there's a risk for President Trump. He is clearly trying to reshape the government and reshape the economy, if there's a similar risk for him. ANDERSON: There is a risk, and I think it's a risk if people think
that he has put that first before the economic stability they were looking for. I actually do think that reshaping the government, shaking things up, being disruptive, that he does have something of a mandate to do that. But the sequencing also matters. And you can think about someone like George W. Bush. He gets reelected in 2004. You need to make America safe. And what's the first thing he does? Ah, we're going to revamp Social Security.
It may be that something like that could be popular, but if it's not in the right order, then you can run into problems. And I think there could be a challenge here. People think we're okay with you being disruptive, but first, economic stability.
TAPPER: Yeah, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Our "World Lead" now, new hope from top U.S. officials to re-engage both Russia and Ukraine on ending that three-year costly bloody war. Take a listen to Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE WITKOFF, SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EASET: Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. He apologized for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office. I think that was an important step. And there's been a lot of discussion between our teams and the Ukrainians and the Europeans who are relevant to this discussion as well. And I would like to describe it as progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: CNN's Nic Robertson is with us now. And Nic, this comes just before a high stakes talk set for tomorrow in Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Rubio just touched down there. What are the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations hoping for?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, I think this idea of positivity that we were just hearing there, that really is going to be tested in the meetings tomorrow. What the United States is listening for, and this is what Secretary Rubio said on his way to Saudi Arabia, is he wants to be able to, or he hopes to be able to hear good things. He hopes to be able to hear from the Ukrainians a positive message about things that they're willing to compromise on, an indication that they really are headed for peace, and then be able to take that message back to President Trump.
And if that's the case, he said, then there's a possibility that the some of these military aid pauses could be lifted. But the other part of this, and I think this is sort of key here, is that Secretary Rubio has really laid out that there's no timeline, is not getting into details tomorrow. They won't be looking at maps, for example, he said, we're sort of coming into this to listen, to hear where the Ukrainians might make compromises, what they might compromise on.
And it was interesting as well because he indicated that there was no plan for an immediate follow-on for the Russians because he said what we've got to do here is get the Ukrainian position and then we've got to get into meetings with the Russians and hear the Russian position and then we're going to see how far the two sides are apart, where the concessions might be made, where they're not being made.
The Europeans, as you just mentioned there, was mentioned in the clip, are very significant to this and I think it was significant that you have the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer who's sort of going to kind of a bit of a wrap-around going on with President Zelenskyy at the moment reaching out speaking with President Trump saying he hoped the military aid, the pause on it would be lifted. So it is super high stakes tomorrow.
TAPPER: All right, Nic Robertson, thanks so much. Appreciate it. President Trump today is defending the arrest by immigration authorities of a prominent pro-Palestinian anti-Israel activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University. Why exactly was he arrested? President Trump says this will be the first arrest of many. Hear what a White House official told me just minutes ago about this case.
And a senator who said Elon Musk deserves a medal for his work, calling it breathtakingly beneficial, that senator is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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TAPPER: Our "National Lead," now Democrats in the Senate are raising serious questions about free speech after an arrest by the Trump administration Saturday night. Federal immigration authorities detained Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, who played a prominent role in the anti-Israel protests on Columbia's campus last spring. Officials claim to have acted on a State Department move to revoke his permanent residency green card.
This raises questions about whether or not Khalil will receive due process under the Trump administration's interpretation of immigration law. White House official told me today that in addition to leading what the White House characterizes as pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas protests, they claim, the White House to have confirmable evidence that Khalil also made and distributed pro-Hamas flyers and posted anti-Semitic views online. We've asked for evidence of those claims. We are waiting for that.
The president posted about the arrest today, calling it the first of many. A nod to his campaign pledge to deport pro-Palestinian protesters, pro-Hamas protesters, anti-Israel protesters.
Let's bring in CNN's Gloria Pazmino. How is the Trump administration explaining the rationale of this arrest when Khalil was, at least until Saturday, in the United States legally and lawfully?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it sounds like they are citing this supposed evidence, Jake, evidence that Khalil distributed flyers with pro-Hamas propaganda and that he staged these protests, which they say were pro-Hamas. And now it looks like they're going to have to make that argument in court. We are now just getting some information that a federal judge here in New York has ordered a stay for now. He has said that Khalil cannot be deported until there is a hearing on this case.
And this has been the question throughout the day, Jake, as I speak to lawyers and advocates about this arrest, whether or not Mahmoud Khalil was going to get any sort of due process. Now, the administration points to this so-called evidence. But the question here is whether that evidence is a proof of a crime that would mean that Khalil would be subject to deportation.
Now, green card holders can be deported if they commit certain crimes, but there is a whole due process that is supposed to happen. In fact, it's only an immigration judge who actually has the authority and the power to revoke a person's immigration status. It's not something that can just be done when a person is arrested. Now, we heard from Khalil's attorney on a Saturday.
She issued a statement and told us in part quote, "that ICE's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza. The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech."
Now, Khalil was arrested on Saturday. He was initially taken to a detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But we have since confirmed that he was actually transferred to another detention facility in Louisiana, something that lawyers say immigration authorities usually do in order to put defendants far away from their legal resources and their families. So we've confirmed that Khalil is now in that Louisiana facility.
All of this sending a chill to the student activist community, not just here in New York City where students are protesting at this hour, but across other college campuses in the country where many of these protests took place last year. Many of those students are wondering if there are going to be more arrests, as you mentioned, Trump taking to social media earlier today to say that this is only the first of many more arrests. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Gloria Pazmino in New York. Thanks so much. Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana joins us now. And Senator Kennedy, I asked the White House why detain this man, why detain Khalil? And they said again, I'll just read it again, that they have confirmable evidence that he was leading a pro-Hamas protest, made and distributed flyers with pro-Hamas images. Also, he used language on social media posts expressing anti-Semitic views.
Now, as important as you and I might find any of that, these are protests, flyers, and views. Do you have any concern when it comes to free speech and the detention of this man?
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Well, Mr. Khalil will receive due process because by now his lawyer has already filed a writ of habeas corpus. Mr. Khalil was involved in the protests. He was a Columbia student under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. If you support a terrorist organization you can be deported. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Mr. Khalil's side of the story, I understand to be that I don't support Hamas, I just support Palestinians. All I did was file some -- post some Facebook posts. I wasn't involved in any of the illegal protests or the illegal occupation of student buildings or physically intimidating the Jewish people and Jewish students. We'll find out who's right.
The Immigration and Naturalization Act, though, is fairly broad. And if the administration can show acts directly and probably indirectly supporting Hamas, they'll deport him. And he should be deported, if that's what's shown in court.
TAPPER: It sounds like you think that the evidence should be presented, which is obviously the definition of habeas corpus, produce it.
KENNEDY: Yeah.
TAPPER: So, that makes a lot of sense to me as well. Let's turn to the economy. Republican voters may start feeling a direct link from President Trump's economic policies, specifically the tariffs, to what we're seeing right now and what people are seeing with their 401Ks.
[17:25:00]
The stock market is plunging, grocery prices remain high. There are fears of a recession, stoked at least in part by President Trump's refusal to rule out a recession. Where are you on this? Is your message still, this is early, trust the process? What do you think?
KENNEDY: I don't see any indication of a recession. We created 151,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate is steady. The yield curve is fine. Businesses are still showing profits. I think the reaction of the stock market was -- with respect to two things, number one, the market has clearly been overvalued. The S&P was trading at about 21 times earnings, 10-year averages from 16 to 19.
But I think the real reason that the market had such an ugly day, and it was ugly, was concern about President Trump's tariffs. And I'll be glad to talk about that, but I wouldn't trade the American economy for any other economy in the world right now. Not Germany, not France, certainly not China, not Canada, not the U.K., not any other developed country. And I think if you talk to Jay Powell, he'd say the same thing because he testified to that effect on the force in our banking committee.
TAPPER: I know you're a big fan of Elon Musk.
KENNEDY: Yeah.
TAPPER: He just went on a different channel. He was asked about DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. Let me roll a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENBT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: I mean frankly I can't believe I'm here doing this. It's kind of bizarre, but I kind of think that the -- you know, we've got this enormous federal budget deficit and it's a $3 trillion deficit. It keeps growing. Our interest payments are higher than our Defense Department budget. That's I think was the real wake-up call for me. Really, I just don't want America to go bankrupt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Are you confident that Musk is doing this for the reasons that President Trump says purely to help this country, purely to reduce the deficit and not in any way to help his American-based companies?
KENNEDY: Yes. And I will tell you, his work for President Trump has cost him a lot of money. I think Mr. Musk is doing it because he -- money is important to him, but other things are more important. I think he'd like to leave something behind besides styrofoam. I think that I am a supporter. He's done more in a few weeks than I've seen anybody else do in eight years up here. I don't think anybody should be surprised.
Trump said he was going to scrub the budget. He's scrubbing the budget. That needs to be done for two reasons. First, there's a moral principle. We shouldn't be wasting people's money. But number two, if we don't scrub this budget, we're never going to get prices down. In order to get prices down, we're going to have to reduce our federal spending at a lower interest rates and stimulate the economy less.
We're going to have to deregulate the economy. It hadn't been talked about much, but it's a big part of reducing the cost of goods and services. And we're going to have to design a tax code that looks like somebody designed the damn thing on purpose. And that's what we're planning on doing with our reconciliation bill. We do those three things. We'll get these high prices down. And this is just part of it.
TAPPER: Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have. Come back soon. We love having you.
KENNEDY: Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: Coming up next to CNN exclusive, what one man told CNN about allegations by Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who went on the floor of the House of Representatives and accused him, her ex-fiance, and two other men of committing horrific sex crimes. Stay with us.
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[17:33:26]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): When you incapacitate women, it's against the law. When you sexually assault women, it's called rape. If you film women naked without their knowledge, without their permission and without their consent, it's called voyeurism. And it makes you a peeping tom. And it is --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, it has been exactly one month since South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace went to the floor of the House of Representatives and accused her ex-fiance and three other men of various crimes, including, as you heard just there, rape, as well as sex trafficking and physical assault. The South Carolina Republican said that day she was, quote, going scorched earth as she labeled the four men predators.
Since then, CNN's Randi Kaye went to South Carolina to look into those allegations, and in an interview you'll see only here on CNN, one of those men strongly denies the claims and says since that speech, his world has been turned upside down. A warning viewers may find some of Congresswoman Mace's allegations here quite disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN MUSGRAVE, RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS BY REP. NANCY MACE: For the rest of my life, when someone Googles Brian Musgrave, this is going to be the thing that comes up. It's catastrophic.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brian Musgrave speaking exclusively to CNN for the first time since South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace labeled him a predator during a speech on the House floor.
MACE: These men aren't just criminals, they are predators. And you can see the names and the faces of these predators on this board.
KAYE (voice-over): That was Mace last month at the U.S. Capitol.
[17:35:04]
MACE: These men didn't just harm their victims, they recorded their depravity as if it were a badge of honor.
KAYE: Have you ever done any of the things that Nancy Mace is alleging you did?
B. MUSGRAVE: Absolutely not. No. No.
KAYE: Have you ever witnessed any of the things Nancy Mace alleges you were a part of?
B. MUSGRAVE: No.
KAYE (voice-over): For 53 minutes, Mace talked about Musgrave and these other men, including Patrick Bryant, Mace's ex-fiance. Mace accused her ex of, quote, evil crimes, including rape, recording, sex acts without consent, and sex trafficking. She accused all of the men of taking part in premeditated, calculated exploitation of women, including herself and some girls who she said were underage.
MACE: One of the first videos I saw was of a woman. She was incapacitated and she was being raped.
KAYE (voice-over): Mace said she found more than 10,000 hidden camera videos and photos but didn't provide any evidence. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told us they are investigating and we've confirmed that videos do exist, but a source would not comment on the contents. CNN has not independently reviewed any videos or photos.
KAYE: When she made that speech on the House floor, she put her hand on a Bible and swore to tell the whole truth. Did she?
MUSGRAVE: No.
KAYE (voice-over): Jen Musgrave defended her husband to us.
JEN MUSGRAVE, BRIAN MUSGRAVE'S WIFE: He's nowhere near any of those things that she was accusing him of. He's just a really good man. You know, we've been together 28 years, married 22 years. He's my best friend.
KAYE (voice-over): Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter are Brian Musgrave's lawyers.
KAYE: Have you seen any evidence against your client?
RONNIE RICHTER, ATTORNEY FOR MUSGRAVES: We have seen zero evidence of it.
KAYE (voice-over): They sent this letter to Representative Mace requesting she either provide evidence that links their client to the alleged acts or retract her allegations against Musgrave and issue an apology.
ERIC BLAND, ATTORNEY FOR MUSGRAVES: What we want is to put a period on the conversation about Brian Musgrave to try to restore his good name and reputation. When she posted that speech on Twitter, on X, it's now up to 1.8 million views.
RICHTER: He's lost 80 percent of his customers. His daughter goes to college, his son's in high school. They have to answer for your father being an alleged rapist, an alleged predator and alleged sex trafficker.
KAYE (voice-over): Mace's lawyer, the House General Counsel, responded to Musgrave's lawyers with this letter, noting that SLED is investigating the matter and any request for such evidence should be directed to SLED. Musgrave's lawyer, Eric Bland, called that a typical government response, a non-answer. Musgrave, meanwhile, told us he believes Mace named him because of his decades long friendship with her ex-fiance and the fact they own a vacation rental condo together on Isle of Palms near Charleston. Musgrave says that condo is outfitted with a camera in the kitchen, though it's unclear if that is one of the cameras Mace was referring to. Another attorney for Mace did not respond to requests for comment on Musgrave's accusations.
B. MUSGRAVES: The camera was placed on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen area to make sure that nobody was messing around on the condominium.
J. MUSGRAVES: It's a security type of camera way out in the open. You see it when you walk in the kitchen. Patrick put that up for his use. So we -- Brian hasn't seen it. Didn't have access control over anything.
B. MUSGRAVES: The -- the most control I could have over that camera would be to unplug it.
KAYE (voice-over): In their letter to Mace, Musgrave's lawyers made it clear that their client has never hidden any camera anywhere on the property and that Musgrave is unaware of anyone else hiding cameras within the property. Mace said she brought the case to state authorities. South Carolina Law Enforcement, known as SLED, told us in a statement it is specifically investigating allegations of assault, harassment and voyeurism. And the subject of the investigation is Patrick Bryant. We tried reaching Mace's ex-fiance, Bryant numerous times. Then his representative sent us this statement in which Bryant denied all criminal allegations.
B. MUSGRAVES: I've known Patrick a long time. I don't think he's capable of any of this.
KAYE (voice-over): Another of the men Mace named, Eric Bowman, told us in a statement that no wrongdoing has been committed. We were unable to reach the fourth man Mace named.
KAYE: In her speech, Mace also pointed fingers at South Carolina Attorney General Allen Wilson for not investigating this. But his office told us in a statement that he wasn't even aware of her allegations until her speech on the House floor. Also one note about immunity, in his letter, Mace's lawyer says her statement was absolutely protected by the speech and debate clause in the U.S. Constitution. Musgrave's lawyers don't argue that point. They are quick to point out though that Mace acted beyond the House floor, saying she posted her speech on social media and had that poster board displayed showing the men outside her office. They say those actions are not protected by that speech and debate clause and opens her up to a lawsuit. Jake?
TAPPER: Randi Kaye, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
[17:40:01]
Just moments ago, what Elon Musk said about the outages today on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, and where he is tracing the problem.
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TAPPER: Our Tech Lead, moments ago, Elon Musk was on "Fox Business" and he responded to a wave of outages across X formerly known as Twitter. Those outages disrupted services for tens of thousands of users today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELON MUSK, OWNER, X: We're not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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TAPPER: That comes as Tesla locations across the United States are facing a wave of vandalism and protests and violence, all seemingly directed at Musk's controversial role in the Trump administration. CNN's Hadas Gold is following both stories for us. Hadas, how much more are we learning about the cyberattacks?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, this is a massive problem for X today started in the early mornings and it lasted several hours. There were several of these sort of peaks of problems that we've seen reported. It was completely inaccessible. In fact, some people were even saying this was affecting the NFL's free agency negotiation period today because many, both in the media and people involved in the NFL, they use X to try to get information, understand the player movements.
But Elon Musk responding in a tweet earlier today, trying to explain what happened. He claims that this was, and he says still is a massive cyberattack against X. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources, either a large coordinated group and or a country is involved. Then he says tracing.
Now, experts and our colleague, Sean Lyngaas, have talked to do say that the -- that this cyberattack looks like it could be what's called a distributed denial of service attack. That's where hackers overwhelm a website systems. It's like if you're trying to get into a business, but there's a huge crowd of people blocking the door to that business. That's how that attack really works.
We have seen some claims of responsibility from hacker groups. Of course, it's really hard to verify it. But then Elon Musk went on "Fox Business" and seemed to be pointing the finger towards people in Ukraine, not saying exactly who that is. But I do want to say it is completely possible to spoof an IP address even for hackers doing a mass DDoS attack. They can spoof their IP addresses to make it look like that.
And actually hackers even offer this in hackers for hire sites, saying that we can spoof where this is coming from. So we need to see more evidence from X and from Elon Musk as to exactly where this is coming from. But as you noted, these attacks are coming at the same time as Elon Musk's Tesla is becoming -- is coming under attack. And Musk, for his part, is grouping all of this together and essentially pointing the finger at the liberals, saying it's the liberals who are behind all of these attacks, both on Tesla and overall, on X and his platform and himself as a person and what he stands for DOGE and the Trump administration. Jake?
TAPPER: All right. Hadas Gold covering the Tech Lead for us, thanks so much.
Of all the problems plaguing Los Angeles, why are city officials taking issue with this tree house? That's next.
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TAPPER: In our National Lead, the city of Los Angeles, as beautiful as it is, has no shortage of serious issues with which to contend chronic homelessness, the destructive wildfires and fears about crime rates and public safety. So you would think city officials in L.A. might have something better to do than harass a man about a tree house in his front yard. But you'd be wrong. As CNN's Nick Watt found out.
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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No ordinary tree house, a magnet for kids and adults from the neighborhood and way beyond.
RICK POLIZZI, TREE HOUSE OWNER: It was put up just for joy.
WATT (voice-over): Rick Polizzi built this 24 years ago for his daughters with his bare hands and a buddy.
BRYCE POLIZZI, DAUGHTER OF TREE HOUSE OWNER: We would come up here and have tea parties and play with our dolls.
WATT (voice-over): The tree house was torn down this weekend.
R. POLIZZI: It's just frustrating. A city built on creativity. You can't look at this as a creative aspect.
WATT (voice-over): But why do thousands of others seem just as upset.
MICHAEL GOUGH, NEIGHBOR: It's just because of the spirit that was kind of infused into it by all the people who loved it.
WATT: And then the kind of bureaucracy that tore it down.
GOUGH: Well, yes. Oh, God. It just, like I say, I'm -- I'm -- I'm kind of seething.
CATHY LIND HAYES, NEIGHBOR: I've lived here for 25 years. That was a piece of art. It was magnificent. So many people enjoyed it. Oh, but it's a problem, needs to be taken down. And all I have to say is this the biggest problem we have in L.A.? I think not.
CHRISTINE MOORE, NEIGHBOR: We've just had catastrophic fires. People are out, displaced. There's nowhere for anyone to live. And we're worried about a tree house.
WATT (voice-over): Over the past few months, more than 6,000 people signed a petition trying to save this tree house. How about focusing on recovery from the fires instead of this lunacy? Let's stop sucking the fun out of life. Polizzi is a fun guy. A producer on "The Simpsons" for a decade.
R. POLIZZI: They came out and drew similar to my tree house. They made a big tree palace for Bart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch your step. Don't panic. By going down the ladder, you're agreeing not to sue.
WATT (voice-over): Bart's burned down. What happened to Rick's?
R. POLIZZI: And that's the family pulling into their driveway that just -- that was the problem of all this.
WATT: So it was one family that --
R. POLIZZI: It was one woman that just -- we did a Halloween display here called Boney Island. We got crowded and I understand that she hated the crowds.
WATT (voice-over): The city got involved.
R. POLIZZI: They were saying, it can't be just supported by the tree. We're going to have to have steel beams.
WATT: But it's been supported by the tree --
R. POLIZZI: -- for 24 years, never one incident.
WATT (voice-over): He'd spent over 50 grand in a seven year long legal battle at a court date coming up Wednesday.
R. POLIZZI: It became a criminal court case.
WATT (voice-over): Criminal?
R. POLIZZI: Criminal court case because I built a tree house for my daughters.
WATT (voice-over): We reached out to city officials for comment. We haven't heard back yet. Rick Polizzi gave up. This weekend, his now grown girls came home to say goodbye before the hard hat crew got down to business.
[17:55:09]
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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TAPPER: And our thanks to Nick Watt for that report. Lunacy indeed.
Ahead, a brand new effort by Democrats to reinstate fired federal workers, specifically veterans. I'm going to talk to the senator helping to lead that point. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, is the United States headed for a recession? While President Trump yesterday refused to rule it out and the stock market today took notice. But what does all of this mean for your wallet?
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Plus, she was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Trump. She has a strong track record as a conservative judge.
