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The Lead with Jake Tapper

New Book Details Cover-Up Of Biden's Declining Health; Fourth New Orleans Escapee Captured As Multistate Manhunt Intensifies; U.S. Businesses Prepare To Weather Tariffs With Price Hikes; Spokesperson: Biden's "Last Known" Blood Test To Screen For Prostate Cancer Was In 2014. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 20, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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


KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: The age used to be different. Do you think it should change, particularly for presidents of the United States so Donald Trump get a PSA test?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Also Donald Trump -- so Donald -- o Donald Trump reported a PSA. He reported a PSA of 0.1 which is abnormally low for a man of his age. It's shockingly low. And the only two circumstances where you would expect to see a 79-year-old man with a PSA of 0.1 --

HUNT: OK.

REINER: -- is whether they've had their prostate removed --

HUNT: OK.

REINER: -- or whether they're taking a medication that can lower it. And he was on a medication that can lower it, although it was not disclosed on his current medical report.

HUNT: All right. Dr. Reiner, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time --

REINER: Yes.

HUNT: -- and for that analysis. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

[17:00:51]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Don't f around on Medicaid. President Donald J. Trump reportedly said that today. The Lead starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have unbelievable unity. I think we're going to get everything we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump on Capitol Hill today sounding confident about his so called big beautiful bill. But some Republicans he met with are not so ready to fall in line. What sources are telling CNN about points of contention behind closed doors?

Plus, inside job, the employee now under arrest accused of helping 10 inmates escape from a New Orleans jail. The warnings to people in the area with six of these guys still on the run. And what RFK Jr. told Congress today about efforts to clean up a lead contamination crisis in Milwaukee. But his comments seem to contradict what city officials are telling CNN.

Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin today with the big reveal in today's politics lead, Joe Biden's original sin, his decision to run for reelection in 2024 and hide his diminished cognitive state. In our new book, which is out today, Alex Thompson of Axios and I showed how this "Original Sin" sealed the Democratic party's fate in 2024.

We also revealed new details from more than 200 sources, almost all of them political insiders and Democrats who were there to, quote, "the hit Broadway play Hamilton" in the room where it happened, who saw for themselves and knew about Biden's decline and the extent to which his family and closest advisors were doing everything they could to hide it from the American people, not just in 2024, but years before that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Source of great honor and humility, I accept this nomination for president of the United States of America.

TAPPER (voice-over): This was the moment that Joe Biden worked decades to achieve. But behind the scenes, top Democrats were already concerned about his mental and physical health during the summer of 2020. The details are all laid out in the new book I wrote with Axios' Alex Thompson, "Original Sin."

The book comes as President Biden announced the tragic news this weekend that he's been diagnosed with a, quote, "aggressive form" of prostate cancer and is exploring treatment options. Devastating news for his family that brought an outpouring of well wishes and also some questions from doctors about transparency.

DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL, ONCOLOGIST: It has been growing for years. It didn't just pop up. President Biden, as doctors don't appear to have known about that?

TAPPER (voice-over): The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election was over. And it reveals how, in preparation for the Democratic National Convention, the campaign sat Biden down for zoom conversations with voters, this was during COVID. And while the final products looked well enough done on T.V., that's because a special team had been brought in to edit the videos. Quote, "It was like a different person. It was incredible.

This was like watching Grandpa who shouldn't be driving." And this was before Joe Biden became president Biden, before he promised me he would be transparent about his health. TAPPER: Will you pledge that if you're elected, you will be transparent about your health?

JOE BIDEN: Yes.

TAPPER: All facets of your health with urgency so that we know.

JOE BIDEN: Yes.

TAPPER (voice-over): Fast forward to December 2022, the book reveals how standing outside the Oval Office, the president had difficulty coming up with the names of two of his closest staffers. He called National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Steve. And Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, he simply called, Press. Sources told us that Biden's mental and physical diminishment accelerated in 2023 and '24, in part, as the book details, due to his son Hunter's legal troubles. In 2023, the tight circle around President Biden grew even tighter.

His family, such as First Lady Jill Biden, closely guarded him, something the first lady recently denied.

JILL BIDEN, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I saw him all throughout the day, and I did not create a cocoon around him.

TAPPER (voice-over): That same year, special counsel Robert Hur was appointed to investigate the president's handling of classified documents. His 2024 report came to the conclusion that while Biden had certainly mishandled classified information, her felt that in a trial, quote, "Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."

[17:05:15]

Audio of Hur's 2023 interviews with Biden was revealed just days ago, confirming the president's stumbles and poor memory.

JOE BIDEN: As -- Trump gets elected in November of 2017?

ROBERT HUR, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: 2016.

JOE BIDEN: 2016, 2016. All right, so. Why do I have 2017 here?

HUR: That's when you left office. So that would be January of 2017.

JOE BIDEN: Yes. OK.

TAPPER (voice-over): As the book reveals, Hur based his conclusions not only on those devastating interviews with the president, but on damning recordings of Biden and his ghostwriter from all the way back in 2017. In private, concerns continued to mount. After arousing State of the Union, the president gave a private, rambling speech.

One aide, quote, "couldn't help asking themselves what on earth they had just seen. This isn't going to work, they thought. He can't do it. This is crazy. Crazy.

Crazy." But the campaign continued until a private fundraiser and a very public debate performance changed history. Behind the scenes of a star studded Hollywood gala, President Biden appeared to not recognize his longtime friend, megastar George Clooney, one of the most recognizable faces in the world. "You know, George, the assisting aide told the president, gently reminding him who was in front of him. It was obvious to most everyone standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was." "George Clooney, the aide clarified for the president. Oh yes, Biden said. Hi, George."

Then the debate.

JOE BIDEN: We finally beat Medicare.

TAPPER (voice-over): All of the concerns the public had about his age and acuity were not only not put to rest, they were made worse.

TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

TAPPER (voice-over): But Biden world dug in and the book brings you brand new details of their weeks on the defensive. As support within his party collapsed, Biden agonized over his decision, culminating in a dramatic conversation with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. "If I were you, I wouldn't run," Schumer said. "I'm urging you not to run." "Do you think Kamala can win?" Biden asked.

"I don't know if she can win," Schumer said. "I just know that you cannot."

But many Democrats felt Biden dropping out then was too little, too late. Their fate was sealed by that original sin, the decision to run for reelection and hide his diminishment. Quote, "We got so screwed by Biden as a party," David Plouffe who helped run the Harris campaign told us. By deciding to run for reelection and then waiting more than three weeks after the debate to bow out, Plouffe added, "He totally effed us."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (on camera): Joining us now in studio, former Minnesota Democratic congressman and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips. We quote him multiple times. There's a chapter in the book called Dean Phillips in which we talk about your attempt to bring attention to this. First, you tried to get other Democrats to run against Biden, to bring out what you had been seeing behind closed doors. They wouldn't run, so you ran.

Now that this has all come out in the book and the Hur tapes and what we see of Biden when he goes on "The View," et cetera, what do you -- how do you feel?

DEAN PHILLIPS, (D) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I'm incredulous. I mean, how could one not be? And what you expose and Alex exposed in the book only infuriated me more, if that was even possible, to see the names, to actually understand the timeline, when I was trying so hard not to be the guy, but just to be the guy that called attention to something, that the real leaders in the room had the power to do something.

And I got to say, Jake, but that's combined with I'm incredulous, but I'm inspired. And to everybody watching right now, who wants to litigate the past, I know we have to, but only -- the only benefit that comes from this is if we don't allow it to happen again.

And I'm really on a mission to create competition, political competition in America. The lack of honesty, the lack of integrity, the lack of competency, the lack of belief and trust in people in whom I had a lot of it just begs for America to really reconsider why we allow a duopoly, a duopoly to control the most important industry in America, which is our democracy. And that's how I feel right now.

TAPPER: Well, I want to get to the -- sounds like you're talking about a third party, and I want to get to that in a second. But I do want to litigate the past a little bit because it's important. I know the Democrats like Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and others are like, oh, we just want to look forward. We want to look forward. Is that -- can the Democratic Party move forward without acknowledging this?

To me, it's like the Republican Party, what they had to go through with Iraq, with the war in Iraq, which was obviously a mistake and the American people came to see that before the politicians did in a lot of ways. What does your party need to do? What do the people running for president need to do? Jeffries, Schumer? Because you're not the only one I interviewed for the book.

[17:10:13]

And almost all of them, almost everybody of the more than 200 people I interviewed and Alex interviewed understand that this was real and this was a problem.

PHILLIPS: Very simple. It's courage and honesty. I mean, Thomas Jefferson, I think, wrote, honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. And if we don't reflect on the lack of honesty from the White House all the way down to House leadership to members of Congress, and by the way, this is not unique to the Biden enterprise and the Democratic Party. This is a symptom of a broader disease.

TAPPER: Oh, the (inaudible)

PHILLIPS: But how? It starts with honesty. Yes. And Jake, the sad truth is, having now been a member of Congress and seen firsthand how this incentive system works, I do understand why this happened. And that's why we have to change it.

The why is because if you wish to become a leader, if you aspire to national office, if you get out of line, and now I know why nobody would accept my call or take that charge to enter the primary, because if they had and it hadn't worked out, their political career was over. So I think this begs the question about how do we create a new incentive system for people who are rewarded for being honest and people of integrity rather than being punished. And that's what we're doing right now.

TAPPER: So the Biden campaign puts out this statement, "We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite. He was a very effective president," unquote. I mean, I don't think anybody who reads the book would say that the book doesn't show that.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

TAPPER: But what's your response?

PHILLIPS: My response is that was true in his first term and had he been a one term president, which he had at least insinuated he would be. This wasn't about his first term. I think he accomplished some extraordinary feats in conjunction with us in the House. But it was -- the issue was running again.

I was not a savant, Jake. You know that. I didn't have much access. By the way, nobody had much access. But what I saw --

TAPPER: You saw --

PHILLIPS: -- with my own eyes --

TAPPER: -- behind closed doors, like on Air Force One --

PHILLIPS: Of course.

TAPPER: -- and you were shocked. And that was like 2022.

PHILLIPS: Exactly. And not shocked because I thought this was a man who was incompetent or senile, but shocked by the decline in his communication skills, his gait and his leadership capacity that's something you sense when someone has it. And it saddened me. In fact, I think Joe Biden's a wonderful man. His compassion, his decency, his empathy, exhibited to so many I know.

And personally, even after I left the race, the decency of this man is extraordinary. Those around him, the leaders that knew better, a media apparatus which I think has to be --

TAPPER: Oh yes.

PHILLIPS: -- we have to shine light on that.

TAPPER: Hundred percent.

PHILLIPS: MSNBC in particular, you know, the deplatforming of anybody who would have the audacity to call that question.

TAPPER: I think they barely even mentioned our book.

PHILLIPS: I'm not -- well, that makes two of us. You know, and -- you know, gave me platform. Now, do I wish you and others had maybe investigated some of these things a little bit more then? But I understand why, when there's an apparatus designed to undermine --

TAPPER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: -- to threaten and to replace facts with misguidance, I understand why this works. But when I hear that this was not about his term -- number one, this was about why he should run again in the face of his decline.

TAPPER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But most importantly, Jake, this was about the numbers. And every single poll that came out said the same thing, he wouldn't win.

TAPPER: Yes. So --

PHILLIPS: And I was trying to simply call attention to what every person who was paying attention saw.

TAPPER: So I think a lot -- and let me just speak for Alex Thompson --

PHILLIPS: Yes.

TAPPER: -- who broke stories about -- and he's my co-author, who broke stories about Biden in terms of the investigation of this. Alex did a lot of. I did a little. I wish I'd done more. I've said that before.

I wish I knowing now what I know, I wish I'd done more. But a lot of the issue is we talked to more than 200 people. Almost none of them were talking to us until after the election. They just refused. They wouldn't answer our calls, they wouldn't tell these stories.

Then there was this deluge after this existential threat of Donald Trump was a fait accompli and they wouldn't -- and now they're speaking. What do you think would have happened if Biden had agreed to debate you, which he refused to do?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

TAPPER: But that was -- you told us that was the main thing you wanted when you ran for president against him. You wanted a debate.

PHILLIPS: And it was my gravest disappointment in my party, the Democratic National Committee, to not allow -- to not create a simple platform for just one of those, which I think should be an absolute requirement of someone running for office. And I did not want to embarrass Joe Biden.

TAPPER: But you wanted people to see.

PHILLIPS: But I wanted people to see --

TAPPER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: -- because, look, I had seen him four -- I can -- four times I'd seen him in a couple years. And those four times face to face, you know, smaller rooms, that's all he needed to see. This was not rocket science. This was not some -- you have to investigate a little more. My colleagues in more senior positions saw him much more regularly.

I did -- I never would have anticipated a debate that looked as bad as the one that did in July of '24. I simply wanted Americans to see what I had seen. And the White House had prevented that opportunity at every step of the way. And I think that is a massive failure of the party. And I was only asking for a competitive primary.

[17:15:07]

And the absence of that is why Democrats now find ourselves in this position.

TAPPER: They shut you down, they kept you off ballots, and they tried to keep you off a ballot in Wisconsin.

We're going to have you back. I don't think this book's going away. Obviously, you want to get rid of the duopoly, which poses some intriguing questions. So please come back to talk about that.

PHILLIPS: Anytime.

TAPPER: Dean Phillips, whole chapter about you in the book, you were right. And the people that tried to defenestrate you in your party and others in the media, I would say I did not defenestrate you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

TAPPER: We're wrong.

PHILLIPS: Well, let me say, you know, if this is vindication, it doesn't feel that good. Success would have felt good. And most importantly, prospectively preventing it from happening again is what matters.

TAPPER: A competitive Democratic primary would have been good.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

TAPPER: Dean Phillips, thanks so much.

From Biden's decision to the influencers around him, we have a lot more to discuss in this space. But also ahead, from big beautiful built to a golden dome, the new plan reportedly coming from President Trump that could cost taxpayers upwards of $500 billion, billion with a B. And unlike Walmart, Home Depot today is saying that they're not going to raise prices because of Trump's tariffs but that doesn't mean their products won't be affected. How so? We'll tell you.

The new ripple effect of Trump's trade war coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:11]

TAPPER: We're going to continue with our Politics Lead. The revelations in the book "Original Sin," the new book by myself and Alex Thompson of Axios, on sale as of today, a book based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election.

Let's discuss the implications of some of we learned with our political experts. I guess we'll just go down the line.

Scott Jennings, the book reveals concerns about his acuity go as far back as 2015, but really kicking in around 2023 when -- that's when things really stood still deteriorated. Does the public -- like -- what's this -- what's your general reaction to what -- because -- have you read the book by now or you've seen the excerpts, I guess?

SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASST. TO PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Seen the excerpts, yes. Well, I do think there were some things that happened in 2020, 2021 --

TAPPER: Sure.

JENNINGS: -- 2022, that Republicans at the time were saying --

TAPPER: Hundred percent.

JENNINGS: -- maybe you got to take a look at this. And --

TAPPER: Yes.

JENNINGS: -- not a lot of people wanted to listen, truthfully. So that's number one. Number two, I think a lot of people have looked at this as a campaign issue. My takeaway and reaction to all this the entire time has been he was the president.

TAPPER: Yes.

JENNINGS: And this one comment in the book about how, you know, there was sort of a group of unelected people that were serving as a board that was sort of running the country and he was at best a senior member of the board, that's not exactly what it says in the Constitution.

TAPPER: No. And that's from a cabinet secretary quote.

JENNINGS: And I mean that -- this is not what you sign up for when you vote for the President of the United States. And it calls into question who was running the country on a day to day basis. Were the policy decisions actually flowing from the president? And what responsibility does the Congress have now to go back in time and say were these decisions legitimately made by the president of the United States?

TAPPER: Astead, what's your take on it all? What's your take on just the news or just the reaction or whatever?

ASTEAD HERNDON, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I mean, I think that the reporting gives name to something that we have known, which is that President Biden in the eyes of the American people was clearly unfit to run for another four years. I was looking up some of the stats, an ABC poll in February 2024, before that debate, 86 percent of Americans thought Joe Biden should be running again, 73 percent of Democrats thought he shouldn't be in the race. And I think even though --

TAPPER: That's before the debate.

HERNDON: That's before the debate.

TAPPER: Right.

HERNDON: Even you go back to 2020, I remember being on the trail and people having concerns about Biden's age then. That's why he made the implications about being a bridge to the next generation. That's why he implied possibly that he would think about only serving one term is because it was necessary for him to win the presidency the first time.

And so now that we've come to this point, I think what the book does well is lay out how much of an insider choice it was.

TAPPER: Yes.

HERNDON: And I think that for me, it just underscores how many of these public servants did not have the public in mind at all.

TAPPER: Yes.

HERNDON: They decided amongst themselves that Joe Biden deserved another four years and then decided that their political incentives meant the whole party fell in line. And so that, I think, is a real scandal, a political establishment, a political insiders and really putting deference and tradition above their jobs.

TAPPER: Yes.

HERNDON: And so, like, that's the takeaway I really have. It's sad for Joe Biden and his legacy. It's sad for a Democratic Party who I think, really torpedoed a lot of their trust with their base voters. I honestly think it's sad for America because there was an election that should have been a contest of ideas, and the party simply shirked away from that responsibility.

TAPPER: So there was obviously an outpouring of sympathy and support for President Biden when it was announced that he was battling -- is battling prostate cancer. This came out on Sunday. Vice President J.D. Vance expressed sympathy, concern, prayers. But then he also said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job, whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president. I don't think he was able to do a good job for the American people. And that's not politics. That's not because I disagreed with him on policy. That's because I don't think that he was in good enough health. In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Does he have a point, you think?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And listen, I think this whole panel, our hearts go out to the Biden family.

TAPPER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: This is -- it's devastating news. But listen, there are some questions that need to be answered. You are running for the hardest job on the planet again, and you've not had a prostate exam in a decade. Now there's some doctors, I'm no medical expert, who say you kind of stopped getting them in your 70s. Well, Donald Trump got one in 2024 at 78, because he was preparing to be president again.

These are the kind of basic health due diligence that you would expect for a commander in chief who would have been the oldest in history. But I want to point something else out. In the Trump era, there is this -- there is this reaction from many Democrats, never Trumpers, media pundits that is basically, if you are critical of anyone who's an opponent of Donald Trump's, you're therefore supporting Donald Trump. So there was this effort to shut down --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

GRIFFIN: -- and stifle. Exactly. To stifle any sort of criticism that was very legitimate of Joe Biden. I mean, after that debate, those of us who were saying it's time for him to step aside, I've never seen anything like the Democratic establishment coming out with the most anti-Democratic message, by the way, of shut down and take the candidate that you have, don't ask any questions. And that's something that I don't think will sit well with voters considering the numbers that Astead just said.

[17:25:14]

The public was already there. It was the party that was saying, no, no, nothing to see here, but we are running on being the pro-democracy party.

TAPPER: So the book starts with David Plouffe who managed the Obama campaign in 2008 and was -- he basically retired from politics, but then came in to help Kamala Harris Harris in her 107 day campaign. And Jamal, I know you worked for Kamala Harris. Is there any way, do you think that -- not just her, but any vice president to Joe Biden after what happened, would have been able to win?

JAMAL SIMMONS, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, VP HARRIS: I think when you're looking at the last hundred days very hard, I might even argue that it was hard -- It'd be hard to beat -- even if it was 100 days earlier, it might have still been hard to pull it off. It's a very -- it was a very tough election. Listen, the only sympathetic point I can make for the people who were there, I left there at the White House in January of 2023, every time I saw the president, he seemed to be in pretty good stamp. He was slower. You know, sometimes he kind of reminded you of your grandpa, but like -- he seemed like he was fine. But I think people sort of started to make a decision after that. Hey, we just did pretty well in the midterm.

He beat Donald Trump before. We're getting pretty big pieces of legislation passed. The question for us now is who's the best person to take on what Democrats consider to be a clear and present threat to the nation, which was Donald Trump. And I think people made a bet. They made a decision, Donald -- that Joe Biden was probably better than whatever other option would have come from a big cacophony primary.

The problem I have is what happens in 2024, the end of 2023, where you think he's really sort of declining and you don't do anything --

TAPPER: Yes.

SIMMONS: -- and you don't say anything. And I will tell you, I have friends in the White House who lied to me. There were people who I talked to who I asked questions about some of the incidents and they explained what they thought had occurred during those incidents and came to find out later that what they told me wasn't true. I was pretty pissed off about it.

JENNINGS: So wait, you're saying that senior people in the White House were lying to other Democrats like you who had worked there. I mean, does that give you any confidence about who was actually running the country in the last year of the president?

SIMMONS: I have phenomenal confidence in who was running the country.

JENNINGS: But they lied to you.

SIMMONS: The country is being run by very competent and very good people.

JENNINGS: But they were lying -- they were lying to you.

SIMMONS: I think what happened was when you asked questions about what was happening in public, people began to spin stories out and those stories came to find out, I don't think that they were -- that all of them were true.

TAPPER: You need to read the book, Scott, because this is -- this is a big theme in the book, that they were lying not just to press and not just to the country. They were lying to cabinet secretaries, Democrats in Congress. I'm not excusing any of these people, but I'm just saying -- and in many ways I think they were also lying to themselves.

HERNDON: Yes.

JENNINGS: Yes. Well, I -- HERNDON: Really think that.

SIMMONS: They were definitely lying to themselves, I think also. I think people were trying to figure out the right way to put the best face on the choice that had been made.

TAPPER: Thanks to, everyone. Coming up next, the dangerous manhunt unfolding after Louisiana jailbreak. Six escaped inmates who could really be anywhere by now. And the jail employee who authorities say help them get away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:32:15]

TAPPER: In our National Lead today, a jail maintenance worker is now in custody of law enforcement, accused of helping 10 inmates escape from that New Orleans jail. Investigators say the maintenance worker admitted that he followed orders from one of the prisoners and turned off the water to a toilet, covering a hole in a jail cell wall. Then early Friday morning, the inmates slipped through that hole in the wall. They accessed a loading dock, scaled a fence, and crossed an interstate to vanish into thin air.

Authorities have tracked down four of the 10 inmates, seen here in their latest mugshots. Six remain on the run. Some have been charged previously with murder. Let's bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller, who has an extensive background himself with the NYPD. Thanks so much for joining us, John. It's nice to do this in person.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Welcome to New York.

TAPPER: Thank you so much. A doorbell camera caught authorities finding one of these inmates in a neighborhood. But six inmates still on the run, five full days. From a public safety standpoint, what's your biggest concern?

MILLER: Well, from one end, five days means they could have covered a lot of distance, could be far away. From another standpoint, though, what you do in a case like this is you -- you put pressure on their world. Anybody they would go to for money, clothes, resources, weapons, you make it very hard for them to -- to make that distance.

The flip side of that, though, is they're dangerous. They've got serious violent criminal records, and that means you're increasing the risk of something like a carjacking, an armed robbery, something that is going to get them the resources that's going to allow them to stay out. So this danger is not decreasing as they stay out. It's likely increasing.

TAPPER: So since Friday's escape, the jail has suspended at least three employees and then one is in custody. What is the -- what does all that tell you about the level of the degree of -- of planning here? MILLER: Well, it tells us there are deep seated problems in that institution. When you have an instance where three employees are suspended, one of them is charged. There is turning off the water, which allows them to get through the wall and get out the door.

Why is a prison -- why is a jail employee doing that? But I've been talking to people there, you know, they have video of one of the employees handing a cell phone to one of these prisoners, which means this is not some glitch. It's not some mistake. It's not like there's a leak in the cell. I needed to shut off the water.

This appears to be witting assistance on the part of at least -- at least one employee and maybe more. And there may be further arrests of employees as this goes forward.

TAPPER: Let's talk about that for one second, if we can. Just what happens in jail? So people should just know the difference between a jail is kind of like a temporary holding. And then prison is where you get sentenced to. What happens in jails and prisons in terms of sometimes people, they're going native, as it were, or becoming susceptible to threats and intimidation or making friends like is this -- is this a not uncommon problem?

[17:35:09]

MILLER: It's -- it's not uncommon. And it depends on the jail. But if you show me a jail in a city with a lot of crime, what are the symptoms here, right? The deputies from the sheriff's department told us we are overworked, understaffed, underpaid, under resourced.

So that puts pressure internally on people that makes them more susceptible for things like these are dangerous people who are associated with other dangerous people. I live in the same neighborhoods they do. So does my family.

There could be fear, but there also could be money changing hands. And the governor has assigned the attorney general to get to the bottom of what was going on there. But we're seeing the symptoms.

TAPPER: Yes. All right. John Miller, thank you so much. Always interesting.

Incredible images, just look at this ominous clouds over Springfield, Illinois just a few hours ago. Authorities confirm a tornado touched down in that area. This is the sixth straight day of severe spring storms in the U.S. We're going to be watching as this night develops.

First, Home Depot is warning about product problems as a result of Trump's tariffs. What do they mean by that? We'll tell you.

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[17:40:20]

TAPPER: Our Money Lead now. No major price hikes at Home Depot, but the company does expect some impacts from President Trump's sweeping tariffs. In an earnings call today, executives said they don't expect to pass on price hikes to consumer, but supply chain issues may mean some products may not be available. Leaders worry that could weaken consumer confidence. This as a number of other companies react to the tariffs with price increases in the United States. Japanese automaker Subaru among the latest to join that group yesterday.

Joining me now to discuss is Gene Seroka. He's executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. He joins us there from the port as you can see. So Gene, Walmart and Home Depot have both cited issues with the supply chain in their recent earnings calls. What have you seen at the Port of Los Angeles in recent weeks to indicate the effect these tariffs are having on products?

GENE SEROKA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT OF LOS ANGELES: Good evening, Jake. What we're seeing right now is that the month of May will show 20 percent of our vessel arrivals cancelled, the first and last week of May down precipitously, more than 30 percent year on year. Soft month overall. June we're still expecting to be lighter than normal because these tariffs are still very high for importers to purchase goods.

TAPPER: Has the 90-day change, that pause that Trump instituted from the 145 percent tariffs on China down to 30 percent, has that had any impact on imports?

SEROKA: You've got some importers right now, Jake, trying to scoop up the goods that were already made sitting on factory floors at the 145 percent level. And think of parts that are going to American factories because it's very expensive to shut down a line. Hospital supplies to make sure that we've got those medical goods in place to care for patients. And then maybe some hypersensitive seasonal items.

But right now, what most companies are telling me is they're doing the math. Do they roll the dice now and purchase at an average of averages 30 percent? Maybe not. Maybe they wait until the end of 90 days. But that's typically the amount of time it takes the entire order cycle process to take effect from order to completion and then sailing. So these are really going to be difficult choices for a lot of American importers.

TAPPER: What are you projecting in terms of imports as we move into the summer?

SEROKA: It's going to be lighter than normal. May is traditionally the month where purchase orders go in for the all-important year-end holiday seasons. At these prices, Jake, what I see are folks carrying less inventory, fewer selections on shelves, and likely higher prices for American consumers.

TAPPER: Are you able to tell if there are specific goods that have been impacted more than others right now?

SEROKA: It's a little bit early, but I was just talking with a parts supplier to the big three, to Ford, GM, Dodge, and Ram. Their products right now have 57.5 percent tariffs on them selling to the big OEMs. So it's going to be just all over the board. We've got over a trillion stock-keeping units that come through the Port of Los Angeles with all these containers.

It's going to be really hard to parse this apart. Really, I think the goods coming in are going to be based on need, contracts in place, and what's got to keep this economy moving.

TAPPER: Packages worth $800 or less coming from China still have a tariff of 54 percent down from the pre-negotiation level of 120. Before Liberation Day, April 2nd, they used to be duty-free, thanks to a tax policy called the de minimis loophole. How much do you think the tariffs on those goods is affecting imports right now?

SEROKA: That's right, Jake. And I hear from folks across the country that they're going to be purchasing less of those. And the people that are in charge of distributing, think of UPS and FedEx ground here in the United States, also forecasting lighter deliveries of those parcels coming in from China simply based on the cost and lower consumer willingness to spend.

TAPPER: All right, Gene Seroka, thank you so much. Always good to have you there at that beautiful port.

We're getting some brand-new details about President Biden the last time he was tested for prostate cancer before this week's shocking and tragic diagnosis.

[17:44:42]

Plus, what Robert Kennedy Jr. said today about Milwaukee's lead contamination crisis that seems to contradict what the city is saying.

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TAPPER: This just in on our Health Lead. Former President Biden's last known prostate-specific antigen blood test to screen for prostate cancer was done in the year 2014. This is according to a Biden spokesperson, adding Biden was never diagnosed with prostate cancer until last Friday. Meanwhile, the former president's diagnosis is creating aware -- awareness and meaningful conversations about the cancer itself and testing for it. You can scan the QR code on your screen.

Can you guys put up the -- there it is. OK. To ask CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta your questions about prostate cancer, Sanjay joins us now. Sanjay, how did doctors discover Biden's prostate cancer?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're told is that former President Biden was having some symptoms, urinary symptoms predominantly. That prompted a physical exam, including a prostate exam, where they felt something that was abnormal. He got a biopsy, and they saw cancerous cells on that biopsy.

This, as you mentioned, all happened last week. That was what sort of led to this Gleason score of nine that a lot of people have heard about, a very aggressive sort of set of looking cancer cells. And then after that, he got imaging, and they found that the cancer was not just in his prostate, but in fact had spread to his bone, making it metastatic stage four cancer.

[17:50:08]

So that was -- that was sort of what we heard in terms of the overall diagnosis. One thing I'll share with you, you know, Jake, just to give you some context, about 300,000 people are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. Five to 7 percent of them, so a relatively small percentage, are diagnosed at this stage, meaning just what I just told you, that for the first time that they learn that they have prostate cancer is at a time when it has already spread and it is stage four, Jake.

TAPPER: Why was it diagnosed at such an aggressive stage? That's unusual.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, yes, yes right, 5 to 7 percent of the time. You know -- you know, Jake, this is a really interesting question. I -- I think for some people, they don't have much in the way of symptoms until the cancer has become quite advanced. That's possible. One thing with regard to President Biden was that we were told that, as you mentioned, the last time he had had his PSA checked, this biomarker, was over 10 years ago.

And if you look at some of the recommendations, the recommendations are people who are over the age of 70 don't necessarily need to have their PSA checked regularly. This is controversial, Jake, and I think it raises a lot of questions. People will often say, look, you should make this decision in consultation with your doctor. There were studies that came out of Hopkins back in 2016 that said, look, if you're 75 years old and you're healthy and you're expected to live a while still, maybe continuing to get PSA checked would be a good thing.

Bottom line, what we're told is he did not have it checked. He developed these symptoms, and that's when they -- they figured this out.

TAPPER: Biden and his family say they're reviewing treatment options with his doctors. They said something about hormone treatment.

GUPTA: Yes.

TAPPER: What -- what could -- what could these treatments look like?

GUPTA: Yes, so really quickly, because you heard the statement that basically said these cancer cells were hormone receptor positive. What that means is they have receptors for certain hormones. When those hormones actually attach to those cancer cells, it kind of fuels their growth.

So by blocking those hormones, you can potentially slow down the fuel, you can slow down the growth. So that is one type of therapy. You can also use chemotherapy and radiation therapy. When things spread to the bone, radiation therapy can often help not only treating it but also with the pain, Jake, that he is likely to suffer when you have prostate cancer in the bone. Not likely he will get an operation. I -- I think that that's probably off table. So it's going to be those three therapies probably a combination.

TAPPER: That's tough. And Sanjay, on another topic, during the Senate hearing today, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. was pressed on whether the lead program, looking into lead contamination and -- and the like at the CDC, was being funded or not. Listen to what he said.

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ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: We're continuing to fund the program. And in Milwaukee, we have a team in Milwaukee and we're giving laboratory support to the -- to the -- to the analytics in Milwaukee. And we're working with the Health Department of Milwaukee.

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TAPPER: Sanjay, you were recently in Milwaukee.

GUPTA: Yes.

TAPPER: Does that track with what officials there told you?

GUPTA: Simple answer is no, not at all. I mean, April 3rd, first of all, the original request from Milwaukee's Health Department was denied. I was there a couple of week -- weeks ago, spent a week there, talked to the Health Commissioner specifically about this. This is what he said.

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MICHAEL TOTORAITIS, PHD, MILWAUKEE COMMISSIONER OF HEALTH: I think the long-term investigation into the potential chronic exposures of students at the districts is a part that we were really looking to the CDC to help us with. And unfortunately, HHS had laid off that entire team for childhood lead exposure. These are the -- the best and brightest minds in these areas around lead poisoning, and -- and now they're gone.

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GUPTA: And -- and let me just tell you, Jake, so that was a couple of weeks ago. And now, as of today, we reached out to Milwaukee again, and here's what they said. The city of Milwaukee Health Department is not receiving any federal epidemiological or analytical support related to the lead hazard crisis. The -- the request has been denied by the CDC. So I'm not sure what he's referring to, Jake. They're not getting help still.

TAPPER: He says a lot of things that don't bear scrutiny. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

Sanjay's taking viewer questions on prostate cancer, and you can scan the QR code there to ask one. And Sanjay will be back tomorrow on The Lead to answer some of those questions. Turning now to our pop lead, the passing of an actor, a legend even, one that you may know especially well from one of his iconic roles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE WENDT, ACTOR: Good afternoon, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing Norm? What do you know?

WENDT: Not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Actor George Wendt, known best for his role as Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom "Cheers," has died, his family announced today. Wendt was 76. His family says he passed peacefully at home, and they remember him as a doting family man, well-loved friend, and confidant.

[17:55:07]

I got to meet George a few times. Went to a big, slick fundraiser weekend, benefiting Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, where every year the evening ends when we sing the "Cheers" theme song in his honor.

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(SINGING)

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TAPPER: Trivia there, Jason Sudeikis, one of the main people, celebrities who runs that program, George Wendt was his uncle. His mom is George's sister. As fate would have it, the series finale of "Cheers" aired on NBC May 20th, 1993, EXACTLY 32 years ago today. May his memory be a blessing. And to the Wendt and Sudeikis family, our love to you. What a loss. What a loss. What a great guy.

CNN's Manu Raju is coming up next. What key Republicans are telling him about President Trump, paying them a visit today, and their objections to the big, beautiful bill that Trump is trying to push through Congress. That's coming up.

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