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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Tries To Strong-Arm GOP Into Moving Massive Bill Forward; New Book Details Cover-Up Of Biden's Declining Health; Special Agent Testifies About Raid On Combs' Miami Beach Home; Rubio Defends "Refugee" Resettlement Of White House Africans; NFL Owners To Vote On Proposed Changes To "Tush Push" Play. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired May 20, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

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[18:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And this hour the clock is ticking for Republicans with just hours until a key meeting and vote on what President Trump refers to is his big, beautiful bill. It's a bill that contains tax cuts and spending cuts. Some GOP hardliners are saying, however, that they're standing firm against the plans. So, what happens then?

Plus, dramatic testimony from a Homeland Security agent today detailing how dozens of officers raided the home of Sean Diddy Combs during their investigation last year, driving a car through his front gate to gain entry. CNN's team of reporters in the courtroom today will join us in studio ahead to tell us more.

Also, an American veteran whose story we featured on the show just a few weeks ago has thankfully been released from Venezuela, where he was wrongfully detained. The reaction from his parents tonight, as he travels back to the U.S. with special Trump White House administration envoy Rick Grenell.

And are major changes coming to the NFL? The meetings that started today that could determine whether the world champion Philadelphia Eagles can push their way to another Super Bowl.

The Lead Tonight, we're just hours away from House Republican leaders' 1:00 A.M. East Coast time vote to advance President Trump's tax cut and spending cut bill through key Rules Committee, as Republicans. Wonder if Trump's Capitol Hill visit this morning did anything to move the needle.

CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill. Manu, how many people in the Republican caucus oppose this bill? And will this bill advance tonight, do you think, through the key committee?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We do expect it to clear that first procedural hurdle. But, Jake, the first, the next 24 hours are really unclear how it'll play out because there is still sizable opposition, more than Speaker Johnson can afford. He can only afford to lose three Republican votes on any straight party line vote.

And here is the problem, because there are two different warring wings within his conference. There's one who want deeper spending cuts, but then if you push for deeper spending cuts from those conservatives want, then you get pushed back from the more moderate wing of the Republican conference.

And those more moderate members, not only are they concern about those spending cuts, but they also are pushing for a greater tax deduction for the amount that taxpayers pay on their state and local taxes, as was proposed right now under this bill at $30,000 for a married couple making less than $400,000 or less, they want to increase that cap.

But if they increase that cap, then there's going to be pushback from those conservative members who don't want to provide that level of deduction, and they contend that it is a subsidy for blue states. But that negotiation has been going on for the last day frantically behind the scenes.

There is some news though, Jake. I caught up with Mike Lawler, who's part of that effort to help on the state and local tax issue. He told me there's progress being made. And then on the Republican, the conservative side, I caught up with Chip Roy just moments ago who's pushing for deeper expend cuts.

He said there's progress being made as well. However, Roy says that salt cap increase, there are going to be deeper spending cuts. And other Republican members, including Eric Burlison in Missouri, told me that the deficit concerns are real. And if this grows the deficit, this bill, he'll vote no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: If this bill comes to the floor here, you're a no.

REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): Right now, I'm a no. I want to get to a yes. I absolutely want to get to a yes. But I just -- I ran on balancing the budget.

I don't know that I could sleep at night if I don't stick to that.

REP. KEITH SELF (R-TX): It's already very expensive. We've tripled it with no negotiations. Everybody's just assumed the $30,000. Now they're asking for more.

REPORTER: Are you still a no?

SELF: Nothing's changed.

REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): I don't work for the Freedom Caucus.

They just need to get over themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And, Jake, there is no official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan office, that analyzes how much this would impact the budget deficit. And that's going to be a big question when those numbers come out, how will that impact the vote? But the speaker is racing. He wants this done potentially as soon as tomorrow night out of the United States house or potentially even Thursday.

The question though, Jake, is can he get there? Can they cut the deal? Can they get all these members in line? Really uncertain at this moment, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has been following this from the White House today. Kristen, Trump is clearly singling out one Republican. Tell us about that.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is. He is absolutely singling out Kentucky Representative Massie. This is not the first time that he has done this, and it probably won't be the last. Massie is a fiscal hawk. He is aligned with the Freedom Caucus and he has continued to say that he will not vote on this bill.

Here's what Trump said when he landed on Capitol Hill today.

[18:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't think Thomas Massie understands government. I think he's a grandstander, frankly. He'll probably vote. We don't even talk to him much. I think he should be voted out of office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This is also not the only time Trump has said that he should be voted out of office. But a couple things to point out here, there is a reason why Trump is singling out members of Congress. He also within the meeting, as we know, pointed out to Congressman Mike Lawler, saying he knew his district better than Lawler knew his district when they were talking about these SALT caps.

The reason is that this is Donald Trump's legacy. There is nothing that Donald Trump cares more about getting done at this point than passing this bill. And he is willing to get up at 8:30 in the morning and go to Capitol Hill to try and convince these members to do so. They believe, again, this is his legacy, the economy is his legacy.

Now, Massie, for his part, brushed the whole thing off. He was talking to our Lauren Fox, saying that actually Donald Trump wasn't that mean to him. He said he had nicer hair than Rand Paul. But Massie, even after that conversation, after Donald Trump was there on the Hill, still says he's a no.

TAPPER: And, Kristen, President Trump just announced -- just to change subject for one second. President Trump has announced this new U.S. Missile defense system called the Golden Dome. How much would such a thing cost and when does the president think it could be completed?

HOLMES: Yes. So, earlier today, he said he was going to move forward with this Golden Dome. This is something that he has been pushing now for several months. He's citing the fact that there are these superpowers like Russia and China who have all of this advanced technology, and they essentially say that this would be, and I want to get this right, a defense system that will use a constellation of satellites and space-based weapons to intercept ballistic attacks.

Now, the cost of something like that, Donald Trump today said it would be about $175 billion. There are a lot of experts who say it would probably cost more than that. And now he says that he believes that this could be completed by the end of his term.

Again, there are a lot of experts who believe this is going to be more expensive and take much longer. Donald Trump, though, saying that in his spending bill, that they are trying to push on Capitol Hill, that they are allocating $25 million towards that $175 billion. But, clearly, there's going to be a lot of spending going into this if it is, in fact, taken up.

TAPPER: That's a very ambitious schedule and a very conservative price estimate, I think it's fair to say.

Kristen Holmes at the White House, thanks so much.

Joining us now, Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw. Congressman, good to see you. So, what was your takeaway after President Trump's visit to Capitol Hill today? Do you think there's going to be enough support to get this vote done in the Rules Committee in the next few hours? And will this bill, tax cuts and spending cuts, will it ultimately clear the House?

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): Lots of questions there. I mean, I think the president's visit was beneficial. He was in a good mood. You know, it was said that he woke up at 8:30 to be there. He was probably up at 4:30. Let's be honest, he's President Trump.

He went on for about an hour-and-a-half. He was actually very nice to Thomas Massie during that time. He was comfortable, but he was very direct, right? He spoke to both sides of the people with problems, whether it's the SALT caucus or those who think we're not doing enough on Medicaid, and I agree with them but his message is really clear, there's a lot of good things in this bill. You're never going to get everything you want in a bill.

And you can always look at any piece of legislation and say, look, well, you know what? There's something in there I just don't like. Or you can look at that piece of legislation and say, well, there's something I wish was in there, but it's not, so we can't vote for it. And that's a tiresome exercise that we often deal with here at legislating. There's always a few who think that way. You got to take it in the aggregate and the aggregate's pretty good. This is a big boom to our economy.

I mean, the alternative if, by the way, is everybody gets their taxes increased. So, I don't understand how Democrats are going to be campaigning on that message exactly going home, say, we've tried to keep your taxes, or we tried to raise your taxes, but the Republicans wouldn't let us. That's not a really good promise to make.

So, we're making sure people's taxes stay low. We're making sure small businesses really have a lot of relief, or we're focused on energy, border and we're creating a ton of savings too for the future. And contrary to the claims made by Democrats, those savings don't even come at the cost of actually kicking people off Medicaid. It's just rightsizing the program and cutting like waste, fraud, and abuse. And, I mean, I can go through the exact details on that too.

TAPPER: Well, let's talk -- I want to talk about Medicaid reforms with you, these changes to Medicaid. You've been a big defender of them. Let's run this clip. This is part of your argument during a heated hearing last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRENSHAW: It's past 3:00 A.M. and I've watched my colleagues make false statement after false statement for the sole purpose of scaring the most vulnerable in our society. Democrats have forced disabled Medicaid recipients to travel to D.C. and crowd the committee room for nothing but cynical political theater. And my message to all of you who are tricked into being here, guess what? Your Medicaid benefits aren't at risk under this bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, our reporting suggests that Trump today said, don't F around with Medicaid except for the waste, fraud and abuse.

[18:10:00]

CRENSHAW: Yes. What he means is keep the bill the way it is. Don't ask for more. That's my interpretation of it. He wants us to vote on the bill that we've all passed out of our committees. He wants us to stop negotiating on it and vote on it.

TAPPER: He don't think he was saying, don't make any changes to it other than waste, fraud, abuse? You think keep the legislation as it is?

CRENSHAW: Keep the legislation as it is. Stop asking for more. And, look, I'm one of those -- I would ask for more if I could. I think it's nonsense that expansion states are getting a 90 percent match from the federal government while states like Texas, who are fiscally responsible, don't get that. You know, you need to wind that down. But we're not even doing any of that. All we're doing is adding work requirements.

And just on the expansion population, by the way, not the actual poor and children, which Medicaid was designed for, and then when it comes to other people being kicked off, it's like illegal immigrants, there's a couple million of those. There's a couple million people kicked off because they're just enrolled in two different states. A lot of people have a different job with private insurance, but they're still technically enrolled in Medicaid. It's just cleaning up the enrollees.

So, this isn't just, it's isn't just ripping people's Medicaid away, and I meant what I said in that hearing room. It was so unethical and disingenuous for Democrats to fly disabled people across the country to scare them into thinking that their Medicaid's being taken away. It's just not true, not at all.

And even for the work requirements, by the way, if you have dependents or you're disabled or there's a number of other exemptions, then you're exempt from that work requirement entirely. So, this is the softest touch we possibly could have had on Medicaid, to be perfectly honest.

TAPPER: Well, let me ask you about the deficit, though, because your colleague, Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio, this is his message after Trump visited Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): I couldn't vote for this bill right now. I mean, it grows deficit spending right now. So, it does raise the debt limit, we need to do that, but it doesn't cut spending.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that this bill will add more than a trillion dollars to annual deficits by 2034 compared to 2024. What's your response to Congressman Davidson?

CRENSHAW: Yes. I mean, there's a few, right? A lot of people, I think, accurately believe that the CBOs scores are generally inaccurate, and they've proven to be inaccurate over many, many years. For instance, they got the revenues for the first Trump tax cuts in 2017, they underestimated those by a trillion dollars. So, they don't do dynamic scoring. They don't account for growth. And that's by law. That's not their fault. We could make them change it, do more dynamic scoring, but they don't.

And also thing the thing I would ask some of my colleagues, like Warren, I would say, look, if you were king for a day right now, would you vote right now to just raise people's taxes, because that's what's on the table? It's a yes or no question. Would you vote to raise people's taxes? And that's where that number is coming from.

So, you know, is raising people's -- is keeping taxes exactly where they are right now considered a cost, I mean, technically according to a CBO score? But, philosophically, I think we have to take a second look at that idea. And it's not true. Look, my committee alone had to cut $880 billion worth. Other committees also very large numbers. When it comes to spending, we're absolutely cutting a lot of spending. That's a fact.

TAPPER: Yes, all right. Maybe Congressman Davidson will come on tomorrow and answer your question.

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw from the great state of Texas, always good to have you on, sir. Thank you so much.

CRENSHAW: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: We have new details that we're going to tell you about in my new book with Alex Thompson, Original Sin, about the cover-up of President Biden's declining health. We have a political panel to talk about that next.

Plus, an American who was wrongfully detained in Venezuela has been released. We spoke with his father just a few weeks ago here on The Lead. We're going to have his reaction to the great news about his son, ahead.

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[18:15:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, it's pub date for my book with Alex Thompson from Axios, Original Sin, is out today. The book's about President Biden's decision to run for reelection in 2023-2024, and then the decisions to hide his diminished cognitive state. That is the original sin proverbially that cost Democrats the presidential election. That's the thesis of the book.

The book's based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with Democratic insiders, almost all of which occurred after the 2024 election was over.

So, let's discuss some of the lessons learned with our august panel, former Congressman Max Rose and S.E. Cupp.

So, there's a lot in the book, I'm not sure if you guys had a chance to read it. But in December 2022, he's standing outside the Oval. Brittney Griner's about to be released and he's talking -- and this is the middle of the day. He's with Jake Sullivan and Kate Bedingfield, and he can't come up with their names, according to a witness. He calls Jake, Steve. He calls Kate Bedingfield, Press.

This is December 2022. Flash forward in June 2024, he can't come up with George Clooney's name. He doesn't recognize him. What was your reaction to hearing any of this?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, and then a week ago, Jake Sullivan comes out and says, I didn't know about any of this. I can tell you one thing. Democrats are angry. They want this story to go away. The only group keeping this story alive is Biden world by Joe Biden going around doing interviews, insisting he would've won, insisting he's fine. Democrats elected Democrats saying we didn't know anything, I'm not a medical official, and Biden world, people like Jake Sullivan, saying, we just didn't know. They didn't know what we can see with our own eyes.

And you're married? TAPPER: Yes.

CUPP: I'm married.

TAPPER: Yes.

CUPP: Happily.

TAPPER: Yes.

CUPP: That's because when you do something wrong, you --

TAPPER: Oh, my wife never would've let me run.

CUPP: No, I'm just saying when you do something wrong, you acknowledge it, you admit it, and you apologize.

TAPPER: Yes.

CUPP: What people are angry with is there's been no accountability, no acknowledgement, no apology. Everyone's just pretending it didn't happen. And you are the problem. You are the person we should all be mad at for exposing this. It's bananas.

TAPPER: That's about to be a meme. You pointing at me saying, you're the problem.

CUPP: You're the problem, no.

[18:20:01]

TAPPER: It's me, I'm the problem, in the immortal words of Taylor Swift.

Congressman Rose, what do Democrats need to do? What's their strategy here? Do they need to come clean or should they follow the advice of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, just say, anytime it comes up, we're moving forward, we're moving forward?

FMR. REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): I actually don't think it's either of those two answers. And there's one point, one slight point you made that I disagree with, which is there's a whole contingent of Democrats right now that are loving this story, because it feeds into this narrative that if the Harris campaign only had 90 more days, they would have won, which is false.

CUPP: Yes.

ROSE: They were trending down and no one has yet found one swing voter that said, man, I wasn't with Biden, but when Harris came around, I really was with her after that riveting campaign.

TAPPER: She did bring the polls back up though.

ROSE: No, she brought the base back up and then she proceeded to lose every single swing state. TAPPER: But just to correct, the premise isn't that she would've done better if she'd had 90 days. The premise is that a lot of top Democrats feel that if he had not run for reelection, there could have been a robust Democratic primary. And whoever emerged from that would've been a stronger candidate.

ROSE: At the premise of your book is 1,000 percent correct. My concern is that that's not the conversation that Democrats are having right now.

TAPPER: What are they having?

ROSE: The conversation that they're having right now is ignoring the failures of the Harris campaign and having this quixotic debate about what Biden should have done, which at this point is patently irrelevant because Harris lost, Biden didn't.

So, we need to have a thorough reevaluation of not just why did Harris lose, but also why did Ruben Gallego win in a Trump state? Why did Elissa Slotkin win in a Trump state? That's the direction that the party should go in. And you're seeing some really exciting trends of it actually being a generational divide now in the party where folks like Pat Ryan, Chris Deluzio, AOC, are sitting down and talking about economic populism and a future agenda for the party.

That is what the conversation should be about and you can't have that conversation without talking about the failures of the Harris campaign. David Plouffe loves this conversation because it's helpful for him and other leaders of the Harris campaign to say it wasn't our fault, it was Biden.

CUPP: But can it be both? I mean, look, there were factors in 2024 that Democrats as a whole are responsible for, and that is the economy, crime and immigration. They didn't get those issues. Their policies weren't right on those issues. And then they lied to the American public and told people those weren't actually bad issues. That's endemic to the party, and the party needs to reconcile with that.

Joe Biden was elected by people like me who voted for a Democrat for the first time ever in 2020 to be a one term president. When he broke that promise and decided he was going to run again, he, I think, betrayed the party and the country. You can say Kamala lost it, but Biden wasn't going to win it. That's for sure. And had he stepped aside earlier, I think the Democrats could have mounted an actual challenger to Trump.

If you're mad that Trump is in the White House, if you're mad that Trump, Trump is wreaking havoc on the country and our global economy, you've got to be mad at what Biden did. And if you're denying that anything happened, I'm sorry, you've missed the point.

TAPPER: Do you have any concerns, Congressman, about not just like how good a candidate he would've been or not, just about whether or not he could be president until January 2029, which is impossible to imagine, the tragic news we've heard this week, notwithstanding even like beyond that, just, I mean, 86 years old is -- that's challenging. But beyond that, like are you concerned at all about his abilities as president?

ROSE: So, his abilities --

TAPPER: In the first term?

ROSE: So, I look, I think what I'm concerned about is the fact that when we read a book like yours, it looks like people who were very close to him were lying. And that feeds into this incredible distrust aAbout the Democrats. And so we have to start looking at the culture of the Democratic Party, where you have really a bunch of -- particularly in administrations a bunch of real strivers that are just working to go along to get along before they can go into corporate America. And this culture in the party was really created in the Obama era.

So, Democrats have to start to look at this Obama staff culture the same way the Clinton administration looked at Carter staff culture and move on from it.

TAPPER: Former Congressman Max Rose from the great borough of Staten Island, S.E. Cupp, of course, from a different borough, thank you to both of you. I appreciate it.

CNN's reporters were inside the courtroom today for the dramatic testimony in the Sean Diddy Combs trial. What they noticed when three different witnesses took the stand. That's next.

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[18:25:00]

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, day seven in the trial of Sean Diddy Combs. Jurors today heard from a special agent who led the raid on Sean Combs' Miami mansion, Combs' former assistant as well as the mother of Combs' ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

Joining us now to discuss, CNN Anchor and Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates and CNN's Kara Scannell, both were inside the courtroom today. What a treat to have both of you in person. I guess it's me who's usually not here.

Kara, we heard from Cassie Ventura's mother today, Cassie Ventura, the girlfriend, obviously ex-girlfriend, who we saw in that horrible video of him beating her up. She discussed some notable evidence to share with the court. Tell us about that.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. She discussed December 2011. That is when she said she received an email from Cassie telling her that Combs was threatening to release two videos of explicit sexual content, and she said that Combs was threatening to physically harm her and Kid Cudi, who she was dating at the time when she was in this break with Combs.

And so what Regina Ventura, the mother testified today, is that she was made physically sick when she got this email. And then just around the same time, she'd received a demand of $20,000 from Combs who said that he had spent money on Ventura. She was seeing another man and he wanted this money.

So, she testified that she went, took out a home equity loan, wired $20,000 to a Bad Boy account, and then within four or five days, it was returned. And that was -- no explanation about it. But the prosecution suggesting this was kind of a bit of blackmail here. You know, Combs got Cassie back in a relationship after that, and so the money was returned. That's the suggestion.

And we also saw more photos of the physical abuse. These were photos that Cassie Ventura's mother took on her camera to memorialize the bruises that were on her daughter's body, on her lower back, on her thigh. You know, we've seen some of these before, but it was her mother on the witness stand. And, interestingly, Combs' defense team didn't ask her one question.

TAPPER: Oh, interesting. Laura, we've heard from two sex workers, two escorts who say they were paid to perform sex acts while Sean Diddy Combs watched. Both said they did not witness any discomfort from Cassie Ventura. Does that hurt the prosecution, do you think?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: This is an important point because they are -- I've already said in the opening statement that she was pretending to enjoy being a part of these sexual freak- offs. That's important because a sex trafficking claim requires fraud or coercion or threats and force.

And so they're trying to essentially plant the seed in the juror's minds that she was performing for him. She was not consenting and exemplified by her participation in it that she was performing to be a part of these acts because she was threatened and intimidated and essentially her willpower was overcome by on Diddy Combs.

Now, this is important as well because, for the defense, they're going to say, well, you see, how is Sean Combs to know she didn't want to be a part of it, she didn't speak up and say this persistently or really at all, then you -- or in a way that he understood this.

Also, they're saying that she was not only complicit, but an active and enjoyable participant. They want to undermine her credibility in saying, I was essentially, as she said at one point during trial, a sex slave, which the judge then said, strike her from saying that, but try to unring that bell for the jurors.

TAPPER: Yes, seriously. And speaking of jurors, how are they doing? It's a difficult case, I mean, in terms of all the abuse being alleged. Are they engaged? Are they disgusted? Are they horrified? Are they paying attention?

SCANNELL: I mean, there are definitely moments where you see the jurors doing that tennis match, they're watching the question, they're watching the answer, they're going back and forth. I mean, I've seen a few write down things in their notebooks, you know, when the explicit photos were shown from the freak-offs to just the jury, not the public. I mean, I did see one woman kind of put her hand on her chest. It's always hard to get in the minds of the jury, but they were paying attention.

And this afternoon, there was a federal agent who was at the search of Combs' home in Miami, and he was actually showing them weapons that were recovered in the search. Put on lead text gloves, cut off the evidence bag top, walked it in front of the jury and held a piece of an AR-15 that was recovered at the search. And the jurors were very engaged in paying attention to the evidence that they were seeing then.

TAPPER: And what do you think? Has the prosecution made their case yet you think?

COATES: No. They've got work to do, really. And it's their burden of proof. He is presumed innocent. They had to connect the dots between this so-called empire of an inside circle and sex trafficking by force, and, of course, prostitution. They're not out of the woods in terms of their burden of proof but they have made some strong headway in establishing at least payment for sexual activity across state lines. The idea of the sex trafficking and the empire overall, those are their hurdles.

TAPPER: Interesting stuff. Kara and Laura, thanks so much.

Laura's going to have more on her amazing show, Laura Coates Live, tonight at 11:00 P.M. Eastern only here on CNN. Laura also has a podcast called Trial by Jury. Look for that wherever you get your podcasts. Laura, anything else you want me to plug here?

COATES: I sell Girl Scout cookies.

TAPPER: I'll put me down for a box of Samoas.

Turning now to a major development in our World Lead, an American veteran who was wrongfully detained in Venezuela is now free. Joseph St. Clair's family says that he was released to U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell today. He'd been detained since last November. Joseph's parents, Scott and Patty, told CNN, quote, this news came suddenly and we are still processing it, but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

We spoke with Scott St. Clair, the dad, just a few weeks ago when he was in D.C. to help unveil mural featuring Joseph and other Americans being held overseas unjustly. This is what he told me he wanted people to know about his now free son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT ST. CLAIR, FATHER OF JOSEPH ST. CLAIR: Joe is a combat veteran, four combat tours, a distinguished Fine Cross recipient. He served his country. He now suffers from PTSD, from that service. And we want to know that he is well and alive. We want proof of life and we want him to come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: We're so thrilled for the St. Clair family today, Scott and everyone in the family, sending our thoughts to the families of others who are still unjustly detained.

[18:35:01]

We will continue to cover those stories.

Our small business series takes us to Wisconsin next to speak to the owner of a hard cider company in a farm-to-table restaurant. Have they had to lay off employees? Have they had to raise prices? Is everything copacetic? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Time for our series, Business Leaders. It's the series where we talk to small business owners from coast-to-coast about President Trump's tariffs and the impact they're having on their businesses. Some have been happy with the effects, others are uncertain.

My guest today is Matt Raboin. He's the owner of Brix Cider in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. It's a hard cider manufacturing plant and a farm-to- table restaurant. Both sounds amazing, Matt. So, you make hard cider, you have the restaurant. I understand it's your newest product that you've seen impacted the most by these new tariffs. So, tell us about it.

MATT RABOIN, OWNER, BRIX CIDER: Yes. We have a new product we're coming out with. It's a cream liqueur actually. We recently started doing distilled spirits. And it's -- you know, we wanted a special bottle for it because, you know, the craft and beverage market is so flooded.

[18:40:00]

There's so much on the market that you need to stand out a little bit. I actually brought a little bottle that we are going with. It's kind of like a -- so it's Wisconsin, it's a cream liqueur. So, we wanted something that looked like an old time milk tea (ph), you know, like the milk man used to bring.

And I couldn't find a bottle made by a U.S. manufacturer that sort of fit that vibe other than one that was like -- you know, we're a small place and there was one that would do a huge order that was too much for us. You know, we don't have the space for it or the money's for it.

So, I ended up finding a producer in China that makes it and, yes, put down the down payment down, you know, a little before tariffs went completely nuts. And then, yes, then we paused the order after it was up to like 145 percent. And now we're moving ahead with the order.

And it's -- yes, I mean, you know, I've been watching this show a bit. I've watched some of the other segments. I'd say we're not -- you know, we're not one of the companies that's being absolutely crushed by tariffs, but we're also not one of those rare ones that's like happy about it. I'd say it's -- you know, we're in that majority that's kind of getting hurt more than we're getting helped.

TAPPER: Yes.

RABOIN: And we're really grateful for -- you know, we're part of the group, Main Street Alliance, and they're representing small businesses, and they're seeing what we're doing and they're seeing their members struggle. And so they've been really fighting hard for us trying to change these policies. Yes?

TAPPER: What's the impact been on your prices both for the cream liqueur and also the rest of what you make?

RABOIN: Yes. I mean, there's the -- you know, there's the direct, like we're going to pay the tariff on the cream liqueur, and that's going to impact our price. It's going to be about, you know, once this thing is printed and shipped to us, it's about $2 a bottle with the custom printing and everything.

And the tariff, if it's still 30 percent, you know, we'll see if it's that would be about $0.60 a bottle that we'd pay extra. You know, it's a tax. It's kind of a sneaky tax. And we would probably have to up at least $0.60 cents on the price for that bottle.

And then, you know, the wholesaler or the distributor we work with, they would mark up, they'd mark up based on a percentage, and then the retailer's going to mark up based on a percentage. So, you know, you're going to end up seeing that one thing, it'll go up about a dollar a bottle. So, it's just, you know, in addition to your sales tax, you're getting this kind of, you know, dollar a bottle tariff tax on it.

TAPPER: Yes.

RABOIN: And then -- you know, but then there's other sort of indirect ways we're getting tariffed. You know, like I just bought some boxes yesterday where I'm not importing them, but I noticed the price get ticked up.

TAPPER: Yes.

RABOIN: And you know, we're, we buy coffee from a local coffee roaster and their prices are going up, because, you know, you can't get American grown coffee other than maybe Hawaii, but most of it's from overseas.

So, we're seeing other prices kind of ticking up and, you know, we don't have a ton of wiggle room as a small business. We kind of have to just move those prices up accordingly ourselves.

TAPPER: Very interesting. The restaurant, one more time for anybody near the Mount Horeb, but Wisconsin area, it's Brix Cider. It's west of Madison. Go check it out.

Matt Raboin, thank you so much, great having you. I really appreciate it.

RABOIN: Yes. Thanks for having me on the show.

TAPPER: How did a certain group of refugees get to skip over so many others to enter the U.S. legally? That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:18]

TAPPER: In our world lead, tomorrow, the president of South Africa will meet President Trump at the White House, a week after dozens of white South Africans landed in the U.S. with refugee status. The Trump administration says the refugees were afraid for their lives and says that their farms were, quote, being burned down.

Listen to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a tense exchange with a Democratic senator, Tim Kaine of Virginia, earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: If there was a subset of people that are easier to vet who we have a better understanding of who they are and what they're going to do when they come here, they're going to receive preference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN's Larry Madowo now digs into the reality of what's going on in South Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): White South Africans, many of them farmers, entered the American dream, some too young to know they've also entered an international firestorm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome. Welcome to the United States of America.

MADOWO: The U.S. government says it's taking in these refugees fleeing alleged racial discrimination at home.

Thats why they've opened the door for them.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: Yes. And they don't fit that bill. Those people who have fled are not being persecuted. The American government has got the wrong end of the stick here.

MADOWO: South Africa's president has come to the U.S. to set the record straight and is expected to meet President Donald Trump Wednesday, hoping to reset the two countries relationship. It was his signing of a controversial land seizure law in January that invoked Trump's wrath, allowing the state to take unused farmland without compensation if deemed just, equitable and in the public interest.

South Africa's majority black population still owns just a small percentage of farms. More than 30 years after apartheid officially ended while most are owned by the white minority. There were 36 murders at farms between April and December last year,

but only seven of the victims were farmers, according to police data.

But President Trump calls it a, quote, genocide against white farmers.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed. It's a genocide that's taking place.

MADOWO: The accusation, partly stemming from this apartheid era song made popular again by far left opposition leader Julius Malema.

JULIUS MALEMA, FAR LEFT OPPOSITION LEAER: Kill the poor. The farmer.

MADOWO: But AfriForum, the conservative White Afrikaners lobby group, won't explicitly say there is a white genocide.

KALLIE KRIEL, CEO OF AFRIFORUM: There's a call for genocidal call. People are being killed and people are being tortured. We need to prevent this from going further.

[18:50:01]

MADOWO: AfriForum is described by the U.S. based Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist group. They have the ear of the U.S. administration, but they're not leaving South Africa.

KRIEL: At AfriForum, we say our future is in Africa because our ancestors came here more than 300 years ago.

MADOWO: South African born entrepreneur Elon Musk has fanned the accusations against his homeland, frustrating locals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they are lying. There is no genocide in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elon Musk is overhyping the situation. There is no such as genocide.

JOHN STEENHUISEN, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE: We mustn't mischaracterize things as genocide. Theres no mass expropriation of land taking place in South Africa. There's no genocide taking place.

MADOWO: Musk reportedly wants approvals for his companies to operate in South Africa.

Will -- is Elon Musk invited when you have that face to face meeting?

RAMAPHOSA: Well, I don't know. They will determine whether Elon Musk is part of it or not.

MADOWO: President Ramaphosa hopes to mend the rift and convince Trump to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Larry Madowo. It's the play that took my beloved Philadelphia Eagles all the way to the Super Bowl. But will NFL owners ban the tush push because they're a bunch of whiny babies? It's one of the major decisions they're weighing this week, and we're going to break it all down next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:55:34]

TAPPER: Our sports lead now, Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles have a signature play, and it could change forever, all because one team, Green Bay Packers, reportedly made a revised proposal ahead of the NFL meeting, NFL owners meeting, which is taking place today and tomorrow.

Now, part of the Packers agenda and the NFL owners agenda, whether to change the rules of the tush push, that's this short, basically one yard sneak play to get the runner or quarterback into the end zone.

Former NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth joins me now.

Donte, okay, look, this feels like the Packers being whiny babies. And it also feels like a punishment against the Eagles for using a play that no other team has been able to consistently recreate, other than perhaps the Buffalo Bills. And for the teams that can't stop it, looking at you, Commanders, maybe become a better team. Thats my admittedly biased interpretation. How do you view it?

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER NFL WIDE RECEIVER: Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at the documentation of the NFL's own internal data of the tush push play, and there's been zero injury rate associated with this play. So, for me as a player, as a former player, that's probably the only reason why I would want to play banned is if the injury rate raises or is higher for a specific play.

There is no injury rate that is due to this play. And also, I think you don't want to punish a team for having a strategic, innovative advantage that they've been able to do to create play that they that they can't -- other teams can't stop. They've been able to be successful with it for a long time.

TAPPER: I just to be full disclosure, I had no idea what your opinion was going to be. They could have booked you and you could have been -- you could have been against the tush push. But it doesn't surprise me because you're a man of reason, and you're -- and you're a man of wisdom.

Let's just to be fair, what do you hear from people who you know and respect, if there are any, who are against the play. What's their best argument?

STALLWORTH: I think they're -- I don't know if it's their best argument, but the only argument that I've heard is that its akin to a 99 percent chance success rate, which the old extra points used to be when they were kicked from the two-yard line. It was essentially a non-noncompetitive play. But this is a competitive play. So there's -- that's no -- there's no argument there.

I think that you would ban a team or ban a player from a team that's been highly successful at it. And they've been highly successful because of innovative strategy. You don't want to stymie or stymie innovative strategy in the NFL. That's what NFL is all about.

TAPPER: So, NFL owners did vote today to allow players to compete in flag football at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. What do you think?

STALLWORTH: I love it, I've been a big fan since I was seven years old. I played in the NFL for ten years. This is something I've dreamed of for decades. Being able to watch this game on an international stage and see players compete for a gold medal, you know, for the United States. I think that would be really cool.

And I know all the players want to play, but they're -- I think they're only allowing a total of ten NFL players and one from each team. But I just look back to these kids growing up these days, this next generation of athletes, being able to see that on an international stage and growing the game internationally, I think it's a beautiful thing.

TAPPER: Is it possible to see top players such as Jalen Hurts from the -- from the Eagles or Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase drop a month or more of preparation for the upcoming NFL season to go all in on Olympic flag football. Could that happen?

STALLWORTH: I think so, and honestly, Jake, it actually times up well with the NFL season because it's only a few weeks before the NFL training camp starts, so those guys would actually have a head start in their training. So, I don't see anything wrong with them timing wise as far as them getting to the Olympics and actually playing in the games.

TAPPER: Would you come out of retirement to try to play flag football?

STALLWORTH: I would love to, but these hamstrings wouldn't hold up for more than 3 or 4 plays. But if they want 3 or 4 plays, I got them, jake.

STAPPER: Three or 4 plays and then the hammies get to take it off. Take off the rest of the day.

Donte, always great having you. Donte Stallworth, thank you so much.

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Substack and on the TikTok @jaketapper. You can follow the show on X @theleadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can listen to the show whence you get your podcast.

We're going to throw the show to Erin Burnett a little bit early today.

Erin, over to you.