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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Tariffs Kick In At Highest Rates Since Depression; Trump Nominates Stephen Miran To Temporarily Fill Fed Vacancy; Major Companies' Earnings Calls Reveal Impact Of Tariffs; VP Vance Meets With Indiana's Republican Leaders Amid WH Push For Redistricting; Trump Orders New Census To Exclude Undocumented Immigrants; FBI Firing Senior Officials At Odds With Trump Administration; Israeli Security Cabinet Debates Whether To Occupy All Of Gaza; Trump Reignites Threat To Take Over Washington, D.C.; Army Honors Soldiers Who Subdued Suspected Gunman. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 07, 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: It's really, really rough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stronger than cup of tea.

HUNT: Oh, man. All right.

Well, if you've missed any of today's show, don't forget you can always catch up by listening to The Arena's podcast. Just scan the QR code below on your screen. You can follow along wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on X and Instagram at thearenacnn. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper is next.

He's not available to talk about his Phillies, unfortunately, but you're going to see him in just a second. Don't go anywhere.

[17:00:32]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: It just got a lot more expensive for the rest of the world to do business with the United States. The Lead starts right now.

President Trump has slapped those higher tariffs on nearly every country in the world, meaning according to experts, Americans will soon be paying the highest tax rate on foreign goods since 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression. So what products will be impacted the most by these tariffs and when might you see prices rise? Plus, protests erupting across Israel today as Prime Minister Netanyahu confirms he is planning for a full military takeover of all of Gaza, even though his top military chief of staff says that could put the lives of the remaining hostages at risk. And what President Trump just told CNN's Kaitlan Collins about a potential meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, a meeting Russian officials say could happen as soon as next week.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to start with breaking news right out of the White House. President Trump telling CNN just a moment ago that meeting -- a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is not conditional on Putin sitting down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This as gaps seem to be forming between the U.S. and Russia over details of a potential summit between the two leaders in coming days. Let's get straight to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

Kaitlan, tell us what the president had to tell you.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this is a notable comment because earlier we had been hearing from White House officials who said they did believe that Putin would have to agree to meet with Zelenskyy in order for the sit down between President Trump and President Putin to happen. But that is not what we just heard from the president in the Oval Office. And obviously this was a key question after we heard the first comments this morning from the Russian leader on this prospect of a face to face meeting with President Trump. He obviously had talked about how, yes, he had discussed with that, Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy, but on the idea of a trilateral summit following that with Zelenskyy, Putin, and Trump. Putin sounded a lot more dismissive of that, saying that conditions would have to be met and the circumstances for those conditions seemed very far off.

And so we just were hustled into the Oval Office on an abrupt notice. I asked President Trump about this, and this is what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: President Putin said this morning he was pretty dismissive of this idea of meeting with President Zelenskyy.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who was?

COLLINS: President Putin was.

TRUMP: I don't know. I didn't hear.

COLLINS: So for you to meet with him, he doesn't have to agree to meet with Zelenskyy, is that what you're saying?

TRUMP: No, he doesn't. No. No.

COLLINS: So when do you think that meeting would happen?

TRUMP: They would like to meet with me and I'll do whatever I can to stop the killings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So obviously there, Jake, that is a notable comment when it comes to how quickly we could see this meeting come together. We first got word about it yesterday following that meeting between the special envoy and the Russian leader. And the White House said urgently and immediately the plans began to get underway for scheduling of some kind of meeting for this to happen. Where it would happen and how soon it could happen remains to be seen. The condition -- the timeline that were given was as soon as next week, but more likely within the next two weeks. Now, obviously, we'll see if that holds. And, Jake, obviously we're coming up against a critical deadline tomorrow where the president said he was going to put secondary sanctions in place as punishment for Russia continuing its war against Ukraine and not seeking a cease fire or any kind of cessation and hostilities between the two of them. When the president was just asked whether or not that deadline still holds inside the Oval Office, he told another reporter that remains to be up to Putin himself.

TAPPER: All right. Fascinating stuff. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks so much.

Staying with our politics lead, it is another major story today. Tariff Thursday. Today, Trump's latest round of higher taxes on imports are live making imported goods for most countries more expensive in the United States one way or another. Now, the President says he's doing this to restore fairness to world trade and to bring manufacturing back into the United States. Until now, businesses have largely tried to shoulder at least part, if not all, of the cost of Trump's previous tariffs that went into effect in April.

But at this point, as stockpiles begin to run low, businesses may be forced to now pass along some of those expenses to consumers. That means, in all likelihood, higher prices for you.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimate it will take about eight months for the effects to be fully realized in consumer prices. And despite virtually every economist using facts, precedent and math to say the tariffs will lead to higher prices, President Trump continues to insist, no, it will not. Democrats anticipate there will be higher prices, which will help them in the midterm elections.

[17:05:04]

Also this afternoon, President Trump announced on Truth Social, quote, "I have chosen Dr. Stephen Miran," Miran? Miran, sorry, "current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, to serve in the just vacated seat on the Federal Reserve board until January 31, 2026." Miran is widely credited with creating the intellectual backbone of Trump's expansive tariff policy. And of course, he has supported Trump's economic agenda being an economic aid for Trump.

Let's go to CNN Business Editor-at-Large Richard Quest.

And Richard, these tariffs now in effect across the world today --

RICHARD QUEST, CN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes.

TAPPER: -- a big move. Did the markets take this in stride? What was the impact?

QUEST: They were expecting it. They knew it was coming. The market was down, but not as much as it could have been. The grand experiment, Jake, has begun. Tariffs, the like of which has not been seen for a century now in place.

And really we just wait and see because as you rightly point out, various things, things shipped before yesterday but arriving before October are at all tariff rates. We won't know the full effect. And besides inflation, there'll be slowdown in growth, that's an almost certainty. There will be a slowdown in growth, there'll be higher inflation and we will expect to see unemployment go up. But how much?

That is the grand experiment that where everybody is watching and waiting.

TAPPER: And Richard, what is the significance, if any, of Trump nominating Dr. Stephen Miran to that vacated seat on the Federal Reserve Board?

QUEST: Firstly, eminently qualified, eminently justifiable decision, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, a perfectly, if you will, reasonable appointment per se, but a loyalist, an absolute Trump loyalist who has put forward the Trump economic agenda in many different facets, particularly on tariffs. He will be pushing for lower interest rates. So there's another vote to lower rates sooner rather than later. But they're going down at the September meeting, it's going to be the pressure going forward. That's going to be where this new vote will count.

TAPPER: All right, Richard Quest, thanks. Let's bring in now CNN's Phil Mattingly.

And Phil, you have been looking into what big companies are saying on their earnings calls which have been happening the last few days about the impact of tariffs. Let's first look to items important to every American, clothing and food. What are you hearing from those industries?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And look, just to start with, the reason for doing this is we have seen and I think despite the prognostications of significant doom immediately after the tariffs are first announced, a lot of companies, to your point, haven't passed them through necessarily. They have eaten some of them. They've been very nervous about getting kind of under the eye of Sauron, of President Trump --

TAPPER: Right. Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- and becoming an enemy of the administration. But they were very clear in the most recent quarter calls that are still playing out today that there are problems coming and price increases that will likely come with them. Now you talk about apparel, clothing, shoes in particular, Nike saying that they're probably going to take a hit of about $1 billion that they're going to need to offset with higher prices.

TAPPER: They're all saying they're going to raise prices. It's not -- it's not that they're going to eat it, they're going to pass it on.

MATTINGLY: At least in some form.

TAPPER: Yes. MATTINGLY: Adidas, a $230 million hit, will have to raise prices specifically in the U.S. market is what they're saying. Walmart has warned of looming price increases. General Mills has been a little cage year about it, saying they need to change their price strategy to be competitive. But taking hits on the tariff front, Coors, $20 to $35 million increased costs over the course of the rest of this year because of the aluminum tariffs. We're seeing it on facing goods.

TAPPER: Oh, the cans.

MATTINGLY: Exactly. You're seeing it on consumer facing goods. And at some point what we're hearing on these calls is either the margins are going to get a lot thinner to the extent they possibly can, or those costs are going to be passed on.

TAPPER: What about the American auto industry? Because again, one of the reasons that Trump is doing this, President Trump is doing this, is to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

MATTINGLY: Right.

TAPPER: So you would think theoretically this will help automakers. But what are they saying?

MATTINGLY: Again, the difficulty here is that the auto industry, even the U.S. based automakers, are not entirely based in the U.S. Now, there are some important exemptions in the U.S., Mexico, Canada trade agreement involved in some of the tariffs in the North America front. But if you take a look at Ford, they're saying they're going to take at least a $3 billion hit. They believe they can take on about $1 billion, but at some point that's going to be passed on in the $2 billion they can't. Toyota, which obviously is not based entirely in the U.S. but builds a lot of cars in the United States, has plants here, expects, they announced today, nearly $10 billion hit based on the tariffs as they currently stand.

So there are significant impacts that are coming, more so for the foreign automaker form based automakers, White House says, hey, bring your plants here, manufacture everything here you'll be able to get outside of it. But as it currently stands, supply chains aren't just snap of the finger type of move, especially for an industry like the automotive industry. And they're going to feel pain.

TAPPER: So -- and this is -- they're not saying, oh, we're going to raise prices next month. They're just saying we have to deal, for instance, the $3 billion hit that you just talked about for Ford.

[17:10:01]

MATTINGLY: Right.

TAPPER: We have to deal with this and we're just going to have to figure it out.

MATTINGLY: And I think that's been the moment where, OK, we've got time to figure this out. Maybe the tariff levels will change, maybe they'll pull back, maybe this is just a threat.

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Maybe the exporters will eat some of the costs as we make deals because of the strength of the U.S. market and fear of actually losing market share. Those moments of speculating, hoping, trying to plan around, I've now moved to reality. And so I think the question right now is the administration has made very clear. They believe because of the value of the U.S. consumer in the world market writ large, that the exporters will eat the cost, not the importers, even though they write the checks, or that the companies themselves simply won't be willing to pass it on out of fear of getting priced out of the U.S. market. We'll see.

That is their theory of the case. Stephen Miran is kind of the primary intellectual driver of that theory of the case. It's going to get tested very fast.

TAPPER: So let me just ask you one quick question. When the Trump administration says, oh, we're getting so much money for the tariffs, is that accurate? But also U.S. taxpayers are ultimately going to have to pay the companies that are paying the tariffs? You know what I mean?

MATTINGLY: So, in a purely technical sense when customs officials are collecting the revenue, are collecting the tariff money --

TAPPER: Right, that is from abroad.

MATTINGLY: -- that is -- no, no, no, that is from a U.S. based importer writes the check.

TAPPER: OK.

MATTINGLY: Where it gets a little bit complicated is because of fear of losing market share because of deal making doesn't necessarily mean they're paying all of it out of their own pocket, right? The exporter could make a deal with the importer and say, look, we understand that you are going to have to cover this, we'll take it off your plate. We'll either cut it from the price we're giving you for the goods on wholesale or we'll give you a credit. You know, there are ways to make deals about it or the companies who are paying the import costs are actually paying for those tariffs. They say we've got enough space right now on our balance sheet to finance this because we can't afford to pass it on.

The sustainability and durability of that --

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- all I think about in these moments are the people that you've talked to and I've talked to on your show as part of your leader series who are saying, maybe I got another month or two.

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Maybe I have three or four months. But at some point I'm going to have to pass it on.

TAPPER: Their margins are 2 percent or 3 percent.

MATTINGLY: Exactly.

TAPPER: They've been eating it. They're -- soon it's going to go to their customers.

Phil, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Let's talk about this now with Michigan's Democratic Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist. It's a state that obviously borders Canada where those higher tariffs are now in effect. And Michigan, of course, is also home to the major automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Stellantis. We should also mention Lt. Governor Gilchrist is also running for governor. Thanks for joining us.

So you and Michigan Governor Whitmer last week signed an executive directive asking state offices to calculate the latest impacts of tariffs on Michigan's economy. You can't stop the tariffs, they're federal. So when you get that report back, what are you going to do with that information?

LT. GOV. GARLIN GILCHRIST, (D) MICHIGAN: Well, first and foremost, I want to talk about the fact that the impact of this tariffs are not things that are going to happen down the line. It's hurting Michigan businesses and Michigan families right now. We have seen auto suppliers already like Detroit act will begin to lay people off, 102 people and close the facility. A furniture maker and clock maker in West Michigan, Herman Miller, that's existed for 100 years, it's going to close down and lay out 100 people. We're trying to get our arms around what this means for Michigan families that are already seeing higher prices on food -- school supplies, you know, pencils and backpacks, people are getting hurt.

So what we're going to do is look at what -- we can do at our disposal to make sure we can continue to put money in Michiganders pockets, frankly, so they can try to weather this storm. But ultimately, the Trump administration is inflicting chaos on our communities, on our individuals and on our economy and businesses. And so we have to continue to fight back and tell those stories.

TAPPER: So this week Governor Whitmer met for a third time with President Trump since he took office. She was there to express concern over tariffs. A White House official said to us that Whitmer is a bipartisan governor who wants to get things done. Will you take the same approach as governor should you win the nomination and the election? Would you meet with President Trump if you become governor?

GILCHRIST: The responsibility of the governor of Michigan is to advance the interests of the people of Michigan and carry their stories wherever they need to be carried. They're going to be in the room with me no matter who I'm talking to, whether it's having to confront a president who's inflicting pain on our economy, who's attacking universities in our state, then that's a confrontation that I absolutely will have to let the people of Michigan know that I'm going to fight for them.

TAPPER: Today Vice President J.D. Vance is in one of your neighboring states, Indiana. He's ramping up the pressure on Republican leaders there in that state to redraw their congressional maps, not at the end of the decade, as is normal, but now mid-decade, just the way Texas is doing. You have said that it's time for blue state governors to fight back. Does Michigan have any current plans to, in your words, fight back and meet a gerrymander with a gerrymander?

[17:15:04]

GILCHRIST: Well, let's be really clear, first and foremost, they are trying to cheat their way to keeping Congress, because they just voted to take health care away from millions of people and food assistance away from millions of people. So rather than trying to actually defend that horrendous and deadly vote, they're trying to find ways where they can cheat to get more seats in red states.

Now, in Michigan, we do this the right way. We have an independent citizens redistricting commission that the voters voted for in 2018 that took the politicians out of the process. But because the politicians are still driving the process in Texas, they're still driving the process in Indiana. That's why Donald Trump and J.D. Vance can go and pressure and bully Republican lawmakers to do their bidding and cheat for them. But no, blue state governors that have those tools at their disposal, they absolutely need to fight that fire with fire.

We're going to bring that same kind of heat and that same kind of energy.

In Michigan, we do it the right way. That's how we should do it across America to be clear. In the meantime, though, we're going to do the right thing in Michigan and then folks who use the tools they have at their disposal in other states.

TAPPER: What do you make of President Trump proposing to exclude undocumented immigrants from a census population count, which he's now asking for now, again, not waiting until the end of the decade, how might that effort impact congressional districts in your state?

GILCHRIST: Well, first and foremost, this guy is completely grasping at straws. Look, I chaired a commission that in 2021 to try to make sure we could increase census participation in the state of Michigan because frankly, the census is about counting people, period. That's what it's designed for. That's what we're directed to do. And frankly, this impacts the resources that flow into the communities.

Even before we talk about congressional representation, let's talk about the fact that it impacts the money for buses in community. How many block grant dollars come to a community to build affordable housing? A problem that exist in communities across Michigan and across America. But Trump again rather cheat and fudge with the numbers instead of delivering resources to people. It's really problematic.

I do have concerns about them trying to continue to undercount people in cities like Detroit and across Michigan and said these resources need to be flowing so that people can have affordable housing, can have buses that work and have a society that functions.

Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, thanks so much for being with us today. We appreciate it, sir.

GILCHRIST: Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: The FBI has fired multiple officials who have been perceived to be opposed to President Trump and his agenda. The message from one of those officials on his way out the door is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:21:31]

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, sources tell CNN that the FBI has fired two senior officials who have been at the FBI for decades, former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and former Acting Director of the Washington Field Office of the FBI, Steve Jensen. Those two are among a group of agents fired this week who sources say were perceived to be opposed to Trump or some of his actions in the past. CNN Senior Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller joins us to discuss.

John, what do we know about these senior agents and why they were fired?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Steve Jensen, assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, is someone who was looked at as before he was in that position. He was in a squad that covered many of the January 6th cases. And he was somebody who was in the sights of Jeffrey Miller at the White House and Emil Bove at the Justice Department for some time.

But let's talk about Brian Driscoll for a moment. Here is an individual who was the acting director of the FBI. He comes from a kind of heroic SWAT team, hostage rescue team, multiple deployments to war zones, a true hero in the FBI sense. And he was selected because Kash Patel was a fan of his from work that done overseas on terrorism cases. He was not opposed to really the Trump team during the election.

But once he took over as acting director, he pushed back, he resisted some of these calls coming from the White House to supply the name of every agent who worked on the January 6 cases, the Mar-a-Lago case, any case that was irksome to the -- to the Trump administration. He supplied employee numbers instead of the names, hoping to not be -- not have a hand in some mass firing on agents and analysts and employees who were only doing their jobs according to their oath when they worked on those cases. What was the deal breaker here, Jake, according to my sources, was Driscoll had gone back to the Critical Incident Response Group that handles the SWAT teams, the hostage rescue, the airplanes, and it turned out that one of the pilots who flies the FBI Gulfstream 5, the plane that carries Kash Patel around the world or back to Las Vegas for his visits, one of those agents had been on the Mar-a-Lago search warrant team, and Driscoll was ordered to fire that agent, refused or resisted doing so, and was told that he was out.

What he wrote to his people was, last night I was informed that tomorrow will be my last day in the FBI. I understand you may have a lot of questions regarding why, for which I currently have no answers. No cause has been articulated at this time. But he closes with, thank you for allowing me to stand on your shoulders throughout it all. Our collective sacrifices for those we serve is and will always be worth it.

I regret nothing. You are my heroes, and I remain in your debt.

TAPPER: Yes, this reminds me of them nudging out George Toscas, who was at the National Security Division of the Justice Department, just a nonpartisan, fierce protector of the United States, you know, dedicated to combating terrorists and the like. And, you know, he's not on Team Trump, so they get rid of him, and who cares if it ends up, you know, costing lives.

[17:25:10]

Is it normal to do this? New administrations come in and clean house at the FBI? I mean, my impression is that FBI directors are perceived and generally are conceived as nonpartisan, and the bureau kind of just gets untouched.

MILLER: Listen, I worked in the FBI for four years in FBI headquarters as an assistant director. And what we -- what we learned there is there's only one political appointee to the entire FBI, one single one, and that's the director. Everybody else is a career employee who takes an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and the laws and security of the country. And no matter what administration it is or who the director is, they follow the orders and they go by the law. So this kind of ongoing intellectual cleansing of the FBI for ideology is entirely unprecedented, as you hinted, Jake.

TAPPER: It's just so strange to me because it is just such a sign of weakness to not be able to hear criticism or pushback and it is being cast as a sign of strength. And it's so bizarre to me, it's just up as down.

MILLER: Yes, no, it's something that -- look, this is fear and loathing in the FBI, agents, analysts, employees, you know, wonder is the case that I've been assigned to something that's going to make somebody at the Justice Department angry? Is the -- is the case that I worked on four years ago or three years ago going to put me on the radar or one of these lists? The FBI's mantra has always been to go forward without fear or favor. Now there's a lot of fear and not much favor.

TAPPER: All right, John Miller, thanks so much. Appreciate your perspective.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed today that he is planning for a full and complete takeover of the Gaza Strip. Why one of his own top military officials is warning that this could put the lives of the remaining hostages at risk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:31:11]

TAPPER: In our World Lead, Israel's security cabinet has been meeting for more than five hours now and there is still no final decision announced on whether to endorse Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for Israeli forces to occupy all of Gaza. Netanyahu talked with "Fox" earlier today to explain his thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will Israel take control of all of Gaza?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We intend to in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel. That's what we want to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN's Matthew Chance is with us from Amman, Jordan. Matthew, what are you hearing about this ongoing debate about whether Israel should occupy all of Gaza?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, that security cabinet meeting, Jake, is still underway. It's been going on, as you mentioned, more than five hours. We don't know whether it's going to break up soon or whether it's going to go on through the night. But I think that's a reflection of just how divided, not just the cabinet and the government, but the country at large. Israel is about what to do about Gaza, about how first and foremost to get the hostages back. There are still 50 hostages, 20 of them still to be still believed to be alive inside the Gaza Strip.

And you've got elements on the right wing of Israeli politics that want the military to double down and for Hamas to be destroyed as a means of removing the threat, but also getting the hostages back. But according to the latest opinion polls, the vast majority of Israelis want the opposite. They want a deal to be cut with Hamas as soon as possible as a sort of guarantee of getting as many hostages back alive as possible.

And there's a great deal of concern and anger in the country that there's a possibility the war which has drained the energy from the nation, from the reservists, from people in general, may continue. Now, if Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, gets his way and fulfills his intention to take full military control of the Gaza Strip.

I mean, just very briefly, the 25 percent of Gaza that the Israelis don't fully control, that's where the majority of the Palestinian people are. And it's also believed to be where the majority of the hostages are. And so potentially their lives will be at risk with a further military operation.

TAPPER: And, Matthew, you're in -- you're in Amman, Jordan, because you were able to ride along on a Jordanian airdrop of food to help those starving in Gaza. Tell us about that.

CHANCE: Yes, yes. I mean, look, I mean, these have been going on for some time. It's Jordan that's carrying out these humanitarian aid drops. Germany, France, Belgium, a number of other countries are doing it as well. They've been pretty heavily criticized, actually, for being not very effective. They don't deliver anywhere near enough aid needed to address the humanitarian shortages in Gaza. They're also quite dangerous. People have been killed in Gaza when food parcels have dropped on top of them, and -- and they're just seen as performative, symbolic, more than -- more than practical.

But having said that, given the acute shortages and the hunger crisis in Gaza right now, I mean, we delivered 6.5 tons of powdered milk and tinned food. For some people in Gaza, that could mean the difference between life and death. But I think the real value of us being on the plane today was that were able to get a glimpse inside Gaza and have a look from a bird's eye view, quite literally, you know, the sheer devastation that has been wrought across the Gaza Strip by almost two years now of a constant campaign by Israel against Hamas and other militant groups inside Gaza. And it was a really shocking scene. So much of it has been laid to waste.

[17:35:15]

It's like a sort of moonscape, a desert of ruins where there's still a lot of people, of course, increasingly struggling to survive. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Matthew Chance in Amman, Jordan, thank you so much.

With us now, Efraim Halevy, who, among other top security jobs, was once director of Israel's national intelligence agency, the Mossad, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thank you so much for joining us, sir. What is your reaction to what we're hearing today from Prime Minister Netanyahu that his government intends to take control of all of Gaza?

EFRAIM HALEVY, FORMER ISRAELI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think the general sentiment in Israel is, as you have heard just now, that a vast majority of Israelis do not wish this plan to come into fruition. As you know, the cabinet is now in session. They have not yet reached a finalization of what they're going to do. There's a very strong group of ministers in the cabinet who do not accept Mr. Netanyahu's position and his policy.

And what concerns us more is to get the hostages that are still alive back home, because for quite several months, there was no negotiation of any content, and the Hamas simply dragged their feet. And as this was going on, obviously hostages properly were losing their lives.

TAPPER: Yes. You appear in a new video this week in which generations of Israel's former security chiefs say it's time to end the war. Do you think that this video that you participated in is making any difference with the Netanyahu government or with the Israeli citizens? HALEVY: I don't think it's making any real and practical steps by the Israeli government in this direction. But we are a group of people, all of us heads of services, and we have got together several months before because we believe that the dangers that we've confronted Israel are not only Gaza, but also the internal crisis, the constitutional crisis in Israel.

And it's very difficult for us as former heads of services to accept the methodology of Mr. Netanyahu because we do not believe that, as he is wishing to do and actually practically doing, to change the constitution of Israel. And one of the steps taken just a few days ago was the dismissal of the attorney general. And she has refused to accept this order of being actually removed from office. And this is up for the Supreme Court to decide this.

TAPPER: Yes.

HALEVY: But this is only a way of looking at what is happening in Israel, which is not something that we have ever encountered before.

TAPPER: We keep seeing obviously these images of dire conditions in Gaza, including malnourished, starving Palestinian children. Last week the British newspaper, "The Jewish Chronicle" reported that at a meeting of the U.K.'s Board of Deputies, which is a leadership group of British Jews, as you know, attendees told the newspaper that the leader of the Board of Deputies, Phil Rosenberg, quote, said Israel was increasingly at risk of moving towards pariah state status in the international community. Obviously Mr. Rosenberg is a big supporter of Israel. Do you share that concern? How worried are you about Israel becoming a pariah state?

HALEVY: I don't think Israel will become a pariah state. What I do think is possible, that the U.N. assembly in September will decide to accept Palestine as a member of the United Nations. That is something which is on the agenda which Israel opposes. But I think they have a vast majority that will vote for this move unless the United States in the Security Council vetoes this.

[17:40:11]

TAPPER: All right. Efraim Halevy, thank you so much for your time today, sir. Really appreciate it.

HALEVY: Thank you.

TAPPER: President Trump reigniting his threat for the federal government to take control of Washington, D.C. but can he really do that? Can he? Can he? We'll explain next.

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TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, President Trump is reigniting his threat for the federal government to take control over Washington, D.C. and restrict what the D.C. local government can do. Trump's latest justification comes after a former DOGE employee was assaulted in an attempted carjacking over the weekend. President Trump is also considering taking over D.C. police and bringing in the National Guard because of crime that the President says is, quote, out of control. Is that true? Well, CNN's Brian Todd now takes a look at Trump's years' long threat against the Nation's Capitol where D.C. police say crime is actually down this year.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump ramps up his threats toward Washington D.C. saying he's thinking of having his administration take over the city's police department.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're considering it, yes, because the crime is -- is ridiculous. I could show you a chart comparing D.C. to other locations and you're not going to want to see what it looks like.

TODD (voice-over): The President is also making plans to step up the federal law enforcement presence in the Nation's Capitol, according to three sources familiar with the plan, which one of them says could include personnel from the National Guard, ICE, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Trump angered by a violent attack on a former DOGE employee. Police say 19-year-old Edward Coristine was assaulted by a group of about 10 juveniles during an attempted carjacking in D.C. early Sunday morning.

TRUMP: We just almost lost a young man, beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him.

TODD (voice-over): Police said they have arrested two suspects so far. And as they search for the others, the agitated President has also been threatening to take over the entire D.C. government.

TRUMP: We have to run D.C. this has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country.

TODD (voice-over): Can he really do all of that? Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave the district self-governing power, the President can deploy D.C. National Guard troops in the city and can take over control of the city's police force, but only temporarily. Experts say it would take an act of Congress to actually federalize the D.C. government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that doesn't mean the President can just take over D.C. The President can only act when he's either explicitly authorized by the Constitution directly or whether when he's enabled, when he's empowered by a federal statute, and there's no federal statute that allows to date that allows the president of the United States to simply take over local government in D.C.

TODD (voice-over): Police contend violent crime in the district has actually gone down considerably, dropping 26 percent from a year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It went down. So we got a new police chief. She's been doing a great job at getting the crime to go down. TODD (voice-over): Former Deputy City Administrator Larry King does not think the city would benefit from federal intervention.

LARRY KING, FORMER DEPUTY CITY ADMINISTRATOR: They probably need more officers, but the officers they have now, and the chief of police understands and knows the city very well, having an outside force come in would not be successful.

TODD (voice-over): D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has not commented at all on President Trump's idea to federalize Washington and the D.C. police are not commenting either.

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TODD (on camera): Now, in addition to the mayor and the police, the D.C. City Council seems to be staying away from commenting on all of this as well. We tried to get comment from all 12 council members, only one of them got back to us, and her main concern was that neither the Biden nor the Trump administrations have nominated enough judges to handle the criminal caseload in the city. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Brian Todd in Washington, D.C. thanks so much.

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Coming up next, a ceremony for the soldiers who saved lives during yesterday's shooting at Fort Stewart in Georgia. And the new details we're learning today about the suspect. Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Our National Lead now, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is honoring the soldiers who sprang into action when that active duty sergeant allegedly opened fire at Fort Stewart yesterday. CNN's Ryan Young spoke to one of the heroes recognized earlier.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We got extraordinary access to Fort Stewart today. I can tell you for a long time we have not had this sort of access to this base, especially after a shooting. Today, the secretary of the army, the general, wanted to make sure those who leapt into service yesterday were able to have some sort of recognition for everything they did.

We learned that seconds after the shots were fired, more soldiers started to leap into action to try to stop the shooter, to try to help their fellow comrades who were on the ground, who were in pain with blood loss. And so we learned about that. And if you listen to the secretary of the army, he spoke with pride about what happened here.

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DAN DRISCOLL, ARMY SECRETARY: They embody everything that is good about the American soldier. They ran into battle to the sound of the gunfire, took down the assailants and then took care of their comrades. And that made all the difference.

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YOUNG: We are also learning new facts about the shooter as well. According to "The New York Times," the father of the shooter indicates that he may have had some issues here with racism that he faced and he was trying to transfer bases. We've asked the third I.D. for comment about that. They have not gotten back to us in terms of what that may be. They say it's under investigation.

But the real focus here should be on the men and women who really sort of put their lives in the line to save the other ones. In fact, we talked to the young man who dove on the shooter to stop him from shooting more people. Take a listen.

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STAFF SGT. AARON TURNER, U.S. ARMY: So teammate ended up coming through. First thing I identified was the hoodie and the sidearm and then from there ended up engaging him as far as talking and trying to down talk them and trying to ensure the safety of the staff's arm that was behind me to get out and then eject the round. And then by that time frame, MPs ended up showing up.

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YOUNG: You hear from that he was able to disarm the man and the magazine fell from that gun. They were able to stop him from shooting any more people. What we've also learned, though, as this moves forward with the military, he hasn't charged them just yet and they're still processing the scene. So this is far from being over, but this is a day that so many people will not forget on this base because they've never experienced something like this before.

Reporting at Fort Stewart, Ryan Young, CNN.

[17:55:02]

TAPPER: All right. Our thanks to Ryan Young for that report.

Coming up, President Trump this afternoon making brand new comments about a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir. But what exactly does Putin want out of this? We're going to have a live report from Moscow just ahead.

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TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, breaking news out of the White House where President Trump just spoke with our Kaitlan Collins about his potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin says this sit down could happen within days. But where will it happen? What exactly will be on the agenda? Will cameras be present for the first meeting between a U.S. leader and Vladimir Putin since 2021?

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Plus, a federal judge has ordered construction to stop at the so called Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center in Florida.