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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Puts D.C. Police Department Under Federal Control; U.S. Officials Rush to Finalize Details of Alaska Talks; Redistricting Fight Enters Week 2 as Texas Democrats Stay Out of State; Future of Sourdough Startup Hangs On Trump's Tariffs; Legal Battle Over Cleaning Up Florida Manatees' Habitat. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 11, 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 ANCHOR: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, President Trump making good on his threat to take over D.C. announcing that he's placing the local police department under federal control and deploying National Guard troops in the nation's capital, but is this all legal? Are city leaders going to fight back? We're going to talk to a member of D.C. City Council in moments.

Plus, President Trump says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could attend the Putin summit on Friday in Alaska, but he says he doesn't think it would make a difference in reaching any sort of peace deal. So, will Zelenskyy get an invite? And when are we going to learn more details about this summer?

Also, investigators are trying to figure out what caused an explosion at a Pennsylvania steel plant earlier today. At least one person was killed, ten others injured. And emergency workers are searching the rubble for one person who is as of now unaccounted for. We're going to go live to the scene ahead.

And an update to a story we've been following for months here on The Lead, the fight to save the dying manatee population that inhabits Florida's Indian River Lagoon. A federal judge ordered the state to take action in May. Has any progress been made?

And The Lead tonight, President Trump has taken control of the Washington, D.C. Police force. Today, the president declared a public safety emergency in the nation's capital and said he is activating 800 National Guard troops and threatening to bring in the U.S. military all to address crime, which President Trump says is out of control in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and blood thirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people. And we're not going to let it happen anymore. We're not going to take it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Citing a study from the Rochester Institute of Technology, the White House today said that D.C. has the fourth highest homicide rate in the country, or did in 2024. We should note, while President Trump is clearly upset about crime in D.C., he did not appear to be upset earlier this year when he pardoned about 1,250 January 6th convicts, many of whom had beaten police officers.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House, but, first, let's turn to CNN's Brian Todd. He's outside the D.C. Police headquarters.

Brian, what are D.C. officials saying about all this?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, according to sources who spoke to CNN, neither Mayor Muriel Bowser nor the police chief, Pamela Smith, were aware that this announcement was going to be made until it was made by the president. This morning they have, of course, had gotten hints at this, that the president had threatened to do this, that he threatened to deploy the National Guard and to take over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in the days before the announcement, but they did not get wind of the actual announcement until it was actually happening.

Mayor Muriel Bowser was still fairly reserved in her criticism of this move during a news conference this afternoon. She did point out that the chief of the police force here in D.C. at the spot where I'm standing, Pamela Smith, is still the police chief and that the 3,100 police officers in this city still work under her. Mayor Bowser did say that she believes President Trump's view of D.C. is, quote, shaped by his COVID era experience during his first term.

Now, Bowser acknowledged that just past the pandemic, just post- pandemic, they did have a spike in crime in D.C. Crime rates were spiking around the year 2023, but have since gone down considerably, according to the Metropolitan Police. But the closest thing that Mayor Bowser came to an actual direct jab at the president was right near the end of her news conference, which she talked about possible worst case scenarios. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-WASHINGTON, D.C.): I am going to work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster. If we lose communities who won't call the police, that could be a disaster. What would be a disaster, if communities won't talk to the police, if a crime has been committed and could help solve that crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And we're also getting the first real pushback today from the D.C. City Council who, like the mayor, was silent about this pretty much for days until today.

[18:05:00] We have this from Council Member Matt Frumin. He said, this is a sad day for the District of Columbia and a sad day for the United States of America. In his words, quote, any attempt to place the military on our streets and displace the leadership of our increasingly successful police department would not be constructive. Also, Council Member Charles Allen said, this is an extreme, outrageous, and dangerous move for the city and for the safety of its residents. Jake?

TAPPER: Jeff Zeleny, why is the president focusing on this today?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this has been something that President Trump has long focused on. Crime has been really part of his public life throughout his years in New York City, certainly running for president and now serving as president, and, frankly, it was the largest exercise of presidential power that we have seen. Nothing has changed in terms of crime. In fact, it has been going down, but a few things have changed. One of them, of course, are the challenges that are mounting for this president.

The economic reports have not been good. There's a new inflation report coming out tomorrow. Obviously, Jeffrey Epstein has been hanging over the administration as a challenge. The Russia meeting that's coming up on Friday also is not guaranteed to go well. So, this is something that the president likes to talk about he painted a dystopian but also somewhat a deceptive view of life in the nation's capital.

But, again, this is something that he has often referred and a return back to this well again and again. We saw it earlier this year in Los Angeles sending the National Guard there, but Washington, D.C., of course, is not at state. So, because of the 1973 home rule, the president is allowed to federalize the police force, so that's what he did declaring it an emergency.

But, Jake, he's also had declared some other emergencies and used that authority. It's unclear if this actually is an emergency. There is no doubt there is a high crime here in Washington and in other major cities as well that the stat show, it's actually falling, not going up.

TAPPER: Yes. And, Brian, earlier this year, the acting U.S. attorney, Ed Martin, was claiming that President Trump's leadership meant that violent crime was down in Washington, D.C. As Jeff says, obviously, you know, major cities in the United States, there's a lot of crime, a lot of violent crime, but give us a fact check here. Is D.C. as dangerous as President Trump portrays it?

TODD: It really does not appear by any measure to be as dangerous as the president portrays it. He really has portrayed this city ever since that former DOGE member was attacked a week ago Sunday. The president has portrayed this as a city under siege. I think that almost any resident and anybody you talked to would disagree with that. Crime is down considerably, according to the police department.

And just the stats that they cite overall, assault with a dangerous weapon, down 20 percent from a year ago, robberies, down 29 percent from a year ago, the big stat that they cite violent crime, down 26 percent from a year ago. Both the mayor and the police saying that violent crime is at 30-year lows in this city, Jake, and you get a sense from residents here. This is not the city under siege that the president portrays it.

TAPPER: All right. Brian Todd, Jeff Zeleny, thanks.

Let's bring in D.C. City Council Member Brooke Pinto. She represents Ward 2, which includes Georgetown and the National Mall. She also chairs the council's Committee on Public Safety.

So, you heard the police's stats, which show the crime is down. That doesn't mean it's not still high, but just it's down. The White House put out a fact sheet that says, quote, yes, D.C. crime is out of control. And they have a bunch of statistics from the -- I think it's Rochester Institute of Technology. One of those statistics says, last year, D.C.'s homicide rate was 27.3 per a hundred thousand residents. That's the fourth highest in the country.

So, this is -- I mean, this is a conversation that does require some nuance. Yes, the crime rate could be going down, but still be way too high, right?

BROOKE PINTO, D.C. CITY COUNCIL: Right. And, look, nothing is more important to me than the safety and wellbeing of district residents and visitors who come here as the nation's capital. And that's why in 2023 when we had these crime surges as the chair of the council's Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, I put together a hundred piece intervention, piece of legislation called Secure D.C., and we came together as a council with the mayor, the attorney general, to drive down crime that has, since that time, since 2023, violent crime has decreased by nearly half.

So, there is more work to do, certainly, and that's what we're committed to doing locally.

TAPPER: So Jeanine Pirro, who is now the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., she argues that D.C.'s laws are weak and allow even those who have been convicted of serious crimes to avoid major repercussions. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The D.C. Council has given the judges the ability to give probation on shootings. And so then it's up to them. All of these things, the Youth Rehabilitation Incarceration Reduction Act, and now they want to seal records. So, if we work hard, we get a conviction, they want to wipe it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: She also complained about if a crime is committed by somebody who's 14, 15, 16, or 17 with a gun, you can't try them as the way she would like to, presumably, as an adult. [18:10:08]

What do you think of the specific criticisms of some of the D.C. laws?

PINTO: So, I am in agreement that there were a lot of gaps in our system. And that's what my bill, Secure D.C., was really about, was filling some of those gaps. So, we gave more discretion to judges to hold violent offenders pretrial. We increased penalties for carjacking, for gun related offenses. We changed the composition of the sentencing commission to make sure that it was more balanced. The council just passed my latest bill, Peace D.C., in June to build on that success and fill some more of those gaps.

So, as a lawmaker, I am always open-minded to looking at our legal landscape and filling those holes and making sure that we have laws that provide for the safety and wellbeing of district residents.

TAPPER: Well address, if you would, what she specifically called out in terms of not being able to try if a 16-year-old commits a crime with a gun, he's still -- that that young man still gets tried as a juvenile. She wants to change that, presumably. Do you disagree?

PINTO: Well, I believe that whatever age you are that you commit a crime, whether you're a juvenile or an adult, there should be accountability. We have a different system for juvenile prosecutions in D.C. that's handled through our D.C.-elected attorney general, and then our adult prosecutions are handled through the U.S. attorney's office. So, both of those prosecutorial routes should lead to accountability.

Now, the U.S. attorney does have the discretion to bring some cases against juveniles as adults, and that is exercised with somewhat regularity. So, these claims that this could never happen is not true.

TAPPER: There's a Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted between April and May of this year showing that D.C. residents are not pleased with Mayor Bowser's handling of two key issues brought up today on reducing crime. Only 38 percent of the citizens and of this city believe Mayor Bowser's doing an excellent or good job. 58 percent say bad job. It's worse on homelessness. 27 percent say she's doing an excellent or good job compared to 67 percent who say she's not. Do you disagree with the majority of the citizens of the District of Columbia?

PINTO: Well, I believe that crime and homelessness are two of the most pressing challenges that we face here in D.C. and we have made tremendous progress by working together over these last several years. I talked about some of the progress we've made with violent crime. When it comes to homelessness, we started a new model in Ward 2, where I represent, of transitional housing to get people moved off the street into transitional housing while they await permanent housing.

I believe that every person has the right to live indoors. We should not have people living outside in Washington, D.C.

TAPPER: Even if they want to? PINTO: Even if they want to, but there's a process to get people placed indoors with dignity. It does not mean we just say, no homeless people can be here.

TAPPER: All right. D.C. Council Member Brooke Pinto, always good to have you here, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Coming up, so many unanswered questions about the upcoming Trump-Putin summit on Friday in Alaska, first of all, where in Alaska is going to be held? How long is it going to last? Will, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine be included? We're going to go live in Ukraine, next.

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[18:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, we're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made.

REPORTER: How will you know that?

TRUMP: Because that's what I do. I make deals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's what he does. He makes deals. In our World Lead, officials are rushing to finalize the logistics of Friday's Trump- Putin summit in Alaska. As of now, only limited details have been announced, including the city, the venue where the two world leaders will meet and more. Officials are also working out what topics are going to be allowed to be discussed, although President Trump hopes to yield significant progress towards ending the war in Ukraine. He is going to do that without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy present for that conversation. At least that's the plan as of now.

Nick Paton Walsh is in Kharkiv, in Eastern Ukraine .And, Nick, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says Russia is definitely not preparing for any sort of ceasefire. What has been his response to being left out of the summit?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, President Trump held out the possibility he would call Zelenskyy after his meeting with Putin, maybe even arrange later for the three men to meet in some capacity. But Zelenskyy, from the start, has been very clear that nothing can occur without Ukraine -- about Ukraine without Ukraine, and today kind of went on the informational offensive, saying that the information they're getting, their intelligence suggests, in fact, Russia's not preparing for peace. Instead, it's actually preparing more offensive operations.

Indeed, there have been some alarming reports by open source analysts suggesting that in somewhere parts in the east, Russia has made significant progress in just the last week, causing alarm bells to ring. Look, Zelenskyy has also had quite a lot of support from European allies who've demanded the same unconditional, immediate ceasefire that the U.S. originally proposed with Ukraine months ago, and that being the starting point for negotiations. And also too, a European statement has insisted that the current contact line is essentially frozen as the starting point for negotiations.

Could there be swaps? It's something really that Trump has talked about in terms of territory going back and forth between Russia. Always hard to know indeed what Russia could potentially give back to Ukraine of Ukraine, but also to Germany's leader, Friedrich Merz, now ranging a call for Wednesday between himself, European leaders and President Trump, presumably to shore up Europe's position ahead of the Alaska meeting. Jake?

TAPPER: So, you just talked about the this land swap idea that the president, President Trump, talked about. Has Ukraine weighed in on that?

WALSH: Yes. Look, I mean, this has always been an absolute no for Ukraine, that a concept of giving voluntarily land that Russia has not occupied by force to Russia as part of a deal.

[18:20:07]

That seems to have emerged during U.S. Special Enoy Steve Witkoff's visits to Moscow, different permutations emerging. Some suggestion potentially that there hasn't been a full understanding of Russia's position, which appears to be very maximalist still, essentially wanting all of Ukraine. In fact, President Trump suggested he was one of the people who still thought that Russia wanted all of Ukraine when he spoke today.

So, a lot still riding on that, but the idea we've been seeing ourselves today traveling around the very areas of the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, towns that are full of Ukrainians soldiers and civilians bustling a normal life there. Yes, air raid sirens on very often, massive damage done, but tens of thousands of people there who think it's frankly surreal that two men in Alaska on Friday from America and Russia might decide whether they'll have to pack up and leave and hand over their homes to Moscow, very farfetched Ukraine's government, almost absurd when you stand in those areas yourself, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, who's in Eastern Ukraine for us, thank you so much. Stay safe.

Let's get some analysis from our experts now. Jeff, let me start with you, Jeff Edmonds. How do you think Zelenskyy feels right now? I mean, he's been trying to hold his cards close to his vest, I suppose, but it does seem as though he would be worried.

JEFFREY EDMONDS, FORMER DIRECTOR FOR RUSSIA, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: That's right. And he is playing a careful game here in the sense that he wants to keep U.S. support. So, he doesn't want to upset President Trump in the same way you had the fallout with the Oval Office. But at the same time, I mean, he is the president of Ukraine and responsible for Ukraine and its sovereignty and needs to do what he has to do to protect Ukraine. And so I think it probably does feel rather surreal that he wouldn't be in the conversation.

TAPPER: And I want you to take a listen, Rebeccah, to what J.D. Vance, Vice President Vance said just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I think the president and I certainly think that America, we're done with the funding of the Ukraine war business. We want to bring about a peaceful settlement to this thing. We want to stop the killing. But Americans, I think, are sick of continuing to send their money, their tax dollars to this particular conflict. But if the Europeans want to step up and actually buy the weapons from American producers, we're okay with that, but we're not going to fund it ourselves anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's rough stuff. I mean, there's a lot of like blaming Ukraine, subtextually in that. What do you think?

REBECCAH HEINRICHS, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE: Well, it's interesting because Vice President Vance used to oppose even selling American weapons to Europeans who would give the weapons to Ukraine. So, it's nice to see him now take President Trump's position, which is that the United States still has a strong interest in seeing a strong --

TAPPER: Little silver linings from you there. Okay.

HEINRICHS: A little silver lining.

I will also say there was recent polling done by the Vandenberg Coalition just last week that 87 percent of Trump voters still understand that Russia poses a threat to the United States. So, I'm not sure which piece of the coalition the vice president's specifically talking about. But Americans understand that Ukraine security is related to NATO security. NATO security's related to American security. You want to have good trade deals with Europeans. You have to have a strong and peaceful Europe, and that means a strong and secure Ukraine.

So, you know, I think that Ukraine is in a better position than we were a few months ago, and it's hard for Zelenskyy, I think, to be quiet, but it would be good for him to kind of just let this play out a little bit. I'm not confident that Putin is even going to concede anything at all. So, it's good just to let this kind of summit play out.

TAPPER: Yes. And what is there that would suggest that Putin is going to concede anything? I mean, he -- by all accounts, like he's winning in some areas, right? And it doesn't seem like President Trump and Vice President Vance particularly like Zelenskyy or support him in this venture. I mean, what's in it for Putin to concede anything? EDMONDS: There really isn't anything for him. The most important thing, I think, to consider is that this is not about land. I think a lot of people presume that it is. It's about the demilitarization, the de-Nazification of Ukraine. It's really about Ukraine sovereignty. And if it's not about land, you're not going to get to peace through a land deal. I think that's the most important thing.

And then, second, you know, to Zelenskyy's point, Ukraine has a vote in these negotiations. And if this isn't something they're going to go along with, even if they don't have U.S. support, that doesn't mean they're just going to capitulate.

TAPPER: You know, it's interesting, I was talking earlier with Jill Dougherty, a former CNN Moscow bureau chief. After Zelenskyy seized -- I'm sorry. After Putin seized Crimea in 2014, I mean, it was a fake election, but they did have this plebiscite, right? They did have this, okay, let's -- we're going to have the citizens of Crimea vote on this. And it was a joke and it wasn't real and it was illegitimate, but there was at least the pretense of that. There's no pretense even here. They're just talking about giving land. Like, well, let's see if the people of Donbas want to be part of Russia.

HEINRICHS: No. And there's also a question about how much control Russian military camp -- the military campaign has even succeeded. So, we know that there is now Russian control over Crimea, but the rest of the territory is still an active war zone. And so this idea that you can sort of swap land that may be more taken and held by Russia versus Ukraine, I mean, we don't have any kind of facts on that point either.

[18:25:03]

So, you know, I think that we haven't even gotten to a ceasefire yet. President Trump has been declared sequentially he wants a ceasefire, and then we can get into details about how we get to sort of even a frozen conflict, make sure Ukraine can stop further the Russian aggression. Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire and has, since March. It's just been Russia that continues this assault against Ukraine.

TAPPER: Is it not true that who -- let's say that Vice President Kamala Harris had won and was -- she was doing a peace deal right now, or trying to end the war, that no matter what, there was going to be some sort of land concession that Ukraine was going to have to make? I understand that you're saying it's, this is bigger than geography, but in order to bring about peace, Ukraine was going to have to concede some land, Democratic or Republican president, do you agree with that?

EDMONDS: I think so. Especially at this point, it's become pretty clear that the Ukrainian military cannot retake all of the land that Russia has taken. So, if there was a case where Putin actually was interested in leaving the current government in Kyiv in place, allowing Ukraine to defend itself and was content with the land, which he wouldn't be, then you would obviously have some kind of demarcation there and the Ukrainians would have to cede something. I just don't think that's a reality in this --

TAPPER: All right. Jeff Edmonds and Rebeccah Heinrichs, thanks to both of you.

And noting I will be in Alaska on Friday to anchor CNN's special coverage of the Trump-Putin summit. So, looking forward to that 35- hour flight.

Last hour, I spoke to Texas's Republican Governor Greg Abbott about his party's push for redistricting in the state. He accused state Democrats of failing to do their constitutional duty. So, I'm going to talk to Texas Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, next.

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[18:30:00]

TAPPER: Today, Texas State House Democrats intentionally skipped yet another day of this special legislative session in Austin, Texas, in an effort to stop Republicans from redrawing Congressional maps, ones -- these new maps could add five new House Republican seats.

Last hour, I spoke with the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, who slammed Democrats for taking this standoff into week two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): What these Democrats have done, they have turned their back on the people of the state of Texas. For one, it is gutless for Democrats to cut and run that's anti-Texan. Ever since the time of the Alamo, Texans have stood and fought their ground. Here, Democrats are fleeing like a bunch of chickens.

Average Texans who are watching this show, they have to show up to work. If they don't show up to work, they could get fired. These Democrats think they are above that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: With me now, Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Texas. And, Congresswoman, just to remind our viewers, you were a member of the Texas State House back in 2021. You're in the U.S. House now, but you were a state legislator and you were part of the crew that fled the state in attempt to block voting restrictions in Texas. What do you make of Governor Abbott's argument that that is not what Texans do, it's gutless, it's cut and run, you're fleeing like chickens, you need to show up to do your job the way most Texans do, et cetera, what's your response?

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): The only weak link in this equation is the governor himself. It's not Texans that elected the governor to the governor's mansion that asked him to do this. It is the criminal that is currently serving in the White House that begs for him to do this.

So, let me tell you something. I can guarantee you that Gene Wu's district has not called in and said that he is not representing them or their voices. In fact, it's just the opposite. And I know that my governor may not have practiced law too recently, but I would like to inform him, if he cares to know, that our Texas Constitution specifically provides for being able to break quorum. That is in our Constitution. So, as far as I'm concerned, these folk that decided that they were going to break quorum are more Texan and more American than the governor and the president himself.

TAPPER: There is some critical items on the special session agenda, flood relief for Texas Hill Country, where more than a hundred people died over the 4th of July weekend. What's your response to those Republicans who are blaming Democrats for holding up this relief by not showing up and allowing a quorum?

CROCKETT: Yes. So, first of all, those Republicans should show up and do their job every single day. They're the ones that knew that this area had flooded before, yet there were not provisions in place. In fact, one of the representatives for that area voted against a bill that would have allowed for additional monies for infrastructure in that area. The local electeds in that area decided to reject money from the Biden-Harris campaign.

I can tell you one thing about Democrats is that we show up for everybody. Once we are elected, then we understand what it is to govern and we don't pick winners and losers based upon your political affiliation. Unfortunately, the local electeds failed those people, and, unfortunately, their state electeds failed those people.

But I will also say that it wasn't flood relief that they brought to the floor quickly. It was absolutely focused on bringing together a bill that would decimate people's voices, black and brown voices, which make up a majority of the state. That is what they decided to do. They had an opportunity. They did not force forward with a bill on flood relief. Instead, what they pushed forward with was redistricting at the will of the attorney general who said this was about race and Donald Trump.

TAPPER: The Economist Magazine looking at this gerrymandering arms race that appears to be on the brink of breaking out in the sense that if Texas does it, the Democrats in California and other states say they're going to do it. The Economist says Democrats are likely to lose the redistricting war.

[18:35:01]

If both sides abandoned principle, a draw is possible but Republicans face fewer obstacles. Is this gerrymandering arms race really worth it if Democrats still are going to end up on the losing side of the numbers? Governor Abbott said to me today that if California adds five Democratic seats to offset the five Republican seats that might come from this redistricting, he'll just add five more Republican seats. He said it'll be ten.

CROCKETT: Yes. So, here's my attitude. We may lose the battle, but we will absolutely win this war. That is what I'm saying. Right now, when it comes to our base, they want to see a fight. They don't want to see us just lay down and say, okay, well the Republicans want to do whatever they want to do. They want to minimize voices. They want to systemically get rid of those black elected. Because when I look at the numbers -- and to be clear, Florida is already in this thing. We know that Texas is in this thing. We know that they're putting pressure on Indiana as well as Missouri. So, here's the deal. They have already decided that the only way that they can win because they have failed policies, is by making sure that they can cheat their way and while they're cheating their way, the only way that they can do that is while they also at the same time, violate the Constitution as well as the Voting Rights Act and make sure that is people of color.

We're talking about them going after Clyburn in South Carolina. We're talking about them going after Andre Carson in Indiana. We're talking about them going after Reverend Cleaver in Missouri. We're talking about them going after Amelia Sykes in Ohio. We're talking about them coming for three of the four black representatives that we currently have in the state of Texas.

So, don't tell me this isn't about race when they are clear about who it is that will lose the most when it comes to having their say so on the federal level. They are absolutely, systemically making sure that they roll back all that was fought for, bled for, and died for, as it relates to those that came before us.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

CROCKETT: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Emergency workers are digging through the rubble looking for at least one person who remains missing after a horrific explosion at a Pennsylvania steel plant earlier today. We're going to go live to the scene for an update, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, at least one person has been killed, one is missing, and ten others have been injured after an explosion at a Pennsylvania steel plant earlier today. Officials at the Clairton Coke Works plant say the plant is now stable. They're trying to figure out what happened, what caused the explosion.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is on the scene of that blast in Clairton, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. Gabe, do they have any idea how this might have happened?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, really, at this point, they don't. And we heard an executive from U.S. Steel a little bit earlier tell media that, as far as they knew, the area where this blast happened, the area of this steel mill was in good working condition as of this morning. And so investigators are here on the scene and they're going to try to figure out exactly what went wrong here.

And this has been a very active search and rescue scene throughout the day. Just a little while ago, officials said that there is still that one person who's unaccounted for somewhere inside that facility in the blast zone. They believe they know where that worker is, although they said they're not exactly sure and they're still working to be able to pull them out.

We have seen a lot of first responder vehicles, ambulances going inside and out, so very much an active scene here, Jake. We know that five of the ten injured people have been released from the hospital at this point, that is good news, late this afternoon, but we're also learning a little bit more about the individual who died here today.

I just spoke over the phone with his sister who confirmed that it was Timothy Quinn, her brother, a 39-year-old worker here, a father of three who she described as someone who lit up the room, said he loved his three children. He was the caretaker for his mother. She described him as her best friend, a great person. And she was quite frustrated by the lack of communication that it took hours for her to learn that it was her brother who was killed here. She actually came to the scene searching for answers a few hours ago and spoke with some of the local affiliates here.

Here's a bit of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dad worked at the steel mill for 42 years, and he would be disgusted in what the situation is right now. Accidents happen, but families, that's brothers and sisters, that's a stronger union. They need communication with these families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, Jake, obviously, you can hear the frustration there, and we will see what this investigation turns up in the days and weeks ahead. But as I said, still very much an active scene as those first responders work to find that last person who's unaccounted for.

TAPPER: Gabe, should local residents be worried at all about toxic fumes or anything that's been released into the atmosphere?

COHEN: Yes. So, we did hear officials from Allegheny County earlier say that they had told all residents who live within one mile of this facility that they needed to close their windows and their doors and make sure that their HVAC systems were not pulling in any outside air because they were worried about the potential for toxic air essentially from this explosion getting into people's homes. Although they said at this point there's no evidence that's happening.

TAPPER: All right. Gabe Cohen, thanks so much.

Our small business series takes us to North Carolina next, where a startup born from the COVID pandemic is struggling under the weight of Trump's tariffs. Are they having to raise prices on their customers? That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:11]

TAPPER: New today in our money lead, multiple reports said that President Trump has signed an executive order to extend the tariff truce with China by an additional 90 days, which brings us to our "Business Leaders" series, where we talk to small business owners coast to coast to see how Trump's tariffs are affecting them.

Sourhouse is a startup that was born from the sourdough starter craze during the COVID pandemic. They started selling tools specifically for sourdough bakers.

Co-founder Erik Fabian joins me now from Asheville, North Carolina.

Erik, where do you manufacture your products and how are tariffs impacting your sales?

ERIK FABIAN, CO-FOUNDER, SOURHOUSE: Sure. Hi. Yeah. My name is Erik Fabian. I'm the CEO of Sourhouse.

We make tools for sourdough bakers. We design them here in the United States, and we manufacture them in China. We sell them through our website, sourhouse.com, and at retailers around the world. And, tariffs have been a significant impact on us.

We, you know, started this idea five years ago now during COVID and with the idea I had for a device that would just, like, help people keep their starter, their sourdough starter, warm so they could bake better bread.

And since then, we've started creating jars like easy to clean jars for your starter, bowls, different kinds of things. And we've been successful at it. You know, we make it our mission to help people, bake more bread and to inspire them to bake more bread. And, you know, we've seen now people recommend our tools and cookbooks and, you know, folks like actress Kristen Bell, you know, you see on Instagram, she has our jars in her kitchen.

And we've been real proud that we've been able to, you know, positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of bakers with our tools and with the educational content that we share.

[18:50:00]

TAPPER: You have --

FABIAN: All kind of came to a really difficult stop in the spring, when the tariffs came into play.

TAPPER: You have one of the -- one of the devices next to you. Do you, you can hold up to show people?

FABIAN: Yes. This is a, you know, our Goldie. Its designed for you. Put your jar of starter inside it warms it up to 75 to 82 degrees. Were sourdough starter is very active.

And, you know, sourdough bakers, they all have this, this jar of starter in their house somewhere. And so it's like a pet, and they need to care for it. And it would just help them care for it better.

TAPPER: And where are those manufactured?

FABIAN: So we manufacture all of Sourhouse products in China. We -- my co-founder, Jennifer Yoko Olson, is an industrial designer. We work to design the -- all of our ideas here. And, and we create things from the ground up. These are not things that were sourcing on Alibaba and kind of repackaging for the American market. These are custom designed tools for the home baker. Yeah.

TAPPER: And the -- and the tariffs have significantly raised the prices of those items?

FABIAN: Yeah. We are currently, you know, are subject to the 30 percent reciprocal tariff. But in total we pay about 50 percent tariff on our products. And you know, along with the tariffs going up and down, our prices go up and down. I think the biggest concern for us right now is -- is honestly, though, the distraction of just like, you know, thinking about Trump and tariffs and all this stuff rather than focusing on, you know, helping our bakers bake better bread. So wed really like to get back to it. And I think there's just a lot of, you know, uncertainty about the future.

You know, we don't know what the tariffs will be next year, but we want to give clarity on our pricing to both our our direct consumers that come to our website and purchase from us, as well as our retailers who buy from us wholesale.

TAPPER: Sourdough bakers, you can find Sourhouse tools online.

Erik Fabian, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

FABIAN: Thank you.

TAPPER: An update now on a story we've been following for months now, and the fight to save Florida's manatees.

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[18:56:36]

TAPPER: In our "Earth Matters" series, an update to efforts to save the dying manatee population that inhabits Florida's Indian River lagoon. CNN's Randi Kaye traveled to the manatees home to understand the ongoing legal battle between wildlife advocates and the government of the state of Florida, a battle those advocates thought they had won until the state pushed back. Recently, we cautioned that some of the images we're going to bring you may be hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATRINA SHADIX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEAR WARRIORS UNITED: I think it's very disheartening. We shouldn't have the government fighting us on cleaning up the environment and saving wildlife. RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Katrina Shadix and the

wildlife protection group bear warriors united once again battling the state of Florida over protecting manatees.

We recently saw firsthand where manatees are starving to death in Florida's Indian River lagoon, which stretches from Palm Beach County to Daytona Beach.

The lagoon is where manatees come for the warm water. But in recent years, the northern end of the lagoon has been a death trap for them.

PETER BARILE, MARINE BIOLOGIST: All these homes along the lagoon that are on septic tanks are slowly leaking, literally tons of nitrogen and phosphorus into the system.

KAYE: Marine biologist Peter Barile says those pollutants are being released by septic tanks and water treatment facilities along the lagoon, and are fueling algae growth in the water, which is causing the manatees' main food source, seagrass, to die.

BARILE: So this algae is reducing light down to the seagrasses, essentially smothering them and killing them.

KAYE: Between December 2020 and April 2022, more than 1,200 manatees died of starvation in this area.

Now, Florida's Department of Environmental protection is appealing a ruling a federal judge issued in the spring that the department violated the federal endangered species act. As a result, the judge temporarily halted the approval of any new septic tank permits along the lagoon. That ruling followed a 2022 lawsuit in which Bear Warriors United sued Florida's department of environmental protection to help protect the manatees.

SHADIX: They suffered immensely and for a very long time.

BARILE: There was lax leadership from the state of Florida over decades that allowed this problem to get worse and worse.

KAYE: The judge found a definitive causal link between Florida's Department of Environmental Protection wastewater regulations and the ongoing risk to manatees.

Then, in May, he agreed to what was essentially a wish list from Bear Warriors United, things they wanted the state to fix on behalf of the manatees. In addition to halting septic tank permits, Florida was required to submit a plan to monitor manatees health and set up a supplemental feeding program for manatees in this lagoon.

In its latest court filing, Florida's Department of Environmental Protection says it's not them, but Florida's fish and wildlife conservation commission that is responsible for wildlife issues, arguing the judge is insisting the wrong agency make the required changes.

SHADIX: FDEP is beating a dead horse. It's already been decided by a judge -- you know, a federal court judge.

KAYE: We reached out to both the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but neither provided a response to our questions.

SHADIX: We're not going to stop until we convince the government to save the manatees from extinction.

KAYE: Are you hopeful the manatee population will come back here?

SHADIX: Now that we won this lawsuit, we think we have a really good chance of working with the state to make sure the manatees don't go extinct on our watch.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Randi Kaye for that report.

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and on TikTok @jaketapper. You can follow the show on X @TheLeadCNN. If you ever missed an episode of THE LEAD whence you get your podcasts.

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