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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. Adds 119,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rises to 4.4 Percent; DOJ Has 30 Days to Release Epstein Files After Trump Signs Bill; Mamdani, Trump to Meet Tomorrow at White House. High-Ranking U.S. Officials Go On Record In Documentary That Alleges "80-Year Global Coverup Of Non- Human Intelligent Life". Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, how can the U.S. have a stronger than expected jobs report and yet the unemployment rate went up? This mixed bag is creating a flood of economic uncertainty and your own retirement accounts may be a reflection of all the whiplash.

Plus, the Justice Department opening yet another mortgage fraud investigation, this one involving Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California.

Also a CNN exclusive, CNN spoke with a man accusing Sean Diddy Combs of sexual assault. He filed a lawsuit, and now law enforcement is picking up the case.

And is there really non-human life on Earth? What a film director learned about layers of secrecy at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Our Lead tonight, the newest jobs report has Wall Street economists and Americans scratching their heads. The big headline, the U.S. adding 119,000 jobs, more than expected, but unemployment is on the rise with data revisions to prior months, making the picture for the whole year even murkier.

The market's tumbling today. Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500, all closing in the red, even after yesterday's rally sparked by an A.I. giant promising forecast.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here to help us all make sense of this. Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. The long awaited September jobs report did come in better than expected. Analysts were expecting 50,000 jobs added in the month of September. What we got was 119,000 jobs. That was better than expected. But if you look at the monthly job gains averaged out over the entire year, we're looking at the weakest jobs growth this year since the pandemic, and then again since the Great Recession.

And that's really led by weaker job growth that we saw over the summer than we had initially seen in those earlier reports, particularly the month of July and August, were both revised down and we actually now see job losses in the month of August. If you look at this bar chart, you can see on your screen that there are now two months of jobs losses June and the month of August.

And we were just looking at some of those sectors where we saw gains in the month of September. 87 percent of job gains were seen in healthcare and leisure and hospitality. So, if you were looking for jobs in those sectors, you had a better chance that in others like manufacturing and transportation and warehousing, which lost jobs.

Also, the unemployment rate, as you mentioned, Jake, analysts were expecting it to hold steady at 4.3 percent. It ticked up to 4.4 percent, but that's also because of labor force participation, more people entering the workforce, looking for jobs.

The market really had a tough time digesting this jobs report. You saw the Dow earlier today up 700 points, and then the Dow finishing the day down almost 400 points. So, that is a large, more than 1,000-point swing.

In terms of where investors are right now, where their heads are right now, they believe maybe that this jobs report indicated a better chance of the Federal Reserve cutting rates at their next meeting in December, but not my, by much, Jake. 40 percent of investors now believe that a rate cut is coming versus 30 percent yesterday. So, most believe that the Federal Reserve is going to hold steady on rates because, Jake, this is the last piece of data that the Federal Reserve has to look at before they have to make their decision. And we've heard from Federal Reserve officials, Jake, that they really want more data before they start to make significant decisions on further rate cuts. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, Vice President Vance appeared with a new message for Americans who have economic worries, speaking at a Breitbart event earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I guess my message to the American people who are still feeling like things are unaffordable, who are still feeling like things are rough out there is, look, we get it and we hear you.

Even though we've made incredible progress, we understand that there's a lot more work to do. And the thing that I'd ask for the American people is a little bit of patience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This is at the same time as a new Fox News poll, which has just 4 percent of the American people saying that economic conditions are excellent. 42 percent say conditions are poor. 62 percent of voters say the responsibility for these conditions lie with President Trump, not with Joe Biden.

Let's get to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House. And, Kaitlan, how are officials feeling about this jobs report?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, obviously they're looking at this and publicly they've been touting what they believe are the good parts of this and what they say are good economic indicators, but, obviously, they're also looking at the numbers that you just showed there and seeing that it is not being reflected by the American people, by and large.

It's not just one outlier poll. It's multiple polls that have shown this, Jake, and the numbers that you just showed there, there's also a number -- another number in that Fox News poll, and the question was specifically if people felt that they had been helped or hurt by the Trump administration's economic policies.

[18:05:11]

And look at these numbers helped. Only 15 percent said that they believed that it was actually helping them. You see those much larger numbers, 46 percent say that they had been hurt by it, and almost 40 percent say that they really felt no difference. And, of course, for a president who campaigned almost every single day on the campaign trail, Jake, on the campaign trail to bring down prices and to work on affordability for voters when it comes to their energy bills and everything, that is obviously a pretty damning number there for them given how long they've been in office.

And so that is something the messaging in terms of what you just heard from the vice president is kind of what we've been hearing from officials more and more, that instead of denying that this is the way that American people are feeling, they're trying to say that they are working on it and are trying to get there.

TAPPER: And, Kaitlan, at the end of the briefing today, you tried to call out Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, for misquoting the video of the Democratic lawmakers that has Trump so mad, and having him saying such inappropriate things about executing these six Democratic lawmakers.

COLLINS: Yes. Because Jake, obviously some people don't like this video. There's been a ton of furious backlash, not just from here at the White House, but also on Capitol Hill as well. But instead of, you know, just saying they don't like the video or believed it was inappropriate, the president obviously went further and was arguing it was punishable by death and saying that it was seditious in describing what these lawmakers are saying in this video.

And, obviously, Jake, anyone who has seen this video, who has watched it, these are former veterans, former people in the intelligence community, including Senator Elissa Slotkin. They are directly quoted as saying that people and military service members do not have to follow illegal orders, that they have to abide by the Constitution, that they should not follow illegal orders in that.

And so, obviously, the White House can criticize it and dispute it, but they were misquoting it inside the briefing room earlier. That is not what the Democrats in that video said, which is what led to those wild statements by the president this morning saying that they are punishable by death.

TAPPER: Yes, really, entirely inappropriate. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks so much.

And tonight, Kaitlan's going to have one of those six Democrats on her show, Senator Mark Kelly. That's on The Source with Kaitlan Collins tonight at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

Turning to our Law and Justice Lead, the Justice Department is investigating possible issues with the mortgage fraud investigation into California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, which is run by two Trump administration political appointees.

Let's bring in CNN's Katelyn Polantz. Katelyn, walk us through what's happening here.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this is an investigation now around whether people associated with the Trump administration have others that are impersonating federal agents or whether there are people that are out there impersonating federal agents, or holding themselves out as federal agents when they are not.

What we've learned about this so far largely comes from a witness who had received a subpoena from prosecutors in Maryland and who had went to the courthouse today in Maryland, spoke to prosecutors and agents, saying that she had been contacted by someone over the summer who had said he was working with some of these top Trump appointees who had been leading probes of mortgage fraud that Donald Trump has really wanted.

Where this goes, we just don't know yet, Jake. This is, you know, one witness who is speaking publicly on the record, saying that she is talking about her past interactions with someone she believed was a federal agent. But this is a really interesting twist in this ongoing saga of these investigations Donald Trump wants, including the one out of Maryland, around Adam Schiff, whether it could be undermined by this situation and how far there is a connection to the people in the Trump administration, like Ed Martin, like Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance director, whether there's some sort of connection there or these people that are saying they were federal agents being connected to those people. It is a big question right now that there's something that the Justice Department is still looking into.

TAPPER: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

All eyes will be on a major meeting at the White House tomorrow. President Trump and New York City's new Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani. Will this be a protective sit down or more about theatrics? We're going to try to gauge it. But, first, the attention President Trump is not putting on actions to release the Epstein files, I'm going to talk about the release with an Epstein survivor. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:10:00]

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, President Trump signed the Epstein bill into law last night, letting everyone know through a lengthy Truth Social post. But there were no cameras, no fanfare, no one to witness a moment that Epstein survivors have fought tirelessly for decades. And one of the survivors, Danielle Bensky joins me now.

Dani, first, given this week and how momentous it was and how emotional it was, I can't even imagine the rollercoaster that it's been like. How are you doing?

DANI BENSKY, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Yes, thank you for asking. Yes. It is a rollercoaster is right. It was -- I came in on Sunday. We've done a lot of media. and that day at the Capitol was amazing. But it was also -- we were literally running from one meeting to the next after the press conference straight into the lunch with the Democratic Women's Caucus, and then basically straight into the vigil where we got that information.

And so there was, you know, the emotional highs and lows. It's something that we don't see often because a lot of these meetings are happening behind closed doors. But survivors are telling their stories over and over again to be able to really -- have everybody understand that these are human stories. We've said that so many times, that it's not political.

TAPPER: It's not about politics, right.

BENSKY: Absolutely. But the only way that I think we can really get that point across is by having these really hard conversations. So, we're being asked to share, you know, in these very small meetings and --

TAPPER: Yes, tell me about the worst thing that ever happened to you, right?

[18:15:00]

I mean, like that's what it is.

BENSKY: Exactly.

TAPPER: It's like you're -- the last thing you want to talk about, you are being called upon to talk about.

BENSKY: And hear everyone else's stories too, right?

TAPPER: Yes. BENSKY: I remember just this week when we were at the Capitol, and we had one meeting where we were there with the Roberts, with Virginia Giuffre's family, and really listening to her story. And it's just such a cry for accountability.

And so to sit there and really listen to what the family has endured after what she had endured, it's just -- yes, it's heavy.

TAPPER: Oh, it's also heartbreaking. So, last week, the House Oversight Committee released about 20,000 emails and such from the Epstein estate that they had subpoenaed. The Justice Department, now that President Trump has signed this into law, has 30 days to release its Epstein files. And if there's stuff that they redact, they have to -- other than the survivor's names, which we all want it redacted, they have to explain it. If it's a national security reason, explain. If somebody's a perpetrator or whatever, and you're not giving his name, you have to explain why, et cetera, et cetera.

How concerned are you that we're still not going to get what you guys deserve, which is the names of the perpetrators, so that they -- at the very least, they can be shamed, if not prosecuted.

BENSKY: I think we've all been sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop instead of this like huge, joyous, momentous moment last night where we were all kind of like this feels too easy because of the whiplash we've already experienced, where a week ago we were a hoax and now he's signing this.

And so I think a lot of us have a lot of fear around this topic, right? And I think that we're worried about it getting tangled up in litigation. We're worried about certain materials going missing. We're not really sure what to expect at this point. But at least if the files are released, we can sit and move through them with our lawyers. And we know what we know, right? We know our memories and we have each other now.

And I think that that is something that was really born out of this experience that really holds a lot of weight. And it's something that I know that the president came out with this rant yesterday about this being a Democratic hoax. And we've been so painfully honest about this being so personal. And to still have this be politicized, I think, first, it's a really big missed opportunity on his part where he could have displayed some empathy and he could have said like, you know, a great day for the survivors, or any sort of recognition, and instead, completely decides to keep this divisive.

But I think that we're missing out on the survivor voice being -- I mean, we -- like we have moved through this now for five administrations, right?

TAPPER: Yes.

BENSKY: Three decades. Maria Farmer, 1996, right? And we've been fighting this fight. We've been passing the torch, and we're stronger together now. And that's the coolest part about this, is that it really started with a few people. And then it became more and more until, really, it feels like this is an empowering story for American democracy, right? Because it's not just the Epstein-Maxwell case, it became all survivors. And then after it became all survivors, it became even more, right? Like we ended up doing this call to action, we had the PSA release. And all of a sudden everybody I knew, everybody our friends knew, everybody started calling their Congress people and their senators, and it felt like this is so big, you know?

And instead of celebrating that right now and really saying like we did something that felt impossible, nobody thought it would go through the House, nobody thought it would get through the Senate, certainly, nobody thought the president would sign it, that is huge.

TAPPER: Yes.

BENSKY: It's a law. And instead of that being the focus, we're still calling it a Democratic hoax. And so now it's almost like using the whole piece that we've worked so hard for over five administrations against us.

TAPPER: Well, it's not a partisan thing. It's not Democrat or Republican and it's not a hoax, and we're going to continue to cover it and we're going to continue to see every page and demand accountability, and I hope you'll be here with us to make that happen.

BENSKY: Thank you so much.

TAPPER: Dani, it's great having you here. It's really nice to meet you and you should feel proud of what you and your sisters accomplished.

BENSKY: Thank you so much for saying that.

TAPPER: You should, because it is a bunch of previously vulnerable women that society was ignoring. And you were heard and you made Congress that didn't want to touch this with a ten-foot pole change their mind, act as though they were with you the whole time.

BENSKY: Some were. Some of them were. I would like to say that we have had some amazing champions from the very beginning.

TAPPER: Sure, but not 427 of them, or whatever the vote was.

BENSKY: That's true.

TAPPER: All right. Dani Bensky, thank you so much. It's good to meet you. It's good to see you. Please come back.

BENSKY: Nice to meet you. Thank you so much.

TAPPER: And we're going to keep covering this. It's not over.

BENSKY: It's not over.

TAPPER: Coming up next, that CNN exclusive bombshell claims against Sean Diddy Combs, this time from a man claiming sexual assault. Hear the claims from that music producer himself.

[18:20:0]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Pop Culture Lead, and a warning off the top here, the details in this CNN exclusive are disturbing. Elizabeth Wagmeister spoke with the man at the center of a brand new investigation into Sean Diddy Combs. Jonathan Hay is the accuser's name. He claims that Sean Diddy Combs sexually assaulted him in 2020. He laid out his case in a civil lawsuit. And now the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating. And, again, a warning, this interview includes graphic details that may be distressing to some viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN HAY, SEAN COMBS ACCUSER: He violated me like I've never been violated.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jonathan Hay in his first T.V. interview since the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department opened a new investigation into allegations that Sean Diddy Combs forced Hay to perform oral sex on him.

HAY: Someone is listening and I feel like I'm so close to justice finally.

[18:25:03]

WAGMEISTER: Hay, a music publicist and producer, says his first incident with Combs came in 2020 when they collaborated on new music, honoring Biggie, the late rapper, Notorious BIG. This is Hay modeling, Biggie's actual clothes, a photo he says he gave to the police, taken on the day, he says he found himself alone with Combs.

HAY: He took a phone call, sat down, I could hear like sex noises. He was really like masturbating. This goes on for a few minutes. And I just like want the whole thing, you know, to be over. And next thing you know, he ejaculates into -- on a Biggie shirt, throws his shirt at me, he was like, rest in peace, BIG.

WAGMEISTER: Hay, in this police report, says that he kept the incident to himself, but it began to eat at him and eventually told Biggie's son, C.J. Wallace, who was collaborating with him on the new music.

HAY: I finally got that off my chest after almost a year.

WAGMEISTER: But Hay told police that the dynamic of the partnership changed. In March 2021, Hay went for what he thought was an interview for Combs' Revolt T.V. Instead, he says he was taken to a house where Combs entered the room.

HAY: Chaos erupted and he was screaming at me. He was in a rage, and that's when he violated me. WAGMEISTER: Hay told the police, Combs stuck his penis inside of his mouth. Hay says he pulled away, but Combs pulled his head back and allegedly did it again, approximately three to four times.

What was going through your mind in that moment?

HAY: Shock, like blur. I didn't know if I was going to die at that point. It's the first time in my life I felt suicidal.

WAGMEISTER: Combs' attorneys told CNN, Mr. Combs categorically denies as false and defamatory all claims that he sexually abused anyone.

In July, Hay filed a civil suit against Combs and Wallace, Biggie's son. Wallace has now suing for defamation, claiming Hay became irate at the decision to not release the remainder of the songs that Hay had produced and retaliated. His attorney adding, the allegations will be shown to be complete fantasy.

HAY: C.J. knows what's happened. He was there.

WAGMEISTER: Combs is now serving four years in federal prison. Hay hopes that his case will add to that.

HAY: Biggie was like supposedly his best friend. He just do that in his shirt and to attack me like he had. He doesn't need to be out on the streets.

WAGMEISTER: Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Elizabeth Wagmeister for that important report.

A U.S. military veteran who took on the state of Texas and won now finds himself back in court over $2.5 million. It's a story that we have followed for years here on The Lead. The latest chapter is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, a case that we have followed four years here on The Lead landed back in court today. In 2023, a Texas jury awarded veteran and former Texas State Trooper Le Roy Torres nearly $2.5 million because of his claims that he'd essentially been forced out of his job due to health problems he developed after being exposed to burn pits while serving in Iraq. Burn pits, as you may know, were used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan to destroy hazardous chemicals. They caused innumerable health problems for so many service members.

Now, Torres claimed that rather than accommodating him because of his service, the Texas Department of Public Safety just suddenly fired him. He sued the State of Texas and he won. But this month, the State of Texas appealed that decision. So, this years-long legal fight continues.

Joining us now is Le Roy Torres and his attorney, Brian Lawler. And, Le Roy, you first brought this case forward in 2017. What's your reaction to this legal battle continuing here in 2025?

LE ROY TORRES, CO-FOUNDER, BURN PITS 360: You know, Jake, thanks again for having me this afternoon. You know, it's -- I thought this was, would be over in 2023 and here we are, fast forward two years later almost going into year nine with this legal battle. So, it's been a difficult journey not only having to deal with my physical ailments, but having to deal with this moral injury from the state not accommodating me with a position that I had requested, you know?

And one thing that has been difficult is that I see that top Texas office off, and they declared itself the strongest state for veterans, but yet today, the state continues this legal fight against a disabled veteran. And today, it's just not about me, but it's about the thousands of citizen soldiers who answer the call to serving uniform part-time, who are making a difference in the community every day, and that this should be a service that is honored and not undermined.

TAPPER: Yes. Dressing yourself in the American flag and saying that you salute veterans doesn't mean anything if this is how you treat veterans.

Let me note that we did reach out to the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment. They declined.

Brian, what exactly is the state doing now? What are they challenging specifically?

BRIAN LAWLER, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING LE ROY TORRES: Jake, the state is saying that the trial victory, that the unanimous jury verdict that we got back in September of 2023 is wrong on a multitude of levels, first, that we advanced our theory on Le Roy's behalf under the wrong part of the statute under the Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. They claim that when we gave up one of our claims, but we advanced another one, we gave up the wrong one. So, that's the majority of their argument and that we didn't afford them what's called affirmative defense, where the jury could have said, oh, they had a legitimate reason for doing that.

[18:35:03]

What we did, we offered them that affirmative defense under the correct theory of liability, and that is the state failed to accommodate Le Roy's injuries and then re-employ him into a proper position, claiming that we basically just have a discrimination claim. And since we abandoned that and we don't have the failure to accommodate claim, we have no case.

They're also challenging that we didn't properly put evidence of our attorney's fees, which were awarded, and that even if Le Roy were awarded damages, he should have been awarded damages at a much lower paying position that he was performing as a temporary accommodation, but he's actually entitled to a much higher position, and that's what the jury agreed with.

TAPPER: Yes. You know, it just sounds like a lot of technical mumbo -- legal mumbo jumbo just to deny justice. But, Le Roy, if there is a less than favorable outcome in this case, ultimately, how significant do you think the implications will be for veterans and veteran employment protections?

TORRES: Well, Jake, I believe that this is an opportunity for Texas to honor and uphold these era and to set a national standard for how employers treat their veterans across the board, you know, who come home with a service-related illness or an injury, and make sure that -- ensure that they're accommodated. So, instead of dragging this case out like the, my state has been doing, is it sends a dangerous message that employers can't ignore or can delay and deny the very protections that veterans earned throughout their service. So, that puts every veteran not only in Texas at risk, not just me, but countless others.

TAPPER: Le Roy Torres, Brian Lawler, thanks to you. Stay in touch. We want to keep on top of this case and follow it wherever it goes. Hopefully, it will land with justice, as we thought it had in 2023.

Just in the time lapse video of some wild weather. This is a massive dust storm. It's actually known as a haboob, and it swept over parts of West Texas today.

Meanwhile, the political storm that we could see at the White House tomorrow, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is heading to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to meet with President Trump. Trump confirmed the meeting on Truth Social, where he falsely called Mamdani a communist. Mamdani is in fact a Democratic socialist. They are different ideologies. Mamdani has made clear that affordability is top of his agenda tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): My team reached out to the White House to set up this meeting because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million people who call the city home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is back with me, and we're joined by Alex Bores, a Democratic New York state assemblyman, who is now running for Congress in -- what is the district? New York what?

ALEX BORES (D), NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY: 12th District.

TAPPER: New York 12th. So, it's Jerry Nadler's district. BORES: Yes.

TAPPER: Big -- that's a dog fight, that race.

BORES: It is. We got nine in the race and a good conversation happening.

TAPPER: All right. How do you see this meeting going?

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Entertaining.

TAPPER: Mamdani and Trump?

KINZINGER: It'll be entertaining. By the way, I have to say real quick, because you know, yes, Mamdani is a Democratic socialist. Donald Trump takes a 10 percent stake in about every company now that exports anything. That's, by definition, of socialist policy. I'm just going to say that.

But this will be an interesting meeting. Donald Trump loves when you're in he has to win you over. So, I would not be surprised to see just this like joyful meeting, right, between the two and then will probably stab him in the back later. It could devolve, but, you know, I think it's really smart of the mayor like to reach out at least and open a dialogue and see how it goes. And then we can all watch and talk about it tomorrow because it's going to be crazy.

TAPPER: So, Alex, the two obviously have been fiercely attacking each other for months. They're foils for each other. Here's what they both said after the mayoral election was over her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Look at the result of yesterday's election in New York where their party installed a communist as the mayor.

We're going to see how that works out.

MAMDANI: So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Can I just say something as an old man, what does that mean, turn the volume off. You're a young person. Do you have any idea what that means? You're youngish.

BORES: I probably shouldn't be sharing that. We should probably keep that to ourselves.

TAPPER: Yes, that's just a millennial secret code.

Obviously both of them are talking about affordability in very different ways. Do you think there is actually anything that they could come to terms on? BORES: Absolutely. You know, in normal times, this wouldn't be news, the new mayor-elect of New York City meeting with the president. But let's remember, Zohran launched his campaign with a video interviewing people who had voted for Trump in New York City. And what they kept saying in the video was affordability, affordability, affordability. That's how Zohran chose his theme and launched it.

So, there's a lot for them to come together on that isn't just campaign talk. It's been core of how he's been running.

TAPPER: They are -- I mean, I don't want to say that they're similar. They're not, but they are both very media savvy and they're in very different ways, and both are very good at communicating with their voters.

KINZINGER: And they also bring their own voters, right? Donald Trump basically brought his own voters into the GOP and took it over. Mamdani basically brought his voters in. I mean, I remember hearing his name the first time being like, well, he's not going to get any traction, and he did.

And so that's the thing that they share in common, is they have their own ideas. They're not really trying to fit into this, like here's what you have to be to be a Republican, or here's what you have to be to be a Democrat. And I honestly think that model is kind of the new currency for getting elected in the future because people can sniff whether or not you're fake or real. They seem real. Donald Trump seems real and so does Mamdani. And I think that's the key.

TAPPER: So, I know you want to be in the House for some reason. I know Adam was trying to talk you out of it. The House continues right now to trade censures. Recently, it was a censure against Congressman Garcia of Chicago for retiring in a way that guaranteed his chief of staff would be the only one on the ballot, kind of sleazy. Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, she's pushing to censure a fellow Republican, Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, accused of all sorts of stuff.

[18:45:07]

The House voted to send the issue to the chamber's ethics committee.

Are you ready for this censure palooza that you're -- that you want to join?

ALEX BORES (D), NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY: Well, I think the easy thing is don't commit ethics violations, you know? I think we should be consistent on being against corruption. We should be consistent on being pro-democracy. You shouldn't be handing your seat to your hand- picked successor, and you probably shouldn't be committing campaign finance violations.

TAPPER: There's also -- there's also this big push, to still -- to stop members of Congress from trading stocks while they're in Congress because of all the insider information they get where they're able to. Because now, explain this to me, because you've actually been is it just real? It's like a legitimate thing. You learn things before the rest of the world does.

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It depends where you're -- I mean, like, I think if you're a speaker. Yes. Probably because you know what agenda items are coming up, for instance. I don't think you have as much of an insight as like, probably people out there think like were kind of pulling the strings.

But yeah, I mean, you get -- so I know, for instance, if we're going to like, pull up a bill to repeal Obamacare like we did 800 times then you might want to bet against, you know, whatever's affected by that. I think you see some of that.

But I don't think -- you know what scares me, Jake, is the betting markets, because you can go and bet if I was in Congress, I could bet on myself voting yes or no on any bill. And they don't know who I am, so I could vote no if the odds are bad and then put $1,000 on and make $20,000, because I know I'm going to vote, that is what's going to be abused. I guarantee you. And I -- and that's the story for the future, by the way.

TAPPER: And what do you think about that?

BORES: We're seeing it in the sports markets, where it's influencing individual pitches. You saw pitchers now being reprimanded for it. It's way worse when it's votes or it's launching of campaigns. I mean, there was a betting market on my district before I launched and before everyone launched. If you know who's about to announce --

KINZINGER: Yeah.

BORES: -- there's quick money you can make there. This is something congress needs to get ahead of.

TAPPER: Do you support the banning stop members of Congress from trading stocks?

BORES: A hundred percent, 100 percent. You don't need to have that much of a head start to make a bunch of profit on a trade. So even if you're just briefed on the votes of the day before it's announced publicly, that could change the stock market.

KINZINGER: And now that I'm out, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: Thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it.

We're not alone. If you believe in UFOs or if you wonder whether there is life beyond Earth, a new documentary very assertively declares that the U.S. government has proof of both. We're going to talk to the director of this documentary, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:48] TAPPER: In our "out of this world" lead, unidentified anomalous phenomenon, what we used to call UFOs are real. They are spying on and interfering with nuclear and military activity. They have crashed on earth, and their non-human bodies have been recovered. And the U.S. government has been covering it all up for decades.

Those are the arguments featured in "The Age of Disclosure", which is a serious contender in the Oscar race for best documentary. It debuts this Friday in some theaters and on Amazon Prime, and it features a bipartisan group of 34 senior members of the U.S. government, military and intelligence communities, all of whom go on the record claiming to have direct knowledge of UAPs, unidentified anomalous phenomena.

In a clip that is exclusive to THE LEAD we're going to show you right now, then Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair, now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, explains how deep these layers of secrecy can go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think there's this assumption that presidents can walk in the oval office on day one and say, all right, take me to Roswell, show me the alien bodies. I want to see the video of the autopsy. I want to see the whole thing. Open it up.

I think that really is a naive understanding of how our government works. Even presidents have often been operating on a need-to-know basis. That's certainly true from a historic standpoint.

The rationale, the justification was the president shouldn't know about these things, because that way the president always has deniability. All they need is a nod in this direction or in that direction.

But that begins to ramp out of control. Frankly, I don't even know if president would know who to ask. You could go to the director of the CIA nowadays, the director of national intelligence, and asked him, and even that person may not know, because those people rotate, but the people three layers underneath them that are there for 30 years. To them, it's like I've seen these people come and go. I have no obligation to tell them it exists. It just never percolates up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now to discuss is Dan Farah. He's the director of "The Age of Disclosure".

So, first of all, let me say I saw it last night and it is riveting and fascinating. Congratulations. This is a subject that we've covered on the show, but you really -- this is above and beyond.

DAN FARAH, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER, "THE AGE OF DISCLOSURE": Thank you.

TAPPER: The secretary of state, then a senator goes on the record there to provide a window into how deeply hidden this knowledge really may be. FARAH: Yeah, that Rubio clip sums up how significant the cover up

is. Every one of the 34 intelligence, military and government officials I interview -- I interviewed told me that not only is the public kept in the dark, but Congress is kept in the dark and all sitting presidents have been kept in the dark.

TAPPER: So in the documentary, a number of officials go on the record to reveal a UAP crash retrieval program where technologies and even, quote, non-human biologics have been recovered. Officials say there is a secret war between the U.S., China and Russia to try and reverse engineer some of these alien technologies from these crashed UAPs.

How big are the national security implications here?

FARAH: They couldn't be bigger. So this race, this secret cold war race that our nation is in with adversarial nations to reverse- engineer technology of non-human origin, the stakes are far -- far greater than the atomic race.

[18:55:09]

One of the interview subjects refers to it as the Manhattan Project on steroids. This technology could be used to cause significant destruction, but it could also be used to revolutionize the way we live. So there's a lot of pros and cons to this race.

TAPPER: One pretty shocking revelation is how these beings, whatever they are, have allegedly interacted and spied on nuclear and military sites. Here's a quick clip from the documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We've had repeated instances of something operating in the airspace over restricted nuclear facilities, and it's not ours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have both deactivated and activated nuclear weapons with both the United States and Russia.

REP. ANDRE CARSON (D-IN): These are otherworldly things that are performing maneuvers that have -- haven't been seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The UAP activity surrounding nuclear weapons is not a historic issue. It's an ongoing issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And we -- there are individual testaments from people talking about UAPs that they saw hovering over nuclear missile silos. It's terrifying.

FARAH: There's been reoccurring activity over our nuclear weapon sites in this country and other countries, and over our most classified military bases, all over the world. And obviously that's concerning because even if you are someone who cant wrap your head around the fact that this is non-human, intelligent life and we don't know what their intentions are, the alternative is it's an adversarial nation penetrating our most secure airspace. Those are your choices.

TAPPER: Right. But I mean, as Rubio has said in your documentary and has said publicly as well, the Russians and the Chinese are not centuries ahead of us when it comes to this technology.

FARAH: No. Secretary Rubio makes it clear in the film, as do others, that we do not know where these UAP come from.

TAPPER: Yeah.

FARAH: But there is absolutely no reason to believe they are from the United States or another nation state.

TAPPER: So it's called "The Age of Disclosure", because you're basically saying we are at the very beginning now of this new age where this is accepted, no longer mocked, no longer stigmatized. So where are we going to be, do you think in five years, 10 years, 20 years on this issue?

FARAH: I think that the officials speaking up in this film are kicking off an era where the U.S. governments going to step up and officially make it known that we're not alone in the universe, and that the U.S. intends to lead the way on this. I think you're going to see a lot of legislation start to get full support in the house and senate to drive us towards legal disclosure of what can be shared comfortably with the public.

I think -- I think we're entering an era of unprecedented transparency and disclosure, and I think it has to happen now, as the film reveals, because the stakes couldn't be higher. We are in a very significant high stakes cold war race with China and Russia, most notably China. And we know their intentions are not great.

TAPPER: Yeah.

FARAH: And it's important that we actually win this race and lead in this new era.

TAPPER: And you note that Senator Harry Reid, the late Senator Harry Reid, was very visionary, a real trailblazer, a trailblazer on this issue in Washington, D.C. and right now, Schumer, the Democrat and rounds, the Republican, are pushing for more disclosure. And they've been headed off at every turn.

"The Age of Disclosure" out this Friday. Select theaters worldwide on Amazon Prime Video.

Dan Farah, congratulations, and thanks for being here.

FARAH: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: So as of right now, there are only 24 hours and a minute and a half left before we start closing the eBay celebrity auction that I'm co-hosting with George Clooney and Wynona Judd. All of the proceeds of this auction, this is our ninth annual auction. It's the ninth one. Help to build, specially adapted, mortgage free homes for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have seen how these homes change lives, and it's amazing. So, you can go right now. Ebay.com/HFOT, homes for our troops. You can bid on Zoom calls with celebrities, lunch dates, premieres to special shows, movies, autographed, collectibles.

In the events space alone, you can see the premiere of a future Jake Gyllenhaal production, and you get to meet and greet that handsome devil. You can play 18 holes of golf at the Bel-Air country club with none other than Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.

You could win VIP tickets to see the Dave Matthews Band next summer, and get a signed poster from them, too. How about some VIP club tickets to see the San Francisco 49ers versus the Tennessee Titans next month? Or if hockey is your thing, a VIP ticket trip to see the Boston Bruins take on the Detroit Red Wings. It comes with an autographed puck. Also from 400 goal scorer David Pasternack.

It's also NFL tickets to see the Eagles against the Commanders in January. Whoopi Goldberg's autographed Deandri pink heels.

Bottom line, there's a lot, more than 100 items to bid on. The auction closes tomorrow night at 7:00. Find out more, ebay.com/HFOT, homes for our troops.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.