Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Epstein Files Revelations Surge Despite Trump's Omission Of Epstein From State of the Union; CNN On The Ground In Mexican City Wrecked By Cartel; Authorities Back At Nancy Guthrie Home Today; Trump Touts Economic Success In Marathon State Of The Union; Embattled GOP Rep. Gonzales: "I'm Not Going To Resign"; Texas Dems And GOP Picking Senate Candidates March 3. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:25]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much, my panel. Really appreciate y' all being here. Jake Tapper is standing by for The Lead. Jake, I feel like I just saw you a few hours ago.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Yes. Just to make sure everyone understood it's because were anchoring the State of the Union address.

HUNT: Yes, obviously.

TAPPER: OK. Thanks, Kasie. We'll look for more tomorrow in The Arena.

HUNT: See you tomorrow.

TAPPER: The disturbing find in the Epstein files discovered by artificial intelligence. The Lead starts right now.

More botched redactions. A high profile name stepping back from his job. Depositions with the Clintons set to begin tomorrow. The continuing steady stream of fallout from the release of the Epstein files coming up.

And CNN on the ground in Mexico, see the aftermath of the beginning shot of the war with cartels and the Mexican. And then a message from the Mexican president after President Trump tried to share credit for taking out a drug lord.

Plus, the heated House race involving a Texas Republican refusing his colleague's entreaty that he resign. This hour, the reporter who broke the story about Congressman Tony Gonzalez and his alleged affair with a staffer who then died by suicide.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to begin in our Law and Justice Lead. One huge political topic that has hounded the Trump administration got exactly zero mentions from the president in last night's State of the Union address. More than 10,500 words in the longest State of the Union address ever. And not one of those words was Epstein.

So tonight we are going to deliver the state of the Epstein files. My fellow Americans, the state of the Epstein files is unrelenting. There are major new developments that concern the Trump administration and prominent figures. First, Larry Summers, economist and former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, announced earlier today that he is going to retire from his Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year.

Recently released documents have shown that Summers had years of personal correspondence with Epstein long after Epstein was arrested and imprisoned, including for soliciting prostitution, including from a minor.

The Summers-Epstein email showed that the former Harvard president made sexist comments and even sought Epstein's advice on pursuing an extramarital relationship with a subordinate.

Summers in November said he was deeply ashamed about his relationship with Epstein Then there is billionaire Bill Gates. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that in a Gates Foundation town hall yesterday, the Microsoft co-founder apologized to staff at the event over his ties to Epstein and acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered.

But Gates said they did not involve Epstein's victims. In a statement, the group said Gates, quote, took responsibility for his actions.

Now, in addition to Gates and Summers, the Democratic Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Albert Bryan Jr. is now also under intense scrutiny. Text messages reviewed by CNN show that in 2019, just months before Epstein's arrest, Epstein asked Bryan for help when officials were investigating unauthorized construction on Epstein's private island.

Bryan told Epstein he asked island officials to pause enforcement, saying that he later asked the top environmental commissioner to recuse himself from the case. Bryan told Epstein in one text quote, we got you. It is unclear if any action was taken as a result, and the governor has not responded to CNN's multiple requests for comment.

Again, this was long after Epstein was already known to be a convicted sex offender and a pedophile based on his 2008 arrest.

If that is not bad enough in moments, I'm going to share CNN's brand new reporting about how nearly a month after that massive release of files, our teams are still finding quite sensitive information, including photographs of children, one showing a young girl kissing Jeffrey Epstein on the cheek, as well as passport and other identifying information that had not been properly redacted as of just this week. More of that in a moment.

But as the U.S. Virgin Islands governor and Larry Summers grapple with the Epstein fallout, so too does President Trump, despite his best efforts to ignore it and say that he has been perfectly and completely exonerated. Democrats, members of Congress brought Epstein's survivors and family

members as guests to last night's address. They witnessed the longest State of the Union in known history. And they also witnessed the president not mentioning the word Epstein or mentioning the survivors of Epstein at all.

And interestingly, or we are -- interestingly, we are also learning that the word Trump did not make the cut in multiple Epstein files documents released by Trump's Justice Department.

[17:05:07]

A CNN review shows that dozens of FBI witness interviews from the Epstein investigation appear to be missing from the released files. How do we know this? An evidence log provided to attorneys for Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell includes serial numbers for about 325 FBI witness interview records.

But more than 90 of those records do not appear to be present on the Justice Department website. Among those missing records are three interviews related to a woman who told agents that Epstein had repeatedly abused her, starting when she was approximately 13 years old, and who also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.

Now, of course, as we've said many times, inclusion of one's name in the Epstein files is not evidence of wrongdoing. Accusations against you in the Epstein files does not mean that those accusations are true. And Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

In a statement, the White House called the allegations against Trump false and sensationalist and pointed to a previous Justice Department statement that some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.

Now, in terms of the missing files, a Justice Department spokesperson said, quote, we have not deleted anything, and as we have always said, all documents responsive were produced, unquote. The spokesperson said the documents not included in the release were either duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.

It does seem as though the more the Trump administration tries to ignore this elephant in the room, the more they put themselves into the path of the stampede.

So let us start with the brand new CNN reporting. The Justice Department's Epstein file is out for more than a month now, yet DOJ has failed to take down more than a dozen images that quite obviously should have been redacted. CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohen led this new reporter, Marshall, tell us what you found.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Jake, we've known for a while about redaction problems, but this is much more widespread than we thought. We worked with an AI company called Visual Layer to examine more than 100,000 images that the DOJ posted to its Epstein Files website. And we found more than a dozen photos, like you said, that should have been redacted but weren't and remained on the public DOJ site for nearly a month.

We'll show you some of these pictures now, but keep in mind, CNN blurred the versions that you're about to see, but the unredacted versions were fully available on the DOJ site for weeks. There were pictures like you mentioned of a young girl kissing Jeffrey Epstein on the cheek. There were also non sexual but unredacted images of other children and toddlers who are obviously minors.

And there were several pictures of passports and driver's licenses instances revealing private data like ID numbers, addresses and dates of birth. CNN asked the DOJ about these images on Monday and by Tuesday they were all taken down and replaced with properly redacted versions.

Jake, let me read for you a statement that we got from a DOJ spokesperson about this. They said, quote, our team is working around the clock to address any victim concerns, additional redactions of personally identifiable information, as well as any files that require further redactions. Jake.

TAPPER: Marshall, bringing this back to the survivors, to the victims, you're also learning more about explicit images that the Justice Department also posted online.

COHEN: Yes, it's quite disturbing, Jake. We did find more than 100 sexually explicit photos that the DOJ did post online last month. They took these down pretty quickly and some of them were replaced with redacted versions, which is what you're seeing right now on your screen, the redacted versions.

But there were dozens of unredacted photos showing what appeared to be two naked teenagers on a beach. There were also multiple uncensored nude selfies, as you see here, and at least one image that showed Epstein with an undressed female.

We spoke to legal experts and advocates for survivors of sexual abuse. Everyone is stunned that photos like these made it through the DOJ review, especially because top officials at the DOJ were adamant that they redacted every single woman in the Epstein files.

Jake, advocates told us that this situation could re traumatize the victims. And even though the DOJ did take the pictures down pretty quickly, the explicit images, we all know that once something's on the Internet, it's basically impossible to get it off. Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Marshall Cohen, excellent reporting. Thank you. So joining us now is Sky and Amanda Roberts. They are the brother and sister in law of the late Virginia Giuffre, whose accusations against Epstein helped shine a light on his abuses and lead us -- led us today in many ways.

Let me start. Sky, you were a guest at the State of the Union. How are you doing? What was that experience like?

SKY ROBERTS, BROTHER OF VIRGINIA GIUFFRE: It's a very surreal experience. [17:10:00]

I want to thank Representative Raskin and Subramanyam for having us as guests of honor. It was a privilege to be with them, but it was also -- it's really disturbing. I mean, being a part of the State of the Union, you know, you're hoping that there would be some sense of acknowledgement there. We've received none of that, and I think it didn't settle with me very well.

I think the photos can show a lot of that from the victims and the survivors. It was, you know, I think I -- it was this visceral feeling inside of me that it was difficult to listen through, to be quite honest.

TAPPER: To me, it's unusual, because I have to say, Amanda, President Trump could have stood there and say and said, the Republican Congress and me release these files, and we want justice for the survivors. And I know that some survivors are here and their family members, and we want justice for you. He could have said that. And he did sign the bill.

AMANDA ROBERTS, SISTER-IN-LAW OF VIRGINIA GIUFFRE: Yes, I think that's the point. Right? He did sign the bill. It came to his desk and he signed the bill. And I think this is the parallel that we keep coming back to with Trump and this administration, Pam Bondi, is this idea that they want to help survivors. Oh, they're all about survivors, but their actions continuously show that they are, in fact, not.

And it was a very simple thing. And, like, there were so many people that were honored there. And like, they -- we felt that in that moment for them, and we clapped for them because indeed, they should have been honored.

TAPPER: True.

A. ROBERTS: But there was -- there was something missing because these survivors and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, they are American heroes, too.

TAPPER: Yes, absolutely. It seems to me, tell me if you think I'm wrong here. I understand that releasing millions of documents is a challenging task. It just seems that the redaction errors only go in one direction. Maybe that's not true, but from the reports we have, it seems like there are over redactions of the perpetrators and under redactions of the victims and survivors. Is that your impression, too?

S. ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, you said it best. It is true. I mean, that's exactly what they're doing. And it's part of the tactic. It is. This is out of the playbook of Jeffrey Epstein. This is out of the playbook of the perpetrators out there. And now we're seeing it from our Department of Justice. Part of it is an intimidation factor. It's to intimidate the survivors. It's to intimidate us to stop, you know, hey, look, we have all the files. We're just going to expose you for this and show the world who you are. And, you know, that doesn't go without saying, like, there's threats.

This is a safety issue. Like, this really impacts their lives for the. You know, and a lot of these women didn't want to come forward.

TAPPER: Right.

S. ROBERTS: Girls didn't want to be unredacted in this. Some are okay with it. My sister, I can tell you, I mean, she's not redacted, but she would be okay with it in the sense of, like, I'm already telling the truth. But that doesn't mean that all these other girls and women at the time want their stories exposed.

TAPPER: Yes.

S. ROBERTS: So safety risks for them. And it is incredibly like this. It's disheartening to see it from our own government, because that's the people that are supposed to protect us.

TAPPER: There are two facts that are pretty clear to me from covering this now for years and years. One of them is, and I probably should start saying this every time I cover the story, just because there's an accusation against somebody in these files doesn't mean the accusations true.

A. ROBERTS: Right.

TAPPER: It's just an. It's an FBI interview. Doesn't mean it's not, but it doesn't mean it is true. So nobody should say -- nobody should hold up an FBI 302 interview and say, this proves XYZ. The other one is, and this gets into the complexity of sex trafficking, which is some victims also turned out to be groomers and recruiters. That's just how sex trafficking works. It's uncomfortable, it's awful.

But just because somebody is that doesn't mean they're not also a victim. And I have seen Trump allies attacking survivors who fill that role of having been both part of the trafficking, but also a victim of it.

A. ROBERTS: Yes. I think that's so very important. I think there's a lack of education around sex trafficking and how it works, what the grooming process looks like, the intimidation factors to keep these young girls. Virginia was very open in her memoir, "Nobody's Girl," about the toll that took from her personally and the grooming that they did to make her, like, do those things.

And this is why there needs to be an education on what grooming and sex trafficking looks like with the public, but our judicial system.

TAPPER: Yes.

A. ROBERTS: Because the other thing is to say, I know earlier they were saying, you know, he was completely exonerated and all these things. And of course, not everyone is implicated, but there was no investigation.

TAPPER: You can't be exonerated if there's not an investigation.

A. ROBERTS: Right.

TAPPER: I'm not saying President Trump did anything --

A. ROBERTS: Right.

TAPPER: But, like, I don't know, it just seems like there's a lot of interviews in there that were never followed up.

A. ROBERTS: Right.

TAPPER: Right.

A. ROBERTS: How do we know if we've never followed the trail?

TAPPER: Well, we're going to keep trying to bring light and explain these things because I think people think sex trafficking. Oh, it's a bunch of girls in dungeons and. No, that's -- it's not what it is. It's much more complicated and it has to do with predatory behavior.

[17:15:03]

Thank you for being here again. We love having you. Thank you for giving Virginia a continued voice in American politics. She's a hero, and you two are heroes for carrying her torch. Thank you so much for being here.

Later on The Lead, we're going to talk to a former lawyer for ICE who will be here and will tell us about how ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution. He filed a whistleblower complaint.

But first, the issue on which President Trump may have the biggest disconnect with American voters. The economy. Is it too late for him to turn that around before the

November midterms? I have two voices eager to join that discussion. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our World Lead giving intense cartel violence, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is offering reassurance of, quote, no risk for visitors to this year's World Cup, which will be hosted in part by Mexico.

Now, some of the violence has included arson and deadly firefights with Mexican security forces. CNN's David Culver is in Puerto Vallarta, where much of the violence was focused and concentrated. David, what's the situation there now?

[17:20:00]

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Jake, this is a massive tourist destination for a lot of folks in the U.S. and really around the world. And we're standing in a Costco parking lot and you can see it's reopened and families are returning and it's been packed really all day. But let me show you some of these images that took place just from the sky above. You can actually see what was happening here on Sunday when that outbreak was taking place. And there were dozens of cars that were parked here and were torched.

Not only cars, but let me take you over here. There's still remnants of the disaster and the cartel violence. This loading dock here, you've got two large trucks that were torched. You can still see some of the supplies and products that were to be unloaded on Sunday. Instead, they sit in just charred remains.

And there's another two at the entrance. And then if you go to the other side of the parking lot, there's another dozen or so remnants of vehicles. And yet around that, and this is perhaps very symbolic of doors way this town is operating. You have the cartel violence, and yet you have the community just pushing forward.

Several people have told me, including foreigners, mind you, who are here from the U.S. either visiting or who have relocated here, life goes on. They're very matter of fact about it. And you even think about the flames that were going just 50 feet from the Costco gas pumps behind me. All of that gives you a sense, though, of the chaos that unfolded and the remnants of that are still sitting here.

Folks, though, are just trying to almost sanitize it in many ways and say, all right, this is what happened. They see it in this moment as an isolated incident and we'll move on.

TAPPER: President Sheinbaum also took aim at Trump, saying that the operation to take down the cartel leader, El Mencha, was carried out by Mexico. Trump tried to claim some credit for American involvement during the State of the Union address. Tell us more about that.

CULVER: I just stepped off an embed with Mexican Marines, and I will tell you that armed forces here are very proud of their involvement in what they say, taking the lead certainly of this operation and taking down El Mencho.

Moreover, they do say they did rely on U.S. intelligence. And I was speaking with the governor of this state, Jalisco, yesterday, and I asked him about President Trump's claim that he wants to see essentially the total elimination of the cartels.

Now, the governor said that's certainly feasible. It's something that he believes they can work in collaboration with the U.S. to achieve. But Jake, here's the issue when you realize how interwoven the cartels are within the community. I mean, you have some folks within the community who tell us they rely more on the cartels and trust the cartels at times more than the government.

It makes it a very nuanced and complicated situation. So you cannot simply separate the two as good versus evil. Certainly the cartels are criminals and are seen as such, but at the same time there's a distrust with the government that they need to push past so as to establish some sort of stability and security going forward.

TAPPER: CNN's David Culver in Mexico, thanks so much. Coming up, the new police activity at the home of Nancy Guthrie outside Tucson, Arizona. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:27:22]

TAPPER: Our National Lead now, investigators are back at the home of Nancy Guthrie outside Tucson. The 84-year-old mother of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie. Journalists who have also been at the home of have noted that the police activity is not particularly unusual.

But given this search is nearing the one month mark, the presence of the law enforcement officials raises questions about what could be of possible interest in the home. Right now, CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us in Pima County.

Ed, you spent the day trying to figure out exactly who is among the law enforcement officials at the home. Tell us what you learned.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, were asking Pima County sheriff's investigators about that very question. As we saw a number of investigators, they had driven up in unmarke SUV's here at the home, spent more than an hour around the property. Pima County officials say that directed our questions to the FBI. We have not heard from them as to exactly what they were doing on the property today.

But significant for a couple of reasons. This is now the 25th day of this investigation, 25 days since 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie has been missing. But this particular search or return to the property also comes the day after Savannah Guthrie and her family announced the $1 million reward, up to million for information leading to locating Nancy Guthrie.

And yesterday FBI officials had told us that reward announcement had sparked a surge of about 750 new tips into the FBI tip line. They won't specify how many more numbers they're getting on that front. They'll just simply say that they've received about 23,000 tips and all since this investigation started.

But it's significant that this search here today or this return to the property comes the day after the Guthrie's announced that reward. But we don't know exactly what they were doing. We saw them going around the side of the property around the back as well, going in and out of the house several times. But beyond that, not a real lot of clarity as to what they were looking for or what brought them back here. Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. Somebody out there knows what happens to Nancy Guthrie and not just the perpetrator. It could be a tip that finally breaks this case. And if you think you know something, please call the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also reach the Bureau online at tips.FBI.gov. Tips.FBI.gov.

Coming up next, we're going to break down the most important issue to voters. The U.S. Economy in the eyes of President Trump versus the eyes of the public for which he serves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:34:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years. Mortgage rates are the lowest in four years and falling fast.

We gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. The Dow Jones broke 50,000 four years ahead of schedule. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In our Money Lead today, President Trump's boast about his economy in last night's State of the Union address, we're not all totally off the mark. Inflation is down. The stock market is near a record high. But the President did little to speak to the reality of many American households as those claims about price drops and some of his own policies ringing downright false at times.

[17:35:02]

Joining us now, former Trump economic advisors Stephen Moore and Rohit Chopra, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Steve, Trump overall made a good impression on speech viewers pulled by CNN last night. Only 29 percent said they had some confidence in him to lower the cost of living, 40 percent said they have none at all. Do you fear at all that the president's falling into the same trap that President Biden did, bragging about a strong economy based on the numbers, even though a lot of Americans are not feeling what he's talking about?

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, Jake, objectively, most of the things that Trump said were absolutely true. It is true that real incomes for median income families are up by about $2,500 over the last 14 months, which is a nice increase. And that's after inflation. And then you take into account the tax cut that adds about another $1,000. So people do have more affordability.

They're really -- but they're focused on things that are going up in price, obviously, like health care and housing and certain groceries and other things are falling in price. And then look, the inflation rate, as Trump said over the last three months, has fallen to below 2 percent, which is where the Fed target is. So that's a good news story.

The problem, Jake, frankly, is that people are feeling the love. In other words, all the statistics that he recited were true. We have low gas prices today. We have incomes rising faster than inflation. We've got a record high stock market on all these things. And yet people still are feeling frustrated about the prices of the things they buy every day. TAPPER: Rohit, we saw a bit of Trump's message to counter the Democrats affordability push, saying that Democratic policies are the ones that created the inflation and the high prices and Republican policies are ending these high prices. What do you see as the reality for consumers?

ROHIT CHOPRA, FORMER DIRECTOR, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Well, the prices are still going up. And I think many people who watch the speech think the President is living in a gold plated bubble. The centerpiece of his economic plan, the tariffs have really not served the purpose. He said it is costing families about $1,700 last year. Manufacturing jobs are still going down. The trade deficit is still huge.

And at the end of the day, people are wondering if these tariffs were illegal. My pocket was picked and I want to know when am I going to get my refund. And he did not say really anything about that. We need to figure out a new path. And I think you're right. He is trying to gaslight people into thinking things are OK. But for the vast majority of people, they're feeling more stress and many are getting deeper and deeper into debt.

TAPPER: Steve, President Trump brought up the signature tariff policy, which was obviously struck down by the Supreme Court in the capacity he'd been implementing it. He said last night he hopes tariffs will one day replace income tax. How would that work?

MOORE: Well, it's an amazing idea, something I've been thinking about --

TAPPER: Steve, if you could answer, sir.

MOORE: Is that for me?

TAPPER: Yes, for Steve.

MOORE: Oh, I was going to say, I really like that idea. And I think, can you imagine how fast the U.S. economy would grow? We'd be like a rocket ship if we didn't have an income tax. And so Trump is interested in this idea of sort of a consumption tax slash tariff tax as a way to replace our personal income tax, capital gains tax, dividend tax, estate tax, corporate tax.

I mean, that would be, in my opinion, one of the strongest things we could possibly do. There's no country that could possibly compete with the United States if we didn't have an income tax.

TAPPER: Rohit, probably as expected, the President did not address the billions of dollars collected from his first year of tariffs. And what's going to happen to that money, whether it's going to be refunded to American businesses or what, what do you think is going to happen and how would it work?

CHOPRA: Well, I think under the law, because the tariffs were declared illegal, that means the assessment on companies was illegal. And they are currently scheming about how to get all of that back. And I'm worried they're going to pocket those refunds as profits rather than actually giving it back to the consumers who paid for it. We heard in the speech that the President said foreign countries were paying for it. They didn't pay for it. You and I paid for it in the grocery store and online and at every checkout counter.

We should publish the list of all of those companies that will be getting refunds or are requesting refunds. And they should be committing now to refund it to the consumers and small businesses that they ended up paying much more for.

TAPPER: Steve, what do you think's going to happen with the tariff money?

[17:39:59]

MOORE: Well, it's a really prickly issue, because, as you're just saying, you know, there's been a difference in economics between what we call the incidence of attacks and the collection of attacks. So, there's no question that the importers and the retailers collect -- paid the tax to the federal government. They wrote the checks, Jake.

But as you guys were just saying, guess what? Consumers did pick up, a lot of that tax was passed on to consumers. Some of it was paid by foreign companies that had to lower their prices to be able to be competitive. And so, you're trying to sort out who paid what, what was the interest.

But clearly, consumers did pay some of that tax, Jake. And you guys are right. At some point, consumers are going to say, wait a minute, you know, these companies got money back, but I didn't.

TAPPER: All right. Steve Moore, Rohit Chopra, thanks to both of you, really appreciate it.

Coming up, the Texas Republican bucking calls from within his own party, Congressman Tony Gonzales refusing to resign, continuing to run for re-election. Coming up next, I'm going to talk to the reporter who broke the story about his alleged affair with a staffer of his who died by suicide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:30]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales is ignoring the calls of many of his fellow House Republicans. Calls for him to resign from Congress after new allegations have been lodged against him, in terms of an alleged affair that he had with a subordinate staffer. The staffer later died by suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): I'm not going to resign. I work every day for the people of Texas.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you carry in? GONZALES: And there will be opportunity for all the details and facts that come out. What you've seen is not all the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives and they are doing everything they can to not take a hard stand against him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: There are serious accusations and it must be taken seriously. You have to allow the investigations to play out.

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): When it comes to members resigning, that's something members got to decide with the people that they serve.

RAJU: Should he resign?

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I leave that up to the voters in San Antonio and South Texas and Mr. Gonzales' district.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Gonzales is in a tight Republican primary battle that will be settled soon. With me now, Nancy Preyor-Johnson of the San Antonio Express News. She first broke the story of this alleged affair. Nancy, thanks so much for joining us. So this week, you unearthed text messages that reportedly revealed that the congressman pressed the staffer, a woman named Regina Santos-Aviles, to send him sexually explicit images of herself. Now, the congressman is refusing to answer questions about these texts. Tell us why so many House Republicans are voicing such disgust with these text messages.

NANCY PREYOR-JOHNSON, SENIOR PROJECTS REPORTER, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS- NEWS: You know, it actually started last week. We started interviewing. A staffer told us about the relationship and shared that first text message, which was key. In that text message, Regina actually said that she was having or she had had an affair with the boss, right?

And then so from there, we've been able to uncover other details. We got access to other text messages, which we verified. And they're quite disturbing. Some of them, it just shows a pattern of Tony Gonzales asking her for a sexy pic, for example. And then her really trying to tell him, you know, she didn't -- it was very obvious she didn't want to, right?

And so at one point she just said, well, I don't like taking photos like that. And then later she said, you know, you're going too far, boss. And when she said that, you know, too far, Tony, you're going too far, boss. It was after he was asked her to share her favorite sexual positions.

TAPPER: So Gonzales represents the 23rd Congressional District, which runs along the border with Mexico. Voters have reelected him twice. You're also in his district. What is the feeling on the ground there? Is the sentiment that he needs to resign? Should he stay and fight? What do you think?

PREYOR-JOHNSON: I mean, I hear different things, right? Some people are questioning, you know, are the texts validated? And they absolutely are. We wouldn't have published them had they not been validated. And so, you know, there's no question there. Some are saying, well, this is a relationship between two consenting adults.

The problem there, of course, is that she is a subordinate. And there is a very specific house ethic rule against that, against having a sexual relationship with a subordinate. And so --

TAPPER: You also -- keep going. Sorry.

PREYOR-JOHNSON: So mainly they're just talking, you know, they say they are calling for him to resign and they are, you know, trying, actually starting to side with his opponent.

TAPPER: You also learned some new details about Ms. Santos-Aviles and her final moments before she died by suicide. What can you tell us?

PREYOR-JOHNSON: Yes, it was quite the sad. You know, it's very graphic and disturbing that police report that we were able to get on Monday. In that police report, she is crying and she's screaming and she's saying, please send help. It hurts so bad. And then at that time, she says, oh, my God, I don't want to die.

You know, she -- every bit of her body, except for the soles of her feet were burned. So it was a horrific death. She had something to note is that in the police report, some police officers did say that she told them the reason why she set herself on fire is because her husband was having an affair. Now, her husband, Adrian Aviles has told me during several interviews that that is not true. He was not having an affair. But they had been separated for quite some time because he had discovered this affair with Tony.

[17:50:18]

TAPPER: What a sad, horrible story. Nancy Preyor-Johnson excellent reporting. Thank you so much for joining us today. Representative Gonzales's primary is just one of the consequential and frankly high, highly dramatic, high stakes stories that we're following in the run up to next Tuesday in the Lone Star State of Texas, CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Dallas, keeping tabs on all the primaries there. There's so many, Jeff, so many fascinating competitions. Let's start with the Democrats for Senate. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She's waging a rather unorthodox campaign against state legislator James Talarico. Tell us more about that race.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, Texas is the first big primary on this year's midterm election map. Early voting is already well underway here. Now, on the Democratic side of this Senate race, a very interesting race indeed, as you were saying. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who represents Dallas right here, jumped into the race fairly late.

So she's not been running a big, robust campaign. However, she is very well known here because of her social media presence, how she is a really gone after of the Trump administration, the President directly, the governor of Texas as well. So she clearly is taking the fighting approach, trying to show voters that she would be a fighter against the President and his administration. She told our Arlette Saenz this is her strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX), SENATE CANDIDATE: There's a lot of people that say I don't do politics, but I always tell them that politics will do you. So with that in mind, we are talking to everyone. There are those that think you only talk to the double D's and the triple D's. But as we've seen this explosion of participation, it means that we've got to talk to more than just the normal people that we talk to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So she basically is trying to fire up the Democratic base, including those voters who may not ordinarily turn out during a Democratic primary at the beginning of March. But her opponent, James Talarico, a 36-year-old state representative from here, is doing something a bit different. He's talking about love through healing. He's taking a bit of a softer approach, trying to expand the tent of the Democratic Party.

Of course, he was not alive the last time a Democratic senator was elected here in Lloyd-Benson back in 1988. But he's been taking the state by storm here, doing rallies across Texas. We caught up with him yesterday. This was his message, how he's trying to reach out to voters beyond just Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES TALARICO (D-TX), SENATE CANDIDATE: We're not just trying to win an election. We're trying to fundamentally change how we do politics in this state and in this country. It's been more than 10 years of this kind of politics, politics as blood sport, politics as total war. It tears families apart. It ends friendships. It leaves us all, no matter what side you're on, feeling terrible all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So James Talarico is trying to, again, expand his tent to some moderates, even some disaffected Republicans. And we did run into many Republicans along the way who were coming out to see him. But, Jake, the question, of course, in a Democratic primary, is that going to be enough? So that race is going to be next Tuesday here in this primary. Early voting has been underway. Like I said, many people are turning out. It's a bit of an enthusiasm contest, there's no doubt. But that's not the only race here on Tuesday.

TAPPER: That's right, because Republicans, there's an incumbent senator. That's the seat that Crockett and Talarico are running to pursue. And the incumbent senator, John Cornyn, longtime incumbent, he's facing two Republican challengers, Ken Paxton, the current attorney general, and a congressman, Wesley Hunt. What should viewers be looking for in that race?

ZELENY: Jake, it is extraordinary for Senator John Cornyn, who's running for a fifth term in the Senate. He was elected back in 2002. He was the attorney general here in Texas. He served on the Texas Supreme Court. He simply represents, in many people's view, the older Republican establishment. Now, he has tried mightily to appeal to the MAGA base, if you will. One thing he's not been able to do is get the endorsement of the President. Neither have any of his rivals.

President Trump, for now at least, has stayed out of this race. He says he has friends in this race, including Ken Paxton, the firebrand attorney general of Texas. So the President, though, is coming here to Texas on Friday to tout his economic message and try and also remind voters to turn out in the primaries next week. Many other House races are also on the ballot. He has issued endorsements in many of those congressional races, but not in the Senate race.

So it's unclear if he will come in here Friday with a surprise endorsement. John Cornyn sure hopes so, but that is unlikely at this point. Wesley Hunt, a member of Congress, also is running. So in this three-way primary, one of the candidates would have to get over 50 percent to avoid a runoff, that also unlikely. But John Cornyn without a doubt is in a fight for his political life here in the coming days.

[17:55:18]

TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny in Dallas, thanks so much.

Underscoring the state of politics in Texas right now. Later this week, President Trump is going to head to Texas. The targeted message he said to deliver just days ahead of next week's primaries. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:59:54]

TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the midterm campaign season is kicking up a notch. After previewing his election messaging last night, President Trump has now taken his show on the road. He's heading to Texas while the vice president heads to a different battleground state. How can they convince --