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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, (D-VA), Is Interviewed About House Oversight CMTE Questions Hillary Clinton About Epstein, Bill Clinton; Hegseth Gives Anthropic Friday Deadline To Drop A.I. Guardrails; Oversight Republicans Speak After Questioning Hillary Clinton; Hillary Clinton Speaks After Oversight Cmte. Testimony. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 26, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate all of you being here today. Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well. Don't go anywhere Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead."

Jake, happy Thursday. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thanks so much, Kasie. We'll look for more in

"The Arena" tomorrow.

HUNT: See you tomorrow.

[17:00:38]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Today in the Epstein saga, leaked photos of one of the most high profile names to sit for a deposition. The Lead starts right now.

The two leaked photos that broke the rules. A Republican congresswoman snapping images during the deposition of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The images briefly stopped the testimony. I'm going to talk to a Democrat who was in the room. Plus, the Pentagon's ultimatum for the AI company Anthropic. They're demanding that the company let down its safety guardrails or lose millions in funding.

The deadline now just 24 hours away that could give AI more powerful in warfare, more power in military warfare. And the new numbers that show an overwhelming interest in one of the hottest primary races of 2026 and the fight for control of Congress.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're going to begin in our law and justice lead. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton facing off with the House Oversight Committee in a closed door interview as part of the investigation into dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his child rape trafficking ring. Despite the fact that this was supposed to be a closed door deposition, the top Democrat on the committee is now pushing for the press to be allowed in after Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado apparently took a picture and reportedly sent it to far right influencer Benny Johnson, who posted it online. So far we know that Clinton has been asked about whether she has had any contact with Epstein's estate. House Democrats held a news conference slamming their Republican colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition where members of Congress and the Republican Party are more concerned about getting their photo op of Secretary Clinton than actually getting to the truth and holding anyone accountable.

REP. WESLEY BELL (D-MO), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: And as a former prosecutor, I've been involved in leading investigations and serious offenses and this ain't it. What we're seeing is political theater.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: On tonight's show, I'm going to talk with both a Republican and a Democrat on the House Oversight Committee at that hearing. Clinton has previously said she cannot recall ever meeting Epstein and only interacted with his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison, a handful of times. Tomorrow, former President Bill Clinton also will sit for a deposition. A CNN review showed that the former president traveled on Epstein's private plane at least 16 times and was pictured in Epstein case files released by the Justice Department with women in a Jacuzzi as well as with Ghislaine Maxwell.

The couple initially fought these depositions tooth and nail. They only agreed to comply with their subpoenas for closed door depositions after the House moved toward a bipartisan vote to hold the two in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before them.

Let's go right to CNN's MJ Lee in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live.

MJ, what are you learning about the types of questions that Hillary Clinton has been asked in the deposition so far?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, we are entering our seven of Hillary Clinton's deposition here in Chappaqua and this is where things stand right now. The current hour belongs to the Republican side. They have been switching hours back and forth. And I am told by sources that the Republican lawmakers are currently asking the former secretary of state about UAPs and UFOs. It's not clear what UFOs have to do with Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes.

I am also told by a source familiar that Republican lawmakers have been discussing Pizzagate with Hillary Clinton. This, of course, for anyone that's not familiar is the conspiracy theory that says that a bunch of pedophiles are running the government and sacrificing children and that all of this was being run out of a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Just to be clear, Jake, obviously I am not in the room. We are not going to have a full picture of all of the questions and answers exchanged in this deposition day until we see the full transcript. So maybe some of these comments were made in passing. I don't know the context, but that is where things stand currently, Jake.

And in terms of some of the other questions that the former first lady has received, you know, she's been asked about whether she's had conversations with certain people in Epstein's orbit about Jeffrey Epstein. She said, no, I've never spoken to the co executors, for example, of Epstein's estate.

[17:05:14]

She's also been asked, I'm told by Congresswoman Nancy Mace, what feelings she might have about her husband, former President Bill Clinton, receiving massages from young women. And I'm told that she responded by saying, I'm not going to speculate about things I don't know. And by the way, I'm also not here to talk about my feelings.

Now, Democrats, in the meantime, have come out and told reporters that they've really not learned anything new, that essentially this has been a waste of time to call the former Secretary of State, who has said repeatedly that she's never met Jeffrey Epstein, she's certainly never gone to his island, never visited him at his homes, and has no information that would be interesting to the committee about Epstein or Maxwell. And they're using this opportunity, Jake, to press their case that they believe there are so many other individuals who should be deposed, like Hillary Clinton is being deposed today, including the current sitting president, President Donald Trump.

Now, as far as that moment where Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert appeared to share photos that she took from inside that deposition room, it ended up making the rounds on X. When she came out a little earlier this afternoon, she said she wasn't reprimanded for doing this. She said, why not take these photos? And when I asked her what her takeaways were, what has stood out to her so far from this deposition? She said that she admired Hillary Clinton's blue suit.

Jake.

TAPPER: All right, MJ Lee in Chappaqua, New York, thanks so much.

Let's discuss with House Oversight Committee Democrat Congressman Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia.

Congressman, what did you ask former Secretary of State Clinton in today's deposition and what was the mood like in the room?

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Well, we wanted to establish basically the written testimony she'd given us, which is that she had never met Jeffrey Epstein and that she didn't have any sort of relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell. And that was clear from the testimony. I mean, you know, we would like the transcript of the testimony to be released within 24 hours because the reality is she ran circles around the Republicans the entire time. I mean, it's still going and she's answering every single question being asked. But the reality is we should be interviewing people who actually had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who knew the guy, who at least met the guy and know about his crimes.

There's so many people in the files, and Hillary Clinton is not someone we should be focusing on right now. But what's also interesting is there's about 10 or 11 Republicans here, there were zero Republicans from the committee who came to Les Wexner's testimony in Ohio a couple weeks ago. And so I think that's very telling that rather than getting to the truth by focusing on people like Wexner, we're making this a political clown show by talking to Secretary Clinton.

TAPPER: Tell us about the moment that you found out that your Republican colleague Lauren Boebert had taken photographs and passed them on to right wing influencers of Hillary Clinton during the deposition.

SUBRAMANYAM: Yes, this is a closed door deposition. This isn't a family vacation. I don't know why she's secretly snapping photos. I think Secretary Clinton was right to be angry about it. She demanded that if you're going to snap photos privately, why not let the entire media in?

That was their demand, actually, to make up for it. But again, the Republicans refused to do that. But I think they wanted a public testimony all along. So why -- when Republicans refuse that, why are you then secretly snapping photos? But you know, again, the reality is this is a political sideshow.

This did not help our investigation at all. What would help our investigation is releasing the 2 1/2 million files that Trump is withholding, having President Trump himself come before us, and certainly at least Secretary Lutnick come before us to answer questions under oath.

TAPPER: Do you agree with the top Democrat on the committee, Robert Garcia, that the press should be allowed to watch the hearing?

SUBRAMANYAM: Absolutely. I wish the press could have come in and just watched the whole thing. I think what they would have seen and what the American public would have seen is basically Republicans embarrassing themselves. I mean, some of the questions had nothing to do with Epstein and Maxwell and our investigation and were very much irrelevant to it. And so again, this was perhaps part of the plan was to try to sort of shift the blame and shift the tension from Trump and the Republicans to a Democrat like Hillary Clinton.

But the reality is that she simply never met the guy and it was a waste of our time.

TAPPER: Is it true that some of the questions were about Pizzagate and about UFOs? [17:10:01]

SUBRAMANYAM: I hope that the transcript will be released within 24 hours. I'm not allowed to say specifics about it, but I would just say that the transcript will be very revealing about that.

TAPPER: What do you want to ask a former President Bill Clinton tomorrow?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, President Clinton is in the files. He's got several pictures of himself there. And so I'd like to know what the context of those photos were. I'd like to know why he used Epstein's plane and Epstein's visits to the White House as well. And just any involvement or knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

I do think that would be more productive than talking to Secretary Clinton. Again, I look back to what he has given us as far as a sworn statement. He says he didn't have any knowledge of his crimes and that other than use of his plane, he didn't have a close relationship. But we're going to ask him those hard questions, too. TAPPER: In regard to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, you have said

that the Trump administration is fighting our push for justice at every step with a cover up. Is the Oversight Committee prepared to take any action on this?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, certainly I am, and other Democrats on the committee are, and we're hoping this can be bipartisan. But the reality is this administration has violated the law multiple times now. And now, you know, we have pretty clear indications that they're withholding files that make President Trump look bad, in addition to many other files that are very revealing and would be helpful to our investigation. And so we need Republicans on the committee and in Congress to hold this administration accountable. They've refused to do so on this.

And so we're going to continue pushing.

TAPPER: Is there evidence in the files that there are -- not just evidence, is there credible evidence, actionable evidence in the files that there are powerful people, I'm not talking about lower level people who work for Epstein or whatever, but powerful people who made -- who availed themselves of underage girls and victims of sex trafficking. I mean, is -- are there people who should be arrested? Are there people who should be investigated by the FBI?

SUBRAMANYAM: I don't have all the files, but if I did, I'd be able to answer that question better. That's part of the problem, is that we don't have all the files. From what we have, I haven't seen enough yet, but I would say that, you know, we have arrests happening in Europe, right? We have arrests -- we have people losing their board seats and losing their titles and jobs. And these are very rich and powerful people, CEOs of companies.

But certainly I would like, for law enforcement and the Department of Justice to do its job and investigate further. Talk to people, try to find more evidence, release all of the evidence you do have to the public. But that's not what's happening right now. While other countries are moving forward with arrests, we in the United States are sitting back and begging and pleading with the Department of Justice to release the files. So I think that's wrong.

TAPPER: Democratic Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir. Coming up on The Lead, I'm going to talk with a Republican on the House Oversight Committee to get his take on today's testimony and the leaked photo and the deposition coming tomorrow with former President Bill Clinton. But first, the disturbing story of a nearly blind man found dead after Border Patrol agents dropped him off alone about five miles from his home. What CNN is learning about the circumstances next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:17:35]

TAPPER: In our national lead, a call for accountability from U.S. Customs and Border Protection after a nearly blind legal refugee was found dead this week in Buffalo, New York. Fifty-six-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam had been missing for five days after he was dropped off by agents at a coffee shop with no means to contact his family or navigate the streets. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has been asking around on this one.

Priscilla, I mean, first of all, these stories are just, they keep happening and they're so upsetting that our government is doing this to people. How did this happen?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are still a lot of questions as to what happened, not only in the moment of the drop off, but also in the five days until his body was found because he had been missing those five days. But we do have to backtrack in terms of how we even got to this point. So this refugee, 56-years-old, had been spending much of the previous year in custody awaiting criminal charges that were ultimately resolved with a misdemeanor plea deal. Now, that stemmed from an encounter from last year when he was arrested in February of 2025. He, according to his family, had been out on a walk.

He got confused. He ended up on private property. He had a curtain rod as a walking stick. And that led to this encounter with police. Now, we also know from local officials that he was released on bond on February 19th.

But here's the thing. When he was being discharged, there was a immigration detainer against him by U.S. customs and Border Protection. So U.S. Border Patrol came and picked him up. However, they determined that he was not eligible for removal because he was a refugee. He came here legally in December of 2024.

So at that moment, the U.S. Border Patrol has to release him. They have no reason to keep him in detention. And they describe the events that happened thereafter in a statement where they said, quote, "Border Patrol agents offered Mr. Alam a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept, to a coffee shop, determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station. He showed no signs of distress, mobility issues or disabilities requiring special assistance."

I will also tell you, Jake, in my own conversations with sources, I have been told that the way they knew to even take him there is because they used a translator program, like a digital program, where he asked to be taken there. They did that. They're calling it the courtesy ride. That's what they're referring to. And that he was offered an opportunity to make a phone call and declined to make it.

[17:20:06]

So the next follow up question there is who would have no -- who should have notified him -- notified his family that --

TAPPER: Yes.

ALVAREZ: -- he was being released. Lastly, I do want to note that there has been a medical examiner autopsy report. They have determined this was a health related death. They have ruled out exposure and homicide. But for all of these reasons, Jake, this is why local officials are calling for an investigation into what exactly happened here and where did things go so wrong that he was found -- he was missing and then found dead.

TAPPER: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. Lots of questions remain about that.

Breaking news on that speedboat shootout off the coast of Cuba. We're now learning that one U.S. citizen was in fact among those killed and another U.S. citizen was injured. What this incident could mean for Cuba's already tense relationship with the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:25:17]

TAPPER: Breaking news in our world lead. A U.S. official tells CNN that one of the four people killed in that speedboat shootout off the coast of Cuba was a U.S. citizen and that among those wounded by the Cuban authorities, another is a U.S. citizen. We're waiting to get an explanation of what exactly led to this incident when Cuban border guard troops off the Cuban coast opened fire yesterday on a speedboat registered in the state of Florida. The Cuban government says that someone on the boat shot first. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is monitoring developments from Bogota, Colombia.

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Still so many questions surrounding Wednesday's incident of the coast of Cuba. Well, the government in Havana is saying is that an armed group, 10 people in total, tried to, quote, infiltrate the island nation with a speedboat here. This area is called Falcones Cay, and it's just over 100 miles from the coast of Florida. Cuban authorities say when they approach the U.S. registered speedboat, one of the passengers fired at them and Cuban forces retaliated. Four of the speedboat passengers were killed and the remaining six were wounded.

Cuba says they are currently in custody and receiving treatment. An investigation is ongoing, but the country's Interior Ministry has been quick to brand the group as terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): According to preliminary statements from those detained, they intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: Cuba says it arrested an 11th man. They said he flew in from the U.S. to, quote, "guarantee the reception of the armed infiltration." Now, Washington says whatever this was, it was not a U.S. operation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also seemingly skeptical of Havana's version of events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's not something that happens every day. It's something, frankly, that hasn't happened with Cuba in a very long time. And -- but we're going to find out. We're not going to base our conclusions on what they've told us. And I'm very, very confident that we will know the full story of what happened here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: The shootout happens as the U.S. is ramping up pressure on Cuba, the island nation facing severe shortages of basic food items, but also fuel. And that's because Washington has blocked virtually all oil shipments to the country since it captured Venezuelan leader and Cuban ally Nicolas Maduro in January. The U.S. stricter stance, part of a more ambitious goal for the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: Cuba status quo is unacceptable. Cuba needs to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Stefano Pozzebon for that report. Appreciate it.

The AI company, Anthropic, that's a big decision to make in less than 24 hours, Pentagon is forcing a decision for the company and it could transform military warfare. We're going to talk a bit more about this ultimatum next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:32:32]

TAPPER: In our Tech Lead, A.I. company, Anthropic, is staring down a 5:01 p.m. East Coast time deadline tomorrow to respond to an ultimatum from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. They want the company -- Hegseth wants the company, to drop the guardrails that the company put up on the A.I. model Claude for the military. Or they will lose a $200 million contract and essentially be blacklisted.

Anthropic is an advocate for A.I. regulation and worker protection. And the company is now at a crossroads. A source tells CNN that the company is worried about A.I.'s use of autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. I want to bring in CNN contributor and tech journalist Kara Swisher, host of the excellent podcasts "On and Pivot." Kara, so Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, posted today that the Pentagon, "Has no interest in using A.I. to conduct mass surveillance of Americans, which is illegal, nor do we want to use A.I. to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement. We will not let any company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions."

So here's the Pentagon saying they want to use Anthropic's models for lawful purposes. Should we believe them?

KARA SWISHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. Legal. No, I don't think so. I think this whole situation is moronic on, yes, the Defense Department's part. And I'm just -- and by Defense Department, I mean Pete Hegseth. He's trying to do like a chest bumping exercise, I guess, with Anthropic.

If Anthropic doesn't want to do these things, find someone else that will do them, right? The problem is Anthropic's Claude is really effective, right? And you can't make a company do something it doesn't want to. It's called capitalism, right? They don't feel like selling to you. If they have to lose their contract, they'll lose their contract.

They'll probably benefit from standing up to the Defense Department because most businesses don't like this kind of nonsense. It's ridiculous. And the comparisons the Defense Department is making, like Lockheed doesn't tell us how to use planes, is not the same thing.

And so if you have rules of your company and that's the way you want it, and you have to give up this contract, which they very well may have to do, that should be fine. And there's plenty of other companies willing to come into the breach that are quite good.

TAPPER: But Kara, isn't Hegseth also saying that they'll label Anthropic, I forget the exact term, but like an unreliable company?

[17:35:03]

SWISHER: Yes.

TAPPER: Basically --

SWISHER: Within a supply chain, a supply chain.

TAPPER: Right. It would hurt them. It would hurt their ability to get future government contracts. Would it not?

SWISHER: No, it would hurt their ability to do it for today. Although I think, first of all, there's legal issues here. So it's going to, once again, land the Trump administration in court, probably. It won't help them. It doesn't help our defense. Claude is really terrific. And it was used in several different actions. And he's just doing it to see that he's, you know, top man of the hill. And he's not top man of the hill. These tech companies are top man of the hill.

And, you know, they can try to do that with them. But do you think right now, if they haven't given in, that Anthropic is going to give in for this? I don't think so. I think they'll say, we won't do the contract. They'll do whatever. But they can't be forced into rules that they don't want to live by as a tech company because these LLMs can be really problematic. And so they're anticipating future problems that could happen.

Even if the Defense Department says they aren't going to do them, this isn't the most believable administration on lots of things. And so, again, do business with someone else. You don't have to, like, punish someone. And all the way, it chills relations with others in Silicon Valley, too, by the way. The whole thing is moronic. I don't know. I think that's the technical term for it.

TAPPER: So we just learned, just in terms of some other news stories, that Warner Brothers Discovery, which I should disclose, owns CNN --

SWISHER: Yes.

TAPPER: -- has determined that the Ellison's --

SWISHER: They do.

TAPPER: -- Paramount's, latest takeover offer is superior to the one, to the offer that Netflix made. Netflix wants to buy Warner Brothers and HBO. And then CNN and all the cables would spin off into Discovery Global. Paramount wants it all, including us. Netflix now just has four days to adjust their offer. What's going to happen?

SWISHER: Yes. I don't know. I mean, on tomorrow on Pivot, Scott and I think Netflix should probably walk away, because the price is so ridiculous. I mean, Warner was just trading for $10 a share. Now it's $31. I mean, is it $21 better? I don't know. Well, you know, that's the question you have to ask. I think one of the problems is that the Ellison's via Paramount have not made a kill shot offer. It's not $34 a share, even $33.

And Netflix can match this if they want. But the minute it looked like the deal was in trouble, Netflix stock soared. And probably they could take all that money and come back later and pick, you know, assuming that this doesn't go as well as most mergers don't, pick up the pieces and pick up the pieces they want or do a distribution deal.

It just depends on Ted Sarandos if he wants to get into a bidding war here. It's certainly rich. You know, the only group that's doing well here is Warner, you know, in that regard.

TAPPER: Yes.

SWISHER: And we'll see. We'll see what happens.

TAPPER: Kara Swisher, thanks so much.

Let's bring you now to Chappaqua, where Republican members of the House Oversight Committee are taking questions about the deposition with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY), CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: These are big, powerful people that hire very skilled law firms and they delay, delay, delay. And, you know, part of when you delay in this investigation, it takes seven months to bring a witness in like it did today. That creates a problem. So we're trying to move as quickly as we can. We're obviously following what's going on in the United Kingdom now.

We're following, you know, everything. I know that there are a lot of eyes and hopefully the media will play a role in this. The media has a role. The documents have been made public. We're going to continue to fight for more redactions. There are some names who are redacted. I think we all agree shouldn't be redacted. I don't think they're who you think they are. So that's why we want those names.

Yes, sir. Go ahead. Go ahead.

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): To follow up on that, though, we asked specifically the victims and we were all there, as well as the Speaker and the Democrat members of Congress, if the President was involved and they exonerated him. So why would we bring in the President of the United States who's been exonerated, who cooperated with law enforcement and who released the files when we had to fight? We basically threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt if they didn't want to come in.

So to be clear, we had cooperation. We asked the victims directly and he was exonerated. So I would encourage all of you, at least to the fair reporting and understanding that just like you would not publish false statements about the Clintons in some of the allegations that have been made about them, you would give the President of the United States the same the same respect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're going where the evidence is leading us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Mr. Chairman, hold on a second, guys.

President Trump has released more files than anyone during the Biden administration. Zero files. No DOJ involvement. He has secured the border, lowered a human trafficker and passed the House Republicans and President Trump has passed anti-human trafficking legislation just his first year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Comer? Mr. Comer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- transparency, you guys told moments ago. Can you release any findings that were discussed today? You said something --

COMER: We're going to release that video and you'll be able to see the whole thing as quick as we could get the video produced. But I think what will be interesting is some of the comments that Secretary Clinton made at the very end about Jeffrey Epstein. And I think that that would apply to others that you all obviously have an interest in, too, so. [17:40:17]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Mr. Comer, can I ask? You said that Bill Clinton is the man to ask questions.

COMER: That's what Miss -- Mrs. Clinton said many times today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you -- why bring Hillary Clinton --

COMER: Again, for the 15th time, this was a motion made by Democrats and Republicans in a subcommittee on oversight. There were a list of people to bring in and Bill and Hillary Clinton were on the list. And I'm glad we brought Hillary Clinton in because she's never really answered questions until in the last week about her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell. So she answered questions and hopefully they'll be helpful as we move forward. Go ahead. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Clinton Global Initiative, was that your main focus today with Secretary Clinton? And do you feel like you got the answers you were looking for?

COMER: Well, I don't want to disclose too much of what was said, but most of the questions that we asked about the Clinton Global Initiative, which were very specific questions, some of them were backed by e-mails and other documents that have been released by the Department of Justice. She said that she was a senator and you would have to ask her husband that tomorrow.

So we have a lot of questions for her husband tomorrow. And I'm confident that deposition will last even longer than this one. Thank you all. Thank you all.

TAPPER: All right. That was the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, and other members of the House Oversight Committee talking to members of the press after hours and hours of sitting for a deposition with former Secretary of State and Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton about the Epstein files and the Epstein investigation.

Let's bring in the panel to talk about this big day. Ambassador, Senator, Congressman Flake, as long as I'm giving multiple titles. What's your take on this? I mean, Hillary Clinton had said previously, and I guess she said also in this deposition, she didn't know Jeffrey Epstein. And if they have questions for her husband, they should ask him.

JEFF FLAKE (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Yes, I think that's where it ends. I mean, I don't think that they got anything today. They can say, well, she said something that was interesting at the end. But I really don't think there's much there. But Bill Clinton, obviously, spent a lot of time with Jeffrey Epstein.

And so there'll be something there. But just whatever they do in this regard, questioning the Clintons just brings up, well, why won't you question the President of the United States?

TAPPER: Yes, Mr. Trump's also on the Epstein files.

FLAKE: That's going to be part of it.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, and why are -- is it the case that they have been so sloppy with the release of documents further traumatizing so many of these women where we've seen, you know, I mean, it's been the DOJ, but there, you know, Congress has a role in helping to make sure there is transparency and making sure victims are protected. And why aren't they pushing harder to make sure, you know, with this report that DOJ may be holding back, you know, more evidence that mentions the President? So I would want them to be that interested in talking to everyone and seeing all the information.

TAPPER: All right. We'll wait until we hear more information about what exactly they talked about in that deposition. Let's talk about the election, because there's one coming up on Tuesday. Early voting is underway for Tuesday's primary races in Texas. New data shows a major spike in party turnout, up nearly 60 percent from the same point in 2020, the last statewide primary to feature a competitive Democratic primary contest.

Now, in 2026, the hot race for Texas Democrats is the Senate primary. That's between state Rep. James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. Karen Finney, what does turnout in the primary so far signal to you about where Democrats are going in the midterms? And just to give a slight simplification of this for our viewers, I think it's fair to say that Jasmine Crockett is more of a firebrand, more controversial, Talarico probably a safer choice in terms of his politics, but also a less well-known person.

FINNEY: Well, I think there's a couple --

TAPPER: Is that fair? Do you think how I just --

FINNEY: I would describe it a little differently.

TAPPER: Tweak it. Go ahead and tweak.

FINNEY: Let's do that.

TAPPER: Tweak it up.

FINNEY: First of all, as a Democrat, I have to say I would love to see us win Texas, but I can't, you know, after doing this for 30 years, I'm like, oh, exactly.

TAPPER: Yes.

FINNEY: That being said, I think the other way I would tweak that, though, is Jasmine appeals to a different demographic, and part of what her candidacy could be doing is, and this is what I've been hearing, turning, you know, young African-Americans, young Latino voters, younger voters in general, because they have this, you know, she's been seen as more of a fighter, and also based on where I've seen her traveling in the state. Talarico may have, you know, again, I think they each have a slightly different electorate that they're appealing to, so it'll be interesting to see, quite frankly, who at the end of the day from the Democratic Party is turning out, who -- which -- how -- who are both of them able to turn out, and who will be able to turn out ultimately some moderate Republicans in the general election, because to win Texas, you're going to have to do that as well.

[17:45:12]

TAPPER: So, Senator Flake, you served with John Cornyn.

FLAKE: Right.

TAPPER: And I bet you never thought you'd see the day where John Cornyn was being attacked as too liberal, as too much of a squish, but he's being attacked on the right, Ken Paxton, the Attorney General, and Wesley Hunt, the Congressman. We should note, Cornyn, and I think it's also the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is standing by the incumbent, just released a vicious new ad against Ken Paxton. Here is some of that ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's voting time, so let's cut through the bullshit. Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She's divorcing him on biblical grounds, so now Paxton's wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven, the wife cheater and fraud, or the Texas workhorse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: OK. Just to keep, no, that's a tough ad, but when you step back and you think, that's the National Republican Senatorial Committee and an incumbent Republican saying that about the Attorney General of Texas.

FLAKE: We'll see if he wins. Yes. If Paxton wins, they may have a little different opinion of him next week --

TAPPER: Right.

FLAKE: -- the Senatorial Committee, but they have been playing to say, this will cost us a hundred million dollars, and that may not get Paxton over the edge, and that's true. I think Crockett would be a gift to Republicans for her to be the Democratic nominee. Paxton is obviously a huge gift to Democrats.

And -- but -- I mean, Talarico, if he really does have the ability to get people, swing voters, independents, that may be the missing ingredient that Texas Democrats have wanted for so long.

TAPPER: What's the ingredient? Ken Paxton is the ingredient, is what you're saying or Democrats. FLAKE: That's the easiest one, but he -- even if it's Cornyn, if he has the ability, it'll be far more difficult, Democrats, if it's Cornyn, obviously, but if he has the ability to actually pull some swing voters, moderate Republicans who don't like what's going on, then that may change the equation, but it hasn't so far.

FINNEY: I wouldn't be doing my job, though, if I didn't also say one of the things we are seeing on the Democratic side, you know, this electability conversation, which particularly when you have a woman and or a candidate of color tends to, I hate to say it this way, you know, impact this conversation about, well, who could really win in a general election, which is why I think it's important to look at who are the voters she can turn out, who are the voters he can turn out, and what does that coalition look like at the end of the day, and who could turn out all of those voters in a general election. I don't think we should -- I think there's been some assumptions about electability based on race and gender that I don't like.

TAPPER: It's also complicated, I should note, because Congresswoman Crockett has said things about Latino voters who are an important block in any state, but especially in Texas, that are controversial. So it's not just --

FINNEY: And she's had to make her case to the electorate just to, you know, talk about why she's the right person for them in the Senate.

TAPPER: Do you think that she, do you think she's a stronger candidate than Republicans like Senator Flake think?

FINNEY: Well, I would love to see her up against Ken Paxton. That would sure be lots of fun. Look, I think --

TAPPER: That's very possible.

FINNEY: It sure is.

TAPPER: That's a very possible result.

FINNEY: Yes, yes.

TAPPER: I mean, I don't know, just for some people who don't know, you don't get 51 percent in the primary on Tuesday, then there's a runoff between the top two. And most Republicans I know think that if Paxton gets to the runoff with Cornyn, Paxton will beat Cornyn in a runoff because of who would turn out in a primary in Texas, right? It would be like the raw meat Republicans.

FLAKES: Yes, that's how it usually works.

FINNEY: Yes.

FINNEY: No, that would be quite a matchup. But I still think Crockett will have a hard time convincing moderate Republicans or swing voters to go that way. And I think Talarico has a chance of that. You know, he's a young candidate. He hasn't been tested, you know, on the national stage. And so that may be different, but he seems to have that ability. I would certainly pull that switch if I were a Democrat. That would be a time.

TAPPER: There was a moment on Tuesday, State of the Union, that Republicans are already using in campaign ads. Here is a piece of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. These people are crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:50:03]

TAPPER: We're going to come back, but one second, because Hillary Clinton is coming to the microphones and Chappaqua to talk to the press.

HILLARY CLINTON: Hello everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, secretary,

CLINTON: Good evening. Well, I have just finished testifying. I answered every one of their questions as fully as I could, based on what I knew. And what I knew is what I said in my statement this morning. I never met Jeffrey Epstein, never had any connection or communication with him.

I knew Ghislaine Maxwell casually as an acquaintance. But whatever they asked me, I did my very best to respond. It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn't have to be out here characterizing it for you.

You could have seen it for yourself. We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.

We had a bit of a challenge in the beginning because we had agreed upon rules based on the fact it was going to be a closed hearing at their demand. And one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting because it suggested that they might violate other of our agreements. So we had to cease the hearing for a period of time until we could get assurances that no rules would be broken going forward.

And we returned to answer questions repetitively, literally over and over again. I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices. So it's on the record numerous times.

It then got, at the end, quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet that was serving as a basis of a member's questions to me.

So I can only say that the best exchange that I had came at the very end, when contrary to every other deposition they have taken, no Republican member asked any questions about Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell to anyone else they have deposed. And in fact, the Republican members didn't even show up for the deposition of Les Wexner.

And when I said that, I had to point out that the only questions that any Republican member asked of any of the people they deposed was of former Attorney General Bill Barr when Chairman Comer asked him about the allegations, in his view, about Russia's involvement in my election in 2016.

So at the very end of this hearing, after I made that point, I want to commend Chairman Comer for raising a series of significant questions that I responded to about the nature of the investigation and the areas that I thought should be explored. So I appreciated that.

I want to see the truth come out. So that was a reassuring way to end a very long, repetitive deposition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Secretary, you spoke in your opening remarks about how heartbroken you have been for the Epstein survivors as these files have come out. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you have processed and reacted to the fact that the former president, your husband, Bill Clinton, is referenced in the Epstein files numerous times, including in some photos featuring women? And how have you been personally preparing for the deposition that is coming tomorrow? Are you 100 percent confident that there isn't anything that the former president knows about Epstein's crimes?

[17:55:07]

CLINTON: I am. And I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light and that he was charged and sadly given a sweetheart deal, which, as I said in my statement, had that not happened, perhaps his predatory behavior could have been stopped earlier.

But I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of people who had contact with him before his criminal pleas in '08 were like most people. They did not know what he was doing. And I think that that is exactly what my husband will testify to tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Secretary, do you believe this was a fair hearing? And do you still want to testify publicly, even though you gave this deposition?

CLINTON: Well, I'm not going to do it again. You know, they had a chance to do it in public, and I wish they had done it in public. And I think they're making the wrong decision, avoiding doing it in public. I thought it was very repetitive. I thought that they asked literally the same questions over and over again, which didn't seem to me to be very productive. And then, as I said, toward the end, you know, there were other questions that were totally off subject. So if they are going to fulfill their responsibilities to literally investigate the investigations, which is what they originally said was the scope of their work, I think they could have spent the day more productively.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask why was Ghislaine Maxwell invited to the Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2005? She'd already been mentioned in a civil lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre of Florida. Jeffrey Epstein had already been convicted before.

CLINTON: She came as the plus one, the guest of someone who was invited. Thank you all.

(CROSSTALK)

CLINTON: I don't know when the video will be out. I don't know when the transcript will be out. We've asked that they be out as quickly as possible. And then you can see. You can see everything. Thank you.

TAPPER: All right. Former Secretary of State Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton describing her take on the closed door deposition she had with the House Oversight Committee. Among the things she said was that there were some bizarre questions about Pizzagate, which is that ridiculous conspiracy theory that there are kids being tortured and eaten in the basement of a pizza parlor here in D.C. in the basement that does not exist. And --

FINNEY: And it terrorized the people who worked there when it happened.

TAPPER: Well, beyond that, some lunatic went there with a gun to go help the kids and, you know, and thank God nobody was hurt.

FLAKE: I just want to know what were they asking about that.

FINNEY: Right.

FLAKE: Are you still involved in that? That was unbelievable.

TAPPER: Well, we'll see that -- well, I mean, this is, again, members of the House Oversight Committee. Like, I'm pretty sure it wasn't Chairman Comer that asked that, but there are some out there members on that committee.

FINNEY: Yes.

TAPPER: What's your response to the -- what she just said?

FLAKE: Well, I think there was. This was a big miscalculation on the part of the committee wanting to have a deposition. Well, actually thinking that she would never want to appear or have anything public. And she did. And so I think that it just draws attention back to what they don't want to draw attention back to who hasn't been interviewed.

I mean, there's a sitting cabinet member right now -- TAPPER: Howard Lutnick, yes.

FLAKE: -- who has been to Epstein Island.

TAPPER: And lied about it.

FLAKE: Yes, exactly. And so they're going to be increasing calls. All right, why don't you talk to him? His information is probably a lot more current than hers. And so I think it raises questions that they didn't want to answer.

FINNEY: Yes, I agree with that. I mean, obviously, Jake, as you know, I work for Secretary Clinton for the 2016 campaign and in the White House. And, yes, they completely underestimated who they were going to be sitting across from. I'll just say that, having known her for so long. But it does raise more questions than answers that they clearly are not wanting to get into in terms of there's so much information and other areas that would have been more productive to spend their time trying to trace down what's really going on and why more people frankly aren't being prosecuted for what they may have done.

[18:00:14]

TAPPER: Well, interviewing somebody, a woman who certainly did not avail herself of the disgusting wares of Mr. Epstein, maybe never even according to her, never even met him. Certainly doesn't make this look like a very serious investigation. Thanks to both you.

FINNEY: Thanks Jake.