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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official Resigns Over Iran War; Trump Says U.S. Should Rethink NATO Membership; Iran Confirms Two Top Officials Killed; Sen. Ruben Gallego, (D-AZ) Is Interviewed About Senate Kicking Off Marathon Debate Over Trump's Voter ID Bill, Gas Prices; Cuba Begins Restoring Power After Nationwide Outage; Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official Resigns Over Iran War; New Guidelines Suggest Cholesterol Treatment For Younger Adults. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired March 17, 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: But don't go anywhere now. Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD."
Jake, you have like 30 seconds to scan the QR code this time.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I didn't bring my phone with me, but I will tell you I do because I'm the old man in the room here and I do offer film recommendations to the crew. And there's a young gentleman here who is in the middle of watching "Scent of a Woman" but has not seen the climactic scene. And I'm so -- it's painful for me not to imitate Al Pacino at the end of "Scent of a Woman." It's -- this is what's going through my mind.
OK.
HUNT: OK.
TAPPER: It's time for my show now.
HUNT: Good. It's time for your show.
TAPPER: Kasie, we'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena." HUNT: See you tomorrow.
[17:00:36]
TAPPER: Trump insider just quit in protest over this war, but there's a lot more. The Lead starts right now.
Trump's controversial Counter Terrorism Center director resigned from his post today. He says Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S. and he said a lot of other stuff that makes him a lot less credible. Meanwhile, lots of news today in Trump's war on Iran and we're going to get into all of it. And up for a key Senate vote today, the so called Save America Act, which requires a higher level of voter ID than millions of Americans have. I'm going to talk to a Senate Democrat who says the bill is really disguised to save not America, but Donald Trump.
Plus the power grid collapse that has Cuba in the dark. CNN is on the ground to show you what life is like there right now.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin with breaking news in our world lead. President Trump's call for help to secure the Hormuz Strait was not answered by U.S. allies and it chose today on Truth Social, the president let it be known that actually, quote, "We do not need the help of anyone." He followed that up minutes later at the White House. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we don't need too much help and we don't need any help actually. All of the NATO allies agreed with us and -- but they don't want to -- you know, despite the fact that we help them so much, we have thousands of soldiers in different countries all over the world and they don't want to help us, which is amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: President Trump clearly not happy that U.S. allies, including the U.K. and France, declined to join a joint task force to help secure that critical waterway. Iran is essentially holding about 20 percent of the world's oil hostage by attackining and -- attacking and threatening to attack any commercial vessels that go through. It has sent oil and gas prices through the roof. President Trump now predicts that even with the help of allies, it won't be -- even without the help of allies, rather, it won't be too long before the Strait of Hormuz is secure, which sounds about as vague as his latest estimate on when the war will end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'd love to agree, if we left right now, it would take 10 years for them to rebuild. But we're not ready to leave yet. But we will be leaving in the near future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The near future. Meanwhile, moments ago, Iranian state media confirmed the death of Ali Larijani. He was the head of Iran's National Security Council. Israel killed Larijani and another Iranian official in strikes last night. We're going to have more on that in a moment.
Still, this war is proving to be quite divisive even within the ranks of President Trump's own administration. Earlier today, the director of the National Counter Terrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned. He posted, quote, "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. It has been an honor serving under the president and the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard."
It's worth noting two facts as we read Joe Kent's resignation, which is rooted in conspiracies about Israel and its supporters. One, Kent's ties to white nationalists and anti-Semites were long established and almost held up his Senate confirmation. And two, much like other prominent MAGA commentators who oppose Trump's war against Iran for all sorts of reasons, many legitimate, Kent, in his statement, all but absolves President Trump from the decision to go to war.
President Trump, the most powerful elected official in the war, absolves him almost for a U.S. war that literally only President Trump had the power to start. Now, Kent and some other members of the MAGA coalition blame this war not on Trump or Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Marco Rubio, they blame the war on Israel and its supporters in the U.S. Kent also blames Bush's Iraq war, not on Bush, but on Israel.
He also blames Trump's war on ISIS in Syria, not on Trump, but on guess who. Let's bring in CNN's Kylie Atwood, CNN's Zach Cohen, and Barak Ravid, who is global affairs correspondent for Axios.
Zach, how is President Trump reacting to Kent's resignation? And what more can you tell us about Kent's background?
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Jake, as you mentioned, two things can be true here at the same time, right? One that Joe Kent was a high profile senior U.S. intelligence official, a political appointee put in that job as the director of National Counterterrorism by Donald Trump. And that was knowing all of history with past interactions with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, et cetera.
[17:05:16]
But at the same time acknowledging his experience as a Green Beret with the CIA. His national security experience. It is --
TAPPER: Eleven tours.
COHEN: Exactly.
TAPPER: Yes.
COHEN: Exactly. So his national security credential is really not under question here, except for he does have controversial views about various topics, unrelated to Iran. TAPPER: Like people named Cohen?
COHEN: Exactly. Exactly. But here, though, it's really his issue is with, at least it seems, with this idea of an imminent threat. And he's calling into question again the original justification that Trump himself cited for bringing the U.S. --
TAPPER: Yes.
COHEN: -- into this conflict. And he's writing, if he had just stopped his sentence essentially at threat to our nation and Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, the criticism probably would not be as harsh as it is in this letter. But Donald Trump is taking issue with his objections to the war itself, not with the alleged anti-Semitic undertones of his letter. Take a listen to what Donald Trump said today when he was asked about Kent's resignation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat, we don't want those people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: So the idea of an imminent threat is really what we're talking about here, though. And using that as justification to take the U.S. to war without a vote from Congress is going to remain a controversy and a question that the president's going to continue to get asked.
TAPPER: It is worth pointing out that President Trump said he always thought that Joe Kent was weak on security, even though he nominated him to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center. You'd think that would undermine the president wanting to make him in that position.
Barak, you've been talking with officials about the lead up to this war. What can you tell us about Joe Kent's premise that the U.S. only went to war because it was pressured into the war by Israel and its lobbyists?
BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, so first, it's clear that the U.S. did not only go to war because of Israel as a -- and -- Israel and its lobbyists. And we know that because Donald Trump said it more than once, more than twice, more than three times. Actually even today, Donald Trump said that he already thought that Iran should be handled militarily. Back in the 80s, he said, I was against Iran before Israel was against Iran. I'm not sure if Benjamin Netanyahu would have an issue with that statement or not.
But, but it is also true that Benjamin Netanyahu and people close to him in Washington and people that are both close to him and close to President Trump pushed very hard in order to get Trump on their side. It was the case before -- it was the case during the presidential transition.
It was the case before the 12-Day War in June, and it was the case in the weeks and months leading to the current war. But as you said, Jake, the decision to go to war was Trump's. This is why also, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to claim that, you know, Israel would go ahead -- would have gone ahead anyway to this war, we had no choice, we had to go to, that was, to say the least, inaccurate.
TAPPER: Yes.
RAVID: President Trump made the decision to go to this war long before the day that he gave the final order.
TAPPER: Yes. No question Netanyahu wanted this war. No question that many people in Israel consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat. But this idea that it's only Netanyahu's fault or his supporters in the United States takes away any agency from the most powerful man in the world, President Trump. Kylie, let's talk about the Strait of Hormuz and the president being so frustrated that U.S. allies are not agreeing to help secure the strait, he's once again even questioning whether the U.S. needs to be part of NATO?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's going that far. He -- you can tell that this has gotten underneath his skin in a very dramatic way, because he's not just responding to these individual countries who are publicly saying that they're not looking to get militarily involved in this conflict. But he is also going after the collective NATO alliance right now.
And so it's significant, however, that he said he was informed that these countries don't want to get involved militarily against Iran. I think some of these countries behind the scenes are still going to try and figure out how to stay on side with President Trump, how to get some support for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
TAPPER: Yes. Refueling or intelligence or --
[17:10:01]
ATWOOD: Exactly. So there is a space for us to watch there. But what is critical at this point is that Trump is also claiming that the United States doesn't need their support. Well, U.S. officials wouldn't have been in these dialogues with these countries if they didn't feel like their support would be helpful in ending this conflict, in getting that, you know, trafficking of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. So they're coming up against what is an unexpected challenge, it appears, and President Trump is responding by threatening to reconsider U.S. support for NATO.
TAPPER: Can I just ask very quickly, is there any evidence that President Trump told any allies about this war ahead of time and tried to get their support or buy in just in case the Strait of Hormuz was weaponized the way? I mean, is there any evidence that happened?
ATWOOD: There was no laying the groundwork in a substantial way.
TAPPER: All right, Kylie Atwood, Zachary Cohen, Barak Ravid, thank you all for your expertise.
Trump has at least one strong ally in the war. Guess who? It's Israel. Today, Israel said it took out two senior Iranian officials. Iran just confirmed that.
The roles of those men and what their deaths could mean going forward. We're also going to talk about the inner workings of the Iranian regime with Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American journalist at the Washington Post who was once held captive by Iran.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:15:14]
TAPPER: Continuing with our world lead, Israel announced today that it killed two more top Iranian officials, the country's security chief and the leader of the group that enforces Islamic morality among the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAEL DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I was just updated by the chief of staff that the secretary of the National Security Council, Larijani and the head of the Basij, the central repression body of Iran, Soleimani, were eliminated last night and joined the head of annihilation program Khamenei and all the eliminated members of the Axis of Evil in the depths of hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Late today, Iran confirmed that both leaders were killed. We do not know whether they were killed separately or died in one strike. Let's get some insight from Jason Rezaian. He served as the Washington Post Tehran correspondent. He was wrongfully imprisoned by the Iranian regime for 544 days until his release in January 2016.
Jason, thanks for joining us. Tell us more about who the Israelis killed. Let's start with the security chief, Larijani. We saw him in public just a few days ago.
JASON REZAIAN, JOURNALIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Jake, Ali Larijani is one of five brothers who all have had major roles in the Islamic Republic going back decades. Before he was the head of the National Security Council in Iran he was longtime speaker of parliament, served many terms in the Iranian Parliament, was leading nuclear negotiator back in the early 2000s and really has been involved at the highest levels of state policy negotiations with the outside world repression inside the country for decades.
His older brother was a -- is the head of Iran's so called Human Rights Council who's Berkeley graduated, went to UC Berkeley in the 1970s. And another brother was the longtime head of Iran's judiciary. So this is really one of the most powerful families in the country.
The besieged paramilitary group, they're sort of plain clothes vigilantes that have been activated every time that there's protests in the country. Some of them are members of the IRGC, but oftentimes they're just young men who've been armed by the state and are allowed to wield control in their neighborhoods, put down crowds and act as repressors.
TAPPER: What about Soleimani, the head of the group that enforces Islamic morality? Tell us about him.
REZAIAN: He hadn't been in that position very long because his predecessor was killed and the one before that was as well, so there's not much to go by in terms of his biography. But if you assume that position, you would have been part of the security apparatus for quite a long time, whether in the -- in the intelligence ministry, in the Revolutionary Guards or their intelligence organization or the national police. TAPPER: When this war first started February 28, President Trump encouraged Iranians to take this to the streets once the bombing ended and told them to take over the government. Take a listen to what the president said earlier today, though. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They put out a notice two days ago. Anybody that protests will be immediately shot and killed. That's pretty tough stuff. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What's your reaction to the president's message to the Iranian people?
REZAIAN: I think the problem, Jake, is that the message has been so mixed going back to the massacre of Iranians back in January, when the president promised that he would have the backs of Iranian protesters. I and others who have been close to Iran for a long time and have lived in that country and understand the repression firsthand, will tell you that one of the main challenges is that the state, although it doesn't wield a lot of popular support in the public, does control all the arms in the country. So there's really not a way that Iranian protesters and people who would like to see a freer society could really realistically stand up to the regime at this point.
I think there was a lot of expectation that by now there'd be splintering within the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard and other echelons of the security apparatus. That has not happened yet. And so I think the challenge for Iranians who'd like to see the regime toppled is that they don't have an option of going out into the streets right now without facing probable death.
TAPPER: Jason Rezaian, thank you so much as always for your insights. Great to have you.
[17:19:57]
Just hours ago, a Senate vote kicked off marathon debate on the Save America Act. That's what it's called. It's a bill that could require photo ID or a passport if you want to vote. Debate on this bill could last days or even weeks. Democrats are adamantly against this legislation. One senator even labeled the bill as a cover to protect Donald Trump.
We're going to talk to that senator next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: We're back with the politics lead in a key step today for the Save America Act it's called. That's legislation that would require Americans show ID and proof of citizenship to vote. The bill would also force states to send their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security so that they can be compared against federal citizenship databases. One Senate Democrat has this explanation of what he says the bill is really about.
[17:25:09] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Supposedly it's to, you know, protect the elections. Really it's to save Donald Trump's ass. Because the Republicans are going to lose heavily this election. And not just the House, but also the Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Let's bring in that senator, Ruben Gallego. He served as a U.S. marine combat veteran before he was in the House and then the Senate. Thank you so much for joining us.
GALLEGO: My pleasure.
TAPPER: So my first question is going to be about the fact that the public theoretically supports the notion of voter ID. OK?
GALLEGO: OK.
TAPPER: Let me just read you the poll and then you respond.
GALLEGO: Yes.
TAPPER: A Pew Research poll from August, 83 percent of U.S. adults support requiring all voters to show government issued photo identification. Only 16 percent oppose it. Photo ID requirements are also popular among both parties, 95 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of Democrats. So what do you make of the argument that you and Senate Democrats are out of step on this issue?
GALLEGO: Well, the problem is like this isn't just a general conversation, right? Look, we have voter ID in Arizona. You have to show ID to register to vote. There is nothing wrong with that, right? There is nothing wrong to making sure that only Americans can vote.
I'm 100 percent beyond -- behind that. The problem is that this is not just about voter ID. If it was just about voter ID, then why can't we use the ID that everyone's using now after we forced every American to get the secured ID that everyone has right now and something else? No, it's actually more restrictive than that. Let's be clear, this is about suppressing the vote.
Not only that, it also says it's going to try to get away from rid of vote by mail. Something very popular all across the country. They're introducing an amendment tomorrow to actually add that also.
TAPPER: From Eric Schmitt, the --
GALLEGO: From Eric Schmitt from Missouri.
TAPPER: Yes.
GALLEGO: And then lastly, they're going to purge. They're going to demand that every state send their voter registration rolls to the Homeland Security. They're going to send back a purge list. And there is no requirement for the states to actually set up any way to actually accept these people back. They're not saying there's a tight to the list.
And why is it they all of a sudden are trying to rush through this right now? Because 2024, we operate on those same rules that we see right now. Now all of a sudden we're going to upend everything with only five months really to avoiding starting. We're going to affect veterans that aren't, you know, don't have perfect IDs. We're going to have women that have -- are going to be purged that potentially don't have the same ID and same name as their birth certificate as their marriage certificate.
We know that this system is totally imperfect already. They've identified people that are in this country should not be rushed to vote, that actually did have a right to vote. And all this is being rushed. The only reason it's being rushed, because Donald Trump sees the future. He sees a future where he's going to lose.
He's going to be a loser, and the Republican Party is going to be a big loser. So instead of actually trying to --
TAPPER: You mean, they're going to lose the House and Senate.
GALLEGO: Lose the House and Senate. Instead of actually trying to fight with the right policies, they're going to try to force only the right voters that they want in and force everyone else out.
TAPPER: I remember when they tried to force felons off in a purge list in Florida in 2000, that was a mess because governments make mistake.
GALLEGO: Yes. Governments make mistakes.
TAPPER: I mean, like, this is funny because conservatives are always talking about, you know, not inaccurately this --
GALLEGO: Inefficiency.
TAPPER: -- how inefficient government can be. Anyway, today, President Trump posted on social media, quote, "No more rigged elections, voter ID, proof of citizenship, no rigged mail in voting. We're the only country in the world that allows this." No -- that's not true, by the way.
GALLEGO: Yes.
TAPPER: "No men and women's sports, no transgender mutilization of our children." Is mutilization even a word, by the way? I thought -- GALLEGO: I --
TAPPER: Anyway, moving on. "Ninety to 99 percent issues all. Only sick, demented or deranged people in the House or Senate could vote against the Save America Act." Sorry I kept interrupting.
GALLEGO: It's fine.
TAPPER: You know this stuff. GALLEGO: It's also like, right now, we're in the middle of a war.
TAPPER: Right.
GALLEGO: This is where the President's mind is. Gas prices are going through the roof. Cost of food is about to go up because diesel now is above $5 a gallon, which is basically determines the transportation of food. And what is he focusing on? He's focusing on something like this, that all that matters is for him to be able to hold his majority, a majority that could, I guess, can only really survive if they actually can themselves rig the election by purging voters, stopping people from voting by mail, even though it's a very popular system in Arizona with Republicans and Florida Republicans.
But is that vote --
TAPPER: Trump has voted. Trump has voted by mail.
GALLEGO: Voted -- Trump has voted for it. I mean, I think it's fine. He considers that fine because he's a senior. So I guess that's why he accepts that. But at the end of the day, you know, in Arizona, the voters of Arizona have decided that they want vote by mail.
It has been popular. Who in the right -- who has the right to actually interfere with that, with those Arizonans? Certainly Mike Lee from Utah does not have that right. The voters Arizonans have decided that this is the way they want to vote. Why does the federal government get to interfere with that?
TAPPER: Utah has had vote by mail for years.
GALLEGO: They have.
TAPPER: Let's turn to the war in Iran, which you just mentioned. Axios is reporting on a letter that you sent to the Energy secretary, Chris Wright, after the announcement of 172 million barrels of crude from the nation's strategic oil reserves would be released to help bring down gas prices. You say, quote, "I'm concerned that its effects will not be felt equally by all Americans, including Arizonans." What do you mean?
GALLEGO: Well, because, like, this is a very nerdy regional thing in terms of how we actually get gasoline in Arizona. We only have two pipes coming in. So by the time you actually release enough reserve from the -- petroleum from the reserve, it may not actually reach all of us. We're actually trying other efforts. For example, we're asking the EPA to actually temporarily put down a standard that's actually causing every Arizonan, almost every Arizonan, 50 cents more per gallon in terms of what kind of blend they use.
[17:30:13]
So this is a very dire situation. Right now, Americans are barely making it. They're barely able to pay the rent. They're barely able to get groceries. You know, a dollar increase in gas is going to affect them tremendously. And so there needs to be higher coordination, quicker coordination, faster moving of shipments of petroleum in order to make sure that, you know, whatever you're trying to do in terms of equalize the cost of gas is actually shared regionally across the country and not just in certain markets.
TAPPER: All right. Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.
Still ahead, life in Cuba with a lack of resources, oil, food, electricity, slowly coming back on. CNN is live there on the ground next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[17:35:17]
MARCO RUBIO, STATE SECRETARY: Bottom line is their economy doesn't work. That revolution is not even a revolution. That thing they have has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela.
They don't get subsidies anymore, so they're in a lot of trouble. And the people in charge, they don't know how to fix it. So they have to get new people in charge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: In our World Lead, that was Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for new leadership in Cuba as that island scrambles to restore power. Crews reconnected many electrical grids across Cuba, according to the island's Energy and Mines Ministry. Yesterday, a total collapse of the system left some 10 million people there without power.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann shows us now life in Cuba after that collapse, the first since the U.S. effectively shut off Cuba's oil supply from Venezuela.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A countrywide blackout, Cuba's entire electrical grid collapsing, plunging millions into darkness. Officials say there were no immediate faults detected at the time the grid collapsed as the investigation and repair works continue.
The outage comes after weeks of mounting pressure with the United States cutting off oil supplies to the island. Cuba depends heavily on that fuel to generate electricity, and without it, the system is buckling. The crisis is taking a hit on daily life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When it comes to cooking, you have to cook earlier because once night falls, well, you can imagine. The water, you can't use the pump to get water up to the roof. There are so many things. It generally affects everything, almost 100 percent of life. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There is no electricity, no food, no oil, no fuel, and private businesses have high prices because everything is going up now. Since the blackout, they have to move their goods by truck and transport. All of this is really very bad.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Frustration is spilling into the streets with protests over food shortages and constant outages. And into this crisis, controversial comments from Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, all my life, I've been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I'll be the honor of -- having the honor of taking Cuba. I think that's a big honor.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuban officials firing back, blaming Washington for deepening this crisis through sanctions and what they call an oil blockade. President Miguel Diaz-Canel says the country has not received oil shipments in months, calling the impact tremendous. Diaz- Canel also saying the government will not tolerate acts of, "Vandalism," referring to a violent protest where demonstrators on Saturday attempted to burn down the Communist Party headquarters in a small town.
At least five people were arrested, the government said. Despite power coming back online, much of Cuba remains in the dark, caught between a collapsing energy system and rising tensions with the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPMANN: And Jake, even though power is coming back on slowly, it's likely just to come back on for a couple hours. The underlying problems have brought down this power grid. The fact that it is so old and has been so underfunded over the years and now is starved of oil from abroad remains. So Cubans are preparing themselves for the worst.
Officials here are hoping the U.S. throws them a lifeline, but you just heard Marco Rubio a little while ago saying this island needs new leadership. That appears to be the policy of the Trump administration that Cuba's leaders need to have a shake up at the very top.
TAPPER: All right, Patrick Oppmann, live for us in Havana, Cuba. Thank you so much, as always.
[17:38:54]
Coming up, the Republican divide over Trump's war with Iran, further illustrated today when a top Trump official resigned over the war. Will the pushback get the president's attention? We're going to talk about the split next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, President Trump responding now to a scathing resignation letter from Joe Kent, his now former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said he could not in good conscience serve any longer because he did not support the war with Iran because Iran, in his view, "Posed no imminent threat to the United States."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, I read his statement. I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn't know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read his statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Odd, he said, I always thought he was weak on security about the guy he nominated to be head of the National Counterterrorism Center. But be that as it may, Kent also worked for the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. She posted on X a short while ago, "After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion."
The Post does not ever say that Trump was right to attack Iran or that Tulsi Gabbard agreed with the decision, but perhaps that's not surprising from someone who once tweeted this six years ago, no war with Iran, or someone who once said on the House floor this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TULSI GABBARD (R-HI): President Trump has committed an illegal and unconstitutional act of war, pushing our nation headlong into a war with Iran without any authorization from Congress, a war that would be so costly and devastating. It would make our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan look like a picnic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:45:16]
TAPPER: Just to be clear, that was after Tulsi -- after Donald Trump rather had ordered the assassination of an Iranian general in Iraq. That was not after, he had not taken any military action in Iran itself. By the way, Tulsi Gabbard, you're seeing right there, when she ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, she sold these no war with Iran t-shirts.
Let's discuss. Terry, Kent is the only Trump official to resign over this war, but they're, generally speaking, Republicans are very supportive of the effort, regardless of Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly or Joe Kent. A recent Q poll, 85 percent of Republicans support the military action. Washington Post poll, 75 percent Republicans. Given that strong support among the MAGA base, is this significant?
TERRY MORAN, JOURNALIST: To an extent. Events will decide the political fate of the president on this war. How the war goes, what the price of gas is, and this dissent may find followers if things head south. But to me, this is an astonishment. This is maybe Donald Trump's greatest achievement.
He took a party that was 85 percent against wars, foreign wars, especially against Iran, and on a dime, they turned, and now it's 85 percent for the war. It's amazing.
TAPPER: And Mike, Trump ran on a platform of no new wars.
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Right.
TAPPER: Obviously, we're in the middle of a new war. He's called it a war.
DUBKE: A continuation of a conflict that's lasted for 47 years, but sure, a new war.
TAPPER: Do you think that this will actually cause any sort of serious rift with the voters? Obviously, we don't know what Tulsi Gabbard really thinks. We don't know what J.D. Vance really thinks. Obviously, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, they're making their voices heard. Joe Kent did today. Is there actually any sign that there -- this will cause dissent within the GOP?
DUBKE: No, look, I don't think -- I don't -- I think this is a fairly low-impact event in the general scheme of things. I also think, though, that Tulsi Gabbard comment was more of a hostage statement than it was a statement --
TAPPER: Her tweet today.
DUBKE: Her tweet today, yes. But what it does expose, and what I think the debate really is that we could have, is what -- where is the administration think this is going, and how much support is the President internally going to be able to keep everyone together? Because you're right, the 85 percent going back and forth, except the folks inside the White House, look, when you're on a team, you got to all be pulling together. And this is, you know, one person leaving is not that big of a deal, but I'm very curious to see how the rest of the administration reacts to this.
TAPPER: So earlier in the show, somebody said that if Joe Kent's letter had just ended with Iran post no imminent threat, then this would be a much bigger deal. But it went on to read almost as if he was going to invoke the protocol of the elders of Zion.
Like, all of a sudden it was like blaming Israel for this war, for Iraq, for going after ISIS in Syria. And for that reason, it might not have the impact that it would have.
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the imminent threat piece of this is, and it caught my eye, for the reason that, and Tulsi Gabbard also said that, her language was very much like, and every administration official does this, where they say, he won the vast majority of American support by an overwhelming amount.
And therefore, he can basically do anything that he wants. And that's the language that comes after. When it comes to an imminent threat, they said Donald Trump decided that there was an imminent threat.
Nowhere has anyone said that career national security experts, the FBI, you know, and your top levels in national security have said that this is an imminent threat. Imminent threat does not mean state of mind. Donald Trump doesn't wake up one day and say, I believe Iran's an imminent threat. It is not a state of mind.
It is a legal term and a justification that the Department of Justice and the FBI use in order to start a conflict and use of force, both domestically and internationally. So I found it very interesting that Tulsi Gabbard did not back the imminent threat piece, but it's now clear that there are people that were in Trump's circle that they did not believe we were under an imminent threat, which is the language he has been using to get Republicans over to his side.
TAPPER: Certainly doesn't sound like a CIA director saying it's a slam dunk.
HINOJOSA: Right.
TAPPER: While this is going on, President Trump doesn't like the war coverage. He's made that very clear. Pete Hegseth doesn't like the war coverage. Terry, I want to bring up a graphic that he posted. He posted over the weekend, celebrating his efforts at, "Reshaping the media, talks about defunding NPR and PBS, talks about new ownership for CNN, and it talks about individuals leaving prominent news organizations.
Chuck Todd, you can look in there, Colbert leaving CBS, John Dickerson, Lester Holt, Joy Reid, and our own Terry Moran. What did you make when you saw that?
[17:50:02]
MORAN: Well, I'm in good company, but it's not about me. What this is about is the President advertising and declaring, along with his FCC commissioner, the willingness to use the power of the government to silence or to punish speech in the press that they don't like. This is an open threat to anyone that he doesn't like what they have to say.
I'm happy to be on there. I'm happy, you know, with a good company, but I'm much more worried about what this says about potential abuses of power, especially in wartime. Wartime has always been a time of censorship, and this guy's game.
TAPPER: Yes, do you have any?
DUBKE: Look, I'm a dissenting voice on this. All of these companies, CNN included, are for-profit corporations. They have to react to the marketplace. I think what the President was pointing out there is a reaction to the marketplace. As a longtime Republican, it really doesn't bother me so much.
TAPPER: But is market -- is it reacting to the marketplace, or is it reacting to oligarchs who control media organizations doing what they think President Trump wants them to do? HINOJOSA: Well, it's -- exactly. It is CNN and every network and every media outlet's responsibility to cover the war. And in this instance, it is, whenever he doesn't like something, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the media's responsibility to lift up the war. You know, it is --
DUBKE: Absolutely -- absolutely not.
HINOJOSA: And the Republican Party has been very clear. They claim they're the free speech party. And there have been instances where you have seen cracks within MAGA that whenever Trump goes towards sort of the free speech and tries to sort of get involved.
And so, I am very surprised there is not more outrage from MAGA to try to control the media and to control the narrative --
TAPPER: Are you really?
HINOJOSA: -- and shut it down. I am, actually. Where's Ted Cruz? Ted Cruz has been very vocal --
MORAN: He'll be vocal when the next Democratic president goes after "Fox News" root and branch on the same basis.
TAPPER: All right, thanks to all of you for being here.
Coming up, why the guidance is changing for cholesterol tests, why you might want to consider treatment as a young adult. I'm still waiting until your later years. We're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta for this one, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:56:33]
TAPPER: In our Health Lead, new medical guidance says some people might want to think about treating high cholesterol much earlier in life. In fact, treatment in your 30s could reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. Here for our Paging Dr. Gupta series is CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, what should we take away from these new recommendations?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the biggest thing is this, the conventional wisdom is, you know, around age 40, you start thinking about this, you get screened, and what they were looking at was your 10-year risk. What are things going to be like in the next 10 years for you? Everything is sort of frame shifted as a result of these 123-page guidelines, Jake, which I went through last night.
It basically moves things back 10 years, as you say, to age 30 and says what does the next 30 years look like for you or what does even your lifetime look like for you? And that's where the recommendations are getting based. Let me show you something I think is interesting. When you look at lipid disorders, cholesterol problems, triglyceride problems, of adults about 25 percent have abnormalities in the United States.
Twenty percent of adolescents, Jake, as well, people between the ages of 10 and 19, and I think that's part of what's sort of guiding these new recommendations as well. Lot of lipid problems pretty early in life. And so if you do the math and you say, well, how many people in the United States are between the ages of 30 and 40? Somewhere between 60 and 70 million people.
So that's been a population of people, a large population of people, which have not been targeted in the past. These guidelines sort of aim to change that.
TAPPER: So how does someone know whether they should start treatment? What does that even entail?
GUPTA: I think that the biggest -- first thing is to actually get tested. And the testing is remarkably young. I think this may surprise a lot of people, but they say between nine and 11 years old is the first time you should have a comprehensive sort of cholesterol lipid screening, nine to 11 years old. And then at 19 years old, that's right after adolescence, you should start getting screened every five years for cholesterol.
So again, there's lots of different risk factors, but the headlines for me in terms of when people should actually potentially get screened, they're going to look at your weight, they're going to look at your cholesterol numbers, kidney function, but if your LDL, which is the bad cholesterol, is over 160, if you have a strong family history of premature heart disease, Jake, you and I have talked about the fact that my dad had heart problems in his late 40s, for example, and then when they do the calculator, this prevent calculator it's called, you can get it online for free, if you have a high 30-year risk, that's probably when they're going to recommend taking drugs like statins. And again, that could start as early as 30 years old.
TAPPER: Are there any of these recommendations that we should be cautious about?
GUPTA: Yes, I think a lot. I mean, just philosophically, we're talking about adding millions of more people on medications, many of them for the rest of their lives. So if you're 30 years old, you could be taking these for, you know, 40, 50 years, maybe even longer. So that's something I think, just to in mind. And we don't know the overall benefits 40 to 50 years down the road.
But in terms of more immediate side effects, sometimes these statin medications can cause muscle pain, muscle weakness, liver damage. They make your insulin not work as well and therefore your blood sugar can increase also. So you know there are significant side effects. Nothing in the guideline says you should or even make recommendations. They say this is a shared decision between patient and physician, again based on 123 pages of new guidelines, Jake.
[17:59:58]
TAPPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. And Sanjay is going to take your questions on this topic. You can scan the QR code on your screen right now to submit a question. And Sanjay will be back tomorrow to answer some of your viewer questions.
