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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Protests Outside ICE Detention Center; Ex-CIA Official Charged With Stealing Gold Bars; New Poll Shows Tight Race for L.A. Mayor. Bessent: Nothing "Untoward" About Trump's Face On $250 Bill. Aired 6- 7p ET

Aired May 28, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

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

This hour, protesters gathering outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey for the seventh day in a row, while inside, lawyers say detainees are on a hunger strike. They're protesting the conditions that they're enduring. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, toured the site yesterday. He joins me live to discuss what he saw in moments.

Plus, a new poll shows an incredibly tight race for Los Angeles mayor with former reality T.V. star Spencer Pratt in striking distance of current Democratic Mayor Karen Bass. So, what are Pratt's plans to fix the most pressing issues in one of America's biggest cities? I'm going to ask him ahead.

Plus, a former CIA officer has been charged with stealing tens of millions of dollars in gold bars and foreign currency from the U.S. government. Not only that, the FBI claims he only got the job by lying about his military service and education. How did all of this get by the CIA?

And final preparations underway right now for a risky rescue mission after five men became trapped deep inside a flooded cave in the country of Laos.

[18:00:01]

An international group of divers was able to find the men yesterday more than a week after they got stuck there, but now the race is on to safely get them out through high waters and tight passageways.

The Lead tonight, protests have erupted in New Jersey, which has become the latest home to the battle over President Trump's immigration policy, specifically an ICE jail in the capital city of Newark, known as Delaney Hall. This was the scene last night, demonstrators filling the streets and erecting makeshift barriers, federal agents wielding batons and deploying pepper spray.

The detainees inside that facility are reportedly on day seven of a hunger and labor strike over inhumane conditions, they say. That's according to activists and attorneys representing those being held.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is on the ground for us there. Shimon, tell us what you're seeing there.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's really the first time probably since January in Minneapolis where we're seeing such a large presence outside an ICE facility with protesters here gathered. You're seeing this large number of ICE officers. They've been out here for now nearly a week trying to secure this facility, keep some of the protesters out. As you showed in that video from last night, there were some clashes. There were six arrests.

Now, many of the people have been gathering here over concerns about the conditions inside, saying that the conditions inside are inhumane. People are not getting the proper treatment, medical treatment. The food is not properly being served. So, there are a lot of conditions inside that is worrying a lot of the people that have been gathering outside.

But this is really the first time, I think, what's significant here is that we're seeing these kinds of conditions, these kinds of situations, clashes with ICE officers, since January in Minneapolis. And many of the people have been out here for several days holding signs. Much of what we saw early in January, we're seeing some ICE officers here, Jake, move through the crowd.

Not entirely clear why they're doing that. But usually when that happens, as you know, is when we start to see some of the protesters get agitated, and then there's an increase in activity. So, we don't exactly know why that's happening.

But many of the people here want the detainees to get the proper treatment, to get the proper care, and that's certainly the concern out here. Usually in the night, in the evening as we get closer to the evening is when some of the clashes start to pick up.

But most of the people have been out here have been peaceful. You're hearing some music and people chanting. And we'll see, but they really want to get the proper care they feel for the people inside. Also, I should note two things. The New Jersey governor said that she tried to get her health inspectors inside, that the facility would not give them the full access that she wanted.

The Department of Homeland Security is denying those allegations. And instead saying that if things don't get better here in terms of the security that they may pull the CBP officers and agents from Newark Airport that process international travelers and bring them here, which could severely disrupt some of the international travel coming into this area.

TAPPER: All right. Shimon Prokupecz in Newark, New Jersey, thank you so much. And I misspoke earlier. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, not Newark. I knew that.

In addition to activists, Democratic lawmakers have visited this facility to witness what's happening firsthand, and that includes my next guest, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Senator, you went inside the facility yesterday. You said it is a moral stain in our nation. What did you see? What did the detainees tell you?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Well, remember, this is being run by a private corporation that showered Republicans with cash, have a billion-dollar operation. So, it is a private, for-profit prison now profiting off of people's pain.

Inside, the conditions were insufficient and unacceptable, from lots of complaints about medical conditions not getting the proper treatment, from women not getting the proper gynecological care when they were in severe crisis, and obviously we're hearing complaints about the food and more.

Remember, these people are New Jersey's neighbors. There are people in there that I talk to that have been in our country not years, but decades, who have American children and grandchildren, who have committed no crimes. The majority of the people there have committed no crimes.

And so this is a problem and a moral abomination on multiple levels. And here is what the president and his ICE are doing right now, is they're not de-conflicting a situation, they're escalating a situation with literally my phone right before we began talking blowing up because airport officials are saying that what the next administration is going to do to the city of Newark is target our airport and stop international flights because they don't think international flights should be going to so-called sanctuary states.

So, I now see again, this is a president with a chaotic, cruel, and corrupt immigration enforcement, and we're seeing the epicenter now moving to Newark, New Jersey.

[18:05:03]

TAPPER: So, just for our viewers you're looking at live images from Newark, New Jersey, right now. You said that the people in there hadn't broken the law. They obviously are in this country illegally. My question for you is, are they there waiting for immigration hearings? Are they there waiting to be deported? Like who are they exactly?

BOOKER: Yes. So, I want to be clear. There are clearly some people, I talked to one guy nine years ago, had a DWI charge. That charge, that's breaking the law. On the whole, most of the people there, their only crime, if you want to say it's a crime, is to be in this country without documentation. Many of the people I talked to were already trying to work through the process to get green cards and to get permanent legal status, and it was during that process in which they were pulled off of our streets and out of our neighborhoods.

So, again, that population that is in there, this is not the higher security facility that's in Elizabeth. This is a less secure facility because the people in there do not necessarily pose the kind of threats, the dangerous criminals, the people that Donald Trump said he was going to be focused on. And what we have now is a rapidly escalating situation that this administration, especially with their actions, are threatening our airlines and our airports right now, is, seems to be intent on escalating and not de-conflicting.

TAPPER: Yes.

BOOKER: And I tell you this, we're coordinating with state officials, county and local officials. I'm working with my delegation to continue and up the oversight. The governor, who's trying to bring health inspectors and being denied access, and even New York delegations officials. In fact, I was there with Congressman Espaillat. We're going to do everything we can to end this nightmare that Donald Trump has not only brought into our communities in New Jersey, but clearly across the country.

TAPPER: Tell me about the conditions inside. Is it just like -- we've seen images of, from facilities, you know, towards the border where there's just like big open-air -- well, not open-air, but, like, big, you know, fenced in places with like, you know, reams of bunk beds. What is it like? Are there kids in there?

BOOKER: Well, there are no children in there, although I did meet 18- year-olds and 19-year-olds. Again, I was very struck by the thick New Jersey accent of one young man who was telling me that he doesn't even know the country they're trying to send him back to, has no memory of that country, whatsoever, graduated from one of our high schools, is a decorated athlete.

So, these are our neighbors. These are people that are a part of our community, and they're enduring facilities that are not meeting their adequate medical needs. Many of them told me very difficult stories. There are people there, one woman who just gave birth weeks ago, is postpartum, was nurse feeding her American baby, and was pulled into that, again, with no criminal charges, but having a lack of documentation.

This is not the dignity that we should be affording to people. It is not only an assault on their dignity, it's an implication of our humanity that we're allowing this private corporation, for-profit corporation to provide such inadequate facilities.

TAPPER: You're on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I do want to ask you about the news out of Iran. We've learned today that the U.S. and Iran have reached a tentative memorandum of understanding that would theoretically, if President Trump signs off on it, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and start a 60-day negotiation period to address Iran's nuclear program. Deal or no deal, before this war, the strait was open, and we were already in talks with Iran about their nuclear program.

You sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. You've run for president yourself. How would you get us out of this war?

BOOKER: Well, I would not have put myself in a position where Donald Trump has, where now he's negotiating out of a position of weakness and not a position of strength. Here is this minor country that has taken the largest, strongest nation on the planet Earth and brought us to a stalemate where Donald Trump, who said he was going to get a complete and utter surrender, has failed to do so. He's made the situation worse, and now he doesn't have a deal. He has an agreement to try to get us back to where we were before this war, which is opening the Strait of Hormuz. And understand this, Iran, now he's allowing our enemy in this case to now have access to billions of dollars like he already did when he allowed them to sell oil to the Chinese.

So, this man has weakened us as a nation. He's given away all of our leverage, which we had before this war started. He has shown that this weaker country can now do like Ukraine is doing to Russia with just low-cost drones, continue to inflict damage and menace our allies and ourselves. This is a disaster, and the people that are paying for it, beyond the awful death of 14 soldiers and hundreds more injured, but the American people, we're spending billions of more collectively at the pump for consumer goods. We're seeing inflation going up, all because of this president's disaster. So, he should not have put ourselves in this in the first place.

What would I have done? In his first term, when he had a deal that was working, where Iran had no highly enriched uranium, when Iran actually had oversight on its milling, its mining, its centrifuges, when the International Atomic Energy Commission was doing spot inspections, he tore that deal up.

[18:10:06]

And what did Iran do? It raced to enrich uranium, and then Donald Trump bombed them and said that he completely obliterated their nuclear program. Well, he lied to the American people because months later, that was one of the pretexts he used to go to war.

This is a disaster. It is truly him hurting the American people and creating chaos, and, again, miring us in the Middle East.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, thanks for joining us.

The treasury secretary was pressed today on President Trump's new $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. Hear how he tried to defend the massive deal next.

Plus, just yesterday, a concert lineup was rolled out as part of the America 250 celebration. But just 24 hours later, multiple singers are saying, no way. We'll explain what happened ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent today citing ongoing litigation dodged questions about President Trump's settlement with the IRS of this lawsuit and the ensuing plan as part of the settlement to set up this $1.776 billion reparation fund for victims of what the president considers the weaponization of the Justice Department during the Biden administration.

[18:15:08]

Here is all Secretary Scott Bessent would say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: President Trump is a great American who has endured more than ten years, ten years of nonstop harassment and weaponization from the federal and state government actors. A bad actor at the IRS leaked more than 400,000 tax returns, including the Trump family, all the employees, and that's how we got here now. No American should be targeted for political reasons, and every citizen deserves fair treatment and full protection of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: With us now, Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska. We brought you some clips of a feisty town hall in his district yesterday, you might remember. Congressman, what do you make of the treasury secretary's answer?

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): Well, I think Donald Trump has been under assault from actors in the federal government for a long time, but so have pro-lifers, so has Turning Point USA, so have school board members that were questioning, or school board were -- or people who cared about what the school board was doing. Parents, they were under assault in this lawfare world under Joe Biden.

Listen, I think the fund makes sense from the standpoint of stopping the federal government from weaponizing against everyday Americans. I really do think that we have to talk about what the purpose of the fund is. If you're a pro-life American and the Department of Justice is screening juries, asking about their religion, asking them questions about whether this is the right call or that is the right call, that is completely out of bounds and it should be stopped.

TAPPER: So, if that's your take on this all, and let's just posit for the sake of argument that all of that was inappropriate lawfare, I think there are probably people that would disagree with you, but let's just for the sake of argument, what about President Trump telling Attorney General Bondi to go after Adam Schiff and Letitia James and James Comey? What about the investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson? What about the investigation into E. Jean Carroll for -- you know, allegedly for perjury? Do you not see that other people can look at what's going on right now and say, that's also lawfare, except it's against the president's critics?

FLOOD: Well, in those situations that you just talked about, it takes a grand jury on the federal system probable cause before they indict.

TAPPER: Same thing with Trump.

FLOOD: And as we have seen several times throughout this current president's term, his second term, they have attempted to get grand jury indictments, and grand juries have said no. However, like we're talking -- like when I see the fund, I'm thinking about pro-life Americans, I'm thinking about Turning Point USA, about people that just disagree with their government.

You know, James Comey was a government actor. He had government resources and arguably did things that were out of bounds, you know? Jean Carroll, it's been you know, proven in some sense that she, in fact, did have her efforts underwritten by a donor. And so that, if true, is perjury.

But, hey, we've got a court system that will protect the innocent here or those that prosecutors can't meet their burden on. We have to look at the big picture. We have to look at what everyday Americans are facing and how this all plays out so that we can stop warfare lawfare, this misuse of going after anybody. And if it's happening under President Trump, then those individuals should receive compensation from a fund like this. So, it does make sense in that regard.

TAPPER: The fund came up at your town hall earlier this week. Your answer got something of a smattering of applause that's worth listening to. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLOOD: I clearly think Congress needs to have an oversight role in this before I can sign off or support this. But listen, this is less than a week old, so I am going to be back in Washington on Tuesday. I will say this, though: I do not want $1 of that going to anybody who physically assaulted police officers, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: There are a bunch of those people who physically assaulted police officers who are going to apply for that fund. There's an article about it in Slate today. I mean, people who were convicted or pleaded guilty even, who are applying for those dollars. If you don't want it to go to them, what are you going to do about it?

FLOOD: Well, we do have to have some Congressional oversight, and I don't want one dime going to any of any insurrectionist who was in that Capitol on January 6th, 2021, that violently was attacking or in any way assaulting a law enforcement officer or anybody else. And I think I speak for the great majority of Americans, take party aside.

TAPPER: All right.

FLOOD: What happened on that day in that Capitol was so offensive.

[18:20:03]

The idea that they could even be considered victims is offensive. And I would go a step further, and I said this at the time. I disagreed with anybody involved in that ever getting a pardon. I just do not think we are looking at the same video, if that's the case. But what I saw does not deserve a pardon. It does not deserve a victim's fund or one dime of our taxpayer dollars.

TAPPER: Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska, thanks so much. It's always good to have you on, sir. FLOOD: My pleasure.

TAPPER: A former CIA officer is behind bars tonight accused of stealing millions of dollars of gold bars from the federal government. How does this much currency even go missing? CNN's John Miller is here to explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, the shocking arrest of a former CIA officer. The FBI says it arrested David Rush after finding hundreds of gold bars, millions of dollars, and more than three dozen watches, many of them pricey Rolexes, all stashed away in his Virginia home.

[18:25:08]

And according to court filings, Rush, who had top secret clearance, repeatedly lied on applications about his military service and his education.

Let's bring in CNN's John Miller to discuss. John, how in the world could the CIA miss all of this?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: It's a great question, Jake. You know, when I got my security clearance renewal, not even the original, they still went back to my high school through all of my employment records, and double-checked everything that was in the application. In this case, you have an individual who claimed, according to the complaint filed by the FBI, to be a former Navy test pilot, like Top Gun, to have run 145-member Top Gun school between the Navy and the Army, to have had a master's degree from one university and another degree from another.

None of this stuff, according to the FBI, checked out, but that's before we even get to $40 million in gold bars. So, we have to ask what kind of job did he have at the CIA that he could dial up orders for money of, you know, gold bars in the millions, foreign currency in the millions, a lot of questions. It could be the tip of the iceberg here, really.

TAPPER: What could have tipped the agency off to this?

MILLER: A couple of things. Number one, it could have just been the sheer amount of money that he ordered up in terms of gold bars and cash and then a year into that saying, well, where are the results from this? Tell us on this operation. Two, it could have been when his security clearance came up for renewal, he might have gotten into the polygraph and crashed there. And, three, it could be just that he took a lot of foreign currency, according to the FBI, but what they found at home was $2 million in U.S. currency, suspicious transaction reports from banks, converting that money into cash. We don't know what the tripwire was, but it tripped.

TAPPER: What is the damage assessment from all this? MILLER: Well, it's interesting. You know, the cases that you and I know, FBI agent Robert Hanssen spying for the Russians, Aldrich Ames or Jim Nicholson, turncoat CIA agents that gave devastating amounts of classified information. In this case, it seems all the money he had, according to the FBI and the CIA, came from the CIA as opposed to a foreign power. So, the main damage may be just to reviewing the systems to figure out how all of this slipped by the nets.

But there's one other question we've got to ask here. Sure, we want to know what was his position in the CIA as a senior executive who could call up this amount of money for an operation, but the bigger question is what was the op? What operation cost $40 million in this kind of funds, foreign cash and gold? Is that to recruit Iranian insurgents? Is it dealing with Mexican cartels? Is it recruiting insurgents in Cuba? It has to be major operation and quite unique, and I'm sure that the CIA is not happy about the questions circling around even that.

TAPPER: All right. John Miller, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

He rose to fame as a reality T.V. star on MTV, and now Spencer Pratt is polling near the top of the field in the race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. He joins me to explain his top priorities, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, it is an extremely tight race for Los Angeles mayor right now. A new U.C. Berkeley/Los Angeles Times poll shows the top three candidates in a close battle ahead of next Tuesday's primary election. All three are polling in the mid to low 20s among likely primary voters. Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is at 26 percent, L.A. City Council member Nithya Raman at 25 percent, and former reality T.V. star of the show, The Hills, Spencer Pratt, is at 22 percent. One in ten likely voters in this poll say that they're still undecided.

Joining us now is L.A. Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt. Thanks so much for joining us, Mr. Pratt. I appreciate it.

There have been several A.I.-generated videos that have really made your campaign go viral. They're pretty compelling, particularly making Mayor Bass look like a villain, you are a superhero.

Now, your campaign is not making them, we're told, but you have re- shared them at a time when A.I. is criticized by many, especially in Los Angeles, over how much energy and water the technology consumes, and the very real fears about A.I. taking jobs away from tens of thousands of Los Angelinos. And I'm just wondering, do you think about those concerns at all when sharing these, albeit compelling, videos?

SPENCER PRATT, LOS ANGELES MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Yes. To be clear, I've never made an A.I. video. I've actually brought a job back to Hollywood. All my campaign is shot on a Red camera by a director that had to move out of L.A. to Nashville, and I brought him a job back to L.A. Again, you know, if I could go back in time, maybe I wouldn't have reposted a couple, but if I saw myself for a quick second dressed as Batman or Prattman and it said, vote for Spencer Pratt, it got a quick repost.

But the A.I. actually has not really helped my campaign because a lot of the messaging in it isn't what I focus on. It's not laser-focused on the failures of the city leaders, and there, there's a little too many characters in it.

Again, Mayor Bass and Councilwoman Raman have been in charge for the last ten years almost in destroying Hollywood and Los Angeles. So, if anybody's concerned about jobs, they've already cost L.A. countless jobs. If anything, I'm the only one who loves Hollywood and is going to fight for all the independent artists, creators, writers, producers, to bring that back to Los Angeles.

And, again, you know, at the end of the day, these A.I. artists are creators, so that is the argument. You know, art is art. I don't judge the person that made something very compelling that people love to watch or somebody that made a really good song that people love to listen to.

[18:35:08]

It's not my job to judge art. And, again, I haven't made a single A.I. video, so --

TAPPER: Okay.

PRATT: -- it is what it is.

TAPPER: Let's talk about one of the most compelling and important stories and issues in Los Angeles, homelessness. When asked in a recent interview about what your plans are for the estimated 40,000 homeless in L.A., you said that 60 percent of the homeless are not from L.A. or California, they're bused in by scam rehabs and scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits, and that you would unplug them and ultimately they would all go to Seattle. So, essentially, they would be forced to leave.

Now, I want to ask you about an issue that's near and dear to this show. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as of 2024, there were about 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles. Do you think the homeless veterans should also be essentially kicked out of the city?

PRATT: Yes. To be clear, what I was saying when I unplugged these NGOs that are stealing $24 billion of our taxpayer dollars, these NGOs are going to go to a different city to keep their cartel scam going. How many people they take with them, that's on their scam. I personally am the mayor that's going to actually allocate our tax money and get these people mandatory treatment, whether it's to get off the fentanyl, whether it's to get off the super meth, or maybe it's psychiatric medical facilities, like, you know, I've had many conversations with Dr. Phil about this, and he said, Spencer, these people, some of them don't just need therapy. They need psychiatric medicine. So, again, I love America. I love veterans. I care about these people that are dying seven days -- seven a day on the street. And the reality is, Mayor Bass and Councilman Raman, they've been in charge for almost ten years of these homeless people, drug addicts. It's a mix. The DEA says it's 90 percent drug addiction problem in Los Angeles. The people in charge, they're the ones letting this happen.

The reason I am surging in these fake polls or surging on social media is because I'm the one who's saying, enough of these corrupt politicians taking our tax money and then increasing homelessness and death on our street. I'm the one with the compassion that's going to get these people the help so they have a chance to not only get back into their community but go back to the states they -- a lot of these people are stuck here. These scams got them here, and they want to go back to their homes once they are sober and able to go back to their families.

I had this lovely lady crying to me in South Central earlier in this week, and she said, Spencer, my daughter is not homeless. She's addicted to meth in the streets of downtown L.A. She needs somebody to help her get off the meth. And Mayor Bass and Councilman Raman, they think empty beds. They think it's a housing problem. It's a drug addiction problem. Of course, we need to house and find shelter and rehabs for these people, but we need to have mandatory treatment for people that are on drugs, naked in the street, attacking taxpayers, attacking moms, making kids unsafe.

The videos that are shared with me that I can't post online because my accounts would get deleted are so horrific, the amount of naked drug addicts in front of children all across the city of Los Angeles doing horrific things that is just allowed because there's no more enforcing of any laws in the city. And as mayor, all I really have to do to make everyone safe, is enforce all the laws that exist, that any functioning, successful city does. They enforce the law, and there's consequences for crime.

And, you know, again, this is not rocket science. The reason I have a success is I'm telling people the truth with common sense. This isn't political. I'm not connected to any political party, no matter how much people try to say. Only reason I got in this race is because I was exposing the criminal negligence that burned down my town, and when nothing was done about it, and the mayor was just going to run unopposed and get guaranteed four more years, I said, it's enough. I need to step up for my community and for Los Angeles and stop this.

That's what people are voting for, a mandate and change, and that's what I represent.

TAPPER: So, you are new to politics, and there's a lot of people don't know about you. I know you've been criticized for, in the past, having gone on the Alex Jones show. Our KFile investigative team was interested when they heard that because some of your critics have been talking about that. And it's interesting. In a series of tweets back in July 2019, you praised this film or films, rather, 2009, I should say, in -- back then, you praised Loose Change. That's a series of conspiracy films central to the 9/11 truther movement alleging that the attacks on 9/11 were an inside job. You wrote, quote, anyone who can watch that and not see the truth is blind.

Now, around the same time of these posts, you went on Alex Jones' show, and you suggested 9/11 was an inside job.

[18:40:02]

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX JONES, HOST, INFOWARS: What about government-sponsored terror? What about 9/11? What about governments staging terror attacks? Is 9/11 an inside job from your research?

PRATT: Not from my research, but from your research, it 100 percent is. Because I can't even believe that it took me seeing your film to know about Building 7. How did that not hit the mainstream media?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you think that, do you still think that 9/11 was an inside job?

PRATT: What I've learned, you know, almost 20 years later is it's actually the negligence of the people in power. I would have loved to have gone along with when my house burned down and my parents' house burned down, everyone's saying, it was lasers. It was a land grab. It was just like Maui. But it's not. The reality is people in charge fail us as taxpayers. And when you're listening to that audio, that's a 21, 22-year-old person. I'm now 42 and have experienced city negligence, state negligence. And I've learned a lot about -- it's actually worse than a conspiracy. It's that we have people in charge that make mistakes that get people killed.

So, unfortunately, you know, I was young and naive to understanding how there is people that will fail citizens across the board. And I would have to go back and look at all that. I haven't watched any of those things in 20 years or whatever, but I bet now with my fresh eyes of surviving the city's negligence that burned 12 people in my neighborhood alive, 7,000 structures.

TAPPER: It was horrible.

PRATT: and seeing how fast the internet said that was a conspiracy, and how I had to be like, no, this is how it happened, this, and this. Now, with new fresh eyes, I'm sure I would look at that a lot different.

I think any time we see something that's just so shocking and unbelievable, we as humans want to try to find excuses, but sometimes the excuses are just real simple. People failed us as taxpayers.

TAPPER: So, that interview was in 2009, you were almost -- it was in July 2009, so you were almost 26 years old, just to be clear. Do you regret saying that? I mean, do you now accept that 9/11 was because of Al-Qaeda terrorists, not because of an inside job by the U.S. government?

PRATT: Well, no. Again, what I'm saying is I believe a lot of people failed to allow the Al-Qaeda terrorists to get in. So, I think the negligence in government allowed, not on purpose, but just failures.

TAPPER: Okay.

PRATT: They didn't burn my house down on purpose. They just failed.

And, again, everything I've done in the past, I was learning. I'm not perfect. I didn't run to be mayor because I have some perfect past. I ran because there was no other fighter to stop corruption now. I was happy just living my life, feeding hummingbirds with my two kids, taking them to school. This was not -- I didn't have this life to become one of these career politicians where I didn't make mistakes, I wasn't human, I didn't say dumb or stupid things for 20 years in a very public light.

So, you know, regret, of course, I have 20 years of regret. I've talked about how many regrets, but that doesn't connect to my mission now. Once you lose everything, once your parents lose everything, once your neighbors lose everything, you become a new person. The person I am now is very different than the person before January 7th. So --

TAPPER: All right. L.A. mayoral candidate, Spencer Pratt, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

PRATT: Thank you very much.

TAPPER: Could we soon get new $250 bills with President Trump's face on them? CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked the treasury secretary about these reports. Hear his response. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:20]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: In our politics lead today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defending the motion to put President Trump's face on a brand new thing called a $250 bill.

Bessent at today's White House press briefing had this exchange with CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Politically, do you think it's a good idea, though, when people are struggling to afford gas and groceries?

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Look, I think it has -- I think that it's bifurcated that do you think we should have a 250th anniversary? The celebration?

COLLINS: Well, that's happening anyway --

(CROSSTALK)

BESSENT: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But, Kaitlan, it's not happening anyway. It's happening because it's being funded by private citizens, by the federal government, by state governments, by municipal governments to celebrate our country. And I don't think that there's anything untoward about having the president of the United States, the person who was president of United States on the 250th anniversary bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Oh, boy. Here's the panel. And let me -- Hillary Clinton is Trump's opponent in 2016, tried to take a little jab at this. She posted on X about this $250 bill. "By the end of Trump's term, it will be just enough to buy one gallon of gas and a carton of eggs."

But more seriously, Senator Warner, Democrat of Virginia, says that's illegal. You cannot print money in America that has a living person on it. So the person treasury got moved aside -- but oh, we're going to play this out. Let's -- let's play this. Sorry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): That is illegal. You cannot print money in America that has a living person on it. So the person the treasury got moved aside. But how much more evidence before we all realize that Donald Trump doesn't care about affordability? He doesn't care about your family. He cares about self-aggrandizement, whether it's ballroom slush funds, his face on money illegally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I think when he said the person treasury guy moved aside this, referring to an official at the bureau of engraving and printing who was pushing back on this, apparently, and suddenly found herself with a new bailiwick of a profession.

Anyway, what do you make of all this?

RAMESH PONNURU, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, yeah, it's illegal. It's been illegal for most of U.S.'s history.

TAPPER: Since the 1800s.

PONNURU: Yeah, since the 1860s.

TAPPER: Some jerk put himself on a penny or something.

PONNURU: Right. A mid-level bureaucrat at treasury, which, frankly, I would have done, too, if I'd been him. But, you know, there's obvious civic reason for not having the politicians of the moment be on the official currency of the U.S. government. I think that's a tradition that we ought to maintain. And, of course, Secretary Bessent's answer just -- was a word salad. It didn't make any sense.

TAPPER: No, it didn't. Karen, what do you make of the argument from Mr. Bessent that, hey,

America is having its 250th birthday and nothing wrong with putting the president of the United States on a brand new $250 bill.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So I brought a prop from 1976, which my father bought me a bunch of these, which I still have.

TAPPER: Thomas Jefferson.

FINNEY: Thomas Jefferson on the front.

TAPPER: On the two.

FINNEY: The signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back. And as you may recall, it's all about America, right? What a lost opportunity to make this whole moment not about Donald Trump, which is his main focus. Forget about the economy. Forget about the war. He cares about himself.

And what a lost opportunity to make it about America, to make it about bringing people together, American values, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence documents, which Trump seems to feel hostile towards at times. I think that's -- to me, that's part of it. And I think Americans are probably angry that the guy has time to do this, but not time to lower our costs.

PONNURU: It's really like a flagrant lack of interest on the president's part in anything that the public actually prioritizes.

TAPPER: But also, like, I mean, it is if it was a $2.50 bill, maybe it would be a little less politically tone deaf, but 250 bucks is a lot of money to a lot of people.

FINNEY: Absolutely.

PONNURU: But a little bit less every day.

TAPPER: A little bit less every day. Speaking of America's 250th, multiple artists who were listed to perform on the National Mall for the celebration of America are now suggesting they don't want to perform.

Young MC busted a move on Facebook saying, quote, "I have informed my agents that I will not be performing at the Freedom 250 event. The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event and despite the claims by the organizers that the event is nonpartisan, Spin Magazine describes it as Trump-backed. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged."

Morris Day and the Time, who are also listed to perform, posted on Instagram, quote. "Morris Day and The Time will not be performing at the Great American State Fair." You'll notice the caption of the post includes, quote, its a no for me. The, quote/unquote, "singers" of Milli Vanilli have also said they won't be performing or lip syncing or whatever it is they exactly do. I mean, there's not good publicity. PONNURU: You know, even before the withdrawals, I had some questions

about that event. I mean, it seemed like it wasn't just celebrating U.S. history, but really drawing from stars from U.S. history that we hadn't heard of in some decades. Yeah, it does show how hard it is in this era. And I think it's been made worse by Trump himself and how he's chosen to conduct his presidency to have a unifying event.

If you think back to the 1976 bicentennial, the country had gone through some very serious divisions, but its leaders and it's sort of people in high positions in the culture still felt this need to be unifying, which we just don't have anymore.

TAPPER: I want to also note this reaction to a story in "ProPublica" today that I found kind of shocking. It says the White House asked the Pentagon to approve a loan worth $620 million to a company that has ties to Donald Trump, Jr., the White House in this story is directly intervening.

Now the Pentagon insists that Trump Jr. played no role. A spokesperson for Don Jr. says he had no involvement. But we get stories like this every day, it seems.

FINNEY: Yeah. And I would just say in the context of a midterm election year, the ads write themselves, particularly at a time when I will tell you in some of the internal polling that I'm seeing Americans, unprompted, are saying that they feel like the corruption in Washington is keeping their costs high. So something like that -- I mean, again, the ad writes itself, were spending nearly $2 billion on a slush fund. Donald Trump's son is enriching himself. And Americans are left thinking, wait a second.

What to -- what you just said. How you're not even thinking about me? What about our concerns? What about the things that you promised you would get done for us? And we do see a lot of these stories, and frankly, they are so much more common than I think we've seen in -- at least in my lifetime, coming out of a White House.

PONNURU: Anytime I read one of those stories, I go back again to the late 1970s and remember that Jimmy Carter felt compelled to put his peanut farm in a blind trust.

TAPPER: Yeah.

PONNURU: This is not meeting anything close to that standard.

TAPPER: I mean, not only that, I mean, I think one of our Democratic commentator friends said something like on Twitter said, like, Don, Jr. is who you all thought Hunter Biden was.

FINNEY: That's right. And I --

PONNURU: Hunter Biden was bad enough.

FINNEY: Right. And -- well, and no doubt there will be more stories like this. And we know that there are millions and billions more that his family is making. TAPPER: Thanks to both of you.

The new measures introduced today to keep crowds safe when the World Cup kicks off in just a few weeks. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:59]

TAPPER: Our last lead start in our world lead. Renewed hope for the five men trapped deep inside a flooded cave in the nation of Laos. After more than a week of hiding in damp, pitch black darkness, the villagers were found by a rescue team Wednesday, and now the race is on to try and figure out how to get the men out through flooded passageways and cramped spaces, crews were trying to send water and food and medicine into the trapped group while they worked out an escape plan.

In our law and justice lead today in Australian -- an Austrian man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to planning a foiled terrorist attack, on that Taylor Swift concert. The man was arrested in 2024, the day before swift was set to perform three shows in Vienna and a final statement in court today. He said, quote, "I would just like to say that I'm sorry," unquote.

In our sports lead today, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it's restricting drones at World Cup events, which start next month. Drones will not be allowed to fly within three miles of the stadiums, or any fan events on game days. Anyone who violates the restrictions could face fines up to $100,000, not to mention criminal charges.

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bluesky, and on TikTok @JakeTapper.

You can follow the show on X and Instagram @TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can watch the show on the CNN app.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.