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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Supreme Court Decision Left Trump With Multiple Losses And One Major Win; Supreme Court Expected To Rule On Birthright Citizenship; Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Is Interviewed About Major Questions Loom Four Months After Deadly Strike On Iran Elementary School; Officials: Venezuela Quake Death Toll Rises To 1,700 Plus; Rape Survivors Convene With Activist Gisele Pelicot. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired June 29, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Thanks so much to my panel. Really appreciate all of you for being here. Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget, you can stream "The Arena" live. Catch up whenever you want. It's in the CNN app. Just scan the Q.R. code below. You can also catch up by listening to "The Arena" podcast. We are also on X and Instagram @thearenacnn. Would love to see you there. But don't go anywhere. Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead." Hi, Jake. Happy Monday.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN LEAD WASHINGTON ANCHOR: Happy Monday to you, Kasie. We will look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

HUNT: See you soon.

TAPPER: The U.S. Supreme Court just expanded Trump's presidential powers, he says, at a time when it is most needed. "The Lead" starts right now.

President Trump bragging about his big win at the U.S. Supreme Court today on federal firings and going off about the other cases that he lost. We're going to break down the implications of these rulings and what it means for you.

Plus, breaking news in Venezuela. The death toll from last week's earthquake just surpassed 1,700 lives lost. I'm going to talk to a U.S. team responsible for a number of rescues.

And yesterday marked four months since Tomahawk missiles took out an elementary school in Iran, killing more than 100 children, perhaps more than 150 children. Ahead, what the Trump administration is saying about the strike, what they're not saying, the status of the investigation, and the pain of the parents who will never see their children again.

Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. We begin in our "Law and Justice" lead. United States Supreme Court decision today left President Donald Trump with multiple losses and one major win that expands the power of the presidency. Let's give you a rundown of the three big cases. First, there's Trump versus Cook. Let's bring out the three cases now. Here we go. First one is Trump versus Cook. The Supreme Court rejected. So, that's a Trump loss. Hold on one second. Rejected Trump's attempt to immediately fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Trump wanted to fire her over allegations of questionable credibility of mortgage fraud, which she denies. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said Cook was entitled to notice and a fair opportunity to respond to Trump's claims. But the case is not over because it now heads back to a lower court. Regardless, in this case, the Supreme Court recognized some semblance of the Federal Reserve's independence, having been established by Congress as an independent government agency in 1913.

OK, next up, in another more significant ruling, Trump versus Slaughter, the court expanded the president's power. That's a big W for the president on this one. It expanded his power to fire officials at independent agencies. Trump v. Slaughter. Win for Trump. Senator Rebecca Slaughter, one of two Democratic commissioners on the five- person Federal Trade Commission. In March of last year, Slaughter and the other Democrat, Alvaro Bedoya, who's here with us and we're going to talk to him in a sec, they were fired without cause. The Trump administration saying their service was inconsistent with the administration's priorities. In a 6-3 ruling along strictly ideological lines, the justices overturned the nearly century-old precedent where presidents had to show cause like malfeasance to fire independent agency leaders. Slaughter today reacted to this ruling. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBECCA SLAUGHTER, FORMER FTC COMMISSIONER: I am very sad for America, honestly, first and foremost. I'm very worried about a future where presidents like President Trump can wield this enormous grant of executive power that the Supreme Court just handed to him in order to reward his friends and punish his enemies and do so with impunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Then let's go to case number three, the mail-in ballots case. It's called Watson v. RNC, the Republican National Committee. A somewhat unexpected loss for President Trump. Big L there. The justices upheld state laws that count mail ballots arriving after Election Day. The president has baselessly been attacking mail-in voting as insecure, even though he has voted by mail himself. Here's Trump reacting to the ruling this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A little bit surprising. Gives people more time to vote illegally, let's say. But the SAVE Act is even more important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The SAVE Act, he says, the SAVE America Act, that's his act to limit mail-in ballots, install strict new I.D. and proof of citizenship requirements for voting. There are not the votes in the Senate to make that a law. Still, President Trump keeps pushing, pushing, pushing. In this case, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the three liberals and formed a majority to uphold mail-in ballots.

And finally, today, the court declined to take up President Trump's appeal in the E. Jean Carroll verdict, that's a civil case, finding that Trump did, in fact, sexually abuse and defame E. Jean Carroll.

[17:05:04]

This now means that Trump now has to pay her $5 million.

Let's discuss with our panel. And, Paula, let me start with you, CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. Start with Trump v. Slaughter, meaning Rebecca Slaughter, the former FTC commissioner who Trump fired. The ruling overturned precedent and handed the executive branch more power. Walk us through how the justices ruled on this and their reasoning.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This is an extraordinary opinion. This is going to go down as one of the defining opinions of the Roberts court because it represents a sweeping expansion of the president's ability to fire government officials. Here, they're giving him the power to fire officials like two dozen agencies where Congress had previously passed a law saying in order to fire those individuals, you have to have a grounds and malfeasance and negligence of duty.

But here, they're saying actually that law was a violation of the separation of powers. Jake, this is a huge win for the unitary executive theory, people who believe, like the president and his lawyers, that the president should have the authority to fire anyone in the federal government.

So, this, yes, there's a loss and there's a win. But I would have taken the little board you're drawing on and drawn a huge W over both cases because, yes, they drew a little circle around the Federal Reserve. Folks, we'll get to that.

TAPPER: In the way that it happened.

REID: Yes.

TAPPER: Yes.

REID: But overall --

TAPPER: Yes.

REID: -- this is a gigantic W.

TAPPER: All right. I'm sorry you didn't like my W. You didn't think it was big enough. But this is not just about Trump, though. We should note, Elie, one of the reasons that Samuel Alito and John Roberts are on the court is because the Bush administration also believed in this powerful executive branch idea, the president should have more power. That's the reason they're on the court. In fact, this is something the conservatives have been pushing for decades.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's a momentous day for legal conservative scholars. This goes back to the 80s. You've heard about the Federalist Society created in the 80s, which has really come to the fore of its influence right now. This is something they've been dreaming about because the core of today's holding is the president is not just the head of the executive branch, he is the executive branch. And nobody, not Congress, not the courts even, can tell him what he can and cannot do within that executive branch. It's something they've been dreaming of for a long time.

And you're right, Jake, this power will accrue to Donald Trump for the next two and a half years, and then the 48th president, and the 49th president. So, yes, it expanded Donald Trump's powers in the short term, but the power of the presidency as an institution, longer term.

TAPPER: We'll see if those conservative scholars like it when its president, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, comes around.

ALVARO BEDOYA, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: Goes around comes around. Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: And Alvaro, you were the other Democratic FTC commissioner fired by the Trump administration. You were initially on this case with Rebecca. What is your reaction to the ruling and what sort of practical implications do you think it will have?

BEDOYA: Look, I look at both of these rulings around Lisa Cook and my former colleague together, and what I see is a two-tiered system of justice. If you are a central banker, if you're on Wall Street tending to the justices' retirement accounts, you get your above-the-fray independent regulator. If you are struggling to pay grocery bills, if you can't pay your health insurance, if you're getting ripped off by a scammer, you get stuck by the loyalists, with the loyalists.

And you ask the question, who is it going to hurt? Who is it going to help? It's going to help the oligarchs over the president's shoulder at the inauguration.

We were suing Jeff Bezos in not one but two lawsuits. One around him ripping off small business owners. FTC staff was in court against Mark Zuckerberg, arguing that privacy restrictions he promised went violated. We were enforcing a consent decree against Elon Musk. These are the kinds of folks who win.

Who loses? We blocked the largest grocery store merger in history that would have made the price of beef and eggs even higher. We blocked a company from cornering the market on cancer meds. These are the kinds of folks who would have won in a world where this decision was handed down differently, and these are the folks who are going to lose after today's ruling. TAPPER: You know, it's interesting because all those things you say, there's this populist right now, Josh Hawley, J.D. Vance, etcetera. They sound like things that they would theoretically agree with you on, right? But maybe not.

BEDOYA: Sadly, irrespective of what some folks on the right or the left, honestly, have been saying about the promise of what we could have in the law, what we've gotten from the Supreme Court for the last 16 years under Chief Justice Roberts is ruling after ruling for billionaires. You've had -- you know, corporations are people. They can buy our elections. Corporations can bribe the president by buying his crypto coin, what have you. He's immune from bribery charges.

TAPPER: Yes.

BEDOYA: It's more of the same, unfortunately.

TAPPER: Paula, turning to Trump v. Cook, that's the small technical loss that he had today.

REID: Yes.

TAPPER: The Fed is different from other agencies, though Congress established it as an independent agency, not a semi-independent agency.

[17:10:01]

And the court said Trump has not established cause to fire her. What's the court's reasoning? What is Trump saying?

REID: So, here, they're saying you can fire officials at the Federal Reserve, but you have to give them a process, you have to give them an opportunity to respond. So, they're sort of drawing a dotted line around the executive power there. You can do it, but there's a way you have to go about it. As the Chief Justice said, it doesn't mean you get to sit down with the president in the Oval Office, doesn't mean you get a trial, but you get some process.

Now, some legal scholars have also said, wait a second, isn't this a little contradictory? Like, you're the executive. You can fire anyone, but not this. This is kind of the executive. What's the difference? They kind of hint at it in the opinion, that potentially being able to unilaterally fire people without process at the Federal Reserve could have an impact on the economy. That appears to be why they've given the special protection around here, one theory.

TAPPER: And Elie, given that this is going to go back to lower courts, ultimately, is Lisa Cook probably going to end up getting fired?

HONIG: I don't know. It's really hard to say because the point today is you get some process beyond just a tweet, which is really all the process she's got so far. If you look at the facts of the case, she's accused of mortgage fraud. Her own lawyer has acknowledged that there are "inconsistencies" -- quote, unquote. That's her lawyer in her paperwork. Now, the question is going to be two things. One, did she intentionally do that? And two, we don't know. What's the burden? How high does the government have to prove its case? What if she gets indicted? Does she have to be convicted? The Supreme Court punted on all of that back down to the lower court.

TAPPER: All right. Thanks, Paula and Alvaro. Appreciate it. Elie, stay with me. Up next, we're going to look ahead to the outstanding decisions expected tomorrow from the U.S. Supreme Court. Plus, conflicting statements on Iran. President Trump insists a new round of talks is set for tomorrow, but Iran says no meetings are scheduled. What the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Congress about the entire situation last hour on a call. That's ahead.

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[17:15:00]

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TAPPER: We're back with our "Law and Justice" lead. Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down the final opinions of its term. Two major cases remain. One is on birthright citizenship. The other one concerns trans athletes in women's sports. This afternoon, President Trump was asked whether he would accept the birthright citizenship ruling if it goes against him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I guess I have to accept. It's the Supreme Court. So, I'll accept. I think it's very bad for our nation. We're the only nation that does it. It would be great if they did the -- they didn't allow it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is back with us. So, Elie, the birthright citizenship case, the idea that you should -- Trump wants it. So, just because you're born on the United States, in the property of the United States, that doesn't mean you should have citizenship bestowed. What is the actual legal argument the Trump administration is making for this given that it seems pretty clear in the Constitution?

HONIG: It does. So, this all goes back to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified 1868, after the end of the Civil War. And that provision tells us that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.

Now, over the past 158 years, we have understood that broadly in our courts and Congress to mean if you're born here, you're a citizen regardless of your parents' status. Trump's argument hinges on that one little phrase, subject to the jurisdiction thereof. And what he's saying is it should not apply. The child is not a citizen if the parents are here illegally or temporarily because then they're subject to some other country. But that argument is fairly ridiculous and had a real hard time at oral argument because let's say someone is here illegally from Mexico. Are they still subject to the jurisdiction?

TAPPER: Yes, of course.

HONIG: Can they be arrested in the U.S.?

TAPPER: Yes, of course.

HONIG: Can they be taxed, questioned? Of course. So, there was real skepticism towards Trump's position in the Supreme Court argument back in April.

TAPPER: So, which way do you think the case is going to go?

HONIG: I hesitate to do predictions, but I'm very confident this case is going to go against Donald Trump. Paula Reid has reported that Trump's own lawyers expect it to go against him. I agree with that. I think this could be a 7-2 ruling, could be even more against him. I think he's so far out on a limb here legally. I think he's destined to lose this tomorrow.

TAPPER: The other case is going to decide whether state laws that ban transgender students from girls and women's sports can stand. So, whether or not it should be left up to the states is basically the idea. What are both sides arguing? And if the states' individual laws are allowed to stand, how will that impact transgender athletes?

HONIG: So, about half the states in the union have laws along these lines.

TAPPER: Banning it.

HONIG: Banning transgender athletes from participating in girls and women's sports. And the question for tomorrow is, can the states pass those laws if they want? The challengers argue, first of all, that transgender people should be given what we call heightened scrutiny, the same type of scrutiny we would give to a discrimination based on race or sex. And they also argue that these laws discriminate against them on the basis of sex. The counter-argument is, no, they don't. You are allowed to discriminate under Title IX on the basis of sex.

When it comes to sports, you can have leagues that are only for men or only for women. And that this is, therefore, not an unlawful discrimination. What this is, is the states exercising their police power to regulate safety and fairness of sports and it doesn't merit the same type of constitutional scrutiny we would give to a race-based discrimination.

So, again, I listened to those oral arguments back in March, I believe. If I had to guess, it sounded like the justices were more inclined in favor of the states, in favor of upholding those state laws banning transgender athletes from men's sports.

TAPPER: All right. And we'll see you tomorrow, Elie Honig. Thanks so much. He was once known in the league as CJ2K. Today, former NFL running back Chris Johnson is making news for a tough medical diagnosis, revealing it today on national T.V. That and more ahead.

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[17:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our "World" lead, police are investigating a rare and deadly mass shooting in Northern Germany. A gunman opened fire at a welfare facility for mothers and children, killing six adults and wounding several others. Police arrested the alleged gunman, a 45- year-old man, in an apparent child custody battle and detained two others. Authorities believe the motive is tied to a personal matter.

In our "Law and Justice" lead, a federal judge in New York said today that Luigi Mangione's federal trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will begin next January. The 28-year-old faces two stalking charges in that case. Before it starts, Mangione will stand trial in September of this year on New York State murder and weapons charges. The federal case was supposed to start in October, but the judge today said that would be simply impossible given the timeline of the state's case.

In South Carolina today in "Law and Justice," a judge says a new murder trial will start next spring for Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred attorney once convicted in the 2021 killings of his wife and son last month. As you might recall, an appeals court overturned that conviction, saying that the county clerk made improper comments to the jury, implying Murdaugh was guilty.

[17:25:01]

The new trial will start in April 2027. Murdaugh must stay behind bars in the meantime as he is still serving decades of prison time in a separate case involving financial crimes.

Turning to our "Sports" lead, two former NBA players are now wrapped up in that federal investigation into illegal betting. Federal prosecutors indicted Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, accusing Beasley of purposely tailoring his performance in games and claiming that Davis would bet on those games. Last year, prosecutors charged 34 people in connection with the scheme, including 2004 finals MVP Chauncey Billups and former Boston Celtic Terry Rozier.

Also, in our "Sports" lead, former NFL running back Chris Johnson revealed today that he has ALS or Lou Gehrig disease. It's a neurodegenerative condition that causes muscle weakness and the deterioration of the ability to move and speak and even breathe. In an interview today on ABC, Johnson used a speech generating device and said he was diagnosed just last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS JOHNSON, FORMER NFL RUNNING BACK: I first noticed weakness in my right hand. At first, it was little things like my grip didn't feel right, and I wasn't as strong as I've always been. It has continued to progress much faster than I ever imagined. I want people to understand just how quickly ALS can attack your body. Just over a year ago, I was picking up my seven-year-old daughter, so she makes a wish with her birthday cake. Today, I couldn't do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: It's awful. Johnson played for the Titans in 2009 and rushed for more than 2,000 yards. He became one of nine players in NFL history to do so, earning the nickname CJ2K.

It has been more than four months since a deadly Tomahawk strike on an elementary school in Iran. And for more than four months now, little to nothing from the Pentagon about that strike despite multiple reports of apparent U.S. responsibility. What we're learning about that day, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:31:25]

TAPPER: And we're back with the World Lead. Yesterday marked four months since a Tomahawk missile hit an elementary school in Minab, Iran, killing at least 168 children and 14 teachers, according to Iranian state media. This was on February 28th, the first day of U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran.

Sources familiar with the U.S. military's preliminary investigation told CNN that the strike was an accident by the U.S., the result of outdated information about a nearby Iranian naval base. That preliminary finding was within two weeks of the strike. Yet all these months later, there's been no report from the Pentagon released. That's not because the investigating officer hasn't finished the initial report that officer has, but the Pentagon insists to us that the investigation is ongoing because CENTCOM is reviewing that report.

They were not able to provide us with any timeline milestones pertaining to the investigation, including how long they've been reviewing the investigation or when they anticipate it will be ready for release. There has been, as of now, no public acknowledgment from any leader in the United States for the U.S. responsibility for all those children's deaths. In fact, quite the opposite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it, because there were missiles flying all over the place. And it's horrible what happened, but there were missiles flying all over the place. And somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it wasn't our missile, but I've seen nothing to lead me to believe it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: On Friday, "Bloomberg News" reported that years ago, perhaps as far back as 2019, an analyst noticed that the site, once characterized as a naval facility, was now an elementary school. Sources told "Bloomberg," "The analyst remarked on changes at the site in a digital intelligence tool, but that tool wasn't linked up to the official intelligence database that the U.S. uses to develop strike targets, and the information was never conveyed to military commanders."

That detail, the "Bloomberg" report goes on to say, highlights the much-needed updates in the U.S. military's targeting system, upgrades that have only grown more urgent since the introduction of A.I., which brings us to this "Bloomberg" interview with the CEO of Anthropic, the A.I. company behind the chatbot, Claude. This interview was from earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did Claude play a role in that strike?

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: We, look, we don't have access to, you know, we don't know exactly how, you know, these models were used. The principle that we have established, and I think the principle that was obeyed here, is a human makes the -- a human makes the final decision. I don't know what role Claude or any other A.I. had, but like, if this isn't an illustration why that principle is so important, I don't know what is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Dario Amodei says Claude's usage in the strike would not have violated his company's policies, but the knowledge gap between the CEO of an A.I. company and the government officials who are using the product within the military is eyebrow-raising, even under standard circumstances, let alone this one. Now, Iranians continue to mourn the lives of the children lost that day.

They poured into the streets by the thousands just days after the airstrike for a funeral for a member of the students and teachers killed. The parents of the children continue to struggle to process the loss in their own ways. As some told "The Los Angeles Times" last month, Tayebeh Farahizadeh goes into the bedroom of her seven-year-old daughter, Esra, to be surrounded by Esra's belongings, holding on to the dolls that she says still carry her daughter's scent. The mother of Setayesh Ali Hosseini, a nine-year-old fourth grader, finds herself unable to enter her daughter's room. I'm afraid to go inside and not find her, she told "The L.A. Times."

[17:35:14]

A human rights activist who was against the Iranian regime gave me this testimony passed on from someone in Iran about one of the child victims. "The day after the day he died, they came and said, we're from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. We'd like to speak with his mother. His mother wasn't in any condition to talk. They said they wanted his mother to introduce the martyr," meaning the dead child, "and share her memories of him. We told them, we have nothing to say to you. We won't say a single word. They kill innocent children and then call them martyrs. There was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps radar on top of the school."

Afterwards, they told us, "We forgot to take down the radar. Just like that. No one can complain about this or say anything else because the consequences are very severe." The Pentagon and the Trump administration owe those children the truth about what happened. Here with me to discuss, Congressman Chris Deluzio from Pennsylvania. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and is a naval veteran. Congressman, have you heard anything about this report on these strikes?

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO (D-PA): Jake, as you say, I'm on the Armed Services Committee. We cannot get a straight answer about when we will see a final version of this report. The timeline even isn't clear to me. We've had to put language in the defense bill to mandate the publication of the report when it comes out. That's something the public can actually see.

And as you said, there are schoolchildren dead. Governments and militaries make mistakes. But in this country, the United States of America, we owe the people who send our young people to go fight the truth. If we mess up, our government should take responsibility, be clear about that because these consequences are life and death and you have dead children because it seems like our government, our military made a mistake.

TAPPER: Yes, and you hear the Iranian parents in that "L.A. Times" story mourning their kids the same way we hear about parents in this country mourning our kids. You served in the Navy. You deployed in the Iraq War. This defense secretary came after you for the video and five other Democratic lawmakers made reminding service members they have an obligation to not obey illegal orders.

Given your background, what do you make of this lack of accountability, lack of communication? Do you trust Pete Hegseth to release this report unfettered, uncensored?

DELUZIO: No, and I heard the President in the clip you showed dismissing this out of hand when every initial report that's been publicly out there, that this was a mistake on targeting. I saw the report and you teed up about there having been a failure to note that some analysts had looked at this site and said, hey, actually, this is a school.

Every account we've seen so far is that our military made a mistake. We should just be honest about that, but of course, this President, this defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, they don't know the first thing about accountability and let's back up. This was one mistake and a much bigger mistake of this war I think has been a strategic blunder and now this President is trying to negotiate a peace deal. God bless. I hope he secures one, but he can't invent a time machine to go back and not start the war in the first place, which would have been the best thing that we ever could have seen is don't start this war.

TAPPER: There's no other country that fires Tomahawk missiles that could have been firing Tomahawk missiles in that war?

DELUZIO: No.

TAPPER: Yes. Just last hour, Secretary of State Rubio briefed lawmakers in efforts to wind down the Iran war, which the U.S. and Iran keep firing upon each other. Trump says Iranian delegates and U.S. delegates are supposed to continue talks. Iran says no meeting is set. It's weird that we're in a situation that we don't know who's telling the truth between the constantly lying Iranian government and our own, but here we are. What do you think is going on?

DELUZIO: Look, what I got from that call and a bunch of things were said, at its core, this memorandum of understanding, this MOU, it's just an agreement to negotiate and even the basic piece of there's not going to be fighting while we negotiate, you saw over the weekend, that fell apart. Traffic slowed down. We're seeing oil prices spike back up. So I am skeptical this will hold, but I'm not rooting against diplomacy. I want this war to end. I think it was a blunder to have started it.

And so I root for our diplomacy, but let's not forget this has come at grave cost to those school children, to American troops, and to life here at home. It got more expensive. We've seen billions of dollars spent. This war has come at great cost.

TAPPER: Before the war began, in the decades before, when the military would war game it out, it was always a possibility, oh, Iran might try to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage. Now Iran knows, oh, we can do this. How concerned are you about that?

DELUZIO: Very concerned. And I think other countries, China, European powers, you name it, they know that this is now a different dynamic in the Middle East. And remember, this president, Donald Trump, and his administration, they didn't just start this war. They started this war after canceling clean energy projects, while China jacked up their oil and gas reserves, and double invested in the pace of development of their alternative energy projects, trying to insulate themselves from an oil shock. So in starting this war, the President did it after having made us more exposed to energy shocks in the Middle East. It's just reckless stuff.

[17:40:04]

TAPPER: Democratic Congressman Chris Deluzio from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Good to have you here, sir. Appreciate it. Thanks for your service, as always.

Ahead, some of the remarkable rescue stories coming from Venezuela amidst the tragedy there, and the American team helping to make those rescues happen, I'm going to talk with one of those rescuers on the ground in Venezuela next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We have breaking news in our World Lead. Authorities say that more than 1,700 people are dead and thousands remaining unaccounted for, after those twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela last week. Though, there have been some moments of hope, including the rescue of an 18- day-old baby and the child's mother, who somehow were able to survive 32 hours beneath the rubble. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon reports now for us from Caracas, where officials hope a surge of foreign aid and rescue crews will strengthen the emergency efforts in a nation overwhelmed by disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[17:45:20]

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): As the hours and days go by since the two devastating earthquakes hit Venezuela, the window for finding survivors is beginning to close. There are still glimmers of hope, like this moment when a woman was rescued from under the rubble of a building in La Guaira, surrounded by family yelling they love her. Her 18-day-old baby also found alive, cradled by the hands that dug through the dust and debris.

Or this man, Antonio, pulled from a collapsed building to the sound of cheers and applause. Others continue to dig with the tools they have, hoping for a sign of their loved ones, growing frustrated and angry as rescue efforts stall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want support. We want heavy machinery. We want to take our family members with us. I'm not the only one in this situation.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Dozens of international crews are on the ground in Venezuela, bringing highly trained sniffer dogs, supplies, expertise, and compassion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): At this moment, we're continuing with our search for possible victims. We have conducted canine searches and we're now using electronic equipment, which allows us to be more accurate.

POZZEBON (voice-over): The so-called golden hour window, the 72 hours after an earthquake when the chance of finding survivors is greater, has now ended. Many who survived are still shaken, and each aftershock brings stark reminders of everything they've lost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POZZEBON: And Jake, just to talk about that glimmer of hope that is still fuelling the search and rescue operation. Just behind my back here in Caracas, you can see several excavators working hard, trying to still go through the rubble of that pile of debris stacked on top of each other and locate several people that are still missing out of that building with an entire community surrounding us still trying to make sense of this catastrophic disaster. Jake?

TAPPER: Stefano Pozzebon in Caracas, Venezuela. Thank you so much.

Joining us now is John Morrison. He's part of the Virginia-based search team who is on the ground in Venezuela. John, thanks for joining us. So you were part of a rescue of a nine-month-old baby boy and his mom. How are they doing right now? Tell us about the moment you found them.

JOHN MORRISON, DATA STRATEGY LEADER, FAIRFAX COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE DEPT.: Good. Thanks for having me on. It was an amazing experience. Some local firefighters had been there. We arrived late Friday afternoon into this area, specifically late Friday night. We sent a recon crew out immediately. They were paired up with some local firefighters in the area who had heard them in -- 12 hours of being on scene here, rescue that mom and her baby boy, who've been since turned over to a hospital and are doing well, I'm told. It took about 12 hours for us to get that. Once we made contact for that baby and mom to extricate them out.

TAPPER: Wow. Twelve hours. What -- how -- so how did you know that they were there and what comes next after that, that takes 12 hours?

MORRISON: Yes. So, oftentimes, in these collapsed reinforced concrete structures, the concrete is very thick, filled with rebar. And the local rescuers may not have the skill and training as well as the equipment to break through that concrete, which is where our teams come in and our counterpart team from Los Angeles County sent here by the Department of State. So we -- once we locate the victims, you can often hear them sometimes, and if we don't, we have very technical listening devices where you can sort of triangulate exactly where they are in the structure, along with search cameras.

We will then sort of make an access point. We had another rescue yesterday where we finally got access to a woman about eight hours after we heard her. We were able to access her foot. From there, we were able to start an I.V., give her some fluid and some medication, and then it took another four to five hours to make that hole large enough for her to be extricated out as well.

TAPPER: So are you and your team going into the rubble through these holes, or are you using a crane to take the concrete away, or both?

MORRISON: It's a combination of both. Primarily right now what we're doing is there's large void spaces within these structures, and so we're able to get into those void spaces and then make our own void spaces by tunneling through this concrete. Some of that is multiple slabs and multiple floors that have pancaked onto themselves, and so it does take a significant amount of time and technical expertise.

We bring structural engineers with us to make sure these buildings are as safe as possible while we're working in them, and aftershocks certainly happen. We have evacuation points and rally points, but it is certainly a concern.

[17:50:01]

TAPPER: The team from Fairfax County has rescued five people from the rubble. What can you share with us about those other rescues?

MORRISON: Yes, so the other one was a father and son yesterday as well. Again, it was a very complex rescue that took almost 12 hours from identification to rescue. So we've had crews out all day today as well doing recon on numerous structures where we've worked with locals to get reports of people that have been hurt in structures fairly recently. We're then working at these sites to triangulate where they might be, and if they're there, go and rescue them.

TAPPER: Yes. Thousands are still unaccounted for, of course. Venezuela was jolted again this morning by a 4.6 aftershock, although officials say it caused no additional damage. The conditions that you and the other Urban Search and Rescue crews are working in are so dangerous.

MORRISON: Yes, it's not easy, but this is exactly what we train for. Last month, our counterparts in L.A. and ourselves had a joint exercise in Fairfax County where we simulated a large-scale earthquake in a dense urban core over five days. So this is exactly what we train for. Nobody wants bad things to happen or earthquakes to happen, but we're honored to be part of the response team to come down here and give our best to save as many lives as possible.

TAPPER: Well, keep up the great work. You're making us all proud here in the U.S. John Morrison with the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue. Appreciate it.

If you want to financially help any people that have been impacted by these horrific earthquakes, you can find resources to do so at cnn.com/impact. Again, that's cnn.com/impact for a list of vetted charities.

A CNN investigation exposed a global online rape academy. One woman's story led to so many others. Up next, the emotional meeting of survivors of those horrific sex crimes. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:56:05]

TAPPER: In our World Lead, rape survivor Gisele Pelicot has taken her unthinkable past, which involves being at the center of a mass rape case, and she's turned it into activism. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne brought together other women who survived drug-facilitated sexual assaults to meet with Pelicot and learn how they too can become symbols of hope for women.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA STANHOPE, SURVIVOR OF DRUG-FACILITATED SEXUAL ASSAULT: We're meeting another survivor.

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PARIS BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Amanda and Zoe learned of each other's existence three months ago.

VANDOORNE: Good to see you.

STANHOPE: Hello.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): After they revealed in a CNN investigation how they were sexually abused by their partners while sedated.

Today, they're back together for a moment they've long been waiting for, a chance to meet the woman who's more than just a fellow survivor.

GISELE PELICOT, SURVIVOR OF DRUG-FACILITATED SEXUAL ASSAULT (through text translation): I'm going to wear my glasses. And now I can see you.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): Gisele Pelicot paved the way in waving her anonymity when her husband stood trial and was convicted of drugging and raping her repeatedly and inviting over a dozen men to do the same. When I first told her about Zoe and Amanda, Gisele was moved.

PELICOT (through text translation): You're making me cry.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): They're all part of a sorority they didn't want to belong to. Their stories marked by harrowing parallels, but now, they found comfort in each other.

STANHOPE: I would like to say that you gave me the strength personally to go through my police investigation. You were the first person that I knew who'd experienced the same. And I felt, for the first time, not alone.

PELICOT (through translator): I understand because without all the women who came to see me in Avignon for my trial, I don't think I could have seen the legal process through. And I find it extraordinary that they had the courage to file a complaint.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): Zoe's former husband is now serving 11 years in jail, after he confessed to crushing sleeping pills into her tea and filming while raping her, according to authorities. She suspects the abuse may have been going on for a decade. But like Gisele and Amanda, she feared that devastating impact the revelation would have on her children.

VANDOORNE: What did Gisele coming out so publicly mean for you?

ZOE WATTS, SURVIVOR OF DRUG-FACILITATED SEXUAL ASSAULT: I'd already had my case. It had been and done. And I received such a negative press from my community, my town, which made me hide because me and the children were bullied. However, I saw a world where someone could come forward.

PELICOT (through translator): It's not the victims who should be ashamed, it's the accused, the perpetrators who should bear that shame. Yet, even today, we live in a society that's in denial.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): Gisele's case exposed deep gaps in understanding of this crime, including missed medical signs when she sought help, believing she may have had Alzheimer's. Amanda says she's faced similar ignorance but from police. She believes she was abused over a five-year period by her former partner. He was charged with rape and sexual assault, but took his own life before the case made it to trial.

STANHOPE: I felt like I was an inconvenience with the police. I didn't feel listened to, heard. So, the police have got a lot to do to prioritize these cases. VANDOORNE: Is there anything else you would like to say to Gisele?

STANHOPE: I want to say it's an absolute honor and pleasure to speak to you. It's a dream for me. Someone who actually got me through the worst time of my life. And now, I'm -- we're actually having a conversation, so thank you.

[18:00:01]

PELICOT (through translator): Well, listen, I'm delighted. At least I know why I came to this planet, to share hope and courage with others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)