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What are you doing? It was fast when I could have just called for help. It's been too long, Cowboy. Toy Street Flight is only in theaters.
So that's really bad. What are you doing for a gold man, Todd? I think you're all because you're Bob, Wedding. From Disney in Pixar.
Toys are for play. Tech is for everything. It's toys versus tech. This creates a total over all the tabbings.
The tabbings! On June 19th. I want to talk to you, device alone. Toy.
It's not responding to your plastic fingers. Disney Pixar's Toy Story 5. Only theaters June 19th. Tonight on 360, the Jeffrey Epstein case divides Trump world with one staunch ally calling for a special counsel and the number two man at the FBI on shaky ground.
Also tonight, the president has a new deal for weapons to Ukraine, but if he's getting tough on Russia, why is he giving Vladimir Putin 50 more days to make a deal? Plus New Scene and reporting how cuts at FEMA could have affected emergency response time to the flooding in Texas. Good evening. Thanks for joining us.
We begin tonight with the Jeffrey Epstein story, which tonight is making allies of sorts out of a far right conspiracy peddler in the House's top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, who's calling for congressional probe into how administration officials both in and out of office dealt with it. Option one, they lied for years. Option two, they're engaging in a cover up. At this point, it seems reasonable that can only be one of the two things.
And so, it's Congress's responsibility in a bipartisan way to ask the questions and try to get answers on behalf of the American people. As we said in a sentence, this cross-party lines today when we learned that Laura Loomer on the far right is now calling for a special count on the House. And so, it's now calling for a special counsel to investigate the handling of the Epstein case. Also today and also from the right, simple frustration.
Honestly, I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being. I'm going to trust my friends in the administration. I'm going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, balls in their hands. That's Charlie Kirk and that's a lot in and of itself.
And as it was unfolding, the FBI's deputy director, Dan Bongino, was back at work after staying away on Friday out of his own frustration over the handling of the Epstein files and differences, apparently with Attorney General Pam Bondi. Sources told us that he'd confronted her about it earlier in the week. That, in turn, became part of a cloud of seemingly radioactive fallout from the Justice Department's announcement a week ago, shutting down any further disclosures in the case of the convicted sex offender and accused child sex trafficker after months and in some cases years of hype from Trump world. It is certainly poisoned the air in the far right ecosystem where many began calling for the Attorney General's head.
It's Bongino or Bondi. He's not saying... But you guys prefer Bongino or Bondi. They're 7,000 to 0.
They want to end. How many of you are satisfied? You can clap. Satisfied with the results of the Epstein investigation.
Clap. Seems from the turning point USA conference Friday and Saturday night, you saw Charlie Kirk on stage on Friday talking about Epstein case now. He says he's not going to talk about it any longer. Seen as Donia Sullivan was there as well, talking to some of those people.
He joins us shortly. But yesterday, even the president had gotten involved, talking to Bongino and trying to tamp down rumors that his Deputy FBI director was as good as fired. I did. I spoke to him today.
Dan Bongino, very good guy. I've done him a long time. I've done a show many, many times. And he sounded horrific, actually.
No, I think he's in good shape. Well, that quieting speculation is hard to gauge. What's clear, though, another such attempt just a day before did not. Here's the president on his social network, his tone, all but pleading.
He says, what's going on with Mike Boyes and in some cases, gals. They're all going after Attorney General Pambondi, who's doing a fantastic job. We're on one team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening. We have a perfect administration.
The talk of the world and selfless people are trying to selfish people are trying to hurt it all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. As you might imagine, that did not make people stop talking about the story anymore than it did when he said this in front of reporters at last week's cabinet meeting, a day after the Justice Department's decision to put a lid on the case. Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.
Well, the president on Tuesday wondering why people can't stop talking about the story that his supporters have been talking about in spreading conspiracy theories about for years, and it's not just his supporters, it's members of his actual administration. Here's some of what they've been saying lately as well as before taking their current jobs. Here's the Attorney General, using the so-called Epstein client list on two occasions back in February. The DOJ may be releasing a list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.
Will that really happen? It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.
What followed was, dried it as far less than promised, and more specifically did not include any client list, which now, supposedly does not even exist. And this kind of thing was going on long before the president took office. Here's Dan Bungino, now the number two at the FBI, last year, on his own talk show. I think Jeffrey Epstein may have some videotape of people central to the Democrat and maybe Republican Party doing some things.
Let's just say they shouldn't be doing it. Why was the CIA director of media with Jeffrey Epstein? Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go.
Keep your eye on this. I'm not ever going to let this story go because of what I heard from a source about Bill Clinton on a plane with Jeffrey Epstein. I talked about it yesterday. You can go check it out.
I'm not letting it go ever. Okay. Well, now he's number two of the FBI. Here's Bungino's boss, FBI director, Cash Patel from 2023.
Why is the FBI protecting the greatest, um, the largest scale, a human history? Simple because it was on that list. Put it on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. So who has Jeffrey Epstein's black book?
Black book FBI. But who that is that? I mean, that's under direct control of the director of the FBI. The black book is not just sitting.
I mean, that's that's Hoover power times 10. And to me, that's the thing I think President Trump should run on on day one. Roll out the black book. So Kennedy Trump did not fully take that advice.
He did whoever suggests that he was open to the idea. It's just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public. Yeah, it's very interesting. It's probably well-being by the way.
So if you were able to you'll be. Yeah, certainly take a look at it. But yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it.
He certainly had no problem talking about it back when talking about it carried only political or political benefits when there was no real world consequences, whether it Epstein's accusers or one of whom recently took her own life, or to anyone mentioned in the investigative files Epstein's former friends and associates. And all that hype in the years since Epstein was found dead in a cell in 2019 has also created a credibility gap. Whenever the administration tries to tell the public there might actually be less to all this than their one-time followers were led to believe, such about the circumstances of Epstein's death by suicide in Metropolitan Correctional Center six years ago. On the Epstein files, listen, I know this is a hot potato for folks.
I totally understand. My comments were clear. I'm not paid for my opinions anymore. I work for the taxpayer now.
I'm paid on evidence. That's it. The evidence we have in our files clearly indicates that it was in fact a suicide. We do have video.
It's not the greatest video in the world. I don't want to set expectations on fire. However, the video does show in that specific block that he goes in, made a phone call. You'll see 12 hours of guards going in.
Basically check on him, come back. You'll see no one really comes out in that bay in that area than him. There's no one in there. When you combine that with the other evidence where we will be releasing in the coming weeks, we're still finalizing some of the products.
I think it's pretty clear. There's nothing there in the file at all that indicates anything other than in fact a suicide. Well, the same may very well hold true for questions surrounding a minute long gap in video coverage at midnight on the night Epstein died. Attorney General Bondi and others have said that the taping system, which is apparently old, resets at the same time every day.
And there's nothing suspicious about it according to her, which may be entirely true. But it's a harder case to make now after raising so many suspicions before. Listen to Cash Patel last month trying to reassure Joe Rogan's viewers of his commitment to transparency. So correct me if I'm wrong, but what I was told what I'd read was that the guards were not paying attention or were sleeping.
Well, yeah, and in short order, you'll see it. Is that correct? Well, it's hard to surmise that from a video, right? Right.
And look, do guards doze off on the night shift? Yeah. But no one can get in to the cell. And if they had gotten in to the cell, you would see it.
But we were told that the cameras were down. Well, I don't know who said that. That was in the news. We're giving you all the footage we have.
Which might or might not be the case. And it's bizarre, by the way, to have the FBI Director on podcast talking about this stuff. But either way, even then we're not buying it. Given that at that point, people have been waiting since February for more disclosure from the Justice Department.
And it got even worse last Monday when the DOJ finally said that that was it. There'd be no more. Which has now fully landed the administration into this mess of its own making, left its squarely at odds with its own staunchest supporters, and further raised suspicions among friends and critics alike that it's hiding something. As for Dan Bonggino himself, sources now tell us that his relationship with the White House has become basically untenable, also that even if he does not quit now, some inside the administration believe he will not stay in the job long term.
You heard what President Trump said today that he had talked to him and that things seem good. For more on where this all stands, I'm joined by Cina Nanker and Cina White House, Chief White House correspondent Caitlyn Collins. So Caitlyn, I mean, this is fascinating. This has been going on now.
Is it clear where Deputy FBI Director Dan Bonggino, his career is headed tonight? No, it's not clear. Even two White House officials Anderson who were texting each other and texting me this morning asking whether or not they had figured out if he had shown up to work today. Because it was still an open question in Washington this morning if he was going to be back at the FBI today.
And of course he did eventually show up. We were told he had spent the weekend in Florida after not going there on Friday. But when it comes to what you just mentioned there about the relationship being untenable with the White House, he is staying in the job for right now. He is still the Deputy Director of the FBI right now and he hasn't resigned or been fired.
But the relationship has deteriorated so much that there are officials inside the White House who have not spoken to Dan Bonggino in days. Even though, of course, the question of whether or not he was still going to be employed by the federal government was still a big one for officials over the weekend. And I was told the president was very angry with Dan Bonggino. And also the FBI Director, Castro, tell to a degree which is why you saw Patel put out that statement over the weekend saying he had no plans to resign and was going to work for Trump as long as he would have him.
Obviously right now they're trying to basically just get their arms around the story and control it and stop the fallout from continuing as it's only continued to grow. Their base has only gotten angrier about not getting answers to the questions that they were told they were going to get answers to. And so yes, Dan Bonggino may stay in the job for right now. We have no indication that he's left.
But there is a real question of the future of that relationship, especially given the ultimatum he made over the Attorney General Pambondee after she confronted him. And also just the fact that he's not speaking to a lot of people, whether that's in the White House or Evan Prozzar told earlier he had not spoken to anyone at Justice Department leadership since last Wednesday. And obviously that is a key relationship for the Deputy FBI Director to have and one that has just really deteriorated at this point. It's incredible how much time this must be taking up among the top leadership of the FBI and I guess with Pambondee as well.
Caitlin, thanks very much. Richard Blumenthal is on with Caitlin at the top of this next hour. Joining me now is Senior Corresponding, Don't You Sell Informer, Trump White House Communications Director, Elizabeth R. Griffin and Journalist Gretchen Carlson, founder of Lyft, Our Voices.
You were at the Talking Points USA conference. This was much discussed. Yes, turning points. Yes, but there are.
It's mostly talking points. I love with the kids doing talking points USA. Well, I love spending my summer with you. And America's talking.
I love spending my summer weekends at a Charlie Kirk conference talking about Jeffery. That's exactly what I'm talking about. But Man, Charlie Kirk was talking about it Friday. Now, I'm not talking about it anymore.
Here is what some of Trump's most ardent supporters told us. What do you think is going to happen? I think they're going to maybe give us pieces and maybe not the whole thing and think that that's going to suffice. And I don't think people are going to be quiet about it until they really do it.
But who knows if we'll ever know the true story? Ultimately, I mean, how bad do you think it would be for the Magamotment for young people's trust in Trump if, by the end of his term, they don't release everything they know about Epstein? Well, I think that if they don't release his, the Epstein Files, whatever JD Vance says then is irrelevant because everybody's going to take it as a lie. Because of what Donald Trump did.
But I think JD Vance once he's filed released as well. And I think that Donald Trump, he promised them, so he needs to do it. No matter who's on them, we need to release the Epstein Files. The whole debate's about Banjino versus Bondi, but ultimately it's Trump's decision, right?
I mean, he has the power. It's Trump's decision. I think, again, I'm not going to make the decision for the President's not my job. It's not my place, but I do think the way that I'm seeing it played out is that Banjino will be here and Pan Bondi will be the four guys.
Do you think that's fair? I don't think anything's fair politics. Yeah, nothing is fair in politics. On stage and off stage at that conference all weekend, that's the only thing people were talking about.
And that message from Trump is telling people that stuff that we're talking about is didn't work. I mean, you saw maybe it worked for Charlie Carr over the space of the weekend, and now he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, but not landing with the base. Oh, this has somebody who knows public relations and certainly works in this in the previous administration in the first term. What have they done wrong and right here?
Well, I think the big misperception was that Pan Bondi was not acting in lockstep with the White House. When she put out this memo last week, this DOJ operates very closely with the White House. It's totally untraditional. She's not put out this memo.
It's just I would say there is no chance that she put out this memo without at minimum telling the White House this is what it's going to say. And I'm actually one of those supporters said it. I've done what Trump said it well. The president could if he wants everything the government has on Jeffery Epstein to be released, he could snap his fingers and make DOJ do that tomorrow.
So that's where I think Dan Bongino, the Deputy FBI Director, was misreading the room by going after Bondi and saying it's mere body. Clearly President Trump is standing by her. Clearly she had authorization to put out what she did. But this might be the most dramatic misreading of Trump's base by the president.
This is something that has animated his voters in such a palpable way. If you think of even the conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate that exists, they're all kind of tied into this idea of the idea of the idea of the president. People in power who are getting away with things. So to kind of flip on this massive animating issue is something that it is not going to go away saying, stop talking about it is not the answer.
Gretchen, do you think President Trump's post over the weekend drew more attention to it all? Yeah, because I think he's trying to just wish this away. And the more that he doesn't say any information about it, we know his journalists. We just want to know more about it and it keeps the story alive.
I think the only way really to combat this is to blunt what Pam Bondi has done and simply admit that she over exaggerated what was there in the files. But then if he does that, he has to fire Pam Bondi. And he doesn't seem to have an appetite yet for doing that. So he's really in a pickle.
And what I would just also add is that he should be talking about his victories right now. I mean, let's face it, whether you like it or not, he passed the big beautiful bill. He had a successful attack against Iran with no repercussions yet back on the United States. And yet instead of being in that reveling in that political power, he's instead facing a rebellion.
Yeah, a lot of division. Everyone stay here. I'm going to take a quick break. We're going to continue the discussion also tonight with Ukraine under continued attack.
President Trump announces a new plan to send the missiles to help in their defense and lays down a 50-day deadline for Russia to agree to a peace deal, reaction from Democratic Congress from Jason Crow, and also reaction from Inside Russia next. I'm CNN Tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, the idea of riding in a car with no driver can feel daunting. And this technology raises questions about safety and the future of transportation.
That's why I'm here with Nicole Gable, head of Business, Development and Strategic Partnerships at WeMo. We've always been about safety. No distracted driving. No drunk driving.
WeMo follows the rules of the road. Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. I mean, they're making a lot of money. They're a great grift in this.
Banjino had a great setup. And for him to come back, he's going to have to rebuild the trust of his audience. But very hard thing to do when this is precisely the thing you were going on about for years. Where do you see this going?
It's also fascinating watching a lot of folks who called everyone else deep state when they weren't in government now. They're sort of there. And they realize there's information you may have access to that perhaps it's law enforcement sensitive. Perhaps it was overhyped and not that interesting and not that much there there, even though you made a career and built a following around it.
But what I think some folks around the Trump orbit misread is Donald Trump does not talk about Jeff Ramsey very often. I looked it up with something like five times in the last decade and in most cases it was in response to somebody asking. I think he gets Jeffrey Epstein as an evil gross dude that nobody likes in his past association with him is not something he wants to highlight. But there are people from the vice president, Cash Patel, Dan Banjino, who have built followings.
They have kind of built their profiles on saying we're going to get to the bottom of Epstein. And they didn't realize this president really didn't run on that. Perhaps people elected him on it because of his supporters saying that and people around him. And that's where this fracture is.
He wants it to go away and they promise people they were going to get them answers. So it's going to come to a head and they're going to have to decide where they want to be. And I wouldn't be surprised if Banjino walks at some point. Gretchen, you heard your colleague at Fox making Kelly over the weekend.
She also said that this country could cause the president in the midterms. Do you think there's really a chance of that happening? Oh, who knows? I would bet much more on the fact that the tariffs affecting prices for consumers and potentially a bunch of small businesses going out of business as a result of the tariffs would be much more of an indicator on the midterms because let's face it.
You and I both know that it's the economy stupid. I mean, that's pretty much what determines most elections. But there is kind of a red herring here because to a list this point, this seems like this incredible issue that's fracturing matter right now. And I find it fascinating as a political analyst because the Epstein files have nothing to do with the MAGA base daily life.
Nothing. I mean, it's not about the economy. It's not about immigration. It's not about anything that actually affects them.
And yet it seems to be so important. I do see it as a potential red herring that it could have this long lasting effect. Well, it does. I mean, Donnie, you and I have discussed this at Infiniti.
It does tie into the whole QAnon conspiracy theories about Democrats and pizza gate and all that. It is wrapped up in that. Yeah. I guess so many things that the MAGA base have been conditioned basically to be as obsessed about are almost, they are distractions, right?
From really things that have material impact on their lives. But that's part of the strategy, right? That is part of the strategy from the top to say let's sell these conspiracy theories about evil, cabal's and everything else like that. So yeah, I mean, really, you know, they've found the flames of this conspiracy theory for years and now they see the danger of playing with fire.
What do you think of Joaquin Jeffery is on the Democratic side talking about, you know, an investigation? Do you think that's a wise strategy for Democrats to kind of jump in on this? If Democrats had some great messenger on maybe the minority leader on the oversight committee, this could potentially be. I've just yet to see Democrats really take hold of an opportunity from Donald Trump in winning.
I will say this though. I've been surprised by how much people left right and center are fascinated by this story and do feel lied to by the government. So that's where there may be an opportunity. I've heard from Democrats where like, this just doesn't feel right.
The video doesn't feel right. This memo that suddenly there isn't anything. So there may be an opportunity to reach voters and simply saying we want more transparency and trying to take up that mantle. But otherwise it feels like it's a lot of the same bickering around the edges that we see in Congress.
Why wouldn't they release the whatever files they have? I mean, I guess there may be witnesses who didn't want their names in their victims perhaps. I don't know. Go ahead.
It's very a lot of things to be redacted. So in the way that in the national security space, you have things that are classified. Oftentimes the DOJ has things that are law enforcement sensitive. It could deal with informants.
It could deal with victims that you want to protect. Stories that you want to. But there is a way I'm nearly certain that there's more that the Department of Justice could put out while redacting sensitive information. That's what doesn't seem to make sense to me.
Yeah, and of course, I mean, you know, the Trump has hung out, should have seen in the past when there's no allegation of any wrong doing there whatsoever. And from the people I spoke to this weekend, nobody thinks that Trump did anything wrong, right? But what some people speculated was, well, that may be some of his friends in New York. There's maybe damaging things there and they talked about how Trump is such a loyal guy and doesn't want to upset people's families in that sort of way.
I was just mentioned. I mean, just I can't underscore the disconnect here enough because that post from the weekend, Trump's post of the gals and boys, that was on True Social, basically a pro-Trump echo chamber. And as I think about 47,000 comments under it right now, I've never seen the likes of an untruth social before. They're basically all negative.
Right. They're all about the president. Yes, pushing back against the president. I wouldn't, many of them, I couldn't find one positive thing.
That's very unusual. Yeah. And so Ben, thanks for Griffin. Rich Carlson, thanks so much.
Appreciate it. Coming up right now, more breaking news tonight, President Trump promising Ukraine new weapons while also setting a new deadline for Russia to make peace. Also, President Obama's tough message for Democrats and who he thinks the party should focus on as they search for future leaders. We'll be right back.
As breaking news in the war in Ukraine, Ukraine, President Zelensky has called President Trump to thank him for his new weapons plan. The president announced the plan today. It would get missiles and other weapons to Ukraine and is coupled with a 50-day deadline for Russia to come to a peace deal. Together, they signaled a new approach to the war for the Trump administration.
The president meeting with the Secretary General in the Oval Office said the U. S. would sell weapons to NATO countries, would then transfer them to Ukraine. In addition, he laid out his peace deadline along with repercussions for Russia.
We're very, very unhappy with him and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs. We don't have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100 percent. You call them secondary tariffs.
We also repeatedly vented about President Vladimir Putin continuing his growing frustration with the Russian leader until recently President Trump maintained they had a very good relationship. I go home, I tell the first lady, and I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said, oh, really?
Another city was just hidden. I was sorry. How this is being received in Russia, seen as Chief Global Affairs course one, Matthew Chaness, and Moscow has that story. On Kremlin-controlled television, President Trump's U-turn on Ukraine was breaking news.
Trump's now following in the footsteps of former U.S. President Joe Biden, the anchor says, promising weapons to Ukraine to force Moscow to the negotiating table. But we all know, she adds, that Biden failed. This is the Russian onslaught President Trump says he's trying to end.
But amid this barrage of mass drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, Trump's threat of tariffs and secondary sanctions, if there's no peace deal in 50 days, seems more like a green light than a deterrent to Moscow. In 50 days, oh, how much can change on the battlefield and in the mood of the U.S. and NATO, posted one prominent Russian lawmaker. But our mood will not be affected, he was.
Because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bumps everybody in the evening. But President Trump's most recent mood change against the Kremlin and in favor of providing weapons to Ukraine is being widely criticized in Russia. With hand-picked guests on state television, now openly accusing the U.S.
President of fueling the conflict. At the joyous, what a man would. This man is deceiving Ukraine, warns the senior Russian politician. Trump just wants this war to continue.
He adds, after months of being heralded in Russia, as a potential peacemaker, a warmonger is how President Trump is now being cast. Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow. Up next, Foreign President Obama's call to action and blunt message to the Democratic Party, y'all get reaction from James Carville and Rahm Emanuel. Plus, questions growing about the federal government's response to the deadly flooding in Texas that's coming up.
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A former President Obama has some tough words for Democrats at a recent private fundraiser in New Jersey. The President called on those in the party who are frustrated with President Trump to stand up for what they think is right, saying, I think it's going to require a little bit less naval gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions, and it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up. A rare public review from the former president, and it comes as Democrats struggle to define the party's future. Jeremy Now has seen it in senior political, global affairs commentary around Emanuel, who served as Obama's chief of staff and longtime Democratic strategist James Carville.
Ambassador, are you surprised by this message from President Obama? Why do you think he's saying it right now? James Carville I'm not surprised, but I would one point a reference. If you look at every special election and every primary, Democratic turnout since 2024 is way up on a comparative basis, and it's very, very Democratic voters are very energizing.
They're not waiting for the leadership to get their act together about how to confront both President Trump and the Republicans, and do nothing but the rubber stamp Republican Congress. So I get all the frustration everybody has, but you look at where the Democratic voters are in the country, they are fully caffeinated, double espresso, they are doing exactly what they're supposed to do, take a look at the New Jersey primary vote, two and a half to one, Democrats turned out. But there is a calling card to the leadership to be as energized and it's focused on confronting President Trump and the Republicans on what they are doing specifically. I think like the best of everything that ever happened to this one big, beautiful bill was the Epstein crisis.
It knocked the bill off the news because that's the thing, it's so unpopular, they have healthcare cuts for kids. So to me, there's a target rich environment focused on what the Republicans are doing, and that will energize the Democrats. James, do you look at Democratic voters as caffeinated and energized as the ambassador says? Well, you can't help but do it.
I mean, you look at these primary results, and you look at general election results, and it's sporadic, and it's off-year. And I think the Democrats have just this wonderful opportunity, this big, beautiful bill. People detest this. And the more that they find out about it, the more they detest it.
So we have a rally in cry here, and it's going to be up to the whole party to pick up the baton and run with this thing. But the next stock will disvote, and they want people to forget about it. Ron's right. The Epstein thing is a distraction, but at the end of the day, I think people are going to vote on this and express the anger and discuss that this bill.
This thing is the most unpopular piece of legislation that has ever passed the United States Congress in the history of polling. That's how unpopular it is. Ambassador, go ahead. Ambassador, go ahead.
Look, let's take a look at the plane. Immigration used to be a strong suit for the Republicans. His numbers, as you see in the Gallup poll, way down their parties, way down in fact Republicans are opposed to what President Trump and his administration do in that immigration. Tariffs, hugely unpopular.
One big, beautiful bill because they've cut healthcare and eviscerated poor kids being able to go see their pediatrician. So Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook could get another tax cut. This is a target-rich environment, and Democratic voters, as my point, they know that that's why they're energized. And the leadership, as Richard J.
Daily, the old mayor used to say, when you see a parade, get your baton and get in front of it. There is a parade of Democrats ready to hit on immigration, ready to hit, and focused on what they're doing on this beautiful bill to hurt poor kids on healthcare. And they think his economic strategy on tariffs is going to cost them real money. And every one of these were on winning side.
James, I want to just read a little bit more what President Obama said at this meeting. He said, stop looking for the quick fix, stop looking for the Messiah. You have great candidates running races right now to support those candidates. Do you think there are party leaders now who could bring in the same kind of appeal and enthusiasm?
Well, it's certainly maybe not that Obama did in 2008. But where are the leaders out there? They're going to emerge, and we're going to get them into presidential primaries. Party doesn't have a leadership and an overall message until the president's phenomena.
Not a good news. There are voluminous people who are potential presidential candidates, one of them is on the air with us right now. So, we've got to gel together and do really well in these midterms, and then the guns are going to start on 2028. And I think every part of the Democratic Party, every part of the country is going to be represented when they run for president.
That's the time that we're going to gel and gel big time. But right now, we just need to be focused on this big, bad, beautiful bill in the 2026 midterms. And we need to go out and raise money for these candidates that are running and help them and push them over to finish line. That's job number one now, and Wednesday after the election next November, then go off on a presidential election.
Ambassador, former President Obama urged Democrats to focus on the governor's race in New Jersey, and Virginia. Obviously in Virginia, the Commonwealth, Glenn Youngkin, term limited, popular governor, he can't run again. The person who he's endorsing his lieutenant governor, not so well-known, not so well-funded, certainly certainly self-funded. And not so well popular.
So why are those races so important? Well, I mean, one of the things I'd like to say is the former President Obama made his comments in New Jersey, where when the Democrats' Republicans had a primary, the Democrats' turnout was almost two and a half one better than the Republican turnout. And we nominated, in both cases in New Jersey and Virginia, two women out of the national security kind of portfolio, both are moderates that appeal to independent, disaffected Republicans and energized Democrats. That's a winning formula.
Dial, take the camera all the way back to Youngkin's first race when he ran for governor. What comes out of that is people are surprised at the power of the education issue. 2025 is going to tell you a lot about 2026 themes, message, ideas, policies to hit at. And that is a very important election because it also then catapults the argument going into 2028.
And so to me, the 2025 field in both New Jersey and Virginia really tells you the depth of the party and the capacity, and the best of what we've had going forward into those races to seize two, not only gubernatorial races, but also the other elections that are going to happen that year in November. Well, James, in Virginia, during that last race, Glenn Youngkin really seized on dissatisfaction, obviously with the education system, in the wake of COVID. And also, it was Terry McAuliffe saying that he didn't think parents should be involved in kids' education, or tell teachers what to be teaching. That didn't play well in their debate.
That was a unique time in American history. It was post-COVID, this idiot who foolishness was at its height, that thank God it's now receding by the day. But I'll say this, and I'll say this, and he had brought me down. Spamberg is going to win Virginia, and it's not going to be close.
It is not going to be close. And I'm pretty confident that we're going to win New Jersey. And I would remind people that Virginia and New Jersey combined have as many people as the entire New York state. You would never know it.
But by the way, Virginia, I think hadn't voted a Republican instance in 2009 when Glenn Youngkin became the Republican governor. So it does have a long history of Democrats. It's not going to be close. It's not going to be close.
I promise you. One of the point about Virginia, you got a great candidate in the front. There are nine House of Delegate races that Kamala won Paris won that district that is held by a Republican. It's a 51-49 split Democrats majority.
You pick up five, six, seven seats in the House of Delegates, and I agree with James, this is going to be a very strong year. You're looking at a different agenda on education, on public safety, on transportation, on affordable housing. That is going to be, and it's the top of the ticket, and how deep the roots go down. And I predict that you're going to see a lot of strength for the Democrats, and that's going to tell you what that means for 2026.
It's a peachy dish. Thank you very much. The search continues for nearly 100 people in Texas lost in the flooding, but questions continue also about the initial federal response. We'll talk with the former FEMA administrator next.
The death toll from the Texas floods now stands at 132, and the number missing is around 100 statewide. As the search goes on, questions over the federal government's response continue. It's confirmed that multiple urban search and rescue teams from across the country were not deployed by FEMA until at least Monday evening. Three of the teams were dispatched on Tuesday.
Now, the flooding of course, hit in the early hours of Friday, July 4. These are the units typically tasked with helping local first responders to find survivors and locate victims. Every response differs on a variety of factors during previous flash floods. FEMA mobilized search and rescue teams within hours, not days of the storm.
For more on all this, I'm joined by former FEMA administrator, Dan Creswell. Thanks so much for being with us, Minister Creswell. What do you make of this scene ever before that multiple urban search and rescue teams were not deployed by FEMA for days after the flood? In the way, Katrina, I think two days after Katrina hit, and Wednesday, I was in Wabland, Mississippi with the urban search and rescue team.
I think they were from Virginia. I've been out with ones from Los Angeles in a number of locations over the years. Was this an understandable delay? From where I'm sitting, no.
There's 28 urban search and rescue teams across the country. These teams are made up of local first responders, and they're part of a federal network that FEMA pays for their equipment and their training. They help them sustain their capabilities. And then when needed for things like we just saw in Texas, they can mobilize them quickly, get them moving into the area, sometimes even before a declaration is made.
So they can be on the ground ready to be employed, ready to help out those local jurisdictions as soon as the declaration is made. When you add an extra layer of approval, it just slows that process down and it can cost lives in the end. The New York Times is reporting that according to documents, FEMA didn't answer thousands of calls from flood survivors because call center contracts weren't extended. Secretary Noem defended FEMA's overall response yesterday saying, quote, those call centers were fully staffed and responsive.
Are thousands of missed calls? Is that common? Well, I mean, to be fair, within the first few hours or the first few days after a big event like this, when there's lots of people impacted, there are a lot of calls that come in. But that's why FEMA has a tiered staffing approach to be able to surge capability.
And one of those capabilities is contractors, right? They can bring in extra personnel when they know they're going to have an increased workload so we can reduce the time that takes for people to get on the phone. Many of those calls I didn't get answered could be just people that didn't want to wait very long, but then that's not acceptable either, right? We want to be able to get to people, get them into the system so they can get assistance.
But I think Anderson, it's really important to remember that the call center is just one way people can get into the system. We can register online at disasterassistance.gov, but there also are these teams called disaster survivor assistance teams that go door to door in these communities and can register people on an iPad. But it's also my understanding that these types of teams are no longer going to be utilized by FEMA. And so it takes away just one more resource to help bring government to the people.
And now we're forcing people to come figure out how to get into the government to get the services they need. The thing about the response teams, which is so surprising to me, is that, I mean, the criticism of FEMA and I think justifiably in many cases in the past particularly has been, you know, the follow up with people trying to get reimbursed for damage. And that's more of a bureaucratic thing. It's less the initial response.
That seems to have been a strength of FEMA as always. Is that accurate to you? You're exactly right, Anderson. During my four years as an administrator, I never had a state complain about response where they get frustrated is in the reimbursement, in the recovery.
There is lots of paperwork, there's lots of procedures that have to happen, and there are definitely ways that that can be improved. That's what an energy really be focused on right now. Yeah, Dean Chris, well, thank you. I'm out of time.
We'll continue this discussion. Thank you. The news continues. The source of Kaitlin Collins starts now.
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