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The Lead with Jake Tapper

32 Dem Lawmakers Calling On Biden To Drop Out Of Race; Trump & VP Pick JD Vance To Hold First Joint Rally Saturday; Global Tech Outage Hits Airlines, Banks, Hospitals, 911; Russia Sentences U.S. Reporter To 16 Years In Labor Camp. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 19, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:01]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The San Diego Zoo releasing the first video of their new giant pandas. That's Yun Chuan. He's 4. Isn't he cute?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: He looks so cuddly.

KEILAR: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Here's Xin Bao. She's 3-years-old. The pair are both on loan from China. They made the big journey late last month, becoming the first pandas to enter the U.S. in more than two decades.

For now, they're keeping busy getting accustomed to their new home. You can see them on August 8 when they will officially be unveiled to the public. Though cuddly, I'm not sure you would actually want to cuddle a panda.

KEILAR: No.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts now.

(MUSIC)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: For President Biden, the tide is rising as one Democratic lawmaker told me.

THE LEAD starts right now.

President Biden isolating at the beach as the Democratic lawmaker describes the tide around him is rising, but a defiant president Biden is standing firm as a staunch ally, is being very direct, even accusing Biden of ignoring polls that show he will lose. Is the president drawing out inevitable pain or not? We'll discuss.

And former President Trump promised tonight the country in his convention speech before taking a familiar turn. Did he deepen the divides?

Plus, major meltdown, a faulty software update has a catastrophic impact around the world affecting airlines, banks, even hospitals, and 911 services. How long will it take to get things back up and running?

(MUSIC)

BROWN: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Jake Tapper on this Friday.

And we start with our 2024 lead. There are now 32 Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. The growing list today includes a few high-profile figures on Capitol Hill, including Senator Martin Heinrich and former January 6 Committee member Zoe Lofgren, and who wrote a letter to Biden saying, quote, pretty directly, As I'm aware, that you have been provided data indicating that you and all likelihood will lose the race for president. I will not go through it again. Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot.

Well, today, a source tells CNN that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is not discouraging members from speaking out against Biden's candidacy.

The president Biden for his part, is publicly remaining defiant, saying in the statement that was released today, he looks forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week, once he's done recovering from COVID.

But behind closed doors, many senior White House and campaign officials say they believe Biden must drop out of the race the and soon with one Democratic governor telling CNN, quote, this can't go on much longer.

I want to go straight to CNN's MJ Lee, who is in the studio with us.

And, MJ, you have really been on the forefront reporting on everything unfolding around Biden. You've been talking to your sources. What is happening behind the scenes today, all kinds of different signals are coming out.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean first of all, I think its worth talking about what is happening in public because it campaign has been out in such full force, making the point that the president is not going anywhere. We saw the campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, going on the airwaves to say he is absolutely staying in the race. They put out a memo today saying there is no plan for an alternative candidate. We also so -- I've got a statement from the president himself saying he's looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail.

Obviously, once he's done recovering from COVID, but that defiance that we are seeing in public from the campaign is in such stark contrast from really the panic that is setting in all across the Democratic Party. The members that are continuing to come out to publicly they, the president needs to go, donors obviously have said, we're not going to be writing these checks anymore until the party figures out who the nominee is going to be.

The campaign is though, saying that they are emboldened by what they saw at the RNC. They watch the president, the former president's speech, and they feel like, well, this is exactly what we expected. This is the Trump from 2016, the Trump from 2020. He has certainly not broadening out his base and the president is going to stay in the race.

BROWN: Yeah, certainly gave them glimmers of hope that it gives him a re-entry, right, into attacking Trump. But at the same time, you have more and more Democrats coming out today calling on him to step aside.

How much weight is President Biden putting on those calls for him to step aside versus the hard data showing his prospects?

LEE: Yeah. I mean, we know that he is, you know, keeping an eye on and watching these members that are coming out to say he needs to step aside. We also know he is being presented with the data he has been looking at the polling, but interestingly, the campaign stance, right now, is that even more for important than the polling is what the voters are telling us. We had the campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon saying in an all-staff call, which was described to me as a rah-rah pep-talk.

[16:05:01]

She said the focus is going to be on voter outreach right now, and I was told that she also said, when you give me polls, I'm going to give you direct voter contact. And also went on to say people in our country are not watching cable news.

So this is the campaign essentially saying the polling can tell us what the polling will tell us. It's a snapshot in time. But the thing we care about most is what the voters are saying and we've heard the president saying in public, public recently, I can't just discount the millions of people that have already the voted for me. And that's why I'm going to keep going.

BROWN: Right. Okay. So standby, we have a lot more to discuss.

I want to bring in CNN political commentator Maria Cardona. She's on the DNC Rules Committee, which met today and will be a delegate at the convention.

I want to get to that in just a second. But on the heels of what MJ said, so you have the campaign saying, you know, the polls are one thing but there's the grassroots voters, but the polls are polling the voters, the Democratic voters, the Democratic leaning voters.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Are they though? Are they though?

BROWN: I mean --

CARDONA: I mean, do we remember the massive red wave? Oh, wait, no, we don't because it didn't happen. Yet, the polls showed up until the election that Democrats were going to have a horrible night.

Democrats did not have a horrible night because polls are not perfect. We also remember the polls in 2016. Did we have a President Hillary Clinton? No, we didn't.

A lot of these pollsters miss grassroots voters. They especially miss Black voters. They really missed Latino voters.

And let me just tell you something I heard this morning, again, anecdotal, but really important. I worked very closely with a group called Somos Votantes. They have gone door to door in Latino communities and all of these swing states, they have knocked on 4,000 doors. You know how many voters brought up concern about the debate? Two, two of them.

Every single one talked about the issues that are at hand. The contrast that is this election and last night at the RNC, Donald Trump showed very clearly what communities of color, like Latino voters, Black voters, especially women voters, are up against, and those are the voters that this campaign is hearing from the president is hearing from, which includes the 14 million voters who voted for him during the nomination process.

BROWN: All right. So were going to talk more about that in a minute, but I want to get to this meeting today. This DNC meeting as I mentioned. Earlier, you're a delegate. What are the options discussed? Because look, it is a very real -- there is a real pressure and a possibility that Biden could step aside.

I mean, that is a reality, as much as the campaign says he's not, as much as he says he's not. That is -- and that's not something that you just don't plan for. This is the office of the presidency.

CARDONA: So this is going to be very disappointing to you, Pam, because we actually didn't talk about that at all. The reason we didn't talk about that at all --

BROWN: It's not disappointing to me, by the way. I don't have a stake in this.

CARDONA: There's no scoop is the only thing I meant.

BROWN: Okay.

And -- but it's important that were talking about this because people need to understand that this meeting has been planned since the spring. This was not a meeting that was put together hastily because DNC delegates want to hurry up and nominate President Biden, so all of these other Democratic lawmakers shut their mouth. No, that is not the case. We did this because of a technicality having to do with the Ohio Republican legislature, who was trying to keep Joe Biden and Kamala Harris off of their ballot. And so, we did this just simply as a timing thing.

Today's meeting was simply going through the rules of what we're going -- what is going to govern the Democratic National Convention. There was a lot that we didn't get to. And so we will be meeting again next week.

But as we move closer to the virtual roll call, which we will be having at some point after August 1st and at some point finishing before August 7, we will absolutely get to all of those issues in terms of, you know, at that point, President Biden continues to be the nominee, which I suspect he will. His campaign was very adamant about that as he has been as well.

Then that virtual roll call will happen with Biden as the nominee. Kamala Harris as the VP, and that will end by August 7th. And then Joe Biden will be the official nominee.

BROWN: All right. So lets bring in the rest of the panel here.

Nayyera, I want to go first to you because as we were just discussing with MJ and Maria, the Biden campaign is pointing to these grassroots voters. This key support among key groups like the Black community, older voters, Hispanic voters. Yet, there's a majority of those polled who won him to step aside.

What is happening? Do you see that there's sort of two different realities playing out here within the Democratic Party?

NAYYERA HAQ, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CABINET AFFAIRS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: No, I think we are having multiple realities and a universe right now. That's part of the challenges.

[16:10:00]

Are we looking at facts? Are we looking at vibes? Are these feelings?

And there has been for a long on time, a feeling within Democrats that certain segments have not been heard, have not had their chance, whether they be Gaza activists, whether it'd be deep progressives, that that has not been part of the process of bringing the family together, that airing of grievances is very clearly happening right now.

But if you look at some of those same progressives in Congress right now, the ones who have the most at stake up to lose in a Trump presidency in terms of issues sets that they have advocated for, they are being deeply practical at this moment. AOC --

BROWN: She had a long audio on.

HAQ: Right.

BROWN: And explaining that where we are right now is there is a lid on the pot. That pot is boiling. And if you take that lid, which is the Biden-Harris ticket off, no one has a solution for that boiling pot and that boiling pot exists. It's going to erupt.

How does the party structure respond and include all those people? Have them feel heard and still get to a November election where it's a clear contrast between Biden, Democratic nominee, and Trump.

That is something that was decided in the primary process. It is the reality we're dealing with, of, you know, Maria cites 14 million voters who participated in that process by the time the vote got to me, let's be real. It didn't\t matter to me anything.

BROWN: Sort of light data point with the debate. And there are some, I mean, you know, I've spoken to friends and family members who were struck by the debate performance and it wasn't new data point out.

You know, I'm not just talking to people here in Washington elected lawmakers. It's people that I'm interacting in the community.

HAQ: I spent the last year on Capitol Hill and in private so many lawmakers saying, Joe just needs to own that he's old and that he's a good person who is aging, right? Like that's what people would say.

The American public did not hear that until the day after the debate, right? Saying, I'm not the same as I used to be, and the framing has come from the negative of Trump that framing didn't come from the White House until very recently for most Americans. So people are still wrestling and dealing with that.

BROWN: And I think you have to be honest with that wrestling. That is happening for sure.

I want to bring you and actually, MJ, because we're just hearing about what Vice President Harris discuss on this Democratic donor call. Tell us about.

LEE: Yeah, she joined a number of donors on this call and we were told that it was sort of last-minute and the West Wing had wanted her to get on this call. According to our colleague, Jeff Zeleny, it was a bit of a pep talk. She told these jurors owners we are going to win this election. We are going to win.

And it seemed like that she was clearly wanting to turn the conversation away from this chaos that we are talking about within the party, and really just look forward to November. Obviously, we have talked a lot about Vice President Kamala Harris and just the position that she has been put in where there is so much swirling around her, so much speculation about will he or won't he, is he going to be the nominee that stays on the ticket? And if he doesn't, what happens?

You know, somebody on the campaign I was talking to earlier said, today is about the moving on phase of things. This strikes me as one of the steps that they are taking. They know that they have a serious issue with donors right now and they want to allay those concerns by sending her out and saying, we're going to move forward.

BROWN: Okay. So they're trying to show unity in that way, right? I mean, that's what the White House wants. The Biden campaign one says, hey, we're on the same page.

But the reality is there is this deep divide as you pointed out in your reporting, you have more and more Democrats coming out today, some who were close allies to Biden saying he should step aside.

Mike, how are Republicans plotting to take advantage of this moment of Democratic divide in the races for both House and Senate candidates? MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I feel like I can just sit here quietly today because I just came from four days in Milwaukee. It was a -- it was the show of unity and love in Wisconsin for the ticket. There was enthusiasm. It was the exact opposite of what everyone's talking about, what's going on in the Democratic Party.

And I sit here and I listened. You know, the polls don't matter. Whenever you're not when you're down, you say that.

No one's watching cable news. Well, some people are, but people are watching social media. People are watching late night television. They're talking to family and friends and they're talking to the regular news.

And the Joe Biden that they saw or thought they knew prior to the debate, and over the last several weeks is not the Joe Biden that they see today.

So, from a Republican standpoint, from the campaign standpoint, and frankly from the Senate and the House campaigns and everybody else, they would -- they would relish having the president stay in the race because they know what they're getting with him. And there is all this angsty and debate within the Democratic Party, rather than picking a new nominee, frankly, would be exciting television, and it would be a change and all the plans that you've put together, you're now having to augment and change and figure out.

[16:15:05]

So I wouldn't say that Republicans think they have any control over this, but at the end of the day in their private moments, if you ask them yes, they want Joe Biden to stay in the race.

BROWN: That's telling.

CARDONA: You know, one of the things that I think is important to point out is that this is -- we don't know what will happen if Joe Biden steps aside. That's part of the mess and so, a lot of Democrats are saying, we need to embrace Joe Biden if he's going to stay on right now, he's going to stay on because at some point, do we like just put up our hands and say, okay, were losing and just give it to Donald Trump. You can't do that.

BROWN: You're talking about the lid.

CARDONA: Right, exactly.

BROWN: All right. Everyone, standby. Much more to discuss. This just in, the Secret Service rethinking how to protect President Trump at tomorrow's rally after last week's assassination attempt.

Plus, the massive I.T. outage causing so many problems across the country and around the world today. What the company likely responsible has to say about all of these disruptions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tomorrow evening, Donald Trump will hold his first joint rally with his brand new running mate, Senator J.D. Vance.

[16:20:04]

But today all the talk is about his speech last night at the Republican National Convention. At the beginning, Trump seemed to start with a unifying message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Then, Trump describe last weekend's assassination attempt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Then the speech took a turn a familiar turned up there saying he'd rip up his original plans to push a message of unity. We heard a long list of grievances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.

(APPLAUSE)

If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts,

We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections.

They used COVID to cheat.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're never going to let it happen again.

They will not have done the damage that Biden has done.

I'm only going to use the term once, Biden. I'm not going to use the name anymore.

They're coming from prisons, they're coming from jails, they're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Kristen Holmes is traveling with the Trump campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Kristen, you just got some brand-new reporting on how the Secret Service is preparing for tomorrow's rally.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Pamela.

I mean, this is the first rally that Donald Trump is going to hold since that last Saturday assassination attempt. And we are told that Secret Service is scrambling to reassess and add security to this rally.

Remember, it's not just going to be the former president. It's also now going to be the vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, who is going to be here.

Now what were told that they're doing, we actually just got an alert that they're closing some of the streets around the building, that is not usual. Sometimes when they are outdoor rallies, you see some of the side streets that are main -- not main roads closed down, but never in a downtown area, at least of late since he's been a former president, have you seen that.

We also know they're doing a lot of constant assessments to see what went wrong, to see how to enhance security, and that they are really enlisting heavily on local law enforcement, asking for more and more officers. Now, people telling me that around the president, his detail has dramatically changed, that he is already added agents, that they are already looking at a different security apparatus.

One example of that is that last night after he left his convention speech, he landed in New Jersey, something that often happens. But for roughly an hour, a New Jersey state police helicopter was circling over the airport in Newark, creating an aerial security zone that is not usually, again common for a former president or at least was common for former President Donald Trump.

So, clearly, they are trying to ramp up security. Make sure nothing happens again, the other thing they are rethinking is those big outdoor rallies. We know that tomorrow is going to be inside.

BROWN: It will be, and this will be Trump's first campaign rally with his VP pick.

What will you be looking for tomorrow?

HOLMES: Well, this is the first time they're actually going to campaign together. We want to see what a Trump-Vance campaign actually looks like.

So far, we obviously know Donald Trump and less people know J.D. Vance. We saw him campaign in 2022 for Senate. But what are they look like when they're actually campaigning together? What is that dynamic like?

Remember, for all thought that the convention was kind of snippets of them looking in reacting to each other speech sitting next to each other a couple of comments between them. We don't know what they were just caught on camera, never actually trying to be a team that is running for the White House. So that's the big thing to take away tomorrow. How do these two actually function together?

Remember, Pamela, one of the things that we reported on was that Trump felt out of those three top contenders, Governor Burgum, Senators Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, he had the best chemistry from J.D. Vance. So were really seeing not yet, so hoping to see or at least get an understanding of what that looks like tomorrow.

BROWN: All right. Kristen Holmes, tthank you so much.

The Biden campaign manager said today, Project 2025 was on, quote, full display at the Republican convention last night. Trump's campaign manager also had a few choice words about the controversial policy proposals. Hear what he said up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:29:05]

BROWN: Back with our 2024 lead. While unity seems to be crumbling among Democrats, it appears to be in full force for Republicans, but the question is, will it last?

Our panel is back.

I want to bring in Mike.

You were just a convention.

DUBKE: Yeah.

BROWN: Republicans are riding high after this big showing of unity this past week. But you do also have to ask the question with three- and-a-half months to go until the election, could -- could you be peaking too early, you know?

DUBKE: Three -- well, I don't know if were peaking too early, three- and-a-half, three-and-a-half months is an eternity in politics.

BROWN: Right.

DUBKE: So, you do worry about that. I mean, Republicans are flying high right now, but there are so many things that can change. I mean, whether Joe Biden stays in the race, President Biden stays in the race or it gets out. I mean, how exciting would that be if the Democrats had a true convention that they haven't had since the -- well, I was going to say Chicago 1968, but that had its own problems. But this is -- this is absolutely something that every Republican needs to think about.

[16:30:02]

And I think that's why Don Jr. and Chris LaCivita, who's the campaign manager, were warning at the convention, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. This is a long road. We need to -- we need to get these voters. We need to make sure that we attract the voters, and we need to make sure we finished strong in November 5th.

BROWN: I'm curious what you think after this rough few weeks for Democrats seen this past week for the report --

HAQ: It was fascinating to see what the MAGA version of the Grand Old Party, how that part -- how the MAGA version navigates things like a Sikh woman who is a Trump advocate, who has helped him out as a California lawyer, gets up there and makes an invocation in her faith and happens to mostly speaking English and reference a few things in a foreign language. And you hear boos in the room, you hear people online going crazy, saying, this is witchcraft. She should be deported. This is not -- this is not who we are.

And the right wing universe that advocates for uniformity, right? That you all have to kind of be the same if you want to be part of this project isn't ready to reckon with the reality of what America looks like today.

So that is some of what was becoming apparent in the MAGA reaction to the reality that the Republican National Committee was trying to put on stage.

BROWN: What do you say to that?

DUBKE: I haven't see that.

BROWN: Oh, okay.

HAQ: It's a very convenient thing to miss.

DUBKE: No, no, I guess, I -- there was such diversity of the speakers that spoke, I was mentioning to you earlier, Governor Sanders speech, which I thought was great. But the woman who lost her son to violence New York City that was on before her, this was -- this was a Black woman who was really apolitical, but as she put it, she voted Democrat just because and never really thought about it. But when she -- when she lost her son, it was an incredibly powerful speech. And those speakers that they brought in on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to speak from all over the country, I didn't hear the boos.

So I did not -- I -- what I saw was rapt attention to the speakers that they brought out. So I missed that not because I wasn't looking for it, but because it wasn't -- I didn't see that.

HAQ: Well, so I think this points to some of the challenge, right? Of the different realities we talk about, the lived experience of being in America and what that looks like and what that means for both political parties --

DUBKE: Yes. HAQ: -- to reckon with and wrestle with and that what you put on a

stage as a show, ultimately, you know, you saw Trump coming out with those big Trump lights. It was very Magic Mike moment almost I'm glad he kept his clothes on, but that -- that show versus the reality plenty of what is a party base and the MAGA base is not something that most Americans right now who are politically unaffiliated. The majority of Americans are not signed up for a political party right now. That is -- that's going to be very tricky reality that a softer tone Trump is going to have to navigate.

BROWN: Well, I mean, this often for tone was like the first ten minutes where he talked to the assassination --

DUBKE: In the last 10.

BROWN: OK, in the last 10.

DUBKE: I would say it's the first 10 and the last 10.

BROWN: And the last 10 after it, 90 -- was it 92-minute speech.

(CROSSTALK)

HAQ: The Trump that we know, right? This idea that suddenly, there's going to be a different Trump showing up, who wants that anyway?

BROWN: Yeah. I guess we're out of time, but otherwise I would've had gotten you, Mike, you know what?

DUBKE: All right.

BROWN: All right. Thank you all so much. Ahead, an update on what may be the largest I.T. outage in history, disrupting flights, banks, 911 systems, and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:59]

BROWN: We are back with our tech lead and the I.T. glitch that's created global chaos today, thousands of flights canceled or delayed banking systems offline, DMV offices shutdown, even international border crossings impacted, all because of an apparent software upgrade gone wrong.

CNN's Jason Carroll reports on the massive impact, and when it all might get back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A computer glitch that cascaded around the globe, stopping everything from banks to airplanes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still upset right now. There are eight people in my party, eight people, $456 a ticket, and they're giving me $100 back. That is it. And we're screwed. This man is getting married.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anxiety. When I walked in, I got straight anxiety, and all these people, because I was on online, I couldn't find my flight, and I was like, did I do something wrong?

CARROLL: Anger at airports in the U.S., Canada, Asia, and Europe as major carriers struggled to deal with the fallout of what had happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been really wild. It's crazy. It's crowded. People cursing, yelling.

CARROLL: Confusion at banks as some financial systems were impacted overseas, disruptions at United Kingdom's national health system and others around the world as well as broadcast networks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And a major global I.T. outage is impacting many of the worlds largest companies, including us here at Sky News.

CARROLL: All due to that massive global technical outage linked to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity provider. The company's CEO apologized for the incident saying it was not a cyber attack. Instead, he says a defect in a software update CrowdStrike was doing crashed Microsoft Windows, causing the outage. He also says a fix has been deployed.

GEORGE KURTZ, CROWDSTRIKE PRESIDENT AND CEO: We've been on -- with our customers all night and working with them many of the customers are rebooting the system and it's coming up. And it'll be operational because of -- you know, we fixed it on our end.

[16:40:01]

CARROLL: The Department of Homeland Security is working with CrowdStrike and Microsoft to fully assess and address system outages.

Meanwhile, 911 services taking a hit in jurisdictions across the country, impacting states such as Alaska and Arizona.

(END VDIEOTAPE)

CARROLL (on camera): And, Pamela, just over the past few minutes or so, we heard even more delays, more cancelations being announced here at Newark Airport. I walked by a man. I asked him to sort of describe what was going on. He used a term that I cannot repeat here on TV.

The problem those are not just here at airports, hospitals across the country have also reported having to delay surgeries because of what's going on, UPS, along with FedEx saying also expect delays on their end. In addition to that, if you're in states such as Texas or Tennessee, Department of Motor Vehicles says they're going maybe having delays in places like that.

CrowdStrike for its part. Its CEO says this says its going to be a lengthy process before its all over.

Back to you. BROWN: All right. Lots of frustration boiling over as you are experiencing there firsthand, Jason Carroll. Thanks so much.

And up next, Russia's verdict today for Evan Gershkovich. "The Wall Street Journal" reporter who the Biden administration says is wrongfully detained.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:48]

BROWN: In our world lead, a Russian court today sentenced "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison after finding him guilty of espionage charges, charges that the U.S. government says are a sham. Gershkovich has already spent 478 days in prison.

A Russian judge says he can appeal the conviction within the next 15 days, but could today's verdict actually increased chances of a possible prisoner swap to free him?

Joining us now is Emma Tucker, editor in chief of "The Wall Street Journal".

Emma, thank you for your time. This must be an incredibly difficult day for Evan, his family, and you and your newsroom.

First of all, how is everyone.

EMMA TUCKER, CNN DIGITAL WRITER: You're absolutely right. Pamela, it is a very, very dark day for Evan. It's a dark day for his family, for "The Wall Street Journal", and frankly, it's a dark day for press freedom.

I mean, this whole thing from the day that they picked up when he was out on a reporting trip doing his job every single thing that just happened since then has been a complete sham, totally bogus process. And, you know, it's entirely wrong that an innocent journalist doing his job should not have been convicted to 16 years in a penal colony.

Frankly, it's a very unpleasant joke and we need Evan to be back home as soon as possible.

BROWN: It's outrageous that he has been sentenced to 16 years, as you say for just doing his job as a journalist.

Have you heard from Evan at all?

TUCKER: Not recently, no. We obviously we all watched the footage that you've been showing.

He is in regular contact via letters, but, you know, it's difficult. He's thousands and thousands of miles away.

I think watching those images of him are very upsetting. You know, he's in this kind of inhumane cage, his head has been shaved. His -- I mean, he's remarkable, Evan, he always somehow manages to look somehow strong and resilient, but I think there's no doubting that this is, this is extremely tough for him and it's extremely tough for his family.

BROWN: Russian officials have often said there judicial process needs to play out before they consider prisoner swaps, while the guilty verdict and 16 sentence -- year sentence against Evan, they as I said, et are absolutely outrageous. Does it give you any hope that more serious prisoners swap negotiations could potentially now began?

TUCKER: Well, I think yes, this has been, as I say, have already said, this has been an entirely bogus process, totally sham. But its always been, I think there's always been this assumption that in order to move on or to move to the next level, the way it's often played out in previous cases, it has been the case that you needed a conviction and a sentencing before you could move on to the next stage.

Now, look anything could happen. We don't know. We're dealing with Russia. It's very unclear what happens next. But it is possible that this -- well, as far as were concerned, we can now focus on the next step, which is putting all our efforts into getting Evan back and that I think we can all agree is going to be line on a political solution, not illegal one.

BROWN: What is your theory quickly as to why Russia went with a 16 year prison sentence today?

TUCKER: I -- honestly, I don't know. I mean, 16 years, 18 years. What does it mean? It seems -- I mean, it's obviously given that he's innocent and given that this whole thing is a complete sham, it's an outrageously long sentence, you know?

And it would be in one of these sort of quasi gulag penal colonies which are in very isolated places, reports back are that they are extremely unpleasant places. They're not safe, that people don't have enough food. We've heard from previous detained he needs that they're not -- they're not -- they're not up to, they are very, very unpleasant places to spend time.

So I don't know why they came up with 16 years. It's anyone's guess.

But as I say, and I've said all of it is an outrage and all of it is a total sham.

BROWN: Well, it certainly is in our hearts and our prayers, our thoughts, all of it is with Evan today and his family as they absorb this news, as you put it, it has been really a nightmare.

[16:50:09]

Emma Tucker, thank you so much.

TUCKER: Thank you.

BROWN: Up next, a big update to a story reported first here on THE LEAD. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:55:12]

BROWN: Welcome back to the lead.

Now an update on a story Jake Tapper first brought to you on the anniversary of D-Day about the U.S. government discontinuing a program used to honor the fallen. That program now will be restored. Here's Jake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: About a month ago here on THE LEAD, we told you the story of Rondy Elliott, a Gold Star daughter whose father Frank was killed during the invasion of Normandy.

For decades, Rondy and other Gold Star families would call on the American Battlefield Monuments Commission or ABMC to place flowers, flowers that these families pay for themselves on the graves of their loved ones in cemeteries overseas.

Nine years ago, presumably for cost-cutting reasons, the ABMC abruptly shut that program down. But because of that reporting here on CNN and because of the advocacy of the families that we highlighted, the White House is now thankfully reinstating the program.

Rondy was not alone in her efforts. She worked with a group of other Gold Star children. Here's one of them, Bob Holliday, testifying before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB HOLLIDAY, GOLD STAR SON: When you lose your dad to a sudden violent death protecting the freedoms of discovery there's a whole grid in your heart that doesn't close, is that simple. That flower program meant something. I mean, it meant something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now, it is our honor to have Bob Holliday and Marilynn Lieurance.

Thank you so much for being here.

Am I pronouncing that correctly, Lieurance?

MARILYNN RUSTAND LIEURANCE, GOLD STAR DAUGHTER: Lieurance.

TAPPER: Lieurance, okay.

This has been a nine-year -- a nine-year program, a nine-year fight for you. How are you feeling now at the White House says they are going to reinstate this program. You will be able to call the Battlefield Monument Commission and have the flowers put on the grave of your fathers. LIEURANCE: Well, it's wonderful feeling. Its been a long fight and flowers are in honor respect, and remembrance and to have that taken away was just terrible. So the word that that's going to come back means everything to us and also is very important to us to know that our government is going to keep their hand in this because our dads are buried in foreign countries and we don't want them forgotten.

TAPPER: What more are you hoping to hear from the American Battlefield Monuments Commission, Bob?

HOLLIDAY: We live in the freest country in the history of this world. Those people paid for, these freedoms. I decorated my dad's grave for 41 years, three times a year. Suddenly, I get a letter back in 2015 from ABMC that said, I'm not going to do that anymore.

Somebody isn't dead must have forgotten, this country owes these people an awful lot, and we lost over 407,000 people in that war in World War II. You do the math, that's 220 Americans per day that we lost.

So thank those that step forward. Thank -- thank this network I think had you not put our friend, Rondy Elliott, on this? We'd still be waiting around trying to get this done.

TAPPER: Well, that's what journalism is supposed to be -- voices providing voices for the voiceless. And you felt voiceless for nine years, you shouldn't have been. Your dad's paid the ultimate sacrifice, but thankfully, this mistake is going to be rectified.

Have you heard from the American Battlefield Monuments Commission about that they're bringing this back and is there anything more you want them to do?

LIEURANCE: They've testified this morning in Congress and they said that they're going to bring it back, that they're excited to bring it back and we're glad. That's kind of a complete turnaround. But we're glad that they've changed their mind and that we're again going -- going to be honored -- going to be able to honor our dads.

HOLLIDAY: We want to keep it in house. We don't want it farmed out to somebody, you know? This -- Gold Star families are going to feel great if it's the government handling this thing, because those people fought and died for our government.

TAPPER: I have a feeling that are Carl and Rusty are looking down and happy -- happy that their kids are fighting this fight so many years later. It's really such a testament to a child's love.

HOLLIDAY: Well, there's a lot of other folks that lost their lives, all of them need to be honored. I mean, they just do every one of them and it can't be forgotten.

TAPPER: Thank you so much for being here. Really, really appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Coming up on Sunday on "STATE OF THE UNION", Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis, West Virginia Independent Senator Joe Manchin, and South Carolina Democratic Representative James Clyburn. That's Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern.

And then Sunday night, America's bloody history with political violence in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, it is the subject of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER". That's Sunday night at 10:00 Eastern.

I'm Pamela Brown. I will see you back at Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The news continues on CNN now with Wolf Blitzer and "THE SITUATION ROOM": Have a great weekend.