The Lead with Jake Tapper Aired May 22, 2024 - 17:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:00:19] This is CNN breaking News. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We have some breaking news off the top of this hour here on The Lead from former Republican presidential candidate, South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. She is speaking live right now for the very first time since she dropped out of the race in March. She just announced that she will be voting for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November. CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins me now live in studio. Jeff, did we expect this or is this a surprise? JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jake, it's somewhat of a surprise. She did not mention Donald Trump's name at all in a speech that she just finished giving. But it came up in the question and answer session at a think tank, the Hudson Institute, which she now is leading here. She was asked near the end of that Q and A, who would she vote for? Her speech was very critical of Joe Biden and his policies. Again, she did not mention Donald Trump by name until she was asked who her ballot would be for. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NIKKI HALEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who's going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border. No more excuses. A president who would support capitalism and freedom. A president who understands we need less debt, not more debt. Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I've made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump. (END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: So she also went on to say, really picking up where she left off on March 6, her concession speech, she said it is the burden of Donald Trump to reach out to her supporters, to win them over. So, Jake, she went on to say this, having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech, Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and to continue to support me and not be automatically assumed that they will support him. So, is this a surprise? No. She's the last standing Republican rival who had withheld her endorsement. The last major candidate, Chris Christie has as well. But look, she's a Republican. She's a two term former Republican governor. She served in the U.N., of course, as ambassador. So this is not a surprise. The question is what happens to her supporters? But talking to her advisors, she doesn't own these supporters. She doesn't own these voters, and hundreds of millions of them have been cast since she dropped out of the race. So again, she said that she hopes he reaches out to them. The bigger question, could she still be considered to be his running mate? Ralph Norman, a Republican member of Congress from South Carolina, said just yesterday here on CNN he's talked to the former president. He wishes he would reach out to her for running mate. He has said that he is not going to put her on the shortlist. We shall see. TAPPER: So also, Chris Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, who was a Haley supporter and now is endorsed Trump, said that he wished that Trump would bring Haley on the ticket. Stick with me, Jeff. I want to bring in Ashley Etienne, who worked for Vice President Harris, and Bryan Lanza, who worked for the Trump-Pence campaign. Bryan, how significant a moment do you think this is? BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP-PENCE CAMPAIGN: First of all, thank you for having me. I think it's another moment of the party uniting behind Trump. First, you had Bill Barr announced here on CNN that he was supporting Trump. I think that shocked a lot of people. And you see more and more of what was viewed as the resistance sort of lining up supporting Trump. And that's where the party's going. They're going unified into November. And I push back a little bit on what Nikki Haley said that Trump needs to appeal to her supporters. He's clearly appealing to supporters because he's consolidating the Republican vote already. That's not on accident. That's on a target, that's on a targeted pitch that the campaign is focused on, is hitting those voters without necessarily addressing the Nikki Haley situation. Now they can address it and sort of reinforce. We've been talking to you. Now Nikki Haley's on board. Let's unify the rest of the party and let's get ready for November. ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY, VP HARRIS: I mean, I just think this really puts on full display for the American people how spineless the Republican Party is today. How they've completely rolled over and are now behind in backing Donald Trump, when all of these from Sununu to Nikki Haley, have had great, massive objections about Donald Trump, from the $8 trillion he's added to the debt, to the chaos, as she would describe it, that he perpetuated as president, from domestic policy to foreign policy. Now all of a sudden, we just delete on that. We hit delete on that. She expects American people to forget that she actually said that. I think that her voters aren't, to your point earlier, her vote -- those aren't her voters. I think those voters are in pure objection to where the Republican Party is today. They're disgusted by Donald Trump. They wanted an alternative. She represented that alternative. Now that she's out of it, I think those part -- those folks don't go back to the Republican Party. [17:05:20] TAPPER: So just -- Alyssa Farrah Griffin, Trump's former communications director, who's no longer a fan of Donald Trump, said in response to Nikki Haley saying she's going to vote for Trump, quote, "Disappointing but not surprising. I lost all faith in politicians a long time ago. Trump is a threat to democracy and has no business being near the White House." So there are some who -- ETIENNE: Within the Republican Party that have lost faith in their own leaders. TAPPER: Right, but you were talking about what Nikki Haley said about Trump during the campaign. Jeff, I want to play some of what she said in the weeks before she dropped out of the race in March. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HALEY: I feel no need to kiss the ring. I have no fear of Trump's retribution. I'm not looking for anything from him. My own political future is of zero concern. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: So Haley could have made this announcement at any time since she dropped out of the race. And certainly, and, Bryan, I want you to weigh in on this in a second after Jeff, certainly there are a lot of people out there still voting for Haley in these primaries. I mean, knowing that it's futile, but I think she got, like, almost 20 percent of the vote in Indiana, double digits in Pennsylvania, 6 percent last night in Kentucky, not a lot, but still, she's not even running. Why now? Why make this announcement now? ZELENY: Look, one of the reasons, I'm told, is because the primaries are nearing their end, and she, of course, is thinking about her future. I'm told it's not decided yet. She has no idea if she will run again in 2028. That's a long time down the road. But she is a Republican. So there was a donor meeting with some of her top donors just last week in South Carolina. And at that meeting, I'm told that it came up. I mean, there is some concern about her branding. She's not a Joe Biden moderate. She is a conservative Republican. TAPPER: Right. ZELENY: She just believes the party should not be of the MAGA variety. So the reason she's doing it now, because she was asked the question directly. She went there and she wanted to take the air out of the suspense a little bit. The bigger question is, what does she do now? Does she campaign on behalf of Donald Trump? Does he ask her, does he reach out to her? Those are very unknown at this hour. TAPPER: And Bryan, so I give you one homework assignment a second ago. Here's the second one. Is there a difference between her saying I endorse Donald Trump and her saying, I'm voting for Donald Trump and here's why. LANZA: No, I don't think it's a difference to her voters. I certainly don't think it's a difference to the campaign. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, she says she's going to be punching her ticket for Donald Trump. That's what everybody wants to hear in the Republican Party and that's what they're going to be hearing. I do think she'll likely campaign. I mean, the reality is she's going to be a very popular person among the circuit, especially the suburban women, which the campaign recognizes they have challenges. I don't think she's going to be VP or even the cabinet position, but she's a very strong and powerful surrogate for the campaign. And I think she'll deliver on that. ETIENNE: Yes. TAPPER: Go. ETIENNE: No, I mean, I think the concern is that she's prioritized her own political future over the future of the country. Whatever happened to constitutional Republicans? The ones who believe in those foundational documents, the one that -- the ones that -- you know, the documents that Donald Trump says he's going to do away with on day one, that he's going to lead like a dictator. And she knows that. She was in those rooms. She saw it and she brought that to the American people and said, this guy does not deserve to be in the White House. Why all of a sudden that changes and she's not going to get anything out of the deal is just a disgrace. And I think it slap into the face of the American people. TAPPER: Bryan, how do you explain all the thousands of people that are still voting for Nikki Haley in these primaries, Republican voters? LANZA: It's probably still a little bit of a protest about what you see. But let's remember this happened in 2016. You had a phenomenon of a lot of Republican and the primary voters still not voting for Trump. But what did we learn? We learned in November that they voted for Trump. So it's a great storyline that we can talk about and sort of create this upheaval. But at the end of the day, we know they fall in line because we look at historical patterns and they fell in line in 2016. ZELENY: One thing I learned today, the Biden campaign is actually studying those voters, particularly Indiana, where more than 21 percent, one in five Republicans voted for her. They're trying to see -- you know, a lot are suburban women, but not all of them. So, we will see now that Haley has said who she's supporting, if that changes at all, sort of, you know, be a calculus for some of her voters. But, again, she has said she doesn't own these voters. So, there was a mix. Some were Democrats in other states, but even in closed primary states, there were still a lot of Republicans voting for her. It was definitely a protest vote. We'll see if the Republicans for Biden organization, which is ramping up, will get any other people on it or not. She will not be one of them. TAPPER: Ashley, here's something else Nikki Haley said before she dropped out of the race earlier this year. [17:10:05] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HALEY: At some point, maybe we should say the reason that America keeps losing is because of Donald Trump. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: She's certainly given the Biden campaign a lot of clips that they can use in their ads. I don't know how effective they'll be, though, with her out there saying, here's all the reasons why Donald Trump is better. ETIENNE: Yes, I mean, I think the concern for her, she's part of probably lost. I can bet all credibility with those voters that are voting for her now, those protest voters. So I'm not so sure what effect she'll have on the campaign trail going forward. And I'm not so sure this endorsement really moves any of that 20 percent in any of those states. I mean, you're absolutely right. She's given a lot of fodder to the Biden campaign. But also, I think more than anything else, it really should wake up the Republican Party. They should be asking themselves, how do we reclaim this party? How do we get to this, in this position that we're in now where we're going to the head of the party who's lost three consecutive cycles, right, dating back to '16. TAPPER: 2018. ETIENNE: 2018, excuse me. How is this person, the head of the party? One who's antithetical to everything we stand for and represent as a party that they used to? More importantly, if you don't mind me adding -- TAPPER: OK. ETIENNE: -- you have, you know, Senator Romney who says there's -- this is the scariest thing, if you ask me, a growing faction within the Republican party that no longer believes in the constitution and that supports people like Putin. That is alarming. And it should be to Nikki Haley and the fact that she's compromised her principles to now support Trump is despicable. TAPPER: We'll give you the last word here. ETIENNE: Listen, I think Governor Romney in 2016 provided a lot of lines to hurt President Trump and Iran, and it had no factor. So whatever lines Nikki Haley provided in the 2024 race, it'll probably have no factor as well. You know, she's on board. She made a decision that she analyzed Joe Biden's policies, she analyzed his foreign policies, which is viewed by a universal lens as weak, and said, you know, a weak America, a weak American leader is far more dangerous than anything Donald Trump has done. And by the way, the voters have made that decision as well. These Republican voters have. TAPPER: All right. Well, big news on this -- what day is today? Wednesday. Thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Coming up next, an interview that takes courage and strength, a father's hope that his message will be heard. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:16:09] TAPPER: Now, two major developments in the Israel-Hamas war. In a moment, in his first U.S. interview, you're going to hear from the father of Shani Louk. Shani Louk, of course, that 22-year-old woman kidnapped by Hamas and killed by Hamas. She was at the Nova music festival on October 7. Her remains were found by Israeli forces just last week. But first, the declarations that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is blasting as a, quote, "reward for terror." Ireland, Spain and Norway all announced plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state. Let's start with CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem. Jeremy, reaction from Israel and the U.S. has been strong and swift following these three countries recognizing a Palestinian state. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it, Jake. And Israel taking actual steps in response to these three countries recognizing a Palestinian state, the Israeli foreign minister today recalling Israel's ambassadors to those three countries and also bringing in those countries ambassadors to Israel for a formal reprimand and also where he said he planned to show them the video of women being taken hostage on October 7. As you said, the Israeli prime minister said that this would be a reward for terror. And he's also making clear that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying that a Palestinian state today would be a, quote, "terror state," which he said he believes will attempt to perpetrate the October 7 massacre again and again. Now, as for the United States, they are rejecting that notion of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, but also reaffirming a two state solution. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: President Biden, as I just said, has been on the record supporting a two state solution. He has been equally emphatic on the record that two state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations, through the parties, not through unilateral recognition. That's a principled position that we have held on a consistent basis. We'll communicate that to our partners around the world, and we'll see what unfolds. (END VIDEO CLIP) DIAMOND: And now the Israeli foreign minister is vowing that there will be, quote, "serious consequences" for the recognition of a Palestinian state from these three countries. We understand that the foreign ministry is currently considering moves that could restrict the travel, for example, officials from those countries. And today, the finance minister of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, a far right member of Netanyahu's governing coalition, also saying that he is going to seek the approval of 10s of 1000s of housing units in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as well as new settlements. He also wants to block tax revenues, Palestinian tax revenues collected by the Israeli government meant for the Palestinian Authority, which is already quite severely cash strapped. That could certainly have real consequences in the West Bank. What is clear is that this move by these three countries to recognize a Palestinian state, which they say will be followed by other countries, largely symbolic, but it is, of course, once again highlighting Israel's growing isolation on the world stage. Jake. TAPPER: Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem, thank you. Last week, the Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of four hostages from Gaza. One of them was that of 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival. She had previously been confirmed killed, but her body was then returned to her family. Over the weekend, a funeral was held for Shani. Hundreds of people attended to honor her memory, and her body was finally laid to rest. Shani Louk's father, Nissim Louk, is with us now. Nissim, thank you so much for joining us under such horrible circumstances. How is your family holding up? How are you doing? NISSIM LOUK, FATHER OF DECEASED HOSTAGE SHANI LOUK: Thank you very much. And good afternoon for all of you. Yes, these are rough times in Israel after what happened to us on the seventh of October when, you know, in the middle of the day, actually in the morning, terrorists and Hamas members crossed the border from Gaza into Israel and killed so many people in one day. And for us, it's a catastrophe. It's a tragedy. And especially for myself, you know, I have a big hole in my heart by the shape of my daughter Shani Louk, which I'm sure most of you saw the pictures all over the world. And she is lying in the back. [17:20:37] There's a beautiful, young 22-years-old girl lying in the back of a Toyota pickup. And on top of her there are like five militants with machine guns. And, you know, for her father to see such a horrible thing, it was difficult. But yes, we buried her this week, on Sunday. And it was from one side very painful, of course, but from the other side, it was a relief. And I feel a little bit lucky with all this tragedy that happened to us and to the Jewish people in Israel and around the world because this is something that is bigger than us, of course. With all the pain, I feel a little bit lucky because from the first week, like two weeks after the seventh of October, we knew that she was dead because they found a piece of her bone from the skull. And we did a DNA check and it was her. So we knew that she was dead, like two, three weeks after the seventh of October. And now we had another present from Shani, actually, probably that we have the body and we buried it on Sunday. And, yes, it's complete. And we closed the loop. And I feel lucky twice. OK. With a big tragedy that happened to the Jewish people in Israel. Yes. TAPPER: How do you want Shani Louk, your daughter, to be remembered? LOUK: Since Shani, my daughter, was born, you know, we live in a beautiful place in a beautiful forest in the middle of Israel. And, you know, since she was a little baby, actually, she used to go into the forest like, you know, in the fairy tales and pick up flowers, and she was always happy and smiling and dancing. And she was a unique person. And, you know, you could see the light coming from herself. And, you know, also she was a beautiful girl and you see the inner beauty and outer beauty. And she was an amazing girl. She was so happy and she was so free and she did whatever she wanted. You know, sometimes it is hard for a father to see a girl, beautiful girl doing everything she wants, you know, but still she was a free person and did everything that she wanted. And on that crazy day, you know, like, she went to a party in the south of Israel, just near the Gaza border. It was a beautiful party with 3,000 people and they were dancing all night. And in the morning when the rocket started coming from a Gaza strip towards Tel Aviv in Israel, we called her and we asked her, Shani, how are you? Are you OK? And she said, yes, I'm OK and I'm heading towards Tel Aviv and everything is fine. And actually this was the last phone call that we had from her and to her. And the terrorists got her halfway to Tel Aviv and kidnapped her body. They killed her first and then kidnapped her body to Gaza. And you know, luckily a few days ago, some of the soldiers that were in a special mission, they found a hole in the ground. They went down, 15 meters down and they found a tunnel, like a one kilometers long tunnel. They were walking in the tunnel and then they found a room. They filled up with the sandbags, they took all the bags out and suddenly they saw the four bodies. What was very amazing was that I saw the picture of my daughter Shani, you know, after they found her a few days ago and the body was complete. It was a beautiful body, still with the same color, the same skin, the same tattoos. And it looks like to me like she died actually yesterday. But I want to tell everyone, you know, Shani was a beautiful girl, really, an amazing woman. And one day after the seventh of October in all over Europe there was a very famous picture. You see, Shani, my daughter, which had double passport, means she was an Israeli, German civilian and she had two passports. And the day after, on the eight of October, there was a big picture, beautiful picture on the main pages all over Europe and it was written there -- from one side you see Shani, beautiful, dancing on from -- and on the other side you see these militant terrorist murderers. And it was written, look at our beautiful German girl and look at what this barbarian doing to her. [17:25:33] And I think that this is one of the most important pictures, you know, actually ever in the last, let's say, 50 years, that in one picture you can see from one side an angel and from the other side demons. From one side beauty, from the other side you see pain and you see horror. From one side good and from the other side bad. Like if you take this picture and you show it to a little kid, you know, they doesn't know anything about Israel and Palestinian and problem, and you tell him, what do you see? He will tell you, I see -- oh, look at this beautiful girl, you know, and look what they are doing to her, these cruel people. And whenever, you know -- many people in the world think, the Israelis, the Jews are the bad and the Palestinians are the good. And so -- and whenever each one of you have a, you know, question, am I the good man? Am I the good guy or am I the bad guy? Yes? So just, you know, look at the picture and immediately, you know, it will bring you back into, look, look at the picture. You see immediately the good and the bad. And you cannot, you know, mix in between these two. Like there is a line in between these two pictures and you cannot mix this picture. TAPPER: Yes. LOUK: You see good and you see evil. TAPPER: Nissim Louk, thank you so much for talking to us today. May Shani's memory be a blessing. We appreciate your time and we're so sorry. We're so sorry for what happened. LOUK: Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. And, you know, spread the light of Shani because she had a unique light. And, you know, take a little bit of this light and, you know, and spread it around the world and so the world will be a better place. Thank you very much. TAPPER: Yes. Amen to that. Amen to that. Up next, yet another lawsuit against rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, a model accusing him of sexual assault in 2003 explains why she's coming forward now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:31:56]