One-on-one interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis

The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN

News

3.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2023

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sits down to discuss if he thinks Trump should be indicted if the special counsel finds evidence of criminality, his sweeping new military plan, US relations with China, the state of the war in Ukraine, and if he has concerns about his campaign’s ability to win the Republican nomination. Plus, a US soldier is believed to have been detained by North Korea after allegedly willfully crossing border. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the lead. I am Jake Tapper and I am live on the campaign trail here in beautiful
0:13.0	Columbia, South Carolina. We're earlier today. I sat down for an exclusive interview with
0:17.4	Republican presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis was here in South
0:22.0	Carolina to roll out a major policy announcement about the U.S. military. But of course, I asked
0:27.2	him about the big breaking news that his key competitor, Republican front runner and former
0:32.4	president Donald Trump, announced earlier today that he had been told he is the target
0:36.6	of the special counsel's criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump
0:43.1	also said that he's been told to appear this week Thursday at the latest before the federal
0:47.2	grand jury in DC. Trump wrote on Truth Social today, quote, deranged to Jack Smith, the prosecutor
0:53.8	with Joe Biden's Department of Justice sent a letter. Again, it was Sunday night stating that I am
0:57.8	a target of the January 6 grand jury investigation and giving me a very short four days to report to the
1:03.7	grand jury, which almost always means an arrest and indictment, end quote. Trump's revelation comes as we
1:10.0	learn of several important new developments in the January 6 investigation. One, a Trump
1:16.7	advisor is expected to appear before that grand jury this week. Two sources say the special counsel's
1:22.9	team has also contacted former Arizona governor, Doug Ducey, a Republican whom Trump also pressured to
1:29.3	overturn the 2020 election. Three, we've also learned special counsel investigators have interviewed
1:34.2	Wisconsin election officials. And four, in fact, CNN has learned that the special counsel's office has
1:40.2	interviewed officials from all seven 2020 battleground states, all seven states where Trump and his
1:46.0	allies tried to overturn the 2020 election results. Those seven include Michigan, Georgia,
1:51.2	Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Nevada. All of this as a hearing is wrapping up
1:58.8	involving the special counsel's other criminal case involving Mr. Trump, the classified documents case in
2:04.3	Florida where a judge told prosecutors a trial date in mid-December would be too soon, the
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