Trump commutes Rod Blagojevich's sentence and grants clemency to 10 others; Sanders takes clear lead over Dem field in new poll; Biocontainment unit used for Ebola tapped for coronavirus; WaPo: Therapy notes being used against minors in immigration court;

The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN

News

3.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2020

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trump: I'm actually the Chief Law Enforcement Officer; Trump commutes Blagojevich's sentence after seeing his wife argue his case on Fox; Judge to sentence Trump confidante Roger Stone Thursday as Trump demands new trial; Federal judges hold emergency meeting amid questions about DOJ; Bloomberg, Sanders trade attacks ahead of Nevada debate; Sanders campaign hits Bloomberg for supporting entitlements cuts in 2012; Experts downplay odds of coronavirus spreading in U.S. despite 73,000+ cases worldwide, no vaccine;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	Remember during impeachment when Republican senators said that President Trump really cared about taking a stand against corruption?
0:08.0	The lead starts right now.
0:10.0	Breaking today a pardon and clemency spree, President Trump gives a get out of jail free
0:16.2	cards and the man who tried to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat, oh and he pardoned a former
0:20.8	NYPD commissioner charged with tax fraud and lying to the White House.
0:24.2	The swamp is sure getting crowded today.
0:27.2	Ticket to Vegas.
0:28.2	Mike Bloomberg makes it on to the next debate stage and surges in a new national poll all the way up to second place but it's
0:35.1	Bernie Sanders the front runner who is pulling away and a judge says she will
0:41.7	sentence Trump-Pal and former advisor Roger Stone on Thursday
0:45.0	as the president flips out over the case, threatening to sue everyone all over the place.
0:49.5	This is CNN breaking news.
0:55.0	Welcome to the lead, I'm Jake Tapper and we begin today with breaking news after weeks of House
0:59.9	and Senate Republicans claiming during the impeachment trial the President
1:03.1	Trump cares gravely about battling corruption. President Trump this afternoon
1:07.8	officially forgave crimes committed by powerful men who abused their
1:11.6	office for personal gains, A continuation of the president's
1:15.1	post-equital campaign of punishing his enemies and rewarding his friends. It's a world in
1:19.8	which prosecutors are often seen as the bad guys and criminals the good guys.
1:25.6	The president announced this afternoon he's commuting the sentence of former Illinois
1:28.7	Democratic Governor Rod Blagoyevich, a one-time contestant on President Trump's TV show Celebrity Apprentice.
1:35.5	Lagojevich was convicted of campaign fraud.
	...

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