♪ u.s. made cluster munitions are now in the hands of the ukrainian military, ready for use in its counteroffensive against russia. we're going to tell you why a

top ukrainian general tells cnn it will, quote, radically change the battlefield and whereukrain forces say they will not use these weapons. and access to birth control could soon be a lot easier for millions of american women. the fda approved the first over-the-counter pill. we're requgoing to tell you wheu could start seeing them on store shelves. we're following these developing stories and more all coming in right here to "cnn news central." ♪ a senior ukrainian general tells cnn his forces have received the u.s.-made cluster munitions that can, in his words, quote radically change the battlefield here. his forces have yet to deploy them against the russians. the arrival of those weapons has not previously been reported. you can see here video from last year in kharkiv. this is what it looks like when a russian cluster munition

exploded there. you see the initial explosion on a number of those smaller bombs falling around the area. that's what they're staten island -- designed to do. they're designed specifically to kill people. oren liebermann is at the pentagon. has the defense department confirmed the arrival of these munitions in ukraine now? does it have any sense of when and how ukraine plans to use them? >> jim, lieutenant general d.a. simms who's the director of operations here at the joint staff, confirmed just a few moments ago on a press briefing that u.s. cluster munitions have arrived in ukraine, so that corroborates what our colleague alex marquardt heard from ukrainian general, which is that they have arrived in the country. simms wouldn't say anything about whether or not they have been used yet. generally the u.s. will leave it to the ukrainians to talk about how, when, and where they choose to employ the weapons that have been provided. simms also made the point that a third country has provided clu

cluster munitions to ukraine in the past. so the ukrainians have used at least the other country's cluster munitions as the u.s. ones begin to flow in. it's not too much of a surprise that they arrived days after they were announced. clu cluster munitions is an untapped stock that the u.s. hasn't given yet. shortly after it was announced the u.s. was able to wrap that up and get it to ukraine as quick lly as possible. ukraine committed to the u.s. that it wouldn't be used against civilian targets. it would be used in the ongoing counteroffensive. you saw from the video you showed at the top there, how these can be used. it can essentially saturate a small area or a medium-sized area with these little bomblets, these sub munitions that can hit over a bit of an area. you can see why they'd be very effective targeting personnel, targeting russian lines there, and that's how the ukrainians have committed to using them. one more point that's worth pointing out, one of the other issues the u.s. faced is what is

the dud rate? what percentage of these bomblets or smaller munitions don't explode? according to the u.s. in the case of russian cluster munitions, which have been used repeatedly sing the beginning of the war, it's upwards of 30 or 40%. for u.s. it's below 2.35%. jim, that's very important for the u.s. >> no question, although congress did pass a law a number years ago that they should be -- those dud rates should be below 1%. certainly lower than russian munitions, but a danger nonetheless. oren liebermann at the pentagon, thank you so much. vladimir putin cleaning house after last month's brief but highly embarrassing mutiny. "the wall street journal" is reporting that at least 13 senior officers suspected of disloyalty were detained for questioning. some were later released ask around 15 were suspended from duty or they were fired. cnn's senior international correspondent sam kiley is joining us now on this story. one of the biggest names on the list of course is general sergei

sor vee kin. he had close ties to the head of wagner, yevgeny prigozhin. what do we know at this point about his fate? >> reporter: well, he's largely famous for his absence at the moment. we only know from a figure in the state duma, that's the russian parliament, that according to him, the general who was in an air force general is, quote, resting. he was reportedly taken into custody and subjected to interrogation over his close links with yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary group in russia. that mercenary group, i think, is very, very important from the ukrainian perspective. first, because they concentrated their fighting around bakhmut, and then because over the last few months they've been overtly mutinous, culminating in that attempted coup that is the subject of that interrogation for the russian general, but on top of that, we've now got the extremely important development

with ivan popov, a russian general who's recently been fired. an audio tape from him, purporting to be from him, saying very much the same thing the wagner leadership have been saying, blaming the russian military defense leadership for russian failures on the front line. in his words decapitating -- i quote there -- the russian efforts. now, he was the commander of the 58th army down in zaporizhzhia. that is arguably the most important front line area in the ukrainian counteroffensive, and he has now been relieved of his position, he says, and bitterly critical of the kremlin and the leadership under the kremlin of the russian armed forces. this is the first time we've heard from a regular russian soldier, one reportedly extremely popular with his men breaking ranks. this is exactly what the ukrainians want to see, mutiny in the ranks of the russians will save a lot of ukrainian lives ultimately. >> a lot of destabilization

there for the russians. sam kiley live for us, jim. russia's ongoing invasion of ukraine of course central to the discussions during president biden's five-day trip to europe. he closed out that trip today with a visit to russia's neighbor and the newest member of the alliance, finland, and while in helsinki, biden sent a clear message to vladimir putin. >> putin's already lost the war. putin has a real problem. how does he move from here? what does he do from here? there is no possibility of him winning the war in ukraine. he's already lost that war. >> of course five years ago trump in helsinki took putin's word he had not interfered in the election. this was a busy five-day trip to europe. i wonder from the administration's perspective, do they believe they're leaving

with what they intended to dwayngain from all of this? >> reporter: president biden himself told reporters that he believes he accomplished the goals he set out to meet with this visit to europe. that includes rallying more support towards ukraine as well as strengthening the nato alliance. of course that strengthening of the nato alliance was on full display here at his final stop in helsinki finland as the president met with nordic leaders which included the leaders of finland and sweden. finland the newest member to the nato alliance having joined in april, and sweden recently had approval from turkey begigiven them ahead of that nato summit. turkey had been objects to sweden's entry into nato for quite some time and erdogan has now blocked those objections and is setting up a vote to fully approve sweden and move its way into the alliance. but president biden here also gave a very frank assessment of where he thinks russian president vladimir putin is in

terms of winning this war. the president said he doesn't believe this is a war that putin can wage for years, that he doesn't -- he doesn't have the resources to do so, and he very bluntly said that he believes putin has lost. the president ultimately hopes that ukrainians will be able to mount a counteroffensive and bring russia into a negotiated settlement to try to find some way out of this war. what the president had been trying to do throughout the trip is demonstrate and put forward those ideas of a strengthened nato and also rallying support around ukraine. you, of course, had some tension at the start of that nato summit as zelenskyy was at odds with nato allies about how exactly they would lay out a pathway for membership for ukraine. at the end of the summit, president biden was very forceful in saying that he believes ukraine's place is in the nato alliance, even if that time line and those conditions have yet to be met. and of course, as you mentioned, the backdrop of this event in helsinki, finland, was incredibly important.

when you think about the fact that former president donald trump stood here in helsinki meeting with putin, siding with putin over his u.s. intelligence community about their assessments of the election interference. on the other hand, you had president biden here showing that nato is even more strengthened in their resolve against russia. jim. >> and by the way, bigger and more united than it was prior, and that part of the rationale for saying it has been a strategic failure for russia with its invasion of ukraine. arlette, enjoy the scenes there in helsinki, thanks so much. this just in to cnn, we are learning that republican senator tommy tuberville, who has been blocking senior military nominations, promotions, has now talked to defense secretary lloyd austin about this. president biden today calling this block irresponsible saying it is jeopardizing u.s. security. prior to this call, austin had told our wolf blitzer what he would say to tuberville if he got the chance to talk to him.

>> is that right tuberville said he's only spoken to you about this once, that was back in february. why not have a conversation with hi m amid this blockade of tuberville holding up more than 250 military nominations over demands that the pentagon change its abortion policy. now, tuberville's office told me

that that call in their words were cordial, they were productive, and that the senator looks forward to continuing the conversation. no indication that the standoff has eased at all. in talking to senator tuberville earlier today, he made clear that the president e's attacks against him are not going to be enough for him to back off. he does not believe this is having any impact on national security. ask says the pressure campaign would not be enough for him to back off and let these nominations go through. >> doesn't sound like anybody tha wants to sit down and visit. i'm not in this to argue. i'm just in this to try to be fair and do what's right. there's no chance of changing my position if we don't sit down and visit. >> i mean, the republicans, he said the way this ends is republicans need to put pressure on you to relent. >> that's not going to happen.

i've already told you, that's not going to happen. i'mi i'm doing it not for the republican party, i'm doing it for republicans and democrats and citizens of this country. the president of the united states, i'm glad he knows who i am now, but communication is the best way for negotiation, and there's been none. >> reporter: and tuberville has said that there is no middle ground between his position and the white house's position. his position is to simply kill that policy that allows for reimbursement for military service members who have to travel out of state for the abortion procedure, that he wants that gone. he wants a senate vote on that issue, that is something the white house and the pentagon and democrats don't want to entertain. no indication of that yet, and separately, briana, that issue about the pentagon abortion policy also scrambling, they're trying to jam through a massive defense bill as soon as the end of this week. that abortion issue could complicate things in the other chamber as well. >> yeah, for service members and also for their dependents,

including spouses, many of whom are female and live in states where they cannot access abortion after six weeks, manu r raju. talks between the screen actors guild and studios have broken down. the stage set for a strike. will your favorite shows have to stop production? we'll have a live report from los angeles just ahead. why some of president biden's supporters are hitting the panic button over his re-election strategy. and the fda is changing how women can get birth control, all this on cnn "news central." soso you only pay for what you need. check it out, you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, i'll look into that. let me put a remininder on my phone. save $700 dollars. pick up dad from airport? ohhhhhh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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negotiations between the studio and sag-aftra fell apart overnight. now the union representing more than 100,000 plus actors will join the writers who have been on strike for more than 70 days. cnn's natasha chen has been covering this from los angeles. natasha, this is -- i don't know if it's a shock, but it's certainly big news there with big repercussions. tell us what this means going forward. >> reporter: yeah, we are going to see 160,000 actors join the more than 11,000 writers who have already been on strike for more than 70 days. this is grinding hollywood to a halt. i just stepped out of the press conference that began a few moments ago just as sag-aftra was announced that their national board has unanimously voted to strike after not being able to come to a deal with the studios as of last night, and the president of sag-aftra, fran

dresher is speaking right now as we speak and one of her sentiments is that she announces this with great sadness, that this was a grave, serious move to make and that there was no agreement when it came to issues of better compensation, better residual pay in the world of streaming services and protections in the world of artificial intelligence where technology of ai could really take the digital likeness of an actor. and so the studios at the same time today had released a statement saying they had offered ground breaking protections in that field and higher compensation, ask they're disappointed that sag-aftra walked away. >> natasha chen, do you know how far apart the two sides were at this point as they came to a decision, as sag-aftra came to a decision to strike? >> reporter: that's a great question. they actually had a media blackout during these negotiations, so there was not a lot of discussion about what the

exact proposals were on each side. i'm sure we'll learn about that now since there is an official trike a strike. >> clearly far enough apart that they didn't think they could come to an agreement at this point. thanks so much. i want to bring in the senior editor at variety, mark, good to have you on. this is a big moment for hollywood. we already saw the impact for some 70 days of the writers being on strike. now the actors join them. are you surprised that it's come to this? >> i'm not surprised that it has come to this. for four weeks they've been trying to hash out a deal. there were moments, i will say, that we thought maybe they're going to do it, but then this week when they brought in a federal mediator at the last -- literally during the last hours, you knew this was not going to go well. like, you know, previously was said there has been a media bl blackout on everything, but i'm not surprised. i'm not surprised.

right now hollywood is coming to a complete stop. >> technology is so central to this disagreement here, the advent of ai, artificial intelligence but also streaming right -- obviously they're not getting what they think they should get from streaming plat platforms. how much has that shaken these relationships? >> basically right now there is just no trust. you know, like you said, when it comes to streaming, what the actors want is they want more residuals. you know, for many, many years, for tdecades, actors -- and i'm not talking about the $20 million, the a-list actor. we're talking about the actor who makes their living as an actor. they make their living off residuals. i was at an event withjackets, said for years it was residuals that paid her bills. most of the actors going on strike are not the $20 million actors. they're the actors that need

these residuals. the problem here is the streamers don't want to open their books and let people know exactly how many people are watching these shows. >> it's such a great point. it's a very tiny sliver of those 160,000 actors who make those big ticket payments. for folks at home who are dedicated to their yellowstones and you name it streaming series, how quickly will they see an impact from this? >> you know, they could start seeing an impact -- right now i think most of the streamers and studios are saying for the next six months they have their con content. they'll be able to, you know, roll it out this a reasonable time in the scheduled time, but as many of these movies right now, they are going to shut down. the movie production will shut down. tv productions have shut down. many have already shut down because of the writer's strike. we're going to see season premiers happening much later. as we speak, there is a premier in london going on of

oppenheimer and the cast has left the premier. >> wow. >> the strike has been called. they did the red carpet, but they have left the theater. >> before we go, bob iger, the ceo of disney was asked about the strike earlier today, this on cnbc from out in sun valley, and he said, listen, it's their right to push for as much as they can get, but he described the actors' demands here as unreasonable, going too far. i just want to give you a chance k covering this so closely to respond to that. >> this is a tough one because then you have on the other side someone like fran are drescher, saying you're being really greedy. when you look at the salaries of the ceos, of the streamers, it just makes everyone's blood boil here this hollywood and actors who can't pay their bills when they're making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. so there is going to have to be

some give and take, compromise. in the end, not everyone will be happy 100%, but something has to bend. >> yeah, someone said that on the hill once before. when no one's happy, that means you got a good deal. mark malcon, senior editor for "variety," thanks so much. >> take care. >> brianna. some democrats are getting anxious over the peace of president biden's reelection campaign. we're going to tell you what they're saying and why things like hiring are so far behind. i've struggled with generalized myasthenia gravis.

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some biden supporters, well, they are apparently ready to hit the panic button. we have some new cnn reporting about growing concern among some democrats who think the president's re-election campaign really needs to pick up the pace. cnn spoke to a half dozen senior democratic advisers who felt the biden's re-election bid isn't taking full advantage of the built-in head start granted by being the incumbent. we have cnn's isaac doe veer and jeff zeleny reporting on this. >> what's the basis of the criticism here? i've certainly seen biden use the bully pulpit a lot, for instance from the nato conference. what are they saying he's not doing? >> look, in the next couple of days by saturday, we are going to find out how much money joe biden raised for his re-election campaign since launching at the end of april. the general feeling is that it's

going to be a decent number but not a huge number, not as much as all of those nervous democrats who can't ever stop being nervous democrats would like to see to reassure them there's this burst of enthusiasm for biden. that is the leading to the latest round of questions about biden that seem to be the perennial question of how much support is there really for him? is he the strongest candidate going into 2024? the biden circle, of course, would say we've done this a lot of times before, and look, he is the president. >> what does he gain from sort of staying out of the fray? what does he lose from not getting into it, jeff? >> look, i think he stays presidential to the extent that you can sort of separate the president from a presidential candidate seeking re-election. i think you can somewhat. he stays out of the fray by not going after donald trump every day, by not going after some of these republican candidates, and he's doing his day job. and his day job as we have seen all week long, he's had some big successes. what some democrats that i've been speaking to are afraid that

he's losing is the true power of the incumbency. he has the benefit of time. he doesn't have a serious primary challenge, so is the campaign using this moment to sort of rebuild his support among latino voters, among african american voters, among some base voters that they will need? are they doing voter registration efforts in latino communities in north carolina, in georgia. some basic things that sort of can be done in the off year, when it's not just the moment where, you know, the campaign is coming to voters at the time of an election. so are they using this time to sort of build the party? the dnc would argue that, yes, they are, but that is sort of a question, using the power of incumbency in many different ways here. i think they'll start doing more of that in the coming weeks and months. that's sort of what's the question. if you look back at 2011, the obama campaign was already built up. the headquarters was in chicago. they had a few hundred staffers. he has not yet opened his campaign re-election headquarters in wilmington. it's going to be there. there's a handful of people

working at the dnc, big difference. >> isaac, some of these democrats have a view that it's possible that an alternate candidate will emerge, and this is one of those washington stories that won't quite go away but might just be a washington story. is there substance behind that? are there serious democrats with serious influence who believe that should happen? >> well, there are certainly influential veteran democrats who have gone to some of their alternative possibilities i report in the piece, and said, listen, get ready, he's not going to run. i can tell. his heart's not in it. i can't get into that because of the agreements i made in the reporting, but people whose names you would know and that the audience would know. serious politicians, those democratic possibilities have all said no, no, we're supporting -- and they don't want to be in that position of making a primary against an incumbent president. the last time democrats did that was teddy kennedy running against jimmy carter, and that ended up with ronald reagan

being elected president. it does get at this feeling that is really -- it's there given biden's poll numbers that are in the low 40s, given biden's age, he's 80 years old, given just the differences that a lot of them are anxious about from the '20 campaign to the '24 campaign and what running a fully-fledged operation would be after coming through a covid election and being used to that. it's a much different thing. and look, what this all is about is that many people, certainly many democrats are really worried that donald trump could be president again and that the stakes are so high. >> some republicans are worried. >> yep, jeff, isaac, thank you so much. stuff is about to get real, right? we have the first republican debate ahead of us next moh, if you can believe. >> august 23rd. >> coming up quickly. a new fda decision ia big change in birth control. we're going to tell you about the new over-the-counter pill next on cnn "news central."

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ contraception is coming to the nation's store shelves. the fda just approved an over-the-counter birth control pill called opill. that means no prescription, no doctor visit needed to get birth control. opill will be available online and in stores in early 2024. joining me now to talk about this is dr. leana wen, cnn medical analyst and a former health commissioner for baltimore. you have advocated for this

change, what do you think the practical impact is going to be here? >> well, i think this is a big step and one that's really overdue, because over 100 countries have already allowed for some form of over-the-counter contraception in the form of birth control pills, and the u.s. is long overdue in joining this. we also know that opill, this particular pill was first approved by the fda in 1973, which is 50 years ago. we have decades of research showing how safe it is and how effective it is. it's 99% effective in perfect use, 93% effective in typical use, which is more than other forms of contraception that are available over the counter. so we're in a situation now where there's really significant unmet need. 19 million well of reproductive age live in contraception deserts. 8 million women are uninsured, and we also know that half of all pregnancies nationwide, nearly half of all pregnancies nationwide are unintended.

so there really could be a significant impact when it comes to reducing unintended pre pregnancies and breaking down these significant barriers to access. >> do you think there should be an age minimum on this pill, and is there any concern about abuse or misuse when there is not a doctor involved? there is, for instance, a warning that opill should not be used for emergency contraception? >> that's right. i think with every medication there are always benefits and always risks, and those risks need to be communicated. for example, with opill, this medication is progesterone only, it's not the one with estrogen. there's no association with blood clots as there would be if there's estrogen in it. opill should not be used in individuals with a history of breast cancer. there are certain medication interactions with some barbi barbiturate, some seizure medications and st. john's wart and people should be aware if they're taking the medication. it's not 100% effective, and syringes need to know it needs

to be taken at the same time every day in order for it to be as effective as possible. we have many other medications over the counter like aspirin and tylenol that have risks as well. i think it makes sense for this to be made available over the counter, and this is one of the reasons why the american medical association, the american college of obstetricians and gove go gynecologists have endorsed making it over the counter because it's safe and effective and helps to reduce a barrier to access, which i should say we really need to improve health care access for all. i would love for every young person, every woman, every person to be able to have access to comprehensive health care, but if that does not exist, we at least should not be having more barriers to contraception. >> dr. wen, it's really, you know, this is a big deal for this. thank you so much for being with us. we really appreciate it. a man is suing fox news and former fox host tucker carlson

for defamation saying they spread lies about him for years. ray eps says he was accused by conspiracy theorists of leading an fbi plot to orchestrate the january 6th insurrection. that's of course false. he said fox fueled those rumors and that destroyed his life. with more on this, jake joins me now. you're going to be speaking to his lawyer later today. tell us where you're going to go with this. >> it's just fascinating because it's yet another example of irresponsible lies put out by that network resulting in individuals, in this case, ray earnings epps who is a maga supporter, a fox viewer who has been unfairly scapegoated for being -- none of this is true, but for being a federal agent or allied with the fbi and convincing the maga mob that day to do wrong. and you know, this is going to be yet another lawsuit where

there are very serious allegations and fox has some explaining to do. >> and a false story that diverted attention from those actually behind it, hundreds who have gone to prison or will be going to prison. >> another big headline, you've got a book coming out. i've got my copy. >> the book is "all the demons are here" probably a lot of people who follow me on social media know this already. the book came out on tuesday, and there's actually a lot in here that is shades of the ray epps story. there are two plot lines, ike, an awol marine. a lot of really crazy stuff going on ufo sightings, cults, studio 64, the new york city blackout, elvis dies and on and son and on, but his sister lucy in the book -- because this is also during the summer of son of sam serial killer in new york -- she works for ha new tabloid, a

fictitious one in washington, d.c., loosely based on rupert murdoch and she goes down the path of being a really good journalist that works for an o that tries to goose coverage, and in some cases it gets ethically shady and false and there are ramifications in the book for lucy having to do with it, and we see with ray epps or the election lying story having to do with dominion, there are serious consequences for the real life rupert murdoch. so as they say, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes and there's a lot of rahyming in th book. >> i lived through the new york blackout and the son of sam of. >> do you remember son of sam? >> they hid it from me in philadelphia as a kid. i didn't know about it. >> my sisters were scared of it, because he was of course targeting women, but absolutely. >> and the new york post was murdoch owned and newsstands sales going through the roof as

everybody was terrorized, and some of thoat was goosed by tabloid journalism. >> it's out, you can buy it. you're also going to see him on the air in a few minutes. >> that's right. an italian judge putting a time frame on how long it is okay to grope someone. that has many italians in protest about this. we'll have that story next on cnn "news central. that's my boy. now you geget out there, and you make us proud, huh? ♪ bye, uncle limu. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ that neighbor is hot! that's my husband... what?

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now to some of the other

headlines we are watching this hour. the national weather service confirmed two tornados touched down in the chicago suburb of elgin damaging two dozen buildings there. no casualties in those storms which spawned numerous tornados. in florida a sinkhole that swallowed a man in 2013 has opened up in again. hillsborough county and officials insist there is no real reason for concern. they say they've determined neighboring properties are safe. they have mobilized experts who handle sinkholes and geotechnical issues. i'm glad there are people who do that. and the secret service conclude its investigations into the bag of cocaine found at the white house, though without identifying a suspect. the agencies say found insufficient dna and could not retrieve fingerprints either. a source said the cubbyholes is

a blind spot for surveillance cameras. that's the answer. >> for how long is it a blind spot? we'll see. it is a ruling that has italy just reeling. an italian court fiends a school janitor not guilty of groping a student, a minor because his hands were inside her pants for no more than ten seconds. this is a decision that has sparked outrage across the country. we have cnn's -- with more on this. tell us first about the allegations here. >> reporter: yeah, you know, this is terribly disturbing. one of the things super important here is the janitor admits to what he did. he just said it wasn't sexual intent. he says he put his down down the bank of the pants inside this 17-year-old as she was going up the steps. he said it wasn't sexual in nature. this was an appellate case and

overturned so he wasn't convicted of this crime. said it was humiliating she pulled on her pants and hurt her. one of the things important here is the outrage so many people, men and women in this country are feeling. this is a country that often errs on the wrong side of misogyny. we've seen this campaign ten seconds where people are posting ten second videos of acting out various forms of groping and it's really shocking to see just how long ten seconds is when you think this was not consensual and that some judge in rome decided ten seconds doesn't count if it's sexual assault on a minor by a 66-year-old man. brianna? >> yeah, unbelievable. barbie, thank you for taking us through that. jim? >> just alarming story there. well, coming up next we're going to do something a little lighter. an animal with a spirit for surfing. meet the otter, that's right,

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all right, so a warning for surfers and swimmers in santa cruz, california. a sea otter is terrorizing swimmers and actually -- and this is not made up because i've seen pictures of it -- stealing surf boards. there's one going to toe to toe with a little surfer there. not to catch a wave, apparently to kind of tear the board apart. >> yeah, it just wants to destroy the thing. animal handlers are actually trying to capture and rehome this 5-year-old. they say this is highly unusual

behavior. it could be caused by a surge of hormones by humans feeding her. we should add a spokesman interest the animal denies -- wait, what does it say? oh, my god, i didn't read that before. that was a joke written by someone. it says a spokesman for the animal denies stealing surf boards. it was the otter guy. that was a joke. who wrote that one, guys? >> you were telling me they actually be dangerous, otters? >> they have jaws that like crack seashells, so you don't want to mess around. that's why i think the people who see this otter, the otter has a rep, so they know. and that little kid you saw him scooting away. >> when they float upside down they hold hands. >> you know who else is cute? jake tapper. "the lead" with jake tapper starts now. after first declining to take the call, senator tuberville apparently found some time to talk to the secretary of