About the Show
Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
On the Next Episode of The Lead
We've moved! Come join us at our new show page.
world lead
Did 'person of the year' Pope Francis influence world more than Assad, Snowden?
(CNN) - Ever since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis in March, he's been on a mission to engage those who had perhaps given up on the church. He washed and kissed the feet of inmates of a juvenile detention center; embraced a severely disfigured man in saint peter's square, and is stirring up controversy about how much he's open to change.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" he told reporters in July.
Such efforts have propelled Pope Francis to be named Time Magazine's person of the year. The last time a pope was on this cover was when John Paul II took the title in 1994.
Michael Crowley, Time's deputy Washington bureau chief joins CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," to discuss how the pope landed the cover.
Time Magazine and CNN are both part of the Time Warner family.
national lead
Photographer who captured Obama selfie speaks out
(CNN) – Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday was a historic event where nearly 100 world leaders, past and present, joined thousands of South Africans to honor the anti-apartheid icon.
But it somehow devolved into a media sensation about a selfie.
Halfway through the ceremony, an AFP photographer caught President Barack Obama helping Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as the two squeezed in with British Prime Minister David Cameron to take a smiling photo of themselves with a camera-phone. The photo also caught First Lady Michelle Obama, looking displeased.
But the photojournalist who captured the image says it has been taken out of context.
FULL POST
buried lead
Former DEA agent joins pot investing firm
(CNN) - Former DEA agent Patrick Moen made his living fighting what used to be called "the war on drugs." But then he decided it was, ah-hem, high time for a radical career change.
Moen went from being a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor, in charge of a team of agents busting traffickers for a living, to working as an in-house attorney at private equity firm Privateer Holdings. The company's entire business is based on weed.
"There came a point in time in my career when I realized that targeting marijuana was not an effective use of our resources," Moen said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper.
FULL POST
national lead
'Erin Brockovich' of revenge porn applauds California's charge
(CNN) - A crusader against revenge porn websites, Charotte Laws has been called the Erin Brockovich of the movement, seeking to criminalize the activity. She is also a mother, who began pushing for federal laws and punishments for copyright violations against revenge porn sites after her daughter became a victim.
"My daughter had taken some photos in the mirror, alone in her room, and sent them from her cell phone, to her e-mail, to her computer, and then she was hacked three months later," said Laws. "Nine days after that, her topless photo ended up on a revenge porn website."
Revenge porn is sexually explicit material, primarily of women, usually posted by angry former boyfriends and ex-husbands to websites.
FULL POST
politics lead
Roundtable: Media did shoddy job on Obama Mandela memorial coverage
(CNN) - Between the ongoing conversations about President Barack Obama's awkward handshake with Cuban President Raúl Castro, and a much-discussed presidential selfie at Nelson Mandela's memorial on Tuesday, senior White House officials tell CNN they are concerned the media is focusing on the color, instead of the substance of the trip.
Despite Obama's moving, and well-received speech at the memorial, all anyone back home is talking about are former President George W. Bush showing off his paintings aboard Air Force One, that selfie, and that handshake.
Co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" S.E. Cupp, host of The Washington Post's "In Play" Jackie Kucinich, and Washington Post columnist Matt Miller discuss.
Recent Comments