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
Reporter: Obama administration's Syria policy 'in shambles'
Syrian rebels will have to get their medical equipment and generators from somewhere else, at least for the time being.
Both the United States and Britain have suspended "non-lethal" aid to forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime after a group called the Islamic Front seized a weapons depot from the Free Syrian Army in the northern part of the country.
CNN Foreign Affairs Reporter Elise Labott told Jake Tapper Thursday that the incident is a "wake up call" for the Obama administration.
politics lead
Pelosi: Female GM CEO a 'very big deal'
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said she was "absolutely thrilled" with the decision by General Motors to tap Mary Barra as its next CEO.
"It's really a breakthrough," Pelosi told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview on Thursday. "It's a very big deal."
GM made the announcement Tuesday, becoming the first of the so-called “Big Three” U.S. automakers to appoint a woman as top executive.
The company's decision means Barra joins an exclusive club. Of the firms listed in the Fortune 500, only 22, or 4.2%, hold the chief executive role. Barra will become No. 23.
Praising Barra as a "talented" businesswoman, Pelosi insisted that gender inequality in America's corner offices isn't due to a lack of qualified female candidates.
"It's not about lack of talent, that's for sure," Pelosi said.
Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, said she congratulated Barra over the phone.
Barra is set to take over for outgoing CEO Dan Akerson on January 15.
world lead
Mandela ceremony interpreter a security risk?
He was supposed to interpret the day's speeches into sign language.
Instead, Thamsanqa Jantjie basically flailed his arms.
Observers say Jantjie, hired to interpret at the ceremony honoring Nelson Mandela, gesticulated without any discernible meaning and didn't even know the signs for "thank you" and "Mandela.
But, something he admitted in an interview with CNN's David McKenzie is less easily laughed off: he's a schizophrenic that had been institutionalized at length and has had violent episodes.
So how did someone with serious, potentially volatile mental health issues wind up standing inches away from world leaders?
national lead
Book reveals new details about Sandy Hook tragedy
As residents of Newtown and some victim' families from Sandy Hook elementary participated in a national vigil to honor victims' of gun violence, one year after the tragedy that changed their lives, a new book is revealing chilling details of what happened inside that elementary school and raising questions about the mother of Adam Lazna.
politics lead
Politifact's top lie of 2013 is...
It's this town's most abundant natural resource: misinformation.
But which fictions, flips, and fallacies topped the charts in 2013?
