U.S. Consumer Sentiment Plummets to Record Low

·1 hr 24 min·5 clips

Artemis 2 astronauts are barreling toward Earth at 30 times the speed of sound, with a heat shield that cracked on the last test flight.

Splashdown day sets the clock. John King opens with Artemis 2 heading home, about three hours from a Pacific Ocean splashdown after a historic 10-day trip around the moon. The astronauts prepare the cabin. The program waits for reentry, splashdown, and the data that comes back with them. The broadcast keeps the mission human too, with relatives watching the final stretch from Earth and carrying the anxiety of the countdown. Then the hour widens. King moves to President Trump's warning to Iran, peace talks expected tomorrow, and a close call at LAX involving a passenger plane and two trucks. Politics takes over from there. A panel looks at a Democrat arguing that government bureaucracy needs to be cut because the status quo is failing too many people. That pitch gets complicated fast because she served inside the same system she now wants voters to reject. The panel turns practical: can she pick the right advisors, reach young men, speak to Hispanics, win back the middle, and use the money she can clearly raise? No one writes her off. One guest points out that the vice president received more votes than any other Democrat in history, then brings it back to strategy, message, and timing. King keeps pressing the bigger point: conditions can sink strong candidates and lift weaker ones. Elissa Slotkin becomes the comparison, with the panel noting her trips through Trump-won states as one way Democrats are testing their message outside friendly ground. The hour returns to splashdown, crew traditions, and the strange, tense wonder of the mission's final hours.

As heard by us

A brisk news hour follows Artemis II's splashdown countdown, then turns to Iran, an LAX close call, and Democratic campaign strategy.

The Lead builds a compact, fast-moving hour around Artemis II's return, treating splashdown as both a technical test and a family vigil. John King, filling in for Jake Tapper, keeps the reentry stakes clear: the astronauts are expected to hit the upper atmosphere at 400,000 feet…

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Why you'd press play

You get Artemis II's tense road to splashdown, then an Iran warning and an LAX near miss.

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