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Florida's Six-Week Abortion Ban Goes in Effect; Police Clear Hamilton Hall on Columbia University Campus of Protestors; Violent Clashes Occur Overnight on UCLA Campus Involving Pro-Palestinian Encampment; Florida's Six-Week Abortion Ban Takes Effect. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired May 01, 2024 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. But the women who have been coming in the last few days as this ban has been approaching, what have you been hearing from women in the last few days?

DR. CHELSEA DANIELS, FLORIDA ABORTION PROVIDER: In the last few days -- I mean, excuse me, the ban goes into effect today. But in Florida, there is a 24-hour waiting period, which means that you have to have two physician visits at least 24 hours apart in order to obtain an abortion. So for example, that means that if yesterday, on Tuesday, April 30th, I saw patients who were exactly six weeks and zero days of pregnancy yesterday, because of the 24 hour waiting period, we cannot provide them an abortion today because they are six weeks one day today.

And so we are already seeing just the absolute distress and anguish that this is causing people. We had so many conversations yesterday with patients redirecting them to care in other states. And I firmly believe that this is human cruelty and moral injury and distress to me as a physician to my patients who know their bodies better than any politician could.

BERMAN: Dr. Chelsea Daniels, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for sharing your experience.

We have a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL beginning right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're continuing to follow breaking news here. We are watching live pictures right here. This is, I believe these are from overnight. Are these live guys? These are overnight pictures from UCLA's campus. This is what was playing out this morning, just absolute mayhem, if you will. It was wild night of violent clashes there. The NYPD called in to the campus. We're standing by now to see what happens next now that university officials have declared the pro-Palestinian encampment on that campus, they have declared it illegal. Fights broke out overnight, as we're showing you after that statement from the school's administration, and counter- protesters showed up. L.A.'s mayor put out a statement this morning calling what took place absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable. Unrest and chaos has engulfed campuses still across the country.

Police confronting protesters at the University of Arizona at Tulane as well just in the last 24 hours. And in New York, the NYPD says there have now been over 200 arrests overnight as officers cleared out and took back that academic building -- here's video of it -- that academic building at Columbia University were protesters had taken it over and seized it for some 20 hours.

We're standing by now this morning to hear from New York City Mayor Eric Adams who is expected to hold a press conference about all of this very soon. And Sara Sidner live at the scene at Columbia University. I'm very interested to hear what the mayor has to say this morning, Sarah.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In less than an hour, we will hear from the New York City mayor on what happened here last night. We know that there were about 100 protesters who were arrested both here on the campus of Columbia after police stormed Hamilton Hall to move the protesters who had broken in and occupying the building with their pro-Palestinian chants. They were taken out. So the building is, at this point, secured by police. There's a very large police presence here surrounding the building now, with barricades that were up that we have not seen before.

We are going to be talking to a student reporters who was on the ground and inside of campus in just a bit. But there is also an unfolding scene happening right now in Los Angeles on UCLA's campus. That is where we find our Stephanie Elam after overnight there were clashes between pro-Israeli protesters and pro-Palestinian and protesters who were in that encampment where we saw some violence certainly breakout overnight. And now you've got a serious police presence on the ground. Stephanie Elam, what can you tell us there?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, it has definitely changed since I last spoke to you here mainly because the police have arrived. They've taking control of the situation. We saw them push out some of the people who were protesting inside and they've set up this barricade here. You can see that there's a lot more of a heavier police presence out here now.

What we can tell you, though, is that for hours overnight, there was mayhem on campus in the sense of that there were skirmishes going on. There were definitely little scuttles that were happening. We could see that happening. There's video that we've been able to see from overnight where you can see it looks like people who were going after the pro-Palestinian encampment were pulling away the barricades from them and trying to remove that barricade.

[08:05:00]

And just to explain again, the way the things have been set up here on campus, it has been this barricade that was on the back end of where you're seeing right now. On the back end of this, there is another barricade. And then there is a walkway and then another barricade. And there was some hired security that was in there that was basically trying to pull back these barricades overnight. But there wasn't a police presence until after 1:00 a.m. or so on campus. We know that Mayor Karen Bass came out and said that she had requested this, calling it abhorrent what was happening here. We saw the chancellor also saying that what was happening here was unlawful.

And so this change of tone now, and now you can see it's much calmed down. A lot of the people that were just standing out here after they got pushed out were remaining in this area. They have now left. They're playing loud music. We heard some chanting going on from inside of the pro-Palestinian encampment. That has all ended at this point. So it's a much different tone.

But there's still very many questions, Sara, about what changed to cause this to happen overnight, what was the catalyst. That is still unclear, and still unclear why it was such a long time before the police presence was felt here on campus and to bring this temperature much back down to where it is right now.

SIDNER: Stephanie Elam, I know you'll be watching this all day. Thank you so much for your good reporting out there and giving us the scene on the UCLA campus where overnight, as you mentioned, there were firecrackers thrown. There was pepper spray, there was smoke, and there was violence, people holding things like pipes and smashing into people. We saw people, one of the pro-Palestinian protests are being pulled out and beaten. We saw all of this with the coverage from a helicopter over one of our local affiliates.

I do want to talk to one of the people who was there. Joining me now, Vincent Doehr, he's political science Ph.D. students and a spokesperson for the Palestinian, pro-Palestinian encampment there on UCLA's campus. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Vincent. Can you describe what happens last night and how this blew up into a violent scene?

VINCENT DOEHR, ENCAMPMENT MEDIA LIAISON: Yes. What happened last night was an attack on our encampment by Zionist thugs that the university did nothing to stop. We have warned the university about the threats of rape, death threats against our students, physical harassment, the release of rats on our encampment by Zionists during the nighttime. And the university instead released a statement yesterday claiming that the encampment was the source of the violence, while we know that actually every night Zionists have come and harassed the encampment, harassed students trying to peacefully call for divestment of the U.C.'s endowment from corporations that profit off of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

We saw Zionists grab our barricades and try to rip them down. Zionists maced the majority of students in the encampment. And the police that the university had hired, the private security guards, stared and watched as this happened, despite us warning that U.C. repeatedly that this was likely to happen.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about a couple of things. One is, how do you know they're Zionists. I know there were people who definitely were pro-Israel, but you just give me some sense of how you know they were Zionists. Secondly, what's the crowd different than what you were seeing throughout the time that you all have been there at the encampment? Was there a different group of people that came up last night that you had not seen before?

DOEHR: Well, first of all, Zionism means support for the creation of the Jewish state in historic Palestine, which is what these people do. They were exclusively supportive of Israel. That is what a Zionist is.

And second of all, no, we've actually sent photos of many of the people who were here to the university administration, and they still allowed them onto campus to attack us using weapons, such as pepper spray, mace, boards, bricks, fireworks -- not firecrackers. Fireworks were shot directly at students and exploded at ground level inside the encampment. I think that's unacceptable.

SIDNER: Let me ask you this, because there has been a lot of accusations flying back and forth, and there are people accusing the pro-Palestinian protesters of being pro-Hamas. Is that a fair assessment?

DOEHR: No, we're here to call for an end to Israel's genocide of Palestinians and a divestment of the U.C.'s endowment. I don't know why people are now trying to justify violence against students on university campuses.

[08:10:00]

I thought that the U.C. was supposed to care about the safety of its students. Clearly, that's not the case, given that they allowed these people onto campus to attack us, again, for over three hours before anyone did anything. We only survived because of our barricades. If we had not been holding them for three hours straight, being maced, having to rinse our eyes with saline and bottled water, we wouldn't be here right now. And I'm sure that the U.C. would be in a much different situation if one of us were dead because of it.

SIDNER: Can you give me a sense of -- you talked about how this kind of started, that they were fireworks that were tossed into the encampment, that people with pipes and boards, which we saw on camera, were smashing into the folks that were in the encampment. We also saw someone who was dragged -- it appeared dragged from the encampment and was kicked and beaten. Do you have any sense of how that student is doing this morning? And do you have any sense of who that student is?

DOEHR: No, we're not sure how many of our students are doing because so many of our students have had to be taken to the emergency room that the Reagan Medical Center informally asked us to take our students elsewhere. That is how much UCLA has failed tis students.

But yes, it began with Zionists grabbing our barricades, trying to break down our barricades using weapons like pipes and boards. And then fireworks happened, they were shot directly at us by the Zionists. And then these thugs maced and pepper-sprayed students at a point blank range while U.C.'s hired security watched.

SIDNER: I can hear the frustration in your voice with how there was no major security that intervened there. I do lastly wan to ask you -- you were makes to yourself. I am glad that you're OK. I do want to ask you about the police presence lastly. There are police on campus from multiple different from multiple different agencies who are there. The university, as you just mentioned, has said that the encampment is an legal encampment. So what will you do if police move in? What is your concern?

DOEHR: The LAPD still has the legal obligation to declare our encampment an unlawful assembly and must give us warning to disburse. They have not done that yet, so we intend to stay.

SIDNER: Vincent Doehr, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us after being maced and being sort of in the midst of violence last night and overnight. The encampment is still there. The police are on the scene, and the university has declared the encampment illegal. And so we will see what has happened here. But you heard from Vincent there, the police have not yet made the statement that people need to disperse. We will keep up with you. We will keep up with what's happening on UCLA and campuses across the country, including here at Columbia where there was a raid last night, were police went into Hamilton Hall and took the protesters who were occupying it out. John and Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, it does sound like that protester did suggest that in spite of all of this and everything that's happening, he doesn't really believe that -- he's suggesting that he doesn't believe that Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Much more to cover with what's playing out of UCLA. Sara is covering everything for us out standing outside Columbia University.

We're also watching this, this morning. Florida's six-week abortion ban takes effect today, overnight going from a state through with some of the fewest restrictions in the south to a place where it's now all but completely banned, where that fight now heads next.

And Donald Trump is heading out on the campaign trail today. Will his message to voters in both Wisconsin and Michigan further jeopardize his standing in court in the hush money trial that he returns to tomorrow. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:28]

BOLDUAN: So this morning, women who are six weeks or further along in their pregnancies in Florida, they face an entirely new reality. The state's six-week ban went into effect. Abortion ban went into effect at midnight.

Vice president Kamala Harris is traveling to Florida today to ratchet up the Biden campaign's efforts to draw a direct line between abortion bans today and Donald Trump, and they are trying to make sure voters see that across the country. I just talked about Florida.

In Arizona, there is also action today. The state's Senate could vote today to repeal that Civil War era ban on all abortions. That law is expected to take effect as early as June 8th if the legislature doesn't move quickly.

Joining us right now is someone who knows all too well the real-world impact of these state abortion bans.

Amandas Zurawski, she nearly died twice after being denied an abortion after learning that her pregnancy was not viable all because of the new abortion restriction in her home state of Texas and she has become something of a surrogate for the Biden campaign in speaking out on this very issue.

Amanda joins me now.

Amanda, thank you so much for being here.

You have told your story --

AMANDAS ZURAWSKI, NEARLY DIED TWICE AFTER BEING DENIED AN ABORTION: Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: And I have heard your painful story many times, but just to bring up to remind everyone, you found out that your pregnancy she was not viable at 18 weeks, I believe and Texas law prevented you from getting an abortion.

Women in Florida are waking up today facing this ban after six weeks and some women may face a similar reality to what you did and the terrible things that happened to you after you were denied an abortion. What reality is that?

[08:15:10]

ZURAWSKI: Well, thanks for having me. I can't believe that this is our reality, to be honest with you. Many women don't know that they are pregnant at six weeks and this ban is just absolutely harrowing and it is terrifying and its a result of Donald Trump and his policies.

And the longer his policies are in place, the more of these bans are going to be passed. We are seeing it all across the country and it is terrifying to me if he is re-elected, this will be our national situation because of him and the policies that he supports. It is terrifying.

BOLDUAN: How I and many first came familiar with you and your story was through -- it was a very -- it was a gut-wrenching ad. It was a campaign ad that the Biden campaign -- that you coordinated with the Biden campaign on and at the very end of telling your heartbreaking story, the ad ends with the words that flashed on the screen: "Donald Trump did this."

Trump just did this new interview with "Time" and he was asked about his position on abortion. He refused to entertain the question about whether or not he would lead to a federal abortion ban because he says it should be left to the states. And then he said this. He was asked by a reporter, Amanda, are you comfortable if states decide to punish women who access abortions after the procedure is banned.

Donald Trump responds: "I don't have to be comfortable or uncomfortable. The states are going to make that decision. The states are going to have to be comfortable or uncomfortable, not me."

Part of what he is saying there, Amanda is, he says this is not on him. What's your reaction?

ZURAWSKI: I mean, it is ridiculous, right? He is endorsing what happened to me. He is endorsing people who seek abortions, getting punished for seeking health care, and we know that this is a result of him because he elected the Supreme Court justices that allowed the fall of Roe v. Wade that put the rights back in the states who are making these insane draconian laws like the ones in Texas and Florida and Arizona.

This is his fault and he continues to endorse these crazy bans by saying that this is how it should be, the states should be able to make these decisions.

BOLDUAN: When he says he has -- he really avoided despite multiple questions from this reporter with "Time" to take a position on whether or not he would veto a national abortion ban if it came across his desk, if Congress passed it.

He says, well, it is just not going to happen and this isn't up to me to decide. Does that -- I don't know -- does that bring you comfort? Do you believe those words? What do you say to that?

ZURAWSKI: No, of course it doesn't bring me comfort. I don't believe it. He also failed to say whether he would protect IVF. He is talking out of both sides of his mouth because he knows that this is a critical issue.

It is of the key issues of this election and he knows that most Americans do not support the policies and bans that he has previously endorsed, that he continues to endorse.

You know, he is trying to walk back things that he knows are unpopular and all you have to do is look at his track record which speaks for itself. He will endorse a national abortion ban, he has already told us that and who knows how much farther he will go beyond that.

BOLDUAN: Amanda, after what happened to you in 2022, you and your husband, you started sharing your story. You've became this lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of Texas and you've now become something of a surrogate for the Biden campaign on this issue.

I gather you weren't entirely as active or political before all of this happened. What has it been like being basically part of the campaign? Going to battleground states and speaking out and meeting with people and telling them your story over and over again.

ZURAWSKI: That is a good question and you're right, I was definitely not envisioning this for my life in any shape. I was always interested and informed in politics, but I definitely wasn't as active as I am now, but because of what happened to me and because of what I know is happening across the country to pregnant people all across our country, this has become the most important thing in my life. And so the opportunity to campaign for President Biden and Vice

President Harris is so important to me. It has been so encouraging, so motivating. I have met both the president and the vice president. They are warriors for reproductive freedom, which is so important to me and it is why I continue to do this work because there is -- people are saying this is the most important election of our lives, and I really believe that, and it is the most important thing to me this year to make sure that we reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris.

[08:25:08]

BOLDUAN: Amanda Zurawski, thank you for joining us this morning -- John.

BERMAN: All right, in a revealing and important new interview, Donald Trump says what he thinks was the biggest mistake of his term in office, being too nice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, fresh off a new interview where he called January 6 rioters J6 patriots and failed to dismiss the possibility of violence if he loses the 2024 election, Donald Trump, on the campaign trail today in Wisconsin and Michigan.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live in Wisconsin this morning.

Look, he has a day off from court. This time, instead of golfing, he is campaigning. What is the expectation?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. I mean, it is pretty significant, John, because since the trial started, we really haven't seen much of Donald Trump, at least on the campaign trail.

Part of that wasn't entirely his fault. He did want to hold one rally the weekend before last in North Carolina, but that was canceled at the 11th hour due to severe storm weather, but look, Donald Trump has Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays to be hitting the trail and his team had to consistently told us that they were planning to use those days to aggressively hit the ground and campaign, but we haven't seen that yet.

This is really the first rally he is holding since his trial began, so that's very significant. But look, he is going to be in Wisconsin. I am here in Waukesha.

You can see the crowd behind me started to gather here. Doors will open later today and then later, he is going to be speaking in Michigan, and these are both very critical battlegrounds that his campaign and his advisers have told me they are characterizing as must-win in order to win the White House ahead of November.

[08:30:22]