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Report: Audio of Michael Cohen Threatening A Reporter; Stunning Moment During Basketball Championship; Doctor Opens Home to Sick Children; Hawaii Residents Ordered to Evacuate or Be Arrested. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 01, 2018 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We're hearing for the first time President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen on tape making threats. You are about to hear Cohen speaking as an employee of the Trump Organization telling a reporter that you cannot legally rape your spouse after a reporter wrote a story about Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump. It was all a comment he ultimately apologized for making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER: You're talking about Donald Trump, you're talking about the front-runner for the GOP presidential candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody and of course understand that by the very definition you can't rape your spouse. If you write a story that has Mr. Trump's name on it with the word rape and I'll mess up your life up for the rest -- for as long as you are on this frigging planet.

I'm going to turn around, you're going to have judgments against you for so much money you'll never know how to get out from underneath me. I'm warning you tread very (EXPLETIVE DELETED) lightly because what I'm going to do that he was going to be (EXPLETIVE DELETED) disgusting. Do you understand me? Don't think you're going to hide behind your pen. Because it's not going to happen.

[15:35:00] (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was a recording from a July 2015 call between Cohen and Tim Mak who was a "Daily Beast" reporter at the time, now currently with NPR. And Tim is with me now. Tim, wow, to hear that audio. First and foremost, I was rereading your "Daily Beast" piece and it was about President Trump declaring that he wanted to run for office, called Mexicans rapists, and then there was the a side with regard to Ivana Trump, so you called up Michael Cohen.

How did it feel to be on the receiving end of that kind of language?

TIM MAK, REPORTER, NPR: It's interesting. Back in 2015, let's set the scene, this is just at the beginning of the Trump presidential campaign, not a lot of people heard of Michael Cohen and not a lot of people knew how the Trump campaign operated. How the Trump Organization operated. For me this was my experience dealing with Michael Cohen, first time hearing from Michael Cohen. Over time what we understand is there's a pattern that Michael Cohen has a pattern of making these sorts of threats.

Not just to me but to much bigger fish, you know, you'll recall after that contentious Republican primary debate, he tweeted someone who said, "We can gut her," about Megyn Kelly, a Fox News host. And a Harvard student said he got threatened by Michael Cohen, threatened to get him expelled from Harvard or to file a lawsuit against him because he pulled a prank on Donald Trump. So, this is part of a long pattern and a history.

BALDWIN: Just to be clear, did he know you were recording the conversation? Did he know you were on the record?

MAK: He knew he was on the record. What's really interesting about this is that I reached out to the campaign for comment. I didn't expect the lawyer from the Trump Organization to come and call me back. But he did and what you hear on npr.org is a seven-minute audio clip of our conversation.

BALDWIN: What did you do? You were calm through the whole thing and you kept saying, do you care to comment? What did you do, though, Tim, when you put the phone down?

MAK: I started writing up a transcript of our conversation and getting ready to put together a story. It's not uncommon to get hostile calls from folks when you're writing about politics. This one did seem a little extreme.

BALDWIN: This was the summer of 2015. Why are you releasing this now?

MAK: So much has happened between then and now. Then it kind of seemed like a little bit of an aberration. But now we've got all these -- we've got an established history and a pattern of threat, right? The ones that I mentioned before, and we've got Stormy Daniels. Michael Avenatti, her lawyer, has claimed that Michael Cohen has threatened using verbally coercive methods got her to sign an NDA. What would that have sounded like? I think we get a taste of that listening to this audio.

BALDWIN: Breaking news now, President Trump saying the summit with Kim Jong Un will go on as scheduled on June 12th in Singapore, this after North Korea's former top spy hand delivered a letter to the president in the oval office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That letter was a very nice letter. Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter. I haven't seen the letter yet. I purposely didn't open the letter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to give you a sneak peek of this week's episode of "United Shade of America." Kamal Bell visits historically black colleges, universities or HBCUs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

KAMAL BELL, CNN HOST: I'm coming out here and I don't even know the language you are speaking practically. Now it is like second nature to me.

It's funny but I think people who don't go to HBCUs think of these being like monolithic places where every black person is the same. You would understand everybody because everybody's black and you all speak blackish. But you're saying there's diversity among black people. Is that what you're saying? All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I'm trying to say.

BELL: OK, all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And now to this one. Did you watch game one between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers? Cleveland's J.R. Smith had just seconds to get a shot off, and instead of shooting the ball, he made a play that confused the heck out of everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rebound goes to the Cavs. J.R. Smith brings it back out. Throws it to Hill. Hill's shot blocked. And we'll go to overtime.

[15:45:00] You get the feeling that J.R. thought they thought they had the lead. He didn't know the score.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. That's a bad mistake by J.R. Smith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, killer rebound but I don't know what the rest, what he was thinking. Golden State locked down the win in overtime. King James, not happy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he think that you guys had it won? Or did he think he was trying to make a play?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not sure. No, I'm not sure. I don't know his state of mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know if he knew the score?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kelvin Washington, host of the Church League Champ podcast. A former ESPN radio host. I mean Lebron understandably upset. Could have been a history-making upset. Gone. Do you feel badly for him? KELVIN WASHINGTON, HOST OF THE CHURCH LEAGUE CHAMP PODCAST: Do I feel

badly for him, Brooke? First of all, thanks for having me. That is an understatement. Look, I put some credibility on the line here. I tweeted out before the game that the Cavs would win in six. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. But then they were really quiet when the Cavaliers kept coming back and Lebron scores 51 points.

Then the video of the play that you referred to. We cannot exonerate George Hill who missed the free throw. They would have been up one. But then there's the J.R. Smith bonehead play. And J.R. provides us with these moments once or twice a year. Earlier this year he threw soup on one of his assistant coaches. But he denied it later. He thought the team was up one when they were not. Of course, it was a tie game, he should have gone up, scored a layup. You see Lebron saying what were you doing?

BALDWIN: You can read his lips. This is how J.R. explained it officially later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.R. SMITH, PRO BASKETBALL PLAYER: Tie ball game, we were in a time- out and I was trying to get enough space because I was thinking standing right there, trying to get my space to maybe get a shot off. I looked over at Brian and he was going to call time-out, so I just stopped. The game was over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The game was tied didn't think you were leading.

SMITH: I knew it was tied. I thought he was going to call time-out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You're not buying that.

WASHINGTON: Go with me. Not buying it. Don't believe it. You can read his lips I have a lip-reading degree. Lebron says what are you doing? And J.R. Smith says, what? And Lebron says what do you mean what? He says I thought we were up. He was trying to avoid getting fouled, so the clock would run out. In fact, they were tied, and they go to overtime.

In the problem was think the team lost all energy, they were out of it mentally, they could not get past the blunder of J.R. Smith. That affected them and credit the Warriors for fighting through. Still there was an overtime to play and the Warriors came to play. They ended up winning in overtime. That was a game they could steal on the road, they could surprise everyone and that was a game where Lebron scores 51 points in a losing effort. Really upset.

BALDWIN: Can we talk about the memes? The Lebron arm and his face? Here's just one of so many. I don't know how much we have? The moment he realized. The internet jumped all over this.

WASHINGTON: The Internet is undefeated. And if you get a chance when you go to commercial break. There's another one. That one is hilarious right there. There's a video of him and they have him running by Lebron, going to the liquor store to grab some liquor. They are out of line. And yet and still I think what we saw in this game the Cavaliers came to play and Lebron himself is doing something special. Despite it all, Brooke, I'm still down with the Kings. I'm still down. Where's my crown? There's my crown. I'm still down with Lebron. King James, the Cavs win in six. Mark it down, if I'm wrong, there's the tape.

BALDWIN: Kelvin Washington for us. King Kelvin, appreciate it. Coming up next here on CNN, to Hawaii we go. Officials there warning some people will need to evacuate or they will get arrested. This is happening as all this fast-moving lava is threatening more and more homes. We'll take you there live and hear from some people who have already lost everything.

[15:50:00] First let's introduce you this week's CNN hero, a doctor from Peru, who noticed people sleeping on floors after traveling hundreds of miles to get medical access for their sick kids. So, he opened his heart and his home for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RICARDO PUN CHONG, FOUNDER, INSPIRA: The journey is very difficult. You come here and it's very expensive to stay here. They don't have enough money to continue their treatments. Sometimes families, they have to sell everything they have. They feel helpless. So, I decided to do something for them. I want them to know that they are not alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Amazing to see how this program has helped more than 900 families. Go to CNNheroes.com, and while you are there please nominate someone that you know.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hawaii officials are issuing this dire warning to people to people who live on the Big Island evacuate or get arrested. Emergency responders say they have no plans to rescue anyone who does not evacuate. That order comes as lava from the Kilauea volcano continues to swallow up anything in its path including entire homes, leaving people with nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VERA TIMKO, HAWAII EVACUEE: There's no home. It got took away like all the other homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Lava from Kilauea volcano continues to swallow up anything in its path. Including entire homes leaving people with nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TIMKO: There is no home. Like all the other homes. Right now, we don't know. Just want a little corner for my family and little yard my kids can play outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The lava has covered an area of 5 1/2 square miles. That is four times as large as central park. So, let's go to Scott McLean, our CNN correspondent, on the ground at Pahoa, Hawaii, all the plumes behind you there. It has been four weeks since Kilauea erupted, and I imagine officials have no idea when it'll stop.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Brooke. They do not. The reality is when you have lava shooting out of the earth some 250 feet high, you have a lot of lava, and where it's going is always changing. Yesterday we met up with a team whose job it is, they have this incredibly difficult task of figuring out where the lava is going next and how fast it will get there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: If there's lava on the move, so is drone pilot Rose Hart.

ROSE HART, DRONE PILOT: You guys ready? OK. Clear props. Launching.

MCLEAN: Her small crew from the University of Hawaii has been up all night every night since Kilauea first started erupting almost a month ago. They're documenting the lava's movement using drones, not for long-term research but to inform hour-to-hour decisions. You guys are an essential service.

JOHN PRICE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII: I feel like we are.

MCLEAN: As the lava moves, the group's routine stays largely the same. Fly --

HART: Just at about 100 meters altitude. Got 97% battery.

MCLEAN: Take photos, upload the data. So, this is a base map. And analyze it and repeat. This week they watched as a massive fast- moving lava flow cut off highway 132, creeping down it for two miles, leaving a pile of shifting lava some 10 feet high.

PRICE: It will be seemingly cool at the surface, but there's actually still a lot of heat in there.

MCLEAN: Some of that lava is headed toward another highway, the only remaining escape route for some communities. Officials are now given some neighborhoods an ultimatum -- leave or be prosecuted.

JANET SNYDER, HAWAII COUNTY SPOKESMAN: This is an order that is a formal order that does mandate that they leave.

MCLEAN: Set by a massive fissure shooting 250 feet into the air, the drone team calculates how quickly the lava is flowing. At times it's been up to 600 yards per hour, a snail's pace for a person but lightning fast for lava.

HART: You can clearly see it.

MCLEAN: Movement that virtually nothing can stop, not homes, cars, or even entire forests.

HART: Trees don't do much to slow lava. There's the volume there. That's not much that will.

MCLEAN: So, for the people who live in part of the neighborhood beyond this checkpoint, they have about two hours to get out or face prosecution or getting stuck. But there is another issue for communities along the coast to the east of where we are, and that's that they were originally told to get out in the next eight hours. Well, now officials are saying they should be out by the next four hours in order to avoid getting stranded. That's because there is a lava flow heading toward a major highway in that area, threatening to cut it off, and if it does, that is big problems for those people. That lava now just half a mile away, Brooke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow. Why do you think officials are having such a tough time just getting people to leave?

MCLEAN: Sure. Well, the bottom line is this has been going on for four weeks now, and being out of your home, especially if you don't have a good place to go, is pretty difficult on people. The other thing is that you can get pretty close. Lava moves pretty slowly, and so people feel like they have a little bit of time here. Now officials seem to be at their wit's end because the situation has gotten so, so unpredictable.

BALDWIN: But would you say for the most part just 20 seconds, are most people heeding the warning?

MCLEAN: Yes. People in this neighborhood beyond this checkpoint, they don't have a choice. I spoke to another gentleman on the phone near some of the lava flows. He's been packing up his house in fits and starts as the lava approaches. But the bottom line is he has cleared everything out, but he will stay as long as he can. He has his escape route mapped out.

BALDWIN: Scott, thank you very much. And everyone, thanks for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin in New York. We send things to Washington. Jim Sciutto is sitting in for Jake Tapper. "THE LEAD" starts right now.

Thank you, Brooke.