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Nearly Two Million Under Serious Tornado Threat In Oklahoma And Texas; Talks Between Columbia Protesters And School Officials At An Impasse; Hush Money Trial Wraps First Week Of Testimony; Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Discusses China Aiding Russia, Chinese Influence On U.S. Election, Campus Pro-Palestinian Protests, Israel-Hamas War; Israel-Saudi Normalization; Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) Discusses TikTok Facing Sell Or Ban In U.S. & Comer Ready To Be "Done With" Biden Impeachment Inquiry. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 27, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, and we begin with dangerous and powerful storm system shaping up across the Central Plains. Millions of people are facing the threat of tornadoes, strong winds and softball sized hail. From Texas to Michigan right now forecasters issuing some rare warnings, including a, quote, "particularly dangerous situation" tornado watch, along with a warning of rare excessive rain.

The storm system left a trail of destruction in Omaha on Friday afternoon leveling entire neighborhoods on the city's westside there.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Omaha.

Lucy, we see that destruction behind you and now night is approaching. What's the situation?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, night is approaching and there is some concern about another storm front moving into the Omaha area. And it is simply too soon for this. I mean, take a look behind me. What you're seeing right there, the flattened wood, it doesn't translate on cameras so easily. That was two two-story homes. OK. The residents there survived by sheltering in the basement. But the home is completely destroyed.

A lot of the other houses look like this. Some parts of the structure are still standing. A lot of it has collapsed throughout the day. We have seen families as well as volunteers from the community coming here, helping with the cleanup, helping the families gather whatever personal possessions they might have, helping them salvage whatever they can. You can see the truck here.

This is one of the families trying to save what they can because basically after they get what they can, they have to move out of here and insurance takes over, and then the rebuilding begins, which is a very lengthy process.

Over here, the car that belonged to this family totaled and that is just a fraction of what we've seen throughout this neighborhood. It's a rather newer subdivision of Elkhorn and we had seen giant vehicles flipped and crushed and flattened, homes completely flattened. And I believe actually that we have our drone up in the air to show you a bigger overview picture of what this neighborhood looks like because this is just one street.

There are dozens of streets here. Again, it doesn't translate that necessarily when the home is completely flattened, when we first arrived here, no, it's pitch black. We thought that, you know, maybe it was a construction site. But no, these were lived-in homes. A lot of the families moved in over the past last year or so. They will now have to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their life again. A lot of folks that we talked to expressed shock, disbelief.

You know, this only happened last night that tornado hit at 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday. It is Saturday. People are shellshock, they're trying to figure out where to go, where to stay, how to pick up the pieces of their life.

I am actually standing now at another property here on the street. This used to be a garage over there. You could see a laundry machine destroyed, crushed. This home, no longer livable. Just one of the many families that are going to have to rebuild their lives again in the aftermath of this destruction. And again, more bad weather coming in. A lot of concern here -- Jessica.

DEAN: No doubt about that. Lucy Kafanov, thanks so much for walking us through that. We're thinking about all those people and their families.

Let's bring in meteorologist Elisa Raffa, who's tracking this weekend's dangerous weather systems.

And Elisa, we're now hearing, we were just talking about this a few minutes ago of these rare tornado alerts along with warnings of rare excessive rain. What is rare about these threats?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so there are heightened alerts, right, we get tornado watches in the U.S. this time of year pretty frequently. And you can see we have plenty of them from southern Iowa all the way down through Kansas, Oklahoma, and then down into parts of Texas. But what's rare about the part of the tornado watches in Oklahoma is it's called a particularly dangerous situation.

So this is not just a tornado watch where we're worried about tornadoes. This is, we're worried about strong tornadoes, we're worried about EF-3, EF-4, violent type tornadoes. This type of watches only issued about 7 percent of the time. So -- again is very rare and you can see the super cells, all these little discreet lone cells, those are firing up and those are the things that can rotate, and that can drop immense tornadoes.

So you can see that we've got a couple of tornado warnings, some in northern Texas. Another one right along the border there, a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings as well right around Oklahoma City. We're watching also some pretty nasty tornado warnings even up into Kansas. And then parts of northern Missouri as well, where we've got rotating thunderstorms that have put some tornadoes on the ground. We're watching that closely.

This is the risk. Border to border, from Chicago down to San Antonion, we're really watching that red area, that moderate risk. It's a level four out of five for strong tornadoes, damaging winds and 75 miles per hour and tennis ball-sized hail. This area right in here, the red, this is what we're really concerned about, though.

[16:05:03]

Again, those strong tornadoes, the EF-3s, the EF-4s, that could be possible out of this system. That would be severe damage, pretty similar to what we saw yesterday in Nebraska, and that would have winds over 136 miles per hour. So something that we need to watch here very closely.

On top of this, you also mentioned the rain risk. Again, we get excessive rain risk pretty frequently this time of year in the U.S. but we have this high risk. It's the highest level of excessive rain right there just to the east of Oklahoma City. This is only issued about 4 percent of the time, but it's responsible for 40 percent of our flood related deaths, 80 percent of our flood-related damage, and we're looking at up to six inches of rain possible -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Elisa Raffa, laying it all out for us. Thanks so much.

Also today, we are seeing more arrest at college campuses across America as pro-Palestinian protests spread at major universities. School officials at Northeastern University in Boston say campus operations have, quote, "returned to normal" after police detained about 100 people there this morning.

In Northern California, large protests and encampments have taken over two buildings inside the Cal Poly Humboldt Campus. Today, university officials there announced the school will close and go fully remote for the remainder of the semester. In New York City, the epicenter of the demonstrations protest organizers at Columbia University say talks with school officials are at an impasse. They are demanding the university cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and divest from any Israel-linked entities.

Demonstrators also want their schools to stand against what they believe and they say are acts of genocide being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza. But some Jewish students worried the protests are becoming antisemitic, leading to harassment and that they fear for their safety on campuses.

Let's go straight to CNN's Polo Sandoval. He's live outside Columbia University in New York.

And Polo that is really, as we just mentioned kind of at the epicenter. Columbia is where a lot of this started to really take shape. How is it today? POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's where it all started, Jessica,

as you pointed out. Now, well over a week into this negotiations between members of this pro-Palestinian student movement and the university, it seems that those talks, if they have installed, they at least have slowed significantly, especially if you hear from one of the negotiators that's been on the students' side of the negotiating table? They say that the really main objective here, as you pointed out, is still top of mind and on top of this, scientists outside the perimeter of the encampment, which has divestment from any of those companies that have Israeli ties.

They have said that they've seen some significant progress on at least two fronts. The first one is that, number two, which is a complete transparency. They say that they've been offered to play a role in a committee to review some of the proposals that are received by the university. And also another one that you won't find on this list, which is to secure a statement from Minouche Shafik, the president university, to address last week's incident, where the NYPD made their way on campus to detain well over 100 participants of a protest.

But the real deal maker or deal breaker as you point out again is divestment, especially when you hear from one of those negotiators, Mahmoud Khalil, who says, until they find common ground on that front this encampment is not going to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHMOUD KHALIL, COLUMBIA STUDENT NEGOTIATOR: We are at the stage where I kind for an impasse at a university is not acknowledging the movement and the extent of the movement and what they are willing to offer. It's mostly just the statements, processes, and committees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And back when you look at these live pictures here and you'll see what we have continued to see for the last week and a half now. A majority of what we've seen on campus, again, just in general, has been peaceful. Right now you see a collection of some of those pro-Palestinian students that are participating in one of these speaking events, some readings. We have seen them participate in these kinds of events, so they have been, again, largely peaceful.

But also what's interesting that I heard from some of the organizers is that they have not seen this encampment considerably since it started. So it speaks to where things are going. They also have not received any guarantees from the president of the university that they will not once again turned to the NYPD to clear this out.

But then finally, Jessica, just the general mood on campus on this Saturday afternoon. There really is sort of this feeling of uncertainty because you have this encampment that is still ever present, but at the same time, you also have workers that are preparing for commencement that is supposed to happen at this very site in only a couple of weeks. So there are a lot of people that are wondering right now, including those students who are ere scheduled to graduate that are wondering exactly what will happen next. As for those negotiations, don't expect another update until Monday according to organizers.

DEAN: All right. Polo Sandoval for us there at Columbia University, thanks so much for that reporting.

And joining us now is Edward Ahmed Mitchell.

[16:10:02]

He's an attorney and the deputy director for CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It's the country's largest Muslim civil rights organization.

Edward, thanks so much for making time for being here today. How do you think these schools balance keeping all students safe, allowing protesters their right to free speech, and then also ensuring hate speech isn't a part of those protests? How do they balance all of that?

EDWARD AHMED MITCHELL, NATIONAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN- ISLAMIC RELATIONS: It's very important balance to strike. Over the past few weeks, we've seen a large and diverse group of students across the country, Jewish and Muslim, Palestinian, black, white, everything in between, coming together to demand that their schools divest their funds from the Israeli government because of its ongoing genocidal war crimes in Gaza. Those students have the right to speak up.

They've got the right to engage in that long tradition of American peaceful protests and civil disobedience. Schools should respect that right. They should give kids the space to peacefully protest. And the last thing schools should be doing is calling in heavily armed law enforcement to brutalize college kids. We've seen this before during the Vietnam War, we're seeing it again right now. And it's got to stop.

The balance to be struck is to let kids flex their muscles politically, let them speak out against what's happening, and don't brutalize them. And when graduation comes, this will all come to an end. But the key thing is to let kids enjoy their right to free speech.

DEAN: And yet there are kids that are afraid that some of the things that are being said, not all, to your point, there are plenty of peaceful protesters. We just saw them there with Polo, but in some cases, that are saying things that really frightened Jewish students and make them feel afraid. And they say they're antisemitic. So where does the school step in if that starts to happen?

MITCHELL: Look, antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, all completely unacceptable. But the overwhelming majority of the protests that are occurring are not only peaceful, they are led by Palestinian and Jewish kids together. And there's absolutely no bigotry taking place. We've seen some inflammatory, unacceptable remarks made by rabble rousers and agent provocateurs usually off campus, right? Trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. But the protests themselves have been respectful and peaceful of the

vast majority of them. I think what we're seeing is that some anti- Palestinian groups want to zero in on a small number of people and try to paint all the protesters with that negative brush. That's very cynical and it's not acceptable, and it does not reflect what most of these protests are about. And again, we saw this before during Vietnam when kids who protests were called communists and anti-American.

You know, it's a very tried and true strategy. If you can't win the argument, you can't defeat the message, attack the messenger. So school should, of course, condemn any hate speech that occurs, but they've got to be honest that for the vast majority of kids, they are not engaging that at all.

DEAN: And you mentioned some of those, what you call rabble rousers, but there have been some reports of people trying to kind of get their 15 minutes of fame or be a part of this people that aren't necessarily students that are participating. What have you heard about that?

MITCHELL: Well, look, I've heard the students themselves saying that, look, our movement is peaceful, it's respectful, it's multi-faith, multi-racial, and the media and corporations and House Republicans and others should stop zeroing in on these rabble rousers and agent provocateurs and pretending that they represent us, because everyone knows they don't. It's a small number of people. And they also know that this double-standard doesn't happen with other protests.

When the March for Israel occurred in Washington last fall, one of the speakers there was the notoriously anti-Muslim, antisemitic pastor John Hagan. There were people in the crowd shouting genocidal things about Palestinians, there was no outcry about that. No House hearings about that. So it seems that kids who express support for Palestine are held to a very different standard than leading advocacy organizations and political leaders.

And that's not a fair. College kids should be addressed on the merits of what they're saying. We shouldn't be looking at these nuts outside of campus saying crazy things because there are not that many of them, they don't represent the students.

DEAN: Yes. And what about the leader on Columbia University's campus? What do you say to his video?

MITCHELL: So the -- what I would say, you're talking about a student leader?

DEAN: Yes.

MITCHELL: Yes, so I think, you know, if there's any individual student who has said something inappropriate that should be condemned. And I think that is happening. I think students are making very clear what their message is and sadly, they're being met with brutality across the country. We're seeing schools sending the police to attack peaceful protesters and even professors. As you know, I'm in Atlanta and we had a brutal attack on students and professors at Emory University. And it's completely unacceptable, right. Schools can address protests at a respectful way without brutalizing

kids and without launching a smear campaign against these students. Again, the vast majority of whom are peaceful, engaging in civil disobedience, and are themselves different races, religions, Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian, others.

[16:15:01]

So we've got to stop zeroing in on the small minority people who may say something crazy because we don't do that with pro-Israel protests. We've got to listen to what the kids actually are saying and address the merits of that. They want the genocide to stop, and they want their schools to stop funding human rights abuses overseas.

DEAN: All right, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, we really appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

MITCHELL: Thank you.

DEAN: And the jurors in Donald Trump's hush money trial will spend their weekend digesting the testimony they heard all week. What that testimony can tell us about what to expect from the rest of the trial.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:15]

DEAN: Week one of Donald Trump's hush money trial is in the books and jurors now have a three-day weekend to mull over everything they've heard so far. Prosecutors have called three witnesses, including Trump's former assistant and a banker from Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer. But the bulk of this week's testimony came from David Pecker. That's the former publisher of the "National Enquirer," who described how his publication suppressed negative stories about Trump as he was running for the presidency in 2016.

John Dean served as White House counsel during the Nixon administration, and he joins us now.

John, always lovely to see you. Thanks for coming on on this Saturday. I'm curious just first of all what you've taken away from this first week?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you don't win or lose a case on a week. You actually could lose it if you fumbled too badly, but this case has shown this prosecuting team knows what they're doing. They're telling a story. They've set an overview. They've sort of laid the basis of the broad conspiracy to influence the election. And they're now getting down into some of the details for the jury.

So it's just -- it's a stage setter at this point. Pecker was a good witness, the publisher of the "National Enquirer," and it's been an attention-grabbing week for the jury and the public. DEAN: And it's a case that likely is largely going to hinge on a lot

of documents. What exactly are prosecutors looking to show as they call witnesses like Michael Cohen's former banker to the stand? And as they try to walk this jury, there are a lot of documents.

J. DEAN: Well, with the banker, they're setting the stage of the finances that were arranged to pay off Stormy Daniels during the later phases of the story, which we know about broadly, but we don't have the details yet. So what they have also apparently are a lot of documents. What we don't know if they have or do not have is information or witnesses or documents that directly link Donald Trump to the falsification of the documents or whether that's going to be something that has to be inferred by really overwhelming evidence that there's no other way it could have happened other than from his allowing it to happen.

That's a thinner case. If they have a direct witness or they have direct evidence, that's going to be a powerful case. So this is what's keeping me on the edge of my seat as I watch what unfolds.

DEAN: Right. Because we don't know exactly who they're going to be calling at this point. They have not extended that courtesy to the defense and they said because we don't trust that Donald Trump isn't going to post about this person or something like that. Do you think that was the right move on the prosecutor's end?

J. DEAN: I think it was. I mean, the judge blessed it as well because judges want to take very good care of their witnesses and their jurors, and not have them influenced by outside static like the former president likes to provide for his trials or his events. This just being another one in his campaign apparently.

DEAN: And there's been so much talk and he's kind of -- the former president kind of flirted with this as it were. Will he take the stand? Will he not take the stand? What do you think about that as we move into the second week?

J. DEAN: Jessica, I'd be very surprised if he did take the stand. In prior trials he has said that he would take the stand and never showed up to do so. So he's not a good witness. He is shown that in depositions, in the limited testimony he's given in a civil trial. He's showed me he was not a good witness. So it would be unlikely that's going to happen. But I think he wants to give his base the impression that he's a tough guy and he can go take any trial on. He wanted to take on. And it'll be his decision not to testify if he doesn't.

DEAN: All right. John Dean, always good to see you. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

J. DEAN: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Fresh off a vital visit to China, our nation's top diplomat is sounding the alarm about possible Chinese meddling in this year's election. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks to stabilize relations between Washington and Beijing. We'll have more here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:29:08]

DEAN: Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he's seen evidence that China has been trying to influence upcoming U.S. elections. It's just one of several major global challenges President Biden's secretary of state is taking on right now. Blinken sat down with CNN's national security correspondent Kylie Atwood after his meeting in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: One of your major priorities here was to push China to stop sending to Russia dual use technologies and goods that are being used to build up Russia's defense industrial base. You said at the press conference earlier, if China does not address the problem we will.

How long will the United States give China to cut back on those things that they're sending to Russia?

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, first, Kylie, we've already taken action. We've taken action against more than 100 Chinese companies, individuals.

ATWOOD: But as it worked?

BLINKEN: So one thing is very clear. This is not only a problem for us, it's a problem for countries around the world, but particularly in Europe.

So what we said to China is this. We're going to take actions. We already have. And if it doesn't stop, we're going to have to take more action. And you can anticipate as well that other countries will, because this is a matter of concern across the board.

ATWOOD: You think will see action within weeks?

BLINKEN: I don't want to put a timeframe on it. But it's something that we're tracking very closely and very carefully.

ATWOOD: Did they even acknowledged to you that these dual-use technologies are actually being used by Russia to continue pursuing the war in Ukraine?

BLINKEN: They didn't acknowledge it. I think they acknowledged the fact that they're trading with Russia.

But when you look at the volume and, again, when you look at critical components for the defense industrial base, machine tools, 70 percent of the machine tools that China -- that Russia, excuse me, is getting from abroad are coming from China.

Microelectronics, 90 percent are coming from China. While Russia is a big country with resources, it could not sustain what it's doing in Ukraine absent the assistance it's getting from others, and notably from China.

ATWOOD: I want to ask you about a commitment that CNN has reported President Xi made to President Biden when they met in November. We reported that he told President Biden that China would not interfere in the upcoming presidential elections in the United States.

But since then, there have been reports of online Chinese accounts that have falsely mimicked Trump's supporters. Do you believe that these accounts violate President Xi's commitment?

BLINKEN: What I can tell you is this, President Biden was very clear about that with President Xi. And I repeated that today in -- in my meetings,

ATWOOD: You repeated what?

BLINKEN: That any interference by China in our election is something that were looking very carefully at and is totally unacceptable to us.

Look, it's something we're tracking very carefully. I can't speak to these specific reports. I can say that, as a general matter, we've been very clear with China, don't do it.

ATWOOD: But they're not violating the commitment yet as far as you can tell?

BLINKEN: Well, again, I'd have to look at the specific reports that -- that you're referring to. But we have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere. And we want to make sure that that's cut off as quickly as possible.

ATWOOD: I want to transition to what we're seeing in the United States right now. You were asked about this earlier, but I want to talk about it again.

These pro-Palestinian protests are overwhelming college campuses in the United States. Some of the protesters have turned to anti-Semitic rhetoric. We heard from Israels Prime Minister Netanyahu this week, who called these protests anti-Semitic and said they must stop.

Do you think he's right?

BLINKEN: Look, the protests, in and of themselves, are not anti- Semitic. There are protesters and they're also activists who may have other agendas who clearly are engaged in rhetoric that is.

But what we're also seeing is people, young people, people from a different walks of life, who do feel very passionately, who've had very strong emotions about this, anger.

And I understand -- I understand that. But that we've certainly seen instances where that has clearly veered from a totally legitimate expression of views and beliefs to, in some instances, yes, clear expressions of anti-Semitism. When you hear some people chanting in support of Hamas, what -- what

in the world does that mean? And more generally, what we've seen is Hamas almost erased from the story. It's as if they had nothing to do with what's going on in Gaza and in the Middle East.

ATWOOD: Will these protests at all impact the policy of the Biden administration?

BLINKEN: You know, in our democracy, too, of course, we -- we listen to -- to the American people. And we're supposed to both represent them and reflect their views. So we take all of this into account.

But again, it's important that --

ATWOOD: So you might consider stopping shipping weapons to Israel because that's what they're calling for?

BLINKEN: No. We're focused on what -- what's in the interests of the United States. How do we best reflect both our interests and our values in our foreign policy across the board? Whether that's with Israel or anyone else.

ATWOOD: There is a lot riding on this administration's effort to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. There's obviously other parts of that major potentially historic deal that could bring this war to a close.

[16:35:06]

But I wonder if -- what makes you believe that Israel or Hamas are going to agree to any sort of ceasefire at this moment in time that could pave the way for that to come to fruition?

BLINKEN: Well, first, the only thing standing between a ceasefire and the people who Gaza is Hamas. Because the quickest way to get there is an agreement on the hostages and on a ceasefire that we're very, very close to.

When Israel was attacked by Iran, you saw not only Israel effectively defend itself, but other countries jump in. And not only the United States and not only countries in Europe. Some countries in the Middle East as well.

And you can see a path in the future where Israel is genuinely integrated in the region, where other countries are helping to make sure it's defended. But that also requires that Gaza come to an end. And that there be a clear pathway to a Palestinian state.

In that kind of future, Israel gets what it has sought almost from the start of its existence, which is normal relations with countries in the region, acceptance in the region.

And its biggest problem, the biggest threat to security to Israel, to other countries in the region, and to the United States, Iran is isolated. ATWOOD: Is there a world in which you could roll out this framework

for Israel, Saudi normalization and a two-state solution before there's a ceasefire in place, almost a push towards a potential ceasefire to end this war?

BLINKEN: Well, I think we've been -- we've been clear about what the vision is. And beyond that, we've been working intensively to flesh it out, working with our partners, working with European partners on this as well.

ATWOOD: Yes.

BLINKEN: And I think the more concrete it becomes and the more it moves from the hypothetical and theoretical to something that's actually possible, that's real, then everyone involved is actually going to have to make decisions and make choices.

And so we're doing this work. And were trying to make it as real as possible so that people do decide and --

(CROSSTALK)

ATWOOD: -- to share it before a ceasefire is in place?

BLINKEN: I think, certainly that's -- that's possible. We've, again, been actively engaged on this. And what -- ceasefire or not, we'll continue to make these possibilities known.

But in order to actually realize this, there's going to have to be an end to the conflict in Gaza. And as I said, it was also going to have to be a resolution to the Palestinian question, or at least an agreement on how to resolve it.

ATWOOD: Mr. Secretary, thank you. Appreciate it.

BLINKEN: Thanks, Kylie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Kylie Atwood with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The clock is running out for TikTok as the app's parent company faces a deadline to sell or risk a ban in the U.S. We're talking to Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi about what's next for the app and why both Democrats and Republicans voted for that bill.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:53]

DEAN: The clock is ticking for TikTok to find a new owner. This week, President Biden signed a bill into law that calls on the Chinese company ByteDance to sell its popular social media platform within the next 270 days, about nine months, or face the total ban in the U.S. The new law is meant to prevent the Chinese government from accessing American's sensitive data.

And joining us now is Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He's one of the co-authors of the bill and a ranking member on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Congressmen, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming on with us.

There are millions and millions of people out there in America who use TikTok, a lot of younger people, especially, but it runs the gamut. What do you say to those who are confused by this, not happy about this, afraid TikTok is going to go away?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): We want TikTok to continue to operate, just not under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

And just to refresh the facts, Jessica, TikTok is owned by a company called ByteDance. ByteDance is a Chinese company that's indisputable controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

The editor-in-chief of ByteDance is the secretary of the CCP cell that's been embedded at the top of ByteDance to control its operations.

And so people are very concerned about two threats. One, the CCP's access to personal data. And, two, it's manipulation of content on the platform. And so that's why there's a huge bipartisan vote in favor of this bill.

DEAN: And there's a -- may I -- I want -- I think that you're kind of getting at this, because some people will say, oh, but I just want to watch some videos of cats, who cares if they look at what I'm looking at.

But there are real security issues here, national security issues. Help people understand what those are.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Look, for years, first, under the Trump administration and then the Biden administration, the U.S. government has tried to work with TikTok to preserve its governance structure and, at the same time, try to mitigate against threats.

[16:45:02]

The problem was the plan that they came up with, called Project Texas, turned out to not be enough to mitigate the threats. And not only that, but the TikTok management made misrepresentations about that particular plan, such that it really called into question the security of our data.

The best example of this was they said American user data would not be accessible to people in China. That turned out to be false. It's regularly accessible from China.

The second is this user data, they said, would never be weaponized against Americans. That turned out to be false, Jessica. Not only was it weaponized against Americans, it was used against journalists to surveil them because they're coverage was thought to be unfavorable to ByteDance.

And so this is when people on Capitol Hill got very upset and led to the passage of this legislation.

DEAN: It was really fascinating to watch this legislation come together because, first of all, it had broad bipartisan support, which is not something we see. I don't have to tell you this. It's not something we see that often, especially in this -- in this Congress.

And it also --

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes.

DEAN: -- moved pretty quickly, all things considered.

I know you were part of crafting that legislation. Why do you think you were able to get so much bipartisan support and move this so quickly?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think the thing that folks may not know is that we were actually work at -- working on this legislation for about a year after the TikTok CEO came to Capitol Hill and, as I said, made misrepresentation after misrepresentation about TikTok.

A group of us came together and basically said, look, we may have different approaches, but we've got to come together and kind of find the bolus common denominator, so to speak, of our approaches.

And then bring the White House and the administration into the discussions to get technical assistance. And then forge a path forward.

It took about a year for us to all get on the same page and get all stakeholder's input on it. And then we introduced it. And you saw the result, which was very positive.

DEAN: And after the president signed the bill on Wednesday, the Biden campaign told -- told us -- told CNN it's going to keep using TikTok to reach out to voters, especially younger Americans, a key constituency of Biden's.

Do you think that the president's campaign should be using the app?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I'm not going to tell him how to campaign. I don't have it on my personal app. And it's banned from all government devices.

All I can say is its legal right now. Americans, of course, are using TikTok. I would just be cautious about the type of data that you enter in there, any personal information that you entrust to the app and so forth.

All that being said, in about a year's time, hopefully, if all goes well, and I expect it will, it's going to continue operating under new management.

DEAN: And so what will that look like? Will they -- will ByteDance now be looking for different investors? How does this logistically play out?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't know. It's going to be up to them, Jessica, but it could be -- it could go public.

The TikTok USA part could just be widely disbursed to shareholders across the world and not be concentrated in the ownership structure that it is right now with ByteDance, or it could go in any number of other directions.

The U.S. will obviously have to approve the final transaction just for antitrust purposes. But the main point is we don't want the CCP in charge of this.

DEAN: And I want to ask you about one more thing, quickly, before we let you go. You're also a member of the House Oversight Committee.

We learned this week that committee chairman, James Comer, told one of his Republican colleagues he's ready to be, quote, "done with" the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

This follows about a year of baseless accusations, no real proof that the president benefited from his son Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine.

Does it surprise you that they -- that he has said this, that he's ready to be done with it?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: No. And I'm glad he said it because the proceedings have amounted to a great big nothing burger. Nothing has been -- nothing surfaced in the least in the slightest implicating the president in any kind of wrongdoing, let alone a high crime or misdemeanor.

And so I'm very glad to hear that Chairman Comer is going to be done with this investigation so that we can get to the work of the American people. And this Oversight Committee is very important in that process.

[16:49:57]

DEAN: All right. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, thanks so much for your time this Saturday. Good to see you. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

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DEAN: In today's "START SMALL, THINK BIG," we look at new ways for surgeons to practice on models that look and feel and cut like their specific patients. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SMRITI ZANEVELD, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, LAZARUS 3D: When I learned that surgeons operate and learn on bell peppers and learn to suture on bananas, the first reaction in my mind was there's got to be a better way.

[16:55:06]

So we built that. Lazarus 3D is providing a tool for your surgeon to practice and rehearse that upcoming procedure on a copy of you.

So we take your C.T. or MRI and, from there, we're able to create a digital replica. Here is a kidney of a patient. Here is a tumor. And from that digital design, we 3D print the physical copy that are very soft and realistic, creates these patient-specific models.

And here is the healthy kidney tissue that's surrounding the tumor. And all of those things need to feel realistic. The tools responding to the liver and how they're responding to the stomach is going to be different because these synthetic tissues are behaving like the real patient's organs.

UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: Let's keep cutting here.

ZANEVELD: Dr. (INAUDIBLE) has a liver transplant coming up and we were able to render the physical model to rehearse that approach for that patient ahead of that real surgery.

DR. JUAN GUERRA, MEDSTAR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: And I think that the biggest benefit of this 3D model is that we have a most accurate understanding of the donor's anatomy. By doing that, we can do a safer surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: All right, still ahead, pro-Palestinian protests escalating on college campuses around the country. We have reporters covering it all.

Plus, we are joined by the president of the largest Jewish campus organization in the world with more on how they're responding.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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