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Tornado Causes Multiple Fatalities, Injuries in Bollinger County, Missouri; Trump Pleads Not Guilty to 34 Felony Counts in Hush Money Scheme; Today, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Meets Taiwan's President in Los Angeles. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 05, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- even going after the judge who hours earlier had warned him to not incite violence or unrest.

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What he said and what we're learning now about those 34 felony charges.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hours from now, a high-stakes meeting with global consequences. The president of Taiwan meets with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as China conducts an operation off of Taiwan's coast.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, an active search and rescue for survivors after tornadoes smashed through the Midwest and south. Police reporting multiple deaths now in Missouri as a weather emergency is tracking east. Right now, millions are under active alerts.

We're tracking this and much more right here on CNN News Central.

Breaking news, we're getting our first look at the destruction left behind after a tornado touched down in Missouri overnight, taking a look now at aerial footage of some of the damage left behind in Glen Allen. Officials say several people are dead and injured and the danger not over yet. Today, more than 85 million Americans are facing the threat of severe storms.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking these storms for us. You are in tornado-ravaged Little Rock, Arkansas, where we understand there is a warning out right now.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: That's right, Sara. We just got word from the National Weather Service that this area has now been extended with our tornado watch as new tornado warned super cell thunderstorms are forming directly to our west. We've got about 10 to 15 minutes in Little Rock where I'm located before our storms strike.

I want to just paint the scene here because we still have utility workers that are working from this past weekend's super cell thunderstorms and tornadoes that ravaged this region. It's definitely a storm weary area. Talking to residents here, they are scared for the threat of more tornadoes today. They need to be on guard and prepared keeping an eye to the sky.

I want to get to the graphics, show you the latest watches and warnings that we have across the country. Again, I just mentioned the latest tornado watch that's been included from Western and Central Arkansas southward into the Texarkana region. We also have tornado watches to the north as well.

But I want to show you what the storms have already been capable of doing. We know about the fatalities and injuries coming out of the Southeastern Missouri region from the tornado that struck there overnight. There is also ground stops. Earlier this morning, there were ground stuff that Chicago O'Hare, at Midway as a line of extremely powerful storms move through. You can see the shelf cloud that was associated with this just about an hour ago. Powerful winds and large hail associated with that. And across Michigan, the storms there are causing havoc as well.

Yes we're really showing how powerful these storms are. And Glen Allen has seen some of the worst of these storms as the video there is showing just the damage and the extent of how bad this tornado was overnight, but threats still ongoing. Sara?

SIDNER: Derek Van Dam there live from Little Rock, tracking all of the potential tornadic activity across the states.

The severe weather threat continues. There is a trail of destruction continuing into Illinois, where another tornado was reported.

That's where we find CNN's Adrienne Broaddus. She is live for us from Colona, Illinois. Adrienne, what are you seeing there? There is a massive damage behind you.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the mess that was left behind. And I want to take you through what we do know, Sara, wind gusts peaked at 115 miles per hour. Behind us, this was a gas station. We're told to employees were here. They took cover inside of a bathroom, which you can see is still standing. Also still in place, some of the tobacco items.

But where I am right now, this was a wall. It is gone. Obviously, the roof is gone, and we will show you in just a moment if you stick with us where the roof landed here. You see the shattered glass and broken glass, debris scattered all about this parking lot area.

Over on this side at the front, a popular restaurant, we're told folks like to come here have their lunch. We spoke with the member of law enforcement just a short time ago, who said nobody was inside of the restaurant when that tornado passed through this town. The National Weather Service is calling it an EF-2 tornado.

Now, I told you, the roof blew off. It went over the power lines and landed here on top of what has been described as a garage. It's a place where a mechanic fixes cars. Now, the roof that you see there did nick some of the power lines here, but crews were already able to repair them. A member law enforcement also told us he believes this black and gray R.V. you see right here is holding up the wall to the garage.

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The good news, Sara, nobody was injured. There are no reported injuries, at least physically. Emotionally, obviously, as people see their community disrupted. Back to you.

SIDNER: And the danger isn't over. Thank you, CNN's Adrienne Broaddus us for us there in Illinois. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Let's turn now to President Trump, and the clock is ticking now. His legal team has about four months to file any legal motions in response to his historic indictment. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges, and prosecutors say that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments. Trump's lawyers say there's no there, there and are promising to fight to get the charges dropped before this ever reaches a jury.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the very latest this hour from outside court. You know, Kara, Trump's legal team is really jumping on one fact, really focusing in on the how the underlying crime that Trump is accused of trying to cover up, it's not laid out in court documents. What's the Manhattan D.A. saying about that?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. I mean, as you said, this is one of the big issues that Trump's legal team is making. And Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, who was in the courtroom yesterday, when Donald Trump was being arraigned, sitting just over his right shoulder one aisle over, he gave his first public remarks on this and he spoke directly to this issue. Take a listen.

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ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The indictment doesn't specify because the law does not so require. We are not going to go into our delivery process on what was brought, the charges that were brought, with the ones that were brought, the evidence and the law is the basis for those decisions.

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SCANNELL: Now, in court, one of the prosecutors did elaborate a bit more. He said that this underlying felony was to commit or conceal another crime. Those crimes, he suggested, were state and federal election laws. He said this was all to promote Donald Trump as the candidate in the 2016 election.

Now, of these 34 counts that Trump is facing, let's just break them down a little bit. 11 of them are falsified invoices. This is all related to the reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen. He submitted invoices for legal work that the D.A.'s the office said, didn't exist because it was this repayment. There're also 12 falsified general ledger entries that was in the books and records of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump's trust in his personal accounts and 11 checks. These were the checks that Donald Trump, he signed nine of them himself. These checks were issued and paid to Cohen for the reimbursement. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Kara, what should people expect next in this case?

SCANNELL: So, now we're in the real legal weeds of this. Over the next two months, there's going to be what's called discovery. That is where the D.A.'s office starts providing the former president with grand jury witness testimony, with their documents that they've accumulated so he can prepare his defense.

Trump's lawyers' motions to file motions, which they say they are going to file many of them, are due on August. 8th. The D.A.'s office is due to respond on September 19th. They had asked for their deadline to be moved up. The judge was willing to give them more time. And then they're all back in court on December 4th. That's where the judge will decide these motions.

Now, the next big question here will be when is this trial date? Prosecutors asked for January, 2024. Trump's team said they wanted the spring of 2024. The judge said that seemed reasonable but he hasn't said the date just yet. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Kara, thank you. John, clock is ticking.

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, Kate, you're asking what's next legally. I'll tell you what's next politically, a lot of angry words. We're already starting to hear some of them.

Of course, after the arraignment, Donald Trump delivered that speech from Mar-a-Lago. That speech had many targets and also many factual deficiencies. He attacked the federal probe into his handling of classified documents. This is separate, by the way, from Alvin Bragg. He attacked the documents probe and he had this to say about the Presidential Records Act.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Just so everyone knows I come under what's known as the Presidential Records Act, which was designed and approved by Congress long ago just for this reason. Under the act, I'm supposed to negotiate with NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration.

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BERMAN: All right. CNN's Daniel Dale is with us. And, Daniel, you have that furrowed brow, which leads me to believe there might be something amiss with Donald Trump saying that presidents are supposed to negotiate with the NARA.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: John, Trump keeps saying this, and it keeps being just as wrong as it was the first time he said it. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 is open and shut, clear cut. It has a key sentence. You can go look up yourself. It says, upon the conclusion of a president's term of office, the archivist of the United States, so the federal government, shall assume responsibility for the custody, control and preservation of and access to the presidential records of that president.

That's basically it, that's relevant here. Nothing in this law says there should be a deal-making process, a prolonged negotiation, a talk, talk, talk process, as Trump put it last week, between NARA and an ex president.

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I spoke to five experts about this. All of them said Trump is completely inaccurate. NARA former Director of Litigation Jason R. Baron told me Trump is simply wrong as a matter of law. He said, look, as of noon on January 20th 2021, when President Biden took office, all presidential records of the Trump administration came into the legal custody of the archivist of the United States, full stop. That means no presidential records should ever have been transferred to Mar-a- Lago, and there was no further talking or negotiating to be had, the end.

BERMAN: Those two words shall assume they carry a lot of weight, legally speaking there.

All right, Daniel, so the former president also defended this famous January 2021 phone call, I should say infamous, with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where he urged Raffensperger to go find him votes, find him enough votes to overturn the Georgia election results. This is what he said about that call last night.

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TRUMP: Nobody found anything wrong with that perfect call until a book promotion tour many months later. All of a sudden, they say, you know, I remember Trump making a call. Let's look at that.

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BERMAN: No one had a problem with it until months later, Daniel? That's not how I remember it.

DALE: That is not accurate. It's a complete rewriting of history. This call was leaked almost immediately. The Washington Post broke the story the day after the call. And there was an immediate uproar. I mean, every media outlet covered it that very day. Then Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called it a bald faced bold abuse of power by the president of the United States. The day after that, some Democratic members of Congress wrote to the FBI asking for a federal probe.

And that same day, Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, indicated that she was willing to investigate it herself. She said she saw the report, she found them disturbing, and she said, I will enforce the law without fear or favor. And she continued once the investigation is complete, this matter, like all matters, will be handled by our offers office based on the facts and the law.

And I'll add that that same week, so three days after the phone call, CNN read an article on its website saying that legal experts say that Trump's call could put him in legal perils. The idea that no one found anything wrong with this call until, say, Brad Raffensperger book promotion tour in the fall of 2021 simply not borne out by the facts.

BERMAN: Daniel Dale, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to CNN News Central. I hope to see you again soon.

DALE: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Important that speech fact checking that speech.

Joining me now for more on all of this is Marc Short. He's a former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. It's good to see you, Marc. Thanks for coming in.

John was just going through that speech with Daniel Dale, and there's a lot of -- and there was a lot to pick through. But on the overall indictment, what Donald Trump is facing, do you think that Donald Trump is better or in worse or better positioned politically today than he was before this, say Monday?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, Kate, I think it's been fascinating to watch over the last 12, 14 hours how many liberal commentators have actually come forward to say how weak this cases. And as we've discussed before, I think that part of the D.A.'s job is discretion and bringing a case when he promised to go and indict President Trump and when basically a former D.A. has passed over and DOJ has passed over. I think it leaves a lot of questions for a lot of voters about how political this prosecution is.

I think, politically, I think it does strengthen the president, former president in the short-term. There's no doubt there's rallying around him amongst many Republican voters who say, you know, he was unfairly attacked for four years as president, and this continues that. And I think it also allows him, as John was just alluding a minute ago, to cast a shadow on these other more serious allegations outstanding in Georgia and at the federal level.

But I also think there's another political beneficiary in this and, frankly, that's Joe Biden. And what I mean by that is, you know, in 2022, I think Republicans had all the issues set in our in our favor to have a historic midterm election. And I think we fell short of those expectations, because in many cases, we were still re-litigating the election in 2020 in states like Arizona and Pennsylvania.

And right now, where Republicans should be talking about the crisis of inflation or talking about a border crisis, talking about bank failures, impending recession, talking about the situation in Taiwan, we're not. And I think that creates opportunities, like you saw in Wisconsin last night, when that's a huge defeat for Republicans in Wisconsin, where you have now a new Supreme Court that's going to overturn so many positive reforms that Scott Walker championed when he was governor of Wisconsin. And I think you're seeing some of that replay.

BOLDUAN: So, Marc, is what I'm hearing you say is what this also if it -- if you say this is good for Joe Biden, which would also mean you also said, politically, it's also good for Donald Trump, does that, do you think in your mind, that also then is bad for the other Republican candidates who are going to be running against Donald Trump?

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SHORT: I think in the short-term, this certainly benefits Donald Trump. But I think that I don't think any of us knows how it's going to play out over the coming months because I think they gets an extra weight, extra burden after Georgia acts, after the federal case.

And I sort of think this case is going to probably fading in the news stories, even though it's salacious, I think people realize it doesn't have much of a case. And so I think that the weight of these others look different.

BOLDUAN: But then how does it cast a shadow then on the other investigations, right? Because as you're alluding to, they are seen as more serious. You've got classified documents. You've got 2020 election. You've got January 6th. You -- but you still think what happened yesterday cast a shadow on those?

SHORT: Well, I think you saw in the president's remarks, he quickly ties them together, and he's quickly raising the Presidential Records Act. He's talking about the classified documents. He's talking about the Georgia phone call. And so he has very intentionally conflated them. And so, yes, I think it allows them that opportunity.

BOLDUAN: The trial might not happen until January or spring of '24. What does that mean for the primary? That's right -- that's in primary season. What does that mean for the other candidates if that's happening?

SHORT: Well, again. I think that's hard to predict. And I think there's even a question whether it actually makes it to trial. But if we get that far down the pathway, again, he will certainly take on the case and say, look, I'm fighting for you and this state is coming after me, which I think helps rally among some Republican primary voters. But others may say, you know what, I'm tired of the drama, I'm ready to move on, and I think we've seen some of that in the midterm cycle in 2022.

BOLDUAN: Marc, finally, is Mike Pence going to appeal the judge's ruling that says that he must testify before the grand jury in Jack Smith's investigation surrounding January 6th?

SHORT: Well, again, Kate, I think he was very pleased that, for the first time ever, a judge affirmed that the speech and debate clause does apply to vice president of the United States. That was his central challenge. I think he feels victorious on that claim. He's been meeting with his lawyers. I think you'd anticipate a decision on that in the very near future.

BOLDUAN: I heard very near future from you on this last week. I want more details.

SHORT: Well, I think, that, basically, the end of this decision- making time is fast approaching. And so I think we're pretty much at the end and you should anticipate really very near future final decision on that.

BOLDUAN: Very near future it is for today. Marc Short, thank you, as always.

SHORT: Thanks, Kate. Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: Very near future, apparently.

So, newly released body camera video shows the deadly encounter between an officer and a young black man. What it reveals about the fatal interaction.

Plus, more than 350 people were arrested after a violent clash between Israeli police and Palestinians at one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem.

And the speaker of the House will meet with the president of Taiwan in California today, how China is reacting to this historic meeting.

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BERMAN: A violent clash receiving international condemnation after Israeli police stormed one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem's old city, the Al Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Temple Mount. Police say they arrested more than 350 people. The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 12 people were injured in this race.

Chicago has a new mayor-elect, CNN projects that Brandon Johnson will replace Lori Lightfoot. Johnson, seen as a progressive, defeated the more moderate Paul Vallas in the runoff.

Students of East High School in Denver are returning to class this morning. This is their first day back after a 17-year-old student opened fire last month, injuring two school administrators and causing hundreds of students to go into lockdown. The district's board of education suspended at least temporarily its ban on placing armed school resource officers or other armed security in schools. Sara?

SIDNER: New today, China is conducting a patrol operation off the coast of Taiwan. The announcement coming just hours ahead of a controversial meeting in California between Taiwan's president and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Ahead of that meeting pro and anti-Taiwan protesters demonstrated in Los Angeles. Today's sit down by Taiwan's president with McCarthy caps off high-stakes international trip intended to shore up Taiwan's relations with its foreign partners, including, of course, the United States. But it's her stopover in the U.S. that's drawing the ire of Beijing.

CNN's Selina Wang is live in Beijing for us with details. Selina, it's not any coincidence that this patrol operation is happening as the exact same time as the meeting, is it?

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Sara. The timing here is clear, and it comes after Beijing has already threatened to fight back against the visit, and they clearly want to show their fury. But aside from this angry talk that actual response has been muted. In addition to that three-day patrol operation through the Taiwan Strait, there have also been these routine military drills.

Now, we could still see Beijing react more aggressively tomorrow, but things may not escalate quite as far as they did last summer when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan, because this time around, the meeting is taking place on U.S. soil.

Last summer, Beijing reacted to Pelosi's visit with unprecedented military drills that simulated a blockade around the island. This trip is also different, Sara, because Washington has tried to downplay it as just a stopover on the Taiwanese president's way back to Taiwan. But this is still a high-stakes visit.

U.S.-China relations are at a low point, and this is just another friction point in those tensions, and both sides understand the risks of any misstep or miscalculation.

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SIDNER: Yes. We saw those tensions rise when Nancy Pelosi showed up in Taiwan against President Biden's wishes.

What are the reactions are you seeing from China? You said, so far, pretty muted.

WANG: Yes. Well, the angry rhetoric is continuing to escalate and the background here is China's furious about this visit because it sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, that's part of its territory. That's why it gets so upset whenever Taiwanese leaders engage in these high profile international meetings. Beijing going as far to say that the meeting undermines its sovereignty and regional peace and stability.

Now, on China's heavily-censored social media, we're also seeing comments, like let's fight and shoot her plane down to force or force it to land. But this visit is very contentious with both people in China and people overseas reacting strongly to this. In Los Angeles, both pro and anti-demonstrators took to the streets with pro-Taiwan protesters chanting that they love and support her while anti-Taiwan demonstrators are calling her a traitor.

But, Sara, there are reasons for Xi Jinping to hold back this time instead of Beijing's response. It comes as he's trying to position himself as a global statesman and one who could broker peace around the world. Sara?

SIDNER: Selina Wang live from Beijing, thank you so much.

Let's dig into why Taiwan is such a flashpoint in the relationship between the United States and China. The U.S. technically hasn't had formal relations with Taiwan since the 1970s, when President Nixon met with leader Mao Zedong and agreed to honor Beijing's One China policy that states there is only one Chinese government, the one based in Beijing rather than Taiwan.

China seized Taiwan, as you just heard, as a breakaway province to be unified with the mainland one day. But in recent years, China has been testing that arrangement by conducting more provocative actions, like the patrols that we're seeing in the Taiwan Strait today.

Beijing also has amped up its military spending. Just last month, it announced that its military budget will increase 7.2 percent to roughly $224 billion. China is also boosting its naval fleet. It has about 340 warships with plans to grow to 400 ships in the next couple of years. The U.S., by comparison, is hoping to get to 350 ships by 2045.

It all adds to speculation that China may try to invade Taiwan. And just last year President Biden made the bold statement that he would commit U.S. troops to support Taiwan if that happens.

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REPORTER: Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes.

REPORTER: You are?

BIDEN: That's the commitment we made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Here's another critical reason why Biden wouldn't want to see a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. One company there, TSMC, makes 92 percent, yes, 92 percent of all semiconductor chips in the entire world, and they're used in everything, from cell phones to appliances, to medical devices. So, if China starts a war, it could upend the global supply chain and, of course, with that, the economy. Kate, we saw some of that during the coronavirus and the pandemic.

BOLDUAN: And that's also why semiconductors is becoming such an issue with American lawmakers. You really spell it out perfectly well, how much is at stake?

Coming up for us, new jobs data fall short of expectations. We're breaking down the numbers. That is just ahead.

Plus, the FBI and the Justice Department, they have opened a civil rights investigation into the fatal police shooting of the 17-year-old and police have released this disturbing body camera video of the deadly encounter, that is next.

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