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Georgia Trump Probe Nearing Indictment Decision?; Trump Facing Battery and Defamation Trial; Shaky Sudan Cease-Fire; President Biden Announces Reelection Bid. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 25, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:27]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It's official, President Biden announcing his run for reelection in 2024. He says his battle for the soul of the nation isn't over, setting the stage for a potential rematch against Donald Trump.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: But that's not Trump's only challenge.

Today, a civil battery and defamation trial kicks off, E. Jean Carroll accusing Trump of groping and forcibly raping her. The former president's denying the charge, just one of many legal problems facing him as he once again runs for the White House.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: And a huge biological risk. Sudanese militants now occupy a public health lab in that nation's capital, one with samples of polio, measles, cholera, the latest threat in the chaos of the conflict in Sudan.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Right now, President Biden is giving his first live remarks since he revealed the worst-kept secret in Washington, that he's running for reelection.

Following the launch, the president notably choosing a union event for his first public appearance. The official announcement came in this online video released at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time today. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's finish this job. I know we can, because this is the United States of America. There is nothing, simply nothing, we cannot do if we do it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's take you live to the White House now with CNN chief White House correspondent Phil Mattingly.

Phil, this date, April 25, not a coincidence, this president known to be sentimental, even a bit superstitious. PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And I think the importance of when he launched his campaign in 2019, four years ago today in a campaign-style video, similar to the one you saw this morning, serves as a very important backstop to kind of what has been the thread that connects the course of the last four years, both his campaign and his first two-plus years in office.

And I think, as you have seen the president lay out in that campaign- style video, and as he speaks right now in Washington, the connected thread towards the term ahead, why he's decided to make this run.

Again, Boris, as you noted, this was the worst-kept secret in Washington. Everybody knew it was coming. The timeline was the thing that was always in question. And tying it to that anniversary I think is critical for understanding a president whose entire administration, both on the economic policy side, on the approach, in terms of their views of -- his views of democracy and the importance of the inflection point for the country, all connect back to that 2019 moment.

What you're seeing right now, as he speaks, and we have had a little bit of it, is part of a dual-pronged effort that you're going to see in the months ahead as his team ramps up this campaign, speaking right now to those union workers, very focused on his legislative agenda, very focused on the very significant legislative accomplishments of his first two years.

But in the campaign video this morning, you saw another element here, and that is probably one of the most important elements, the contrast, a very clear contrast between the president, and not just former President Donald Trump, who right now is leading in the polls to be his challenger in the general election, but Republicans generally, particularly those that hold the majority in the House.

This was how he framed things. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Do you know, around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security that you paid for your entire life, while cutting taxes from the very wealthy, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And, Boris, I think if you view the months ahead, particularly as they build towards that general election next year, as really this dual-pronged approach, there is the record, which the president believes he has, and then there's the contrast, which I think you're going to see repeatedly.

Now, there's no question, however, that there is work to do. He is the oldest president in American history at 80 years old. That is something that has shown up in poll after poll, not just for Americans writ large, but for Democrats, including a CBS poll that came out this morning showing 55 percent of Democrats want the president to run again.

But that means 45 percent don't. Advisers are confident that Democrats will come home. His approval remains high inside the party. And that will coalesce in the months ahead, but there are serious questions that he needs to answer, something his team is keenly aware of, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And, notably, his advisers say not to expect any campaign rallies anytime soon.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

SANCHEZ: We will see if that approach changes in the near future.

Phil Mattingly from the White House, thank you so much -- Brianna.

[13:05:02]

KEILAR: Thanks, Boris.

Let's talk with two people who know Joe Biden very well. We have CNN contributor Evan Osnos, who wrote the book "Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now," and Kate Bedingfield, who just recently served as the president's White House communications director and has been a longtime adviser.

It's really interesting, Kate, when you look at this announcement video. I mean, right out of the gate, the first thing you see, images of January 6. It really continues this existential rationale of running that Joe Biden had in 2020, with sort of updates of abortion rights, and then voting rights as well.

No surprise to you, I suspect, since you just left the White House, but why does the campaign think that this is the more effective route to go, rather than touting Joe Biden's accomplishments?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I think it's quite simple actually, Brianna, because all elections are choices.

An election is fundamentally a choice. And so what I imagine you will see from the campaign as they move forward is not just a touting of his accomplishments, which I suspect you will see. You heard him out just now talking about what he's done for blue-collar workers, for the middle class. So you're going to hear him make the case for what he's done and how that's helping families.

But you're also going to hear, I would expect, him drawing this contrast. I mean, you saw that fundamentally laid out in the video, that he really views this as an extension of the battle for the soul of the nation from the 2020 campaign. And he believes, fundamentally, this is a fight about freedoms and about whether you are going to -- whether we are going to allow our freedoms to be taken away, or whether we're going to protect them. And so, as he thinks about the reasons that he's running, that, for

him, is really motivating. And he's never going to shy away from drawing that contrast for people.

KEILAR: Let's talk about age, Evan, because you even had "The New York Times" ed board, right? Biden is going to be 82 at the start of a second term if he does win reelection. The ed board recently said that he should take voters concerns about his age very seriously.

How do you see his campaign? How do you see him handling that?

EVAN OSNOS, BIDEN BIOGRAPHER: You know, it's not a mystery to him. He knows this is something that's on people's minds. It's been on their minds for a while.

If you go back, in fact, to the 2008 campaign, there was a memorable moment when he said: Look, I'm 65, and Barack Obama is not going to have to worry about me positioning myself for the presidency.

A lot of time has transpired between then and now. And, of course, the biggest thing that has happened in American politics since then and now was that Donald Trump got on the scene. And that has been, in so many ways, the galvanizing fact for Joe Biden. And what he would say to you today is: Look, I get it. You're concerned.

But to use the words he used in this video this morning, we can't get complacent, which is as close as he came to acknowledging that people have hesitations, but saying that, for the moment, you have to remember who beat Donald Trump last time, and that's who's in the best position for the next one.

KEILAR: One of the things, Kate, that the ed board points out is that Biden has held fewer news conferences and media interviews than most of his modern predecessors. I mean, why not do more to put this to rest, show his mettle, get him out there answering more tough questions in front of cameras?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think, as you know, as you guys know well, he actually takes questions from the press almost every day. And I can say that as somebody who recently departed the communications office at the White House.

He -- as he goes throughout his day, he has a core of press who follow him around, ask him questions, and he very often engages. But the other thing...

KEILAR: But we're talking interviews and press conferences.

BEDINGFIELD: But the other thing he does is, he also talks to nontraditional media sources. He uses digital.

He -- we're living in an incredibly -- again, I don't have to tell you this. We're living in an incredibly fractured media environment. And so the president and his team have to think about, how do we reach people where they're actually getting their news? And some of them are getting it from cable news, but a lot of them are getting it from their regional newspapers, from online sources, from their community chat boards, where they're chatting with each other.

And so the president's team thinks a lot about how they can get him out beyond just the traditional media filter. But I would say, the president spends a lot of time talking to the D.C. press corps every single day when he's at the White House.

KEILAR: There could be more, if you compare it to other administrations, for sure.

But I do want to move on, because there was this Republican response, right? This was an A.I.-generated response that honestly resembled more an episode of "The Last of Us" than a typical campaign ad, China invading Taiwan, hundreds of regional banks collapsing, San Francisco shut down over crime, the border overrun.

Evan, is this race going to come down to, what are people more afraid of?

OSNOS: Well look, that's apocalypse chic, what you just described right there.

And the truth is, look, people have realistic concerns, particularly Democrats, when it comes to what Donald Trump would do if he came back in office. It's not a mystery. He's talked about it. And I think that there is -- when you compare the video that was shown this morning by Joe Biden compared to what he did in 2019, it -- there is some symmetry, but the fact is, the events of January 6 were a game-changer to people, and then overturning Roe v. Wade was a real game-changer.

It makes people concerned about the politics to come, not in some fanciful universe over the horizon, but in the next four years, unless they make the decision that Joe Biden is describing.

KEILAR: We will see which one voters buy, if this is the face-off that we end up seeing ultimately.

[13:10:01]

Kate and Evan, thank you so much for being here -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right, in Sudan right now, the three-day cease-fire is holding to some degree. The here has been gunfire, fighter jets seen around the capital, with each side accusing the other of being responsible for breaking the truce.

What you're seeing here is now growing anger in the streets of Khartoum, protesters demanding an end to the violence that broke out more than a week ago now. And some residents near the capital are saying desperation is setting in, as food and fresh water are both starting to run out.

We're also getting some new pictures of U.S. diplomatic staff evacuated from Sudan, one warm greeting there, this at the U.S. base in Djibouti.

CNN's Sam Kiley, he is in Djibouti. Sam, the U.S. still says it's too dangerous and really just too large of a job to evacuate the thousands of others of U.S. citizens there, many of them dual nationals. But they are sending two warships to the Port of Sudan. Do we know what those are for? And what's the latest on the condition of those Americans remaining behind?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, on the warships, Jim, yes, they're saying the U.S. is sending two warships. The British are doing the same. A French frigate actually docked in Port Sudan, taking 500 people, mostly people who had made it to Port Sudan across more than 500 miles of desert from Khartoum in a U.N. convoy.

And the British are saying that they expect to be able to have two evacuation flights land in the military airfield near Omdurman, part of the twin city of Khartoum across the Nile there, later on today/tonight.

Now, in that context, the Americans are saying that, notwithstanding the fact that there could be some 16,000 Americans still in the country, they can -- do not see the -- even the cease-fire at the moment as providing a permissive enough environment to continue evacuations. They are still advising citizens to shelter in place, effectively, because the cease-fire doesn't appear to be holding.

So, there's a degree of friction there. The British government had come under very bitter criticism from British citizens who remain trapped there, a lot of publicity around that in the British media. So perhaps that's been a galvanizing factor. But -- and, clearly, there had been some contingency planning for a military intervention in Port Sudan.

But, if a French frigate has been able to dock there, clearly, that is not necessarily, Port Sudan still in the hands of the faction calling itself the Sudanese government -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, not a great vote of confidence in that cease-fire if the U.S. and others don't think it's safe.

We do have this other brewing threat there. And that's the WHO speaking of this health lab in Khartoum that's now been taken over by one of the warring factions. They say it's a huge biological risk. You have a number of, well, samples of things like polio, measles, et cetera. What do we know about the conditions around it and the threat there?

KILEY: Well, we don't know too much, because the World Health Organization is not identifying the warring faction, as they call it, that has ransacked or entered this laboratory.

It is the sort of laboratory that you have around the world, necessary to have the kind of precursor, the original infections, in order to produce vaccines and tests and so on. There's also cholera in that location. This is a city that is short, desperately short, of clean water, food, and fuel. If you added cholera to that mix, you would have something really catastrophic. And that is what the WHO is warning about Jim, and why there is so much pressure now being brought to bear, particularly by U.S. and Saudi diplomats, on both of the warring parties in Sudan to respect this three-day peace -- cease-fire, which was supposed to start at midnight last night.

The Americans also saying that they are soaking the area with ISTAR, with, effectively, spy planes, drones and others to try to monitor the situation, no doubt to be able to figure out what next to do about the increasing number of people who are desperate to get out of that country -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, the many ripples beyond this conflict.

Sam Kiley in Djibouti, thanks so much.

A lot to follow there -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

A new trial against Donald Trump under way today, this time for allegedly sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room in the '90s. What to watch for in that case still ahead.

Plus, a big development in another Trump case over election interference in Georgia. Remember that? The Fulton County district attorney warning law enforcement to prepare for potential charges as early as July.

And Florida's surgeon general now under fire. He reportedly manipulated COVID a vaccine safety study about the efficacy of those vaccines.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:58]

SCIUTTO: Jury selection under way in E. Jean Carroll's battery and defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump.

Carroll greeted with hugs, you can see there, from supporters as she arrived at the courthouse earlier today. The former magazine columnist claims that Trump raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in the 1990s, and then defamed her when he repeatedly denied her claims.

We should note Trump is not being criminally prosecuted in this case. This is a civil trial, Carroll seeking monetary damages, as well as a retraction from Trump.

CNN's Kara Scannell, she has been outside the courthouse.

So, Kara, tell us where we stand right now. And what are the potential outcomes of this trial? KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we're just learning that

a jury has been selected in this case. That was after two hours of questioning by the judge this morning. So the judge has impaneled a jury of nine people.

They will hear this civil lawsuit. And, as you said, it is a civil case. So the former president is not required to be here, and he isn't here today, although it's possible he could be called to testify from both sides.

[13:20:03]

And the jury could hear him from a videotaped deposition that he gave in this case in October. Now, as the rest of this will play out, the first up -- this is the plaintiff's case. This is E. Jean Carroll's case. She is expected to testify in this case, and she won several pretrial rulings that went in her favor, over the opposition of the former president.

So she can call two friends of hers that she allegedly told about this alleged assault in the mid-1990s. She also is allowed to call two other women who have claimed that they were sexually assaulted by the former president. They already came public with their stories, but she is going to be allowed to bring them into court and have them testify about their experiences.

And, also, she can play the "Access Hollywood" tape. That's the tape where Trump has talked about his aggressive moves toward women. Now, the former president's team has not indicated if they will call him as a witness. But, of course, he has denied any wrongdoing and said that this alleged assault from the '90s, it never occurred, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kara Scannell, thanks so much for the update from the courthouse.

Brianna, lots to follow.

KEILAR: Yes, we're also learning some new details about when charges may drop for Trump in Georgia, the former president under investigation there for attempts to overturn the state's 2020 election results.

And the Atlanta area district attorney in charge of the case is now warning law enforcement to be ready as she plans to announce whether to bring charges.

We have CNN's Sara Murray, who is following these developments for us.

Sara, when should we be expecting all of this to go down?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been waiting, right?

KEILAR: A while.

MURRAY: We have been waiting for a clear moment of when she was going to announce whether she was going to bring charges or not in this case.

In this letter, she's warning law enforcement partners to be ready and saying the time frame is going to be between June 11 and September 1. So, what that is, is that that's a grand jury term. That's how long a grand jury would sit.

So, some time in that time frame, we will either see her come out and say, I'm not bringing charges, or we will see her go behind closed doors, present this case to a grand jury and try to seek an indictment or multiple indictments.

KEILAR: What has she been investigating?

MURRAY: So, this has been a wide-ranging investigation. We know that she has audio of at least three recordings of Donald Trump pressuring officials in Georgia.

We know that they have been looking into efforts by unauthorized individuals to access voting machines in a rural county in Georgia. We also know they have been looking at threats and harassment against election workers, and we heard about a lot about that during the January 6 Committee hearings, as well as this fake electors scheme.

And, look, more than a dozen people have already been warned that they are targets in this investigation. She's been flipping people into cooperators in recent weeks. So there's still kind of a lot for them to dig through in the coming weeks before she reaches this decision about whether she's going to bring charges.

KEILAR: Very serious stuff.

Sara, thank you so much for that.

So much legal exposure here, potentially, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, absolutely, Brianna.

There's still a lot of questions in these cases. So let's get some legal perspective now with former federal prosecutor and the host of the "It's Complicated" podcast Renato Mariotti.

Renato, always great to see you. Thanks for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

This letter from DA Willis, is she tipping her hand here? Does it seem more likely that we're going to see indictments?

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, I think that she's not exactly been playing her cards close to the vest for a while now.

I think it's fairly clear that she's going to seek an indictment. And I do think that this was her sending a signal to the public as to when they could expect indictments. She had previously made a statement that I think was ill-advised, saying that indictments were imminent. Imminent now means the summer. And I think that's because you have been seeing some work that she's been trying to do to get cooperators, some of these fake electors, so- called fake electors, to cooperate. And I think she's sending a not- so-subtle signal that we are going to have to wait until the summer, but I do think that indictments are on the way.

SANCHEZ: Renato, we saw how the Trump indictment unfolded in Manhattan, no live cameras in the courtroom, no handcuffs, no mug shot.

How might this be different in Fulton County, Georgia?

MARIOTTI: Well, it's definitely a less-defendant friendly venue. And I think it's also fair to say it's another environment where Donald Trump, it's less of a home turf for him.

I understand he now lives in Florida, but Manhattan was a place where I think the DA there was willing to try to cut corners in terms of the process in order to make accommodations to the former president. It's not clear to me that Fani Willis is going to do the same thing. She seems to have more of a desire to have this play out in public.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump has to go through a different procedure here.

SANCHEZ: So, on the potential conspiracy and racketeering charges that sources indicate she is weighing, how do those recordings that we have of Trump, at least three of them that investigators have heard, where he is asking Georgia officials to find 11,000-plus votes, how might those recordings go into a potential racketeering or conspiracy charge for the former president?

[13:25:13]

MARIOTTI: Oh, they're going to be absolutely key.

Boris, the most important thing that you mentioned is that it's plural, right, that we're dealing with multiple recordings. There was this recording that got a lot of attention of the former president approaching Brad Raffensperger, asking him to find votes.

You can explain away a single conversation, a single recording. Perhaps he misspoke. Perhaps he was inartful in his language. But the pattern of activity I think, here is very important, because he also reached out to the now-deceased Georgia speaker of the House, who was a Republican, trying to get him to overturn the election as well, for example.

I think that's recent CNN reporting. And so all of that together, I think, shows a pattern of activity and him working together with others for a common purpose. And I think I -- we are more likely than not to see some sort of broader conspiracy type charge or RICO charge from the former DA -- or from the DA.

SANCHEZ: Yes, all eyes will be on Fulton County from July until September, if we see potential indictments. Renato Mariotti, thank you so much -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, quite a case to watch there.

Well, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy here in Washington is putting it all on the line politically, pushing ahead with his debt ceiling plan, even knowing some of his own party are going to vote against it, and President Biden just vowed to veto it. We're going to have the latest from Capitol Hill next.

And a stunning accusation against Florida's surgeon general which says he personally altered a report on the COVID vaccine to suggest a higher risk for young men. We're going to dig into the allegations, also hear his response.

That's coming up.

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