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Trump Campaign Raises $7 Million Since Indictment; Miami Mayor Enters Crowded GOP Primary; Grand Jury Indicts Veteran in Subway Chokehold Death; Texas Governor Sends Migrants to Los Angeles. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 15, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

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BARACK OBAMA, (D) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. If they're not doing that, then I think people are rightly skeptical.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: You can listen to the entire conversation on this week's episode of The Axe Files.

A quick programming note, a CNN concert event with some of the biggest names in music is returning. Watch Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom. Live Monday at 07:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Post Indictment Payday, former President Trump raking in millions after becoming the first former president to face federal criminal charges. How much and where it's coming from, ahead.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, a disturbing new report on America's youth suicide and homicide rates for kids as young as 10 years old surging to levels we haven't seen in decades. We're going to break down what this new data reveals and the warning signs that parents should look for. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here with CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Former President Trump's strategy of attacking the special counsel and claiming political prosecution is working, at least when it comes to raking in large sums of cash. His campaign now says it has raised $7 million since he was federally indicted last week.

With us now, we have CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes and CNN Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates. Kristen, to, you first on this. I mean, this is huge money that he's raking in here.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. And when you look at it, most of it is actually coming from digital fundraising, which is usually those small dollar donors. Of course, as we've been reporting, he's seen some major defections in those high dollar donors this campaign cycle. But they've always said that they were going to get that money from small dollar donors. That's what he does.

And this is significant for a number of reasons. They did get a huge boost after that Manhattan arraignment and after the Manhattan indictment. When I was talking to someone about this potential federal indictment, I actually had someone say to me on the campaign, well, I hope it comes before the fourth quarter, meaning that they were hoping that they could get that fundraising boost again if there was a federal indictment. And now we see that they actually have. And I'm told that they were a little bit concerned about it, that there had been a lag in those fundraising numbers and they weren't sure, is there going to be some kind of fatigue.

He's already been indicted, is the shock, is the surprise gone? The outrage gone? But clearly it's not. Now, whether or not this is a sustainable model to have a lagging fundraising in the middle and then have an indictment, which his team does believe more indictments are coming, obviously has yet to be seen, like most things with Donald Trump.

KEILAR: If it's small dollars, you can always, then later, as a donor, contribute more small dollars. That's the other thing. If the enthusiasm continues and someone else has another $5, they can donate another $5.

I want to play something that Donald Trump said after his arraignment. He spoke at Bedminster, he gave his speech, and he laid out what he would do with the Justice Department if he is reelected president. Here it is.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family. I will totally obliterate the deep state.

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KEILAR: It he says that he's going to go after Joe Biden with the DOJ. He's going to go after the Biden family. And he sort of raises a spectrum of the deep state. What do you think about this?

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this is really repetitive and redundant for a number of reasons, but it also is the essence then, of the weaponization of the government as is accused of the person who currently is the President of the United States.

But the special counsel statute actually belies that this is really a political venture. Now, the talking point is this for a long time. But the reason there is a special counsel is so that you cannot realistically and genuinely say this is the Biden DOJ or this is Merrick Garland, the Attorney General going after the presumptive GOP frontrunner.

Instead the special counsel statute contemplates plates this hint of impropriety, this smell test that says hold on a second, you're going to go after somebody who is your perceived political rival and in this case actually was. He was appointed at that point in time for that very reason.

Now, notice you're not hearing that same thing when it comes to Mike Pence, the investigation there as well, right? That's part of it. And also a special counsel when it comes to the current president, then Vice President Biden. So this is a selective use of the complaint surrounding the special counsel. But the idea of going after one's political enemies and broadcasting it in this way to suggest not because there's an evidentiary basis or foundation for a claim just as an act of vengeance and retribution is not at all what the executive branch whose role it is to enforce the laws, not be used as some sort of a cudgel against what's political enemies really is problematic. And as an alum of the DOJ, it's really disheartening to hear.

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KEILAR: Yeah, I think there will be bipartisan agreement with you for folks who have served in the DOJ. The judge assigned -- the federal judge assigned here to Trump's case, Aileen Cannon, she has come under scrutiny in the past for rulings that she made that were favorable to Trump that were overturned. Now, she's coming under scrutiny for lack of experience when it comes to criminal trials and presiding over them. There's a New York times review that shows she's only overseen four criminal case trials, that those cases added up to just 14 trial days.

She is currently overseeing a rather extensive trial that pertains to health care, where there are a lot of issues coming up that may come up in something like Trump's case, though. So I wonder what you make of all of this criticism?

COATES: Well, the criticism actually belongs the nomination process. Once the person is now confirmed to be an article three judge and is currently a lifetime tenure judge, you have to look ahead to what their responsibilities will be.

Certainly, a limited amount of trial experience in terms of presiding over those cases, not actually trying them, might disadvantage her law clerks who are going to have to help her get up to speed and also make the DOJ and the defense counsel have to be that much more verbose in terms of laying out the law, et cetera.

You might see more in actual trial courtroom experience. The idea of having to explain one's objections more fulsomely. Normally you would say things like, objection, the judge could anticipate what you're talking about, what hearsay objection you have, what evidentiary basis for it.

You might have to be more verbose, but you're going to do that anyway in a case involving this level of stature. And so I won't discount completely the lack of presiding evidence, presiding experience. But her being turned -- overturned was not just because she got a

couple of things wrong. And the 11th Circuit really obliterated her in this instance. But having said that, the fact that she's a Trump appointee, I've heard oftentimes critique from judges who will often go against the media and say it really undermines the credibility of the entire bench when we say things like the Trump appointed or the conservative justice or et cetera.

Now, judges don't do any favor by being they're not totally apolitical, it seems, at times. But I am willing to reserve some judgment based on her handling of this new venture. But the shadow of the Special Master decision will loom very large. I doubt she will recuse in any event. This will be a thoroughly tried case.

KEILAR: Listen, we'll also point out when a justice is appointed by a certain president and then goes against their interest because that is also really important, and I think people are curious about that as well.

Laura, thank you so much. Kristen, thank you for the reporting.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: The 2024 Republican primary just got even more crowded. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has joined the expanding slate of GOP presidential candidates, and this morning he formally announced his run with a video of him literally running. Watch.

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FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI: In Miami, we stopped waiting for Washington to lead. America's so-called leaders confuse being loud with actual leading. All Washington wants to do is fight with each other instead of fighting for the people that put them in office.

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SANCHEZ: CNN's Jeff Zeleny is here to discuss. And Jeff keeping up with that running theme, it's going to be an uphill trek for him?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: There's no doubt about it. I mean, he is a mayor of a, you know, a big American city. He's a legacy, of course, in Miami, as you know well. But look, he's relatively unknown, but he has been the President of the American Council of Mayors who's been traveling across the country a lot, and he is different than many other candidates as we saw him in the ad. The reason he's running, of course, is to show that he's young. He's different than former President Donald Trump. He's different from President Joe Biden and all of the other candidates. The only Hispanic in the race on either side of the aisle. But it is an uphill battle for him. And this is why he's never been elected outside of Miami. And that was a nonpartisan race in the city of Miami.

And the mayor of Miami, it sounds like he must run Miami. He actually does not. There's a city administrator and there's the mayor of Miami- Dade County, which of course is the administer of the region in southern Florida.

However, he is trying to make his argument as a generational change candidate. He told me last year when I was down in Miami interviewing him, that he always admired Ronald Reagan. He admired his optimism. He was inspired by him. That is why he's giving a speech tonight at the Reagan Library to formally announce.

Uphill battle also to get on that debate stage in August, 40,000 individual donors from 20 states, and you must be at 1% of the polls nationally or state by state in early voting states. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is an uphill battle.

[13:10:00]

So for all those reasons, it is a challenge for him. But there's an appetite out there among Republican voters for an alternative. So we will see if all of these candidates here now they're growing, does it help the one of all right there, the front runner, Donald Trump? Many think, yes.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it is a crowded field. And of course, because of some of his votes in the past, specifically around Donald Trump's presidential runs, he may have --

ZELENY: He didn't vote for him either time, as you know.

SANCHEZ: Right, exactly. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to a CNN exclusive. We're learning that several U.S. Federal government agencies have been hit by a global cyberattack. CNN's Sean Lyngaas has more on this for us. So, Sean, tell us about this attack.

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Right, Brianna well, this actually began unfolding a couple of weeks ago when news broke that a ransomware gang out of Russia had used a widely used software that a lot of companies and government agencies use to transfer files, often sensitive information. They used a flaw in that software to burrow into various organizations, and it's taken a while for the dust to settle and for us to figure out who are victims. And this morning, CNN got confirmation from the DHS Cyber Agency that there are a number of U.S. Federal agencies that are victims of this software exploit.

Now, we haven't confirmed if it was the Russian ransomware hackers themselves that did this or someone else who had managed to take that vulnerability and use it against government agencies.

However, this is very much a fluid situation. There are potentially hundreds of victims all over the world. We've just in the last 24 hours confirmed victims at Johns Hopkins University in the hospital system, as well as the University of Georgia. So we're learning by the hour of who has been hit by this attack. And it's really an opportunistic move by these hackers. They're known to extort organizations, ask for millions of dollars in ransom.

So they operate a victim shaming website on the dark web where they post details. So we're very much waiting to see how many other victims are going to come forward and what the government can do to sort of stem the flow of stolen data that is out there from these victims. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yeah, it sounds very severe as we're even learning about more victims in this case. Sean, thank you for the latest on that. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Look, we have all been there. You're excited. You're pumped to buy a ticket for a concert, a long-awaited flight, or to book a hotel room. And by the time you plug in your credit card info, that final price is way higher than when you first logged in. Well, this hour, President Biden is set to announce an initiative to combat those junk fees.

It starts with an agreement among ticketing giants Live Nation, Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, who are now pledging to show consumers you the full price of tickets up front. CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now live.

So, Vanessa, how is all of this going to work?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is huge. These are big ticket companies voluntarily saying that they are going to show you the full ticket price with service fees intact and taxes up front. And this is coming on the heels of the Biden administration pushing this Junk Fee Protection Act. This is a President really going after companies who are charging, in his words, excessive concert fees, extra airline fees that you may not notice.

Additionally, early termination fees that you may not read in the fine print before you have your phone bill or your TV subscription connected. And also surprise destination fees. So we're talking about something like a cruise that you're on and then you get hit with a fee later.

But let's talk about what we're really looking at here. I think a lot of viewers may recognize this. Let's look at Beyonce tickets for July 29 in East Rutherford at MetLife Stadium. So we did a little bit of a search and we found that a ticket that was $300 on face value by the time you got to checkout 369 when you factored in the service fee and taxes.

And then we looked at Airbnb. We looked at Miami Beach from August 1 through the 6th. We found a place before taxes, $482. But after taxes only when we were checking out $530.

And then this is a big one for me, Boris, I know resort fees, those are often hidden. We did a search in Tucson, Arizona, at a resort there. It the Hilton property. Before taxes for two nights this weekend, $361. But when you add in a $29 service fee and taxes, that's an extra $120, bringing the new total to $480.

So you see how quickly all of these fees add up, Boris, and what the President is trying to do is show us these fees up front, especially for family who are on a budget as we're dealing with high inflation. The President trying to make this transparent, but these two major ticket vendors doing this on their own. But the President is looking for more of these companies to do this, either by law, by this Junk Fee Act, or doing it on their own. It's important for people to know exactly what they're going to be paying when they get to that checkout, Boris.

[13:15:09]

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's always that fine print that gets you. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for the reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: Indicted in the death of a man on the New York City subway. The charges that this Marine veteran is facing for a chokehold incident caught on camera back on May 1. His lawyer also speaking out.

Plus, tensions are rising. North Korea launching two ballistic missiles. And this comes after the nuclear armed nation slammed the United States and South Korea for conducting joint military drills.

And just in, the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Department of Justice is going to investigate the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf PGA Tour deal. Details when CNN News Central returns.

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SANCHEZ: Today, the Manhattan DA confirmed that a grand jury has indicted Daniel Penny. He's the man you see here in this video, taken last month, putting a chokehold on a homeless street performer named Jordan Neely, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

[13:20:13]

Witnesses say that before this scene played out, Neely got on the New York subway and began to shout at passengers that he was hungry, thirsty, and did not care whether he died. Penny said that he moved to restrain Neely because he feared for his safety and the safety of others.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has been covering this story for us. So, Brynn, bring us up to speed on the latest in this case?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, like you said, the Manhattan District Attorney confirming that an indictment has been returned, except not saying what the charge is, although sources telling us it is for a second-degree manslaughter charge.

And we're learning that now, Daniel Penny will be back in court in about two weeks, and that is likely where the indictment on ceiling will happen and we might learn. But like you just said, for the viewers, there's so much of this case we have known about, just based on some of the video and from police sources that was released after this incident last month.

Like you said, we know from witnesses that Jordan Neely, a street performer who's suffering from homelessness, got on a subway train in New York City, screamed out allegedly that he was tired and homeless and hungry and he didn't care if he died. And Daniel Penny, in his own words, essentially said he felt he was

being threatened, as well as others on that train, taking matters into his own hands and placing Jordan Neely into a chokehold situation so long that it caused the death of Jordan Neely.

I want you to hear in his own words why he said he took action.

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DANIEL PENNY, HELD SUBWAY RIDER IN FATAL CHOKEHOLD: I knew I had to act, and I acted in a way that would protect the other passengers, protect myself, and protect Mr. Neely. I used this hold to restrain him. I didn't want to be put in that situation, but I couldn't just sit still and let him carry out these threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And Daniel Penny, a veteran, a Marine -- former Marine, likely that will come up in this case. And according to the Neely family, after this indictment was returned, they said in a statement from their attorney, Daniel Penny didn't have the right to be the judge, jury and executioner. This is a case, Boris, as you know, that has really been contentious, bringing a major issues, particularly here in New York City, about subway crime and also just the issue of homelessness and, you know, something New York City is dealing with, as well as other larger cities.

And to speak to that, you know, Penny has actually received $2.8 million in a GoFundMe for his defense. So it really speaks to the fact that there is really just a divisive issue on this and a trial that I'm sure is going to have a lot of eyeballs on. And, of course, this is a case we'll continue to follow as well.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it has gotten national attention. We know you'll stay on top of it. Brynn Gingras, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Boris, new today, the Biden administration has been in touch with California officials over this ongoing effort by Republicans to send migrants to blue states. In recent months, GOP governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, have been transporting migrants to Democratic run cities via bus or plane. Overnight, a bus that originated from Texas and was paid for by Governor Abbott using taxpayer dollars arrived in Los Angeles.

CNN's Camila Bernal is at a rally in Los Angeles right now for us. So, Camila, tell us about this latest arrival.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, what the activists here are saying is that it was 42 people and 13 minors among the people that were on these buses. None of them were unaccompanied minors. They are being taken care of right now, that they were given a place to sleep, that they were given food. And that the most important thing here, is that they're giving them legal help because that's really the key here. They say that a lot of these migrants don't even have cases in California. They know of at least one who has a case in New York. And so he has to be in New York by the end of the month. And this migrant was telling the advocates is New York nearby.

And of course they just don't know what's going on. So the immigration advocacy groups here are saying that they're trying to figure out exactly what these migrants were told in order to come here to Los Angeles. This was a bus that took these migrants from the Rio Grande Valley to Los Angeles. It was a 23 hours bus ride. And what advocates are saying is that they were not given any food or any water. This was a 1500 miles trip.

Governor Greg Abbott is saying that this is because the small border towns in Texas are overwhelmed. And so he is saying that that is part of the reason why he sent this bus of migrants here to Los Angeles and essentially blaming the Biden administration for not having the border secure.

Officials here in Los Angeles though say they have been ready. That they were not necessarily shocked to hear that this bus was coming here. They say they knew it could have happened so they were prepared and were ready to treat these migrants with dignity.

[13:25:13]

Here's one of those immigration advocates.

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JORGE MARIO CABRERA, SPOKESPERSON, CHIRLA: We saw the smile in the children's faces yesterday. They were playing with toys. They are living the moment, the present. Their parents, their elderly siblings are the ones that have to deal with the traumatic experience of being sent from one place to another and not knowing if this limbo has an end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: Now the L.A. City Council just this month passed a resolution essentially to draft sanctuary city policies here in Los Angeles that would essentially become the law. That's exactly what Greg Abbott is targeting sanctuary cities.

And so what he's saying is that he's already sent about 20,000 migrants and that more will likely come. Officials here in Los Angeles say they would be ready if more migrants are sent here to Los Angeles. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Camila Bernal live for us there, where this latest group of migrants has arrived. Thank you for that report. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still to come, South Korea is reporting that the north has fired two ballistic missiles. Ahead, we're going to tell you how the United States and allies in the region are responding amid already heightened tensions.

And smoke from those Canadian wildfires, prompting a new round of air quality alerts. We're going to show you which parts of the country are going to be impacted when we come back on CNN News Central. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)