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Trump Classified Docs Trial Set For May 2024; Singer Tony Bennett Dead At 96. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 21, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:36]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We have a date. The judge presiding over Donald Trump's classified documents case scheduling the trial. So, when can we expect the former president in court and how does that impact the 2024 race?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And an American icon dead at 96. Music fans everywhere celebrating the life and mourning the loss of Tony Bennett. His unmistakable voice transcended generations, and the tributes are pouring in. We're going to take a closer look at Bennett's lasting legacy.

SANCHEZ: And a stark warning from the nation's top spy. The CIA chief thinks the Kremlin could be plotting a false flag operation in the Black Sea as Russian missiles continue to target Ukraine's largest port. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

A trial date is set squarely in the middle of the 2024 political calendar in the case of former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents. Today, a federal judge ordering the trial start in May of next year. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 14th, and then the trial kicks off later in the month. Judge Aileen Cannon rejected the special counsel's request for a faster paced timeline.

KEILAR: Yes, she sure did. And Jack Smith, he wanted this trial to start in mid-December much sooner. But Cannon also rebuffed Trump's legal team's request to delay scheduling a trial date until after the 2024 election, assuming this, of course, doesn't push until after that anyways. Remember, Trump is facing a total of 37 felony counts in the classified documents case. 31 of those counts are for willful retention of national defense information. He's also charged, along with aide Walt Nauta with conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements.

And with us now is CNN senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz and political reporter for Axios Stef Kight. OK.

Katelyn, let's start with you. How did the judge settle on this date? Because what we should note is, yes, it's smack dab in the middle of the political calendar but it's as the primaries wrap up and we should have a sense of who the nominees are.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. Well, judges are going to do what judges want to do. And so she had the two asks in front of her, the (inaudible) wanting the end of December. And Trump wanting not to put a date on the calendar and really to kick this even past the entirety of the general election next year.

But Judge Aileen Cannon, she's saying that she doesn't want to do that because she wants to manage this proceeding. So she essentially backs the whole way back from May into now, and she set up 33 different points where there are deadlines, there are hearings, there's all kinds of process that has to take place, arguments, all kinds of things, working through the classified records in this case, that get you to that late May trial date.

Now, that date in court, like most dates in court, is not set in stone. It totally could move. Trial dates do move. But this starts you at a point where you can see this busy calendar for Donald Trump. Starting with the -- in October, he has a trial in a civil lawsuit out of New York. And then in January, he's in trial three times.

Now, in January, he's in trial with Eugene Carroll in that lawsuit. And then there's his first criminal trial set for March in New York, in Manhattan related to hush money payments, and then this. That's a lot of time to have to spend in court also at the time this stuff is going.

And the Trump team, they do believe, according to Alayna Treene here at CNN, she's already reporting that the Trump team thinks that they may be able to kick this much longer than just May of next year.

SANCHEZ: There is the potential, if not likelihood, of numerous pretrial motions that could kick the can down the road. But if it does start in May, Stef, what would that mean politically for Donald Trump?

STEF KIGHT, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, again, this is coming right after Super Tuesday, and there's a very real possibility that Donald Trump could be the Republican nominee for president, who is then having to leave the campaign trail at a critical moment to go to court facing federal charges, serious federal charges.

So in some ways, that's handing Joe Biden an easy target for Trump. But on the other hand, when it comes to Trump, it's always unclear how these kinds of things will play with the national public, how it will play with Republicans.

[13:05:10]

We've seen so far that when he's been indicted on these charges, he actually sees a bump in the polls. So I'll be watching to see whether that changes. But in some cases, we already know what these charges are. Voters already know what these charges are. They've seen the indictment. They've seen the photographs of the classified documents in the bathroom.

And so, you know, it'll be interesting to see whether actually seeing a trial take place will sway some of those key voters who are already locked in for Trump. KEILAR: Because let's talk politically about what it would mean, as

you mentioned, if he were to be the Republican nominee. And then this trial is looming. He can plug that right into his sort of victim grievance narrative and say, look, here I have this momentum. I'm cruising towards the nomination, and they stick me with this.

KIGHT: Exactly. You know, not only does he have a very supportive base who are going to back him no matter what. For years now, Trump and his allies, and conservatives across the board, have been building this narrative of corruption at the Department of Justice, of bias against Trump and against conservatives. It started in 2015 and 2016. We've seen House Republicans continue this narrative with their own investigations into the FBI, into the Department of Justice.

It's something that at least their base and a certain segment of Republicans are buying. And we see it the way Trump handles these indictments. He teases it before anything happens, letting his base know what's coming. And again, pointing to this narrative, he's been sowing for a long time that he is the target of political actors at the Department of Justice. And so, I think we will certainly see him play that card over and over again.

SANCHEZ: Stef, do you think there's the potential for some of these other Republicans who've been backing Trump so far to start getting desperate as we get deeper into the primary season and perhaps changing their tone around him and his legal battles?

KIGHT: We'll have to see. I think you'll see different camps on that. Of course, there are some who are backing Trump no matter. You look at Jim Jordan in the House who has again and again pointed to the bias at the FBI, as I was talking about earlier. But we'll see how especially Republican candidates vying for the presidential nomination play this.

I've spoke to some campaign sources recently who almost seem frustrated that the timing is after Super Tuesday and are trying to figure out how do they convince the American public that it's not worth their time to back Trump, that Republicans should instead find someone who is not facing trial in the middle of a campaign season.

KEILAR: All right. We want to bring in Harry Lipman now. He's a former US attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. What do you think about this?

HARRY LIPMAN, FORMER US ATTORNEY: I think it's playing as kind of a compromise, and in particular there's a notion that DOJ dodged a bullet by they're not taking Trump's position of making it after the election. I don't think that bullet was ever real. So, look, there are complications here. But she's I think given him about as much leeway as she could reasonably have. It's almost a year out of the box from the indictment. And as Katelyn saying, there's many opportunities that will come, especially in the classified procedure realm, to eat up more delays.

I'm sure the Trump team is already planning on it. So we are by no means looking at an assured trial at the date that she has set.

SANCHEZ: Harry, I want to play a clip for you from an interview Trump did with an Iowa radio station earlier this week. Listen to this.

LIPMAN: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: I think it's a very dangerous thing to even talk about because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters. And I mean, maybe 100, 150. I've never seen anything like it. Much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016. I think it would be very dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Harry, Trump is saying it would be very dangerous if he were imprisoned. Do you think those comments could be used against him?

LIPMAN: Look, they ought to be. And there's no indication so far, at least since January 6 that people have been rushing to the barricades when he's asked it. But think about the comments themselves. It's such a palpable way of putting himself above the country. It's part of his sort of messianic complex. If you do this to me, the country will revolt and it will be dangerous. That is quite a threat, even implicit, for him to now launch.

KEILAR: He also had an interview with the right wing channel, Newsmax, and he was questioning the timing of a potential indictment by the special counsel probing the election interference. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hear they want to indict me on this one. And why didn't they do it two years ago? Why didn't they do it, like, when it would have been, you know, timely? But there is no timely. They did it because it's election interference. They did it right in the middle of my campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:10:14]

KEILAR: Part of the reason, Harry, this has taken so long is because of how long Trump took in not turning over documents. So, what do you think of what he's saying there?

LIPMAN: Yes. Look, I do think --

KEILAR: Or sorry. No, this is the election -- sorry, back to the election there. This is on the election interference to be clear. What do you make about that? On the election interference, one, because we saw the January 6 Committee doing what they were doing. And then, we saw them turn over things obviously to DOJ but that took some time and there has been some criticism of that. What do you think about it? Should this have gone sooner? LIPMAN: There has been that criticism beyond that. My basic view on it is some of it is warranted a certain period, but some of it is just understandable for the biggest case DOJ ever has had, and Jack Smith is now surely going into overdrive. And I think we're going to see that indictment very soon.

It was always going to take a while for this, the most important prosecution in the history of the Department of Justice to come to market and be sure that they had it all stitched up. And so, it would have been impossible, I think, for it to be done a couple of years ago. So we would always have been looking at some kind of falling in an election season.

SANCHEZ: Harry Lipman, we have to leave the conversation there. We appreciate you sharing your perspective with us of course.

LIPMAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We're also following other big breaking news today. The death of a cultural icon, the legendary crooner Tony Bennett. He passed away this morning at the age of 96 after an incredible career that spanned eight decades. His first of 19 Grammys came from this unforgettable hit.

(MUSIC)

KEILAR: You heard that voice and you knew who it was. Bennett's singular voice transcending generations. He wowed Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. He performed live on MTV. He recorded two albums of duets with Lady Gaga. They were fantastic. She also performed with Bennett in his last concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall. CNN's Anderson Cooper reported on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN BENEDETTO, TONY BENNETT'S WIFE: Here's Anderson Cooper.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Tony, how are you doing?

TONY BENNETT, SINGER: Nice to meet you.

COOPER: Tony has a hard time holding a conversation, his Alzheimer's has really progressed. How'd you feel about the concert the other night?

BENNETT: I don't know what you mean.

COOPER: I saw you at Radio City. You did a great job.

BENNETT: Oh, thank you very much.

COOPER: So you have to kind of adjust to that and realize Tony is not going to be able to tell his own story in his own words.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Anderson Cooper joins us now live. Anderson, as you reflect on Bennett's life and legacy and the conversations you were able to have with him, what strikes you the most?

COOPER: It's certainly a sad day and a sad day for his incredible wife, Susan Benedetto, who has loved Tony Bennett from the time she was a little girl and was his caregiver in these last difficult years. And his son, Danny, who was his manager, who helped reintroduce him, along with Susan, to whole new generations of people over the last decades time and time again, and setting him up with some of the other greatest performers of our time, Lady Gaga, a whole bunch of different people he did duets with.

It's a sad day. And yet it's also just an extraordinary day to reflect on this beautiful man's life. I mean, a career that spans some 70 years in most careers in music can be counted on the fingers on one hand in terms of how long they last. The range of kinds of songs he could do, but his ability as he would say, to tell a story in a song. And like you said, you heard that voice and you knew who he was. And even as the voice changed over the years and even as the Alzheimer's ravaged his mind, he still -- those songs were deep in his heart and deep in his head.

And no matter what else was going on in his head, he remembered those songs. And when that music started to play, it just kicked in. And you would literally see him straighten up and jog to the piano, and just his longtime companies wouldn't even say, we're going to be singing "I Left My Heart."

[13:15:12]

He would just play a few keys. And Tony knew instantly, even in the final years of his life, he knew the entire American songbook. And he could just do it. I watched -- I was the head -- while I was shooting the story for "60 Minutes" in advance of -- in the preparation for the Lady Gaga, the three nights at Radio City Music Hall that they had together. I got to stand at the piano in Susan and Tony's apartment overlooking Central Park, watching him rehearse for an hour.

He did an hour long set standing up, no sheet music, no trumps, nothing. Just his piano player tinkling the ivories. And Tony knew every single song. And it was -- it was just -- I mean, it really was one of the great experiences of my life to be able to do that.

I mean, I literally was crying while listening to him because I had just interviewed him and he clearly didn't know who I was, even though Susan had said, hi, this is Anderson from "60 Minutes." But while he was singing, he was looking right at me and there was recognition in his eyes. And there was -- and I realized he still doesn't know who I am. But he knows he's Tony Bennett, and he knows that he is one of the great performers of our time. And he was performing to me like he would to an audience and making me feel like he knew who I was. And it was just an extraordinary thing to witness and a great honor.

KEILAR: It's amazing. And I think one of the amazing things too, about Tony Bennett, other than that singular voice, is how he was really on the right side of history in so many know. He was active in the civil rights movement. And when he was in the army, Anderson, he was actually demoted because he ate with a black soldier during World War II before integration of the armed services. We're actually coming up next week on the 75th anniversary of integration of the armed services. That's something else about him that I think people are learning today if they didn't know before.

COOPER: Listen, Tony Bennett born in Queens, I think, in Long Island City. His dad had come from Italy. His mom was of Italian descent but was born, I think, in New York. His mom was a seamstress, worked extra hours in order to provide for the family. Tony could have grown up with a very small mind frame and a very rigid way of looking at his life and the life of other people.

And yet that's not who he was. He had a very broad view of who his brothers and sisters were. And at a time when a lot of other people didn't, I mean, he fought in World War II, he saw combat. He was part of a liberation of a sub camp at (inaudible), which a lot of people don't know about. He saw the horrors. He knew the horrors of war. He knew what human beings are capable of doing to each other.

And he didn't just -- this wasn't a time where just taking part in the civil rights movement meant tweeting something. He marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama I think was 1965. And that was a very, very tough year. He performed at a concert in Montgomery in 1965. And I recently read that the lady, the African American lady who drove him from the concert to the airport dropped him off the airport. She was murdered later that day by the KKK.

So, he was in the very belly of the beast. And he put himself in that situation in order to stand next to Sammy Davis Jr. and Harry Belfonte, and others who were performing as well. And so, yes. I mean, he was he was very liberal, and yet his audiences of any political persuasion loved him because, I mean, they just -- you couldn't help but love Tony Bennett. Even people who wanted not to like him would say he's just this wonderful person to be around.

SANCHEZ: Tony Bennett, an American icon, an incredible life leaving us at 96. Anderson Cooper, thanks so much for sharing those personal moments that you spent with him.

COOPER: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Of course. We want to stop for a moment and take you live to the White House where President Biden is speaking out on artificial intelligence. He met with executives from seven of the largest tech companies today. They've made a pledge to make AI systems safer. Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Last October, we introduced the first of its kind AI Bill of Rights. In February, I signed an executive order to direct agency to protect the public from algorithms that discriminate. In May, we unveiled a new strategy to establish seven new AI research institutes to help drive breakthroughs and responsible AI intervention. And today I'm pleased to announce that these seven companies have agreed to voluntary commitments for responsible innovation.

[13:20:06]

These commitments, which the companies will implement immediately underscore three fundamental principles safety, security and trust. First, the companies have an obligation to make sure their technology is safe before releasing it to the public. That means testing the capabilities of their systems, assessing their potential risk, and making the results of these assessments public.

Second, companies must prioritize the security of their systems by safeguarding their models against cyber threats, managing the risk to our national security, and sharing the best practices and industry standards that are necessary. Third, the companies have a duty to earn the people's trust and empower users to make informed decisions, labeling content that has been altered or AI generated, rooting out bias and discrimination, strengthening privacy protections, and shielding children from harm.

And finally, companies have agreed to find ways for AI to help meet society's greatest challenges, from cancer to climate change, and invest in education and new jobs, to help students and workers prosper from the opportunities and our enormous opportunities of AI.

These commitments are real and they're concrete. They're going to help fulfill -- industry fulfill its fundamental obligation to Americans to develop safe, secure and trustworthy technologies that benefit society and uphold our values and our shared values.

Let me close with this. We'll see more technology change in the next ten years, or even in the next few years than we've seen the last 50 years. That has been an astounding revelation to me quite frankly. Artificial intelligence is going to transform the lives of people around the world. The group here will be critical in shepherding that innovation with responsibility and safety by design to earn the trust of Americans.

And quite frankly, as I met with world leaders, all the G7 is focusing on the same thing. Social media has shown us the harm that powerful technology can do without the right safeguards in place. And I've said at the State of the Union that Congress needs to pass bipartisan legislation to impose strict limits on personal data collection, ban targeted advertisements to kids, require companies to put health and safety first.

But we must be clear-eyed and vigilant about the threats of emerging technologies that can pose, don't have to, but can pose to our democracy and our values. Americans are seeing how advanced artificial intelligence and the pace of innovation have the power to disrupt jobs and industries. These commitments are a promising step, but that we have a lot more work to do together. Realizing the promise of AI by managing the risk is going to require some new laws, regulations and oversight. In the weeks ahead, I'm going to continue to take executive action to help America lead the way toward responsible innovation, and we're going to work with both parties to develop appropriate legislation and regulation. I'm pleased that Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries and others in the Congress are making this a top bipartisan priority as we advance the agenda here at home. We'll leave work with our allies and partners on a common international framework to govern the development of AI.

I think these leaders, and I thank these leaders, in the room with me today, and their partnership -- excuse me, and their commitments that they're making. This is a serious responsibility. We have to get it right. And there's enormous, enormous potential upside as well. So I want to thank you all, and they're about to go down to meeting, which I'll catch up with them later. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, can you tell us about the hacking of cabinet officials by China and the threshold of concern you have about that, sir?

(END LIVE COVERAGE)

KEILAR: All right. He answered a question there about the hacking. I'm not sure if you can make out what his answer was there.

SANCHEZ: I did not. He was facing the --

KEILAR: He was facing away. Yes, he was. But that's obviously very serious. What has been going on, this widespread hacking, and it is affecting government agencies. So we're going to try to revisit that here in a moment.

There are, though, right now disturbing new warnings from the CIA, and that is that Russia may be plotting a false flag attack in a critical shipping corridor, not just for Ukraine, but also for millions of people around the world, what we're learning. Plus, abuse of power accusations on the Texas border with Mexico. Dozens of lawmakers urging President Biden to take action against Governor Greg Abbott over reports that agents were ordered to deny water to migrants, and that they even pushed children into the Rio Grande River.

[13:25:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A barrage of Russian missiles have rained down on Odessa for the fourth straight day and the implications go far beyond Ukraine. Tons of critical food stores have been destroyed and an infrastructure facility hit. The attacks on Ukraine's largest port city follow Moscow's decision Monday to let the Black Sea Grain Deal expire. Ukrainian officials say that this is no coincidence and the CIA is now warning that Russia may be planning to attack civilian ships in that vital corridor while blaming it on Ukraine.

Let's take you now live to Kyiv and CNN's Alex Marquardt. Alex, what are you hearing? ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this was days of very

intense attacks against Odesa and the surrounding region. We were up throughout the course of the evening in Odesa itself, waiting to see whether Russia would carry out a fourth day of strikes with drones and missiles that strike today.