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Republican Candidates Target New Hampshire; Trump Wins Iowa; Trump Back in Court. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 16, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:41]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: From the trail to a trial. Fresh off a big win in Iowa, Donald Trump is back in a Manhattan courtroom today for another hearing. This time, it's in the second defamation case against the former president. And he's facing his accuser for the first time in decades.

And the suspect accused of the Gilgo Beach killings faces a fourth count of murder, Rex Heuermann appearing in court as the victims' families demand justice and prosecutors say new evidence ties him to the latest victim.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: And severe weather gripping the United States, snarling traffic, canceling flights, even canceling votes in Congress. Millions are dealing with the impact of an arctic blast, bringing record low temperatures.

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

KEILAR: From domination in Iowa to defamation in New York. Hours after his historic 30-point victory in the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump is in a federal courtroom in Manhattan for his second E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial.

In the first one, a jury -- or, I should say, in the first one, Trump was found sexually -- liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and defaming her in 2022.

This trial concerns separate remarks, but the previous verdict carries over, which means this jury will only determine how much in damages Trump must pay.

MARQUARDT: And adding to the gravity of the situation, Carroll and Trump are face-to-face right now.

Now, Trump didn't attend that first trial, so this is the first time in decades that he's in the same room as his accuser.

We have Kara Scannell, who's outside the courthouse, and Kristen Holmes, who's on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

Kara, I want to start with you. What has played out in the courtroom so far today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Alex, Brianna, we have had about three hours of jury selection under way, taking place, with the judge asking the jurors a number of questions.

But, as you say, this is the first time former President Donald Trump has been in the same room with E. Jean Carroll in decades. And as far as we can tell, they have not made any eye contact. Carroll is sitting in the first row of tables. I have not seen her turn around yet to look at former President Donald Trump, who is sitting two sets of tables behind her.

Now, during jury selection, the judge has told the jury that they will be anonymous in this case, and that's for their own protection. He also said that this trial will last just a few days. Now, he's begun asking them questions, emphasizing the importance of being fair and impartial.

When he asked out of the gate of any jurors who knew what this case was about could not be fair and impartial, there were three who raised their hands, and they were excused. This is out of a pool of about 40 to 50 prospective jurors. Then two others were also excused later when they were asked if they were aware of Trump's investigations, his legal cases, and his indictments, and if that would in any way affect their ability to be fair and impartial. Those two were -- left.

So we still have a big pool of jurors, and they have gone through a number of rounds of questioning. A number of questions had to do with politics, and that is where we saw the former president turn around and face the jurors as they were answering these questions.

Now, out of this jury pool, the majority of them said that they voted in the 2016 and 2017 -- and 2020 election. There's also been a lot of questions about donations. There were three jurors who said that they donated to Donald Trump's campaigns or PACs supporting him, and there were about 10 who said that they donated to either President Obama, Hillary Clinton, or President Biden's campaigns.

But a lot of these jurors have said that they feel that they could be fair and impartial, and that is where they're still working through the process. We just took a little bit of a break. The judge has brought everyone back into the courtroom, and he's going to begin what will be the final round of questioning here, asking each of the jurors to tell a little bit about themselves to help the lawyers decide what jurors they want to strike from this pool and which ones they will keep.

This jury will be a jury of nine jurors, no alternates, so nine will decide this case. And, as you said, it is about damages here. E. Jean Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages for the statements that Trump has made.

[13:05:00]

After this jury is seated and sworn in, they will take a lunch break, and then opening statements will begin in this case. So this will get under way pretty swiftly this afternoon -- Brianna, Alex.

KEILAR: And Trump, Kara, was actually and kind of ultimately after some back-and-forth with the judge allowed to address the court in his civil fraud trial. There was no jury in that case, which is a key difference here.

Will this jury ultimately hear from him?

SCANNELL: Well, that is the big question. If Trump decides to testify in this case, then the jury will hear from him. But the judge has made it very clear that this trial is not a do-over of last year's trial. The focus here for all the witnesses will be about what they can say about damages.

And that is the question of what testimony could Trump give that relates to damages that E. Jean Carroll has suffered as a result of the defamatory statements. That is something that the lawyers and the judge have been gone back and forth on. And it's not clear exactly how that will play out if Trump does decide to take the stand.

He is likely the only witness his defense will call. They have mentioned calling a woman who E. Jean Carroll confided in after the assault. But the judge has not ruled on whether that testimony will come in. So, for now, Trump might be the only witness testifying his defense.

And, as you said, he did not testify at all or even attend the last trial. That would be a big difference this time around.

KEILAR: And, Kristen -- Kara, thank you so much for that.

Kristen, you're in New Hampshire, jury selection there today, as you hear, in New York, federal courts and no cameras, the facts of the case already settled. Why is Trump there and not in this beautiful wonderland where we find you?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is part of their campaign strategy.

Donald Trump knows that he can suck the oxygen out of any race, any candidate's momentum if he is in the courtroom. And that is what he is trying to do. They have made these court appearances part of their campaign trail strategy.

One of the things that we noted was last week he attended two different court appearances. Both of them were voluntary, as was this one. And one of them, he used every single opportunity to be in front of the camera.

Now, I am told that right now, they aren't expecting him to do any sort of media availability. So, unclear what he is getting out of this in terms of media narrative. But they do believe, and he particularly believes, that this keeps the focus on Donald Trump.

Now, I also am told that, with this case in particular, he has been fixated on it. And you can tell from his social media as well, consistently posting about this case and the judge. He has continually said that all of these cases are election interference and he is being politically prosecuted -- or persecuted. Excuse me.

So, what do we expect to hear from him today? Well, that is the big question. What messaging is he going to give here in New Hampshire? Because we are just days out from that primary. And one thing we know is that his team has been watching Nikki Haley's poll numbers rise very closely.

In fact, they are spending millions of dollars already in the state. They put out ads attacking her on immigration. They put out ads attacking her on Medicare and Social Security. They are concerned about what they have seen in her growing popularity.

But I will also tell you, they are much more relieved going into this primary after what happened last night. They believe that they have some momentum now going into the second primary, whereas there was a little concern of what those margins could have been in Iowa. But, of course, as we know, he did have a historic win there.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly did.

All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you. Kara Scannell, thank you to you as well.

Let's talk now with CNN legal analyst and civil rights attorney Areva Martin.

Interesting. Let's talk about what is at issue and what is not at issue here. It's so crucial. Whether Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll, whether he is liable for sexual assault here, obviously, that is decided, versus what does he owe her monetarily. Take us through that and also the difference between these cases.

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely, Brianna.

Well, this is a case of damages. This is a case where the judge has already determined liability. There's no question about whether Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll, whether he committed the sexual assault that she accused him of.

The only issue that this jury will be deciding is, are there additional damages? And when I say additional, we should note that, in May of last year, Trump was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexual assault and defamation.

So, the question in this trial that started today is, will he be responsible for paying her additional damages? And it's important to note, Brianna, in this case, E. Jean Carroll doesn't just want compensatory damages for the loss of her reputation or the damage to her reputation. She wants punitive damages.

She wants to send a very strong message to Donald Trump that the kind of conduct that he has engaged in will cost him millions and millions of dollars. Although there's a $10 million figure that's being talked about, I would not be surprised if we don't see her attorneys ask for even more, in terms of millions, when it gets to of the punitive damages phase of this trial.

[13:10:15]

MARQUARDT: And, Areva, what are the most important factors that the jury is going to be looking at when determining whether Carroll should get those damages?

MARTIN: Alex, the most important thing for the jurors in this case is the damages.

What damage to E. Jean Carroll's reputation, to her business prospects, to her career did the statements that Donald Trump made, statements like she's a whack job, like I never met her, like this is a fake story, she's made it all up -- E. Jean Carroll has said that she lost her job as an "Elle" advice columnist because of the defamation, because of defamatory statements that Donald Trump has said consistently throughout this entire process.

So I suspect we will see someone from "Elle" magazine or someone that can testify to the fact that, yes, she did lose her job and, yes, her reputation is damaged, that perhaps she can't get other jobs in the media or entertainment field. And we may hear someone testify about the emotional damages, how this has caused her shame and humiliation.

So those are the kinds of witnesses that we should expect to see and the evidence we should expect in this trial.

KEILAR: And it's very interesting, because Trump wasn't at the other trial.

MARQUARDT: Right.

KEILAR: And yet this is jury selection, and he shows up for that. It's a very different thing.

But we also could be hearing from him in the coming days, Areva. I wonder what you think we should expect.

MARTIN: Expect not to hear from him, Brianna. We know that Donald Trump loves to tell the media that he's going to testify, and he never does.

Now, in that civil trial that you referenced at the beginning of the segment, he didn't testify. He asked the judge to allow him to make closing arguments and to participate in the closing argument that his attorney was given -- was giving.

That's very different than taking a witness stand, putting your hand on a Bible, holding it up, saying that you swear to tell the truth, and then to be cross-examined by the other side. So I do not expect Donald Trump to take the witness stand. I do not expect him to be in any way a participant in this trial.

What I expect is what we have always seen. He will make remarks about it. He will make promises, and then he won't do it. But, more importantly, he is there for media attention. As the other correspondent said, this is his way of sucking the air out of the -- out of all of the other candidates' efforts to gain any media attention.

And he knows, whenever he's in trial, his followers in particular get more excited about him as a candidate.

MARQUARDT: Yes, a very pointed statement he's making being there right after Iowa and not New Hampshire, as we head towards the New Hampshire primaries next week.

Areva Martin, thank you very much for your time and your thoughts today. Appreciate it.

MARTIN: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Well, all eyes now are on New Hampshire. Will Ron DeSantis keep up the momentum from his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses?

Meantime, Nikki Haley is out with her new debate plans, and they involve Donald Trump.

KEILAR: Plus, snow and bitter cold temperatures impacting more than 100 million people, us as well, right, and creating headaches on the roads and in airports across the country.

And then this: Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann charged with murder in the death of a fourth woman -- ahead, what we're learning about the new charge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:57]

MARQUARDT: The race for 2024 is now squarely set for New Hampshire, which holds its Republican presidential primary in just under a week's time.

And Donald Trump will be riding the momentum from his monster landslide win in Iowa last night. The polls called it, with Trump taking more than 50 percent of the vote, far ahead of Ron DeSantis' 21 percent and Nikki Haley's 19 percent.

KEILAR: Now the polls are helping to boost Haley's hopes in New Hampshire.

A CNN poll released last night found that she is within single-digit striking distance of Trump's lead in the state.

We have CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Omar, what is Nikki Haley's game plan today?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we were just with her an hour ago at a local diner here. And, really, coming off of Iowa, despite finishing that projected third place there, she's really trying to frame this as a two-person race, looking past Ron DeSantis as we get into New Hampshire.

Now, DeSantis started his day in South Carolina, but here in New Hampshire, as we get into the now final week stretch to primary day here, Nikki Haley said that obviously she's seen the polls and she knows she's within single digits of former President Trump, at least as far as what the polls have shown to this point.

And she's hoping to capitalize on some of that momentum and on the fact that independents or undeclared, as they're called here in New Hampshire, can vote along with some of those conservative Republicans.

Take a listen to some of how she framed her positioning, especially when it comes to Ron DeSantis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But he's in single digits in South Carolina and single digits in New Hampshire. He's been invisible in both states.

He is not my concern. I'm going after Trump. That's what I'm saying. And I'm doing that not for personal reasons, but the fact that I don't want my kids to live like this.

At some point, something's got to give. People are tired of the division and the chaos. We can't go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:20:00]

JIMENEZ: And we have also heard her more and more frame this as not going back to the Trump and Biden America, grouping both of those two together.

In particular, when you look at the debates that were scheduled for the coming weeks, she also has painted a red line today, saying that she will not debate unless former President Trump is on that stage, which we know he has not showed up to any debates to this point.

And she said she will only debate if it's Joe Biden on that stage, and inferring that she would be the one to go on and win the Republican nomination. So that's really the tone shift we have seen from Iowa here into New Hampshire, where, again, it does appear that she has among the best chances she can to cut into what has been a Trump- dominating lead since really the beginning of this primary process.

And while she does have momentum, as I mentioned, it is a big hill to climb here in snowy New Hampshire.

MARQUARDT: Yes, it certainly is, and from Iowa to New Hampshire, the candidates not only facing themselves, but some pretty significant weather.

Omar Jimenez in Manchester, thanks so much for that report.

Now let's open up this conversation with Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman representing Illinois. He's also the director of Mission: Democracy and the host of the "White Flag" podcast. Also here is Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, who also has a podcast called "Hot Mics From Left to Right."

Thank you both for joining us.

Joe, if you look at the entrance polls from Iowa last night, Donald Trump's cementing his hold on the Republican Party. We have a large majority of Iowa Republican caucus-goers thinking that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Of course, as we know, well, it was not.

But just as many, just a small bit less, they think that Trump is still fit to run the country even if he is convicted, remember, 91 counts for indictments against him.

Sitting here today, just a few hours after those results in Iowa, how are you feeling about Trump's hold on the party and where he goes from here?

FMR. REP. JOE WALSH (R-IL): I think I'm a lousy guest to have on TV shows like this to talk about this race, because I just don't think there's a race.

(LAUGHTER)

WALSH: I think this is over. I think it was over from the beginning.

Everything you just rattled off there tells us where the voters in my former political party are. This is Trump's party. I think it's been his nomination from the very beginning. Nikki Haley may rattle us a little bit in New Hampshire, but that's it.

Neither Haley or DeSantis has a path.

KEILAR: What do you think?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, when I heard Nikki Haley talking to Dana Bash, and you had the headline down at the bottom saying, "Haley now going after Donald Trump," now, like, after she wasn't even able to put away Ron DeSantis in Iowa, and now, like, a week before, or actually a couple days before she actually has to compete against him in New Hampshire?

This is way too late, right,when you have Nikki Haley saying something like that, when she was not even able to keep her hand down when they asked if she and everyone else would vote for Donald Trump or would support Donald Trump if he was a convicted felon, she wasn't even able to not put her hand up.

And so I think that tells you exactly what Joe was saying and the frustration that is felt, because what if she had been going against Trump, had the backbone to go up against Trump from the very beginning. She talked about how Donald Trump, for better or worse, for right or wrong, chaos follows him.

No, Nikki, chaos doesn't follow him. He is the chaos. He causes the chaos. He injects the chaos. He injects the criminality in the chaos. But she was never able to make that case.

WALSH: But, in her defense and in DeSantis' defense, if they had gone after Trump from the very beginning, they'd be done. Look at Chris Christie.

To everything you brought up in that first question, the base doesn't believe January 6 was a bad day. The base doesn't believe Joe Biden won fair and square. If -- and the base believes the deep state is after Trump. So, if Nikki Haley had said that from the beginning, she's no longer in the race.

CARDONA: But what if all of them had? What if all of them had done exactly what Chris Christie had?

Another thing we don't talk about last night...

WALSH: The race would be over.

KEILAR: They might all be out.

WALSH: They would be all be out of the race.

CARDONA: Well, but last night -- last night, everyone talks about how historic Trump's win was. And it was. But almost half the voters did not vote for him.

KEILAR: I want to listen to something. Haley was asked an interesting question, and let's listen to her answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: If you're the nominee, would you ask Donald Trump to be your V.P.?

(LAUGHTER)

HALEY: Well, I'm not going to think about who's going to be my V.P. yet, but, in six months, I will be happy to tell you.

QUESTION: You will be happy to have a conversation?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Seems like a pretty easy question to answer for someone who says, four more years of chaos, we won't survive it.

WALSH: Just say no.

(LAUGHTER)

WALSH: That's an easy question for Nikki Haley to just say no.

CARDONA: She seems to not be able to answer easy questions.

(LAUGHTER)

CARDONA: That's not the only one.

[13:25:00]

MARQUARDT: Maria, what is DeSantis' play here? He didn't go straight to New Hampshire. He went to South Carolina.

And our colleague Dana Bash asked Governor Haley whether that was a bit of trolling. He is going to be in New Hampshire tonight. He's got a town hall with our colleague Wolf Blitzer. But what is -- what does Ron DeSantis do now? He's so far behind in New Hampshire. And -- but how does he stay in the race? How does he stay relevant?

WALSH: Be gentle.

CARDONA: I don't...

(LAUGHTER)

CARDONA: I don't think that he can. And I think he's making a very last-ditch effort. I think he wants the publicity of the town hall that he's going to do with Wolf tonight to see if that moves anything anywhere.

But, realistically, he doesn't have a path. He put everything, every eggs of his basket, he put them into Iowa. And it didn't pan out. He's going, I think, to South Carolina because he knows, in New Hampshire, that's going to be Nikki Haley's sort of hill to die on. And, in South Carolina, Trump is trouncing them both right now.

And so I think it's just sort of his last hurrah, if you will.

KEILAR: Quick multiple choice before you go.

WALSH: Oh, geez.

KEILAR: Haley and DeSantis are framing this as a two-person race between themselves and Donald Trump.

Is it A, Haley, B, DeSantis, C, neither or, D, both?

CARDONA: Neither. It's Trump versus Biden.

WALSH: Yes. Yes, neither. The general election has begun.

CARDONA: Yes.

KEILAR: You showed your work on that as well, which I actually appreciate, even though it was multiple choice. I like that.

(LAUGHTER) (CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I like that.

MARQUARDT: Extra points.

KEILAR: Joe, Maria, thank you so much to both of you. Great to have you.

MARQUARDT: Thanks, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: And be sure to watch tonight as CNN's Wolf Blitzer moderates a town hall in New Hampshire with Governor Ron DeSantis, which will start at 9:00 p.m.

And still ahead: the U.S. Navy seizing weapons destined for the Houthi rebels in Yemen. We're going to tell you what types of weapons we're talking about here and what this means for tensions in the region.

Plus, some live pictures out of New Hampshire, just one of many states under winter weather alerts. You can hardly see the road there, people in places like New York seeing something they haven't seen in years, more than an inch of snow. How long it's expected to last -- ahead.

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