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Six Jurors Seated In Trump Hush Money Trial; More Investigations Into The Baltimore Bridge Collapse; Mike Johnson Defiant Amid Calls For Him To Resign As Speaker. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 16, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), U.S. ARMY: The rest of, you know, loss of human life, I think what may still cause tensions between the two, you know, countries, for days if not months to come. The likelihood of further escalation would be mitigated.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes. That's important context.

Lieutenant General Mark Swartz, thanks for being with us.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up, some dramatic moments today in the criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump. Prosecutors and the defense agreeing on the first three jurors who will sit in judgment of the former president. What else we've learned, after a quick break

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[15:35:21]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: So far today, three jurors have been seated in what has been a tense and challenging day two of jury selection in Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial. Right now, the defense is challenging more jurors over their past social media posts and a few have already been struck as a result.

SANCHEZ: Yes. CNN's Laura Coates is live for us outside the courtroom -- courthouse, not outside the courtroom, but you can take us inside the courtroom with the reporters that are there. Unfortunately no cameras allowed in, Laura.

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: There are no cameras allowed. We do have our insight into what's going on in that room, including this entire process. Remember, a total of 18 jurors are sought here, 12 actual jurors and six alternate jurors as well. They will not know if they in fact are an alternate until the end of the trial completely. At that point that they've been told to treat this case, that they may have to come back at some point in time.

It's actually moving pretty quickly right now where there are at least three jurors who have now been selected. And including I think one is already been named to be the foreman. More might be coming very soon but so far there has been dismissals based on either one's schedule conflicts, but mostly and the most recent since the lunch break hour has been about social media posts, almost a tale of two or three social media posts.

One, if somebody has made a direct statement about locking Donald Trump up, that was a reaction to the so-called Muslim travel ban that happened early in his administration, to others, one an off-color joke regarding orange being the new black comparing Donald Trump and Barack Obama, that juror was preserved in this context. Another juror as well was preserved based on a celebratory video that was captured from a distance that seemed to be, according to defense counsel, capturing the moments that Biden was declared the victor in the 2020 election.

So things are moving pretty quickly. This judge is making a very, very tight ship here. We might know even more by the end of today.

DEAN: Well, and Laura, we're just learning, as you're talking there, that it's now six jurors that have been seated in this trial. Is that quicker than you would think?

COATES: It's amazing.

DEAN: OK.

COATES: You know what, it's amazing to think about the pace. Some people thought it would take a long time to get a jury in this case. Earlier today, Mayor Adams came outside and spoke to reporters. Somebody asked him, do you think that you can get a fair trial or jurors would be fair in this particular city towards Donald Trump. He said he essentially did not have any doubt that it was a fair city.

Now Trump's counsel will argue that they don't think enough jurors are present to be able to have that impartial jury pool, but it's moving quite quickly here, is it not? In fact, earlier today, there was at least one juror who was struck because he himself declared he could not be impartial as related to Donald Trump. You also have a body of people who may in fact be favoring him and we found one I call a legal unicorn here who said it was the first time today that she was aware there were other indictments or cases against Donald Trump.

So indeed not everyone follows the news so closely. That's important thinking about the blank slate here. Do you want that type of juror? Do you want one that's more invested in it? In fact, there was a juror earlier today as well, guys, who say said, listen, I'm not really essentially read in on everything. Is that what you want? Prosecutor said no, we want you to be impartial. So the pace at this trial is going quite quickly.

Remember, they already have six. They need 12 more to go. But at the end of the day, remember the tactic here from defense counsel for months and months. It was to delay this trial. This pace is absolutely antithetical to trying to delay that process. In other words, this defendant, Donald Trump, has the pacing of most defendants who are charged with the crime in New York City.

DEAN: All right. Laura Coates for us outside that courthouse. Thanks so much for the update. We appreciate it.

And still ahead this hour, a defiant Mike Johnson refuses to resign as House speaker as the first Republican publicly backs a threat to oust him.

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[15:43:51]

SANCHEZ: Today marks three weeks since that massive cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse and killing six people. The city is launching one of several new investigations to try to figure out what caused the disaster and who potentially contributed. The FBI and Coast Guard are currently leading a criminal investigation, too.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now with the details.

And Pete, there was just a press briefing with Governor Wes Moore of Maryland.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Governor Moore says that the state will hold responsible parties accountable for all of this, with this trio of new investigations on top of the probes already announced immediately after the disaster. A federal official now tell CNN there is a criminal investigation under the March 26th collision. That official says the FBI and the Coast Guard want to know if the crew of the cargo ship Dali did not report an issue that delayed its departure from the Port of Baltimore.

Here's the statement from the FBI yesterday, quote, "The FBI is present aboard the cargo ship Dali, conducting court authorized law enforcement activity." The other new investigation is from the city of Baltimore. Mayor Brandon Scott says the city has partnered with two top dollar law firms to find out who was responsible for the crash.

[15:45:05]

This hints at potential future lawsuits with the city saying it will take decisive action to hold all responsible entities accountable for the Key Bridge tragedy. Victims' attorneys are also launching their own probe. Officials confirmed yesterday they pulled a fourth body from the Patapsco River over the weekend. Families were incensed when operators of the ship filed a petition in federal court to limit their liability to $43 million.

The big question here, what is taking place or what was taking place and what led to the apparent power outage, strong enough on board the ship to briefly take down its voice and data recorder? Last week head of the National Transportation Safety Board told top Senate lawmakers that its probe is focusing on equipment in the engine room, including circuit breakers. The NTSB says Hyundai is the company that made that equipment. It has sent experts to the scene to help extract data from that system.

SANCHEZ: Pete, you mentioned that one of the victims' bodies was recovered. Any update on the search other than that?

MUNTEAN: There are still two bodies missing essentially. Six were presumed dead, pretty much immediately after this. They were able to find one body pretty quickly. We know that one person on board, those road crew that was patching potholes on board the Key Bridge, was able to escape roughly with that injury but this is another just sort of tragic development in the story, now four bodies recovered from the Patapsco River there and they say it's really difficult to recover these bodies just because of the danger below the surface. A lot of twisted concrete and metal making it very difficult for divers to get down there.

SANCHEZ: Hopefully some solace for that family and that their loved one was found.

MUNTEAN: Indeed.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, a second Republican is now calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to be ousted as speaker. He's demanding Johnson resigned. We'll take you live to Capitol Hill in just a few minutes.

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[15:51:26]

DEAN: As the House GOP effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson gain steam on Capitol Hill, the embattled Republican leader remains defiant, saying he will not resign and labeling calls for him to do so as absurd. Today Congressman Thomas Massie became the second member of the House GOP threatening to take Johnson's gavel over the speaker's plans to send billions of aid to Ukraine and Israel. Listen to this.

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You want him to resign? You want him to resign?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Yes. Yes, I asked him to resign.

RAJU: And what he's saying?

MASSIE: He said he would not. And then I said, well, you're the one who's going to put us into this, because the motion is going to get called. OK? Is anybody doubt that? A motion will get called and then he's going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy. And I have told him this in private, like weeks ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Melanie Zanona is on Capitol Hill.

Melanie, do Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene have any other support at this point? What's kind of the state of play?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, they are the only two Republicans who have publicly expressed support for a motion to vacate, but in a razor thin majority, Johnson needs every vote he can get and he is facing backlash right now from the hard right over his plans to deliver foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine.

However, I will say, Jessica, that the majority of the House Republican conference and even former president Donald Trump do not want to see another messy speakers fight. They're worried that it could really undermine the party heading into November. And a number of Republicans are now openly railing against Marjorie Taylor Greene for even bringing this threat up. Here's some of those members.

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REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): The concept of another motion to vacate is an utter waste of time and frankly a distraction from really important business.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): We don't need that. No way, no way. We don't want that -- we shouldn't go through that again.

REP. GARRETT GRAVES (R-LA): I don't think that the threat is really real at this point just because you don't have an alternative. We saw what happened last fall whenever this all went down, there's not an alternative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: But even though Johnson has the majority of the House GOP conference behind him, he needs to make sure that that opposition does not grow or else he may need to turn two Democrats to help bail him out and save his speakership, which is not a position that any Republican speaker wants to find themselves in.

DEAN: Yes, he doesn't want to be in it, but he might be. And Melanie, there's been -- you all have done a lot of reporting about this. There has been kind of this percolating idea that Democrats might be willing to save him in a sense if he's willing to put this Ukraine aid bill on the floor.

ZANONA: That's right. But I should note that at this point, we still have not seen bill text, which is not a great sign. Republican leaders have been hoping to release the text of these multiple bills this morning so that it can have a vote on Friday, but there's a lot of questions about how this is going to play out procedurally.

Even though Mike Johnson is planning to hold four separate votes on these bills for aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and some other national security priorities, there is some talk of merging them together before they send them over to the Senate as one package with the idea being it would be easier for the Senate to then pick that up and pass it quickly. But some conservative hardliners are super against that idea, which means some Democrats may need to step in and get this over the finish line.

But at this point, Democrats say they are not going to commit to anything. Whether that's saving Johnson's speakership or committing to these procedural votes until they see details -- Jess.

DEAN: All right. As it always is, you just have to wait until the text comes out and see how it all evolves. All right. Melanie Zanona on the Hill for us, thanks so much.

Up next, the Olympic torch is lit in highly choreographed ceremony echoing traditions from Ancient Greece.

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[15:59:23]

SANCHEZ: The countdown to the 2024 Olympics in Paris is officially on and it started today in the birthplace of the ancient games. Olympia, Greece. You can see the highly symbolic traditional ceremony where actresses dressed as high priestesses lighting the Olympic torch.

DEAN: That is wild. Olympia was the home of the ancient games for more than 1,000 years. The earliest recorded games were held in 7706 B.C. for reaching the Olympic cauldron in Paris on July 26th. The torch is expected to be passed from hand to hand by some 10,000 torch bearers. So keep an eye out for that.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

DEAN: We were talking about all the different sports that are in the Summer Olympics and there are some that I was shocked to learn still exists.

SANCHEZ: Trampolining. Jumping on a trampoline I guess for points? Is that what it's for? Is it timed?