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Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is Interviewed about the Mayorkas Impeachment; Melania Trump Avoids Courtroom; Earth Fund Seeks AI Answers; Blinken in Italy for G-7; Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie is Interviewed about Israel. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 17, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today, the fate of the home - of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be in the hands of the Senate. Senators who will be sworn in as jurors for the impeachment trial against Biden's cabinet member. House Republicans launched this effort earlier this year, impeaching Mayorkas over what they say are high crimes and misdemeanors for mishandling the crisis at the southern border. Senate Democrats call it something different, a nakedly political stunt. And with the majority in the Senate, Democrats there are expected to try and end this trial before it even really begins.

Joining me right now is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona.

Senator, thank you so much for coming on.

Schumer has promised that this would be wrapped up and over quickly. How quickly is that? How quickly could these articles be dismissed?

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Yes, Kate, thank you for having me on.

It depends. I mean what we saw yesterday was a purely political stunt. Arizona needs real solutions at the border, not more politics. I listened to 40 minutes of them reading the articles. There were no crimes, high crimes, or misdemeanors. There was no corruption. There was no bribery. It was just a political exercise.

And Republicans, even in the United States Senate, they get this. A lot of my Republican colleagues, they want to get through this quickly, set this aside, and then get back to solving the real problems that our country faces.

Kate, you know, ten weeks ago we could have gone a long way to solving this and, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues, other colleagues in the Senate, ran away from this because they just want to continue to talk about this problem.

BOLDUAN: Political or real regardless, Senator John Thune, a top Republican in the Senate, he says that if you all vote to dismiss the charges, it will put Senate Democrats who are running for re-election in red states in a difficult position. Kind of making them, Thune says, look like they're turning a deaf - a deaf ear and a blind eye to the crisis at the border.

Do you see that? Is that a concern?

KELLY: Well, no. I mean I totally disagree with that. We had a bipartisan solution that was going to go a long way to fixing this. The border patrol union was on board. Mayors, Republican mayors in southern Arizona wanted this problem solved. We were going to give border patrol the tool they need, more money to hire more border patrol agents. The same thing for CBP. Build more facilities. More machines to detect fentanyl at the border. And, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues, including the one you mentioned, I believe, you know, decided that they wanted to still talk about this problem so they could have it for the election.

[08:35:04]

And it's all because of one person here. It's that the former president, he was pretty honest about this, he said he wants to have this problem to talk about. So they don't actually want to fix this. And that's what this purely partisan impeachment is all about. It's about just talking about the problem instead of trying to solve it.

Secretary Mayorkas was in the room with Republicans coming up with this bipartisan deal. He worked hard at this and they walked away from it. And now they - they're continuing with this partisan exercise.

BOLDUAN: And its notable, in the bills that could be now introduced in the House regarding Ukraine aid and Israeli aid and Taiwan aid, there is no border security money that Republicans are going to be putting forth in those bills.

You serve on Senate Intel and Armed Services. Israel is debating if and how it will respond to that Iranian attack. Some of CNN's reporting is that the Biden administration expects that any response from Israel is going to be limited in scope. What is in the realm of limited in scope when it comes to this in your mind?

KELLY: Well, first of all, we need to continue to support our ally, Israel. They were unlawfully attacked. It was - in some regards it was a, you know, pretty comprehensive attack from Iran. It should also be considered humiliating for Iran, the fact that with our - with our help and coordination on this, we were able to eliminate the threat and shoot down cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones. Hundreds of them. I would say a limited attack would be, you know, something that doesn't go into Iran, or maybe not far into Iranian territory and isn't on the order of magnitude that you see from the Iranians.

I don't want to see this thing escalate through the Middle East. I don't want to see us drawn into this. Israel does have a right to defend themselves. Three hundred missiles essentially and drones shot at them. But as you see, I mean the Iranians were totally inapt, and this was ineffective. BOLDUAN: On Ukraine, President Zelenskyy has said - has really just said that the United States is more interested in defending Israel than Ukraine in responding to attacks. He told PBS this, he posed it as a question, is Israel part of NATO or not? Here's the answer, he says, Israel is not a NATO country. He's suggesting there's a double standard in how the United States is helping and defending its allies. Is there a double standard when it comes to Ukraine?

KELLY: We have a bipartisan bill sitting over there in the House of Representatives that provides aid for both Israel and Ukraine. We sent it over there about ten weeks ago -- I think ten weeks ago tomorrow - that provides both countries the assistance they need to defend themselves.

Hey, I'm, you know, I want to get this aid to Ukraine as fast as possible.

BOLDUAN: But this is beyond congressional action, right?

KELLY: Well, I mean, the White House is supporting both of our allies here. Israel's an ally. Ukraine's an ally. We've got members of Congress that don't want to help Ukraine. Again, I think it's because of some of the former president's, Donald Trump's, rhetoric on this. It's unclear where he is.

I've been to Ukraine twice. They're fighting courageously. They're running out of ammunition. Its' critical that we get them the aid that they need. The fastest way to do that, Kate, is for the House of Representatives, is for them to pass the bill that is sitting on the speaker's desk. He could send it to the president tonight.

BOLDUAN: Let us see what moves are made today, tomorrow and Friday on that very front.

Senator Mark Kelly, thank you for coming in.

KELLY: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, jury selection resumes tomorrow in Donald Trump's criminal trial here in New York. It is worth noting that no members of Trump's family have yet joined him in the courtroom. That includes his wife, Melania, although "The New York Times" does note that she shares his anger over the case. That is their reporting.

CNN's Randi Kaye has more.

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that a lawyer for President Trump arranged a hefty payment to an adult film star. Why? Because of an alleged sexual affair.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When news of Donald Trump's alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels first broke, what did his wife, Melania, do? She jumped on a plane and headed for Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, away from all the drama. That was January 2018.

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You know, I spent a ton of time with her when the news was breaking about Stormy Daniels.

When those came out that he allegedly had these affairs, and she didn't take it lightly at all.

KAYE (voice over): In the wake of the allegations, she broke tradition and drove separately from her husband to the U.S. Capitol for his State of the Union Address later that month. The White House, at the time, said the unusual move was so she could attend to reception with guests in the first lady's box.

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But remember that State of the Union was her first public event since "The Wall Street Journal" first reported that an alleged hush money payment was made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election for her alleged affair with Trump in 2006. That would have been just four months after millennia gave birth to the couple's son Barron.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, everybody.

KAYE (voice over): Donald Trump has denied the affair took place, yet now finds himself in court fighting allegations that he made payments to cover it up.

GRISHAM: This is an embarrassment to him for - with his family and, more importantly, with his wife, Melania.

KAYE (voice over): Like the former president, Melania believes the hush money trial is unfair. That's according to "The New York Times," which spoke with several people familiar with her thinking.

Back in 2018, when the Stormy Daniels story picked up steam, former aide Stephanie Grisham remembers Donald Trump calling her from Air Force One to discuss Melania.

GRISHAM: To basically see how angry she was, and to see if we were putting any statements out.

He definitely was worried. Or she's the one person that I think Donald Trump really fears.

KAYE (voice over): She's also the one person whose advice he may listen to about whether or not to take the stand at his trial.

GRISHAM: I think behind closed doors, as a husband and wife, she would probably say, look, if you have nothing to hide take the stand type of a thing. KAYE (voice over): This certainly wasn't the first time Mrs. Trump has

had to manage a very public personal drama involving her husband. Nearly two years before the Stormy Daniels story, there was the "Access Hollywood" tape.

D. TRUMP: You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss.

KAYE (voice over): When Anderson Cooper asked Melania about the 2005 tape in October 2016, she dismissed it, agreeing with her husband it was just locker room talk.

MELANIA TRUMP, FORMER FIRST LADY: People think and talk about me like, oh, Melania, oh, poor Melania. Don't feel sorry for me. Don't feel sorry for me. I - I can handle everything.

KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

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BOLDUAN: Randi, thank you so much for that.

At least one man is dead after the heaviest rainfall in recorded history hit the UAE Wednesday. A man in his 70s was killed when his vehicle got caught in the flooding. In Dubai, a years' worth of rain fell in just 12 hours. Major highways, the airport, homes, everything really under water. The video we're showing you - we're going to show you this video, is of a large jet at the Dubai Airport trying to navigate what is real flooding at that - on the tarmac at the airport.

This morning, the world's second-largest airport is still warning of delays. Our reporters on the ground tell us this morning that the city has been brought to a grinding halt.

John.

BERMAN: So, new this morning, the Earth Fund from Jeff Bezos just announced a major grant to look for climate change solutions. $100 million will go toward using artificial intelligence to come up with ideas.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is here, the author of the new book, "Life As We Know It (Can Be)."

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, thank you, John.

BERMAN: I would have my copy here with me but it's sitting by my reading chair at home where I've been reading it every day.

Let's start with what Jeff Bezos is doing here.

WEIR: Yes.

He - how can we use AI to fix climate change? That's what he's going to try to find out. It's one of these sort of prize deals to throw a couple million dollars to different grant proposees (ph), people who work in the AI space. It's already a tool for doing censuses of penguins down in Antarctica and looking at ocean life in different ways. It can be a powerful tool and figure out the fastest way to decarbonize if the big oil companies go along with it.

BERMAN: So, your book, as I said, which I've been reading just about every day, it's written, a lot of it, as a letter to your new-ish - not so new son anymore.

WEIR: Yes, he's four. Just turned four.

BERMAN: River. And among the things you mentioned is the coral reef, the bleaching of the reef and just how bad it is.

WEIR: Yes.

BERMAN: But just talk to us about that.

WEIR: We just got an alert from scientists, this could be the worst mass bleaching event ever. It's already affected over 50 percent of the globe right now because every day for the last year we've set a new record for that date at ocean temperatures. I mean it's just off the charts. And so corals, it's a symbiotic system. If it gets too hot, they eject their little friend that gives it the color and the left there. And you can see the great barrier reef is not as great as when we were as kids right now. This is a major crisis.

While we have sort of the crisis in Gaza and Ukraine in the forefront of us, in the background the seas are boiling in a way that is going to affect life as we know it.

BERMAN: And, look, and that is why, I think, you largely wrote this book and framed it as you did. As I said, its written framed as a letter to your son about what's wrong in the reefs and how bleak that is.

WEIR: Yes.

BERMAN: But not just that. Explain what you've done here.

WEIR: Well, I started out - it was pretty dark at the beginning. Sort of a cathartic record of what he was going through, height of the pandemic, and then the Georgia Floyd protests we covered, and I covered climate, so I was really bummed out about the world he had just joined.

[08:45:01]

But that I started focusing on the helpers, as Mr. Rogers encourages us to do when something scary happens. And a lot happened in policy. You know, quarter trillion dollars of investment into new energy systems, into cleaning up water supplies, into providing better, safer, healthier, more sustainable options for us because these tools are available right now. And if we get our kids thinking about what's in the water, what about the temperature in the air, where does our food come from, invested in nature and each other, boy, that's our best chance of saving - there's so much left to save. BERMAN: It's a wonderful book. I'd say I've known you I think for 21 -

WEIR: Is that - it has been a while.

BERMAN: I think 21 years, and I'm learning things that I never knew. Your first TV job, $12,000 in Minnesota.

WEIR: That's right. Yes. Yes. 1991. They offered me $12,000 a year. I talked them up to $12,200.

BERMAN: All right, you are a tough negotiator.

Bill, it's a wonderful book. "Life As We Know It (Can Be)." It has been out for 24 hours. Get it now.

Thank you very much.

WEIR: Thanks, John.

So, a popular tourist attraction in Hawaii is being torn down due to, quote, "rampant illegal trespassing."

And we're learning new details about the new sanctions the U.S. plans to announce against Iran for the attack on Israel.

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BOLDUAN: Some absolute classics have now secured their place in history. The historical record to be exactly in the National Recording Registry. The Library of Congress announced that 25 songs - the 25 songs that they deem treasures worthy of preservation for all time. I love that line. The new inductees include Aba, Biggie, Blondie, even Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I didn't have a vote. Other hits on this archival playlist include Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "Ain't No Sunshine" from Bill Withers.

The Stairway to Heaven in Hawaii is being torn down in Honolulu - in Honolulu City. Officials are blaming bad tourists. The Haiku Stairs, they were built during World War II on Oahu, nearly 4,000 steps up a mountain trail, they've been closed to the public since 1987, but tourists keep trespassing and the city says it's become too big of a liability. So, they're coming down. It will take at least six months and cost $2.5 million to bring down and tear down the landmark.

It took nine hours, but firefighters in Georgia have rescued a man from a two-foot wide storm drain under a highway on Tuesday. Rescuers had to dig through dense clay to free him. They don't know why he went into the storm drain, but they do believe he'd been stuck there for about a day. After the rescue he was taken to the hospital for evaluation and treatment. No updates on that.

We do have an update on this. They say an elephant never forgets. And this one definitely won't forget her trip down the streets of Butte, Montana. Thats Viola, the elephant. She was getting ready for a circus show when she was startled by a car and broke loose. She roamed half a block down and stopped for a snack before handlers found her and loaded her into the trailer. Just in time to make her show.

John.

BERMAN: You know what we call. We call that elephant on the lam. That is what we call that.

BOLDUAN: Oh, no, let's not go back to that.

BERMAN: We can do that again because it's all there (ph).

BOLDUAN: We're going to go back to that.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just arrived in Italy for the G-7 foreign ministers meeting. He is there as U.S. aid to Ukraine hangs in the balance and the world waits to see if Israel will launch retaliatory strikes against Iran.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is with us now.

So, what's at stake here?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, what's at stake here is what these countries can do collectively to go after Iran's military capability. We heard last night from Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor to President Biden, saying that the U.S. is going to be rolling out new sanctions targeting Iran's drone and also its military program largely, and also going after entities that are supporting its IRGC and the Iranian ministry of defense. He also said that the U.S. is working with its allies, including the G-7, where the secretary of state is headed today for those meetings in Italy, to coordinate on Iran sanctions.

We heard from the U.K. foreign secretary, David Cameron, who was in Israel this morning, saying that they are working on coordinating those sanctions. He too will be headed, of course, to that G-7 meeting. So, we'll be watching to see, you know, what they can say in terms of coordinating sanctions of Iran out of this meeting.

The other thing that I do want to note, John, is that last week senior administration officials said that China is providing a significant amount of support to Russia. So much so, so that its defense industrial base, which of course is allowing it to continue its offense, this war against Ukraine, is building up at a rate that is the highest rate that they have seen since the Soviet area - era. And they think that there are countries at the G-7 table that could potentially help tell China not to continue doing that. So, we'll watch to see if there is any development on that front as well.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Kylie Atwood covering that for us. Kylie, keep us posted. Thank you. With us now is General Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, former chief of U.S. Central Command.

General, thank you so much for being with us.

The world continues to wait and watch to see if and how Israel response to the huge airstrike from Iran over the weekend.

[08:55:03]

It's now Wednesday with no response yet from Israel. What do you make of the delay or the timing so far?

GEN. KENNETH "FRANK" MCKENZIE (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Well, I think Israel's in a good position. The attack over the weekend was a significant defeat for Iran. There's no other way to characterize it however they choose to spin it. So, Israel has the initiative. They have the opportunity to fashion something after a victory.

But, you know, John, sometimes dealing with a victory is harder than dealing with a defeat. And they have to find a way to go forward that maintains the regional partners that stood with them in this fight, that maintains all the support they've received in defending against this significant Iranian failed attack. So, it's quite a - it's quite a difficult problem. So, I'm not surprised they're thinking about it, taking their own sweet time.

Meanwhile, Iran stands at a very high level of readiness, which degrades their capability going forward, which isn't a bad thing either.

BERMAN: I was going to ask, who do you think is in a better, strategic position following this weekend attack?

MCKENZIE: John, absolutely Israel. They demonstrated a remarkable, a remarkable competence in defending their country against a massive attack. This was not a signaled attack. This was not a metered attack. This was a maximum effort from Iran. And that maximum effort failed.

So, Israel is in a very good position. They are stronger today than they were last Friday. Iran is markedly weaker today than they were last Friday. And here's why. Iran's center of gravity, if you will, has always been there missiles, their drones, and their land attack cruise missiles. It's not necessarily the nuclear program, although that's another - that's another topic. But they - that was how - they built their deterrence on this capability, the ability to overmatched their neighbors and to attack Israel.

Well, now, the first time they've actually used it in great numbers, it failed, and it unequivocally failed. No matter what they say, that's evident for everybody that chooses to look objectively at the evidence.

BERMAN: So, you say there's no question that Israel is in a better, strategic position today than they were, and then Iran, do you think Israel sees it like that?

MCKENZIE: So, the mindset of the IDF, and these are friends of mine. I know them well. They're not big on defensive victories. They prefer offensive victories. And I understand that. As a Marine, that appeals to me as well.

However, now is the time to think strategically. And you have to think long term. You have to recognize that while you were successful in defending your country against this massive attack, you had assistance from the United States, other nations, and the geography of the region gives Israel depth. By that I mean Saudi Arabia, Jordan, other countries give you depth when Iran attacks you. You need to maintain good relationships within. It's going to require a very - a very significant balancing act by Israel to consider how or if they're going to respond to this attack. And I suspect they will. But they want to do it in such a manner that it doesn't destroy the goodwill that's been built up as a result of last weekend's action.

BERMAN: OK, so how? What are some of the possible options that you think would thread that needle?

MCKENZIE: Well, sure. You could begin with doing nothing. Let the Iranian stew on it. Keep talking about it. Let them keep running their radars. Let them keep staying at a high state of readiness, all of which will tend to degrade Iranian systems, make them tired, make them make more mistakes. That's a possibility. You could consider cyberattacks. You could consider very narrowly scoped kinetic strikes inside Iran or outside Iran. If you do that, you need to signal at the beginning, you need to signal the end. You need to be narrow and precise in your targeting.

But you should also, if you choose to do that, choose something that magnifies your technological superiority over Iran. Additionally, there are targets outside of a Iran, including Iranian naval vessels at sea that Israel could choose to take a look at if they wanted to do that. So, they have a broad variety of options. All the initiative now lies with - lies with Israel. But they need to be very careful because they can squander the tremendous goodwill they've accrued as a result of successful defense over the weekend.

BERMAN: And I've got to let you go, but does any - waiting any specific length of time beyond this mean that it wouldn't necessarily count as a response to the Iranian strike? In other words, is the clock ticking here?

MCKENZIE: The state of Israel has a long memory, and the Iranians know that.

BERMAN: General McKenzie, you explained it so well. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

As we said, it's almost 9:00 a.m. Mike Johnson, where's your job stand right now? A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts.

BOLDUAN: A new level of dysfunction on Capitol Hill. The House speaker's job threatened, senators about to become jurors. History is about to be made. But what kind?

Boeing back in the hot seat. Lawmakers are about to hear from a whistleblower who says assembly issues with one of their planes could be catastrophic.

[09:00:02]

And, charged with murder. New details on why a man shot and killed an innocent Uber driver he believed was working with a scammer.