Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Protesters Breach Columbia Building, Barricade Themselves Inside; Soon, Trump Heads to Court for Week 3 of His New York Criminal Trial; Today, Federal Reserve Meets to Weigh Interest Rates. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired April 30, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Things saying that Zionists deserve to die.

[07:00:02]

They said that turns the stomach and it has no place in America. So, that's a line that the White House is willing to --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Videos of breaking windows are another one that right off the bat.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: And we have also seen these protesters today chanting from the river to the sea, hanging the Intifada banner. We are in very troubling territory this morning.

Thank you so much for being with us this morning as we have been covering this breaking news out of Columbia University and protests across the country. Our breaking news is going to continue here on CNN. Don't go anywhere. I'm Kasie Hunt.

CNN News Central starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight here at Columbia University, protesters breach an academic building. They are now inside barricading the doors as this protest here continues into its second week.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And back in court, Donald Trump returns to a Manhattan courtroom just as there are new reports Trump is mad at his lead attorney.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And lives shattered after four officers are killed in North Carolina. We have new reporting on what put them in the line of fire.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sarah Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: We begin with breaking news here at Columbia University where things have ratcheted up because dozens of students were able to breach an academic building that you're seeing there. Just behind me, that is Hamilton Hall, where dozens of students are inside at the moment occupying that building all in their protest against the war in Gaza and against Columbia University trying to get it to divest from any kind of investment that touches Israel.

We should also let you know, we've been seeing images that coming out from inside of those halls inside of Hamilton Hall, where dozens of protesters have used everything, from chairs to desks, to vending machines to block doors to restrict entry from any official coming in.

And we also have been seeing this morning a huge banner that you'll see there that says, free Palestine, hanging from the second or third floor of Hamilton Hall at this hour. We know that there are also some protesters that are blocking the front entrance.

We have been for days watching this protest. It is clear that things have gotten even more tense between the students and the faculty and officials here at the university.

Let us bring in our Polo Sandoval, who has been following this for days now. Wednesday will mark, right, the second week of this protest. And now you've got this situation here. Can you give us some sense of how this all happened?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's so clearly going to be an escalation of the situation because of what took place overnight in the building that's directly behind us, Sara. I think this is certainly going to now amp up the pressure further on Columbia University to see what they will do to actually respond because you now see the potential.

Actually, we are seeing yet another layer of disruption for some of those students, especially those who have been observing what's been happening, as you mentioned for two weeks now, but there are still a lot of questions about who these people were.

We've been -- myself, my colleagues, have been on campus for the last couple of weeks, speaking to members of this encampment. The encampment itself has been largely peaceful. They've done gatherings there, and it's really been contained more than anything into the hedges there, basically where they have been camped out.

However, something happened last night, as we saw in these pictures here. And it is clearly going to be the reason why university officials may now have to calculate that next step. What we know is that access now to the campus is now going to be further restricted. I had an opportunity to speak to a couple of students a short while ago. Unless you live on campus, it's likely that you may not be able to actually make your way onto campus until we find out a little bit more about what might be the next step.

But I'd like to go back to what happened yesterday, especially when you look at these extremely dramatic pictures of dozens of people, most of them with their faces covered, basically advancing on the building that you see behind us, which has a history of protests going back decades.

And I want you to hear directly from Jessica Schwalb, who's a student at Columbia, as she describes what she saw during the overnight hours. She used her phone to capture it all. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA SCHWALB, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT: The people who were already inside Hamilton Hall decided to smash the windows and then put bike locks like around each door handle. And they also zip tied the door handles. There're two sets of doors for each doorway in Hamilton Hall. And so they also zip tied like the second.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And what's also noteworthy, Sarah, from our vantage point is, yes, you do see the NYPD presence, but they're still not making their way on campus.

[07:05:01]

SIDNER: They're outside of campus, surrounding campus.

SANDOVAL: Exactly, because it is private property. As we saw almost two weeks ago, that is when the president of the university, while she was offering testimony, before Congress, she then saw an encampment that had popped up a pro-Palestinian encampment turned to the NYPD for assistance in clearing out that gathering, only, of course, to see it pop up again.

So, now the question is, will they once again turn to the NYPD for assistance? We don't have any indication yet, but, again, it is very early and we do hope to hear from campus officials. If they know a little bit more about the people who occupied this building behind us.

SIDNER: Things have definitely changed going from an encampment outside, the tents, to inside and occupying a building, two very different things, and the university looking at whether or not they're going to call in police or not.

We do now have one of our colleagues who is on campus. Julia Vargas Jones joins us now live. And I'm curious, Julia, if you have any sense of who the protesters are inside of Hamilton Hall versus the ones who have stayed in the encampment, if they're from the same group of protesters.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN PRODUCER: Good morning, Sara. So, there's still about a couple dozen is what I'm hearing from students camped out here outside of Hamilton Hall. I just give you a little look here. It's a pretty quiet scene so far. Honestly, the people I spoke with, they are undergrad students here at Columbia. This is the vibe. It's very quiet. People are just holding their breath to see what will happen next.

I want to show you these look like the windows, the door that was used to get into the university building, Hamilton building, last night. They blocked it off. They're trying to protect the students who are inside. They don't know what's going to happen next.

There's a feeling of just will the school, as Paolo mentioned, bring back the New York Police Department to help remove these people? This is private property after all.

And last night, I'm sure you've seen those videos, students went up the columns, they hung these banners, they tried to rename Hamilton Hall, Hines (ph) Hall after a Palestinian girl, six year old, who was killed in a conflict in Gaza.

There's a lot of questions hanging here, Sara. People don't know what's going to happen next. Columbia just closed its doors to all students. I was very lucky. I am a student here at Columbia University and I was one of the last people allowed in with my Columbia I.D. If you don't live on campus and if you're not an essential member of staff, you can no longer come in to campus.

So, I'm not even sure how long we're going to be able to stay here to show you how the situation is unfolding.

SIDNER: Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for giving us a look. And as you said, you're a Columbia student, you've got on campus with your I.D., and you were describing what you are seeing. Certainly, the tensions have ratcheted way up because there is now this occupation of the building behind me, Hamilton Hall, as you mentioned.

Thank you so much to you and Polo Sandoval for your reporting.

I want to go now to Texas, to Austin, Texas, where our Ed Lavendera is there were clashes overnight between protesters and police. We were watching some of that unfold during the day. Let us know what's happening now on campus and what you're hearing, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quiet right now, but yesterday we saw dozens of protesters who were taken into custody by law enforcement officials, state troopers, Austin Police, as well as the University of Texas Police Department. And many of those protesters were taken away on buses because there were so many of them. So, we saw people carried away, refusing to leave the premises.

These protesters were ordered to leave after they started setting up tents in the area behind me on the South Mall of the University of Texas campus. University officials have been saying for days that that would be kind of the line in the sand that could not be crossed in terms of setting up an encampment. The idea of occupying any kind of space on this campus was not going to be allowed.

And that triggered intense moments through for several hours yesterday on the campus, even as the buses full of state troopers were trying to leave the campus yesterday. They were pushed back by protesters, which followed the buses throughout the campus for hours. There were flash bangs, tear gas sprayed, so, intense days.

Now, we don't know the exact official number of people arrested yesterday but the county attorney, who's the official that prosecutes misdemeanor crimes here in Austin, is now saying a very different tone from what we heard last week. Remember, last week, there were almost 60 protesters arrested and all of those charges were dropped the day after the protest here at the University of Texas. The county attorney is now saying that she is deeply concerned about the events here at the university escalating and that she has begun discussions with university officials on how to best handle this situation.

[07:10:05]

So, a different tone kind of reading between the lines there kind of alludes to the fact that perhaps these criminal charges will not be dropped this time around. So, we'll continue to monitor how that continues to play out.

SIDNER: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for your reporting there in Austin, Texas, for us.

You know, these protests have ratcheted up across the country from the California to Ohio, to here in New York. This has really been the epicenter of the beginning of those protests, but they have spread out throughout the country. And now universities are trying to figure out what to do while the students here are very passionate about their cause, saying that they want these universities to divest from Israel in any type of way. Also, they want to see a ceasefire in Gaza.

I know all of those things are being discussed by the State Department as well. But here, just reminding people that this has changed where we have seen dozens of students breaking into a building and now occupying Hamilton Hall somewhere that has a historical value when it comes to protests. This has happened here before. John and Kate?

BOLDUAN: And, Sara, it's great that we have a producer, a CNN producer, on campus. As she was explaining, she is a student of Columbia, why she's able to be in there. And we're going to have, we're going to get back to her as much as possible because this is really the first eyes on the ground right outside where it looks like they broke into the building that we've been able to get since this all started exploding overnight.

We're going to get back -- Sara is right there, and we're going to get back to the producer on the ground for sure.

We're also following this today. Welcome to Week 3 of Donald Trump's first criminal trial. It's kicking off with new reports that Trump is angry and complaining already about his own attorney, his lead attorney defending him in this New York trial.

And the USDA is now testing ground beef at grocery stores as concerns are growing over the bird flu spreading among dairy cows.

Plus, four officers killed while trying to serve a warrant at a home in North Carolina. The police chief saying is the most tragic shooting he has been involved with in his 32 years in law enforcement.

We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. This morning, we are standing by for testimony to resume in the New York criminal trial of Donald Trump. He is accused of falsifying documents to cover up hush money payments to an adult film actress.

Now, what comes is The New York Times reports that Trump has complained his chief defense lawyer Todd Blanche has been, quote, insufficiently aggressive. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan report that sources say Mr. Trump wants him to attack witnesses, attack what the former president sees as a hostile jury pool and attack the judge.

CNN's Brynn Gingras outside the court this morning. Who are we expected to see on the stand? Where are we?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. John, you know, that report very interesting and possibly some of that ire that we're hearing about from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan comes from last week. If you remember that gag order hearing where Todd Blanche fought his arguments against it, and the judge saying there that he was losing all credibility. So, possibly, it stems from that.

But just quickly about Blanche, of course, he is one are said to be one of Trump's favorite attorneys. He's representing him in two other criminal indictments. Obviously, this is the first one to go to trial. But according to The New York Times reporting, he is saying that he's not being aggressive enough in this trial and actually complaining about how much his lawyers are costing him.

But I have to tell you, when I was inside the courtroom last week, they are talking to each other the entire time during testimony for this trial. So, we'll see where that goes. But, yes, trial picks back up. This is the third week of this criminal hush money trial, and it is going to resume with testimony of Gary Farro.

Now, that is that banker that Michael Cohen actually worked with to set up those shell companies in order to make the reimbursement back to Stormy Daniels. Of course, that is at the heart of this case. He also took at a home equity credit line in order to make that reimbursement.

So, the prosecutors in this case have always said, John, as we talked about yesterday, that this is going to be a document-heavy case and this is where we are in the trial, getting those documents admitted into evidence and seeing the paper trail that was made in order to lay out the argument for those charges of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

So, we will see him back on the stand. But, John, of course, we don't know who's coming up next. We know there's a long list of big names out there on the witness list, but we don't know the order because the prosecutors are not telling the defense or the public that because, again, they have said in court that they worry about Trump taking out on social media anything about the people who are about to take the witness stand. So, we'll see what comes next.

BERMAN: Brynn Gingras outside the courthouse, great to have you there, great to have your perspective from inside the courthouse as well. Thank you so much.

All right, we have new reporting this morning on the deadly shootout in North Carolina where eight law enforcement officers were shot, four were killed.

And could there be good news about gas prices on the way?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the big question facing the Federal Reserve is will they keep interest rates steady for the sixth time in a row or will they start cutting. The Central Bank is kicking off to its two- day policy meeting this morning, and CNN's Matt Egan is here with a preview because he is inside the room with all of that.

So, many people are watching what comes out of these meetings so closely for the exact reason that I was just posing that question. What are the smart minds and smart money saying is expected?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, we've all been waiting for some relief from these really high borrowing costs. But, unfortunately, it looks like we're going to be waiting a bit longer, at least a bit longer now.

Now, there's almost no chance that the Fed cuts interest rates tomorrow. Look at this, just a 3 percent chance priced into the market, 97 percent chance that the Fed nothing, keeps rates steady, even the next meeting in June, just a 12 percent chance.

BOLDUAN: And that's where a lot of people were for a while, thinking June was it.

EGAN: Yes. All of these numbers were much, much higher just a month and two months ago. The problem, of course, is inflation, right? Inflation increasingly looks like a stubborn toddler refusing to go to bed right now. No offense to all you toddlers out there.

BOLDUAN: They clearly are watching right now.

EGAN: But that's the problem here. How can the Fed cut interest rates when inflation is actually moving in the wrong direction, right? This would be like giving that stubborn toddler candy. It's probably not going to work to give the toddler candy before bed. And so that's where things are.

And there's a lot of implications here for all of us borrowers, right, because interest rates are at two-decade highs.

[07:25:00] So, that means it's a really expensive time to get a mortgage, car loan, student debt, payoff credit card debt. The hope is lower interest rates to make it easier for consumers, right, because this is all really adding to the cost of living challenges right now. It's not just housing and food and car insurance.

BOLDUAN: Yes, this is everyone's life, right? Like this is all aspects of your life leaving off, maybe just food.

EGAN: Exactly, Kate. So, the main event tomorrow, Jerome Powell taking questions, he's going to answer why inflation is stuck and how long it's going to take before it goes down.

BOLDUAN: That's going to be really interesting to hear. We'll have you back to explain it all to us. It's good to see you, Matt. Thank you so much.

Still ahead for us, the windows still broken, protesters refusing to leave, CNN is on campus at Columbia, right where protesters occupied the university building, the academic building there overnight. We're going to take you back there with some new images and bring you back there live.

Also, new images of King Charles coming in this morning. He's returning to official public duties for the first time since he announced he is battling cancer.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]