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Biden Campaign Releases Video Blasting Trump's Abortion Comments; Campuses Nationwide On Edge As Pro-Palestinian Protests Escalate; Pro-Israel Protesters Breach UCLA Encampment; Greene Vows To Force Vote To Oust Speaker Johnson Next Week; GOP Leadership Vows To Kill Greene Motion To Oust Johnson; Trump Campaigning In Key Swing States Wisconsin & Michigan. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired May 01, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After bragging about overturning Roe and saying women should be punished for access to reproductive health care, he said states should be able to prosecute women.
And he appears perfectly fine with signing a national ban that would take away IVF access. There seems to be no limit to how invasive Trump would let the state be.
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M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Alex, if I could just make a quick point about Duvall County, which is where we are. This is a county that President Biden won in 2020. He was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win this county since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Of course, they were able to do that, in part, by turning out the black vote, something that, of course, they're hoping to replicate across the board in November -- Alex?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: All right, M.J. Lee, with the vice president in Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks very much, M.J.
We continue to follow the breaking news at college campuses all across the country. Dramatic scenes playing out from coast to coast as police have clashed with protesters. We're following all of it -- following all of it. Stay with us.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This just in. President Biden will deliver the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony on May 7th. The announcement comes as protests grow on college campuses over how
Israel is prosecuting its war against Hamas. And some of these protests are growing tense.
This happened overnight. We saw it into today as well. This was the scene earlier at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Police clashing with protesters, removing tents from that encampment and other items as well.
MARQUARDT: And then there's video from UCLA. This was earlier this morning. It shows counter-demonstrators attacking that pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. Police were called as that violence escalated.
And this happened just hours after police entered New Yorks Columbia University to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters who had taken over a building called Hamilton Hall.
Our CNN senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, joins us now.
Juliette, I want to get your take on what happened in New York last night. We saw the NYPD move in, in a pretty heavy-handed way. They set up a perimeter.
They had tactical teams at multiple entry points around campus. We saw them climbing over a vehicle, I believe, to get into a window. And there were some 300 arrests.
What did you make of that?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Obviously, it's not ideal to get to the situation that means that things escalated out of control.
But the decision to move forward and then, ultimately, what we saw last night was the best outcome and a really bad situation.
Because, of course, when we started watching this, those of us who are older, are thinking about Kent State and the -- whatever you think about the student protesters, whether you like them or not, no one wants to see violence or any injuries to even protesters who have taken over a building.
So I talked to people at the university. I've worked with people who work with the university. I've got family ties to the university.
And I think what is -- what is the good news coming out of this is that the police came in with really, I think, clearly de-escalation in mind, that the first thing they asked was for the students to disperse.
So we saw people leaving. These students, a lot of them don't want to get arrested.
So that the core of people that they had to deal with, it's just a couple of hundred, but it wasn't thousands. And that's sort of good news. Now they know who the core is. They are
going to determine whether they are affiliated with the school, or are they affiliated with other schools or people who were just trying to make a point using Columbia.
I think the big question now is, what happens next? It's sad thing for those of us who know the university or any of these universities is, is we're not talking about them for what they're good for, but -- but things like this.
And so stabilizing the university, making sure it's secure for graduation and the parents who want to come. And then then, this summer, figuring out ways in which you're not having these clashes in terms of protests.
Giving students access to the ability to protest, but also engaging them. We're finding that that does work at other universities, like Brown, like Northwestern, and others that we've seen that have been able to deescalate these protests.
KEILAR: And every university situation is different.
I wonder what you thought as you were looking at UCLA overnight. It was actually, you know, quite early in the morning here, east coast time.
But you saw a lot of violence erupting between the two sides of this protest. It's hard also, Juliette, to tell, are these all college students, people come from outside the campus, who is who?
It's really hard to figure that out and to know exactly why people are there. But what did you think watching this?
KAYYEM: Yes. So I was shocked. I grew up in the shadows of UCLA. I know the campus. I know exactly where this is. You can't secure UCLA in terms of access controls but you might be able to, as a smaller liberal arts school.
But you can certainly protect an encampment and the protesters. And that is a completely legitimate use of law enforcement. The protesters have a right not to be beaten up.
And if people come in, and whether they are affiliated with a group or they're just people who like violence for sport, which it looks like a lot of this is.
[13:40:04]
And are claiming to represent a viewpoint, protecting the protesters is one of the reasons why protocols for safety and security are so necessary now and in the earlier stages of this.
But I was surprised for two reasons. One is the vulnerability of the protesters. Whatever you think of them, no one -- no one deserves this. And how long it took to realize that you had a safety incident. But the second is UCLA had handled this very well until then. They
hadn't -- they didn't have the big protests that we had seen. They'd really had, I think, what you might cause it a legitimate protest, including -- including the tent.
KEILAR: Juliette, thank you so much. Yes. it's been great getting your perspective as you take a look at what we're seeing on these various college campuses. Thank you.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says that she's moving forward and that she's going to force a vote to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. But a big range of members from within the GOP immediately pushed back on that.
We're going to talk more about this coming up. We're live from the hill.
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KEILAR: We have new developments on Capitol Hill. Sources telling CNN House Republican leaders are planning to kill a motion by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to oust Speaker Mike Johnson.
Today, Greene announced that she's going to force a vote to remove him next week.
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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA) I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may. And so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate. Absolutely. Calling it.
I can't wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again, having supported a Republican speaker, a Christian conservative.
I think that'll play well. I'm excited about it.
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MARQUARDT: Let's get up to Capitol Hill and CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.
So, Sunlen, what are you hearing in terms of reaction from lawmakers?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Alex, you heard there, pushing forward with her plan. She says that she will bring this motion to vacate to the floor at some point next week.
And at that press conference this morning, she stressed that she's doing so because she wants to get each and every member on the record for that. But the reality of this effort is that it will not succeed. And that's because of that significant announcement yesterday by House Democratic leadership saying that they will in essence kill this resolution and save Speaker Johnson, voting was some Republicans here.
And the reality is that many Republicans in their conference or not in support of what their colleague is doing.
Here's what my colleague, Manu Raju, collected from this morning on Capitol Hill, hearing from -- after Marjorie Taylor Greene said that she's pushing forward with this effort.
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UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: I disagree with that. You have every right to do it, but it's not the time.
UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSMAN: I wish she wouldn't do that. But that's sand here. You know, we've got more important things to work on instead of that.
REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): Well, bless her heart. I think this is all about wanting more attention and not producing actual results for the people who we represent.
REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): It is a question that deserves an answer. And it deserves an answer with a recorded vote, not in the press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: Now you heard that last congressman there, Congressman Davidson. He said that he will vote to advance the motion to vacate. He potentially is one of only a handful of Republicans, we believe, that Taylor Greene has the support of here as she pushes forward this.
Now we know, according to sources, that Republican leaders, they want to move very quickly to kill this, potentially even the same day that she brings us up at some point next week.
Of course, Alex and Brianna, Republican leaders here want to put this all in the distance behind them.
KEILAR: Bless her heart. That was one of the most loaded "bless her hearts."
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(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: Bless your heart, Sunlen, but I actually mean it.
Thank you so much from Capitol Hill.
MARQUARDT: Former President Donald Trump is on his way to the key swing state of Wisconsin as he makes his first campaign appearance since his trial in New York for those hush money charges began. [13:48:37]
We're live on the campaign trail. That's just ahead.
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KEILAR: Talk about a change of pace. No court today. So former President Trump is taking advantage of the break in his criminal trial. He's heading to campaign and key swing states, Michigan and Wisconsin.
MARQUARDT: And Wisconsin is where we find CNN's Alayna Treene, who is live in Waukesha.
So, Alayna, it has been weeks since he's campaigned because he's been in the courtroom most days. How is he balancing having to be in court with also having to campaign for president?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: You know, it's really interesting, Alex and Brianna, because, when I've spoken to many people close to the former president, they actually tell me they're surprised they haven't seen Donald Trump on the campaign trail as much as they had anticipated.
And I remember talking to a lot of Donald Trump's advisers in the leadup to the trial, and they had said, on those days that we're not in court -- of course, it's only three days a week, Wednesday, Saturdays and Sundays that he is not required to be in the courtroom -- they said that he was going to be aggressively hitting the ground in some of these key states.
But as you mentioned, this is the first time we're really seeing him do that since the trial started. And that's not entirely his fault. The week before last, he wanted to hold a rally in North Carolina. That was canceled at the 11th hour due to severe storm weather.
But all to say, he hasn't been out here on the trail as much as possible.
Now, I do think the fact that he's coming to Wisconsin, where I am now, and then Michigan later, that really underscores how critical the Trump campaign views these two states.
He lost, or he won these states in 20 16, but lost them to Joe Biden in 2020. And his campaign really does believe that they have a shot to win these once again, come November.
Now, part of that is going to be a lot of messaging on the economy. We just received some of Donald Trump's prepared remarks. He's going to be focusing a ton on inflation, as well as crime and immigration, all issues they think are very core to Joe Biden's vulnerability.
[13:55:10] And so that's what we'll be talking a lot about here. And in Michigan, the same idea. I'm told he'll bring up some more discussion about the auto industry.
But I just can't emphasize enough how important his team believes that these two states are to his pathway. And really, he was here just a month ago as well.
So again, the fact that he's coming here just two weeks later shows how much he needs to win these states when they look ahead to the 2024 general election.
KEILAR: Yes, certainly does.
Alayna, thank you for that report.
Violence erupting between protesters and law enforcement at colleges across the country. We have CNN correspondents live on the scene. Stay with CNN for the latest on this.
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