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Chaos On Campus: Police Clash With Pro-Palestinian Protesters; Vice President Kamala Harris In Florida As New Abortion Ban Takes Effect; Harvey Weinstein Retrial Questioned After Conviction Overturned; Universities Increasingly Crack Down On Student Protests Nationwide; Fed Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged Amid Economic Concerns. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 01, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:44]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: Chaos on campus, violence overnight spilling into today, and we're seeing police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters at universities across the country. We're following the latest. And Vice President Kamala Harris is in Florida as the state's new six-week abortion ban takes effect. We are moments away from purging. We're taking on former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party as we start to see tighter restrictions enacted all across the country.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, the accusations against him sparked the MeToo movement. Now the question, will Harvey Weinstein be retried? The disgraced Hollywood producer is in court for the first time since his rape conviction was overturned. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

And we are following new developments as universities increasingly crack down on student protests across the country. These are scenes just hours ago on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Police say they arrested 34 people during a clash with protesters and that four officers were injured. You can see police using batons, pushing protesters back in order to remove a pro-Palestinian encampment.

MARQUARDT: And then at Columbia University in New York City, this is video of an off-campus protest that took place today. But police have cleared demonstrators from Columbia's main campus, that encampment that we've been talking about for the past few days. Officials just announcing that final exams at the main campus will be fully remote. Let's start in Wisconsin. CNN's Whitney Wild is there at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. So Whitney, a dramatic few hours there on campus. What are you seeing now?

WHTNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we see now is this protest has geared right back up. It was several hours ago that law enforcement came into this area. This is the library mall at the University of Wisconsin Madison and cleared many of these protesters. According to the school, most of the protesters left when that police action began. But as you mentioned, 34 people were arrested. The majority of them were left with no citation. Four people were charged with different types of charges, which include attempted disarming of a police officer, battery of a police officer, charges like that. But even after that clearing, again, this protest has geared right back up. So let me just kind of walk you through this scene.

So these orange tents right here, you guys, this is pretty much all that was left. Initially after that police action and then everything else you see all of these other tents, this is all come up since that police action began. As you can see, there are hundreds of students out here. This is a very popular, you know, part of the campus. So basically what you see here are some students, but also some protesters who remain out here. We spoke with one student. She's a junior here at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, Madison. She's a mediator. that she heard that there was a law enforcement action. We talked to her about what she saw and how she feels about this law enforcement action that happened earlier today. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIA KURZER, UW STUDENT ORGANIZER: I was raised to be anti-war. I was raised to be pro-peace, and it's not a Jewish versus Muslim issue. It's not the Jews aren't doing anything wrong. It's the leaders in Israel are doing things wrong. They're bombing Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: So as you can see, there is still a pretty big protest presence here, and this is despite what the school says is an explicit law banning camping here. So, the big question now is that, is this going to get cleared again? We do not have an answer to that question, but what I can tell you right now is that there is still a law enforcement presence. There are a handful of sheriff's deputies over here. There were a few on the other side of this diag (ph) here. There are a few -- I don't know if you can see that off camera -- to my right. But there's still law enforcement presence here. The question now is how long will this remain and will there be another police action? Back to you.

KEILAR: CNN's Gabe Cohen is at Columbia University. The school just announced that it's adjusting the final exam schedule there, Gabe, and other protocols after these protests. Tell us about their reaction here.

[14:05:09]

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Brianna, the reality is the protest is not over. There were demonstrators back here just a few minutes ago that were marching along this public street just outside the main entrance to the campus. The message at the end of it was that they are going to be back here tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that until those divestment demands that they've been making for weeks now are met. You can see some of the signs that have been left here by those protesters saying no cops on campus, referencing, of course, the NYPD, dozens of officers coming onto campus into Hamilton Hall last night, arresting more than 200 students. And we heard from faculty members and students who were extremely critical of the president of the school for calling in the NYPD, basically saying that there had been peaceful protests, that the school had not been negotiating with the protesters in good faith. And that is what ultimately led to that police action last night.

I want to bring you out into the street now where you can see the number of NYPD officers who are here right now because the school has asked them to stay here until May 17th, two days after Columbia graduates. They want to maintain order, but we know that the protesters are saying they are going to come back day after day. I also interviewed just a little while ago one of the protesters who was in that encampment last night who says she was handcuffed by police officers when they arrived on the scene. She described what she experienced. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA, PROTESTER: When NYPD came in, they pushed all press away from where we were so they couldn't document anything. And then they ambushed us, they tackled us, they beat us. And I want to also highlight that majority of the protesters there last night were young women, were young college women from marginalized communities. And this is what the NYPD did to us.

COHEN: Were you arrested last night?

MELISSA: I was handcuffed last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: She also claimed that the claims that have been made by New York's mayor, Eric Adams, as well as officials that most of the protesters involved here are outside agitators, not affiliated with Columbia. She claims that's a lie, that the vast majority of people she has met here are students. We should find out more, Alex, Brianna, in the days ahead when we. Find out information about those people who are arrested when they're arraigned in court, potentially charged. So, we may get some of that information.

But again, the reality here along the campus is that protesters are planning to return, even with so much of the campus restricted to just those students who live there, as well as any essential faculty. Those are the only people who are getting through that entrance.

MARQUARDT: And that graduation ceremony, Columbia, just two weeks from now. Gabe Cohen at Columbia. Thanks very much for all your reporting. Now to UCLA. In Los Angeles, where classes are cancelled after violent confrontations broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli counter-protesters, supporters of Palestinians said that police did, quote, nothing when their encampment was attacked overnight. KEILAR: The university said police remain on campus at this hour. Joining us now is Eli Sanchez, a Jewish student who attends UCLA. And Eli, I understand you were on scene where this all took place around 2 this morning. Can you tell us what you saw, what you experienced?

ELI SANCHEZ, STUDENT, UCLA: Yeah, of course. First of all, thank you for having me. I all the group shots were going off last night. We saw I was watching a live stream and we saw like some pro or counter protesters come and shoot fireworks at the encampment and throwing bottles and trying to break into it. And then around 2 a.m. this morning, I decided to go. I wanted to see this with my own eyes. And I went and I stood. There were a lot of other students who gathered.

It seemed like a majority of people who were participating were not students. But there were a lot of. A handful of students who gathered around the outsides, the periphery, and we're just witnessing what's going on. And I stood there at Royce Hall in the bushes and saw as a lot of counter protesters were trying to get into the encampment. And there are a lot of pushing and shoving and throwing things and a lot of police there. But they weren't doing anything.

MARQUARDT: Eli, you've said that you believe that students should have the right to protest. But now we're seeing classes that have been cancelled today as a result of these violent clashes. So what do you. What are you hoping happens as far as the protest goes and that it can't that encampment on campus?

SANCHEZ: Yeah, of course, and I strongly believe that students have the right to protest and the right to free speech. However, the encampment is against all UCLA guidelines. I actually I was one of there's a group of Jewish students who had the pleasure to meet with the administration at the beginning of winter quarter and the chancellor, Gene Block, and talk to them about how they can better support Jewish students on campus. And one of the things we talked about is Gene mentioned that they have a list of guidelines and they need to be better about enforcing their guidelines and camping, especially in that area. Encampments are against their guidelines. A lot of the rhetoric that we see, it is abhorrent.

[14:10:09]

It's really hard to be a Jewish student on campus. And I hope that the encampments will end and that we'll be able to go to every part of our beautiful campus and go to all our classes in person and that midterms will happen. We're not on the semester system. We still have seven weeks remaining in this quarter before summer.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's a while before they have graduation.

MARQUARDT: Yeah, Eli, we've been speaking with a number of people on campus, including a classmate of yours just about an hour ago, and he had this to say. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN KERSTEN, JEWISH GRADUATE STUDENT AT UCLA, PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTER: As a student of Jewish history, I think one thing we need to be very, very incisive about is how we make distinctions between Jewish and Israeli and Zionist. And of course, these things bleed together. I understand the political Zionism that is dominant to be a settler colonial political ideology that has sought to establish a Jewish ethnostate in historic Palestine, and it's resulted in massive amounts of material harm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Eli, you mentioned that feeling of being threatened as a Jewish student. Do you think those pro-Palestinian protesters are making enough of a differentiation between opposing Israeli policies, opposing Zionism, whatever their definition of that may be and support for the Palestinian people?

SANCHEZ: No, not at all. I believe the vast majority of the people in the encampments. I don't want to speak for everyone. I'm sure there are a lot of people with really good intentions, but I think a majority of people are not doing a good job differentiating between Zionism and anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. And people are so vehemently opposed to the state of Israel and the existence of Israel, which is a very important thing for the identity of me and a lot of other Jewish students. And there's so much against Israel that it is anti-Semitic. And in that sense, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. It's one thing to criticize the Israeli government.

And Israel, like any other progressive and democratic nation, has its flaws. But we see a lot of people who are not just criticizing the government, but saying that Israel as a whole should not exist. Israel is a terrorist state, that Zionists are Nazis, that they're committing genocide and apartheid and all these really false things. And it makes it really hard to be a Jewish student on campus.

KEILAR: Eli it is great to have you, thank you so much for spending some time with us. As well, keeping our eyes on what has been happening at UCLA.

SANCHEZ: Thank you guys.

KEILAR: Let's bring in the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, joining us now. Jonathan, talk to us a little bit about what happened last week. He called on

(CROSSTALK)

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, first of all, just bravo! What bravo to Eli! What a strong, amazing young man. I really appreciate him. I'll tell you guys, over the last two weeks, I've been to places like Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, USC. I've seen this firsthand. I've seen the sort of craziness manifesting on these campuses. And look, we need to have, you know, really just fierce hope for the 133 House of the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and hostages still being held in Gaza, and deep compassion for the Palestinian civilians still, you know, in harm's way. And yet, what's happening at this campus is way beyond that. When I was at UCLA on Sunday, I saw the pushing and the shoving. I saw the anti-Israel students locking arms and preventing people from passing. I witnessed it firsthand. I saw one student stepping on and smashing an American flag into the ground. I mean, it was a real reminder that there's a kind of bedlam on these campuses. And look, my heart breaks when I see police using what might appear to be excessive force, but there has to be a restoration of law and order. Like, it's not fair to all of the students to see their classes interrupted, their study periods totally disrupted. I mean, that's not okay, and it hurts everyone, ultimately as well as, of course, the Jewish students.

MARQUARDT: Jonathan, we heard just moments ago from a Jewish student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was saying there has to be a restoration of law and order to all of these students. And that's the question we have right now, and we have that question in between what you know, those who support obviously the existence of the state of Israel and the Israeli policies. So, what do you think the people who are protesting against Israel's war in Gaza, which has now killed 34,000 people against the Israeli occupation of some of the Palestinian territories, what should they be doing if not what we're seeing?

GREENBLATT: Look, you can vociferously criticize Israeli policy. Alex, you can strongly oppose the moves by the Netanyahu government. Like, we have strong opinions at ADL. But something is deeply wrong when your answer to the Jewish students is, when the way you express your frustration is telling Jewish kids to go back to Poland. When the way that you manifest your anger is by waving a Hezbollah flag, PFLP, or Hamas flag.

[14:15:09]

Like, that isn't normal. Like, you can have strong feelings about what China is doing to its minorities, the way Mexico, you know, its drug policy, but you wouldn't threaten Asian American or Latino students. So, look, Jewish students, of whatever political persuasion, whatever their identity, should not be harassed or menaced because of who they are or what they believe. So, protest all you want, but don't intimidate, threaten, or assault your classmates and certainly don't disobey university rules to the point where, again as at Columbia, they have to shut down the university entirely. That's way outside the lines, Alex.

KEILAR: We just heard from that student from UCLA, and we've had a lot of, I think thoughtful students from UCLA on the program here the last couple of hours. He was saying that he was watching and clearly he does not agree at all with this encampment. It doesn't make him feel like he can walk freely around campus, and yet, Jonathan, he was saying that the police were standing by and not really doing anything. So, you know, I wonder what you think about that as you hear him saying that.

GREENBLATT: Look, I don't understand it, but I will tell you I've heard a lot of people who say that the public safety officers at Columbia, Brianna, they do nothing. I saw at UCLA myself, the campus security doing nothing. I mean, I witnessed it and I felt that I was getting pushed and shoved on Sunday morning. So, I don't really understand, and I think the university needs to coordinate effectively with law enforcement. Again, we don't want to see excessive force, but these images out of UCLA, if you're wearing a full-face mask, by the way, whether you are anti-Israel or pro-Israel, no one should be dressing like they're in an ISIS fighter or a bank robber and throwing things or assaulting people.

I don't care what side you're on. And by the way, if the university had listened to ADL, and I'm sure to others too, and it just instilled some modicum of order and regulated things and enforced their own policies, Brianna, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

MARQUARDT: All right, Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League, thanks so much for joining us today. Appreciate it.

GREENBLATT: Thanks, you guys. Appreciate you.

MARQUARDT: Take care. And we have this breaking news: The Fed just made a decision on interest rates. CNN's Matt Egan is following this, so Matt, the Fed did what was expected and kept the rate steady.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Alex. The Fed just announced it's keeping interest rates unchanged for the sixth meeting in a row. That means no relief for borrowers. Interest rates remain at 23-year highs. Now, this was largely expected. Fed officials, they tipped their hands in recent weeks because of stronger than expected inflation reports, but the Fed did make a significant change to its statement, adding in this line, and I'll read it to you. The Fed officials, they wrote that in recent months there has been a lack of further progress towards the committee's two percent inflation objective.

Now, prices, of course, they're not skyrocketing like they were two years ago, but the cost of living does remain a problem. Food and housing, those are the big issues. But then we've also seen price increases for other things, like car insurance and the cost to bring your dog or your cat to the vet. Now, when you think about interest rates, I know that the Fed can sound kind of like a mysterious organization sometimes, but this really does matter to virtually everyone because the fact that interest rates are staying steady means if you're in the market for a mortgage right now, you're not going to be getting any sort of relief there.

Mortgage rates are above seven percent, same story if you're trying to get a car and finance. Paying off credit card debt is very challenging right now because interest rates are at record highs. Now, if we look at the market, you can see not a major reaction. Markets are sort of flat from where they were before the Fed announced this. There was one change that I do think is going to get some attention from traders on Wall Street. The Fed announced that it's going to continue to shrink the size of its balance sheet but going to do that at a slower pace. And that could boost markets.

Now, in the next 10 minutes or so, we're going to hear from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Two big questions that I think he's got to address: How concerned is he about inflation? And will the Fed still consider cutting interest rates later this year?

KEILAR: All right, Matt Egan, thank you so much. We'll be looking toward that especially. And ahead this hour on CNN News Central, we have some live pictures out of Jacksonville, Florida, where moments from now, Vice President Kamala Harris will be speaking as the state's strict new abortion ban, a six-week ban, kicks in. We're going to stay on this. We'll be right back.

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[14:24:33]

KEILAR: Florida's abortion ban just got even more strict. The state's new law makes nearly all abortions illegal after six weeks. And of course, that is before many women even realize that they're going to have to go to the doctor if they're pregnant, and before many doctors will even schedule an initial visit.

MARQUARDT: Until today, the state had allowed the procedure up to 15 weeks, making it a key abortion access point amid widespread restrictions. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to speak any moment in Jacksonville, Florida. We're monitoring that. In the meantime, CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is live in Jacksonville for us. Meg, so just how far-reaching are these consequences going from 15 to six weeks??

[14:25:19]

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Alex, I mean, hugely far reaching from the people that we've spoken with here today. We have been at this abortion clinic, a woman's choice of Jacksonville since yesterday. So, we were here in the final hours of access up to 15 weeks. We spoke with patients who are really afraid about what this meant for them, including for their daughters, some of whom had teenage daughters. They worried about that as well. Florida has been a key access point for abortion across the South. Seven thousand people sought abortions, obtained abortions in Florida per month last year. And a lot of people crossed state lines. We talked with the owner of the clinic here. She was on with Wolf Blitzer earlier about the impacts that they're already seeing today. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY FLYNN, PRESIDENT & CEO, A WOMAN'S CHOICE CLINIC: There's really no right way to prepare for this, to have to turn patients away, which we've already had to do today. We've turned three patients away that will have to travel thousands of miles to get their procedures done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: Now, she told us that that applies to at least three patients who were beyond six weeks in pregnancy, you know, just past six weeks or up to eight weeks. She said at least one of those patients already they've had to make plans to get to North Carolina. That is what a lot of patients are saying. We're going to have to get the baby back to the South. An increasing number had been turning to Florida after Roe v. Wade was overturned, approaching 8000 last year, according to state records, and perhaps even more than that, by some estimates. The closest states now are North Carolina, which has a 12-week ban. And beyond that, Virginia. And there are logistical problems that make those difficult, too. Guys, we should mention, of course, that a lot of folks here now are turning their focus to November, where abortion access will be on the ballot. And so that fight is going to continue to brew, guys.

KEILAR: All right, Meg Terrell, live for us in Jacksonville. Thank you. And let's talk more about this ban now and the vice president's visit to Florida with state representative Anna Eskamani. Can you talk to us a little bit, Anna, about how local providers and clinics have been responding to this ban? Have they ceased operations or is it split as of today?

ANNA ESKAMANI, (D) FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thanks so much for having me. We have been bracing for impact due to the six-week abortion ban. I actually worked at Planned Parenthood for about seven years before I ran for office. And yesterday was at my local Planned Parenthood clinic, supporting the staff with providing them with lunch since it was a long, long day. And as you just heard from Jacksonville, having to turn away patients because they are not only past the six-week mark, but Florida is also a 24-hour delay state. So, when you meet with the doctor, you have to wait 24 hours before you can access the procedure. So, it's going to be even harder if women do realize they're pregnant for six weeks. That delay law pushes them beyond the legal threshold.

MARQUARDT: Representative Eskamani, we're actually looking at live pictures here of Vice President Kamala Harris whos just taken the stage in Jacksonville, Florida. We're actually going to be monitoring that. But in the meantime, we know that Harris plans to explicitly blame Trump for the Supreme Court's historic overturning of Roe v. Wade. That's according to the campaign. They're clearly seizing on this as a political issue for November. But in terms of what they can do practically, what do you think they should be doing more of on a national level?

ESKAMANI: Well, that's a great question. And I do appreciate the Biden administration and the Biden campaign for championing this issue and really helping to remind voters what's at stake this November. We have to hold Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis and the entire Republican legislature accountable. And as we gather right now, it was just announced that there may be a special legislative session to add more constitutional amendments to our November ballot to confuse voters. So, the Republican Party will stop at nothing to strip us away of our freedoms and of our rights. And we have to be just as aggressive in fighting back. And I do think that we can pursue more protection for reproductive rights. And of course, we have two separate pending Supreme Court cases for this summer with decisions impacting abortion access. So, we need to prioritise patient stories. Break the stigma around abortion and utilize every tool we have in our government to protect our freedoms.

KEILAR: Representative, if you could stand by, we're going to listen now to Vice President Harris there in Jacksonville. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- I've opposed and passed laws that criminalize doctors, punish women, laws that threaten doctors and nurses with prison time, even for life, simply for providing reproductive care. Laws that make no exception for rape or incest. Even reviving laws from the 1800s. Across our nation, we witness a full-on assault, state by state, on reproductive freedom. And understand who is to blame.