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IDF Takes Control of Palestinian Side of Rafah Crossing; At Least One Dead After Tornadoes Rip Through Oklahoma; Soon, Trump Returns to Court for Day 13 of Hush Money Trial. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 07, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Do it for all judges all around the, and, well, yes, from the perspective of --

[07:00:03]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: For judiciary, right.

WILLIAMS: Of course, it's for the integrity of the judiciary, I think this judge doesn't live in fantasy land and knows that it's a huge fall back -- pushback.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, right, for sure. All right, well, on that note, a conversation Dana and I are going to continue to have, Elliott too, I think all day here on CNN as we cover the trial, which resumes again at 9:30 this morning. Thanks to our panel. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Thanks to all of you for being with us.

Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Smoke rising over Gaza as the Israeli military says it's taking control of the Gaza side of the main entry point with Egypt. And ceasefire talks continue after Israel says the deal Hamas agreed to was far from what they put on the table.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: breaking overnight. A powerful tornado makes a direct hit on Barnsdall, Oklahoma, killing at least one person there. This morning, the storm threat not over, nearly 100 million people across the United States are at risk.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: When will we see testimony from the former porn star about the former president? Could a courtroom standoff between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump be imminent?

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

BOLDUAN: So, breaking overnight, Israel takes control of the Rafah crossing in Gaza. IDF tanks are seen moving into that critical entry point as the IDF also conducted new airstrikes in an effort for Israel, as Israel says, to keep pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal. Israeli troops captured the crossing as Israel has long viewed this main crossing as a main route for Hamas to smuggle arms. This does raise fears, though, that humanitarian aid could come to a halt, stop moving into Gaza all together. Aid workers now telling CNN there is no safe place to go and no way to get there for the 100,000 Gazans told to evacuate.

At the very same time here in the United States, President Biden is about to deliver a keynote address to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, during which he's going to speak of the horrors of October 7th and the following rise of anti-Semitism.

CNN's Becky Anderson is in Abu Dhabi following all of it this morning. And there is a lot going on. What is the very latest that you know of what's happening at the Rafah crossing right now, Becky?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's been a very, very, very busy 24 hours and a complicated one. Let's get you what we know. Israeli forces, as you rightly point out, have taken over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, the IDF referring to it as having operational control of the area. You've been showing video there and we'll show it again of soldiers rolling in with their tanks replacing Palestinian flags with Israeli flags.

This crossing has been the main entry point, of course, for aid into Gaza over the last seven months. Eyewitnesses on the Egyptian side of the border have said that all the aid trucks that would normally be waiting on that side to get in have gone and border officials on both sides have been asked to leave the area. And aid agencies are warning that the interruption of aid entry will halt what is this critical humanitarian response across the entire Gaza Strip.

Israel also targeting Rafah with airstrikes overnight, and into this morning, killing at least 23. And I think it's important to note that Rafah has been hit with airstrikes for days and weeks now, killing hundreds of people. Many residents have now been told to evacuate to an area that many on the ground say does not have the basic needs for survival. People are terrified.

Let's just point out what the Israeli perspective on this is. Rafah was necessary, they say, the foreign minister, Israel Katz, saying. And I quote in the past few hours, the entry of the IDF into Rafah promotes the two main goals of the war. That is the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas. If not for the hostages, he says, and I quote him here, dear to our hearts for those for whose release we are bound by a supreme obligation and we'll do everything to bring them home. He said the Hamas gang would have long ago been crushed and thrown into the dustbin of history.

And he just went on at the back end of that to say that effectively, despite the political pressure on Israel, they will continue with their strategy. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And ceasefire talks is continue now today, all parties saying that they're going to be headed back to the negotiating table.

[07:05:06]

How much progress is made adds to, as you rightly describe, as quite complicated. And it was very confusing what was up, what was down, what was being agreed to yesterday.

But now we're learning more, and they're heading back to negotiate today. Becky, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. The dire tornado warnings turned into a deadly reality in Oklahoma. Overnight, powerful storms ripped through the state, killing at least one person and leaving a trail of destruction there.

Barnsdall, Oklahoma took a direct hit. It is the second tornado to hit the town in just over a month. Today, nearly 100 million people are under a severe storm threat from Texas all the way to Pennsylvania.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Barnsdall this morning. Lucy, what are you seeing? We have been seeing such devastation in the area.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Sarah. What we're seeing is the aftermath of Mother Nature's wrath. We are just on the outskirts of Barnsdall, Oklahoma. Behind me a residential home, the parts that were built out of stone still sort of standing, but a lot of this no longer livable. The family will have to find another place to live.

As we walk over here, this was a garage structure that also was a part of this property, and that tornado, the direct hit here, flattening this structure.

I don't know if you could see it behind me, but over there is a pickup truck. It just gives you a sense of the scale of this destruction, and further behind me, storage units. So, you see a lot of the items that were there, boats, personal possessions strewn about, completely destroyed.

I mean, there is nothing to come back to there, and that is just a small glimpse of the destruction that took place overnight in this area. Barnsdall is a population of about a thousand people. We actually haven't been able to access the inside of the town because we are hearing from the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management that there is a natural gas leak. There's also so much debris that roads are blocked, and the priority right now, Sara, is on those search and rescue efforts.

We mentioned, as you mentioned in the intro, at least one fatality confirmed so far, but right now, teams are going house to house or what's left of the house to make sure that there is no one still stuck or trapped beneath to make sure that they can account for everyone in this area.

Now, the Osage Nation reservation is also nearby. We understand there are search and rescue efforts underway there, and also Bartlesville, another town nearby, taking a direct hit. In terms of historical tornadoes in Oklahoma, this isn't as massive as, thankfully, it could have been, but obviously, for the residents of areas like this, there's not much to come home to. Sara?

SIDNER: And you mentioned rightly Lucy that there is still search and rescue efforts happening at this hour so we don't know really the scale of this just yet. But as light comes there, we will be able to see it and we'll come back to you. Thank you so much to you and your team who are out there looking at this devastation. John?

BERMAN: All right. From banking papers to the porn star, when we might see Stormy Daniels testifying the case against Donald Trump, and how will Trump behave after the dramatic threat to throw him in jail?

An American soldier detained in Russia, the accusations against him, and why the Kremlin says he needs to be prosecuted.

And why Ms. USA is relinquishing her crown after just five months.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: Could this be the day that Stormy Daniels takes the stand in the criminal trial against Donald Trump? Prosecutors say they have two weeks left in their presentation, though that is almost certainly more than they will need. And after walking page by page through the financial records of the payment scheme to Stormy Daniels, we could learn soon whether she will take the stand.

We are also watching Trump himself after the judge warned him he could be tossed in jail if he violates his gag order again.

CNN's Brynn Gingras live outside the court this morning. So where are we right now? Where do the witnesses leave us?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. I feel like in the last couple of weeks, so we have sometimes heard in dramatic fashion why prosecutors say Donald Trump committed these crimes. Yesterday was about how, right?

So, it was a little bit more of a slog for jurors to listen to, to go through these documents, like you just said, page by page. But this is the bones of the prosecution case, so this was very important. And that's what we learned from with two witnesses that took the stand, both Trump Organization, employees, one who's since retired, one who is still currently working, the accounts payable, a Trump Org.

And, essentially, prosecutors laid out for jurors the $35,000 payments that were paid monthly to Michael Cohen from either a former president's personal account or from the trust. And one of those witnesses essentially said that he knew those were reimbursements to Michael Cohen, but he didn't know why.

Another one of the witnesses, the one who currently still works at Trump Org, said that she would cut checks and they would be sent down to Washington, D.C., so Trump could sign them from the White House.

[07:15:01]

Now, when was the defense's turn to come up? They sort of were trying to distance Trump from having knowledge about what these checks were actually for. So, we'll see again how that plays out for jurors.

But before that, court really started out with a bang because the judge essentially then fining Trump another thousand dollars, holding him in contempt of court for remarks he made about the jurors and essentially really threatening jail this time.

I want to read something he said in court. The judge said, your continued violations of this court's lawful order threatened to interfere with the administration of justice in constant attacks which constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.

And our colleagues are actually reporting that there is continued conversations about what exactly it would look like if the former president actually was put behind bars for being in contempt of court. So, we'll see how that plays out.

But listen, John, you just said at two more weeks the prosecution says they need for witnesses, this trial continuing. It's unclear who will take the stand when we start up today. But there are, as you've said, a lot of people in line, people who are, you know, interesting when they take the stand. John?

BERMAN: Interesting, to say the least. And as far as that jail time goes, the judge really did make it seem like if Donald Trump says something about the jury one more time, that's it. So, we have to watch what he says very, very closely.

Brynn Gingras, great to see you, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, ahead. Israeli airstrikes have killed multiple people in Gaza, and Israel says it's now in control of the Rafah crossing on the Palestinian side. After President Biden warned Israel against a ground offensive in Rafah, how was the White House reacting this morning?

Also new warnings about the amount of ultra processed foods that you eat, how it's going to change potentially what you're going to buy at the grocery store, that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, a Russian court has ruled an American soldier will be held in prison for at least two months. Staff Sergeant Gordon Black was arrested last week for suspicion of theft, according to the Russian court, while he was traveling in Russia from his station, where he was stationed in South Korea. Officials say he was not AWOL, but the reason for his travels still not known, his arrest, though, very clearly adding to the tension between the United States and Russia that is already at a boiling point.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is bringing in more details and getting more on this. What are you learning about Sergeant Black?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we know that he was stationed in South Korea, and he was actually due to change stations back to the United States, back to Fort Cavazos in Texas, when he decided beforehand to take leave, and he then traveled to Russia.

He is a staff sergeant, as you said, and he apparently went to Russia, according to an interview that his mother gave to The Washington Post, because of a woman, because of some kind of relationship that he was in.

Now, it's unclear at this point just whether the U.S. has had any luck getting in touch with him in terms of getting consular access to him. The U.S. embassy in Moscow, we're told, has been trying to get in touch with him.

But, look, I mean, he is being charged, according to officials, with theft and criminal misconduct. And so he joins two other Americans, of course, who have been deemed wrongfully detained by Russia by the State Department, Paul Whelan, who is also a former Marine, as well as Evan Gershkovich, the reporter. So, it remains unclear here just how much access the United States is going to be able to get to him.

But the State Department is reiterating at this point, don't travel to Russia. They're issuing a stern warning to American citizens saying there is no reason for you to be going. They said in a statement yesterday, quote, we have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. We reiterate our strong warnings about the danger posed to U.S. citizens inside the Russian Federation. U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately.

We know there have been a number of discussions, a number of attempts by the U.S. to get some of these wrongfully detained Americans out of Russia, but with no luck. And so we're just going to have to wait and see what happens to this staff sergeant. He is going to be in pretrial detention, according to officials, at least until July 1st. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Natasha, thank you so much. I really appreciate the reporting. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, scrubbed, after all its problems with its planes, now more disappointment for Boeing, the highly anticipated launch of the Boeing Starliner delayed due to technical issues. The question, when might they try again?

And an arrest is made in a case involving a Florida woman who simply disappeared in Spain. We'll have that coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:0]

SIDNER: On our radar this morning for you, a former Ukrainian Olympic athlete has died fighting in the war with Russia. Oleksandr Pielieshenko was a weightlifter for Ukraine at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he just missed a bronze medal, finishing fourth in his event.

He joined Ukraine's armed forces in the early days of the war. His former weightlifting coach said in a post, war takes the best and heroes don't die. Pielieshenko was 30 years old.

Miss USA stepping down. Noelia Voigt of Utah says the decision is in the best interest of her mental health. She was crowned in November of last year and was the first Venezuelan-American to win the title. The organization says they will announce the new Miss USA shortly.

And the husband of an American woman reported missing in Spain is now in federal custody. The FBI says he was arrested in South Florida for his alleged involvement in his wife's kidnapping. The woman was reported missing back in February. Her brother told CNN she was supposed to meet a friend at a Madrid train station, but she simply never showed up. John?

BERMAN: All right. Happening today, President Biden will deliver a keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The president expected to speak on the atrocities on October 7th, as well as call to fight the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.

CNN's Arlette Saenz at the White House.

[07:30:00]

This has been a speech on the calendar for a long time, but I think the importance just keeps growing greater.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly does, John, and President Biden plans to use this Holocaust.