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Official: US Paused Bombs to Israel Over Potential Use in Rafah; Tornadoes Tear Through Michigan Leave Long Trail of Destruction; Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:01]

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, wanting answers from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. As to the discrepancies between the video you saw there that formed part of our reporting a couple of weeks ago, and what they've been briefed by the Pentagon on a number of occasions now, most recently in the past weeks when the Pentagon finished their second investigation into this.

One back to August 2021, the Taliban are taking Kabul. The U.S. are evacuating, taking Afghan civilians who helped them out with them. And ISIS bomb detonates and it kills over 170 Afghans and those 13 U.S. servicemembers, a very high toll. Many Afghans in the immediate aftermath saying they'd seen or were victims of gunfire.

We investigated that and we since found that video which seems to suggest that the three episodes of near simultaneous gunfire that these two Pentagon investigations said happened and hit nobody and were followed by a U.S. and U.K. troops. Well, indeed, that is contradicted by a video which shows four minutes and 11 separate episodes of gunfire. That's one of the things that congressmen want to have explained to them.

They want to know, too, why these two investigations didn't interview any Afghans, including an Afghan doctor we spoke to who said that they in their hospital after the blast had found over 70 patients with gunshot wounds who were dead after the explosions. A lot of questions here. The families of the 13 Gold Star personnel who lost their lives, in that seven of them have released a statement saying that they feel they've been misled by the Pentagon in the briefings they've had.

The Pentagon has said to me that it is their sacred duty to sacred -- obligation for the Department of Defense, and they will respond directly to the congressional members who wrote to them. "We honor the service and sacrifice of our 13 service members who were killed at Abbey Gate and remain fully committed to ensuring the Gold Star families have the support and information they need."

But really a lot of questions here now growing in volume for the Pentagon who have investigated this twice at great length, insisted nobody got shot, and the only gunmen were American or British, despite the growing amount of evidence from those who survived that that was not the case, and the fact they now have to explain that the video we released shows a very different amount of gunfire than they've insisted happened. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Nick Paton Walsh for us. Nick, thank you so much for covering this story.

We've got new developments in the top news. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Israel launching a new round of strikes on Gaza overnight as the U.S. puts a shipment of bombs to the nation on hold over concerns just how forces may use those weapons in Rafah.

Dozens of workers rescued from a FedEx building in Michigan that was ripped apart by a tornado. Multiple tornadoes tearing across parts of the country yesterday, and there's more to come. Millions of people in the danger zone.

Also, salacious details on the stand, Stormy Daniels testifying about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump that led to this moment, the first criminal trial of an American president.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, what more is there to say? Apparently, quite a lot. The court is dark but will be lights on once again the tomorrow with Stormy Daniels -- excuse me -- back on the stand. She'll continue her testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial. But that is tomorrow. Today, the jury, the judge, the legal teams, and the American people get to digest what all Stormy Daniels said on the stand already. Daniels spent about four hours on the stand Tuesday detailing her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump, an encounter that is at the center of the crimes he is alleged to have committed to cover -- to cover up before the 2016 election. Trump is charged with falsifying business records to keep that all hidden.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is back with me. She has been tracking all of this from the testimony in the courtroom to the transcripts and the fallout afterwards. Take us through what really happened in there.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Kate, so prosecutors needed Stormy Daniels to lay out, like you just said, what happened between her and the former president to lead up to where this hush money payment was made, where an NDA was discussed and signed, and that's exactly what she did for the prosecution. However, she did it in pretty excessive detail, so much so that even a judge was objecting to some of the things that she was saying, basically steering her back on course. There were times where she was laughing at her own jokes. There was times where she was talking so fast that the court reporter couldn't keep up with what she was saying.

But she basically went through that when she first met the former president in 2006 in Lake Tahoe, and then went into great detail about their sexual encounter, and then finally was getting into the detail about how she reached that NDA with Michael Cohen ahead of the presidential election. [08:05:07]

And then when it was time for cross-examination, the defense really went after her, firing questions at her. Her demeanor seemed to change. Reporters say she was a bit more feistier in her answers. The defense essentially trying to say that they were questioning her motives, asking her questions about does she even like the president? She basically said she hated him on the stand and that she wanted him to be held accountable.

Here's one exchange with Susan Necheles, with the defense essentially, basically saying that she believes Stormy was trying to extort President Trump. Let me read it for you. She says, Necheles says, "You were looking to extort money from President Trump, right?" And Daniels replied definitively false. And then she says, "That's what you did, right?" And she said false. So again, this was one of those testier moments described by our court reporters inside the courtroom.

And Kate, there was a moment in the trial where the judge actually had to bring the defense counsel up to the -- up to him and say you need to control President Trump, because there were at times with this testimony that he was audibly swearing and shaking his head, and the judge essentially saying, listen, that cannot happen anymore. You need to control him.

So it was a pretty eventful day in court. They also were asking for a mistrial, the defense, which the judge did not grant. But the judge essentially told the defense, listen, in cross examination you can bring up all these issues that you were bringing up to me. So that's going to continue tomorrow in yet another eventful day in this trial. Stormy Daniels will be back on the stand when we pick up at 9:30.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. It's great to see you. Thank you so much, Brynn. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, with me now to discuss further, CNN analyst Joey Jackson and CNN political commentator and former White House communications director for Donald Trump, Alyssa Farah Griffin. Thank you both for being here.

Joey, I'm going to start with you. We heard all that what Stormy Daniels said on the stand. There were some detail about her sexual encounter, there was detail about the $130,000 on the stand. But it is not a crime to have sex outside of marriage, and it is not a crime to sign a deal that says you can't talk about this. Did she push the prosecution's case any further?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think she did, right. Now, with respect to the details that she got into, I thought it was necessary and appropriate. Potentially I'm in the minority where that's concerned. But number one, the devil is in the details. This is an affair that's been denied, denied, denied. Well, you know what, from her perspective, you're denying it. This is what happened. That hotel room was three times the size of my apartment. He was wearing satin pajamas, et cetera, went in, right. So why and how did she get this detail if this is just a mystery? Does

she just have the most imaginative mind ever in history, right? So that she had to address that.

Number two, this is her truth. The reality is, is that this is a forum where she felt it appropriate to let the world know what it is. Number three, inquiring minds want to know, no more inquiring than the jury. Last point, the reality is that's the elephant in the room. This is why we are here. No, not because just the sex, et cetera, but because of the nature of prosecution's case, the cover up and the conspiracy. You didn't want this information to get out to the public. It would affect your election prospects. As a result, you arranged payment, not in itself illegal, but that's where the falsification comes in -- invoices, checks, ledgers --

SIDNER: How you paid.

JACKSON: Exactly.

SIDNER: And what you said the payments were for.

JACKSON: Correct, Sara, so I thought it was compelling and important.

SIDNER: OK. And you also bring up the point that if the jury believes her, then they think that Donald Trump is a liar who keeps saying that I --

JACKSON: Great point. It affects his credibility wholeheartedly.

SIDNER: OK, I do want to ask you about what happened when she was testifying and Donald Trump was reacting. I think it's the most we've seen him react physically and audibly. The judge even talking to his attorneys, saying like, look, I can hear that he was cursing audibly and shaking his head in the court, which could be intimidating to a witness. How do you think that he will respond now? If he talks about the witness, he can go to jail because of the gag order. So how do you think this frustration building in him will come out.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that his lawyers are really going to have to keep him from violating the gag order. And I think that they may have found a bit of a workaround, which we saw yesterday, where he put up a Truth Social post, but then very quickly took it down. But then what happens? It's playing on TV all day. His message is still getting out.

There's one thing Donald Trump is kind of brilliant on, and it's communications and sort of manipulating the media to cover things. So they're going to have to keep him under lock and key because he was furious yesterday.

The one thing, honestly, Joey just gave the most -- the best kind of prosecution argument I've heard. We don't have cameras, we don't have audio, so we're seeing these details come out, because, to be honest, I thought yesterday was an incredibly mixed bag from what we know. Stormy Daniels, I've interviewed her before. There is a story of Stormy Daniels that is a mom, a Republican, who supported Donald Trump before someone who has been bankrupted by people like Michael Avenatti, she's now in debt to Donald Trump, and who really is a sympathetic figure.

[08:10:7]

I think she could have told the story to explain, yes, this encounter took place. But I want to put this behind me. I want a private life. I want to raise my child. And getting into the salaciousness I think could actually backfire with the jury, especially because this is somebody who did admit I hate him. I was surprised by that because she actually refused to tell me whether she would vote for Donald Trump again. That's far more compelling if this is a woman who is like, I don't actually hate Donald Trump. I even agree with his policies, but this, in fact, happened.

SIDNER: Yes, and the defense did say that they wanted to mistrial because the judge had said you can talk about your encounter in very limited terms, and they felt like she went over the line. The judge disagreed.

I do want to ask you about this. Trump is talking again about potentially testifying. Here is what he has said, the latest thing he has said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you plan to testify in court?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Probably so. I would like to. I mean, I think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Probably, I would like to, I think so. I mean, it's a bit waffley, but because Stormy Daniels took the stand and because Michael Cohen is likely to take the stand and it's going to be combative and it's going to get ugly, do you think that will push him to the point where he says, I'm testifying.

JACKSON: So it'll push him, but I think you really have to exercise discipline in this particular situation. And there's a number of reasons why. Because even as it relates to sentencing, if he's convicted, judges do not like people who go on the stand and misrepresent things, right? And so she was clear. What is he going to say? This never happened. It's a figment of the imagination. I'm not a micromanager. I knew nothing about the personal checks I was writing in a sharpie to Michael Cohen.

And then you have to worry about, Sara, not only factually, but remember the hearing with respect to what you can cross him on, cross- examine him on that's not related to this case, right? The fraud issues in New York state in terms of how the attorney general, the half-a-billion -- it opens it up to everything. He's got to exercise discipline. I know he takes his own counsel. This is counsel that he might want to take -- do not testify. SIDNER: I have to ask you about this. Over and over and over and over

again, Donald Trump has said, I have got to be at this trial, but I should be on the campaign trail and this is just completely all about keeping me off the campaign trail. Today is a day off of court. He's not campaigning. He's at Mar-a-Lago. Why?

GRIFFIN: I mean, it just blows my mind. Republicans knew that this was what they were going to get, somebody who is spending most of their time in a courtroom. And when he's off, he is busy golfing. It makes no sense. But my one caution is there's a world in which these trials may help Donald Trump. And what I mean by that is he's not on the campaign trail saying immigrants poison the blood of America. We're going to round up 11 million people and put them in detention camps. He's actually kind of silent. People are forgetting the chaos, they're forgetting the drama. Stormy may contradict that, though. I think now that that's front and center, you remember the chaos that surrounds him. But he's not out working. He's not trying to get Republicans reelected. It's bizarre.

SIDNER: It's all very interesting. And of course, Stormy Daniels going to take the stand tomorrow to continue with this case. Joey Jackson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, thank you so much, appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thanks.

SIDNER: Kate?

BOLDUAN: So new video shows smoke rising over Rafah after another round of Israeli airstrikes this morning. There is also new CNN reporting that a U.S. official is saying the Biden administration held back a shipment of bombs last week that were set to be sent to Israel. The reason being concerns those bombs could be used in Rafah. Overnight six people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Rafah and Khan Yunis according to hospitals there.

And CIA Director Bill Burns is remaining in the region, trying to push forward still on a ceasefire agreement. He is now set to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today on all this.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is at the Pentagon. She's got much more for us. So Natasha, what are you learning about this pause on sending over U.S. weapons to Israel?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Kate, this is the first known instance of the Biden administration actually pausing a weapons shipment to Israel directly over concerns about how Israel has been prosecuting the war in Gaza. And what we're told from a U.S. official is that last week the U.S. paused the transfer of over 3,500 bombs, including thousands of 2,000 pound bombs, which Israel has been using in Gaza over the last several months to really devastating effect, because of those concerns the U.S. has over how Israel is going to conduct an operation in Rafah.

Now, according to this U.S. official, the U.S. began a review in April of the U.S. provision of these kinds of bombs to Israel because it appeared that Israel was coming closer to some kind of decision point about how it was going to conduct this operation in the southern portion of Gaza, in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians, of course, are still sheltering. And the U.S. has not seen a credible plan to date of just how Israel actually intends to protect those civilians.

And so when it became clear to the administration that Israel still did not have a way to move all those civilians out prior to conducting a potential major operation there, they made this decision to pause this shipment of bombs.

[08:15:00]

Now, this is clearly a significant political message that the administration is sending and it is the first time, as I said, that they have done so since October 7th, but they still have under their discretion, the ability, of course, to send these weapons to Israel if and when they determine that Israel does have a credible plan to protect those civilians.

But for now, clearly, they are trying to get Israel to back off a potential major operation in Rafah and they are weighing potentially future shipments -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, there is a lot going on there with that pause, that's for sure.

It is good to see you, Natasha. Thank you so much for bringing us that reporting.

There is that and so much more, which is playing out in Gaza right now -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, indeed.

With us now, CNN military analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark.

General, let's talk about these bombs. This is the 2,000-pound bomb. There are other ones as well that have been paused in these arms shipments from the US. What is the practical impact of that for Israel?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Probably no immediate tactical impact, John, because Israel is not going to have exhausted its inventory to the extent that its paused its operations, waiting for this shipment but over an extended period, yes, this is going to have an impact in reducing their inventory and may impact their operations.

But for now, their operations are also a political signal. They breached over at Rafah because or started in Rafah because they see Hamas stalling in negotiation, so this is a tit-for-tat diplomatic move as well as a military move in Rafah.

BERMAN: I put up a map of Rafah so people can see what we are talking about here. Obviously, right here itself is the Rafah Crossing. This is the zone, the evacuation zone, where Israel has told people that they should get out of.

What is it that you think that they are doing the Israelis in Rafah right now. They are controlling the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing.

CLARK: Right, what they are doing is they are trying to put pressure on Hamas to complete the negotiations to their satisfaction. In other words, there will be no permanent truce here. The number of hostages released will be up to the Israeli demands, not Hamas' limited demands, and so forth, and moved into the Rafah Crossing because this was probably as the Israelis saw it, the least provocative, least difficult way of signaling to Hamas, that they've got to stop the stalling, get to the agreement, or else.

BERMAN: So this is some footage right now of Israeli troops at the Rafah Crossing itself.

Barak Ravid, our analysts who works for AXIOS is reporting that one of the things Israel wants to do ultimately is A: Show the Palestinian people that Hamas doesn't control this crossing. This was one of the last places Israel felt that Hamas had an organizational presence, and B: They want it ultimately, Barak reports have Palestinians not loyal to Hamas controlling the crossing.

Do you see that as having any impact?

CLARK: I think it is part of moving toward a solution to the problem and to delegitimizing Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian people.

But remember from the beginning, Hamas has resisted Israeli efforts to relocate the Palestinians out of the danger zone.

So this is one more strike against Hamas, but it also is a really -- a real strong signal to the international community that Israel is not going to pause indefinitely.

BERMAN: No, not at all. You can see the Israeli effort continuing in Rafah and in Gaza this morning.

General Wesley Clarke, thank you very much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, John.

A huge patch of destruction from a tornado outbreak in Michigan and the threat of powerful storms, potential tornadoes happening again across the us.

All right, Ozempic, you've heard about it for weight loss, but there is an unintended side effect -- Ozempic babies? Yes, we will talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:14]

BERMAN: This morning, a state of emergency in four Michigan counties, buildings ripped to shreds, gas leaks, downed power lines, this after tornadoes tore through, officials have now clear this FedEx facility where 50 workers were trapped at one point.

This was the 13th consecutive day of tornado reports across the country and the severe weather is not over. Tens of millions of Americans from Texas to Maine could see severe storms today. The potential for tornadoes, hail powerful wind gusts.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is in Portage, Michigan outside that FedEx facility.

We just saw the dramatic aerials of that, Derek. We see a little bit of the damage over your shoulder. What's the latest?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John, I mean, if this forecast holds today, we are talking about two consecutive weeks of at least one tornado ripping across a portion of the United States, talk about severe weather fatigue.

As you mentioned, I am on the ground with a heavily damaged FedEx building directly behind me. I want to give you a kind of a bird's eye view from our mas-cam, of our satellite trucks to show you the destruction where 50 people were initially trapped inside of this building.

They, of course have since been rescued with only minor injuries, but that is just a drop in the bucket of the devastation here in Kalamazoo County and Union County. To my south and east, there was a mobile home park that was damaged, around 15 to 20 people were injured, sent to local area hospitals.

My state of Michigan, this is my home state, Grand Rapids, my hometown, this area is often buffeted by Lake Michigan, but last night was a complete misnomer. In fact, the state of Michigan had its first tornado emergency issued by the National Weather Service, and that shows you the rare air that we happen to be in with this line of severe storms.

[08:25:04]

And now that threat does not just end today. Again, the forecast calls for more severe storms and look at what is happening across Central Missouri just southeast of Kansas City. Another severe thunderstorm watch, atmosphere taking advantage of the conditions and check that thunderstorm popping up just south and east.

Look at the threats today, 148 million Americans under the threat of severe storms, but we are really honing in with Nashville all the way to Central Missouri as that greatest risk of tornadic development.

So we know that we've seen these EF-2, EF-3 tornadoes, they don't occur in Michigan that often, but you know what? Now the threat is moving south in to a more heavily prone area and more heavily wooded area and this particular region where we've put that hashed area you see on the graphics, that is our greatest chance of wins in excess of 111 miles per hour.

Nature just can't stop and won't stop, John. It is extremely active. BERMAN: Yes, an historic whether we are seeing.

All right, Derek Van Dam, thank you very much for that -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: President Biden and the big jobs announcement today, a jobs announcement that is also a not so subtle hit at Donald Trump all playing out in battleground Wisconsin. We will have much more.

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