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Trump's Hush Money Trial Strategy Shift; CIA Director Meets Netanyahu Amid U.S. Pause On Bomb Shipments To Israel; Donald Trump Remains Off The Campaign Trail Despite Claiming Court Commitments Hinder His Campaign; Israel-Hamas Conflict; Climate Warnings; Healthcare Oddity. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 08, 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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[14:00:54]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: We are following developments in multiple criminal cases against Donald Trump, including the hush money trial in New York, the election interference case in Georgia, and the classified documents investigation in Florida. We've got all the updates. Plus the U.S. pauses the shipment of bombs to Israel over fears they could be used in Rafah as international outrage grows over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military operation.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, a bizarre headline today. A new report where Robert Kennedy Jr. claims a parasitic worm ate part of his brain before dying inside his head. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

DEAN: A strategy shift, we're told that when former President Trump's hush money trial resumes tomorrow, his defense team is planning to intensify its questioning of adult film actor Stormy Daniels, and that the cross-examination will now go longer than originally planned.

KEILAR: Trump's attorneys are adjusting their strategy, we have learned, to help protect Trump's reputation or try to restore some of it after Daniels took the stand yesterday and recounted, sometimes in graphic detail, their alleged sexual encounter in 2006. CNN's Kara Scannell has been in the courtroom every day of this trial, and Kara Daniels faced a pretty scorching cross-examination yesterday. It appears that we may be seeing more of that tomorrow.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think we will. I mean, Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles came out peppering Daniels with questions, and one of the first things she seized on as part of the strategy of looking for motivations and to undermine Daniels's credibility, is she went straight to the heart of this issue. She had asked Stormy Daniels, Am I correct that you hate President Trump? Daniels replied, Yes. She said, And you want him to go to jail, right? Daniels said, I want him to be held accountable. And Necheles pressed, you want him to go to jail, am I correct? And Daniels said, If he's found guilty, absolutely. So, this is part of the strategy to say that Stormy Daniels is telling this story now because she wants Donald Trump to go to jail because she hates Donald Trump. And they're looking to try to undermine her credibility and focus in

on what her motivations are, which they say was to make money, to try to sell this story, any story, a story involving Donald Trump, and sex to the highest bidder. And that is what the defense is focusing on. Now, yesterday, the judge in the case had asked them at the end of the day how much longer they would need. And Susan Necheles had said, you know, she- if they were going to go later today, she intended to go late enough. So the judge said, you guys can all come back tomorrow and continue the cross then. And part of the reason is because on the direct examination, Stormy Daniels went into a lot of detail about her interactions with Donald Trump. And that is something that Trump's lawyers and the judge said, that's a lot of fodder for cross examination. So I think we're going to see a lot of that continue tomorrow when we're when Stormy Daniels is back on the witness stand.

DEAN: Also, Kara, we saw that the judge warned the defense team about something the judge had seen Trump doing in court. What happened?

SCANNELL: Yeah, so this was during Stormy Daniels direct examination when she was asked by prosecutors about her interactions with Donald Trump and the sexual encounter at the hotel in 2006. And it was at that moment that the judge had-it was after that moment that the judge had during a break called up Trump's attorneys to the sidebar and the prosecution and spoke to them privately. It was recorded on the transcript, which is how we know about it. But what the judge had said then was, I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly and he is shaking his head visually. And that's contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that. So the judge giving a warning to Trump's lawyer, telling him to speak to your client and tell him to not make any of these audible words or make any physical gestures that could threaten the integrity of this trial, guys.

KEILAR: Yeah, well, he's been spoken to. We'll have to see if Trump sticks to that because the judge knows that he is aware he should. Kara, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it.

[14:05:09]

So while former President Trump was attending that trial, the Manhattan Hush Money trial, yesterday a federal judge in Florida handed him a pretty big win in his classified documents case. Judge Eileen Cannon postponing that trial indefinitely, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be resolved before the federal criminal case can go to a jury. CNN's justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is joining us now, and it seems to appear this is not going to get underway before the election.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, I mean, this trial is now indefinitely delayed. It was supposed to go to trial May 20th, just about, what, 10-plus days from now, but the judge has completely put this on hold. She says that she has eight pending motions that she has to go through. She says those will take her until at least the end of July, so it's very unlikely we're going to see this trial start even before the election. So here's how Judge Cannon put it in her most recent order. She said the court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pretrial and CIPA issues, those are classified document issues, remaining and forthcoming would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court's duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pretrial motions before the court. And, you know, I don't have to say it to you guys, this is a big win for Donald Trump, not only with the delay of this trial, but as part of this order, Judge Cannon is also granting, or she'll hear two big motions that Donald Trump's team has put forward.

Long shot motions, controversial motions. The first one will be heard on June 21st. This is an effort to disqualify the special counsel, Jack Smith, saying that he was unlawfully appointed. Then there's a second motion that will be heard over the course of three days, starting on June 24th. That's actually to get a number of records from the Biden White House, and the Biden administration. Trump's team is putting forth this theory that various agencies within the administration have been acting as part of the prosecution. Again, a long shot motion, but Judge Cannon will be hearing this. So these are all things that are further delaying this trial. And of course, you know, with the January 6th trial also being put on hold indefinitely while the Supreme Court decides that immunity issue, it looks like the hush money case that we're currently in will be the only one to go to trial before the election.

DEAN: Wow. All right, Jessica Schneider with that update. Thanks so much. As we just detailed, court not in session for Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial today. But even though the former president has repeatedly complained that his courtroom commitments are keeping him off the campaign trail, he has no scheduled campaign events today.

KEILAR: Yeah, his opponent, of course, President Biden, is stumping today in the critical state of Wisconsin. However, he is rather busy today. We have CNN's Alayna Treene with us. And Elena, any insight into why Trump is not taking advantage, of the trial's off day?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: You know, it's so fascinating, Brianna and Jessica, because I remember right when this trial was kicking off, his team had been telling me repeatedly that they were going to use these days off from trial. He has Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays that he is allowed to campaign. He isn't required to be in the courtroom to aggressively campaign. But we really haven't seen much of that. We're told today that Donald Trump is back at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. And tonight he's actually going to be dining with some of his supporters who have spent thousands of dollars on what they're calling Trump mugshot NFTs. Essentially, NFTs, they're not associated with his campaign. But there's been a lot of these Trump related NFTs related to his time when he visited the Fulton County jail last year and had to get his mugshot taken. Some other NFTs with illustrations of Donald Trump. People have spent thousands of dollars for these are going to be dining with him tonight.

And this is kind of in keeping with what we've seen from the former president on the sidelines of this trial. He's used a lot of his free time to fundraise and focus on money. We saw him do that this weekend when he was in Palm Beach this past weekend, I should say, when he was there for, he held a big fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago with wealthy donors and other RNC members. He did campaign last week in Michigan and Wisconsin. And he does have an upcoming rally on Saturday. But this Saturday rally is actually going to be in Wildwood, New Jersey, a place really, or a state I should say, that his campaign doesn't think is very winnable. And so I think it's very interesting that even though Donald Trump continues to rail against the judge, say that he can't be on the campaign trail, he's not necessarily using his days away from court to do that campaigning.

DEAN: Right, you have to look at what his actions are versus what he's saying. How is the campaign, Alayna, reacting to yesterday's testimony from Stormy Daniels? A lot of it was salacious.

TREENE: That's right. I think, I mean, from our great reporters who were in the court room, it was very clear that Donald Trump was uncomfortable.

[14:10:09]

Stormy Daniels was sharing a lot of salacious details. You could see Donald Trump scowling at some points, particularly when she brought up Melania Trump's name and noted that, at least according to Stormy Daniels, that Trump had said at the time that they slept in different bedrooms. He had leaned over and talked to his lawyers, our reporters in the room, again, saying that he was very engaged, while unlike in other testimony where he would close his eyes at some point, he was very engaged in what she was saying. I think that all speaks to how uncomfortable this is for Donald Trump. Now, when I talk to his campaign, you know, they argue that a lot of this, that she was making a lot of this up. You've heard Donald Trump's attorneys say the same thing in the courtroom. They're going to continue their cross- examination tomorrow and really try to push back on her testimony, try to get at her credibility. Those are the same things we're hearing as well. But I think, look, when you take a step back and you look at the timing of this, these are the type of details that we know the first time this former president does not want to be out there in the public, especially when he's looking forward to a general election campaign.

KEILAR: Yeah, certainly. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for that report. And let's go now to Wisconsin, where President Biden just spoke, trying to draw an economic contrast with Trump in a critical state. CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee is on the trail. No coincidence, MJ, this is already Biden's fourth trip to Wisconsin this year. No coincidence where he chose to make this one today.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We are at a technical college, some 30, 40 minutes south of Milwaukee. And we heard the president making this big announcement about Microsoft spending some $3.3 billion to build a brand new artificial intelligence facility here in the community. This is a pretty hefty investment, according to the White House, who said that some 2,300 construction union jobs would be created initially. And then some 1,000 people would get, the training, the IT training that they need to work at a facility like this. And that ultimately there would be some 2,000 permanent jobs that are created. And what's politically noteworthy here is that the site where Microsoft would build all of this is the very site where Donald Trump some years ago had promised that Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics company, would also pour some billions of dollars in investments and create thousands of jobs.

This was a promise that basically was never materialized. It left the community extremely disappointed. The complex has been sitting largely vacant. And when we heard the president talking about this, he basically said to the crowd, look, the former president fooled this community. Here's what he said.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: He came here with your senator, Ron Johnson, literally holding a golden shovel, promising to build the eighth wonder of the world. Are you kidding me? Look what happened. They dug a hole for those golden shovels. And then they fell into it. Look, they didn't shovel other dirt. They did shovel some dirt. One hundred homes were bulldozed. They wasted hundreds of millions of dollars, your state and local tax dollars, to promise a project that never happened. Foxconn turned out to be just that, a con. Go figure.

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LEE: Now, the second stop that the president is going to be making here is a campaign organizing stop where we're told the campaign is going to be training volunteers on voter outreach, and specifically the president at this stop is going to be speaking to black voters. That is a demographic group that could really help to determine which way the state goes. Keep in mind, in 2016, the state voted for Donald Trump, and in 2020, the president won that state back, but by a very narrow margin. And so this is a group that the campaign is going to want to make sure is not feeling unmotivated and can have some amount of enthusiasm so that they are turning up to the polls, come November, and voting for President Biden.

DEAN: Such a small margin there in Wisconsin. All right, MJ Lee for us on the ground. Thanks so much. And a quick programming note. Tonight on Outfront, Erin Burnett's exclusive one-on-one interview with President Biden. He sits down with our colleague to talk about the economy and his plans for a second term if he's reelected. Again, that interview airing tonight at 7 Eastern here on CNN. Ahead this hour on CNN News Central, we are learning more about a high-stakes meeting between the CIA Director and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the U.S. pauses a major bomb shipment to Israel. Plus, an alarming new heat warning. Why experts say this year's weather is already raising serious red flags.

KEILAR: And Robert Kennedy Jr. says a parasitic worm ate part of his brain and then died inside of his head. That is the bizarre headline today out of that camp. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us to explain how this could happen. And how a complete recovery would be possible.

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[14:19:36] KEILAR: Today, the director of the CIA met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trying to secure a ceasefire deal in the Israel Hamas war. And it's not known yet if the two spoke about the U.S. pausing this shipment of thousands of rather large bombs to Israel. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the delay. He said, quote, In the context of unfolding events in Rafah. Israel launched a new military operation in eastern Rafah this week. And it has killed dozens, according to hospital officials.

[14:20:09]

Australia, Germany, the African Union and other nations are urging Israel against any further military action there. CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward is joining us now from Jerusalem. Clarissa, how has Israel responded to the pressure that it's facing from so many countries?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, publicly, Israel is trying not to make a big deal out of this pause in the shipment of weapons. We did hear from the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. who described it as, quote, a frustrating and disappointing decision, but went on to say that Israel is grateful to the Biden administration, that they understand the political pressures that Biden is facing, but that Israel is, quote, fighting for its life. So you have that. And then on the other front, you have what's happening in Rafah, where they continue to push ahead with what they are calling a sort of very surgical anti-terror operation, but which is really having a dramatic impact on the ground for a number of reasons, partly because there is so much fear about a broader, larger offensive on Rafah, where 1.4 million people are hunkered down, Brianna. And partly, of course, because the two main border crossings where aid has been going through, Rafah and Kerem Shalom, have effectively been blocked.

Now, today, Israel said that Kerem Shalom was open, but as recently as just a few minutes ago, the State Department spokesperson said that, in fact, they did not see any trucks going in through Kerem Shalom today. The WHO, the World Health Organization, is warning that hospitals have three days to operate in southern Gaza before they will completely run out of fuel. You have already seen, according to the U.N some 50 000 people evacuating from southern Rafah. They are being pushed into areas where there is not enough space and not enough infrastructure to support them. And so that's why you are seeing this crushing pressure from the international community and from some of Israel's closest allies, including the U.S., to sort of take their foot off the gas with any kind of Rafah operation and put the focus back on the negotiating table, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, and what are the possible-it feels, Clarissa that we have been at this place so many times, where there has been some hope for potentially an agreement, and then it just turns out that the two sides are so far apart. What is the calculus for Israel when it comes to looking at a potential hostage deal and how it is approaching this Rafah offensive, at least a limited offensive right now?

WARD: Well, there's sort of a conflict in the way Israel even views this. They say the goal or Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, says the goal is to get back the hostages and to eliminate Hamas. But those two goals are very different. If Israel wants to sincerely commit to getting back the hostages, then obviously that needs to take place through the mechanisms of negotiations and of some kind of a ceasefire deal, which really felt to be almost within grasp just a few days ago. If Israel, on the other hand, wants to commit to this idea of completely eliminating Hamas, and many military analysts have been incredibly skeptical as to whether that is even possible or not, then that would entail an entirely different approach. Now, there is, of course, a school of thought as well, Brianna, that what we're seeing in Rafah over the course of the last 48 hours is a tactic that Israel is doing to apply pressure to try to get more leverage at the negotiating table.

We know there is still an Israeli team of negotiators in Cairo with a team as well of Hamas negotiators. Those efforts are ongoing. And despite this sort of chasm between the two sides on the public face of it, you also hear from people like the White House saying, we believe that it is possible to close the gap. So nobody yet is throwing in the towel. There are still huge efforts going on. And there is still some optimism that it may be possible to try to put this deal together, though at this stage, no sense of what the timeline for that would be, or what the what the mechanism would be for overcoming these final hurdles or these existing gaps that exist, Brianna.

KEILAR: Clarissa has such a critical point in this conflict, and we're very glad to have your reporting on it. Clarissa Ward joining us from Jerusalem. Thank you.

DEAN: So Israel has maintained that Rafah is where members of Hamas are right now. But remember, over a million Palestinians have been moving to Rafah to get away from the military bombardments. And now the only functioning hospital there, says a four-month-old baby, is among the 35 bodies sent there in the last 24 hours.

[14:25:09]

We also know World Central Kitchen has stopped operating there in Rafah due to Israel's evacuation order. Israeli Defense Forces have ordered an estimated 100,000 people to get out of that area. The IDF has closed the critical crossing in Rafah that goes into Egypt after taking over the Palestinian side. And right now, the State Department has just said that they do not see trucks crossing through Kerem Shalom, the other entryway for aid, into that area. Joining us now is Deepmala Mahla, the chief humanitarian officer for humanitarian organizational care. Thanks so much for being with us today. You have been clear that you believe a military operation in Rafah would be devastating to the over one million civilians who have gathered there. Help people understand why.

DEEPMALA MAHLA, CHIEF HUMANITARIAN OFFICER, CARE: We have been very clear, and we have been saying it for months. We are talking about more than one million people crammed in a really small geographical area. When we talk Rafah, Rafah is a quarter of Baltimore, let's say. And most of these people, most of them do not have enough to eat. They are facing malnutrition. Some are even near starvation. The health system has completely collapsed. People are living in tents with situations where there is no clean water, no toilets, no facilities for women to deliver their babies or nurse their children.

And all this has been happening over the past few months. So the scale of humanitarian crisis, the absence of basic services, and the overcrowding, also disease outbreak. In this situation, if a military offensive happens, it would be a disaster of monumental proportions. And as it is happening now, there is an absolute sense of panic, disbelief, and sheer palpable horror among the people living there.

DEAN: And I want to quote a Gazan who actually just left Rafa, who evacuated Rafa. He told CNN, quote, that his family had been displaced several times and has been forced to eat animal food and walk on streets littered with dead bodies. You have colleagues who were there who are witnessing this as well. What are you hearing from them about what they're seeing on the ground?

MAHLA: So the saddest part is this hugely sad quote is not a single story. There are many millions of people have these stories. We have heard of things like women trying to mix expired soda water into baby food to prepare it for their children. People having to drink water from the ditches. Not changing clothes even once over a span of three to four times. Now we are hearing people are trying to leave Rafah on foot. On foot. Babies carrying babies with whatever belongings they have. And there is starvation. We know of starvation-related deaths. But let me say one thing, as sad as it sounds, between starvation and death, there is usually disease.

And there is nothing left, nothing left to address that disease and give people any sort of medical aid. It is absolutely horrific. When we talk to our colleagues and partners on the ground, it's sadly so common to hear the wails and screams of children, women. And I must say one thing, Jessica. I never thought in my life I would use these two words together. But it is a reality in Gaza. Pediatric amputees. Pediatric amputees. The highest ever number ever recorded in history.

DEAN: And you told CNN that you believe Israel's military operation is obstructing aid into Gaza. As I just mentioned, we did have a new update, that the U.S. State Department is saying that it still has not seen aid trucks or trucks crossing into the reopened Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza due to logistical and security concerns. What do you think can be done to get more aid into Gaza right now?

MAHLA: There is only one answer. There is only one answer. Open the border crossing. Let the hundreds and thousands of trucks, which are in queues, loaded with life-saving assistance, waiting to get in. Rafah is not only a border crossing. Rafah is a lifeline. It is a lifeline for millions of people. So choking that off and choking Kerem Shalom. In the last few months, most of the aid has come through Rafah and Kerem Shalom has helped. And when these are choked, which means everything is blocked. No aid comes in. No aid workers come in. No medical workers come in. And no medical evacuations happen.