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IDF Confirms Israeli Troops are in Central Rafah; Trump Still Facing 54 Criminal Counts in Three More Cases; Trump Says He'll Appeal His Conviction. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 31, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: President Biden has says that Israel has offered Hamas what he calls a road map to a ceasefire deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, after intensive diplomacy carried out by my team, my many conversations with leaders of Israel, Qatar, and Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries, Israel has now offered, Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal. It's a road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages. This proposal has been transmitted by Qatar to Hamas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The president laid out this three-phase proposal, which includes a complete ceasefire with withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of all remaining living hostages.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Biden's remarks come on the heels of Israel confirming that its troops are now in central Rafah in southern Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is joining us live now from Jerusalem. And, Jeremy, moments after the president's speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel's not going to end the war until Hamas is defeated. Give us the latest.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's incredibly notable because, you know, one of the things that was most interesting about what President Biden laid out in terms of this latest Israeli proposal is the fact that it does call for in a phase two, a permanent cessation of hostilities, a permanent ceasefire, one that would have to be negotiated in the first phase of this agreement.

But nonetheless, to have the Israelis actually put that in a proposal is notable in and of itself. And so it was equally notable when the Israeli prime minister, less than an hour after President Biden gave this speech, his office put out a statement saying that Israel will not agree to an end to the war until all of the goals of the war are achieved.

And that is to say not only the return of the hostages, but also the destruction and defeat of Hamas within the Gaza strip. Now, a lot of this has to do with the wording of what is being said publicly, what is being said privately, the kinds of political pressures that the Israeli prime minister himself is facing. So that doesn't mean that this version of the proposal that the president put out in the public is dead in the water.

But it does raise questions about how the Israeli prime minister is going to politically be able to get this kind of a deal through his current governing coalition.

And I also think that's why we heard President Biden mostly putting the onus on Hamas, saying the ball is now in Hamas's court. He called on the masses of people who have been protesting around the world for a ceasefire to turn that energy into pressure for Hamas to agree to this deal.

[15:35:00]

But he also talked about Israeli politics. He also talked about the fact that he believes Israel has achieved its objectives because Hamas can no longer carry out an October 7th type attack.

And he talked about the importance of getting the hostages back, the fact that there are some Israeli politicians who don't see that as a priority. So he was bringing a lot of public pressure to bear, not only on Hamas, but also on the Israelis. And so now the question is, how will Hamas respond?

Because we know that in just the last day or so, Hamas has actually further entrenched its position, saying not only that it wants to see an end of the war up front in order for any hostages to be released, but it is now saying that Israeli military operations have to stop in order for Hamas to even return to the negotiating table.

KEILAR: All right, Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Jerusalem, thank you for the very latest.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, while former President Donald Trump vows to appeal the verdict in his hush money case, he's also facing three more trials. We're going to look at what those other criminal cases are, where they stand and what it could mean if a convicted felon wins the White House.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The verdict might be in on the hush money trial, but former President Donald Trump still faces 54 criminal charges and three other cases against him, including two for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden.

KEILAR: There's the federal case in Washington, the election interference case out of Georgia, and the classified documents case in Florida, also a federal case. All three of those are in a holding pattern.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is joining us now on this. How does this verdict affect the other trials, if at all?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It really doesn't. I mean, Donald Trump's defense team strategy throughout this has been delay, delay, delay. They were unable to successfully delay the Hush Money case.

Obviously, we saw the 34 guilty verdicts yesterday, but the other cases, they've been quite successful in delaying through motions and otherwise. So I'll kind of tick through them.

So first we have the special counsel. He has brought two cases, one here in D.C. involving January 6th, interfering with the electoral count, and then the one down in Florida, classified documents.

The January 6th case is indefinitely paused. The Supreme Court has to rule on whether or not Donald Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution. If he does have some immunity, maybe it'll go back down to the court to find out exactly what official acts might qualify for immunity. So that could take a while.

The judge in that case has already said even if she gets the green light to proceed to trial, it probably wouldn't start until at least September, but it's still getting very close to the election.

Then we have the case, the classified documents case down in Florida, also brought by the special counsel. That one's been moving forward, but at a very slow pace here. The judge has been criticized for moving slowly, but also in fairness, there are a lot of thorny issues to work through with the classified documents issue. That one has also been indefinitely paused, very unlikely it'll go to trial before the election.

And then there's the Georgia case. That is on pause as well because they're dealing with appeals issues. The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal where the lower court said Fani Willis didn't need to be disqualified despite her romantic affair with the lead prosecutor, but now that issue is going to go up to the appeals court.

SANCHEZ: So the Supreme Court is looking at presidential immunity. How does the timing of a decision there potentially impact the rest of these cases?

SCHNEIDER: So they heard the case at the end of April. We're now in the final stretch for the Supreme Court. So we'll likely be getting that decision within the next four weeks.

But even if they issue their decision soon, the judge in the case here in DC has already said, look, even if I get the green light to proceed with this, there are still a lot of pre-trial motions that would take a while throughout the summer. It's very likely that she won't get an immediate green light, that there may be some issues to work out as to which official acts could potentially qualify for immunity. So it seems like that one's going to be slow going unless the court just flat out says, no, the president does not have any immunity, which kind of seems unlikely. KEILAR: Yes, very interesting. And we'll be watching very closely for that in the next four weeks. Jessica, thank you so much for getting us up to date here.

We are in, of course, unprecedented territory. And for some perspective, let's talk to John Dean, who is President Nixon's White House counsel. John, just first, your reaction to the verdict, guilty on all 34 counts.

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Not surprised. It was a very weak defense that the Trump team put on. They wanted to address all issues instead of a very narrow issue, which I think will be the focus of the appeal, is whether or not, indeed, he was at work while he was in the White House covering up the prior actions of his campaign.

So it was a weak defense. So I was not surprised to see the jury come back on all 34.

KEILAR: You know, talking to folks who've looked at this kind of case and this kind of guilty verdict, it seems unlikely that Trump may get jail time here. But what if he did, and depending on when he would serve that, what would that mean for the country?

DEAN: Well, first of all, he has a detail of Secret Service agents that are there to protect him at all times in his post-presidential years.

[15:45:00]

Richard Nixon, who had the same privilege, waved it after he was in retirement for a few years and said he really didn't want the Secret Service around him all the time.

So if Trump goes to jail, somehow that detail is going to be attached to him unless the Department of Homeland Security secretary somehow decides that they do not follow him into incarceration.

KEILAR: Can you see him succeeding on appeal? What grounds do you think he would have most success with?

DEAN: I don't see him succeeding because of the care that was taken and some of the earlier pre-trial motions that were addressing some of the issues that are likely to come up on appeal. New York's statute is very clear. It's been described as a very unique case when, in fact, it was not.

These are cases that are tried regularly in the New York court system. It's a state case. It'll go up the state appeals process.

I suspect Trump will try to take it all the way to the Supreme Court. So this could be protracted and it's certainly not going to be resolved before the election.

KEILAR: What would it mean, in your opinion, because we've seen the poll numbers, we know that Trump very much has a shot at winning the election. What would it mean for there to be a felon elected president?

DEAN: To me, it means the Republican Party is on a straightforward march to authoritarianism, that they have taken all the blinkers off and that's what they want. They want to be told how to think, not think for themselves. They want to ignore the rule of law and proceed to, in essence, a soft dictatorship of some kind under Donald Trump, who is not a man of great wisdom and he's not what I'd call a benevolent potential dictator.

KEILAR: We are in very strange times. John Dean, always great to get your perspective. Thank you so much.

DEAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still ahead, a police officer who was hailed as a hero shot in the line of duty, ambushed and killed as he was responding to a shooting. Minneapolis is now mourning one of its finest police officers.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This week on "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," CNN's Jake Tapper speaks with U.S. generals and D-Day veterans about the consequences of that historic battle. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three of our ships went across at the same time. Well, we got about eight miles or five miles out, and all of a sudden the shells started coming. We heard this big crash that blew the second ship right out of the water.

Got hit by an artillery shell. We said, what about those guys? Nothing we could do. The water was so cold, the hypothermia was set in kill in 15 minutes. They're probably all gone, blown up already. So that was Welcome to the European Theater of Operations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Halfway into the beach, we started seeing bodies everywhere that floating or semi-floating.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Navy man Tolly Fletcher was a 19-year-old gunner's mate from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His task, escort the LCIs, the landing crafts ferrying infantry fighters such as Corporal Stites to shore.

TOLLY FLETCHER, FORMER NAVY GUNNER: And they said, we're going to take you in to water up to your knees. And they dropped the front of the LCI. Now the ensign says, go. Nobody moves. The ensign yells, go. Nobody moves.

He says, all right. Billy, cock the 50. Guy rings back on the 50- caliber machine gun.

He says, we're going to give him 30 seconds. Then start shooting from back to front. I'm in the back. You know what I'm doing? Push. Our first step up to our knees is right here, right up to our shoulders.

The next day, we hear, get those rifles up in the air. We can always get new men, but we can't get new rifles.

TAPPER (voice-over): Omaha Beach was 300 yards of flat terrain protected with razor wire and landmines. Beyond that deadly terrain, a cliff. And from that high ground, highly trained German machine gunners.

Roughly 2,500 American men died that day on the beaches of Normandy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Be sure to watch the whole story, "D-DAY, WHY WE STILL FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY," airs Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN. We'll be right back.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The NBA Finals matchup is set, the Dallas Mavericks advancing to face the Boston Celtics after eliminating the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Game 5 blowout.

SANCHEZ: With a win, the Mavericks advance to the franchise's first Finals since 2011, when it captured its first and only championship in team history. Here's the team's star player, Luka Doncic, on Moving On.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUKA DONCIC, DALLAS MAVERICKS GUARD: There's still four games to win left, but this is amazing. I think we should enjoy tonight, because this is special, especially coming from the West. We had to go through a lot, you know, especially in the season, up and down, but we stayed together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Game 1 is scheduled for June 6th at the TD Garden in Boston.

Not the only big sports development we're going to tell you about. Any moment, President Biden is expected to welcome the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory.

But today's event will likely carry an underlying level of tension. It's only been a few weeks, you might recall, since Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker criticized President Biden in a controversial commencement speech that's since gone viral. In the speech, Butker also took swipes at the LGBTQ community and diversity initiatives and suggested a woman's most important role is homemaker.

KEILAR: So all eyes will also be on two of the NFL's most popular players, of course, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce. You might remember this moment from last year when Kelce took the mic, but Mahomes stopped him from speaking any further.

SANCHEZ: What could have been.

KEILAR: What could have been do you think? But that's going to be -- it's interesting that team has really stayed together even amid this kind of controversy involving Butker. But you know, what's Biden going to say? I don't know is he going to say something?

SANCHEZ: Even amid controversy surrounding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and their relationship and all that attention that it's getting? I'm probably going to get some hate online for making any comment about Taylor Swift.

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Brianna, always a pleasure. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END